December 13, 2009 random updates

December 13, 2009

Since our time in Florence is drawing to a close we are trying to utilize every minute! Monday night Lindsay, Jillian and I went to this bar Amadeus relaxed and had wine before heading to a popular local club called Yab. We had never been there before, but as we walked towards the entrance there was a swarm of people trying to get inside, probably around 150 people crowded around the door. Since I am friends with Tyler, who is in the Florence nightclub business, we got escorted through the crowd and right inside the club. We definitely know how celebrities feel! It was jam packed inside! It was an awesome club, but way too crowded! The next day was “The Immaculate Conception” and an Italian holiday so no one had work or school, so everyone used that as an excuse to party.

Tuesday since it was a holiday, we didn’t have school either so Jillian, Kelly and I went to a ‘swap meet’ style market down the river in the morning. We then went to piazza Santa Croce where a German Christmas market is taking place for two weeks. It was so fun! All the stalls were selling various Christmas items or delicious foods like apple strudel, pretzels, cookies, candy, caramel apples, crepes, etc. We just looked around for a bit then Kelly and I grabbed sandwiches at my favorite grocery store called “Il Centro’ where you can get great paninos for €2.50 which is the best deal around because you can get whatever kind you want and it’s huge! We took the sandwiches to Kelly’s house since I hadn’t had a chance to meet her house-mom yet or see where she had been living all of this time. Her house is on the way to the soccer stadium so a good 25 minute walk from my apartment. Her house-mom Sandra was such a doll, Kelly was so lucky to be paired with her. Kelly made herself and I coffee, while we ate lunch and chatted away. It was so amazing having Kelly here in Florence these past few months. There was nothing better than having such a close friend nearby when adjusting to a new life. This week was Kelly’s last week so I left her so she could study and headed home. Florence was hustle-and-bustling since it was the holiday, which made it really fun to walk through the streets. I was almost home and realized I wasn’t quite ready to go home yet so I extended my walk and walked along the Arno. It was mid-afternoon and just so gorgeous out. I was really trying to take in everything knowing how little time I have left here.

Wednesday I had my Art History final, which went well! It was really nice that our teacher let us take it a week before our other finals so we could it out of the way. My teacher for that class named Katerina is probably my favorite teacher I have ever had. She is so sweet, funny, smart and just so passionate about her work. She even invited our whole class (15 people) to her home that night for a potluck! It was so much fun! Lindsay and I made whole wheat pasta with pesto, artichokes and mushrooms in it! Since Katerina lives a good 25 minutes outside the city center so we took the city bus to get there. We were the first to arrive and just enjoyed some red wine with her and met her daughters. It is always so funny to think about drinking with our teachers! But it was so amazing of her to open up her home to us, not to mention she cooked us SO much food! She made a lasagna with meat in it (which I ate!) along with roast beef (which I ate!) and a huge platter of tiramisu! And that was without any of the food that we students brought which included Lindsay and my pasta, gorgonzola and pear bread balls, bruschetta, and a phenomenal brie spread. I got the recipe for the brie dish so I can make it at home during the holidays! It has apples, dried cranberries, brandy and brown sugar in the sauce you pour over the brie! It is literally to die for. We all ended up staying at her house until after midnight just drinking wine and talking! It is probably one of my favorite memories of my time in Florence. It’s just so nice to have an excuse to get everyone together especially since our time is drawing to a close. Although there are not that many kids in our program we have all still managed to make friend circles, which often lead us all in separate directions. We all get along so great so spending time together that night was a treat.

Thursday Jillian, my roommate Natalie, and I did a kickboxing style workout video in the afternoon, which was a great workout and really fun! Then at night we had our first “roommate dinner” with all seven of us! They hadn’t tried my favorite restaurant here in Florence, Coquinarius, so we decided to go there. I am so glad that over the last month and a half we have all become closer because they are such great girls and so hilarious and fun to be around. They all ordered my favorite dish, pear ravioli, and LOVED it J. After dinner I met up with Jillian to watch a fashion show put on by students in the art program here that I know. Some of my friends were the models and designers so it was really neat to see the finished product! Their challenge had been to create outfits including gowns using only two scarves! It was so impressive, the outfits looked amazing! Afterwards Jillian and I decided to go out to Twice where we had fun dancing all night, in VIP of course!

Friday I went for an amazing run on my usual route planning on it being my last in Florence since the weather is supposed to be insanely cold the next week or so with potential snow! I just love the views of the Arno and the city during my runs. I cross over to the other side of the river so there are incredible views of the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio. Kelly finished her program this week so her parents flew out here to travel with her for a week so I met up with them for a coffee on top of La Rinascente department store. There is an adorable café there with some of my favorite views of the city. It was so much fun catching up with them and seeing familiar faces! It still is quite strange to see faces from home here because it makes me realize that I do in actuality live in the real world and that I haven’t been dreaming all of this up. It definitely made me excited to see my family! For dinner Jillian, Lindsay, Alex, Erica, Katie and I set out to find this little pizzeria a half hour away that supposedly won “best pizza in the world.” It was definitely fun to be adventurous by venturing into a part of the city we hadn’t been in before, but the pizza in my opinion was not near the best in the world haha. My vote for best pizza is from Gusta Pizza in the Santa Spirito neighborhood of Florence. That night some girls in our program were hosting a Christmas party at their apartment so we all stopped by for a few hours after dinner. It was so cute because the girls’ apartment was decorated all Christmassy and they had made some holiday treats for everyone as well. It was once again great to have everyone together!

All semester long my fashion teacher had been telling us about a designer charity Christmas sale that she is invited to every year. It was taking place this weekend so a bunch of us girls went there early to wait for the doors to open! I knew it was going to be a great sale when I saw Anna Carboni, who works at Gucci and was a guest speaker in my class, in line ahead of us. When the doors opened we made a beeline inside. To the left were tables covered with various accessories including Gucci silk scarves, various brands of ties, key chains, wallets, etc. I found an off-white leather Gucci wallet for €50!!!! In the middle of the room were racks of clothing. A friend of mine found a designer leather jacket for €10! There were tons of scarves for €3 too! On the right-hand side of the room were tables piled with designer purses. There were tons of Roberto Cavalli purses for €40 and a few other bigger brand name purses. I saw one Gucci one that got snatched up and a few Dolce & Gabana ones. I ended up nabbing an unbelievably gorgeous Dolce & Gabana purse that is leopard print horsehair with brown leather trimmings. It is stunning and normally priced over $1,500!!!! It was a steal to say the least! For the rest of the afternoon I started packing up my room L. I ended up shipping a 10kg box home full of clothes earlier in the week just so I wouldn’t have to stress about having overweight luggage. I cleaned out my desk and started writing a list of all of my favorite places in Florence including restaurants and museums so I remember for the next time I am here. I finished packing the smaller of my two suitcases as well as my rolling carry-on suitcase. Saturday night the girls and I had planned on going to dinner for our friend Erica’s 21^st birthday then out to a club, but we ended up getting quite an upgrade to our plans…

A few weeks ago I had been invited to a party at a medieval castle up in Fiesole, (on the hills 5km from Florence) but was so upset I couldn’t attend because I was in Rome that weekend. I was telling my local friend Gi, who works in the nightclub business here in Florence with Tyler, that I really wished I could go there before I left. I had just mentioned it casually not thinking anything of it, but was surprised when he started following through telling me he was working on making it happen! He told me to get between 15-30 of my friends together for Saturday night and to plan on it! Getting people to commit to partying in a castle was far from difficult!!!! Hahaha! I ended up getting around 25 of my friends together and we all took the 9pm bus up to Fiesole’s main piazza where we were then shuttled by car up to the castle! It was absolutely insane and straight out of a dream! It basically happened because I wanted it to! The castle was on the mountainside off a tiny road in Fiesole and was gorgeous! It was built in the 900’s!!! Once in the main castle door was a beautiful courtyard and we were led in a door on the left. The room we walked into was large with huge candelabras on great long wood tables. The table was covered with all different kinds of wines and champagnes, which were being served by a servant. He poured us all flutes of champagne, while we were all freaking out about how freaking amazing our lives are. Everyone was coming up to me thanking me for organizing everything, it was seriously like I was the host! Hosting a dinner party in castle…I love my life. I guess the castle is owned by the city, but is currently managed by Tyler and Gi’s good friend who has been trying to get them to throw events there so this was the manager’s attempt to impress them. The castle’s only current use is for weddings for a whopping €50,000 and to host prominent political figures that pass through the area. All of my friends were having the best time drinking, dancing and mingling. Some of us joked that we felt like we were in the Castle from Beauty and the Beast. At one point Tyler and Gi took just me on a private tour of the upstairs part of the castle where there are over 20 bedrooms. All of the rooms had spectacular views of Florence from above and huge gorgeous wood bed frames and original marble sinks. It was honestly amazing. The whole experience felt surreal. In addition to our group there were probably around 15 locals who were invited as well. I happened to know one of the guys named Andrea just from the Florence nightlife. For dinner they served us ravioli with a meat sauce and roasted chickens all the while bringing out more and more different varieties of wine. After dinner everyone just danced and danced some people getting on top of tables having the best time! I was so happy that we all got to spend our last Saturday night together…in a castle!!!!!! It definitely pays off to make an effort to form friendships because you never know when they will invite you and whoever you want to a dinner party in a castle in the Tuscan hills. Hahaha. It was insane! The entire time I was just in awe that it was actually a reality. We didn’t even have to pay a dime, which was absolutely insane when thinking about the amount of food and wine we all consumed! We stayed at the castle until after 1am and were then shuttled by car back into Florence. To say the very very least…it is a night I will always always remember. It was a perfect ending to a perfect study abroad experience.

Xoxo,

Kara

Switzerland and more December 5, 2009

Switzerland

December 5, 2008

Tuesday night Jillian, Kayla and I decided to go see the second Twilight movie New Moon for the second time, but in Italian! We had been dying to see it again and decided it would be a good “cultural experience” to see it in Italian! For the first few minutes we were giggling because since it was ‘dubbed’ the voices were pretty funny. Since we had all read the book and seen the movie one time already we were able to follow it. It was also fun to try to understand the Italian. I definitely can understand Italian very well, just not speak it well at all. Some of the romantic parts in the movie definitely seemed more romantic spoken in Italian haha! But we were so glad we went!

Thursday was such a fun day in my Italian class! After our lesson all of the Italian classes got together for a little “Natale” or Christmas party. About six Italian “nonni” or grandparents from the Florence community came in and sang several Christmas songs to us in Italian and then we all sang “White Christmas” together in Italian. It was amazing. It really made me feel like I have become completely immersed in the culture here and realize how much pride for Italy I have! I almost feel like I’m Italian now! It’s so neat to experience the start of the holidays in Italy and see how they celebrate.

Thursday night at 8pm Jillian, Kayla and I left for Interlaken, Switzerland on a bus with a program called Florence for Fun. It was supposed to be an 8 hour bus ride, but ended up taking nine because as we entered Switzerland it was snowing! I couldn’t sleep on the bus so I really enjoyed listening to my music and watching the snow fall in the middle of the night as we drove. It was so beautiful! The hostel where our group was supposed to stay ended up being full so that hostel upgraded us to a brand new really nice hostel, which ended up being closer to town! We didn’t arrive until nearly 5:30am so we slept for a few hours, but still got an early start so we could have a full day exploring!

After having our traditional hostel breakfast of bread and jam, we decided to spend the day going up the mountain. We first took the train to our first stop up the mountain to a small town called Grindelwald. We walked around for a little bit before jumping back on the train up to the tiny town where a few ski resorts are called Kleine Scheidegg. Right when we got off the train it began snowing! I realized I hadn’t been in real snow since 8^th grade!!! It was so much fun, it seemed like a fairytale because there was no one around and everything as far as you could see was white! It was so neat because since we were so high up the mountain there aren’t any buildings other than the train station, 2 restaurants, and a few tiny ski resorts. Thankfully one of my roommates had lent me a parka and I had layered lots of clothing, so I was warm enough! We had lunch at one of the two restaurants in the town and had an amazing time talking, listening to all the languages being spoken around us, and watching the snow fall. We then took a train to Lauterbrunnen another small town in the Alps. The train rides were spectacular! The views of the Alps were insane and with the fresh snow and sun behind the mountains, it was surreal. All the towns we passed by looked straight out of a snow globe. They were so adorable and nestled among the mountains and all decorated for Christmas. The towns we stopped in were so tiny that an hour at each was plenty of time! In Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald we started feasting on Swiss chocolate…it was heaven.

By the time we got back to Interlaken we freshened up then headed to dinner with our tour guide. He led our group to a supposedly traditional Swiss restaurant. It had a very interesting menu. It ranged from ostrich to dishes with an Asian flair. In the morning Jillian, Kayla and I opted to go on a free daytrip into Bern with our group from Florence for Fun. However, the three of us and one of the guides ended up being the only people that ended up going so we had our huge charter bus to ourselves for the 45 minute ride! We got to Bern, the capital of Switzerland at about 11am and had the whole day to spend there until 5pm when the bus would return to Interlaken. Saturday had been opening day of the mountain for skiing and snowboarding so many people had chosen to do that. The city of Bern is so cute! It was so strange, before you cross the river to go into the town there is an enclosure where they keep real live bears! So weird! But from across the river there is a great view of the whole city. All the buildings are connected and have covered walkways in front of all the shops. In the middle of the main street are several really interesting fountains every few hundred meters or so. There is a trolley that goes through the streets and they had a man dressed as Santa Claus riding in the front of each. It was so cute! We went in and out of a few shops and just wandered. We tasted some samples of “Swiss cheese” in a little market and were totally grossed out when the aftertaste was putrid! Very smelly! So we moved on and decided to get a Starbucks, which ended up being almost $9.00!!! The Swiss franc and the US dollar are virtually equal, which was nice, but still it was so expensive! There was a small Christmas market going on with various artisans selling their goods so we browsed that for a bit. The Swiss LOVE their pastries and baked goods! They were everywhere! They are also very creative with their desserts. One of the most popular we saw were these bread boys they make that are about a foot long. They are so good! They are made of bread, but have the tiny bit of sweetness to them! They fill some of them with jellies and such too. We then ventured into a chocolate shop and purchased a variety of different Swiss chocolates! OMG so amazing…quite possibly my favorite chocolate in the world other than See’s milk chocolate.

It was so nice to be in a somewhat “major” city, even though Bern still manages to feel quaint, and have most people not speak English. It sounds funny that we like when people don’t speak English, but it’s true! Sure it makes things more difficult, especially when we don’t speak German, but it just overall makes you feel more of the culture. We had a good laugh when we looked up and noticed a street name that was 19 letters long! German is a crazy language!

By the time we got back into Interlaken, which literally means “between lakes,” we did the 5 minute walk into the main part of town. We had heard there was a Christmas market going on, but didn’t know what to expect since the town had seemed pretty deserted the night before. We were extremely excited to find that the streets were hopping with people and holiday spirit! Several of the main streets were filled with various tents and booths selling various foods from things like brats and a cheese bread to a hot red wine drink that tasted like hot sangria (really good). They were also selling various Christmas decorations, wines, cheeses, and jewelry. It was so much fun and just so festive! The little town was covered in Christmas lights! It was so cute! It was so great to hear all German being spoken around us and to be a minority as a tourist. At one of the stands I bought a piece of gingerbread, but was disappointed that it wasn’t what I was expecting…just not as flavorful. Both Jillian and Kayla got brats and thoroughly enjoyed them!

Our beds at the hostel were unbelievably comfortable! We really lucked out that we got to stay at that hostel since it was virtually brand new! We all slept so well! Kayla left very early Sunday morning on a train to Germany to meet up with her dad. She is travelling in Germany for 8 days and missing school to spend time with her dad who is a pastor in the military. She hasn’t seen him since last January since he has been in Kuwait!

So Sunday Jillian and I were on our own and started the morning by going on a hike to one of the lakes. It was pretty chilly but we bundled up and headed out through the town. The trail stayed right along the river so it was just gorgeous. The water in the river was such an amazing shade of blue, almost a turquoise. The trees were the colors of autumn and winter and the Alps surrounding us almost seemed a shade of lavender topped with bright white snow. It was breathtaking. It was really neat because other than Jillian and I no one else was around! We made it to the lake in about an hour, but followed the trail around. The area is very agricultural so there were many farms and sprawling land. I was telling Jillian that I was still so sad I hadn’t gotten to see a Bernese Mountain Dog up close while we had been there when we rounded a bend in the road and heard barking. Low and behold there was a Bernese Swiss Mountain Dog (tiny bit shorter hair than regular Berners) on the front porch of a house! I could see kennels in the backyard so I think it may have been a breeder’s house. A few minutes later down the trail we came across a Swiss couple walking their Bernese Mountain Dog too! I asked if I could pet the dog and we had a full conversation in broken English and German about how I had one back in California. They were amazed that I had one and that the dog enjoyed the climate in California. It was really fun!

After about 3 hours of walking we made it back to the hostel and decided to go ice skating! We got there and were the only ones on the rink for awhile! It was amazing! In the beginning I was definitely very wobbly and didn’t want to let go of the side railing, but after a few minutes I became more confident and by the end was actually pretty decent! It was so much fun! At one point the Celine Dion song “Because You Loved Me” came on, while we were still ice skating and I definitely had a ‘moment.’ The lyrics are:

“For all those times you stood by me, for all the truth that you made me see, for all the joy you brought to my life, for all the wrong that you made right, for every dream you made come true, for all the love I found in you, I’ll be forever thankful, you’re the one that helped me up, never let me fall, you’re the one that saw me through, through it all, you gave me strength when I was weak, you were my voice when I couldn’t speak, you were my eyes when I couldn’t see, you saw the best there was in me, lifted me up when I couldn’t reach, you gave me faith because you believe, I’m everything I am because you love me…”

It was so beautiful and so appropriate since we have all really been focusing on how blessed and grateful we are for our amazing lives.

We skated for about a half hour before we needed to head back to the hostel and pack up our things to head home. It was a long bus ride home and we finally arrived back in Florence around midnight, but it was such a wonderful weekend. It was so relaxing, gorgeous, and a great last trip while abroad. I can’t even believe that all of this is almost over. It’s hard to swallow the fact that I won’t be travelling to such incredible places every weekend…I’ve definitely been living the dream. I can’t wait to spend the next week and a half in Florence!

Love you all and shall be seeing you shortly!!!

Ciao!

~Kara

Rome

Rome

November 29, 2009

Just got home from spending the weekend in Rome! Saturday morning my Art History class left Florence for Rome for a class fieldtrip. After checking into our hotel and grabbing lunch we walked to the Coliseum. It was great going to Rome with school because they organized everything for us. They got us the “Roma Pass,” which is a great package with a Rome guide, map, and museum, metro and bus passes. We also didn’t have to wait in the huge line at the Coliseum, which was fantastic. It was amazing how well I remembered Rome from the last time I was there eight years ago. I was so happy because Kayla met up with our group in Rome separately since she isn’t in our class so she tagged along with our group Saturday. Since we had very little time there and there is SO much to see in Rome we often got brief histories of monuments as we walked past them like the Forum and Capital building. We went into several churches and also the Pantheon. It was neat because each of us in our class was assigned an art piece, church or monument to speak about when we were there so we ended up learning a lot about what we saw. In the afternoon we went to the Borghese Palace where we ended up being able to relax on the grass in the park in front of it before our appointment time. It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, we were so blessed. We spent quite a bit of time inside the palace admiring the beautiful Bernini sculptures. Afterwards we were free for the evening so a bunch of us decided to go eat dinner by the Trevi Fountain. About ten of us started walking to dinner, but I had to navigate us all…it was a nightmare in the dark, but I finally got us there! We had a great Italian dinner of pasta and a few of us girls dashed afterwards to the Warner Brothers Cinema to catch a screening of the second Twilight film: New Moon. We are all HUGE fans and had been dying to see it since it had been out a week, but the nearest place it was being played in English was Rome…what a coincidence! Anyways it was really fun to see it in an Italian movie theater! It was really strange because when you buy your ticket you are given an actual seat number so not all of us could sit together…SO bizarre in a movie theater! It was pretty hilarious though because all of us were squealing and gasping like thirteen year old girls the whole time! The local Italians were laughing at us. It was also fun because they had Italian subtitles playing throughout the movie and it was interesting to see how much we understood in Italian, but it was nice listening to it in English!

We didn’t get out of the movie until almost midnight and then decided to change and go to “The Ice Bar.” There are a few Ice Bars in Europe including London, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin and Rome. Basically it is a club made of ice! You pay an entrance fee of about €15 which includes a drink and a heavy cape and gloves! You walk through a door which closes behind you and then another door opens which lets you into the actual bar. Everything inside is made of ice—the walls, floor, seats, bar, etc. It was insane and freezing!!!! It is kept -5° Celsius inside!!! Different colored lights are projected onto the walls of ice, it was amazing! We ordered our drinks which came in a martini glass made of solid ice!!! It was freezing on our lips and we had to keep rotating the glass so our lips wouldn’t melt the cups, but it was SO much fun!!!! Definitely a great experience and fun idea! It is so cold that you really can’t stay in very long, but we ended up staying around forty minutes. Our fingers and toes were burning they were so cold so we finally left, but as we were walking out we realized we were the only ones left inside because it had closed. The guys working there were so nice and had let us stay in longer than they were supposed to! We had been thoroughly enjoying ourselves in this little igloo room with a small ice door!

We stayed out pretty late, which made is SUPER fun to wake up and be checked out of our hotel by 7:30am!!! Sunday ended up being “free admission day” at the Vatican so we needed to leave our hotel early to wait in line. It was so great being with our Art History teacher all weekend long because she is so sweet, knowledgeable and just a great person. Her name is Katerina and I think she may be my favorite teacher I have ever had! She is so cute! We toured the Vatican all morning and I got to present my speech in front of Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel…quite an experience! I love how much I appreciate all the art now and am amazed at all the knowledge I have accumulated about art history. It was a great trip to the Vatican and St. Peter’s, such an opportunity to be with my teacher too! After lunch we stopped by a few churches around Rome including the one that housed the tomb of Pope Julius II by Michelangelo that we had learned about earlier in the semester. There really is nothing like seeing the actual things we have and are learning about! So amazing! We got back to Florence late Sunday night. It’s sad to realize that that was my last school fieldtrip abroadL

Rome is a great city and with so much to see and do I definitely wish that I had been able to spend more time there this trip!

Until next time! Xoxo,

Kara

Florence November 27, 2009

Florence

November 27, 2009

It has been a truly wonderful week in Florence! I am realizing how much I truly love this city.

Tuesday I decided that I was finally healthy enough to start trying to run again every day after a month of being sick and having pulled muscles in my ribs. I went for an amazing run in the morning and was happy that my body seemed to remember the motions! I really like a route I made that takes me past the Accademia where Michelangelo’s David is and then along the Arno River. A majority of my route is in a residential area outside the city center so luckily there aren’t too many tourists to dodge. The part along the river is maybe one of the most gorgeous views I’ve ever seen, especially with all the fall colors! After my run I met Kelly for lunch. We grabbed paninos and ate them in front of Santa Croce Church. I just feel so blessed that Kelly is here in Florence too. We always have the most amazing conversations about our lives and faith. In the afternoon CEA arranged for us to climb the Duomo. It’s pretty funny that I live twenty feet away from it but had never climbed it! It is over 400 stairs to the top needless to say my legs were burning from my morning run already! But the view was well worth it! It starts getting dark so early now so by 4:30 the sun is already going down, so we were on top of the dome at the most beautiful time of day—it was gorgeous. I could have stayed up there all day. As we looked over the city, it was amazing to realize how well I know the city now and how much it has become my home…more than I ever thought a foreign city ever could. After having dinner Kayla and I walked around the city enjoying the window displays, Christmas lights and just really appreciating all the buildings and the river. I’m so glad that we planned most of our trips for the beginning of our semester here so that we can now enjoy the time we have left in Florence. It’s so easy to be lazy and stay at home at night, but we are really trying to get out and enjoy the city.

Wednesday morning my art history class went to the Uffizi Gallery, which was my third time since I’ve been here, but so great to have my teacher there to explain everything to us. After classes I ran again and am so happy that I’m not as out of shape as I thought I was because I ran almost an hour! Wednesday night American singer Ryan Cabrera was coming to one of our favorite clubs Cavalli Club (the one Roberto Cavalli owns) so our friend Gi got us tickets. Even though Ryan Cabrera isn’t a huge superstar, it was still fun to have a small taste of America by listening to a few of his songs that we love live. It was really fun too because we were literally six feet away from him while he performed.

Thursday….Thanksgiving! It definitely wasn’t a typical thanksgiving! I still had classes since it’s not an Italian holiday, but my classes ended up being so fun that day! For my food and wine class our assignment had been to bring in a food and wine pairing. My group brought crackers with brie and pear along with a chardonnay that had been recommended to us to pair with the crackers by a local wine shop. It was delicious! Every group in the class brought in different foods and wines so it was so fun sampling all of the nine groups’ pairings! It ended up being quite a bit of wine and most of the class including the teacher seemed to be quite intoxicated by the end! SUCH an Italian experience! Haha and so much fun! One of the groups brought in dates stuffed with gorgonzola cheese wrapped in prosciutto baked in balsamic vinegar…it sounded and looked disgusting but was insanely good! I surprised myself even by trying it, but loved it! My favorite pairing was an apricot tart paired with a Moscato wine. My next class of the day was Fashion Marketing & Merchandising and we had a field trip to world famous jewelry designer Angela Caputi’s studio. Her studio is across the Arno in the Santo Spirito neighborhood. Signoria Caputi talked to our class for over an hour about what makes her jewelry unique. She designs every piece, which is one-of-a-kind and has gained world-renown by word-of-mouth. All of her jewelry is made of synthetic materials, but a majority is fashioned out of fine plastics. I hadn’t ever considered plastic to be expensive or nice, but was informed otherwise. Her jewelry was beautiful and so unique! It was strange for me to see a jewelry collection without any metals. She took us to the workroom where women were assembling the jewelry by hand. Angela Caputi only employs fifteen people total, who are all women. She says she will never hire a man! Some of her jewelry is in a permanent exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

For Thanksgiving dinner my girlfriends and I signed up for a fixed menu Thanksgiving feast at a restaurant called Angels. The restaurant was in an old building, but very trendy inside. We had gotten all dressed up to make it special! All day it definitely did not feel like Thanksgiving, but the traditional foods made it feel more like home. We were given flutes of champagne upon sitting down, which was fun. Sitting there, it really finally hit us that we are adults. Kayla said a wonderful grace for us (her dad’s a pastor) and we just talked about how grateful we are for the lives God has given us and for the opportunity to be in Italy and for everything we have been able to see and experience. We expressed how thankful we are for our health and safety while abroad as well as all of our loved ones at home. We had an amazing time together at dinner. Not to mention the food was perfect! We started with a butternut squash soup with bread that was to die for then had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables. The portions were perfect, we ended up being stuffed, but it was good it wasn’t ‘serve yourself’ or I would’ve definitely tried to fit more in! For dessert they gave us a sliver of pumpkin pie with a small scoop of chocolate ice cream. It was the perfect traditional Thanksgiving dinner! We needed to digest afterwards so we laid down for a little bit before going out for the night to Twice, which was really fun!

Today I was supposed to go to Certosa, a small town outside of Florence, with school, but ended up staying in Florence to finish a handout for my art history class that I have to use to present Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” in Rome this weekend. After I finished I went for a beautiful run before meeting up with Kayla. We went to the Accademia where the David is since Kayla hadn’t been yet and I acted as the docent explaining everything at the museum since I am an art history pro now! We walked around after and popped into some shops along the way to Santa Maria Novella church. One of my sorority sisters Lauren Taylor and her mom are in town for the weekend so I’m going to dinner with them tonight. She is currently studying abroad in Madrid for the semester with SMU. Kayla and I are trying to squeeze in everything we haven’t gotten to do yet in Florence before we leave and one of the things was seeing Santa Maria Novella church. As we walked up to the church I couldn’t believe it, but there was Lauren and her mom! Florence really is small! It was so great to see her and they came with us inside the church to look around. Afterwards they headed off to see the David and Kayla and I did some grocery shopping. I decided to take Lauren and her mom to my favorite restaurant called Enoteca Coquinarius for dinner since it is close, authentic and really cute inside! We ended up spending three hours at the restaurant catching up! They loved the food and restaurant! The Italian dining experience is so unique in that they want you to stay as long as you want so our waiter did not bring our check until we asked for it literally hours later! It was so fun being with a friend from SMU and hearing about her abroad experience. It definitely made me feel blessed that I have had such great experiences with housing and everything here because Lauren hasn’t been as blessed. Her program does a home-stay in Madrid so she is living in someone’s home and her “Senora” is not the best to put it nicely. Seeing her definitely made me excited to see my SMU friends when I’m back in January.

I’m off to Rome in the morning with my Art History class, so I’ll fill ya’ll in soon!

Xoxo,

Kara

November 23, 2009

November 23, 2009

Thursday night Kayla, Jillian and I ventured into the more residential area of Florence to visit Kelly at the wine bar she has been working at every Thursday. The bar has a free wine tasting every Thursday night and tons of local Italians come and socialize! It’s always really fun to be surrounded by all Italian and to really feel like we are in Italy! We loved the area that the wine bar was in because it was not touristy and barely anyone even at the restaurants speak English, which is a shock for us in Florence!
Later Kayla and I decided to go out to one of Florence’s most popular clubs called Twice, which my friend Tyler co-owns. It’s always so nice whenever we go there since we get complete VIP service because of Tyler. We had so much fun dancing and the best part is that the VIP section is roped off so we can stay away from the creepy Italian men that try to dance with us! I especially appreciated this on Thursday because Wednesday night I was actually followed by a young Italian man. It was really really scary! My friend Lindsay and I were leaving a bar and walking home then we separated to go in the directions of our apartments and I noticed a guy following me. It was really bizarre because he was literally like 5 steps directly behind me so I couldn’t see him unless I turned around but I could feel someone there. So I turned around looked him in the eye and said “Basta”—which means stop and glared at him, but he kept behind me. I was in the main city center and there were people up ahead so I luckily wasn’t completely by myself. But the guy never said a word as I kept saying things like “Can I help you?” “Go away” “What do you want?” he just had this creepy stare. I wanted to see if he would leave me alone if I crossed the street so I went over to look at a window display and he slowed down and got right in step behind me when I started walking again. I was really impressed with my thought process the whole time because I was thinking through all my options since I knew I couldn’t go home and lead him there. I was getting really close to the front of the Duomo where there where groups of people scattered around the piazza. I thought about going up to American tourists and talking to them for a few minutes until he went away then I saw some Italian police officers that I could go ask for help to walk me home, but I decided to stop next to a group of people and see what the creep would do before I made any decisions. The creep stayed like 30 feet away now but kept perfectly parallel to me with every step. I called my friend Lindsay on my cell phone who was at a nearby ATM and she literally came to me in 20 seconds. I pointed out the creep to her who was watching us from like 100ft away and we decided to go back to the bar where all our friends were by way of all the brightly lit streets and have one of my guy friends walk me home. So luckily I was escorted home, but I was pretty freaked out. Although the situation could have been much worse I was glad that I live in the city center where there are almost always police officers and that I took a few self-defense lessons prior to coming to Europe!

Friday my “Culture of Food & Wine” class had a fieldtrip to Parma, which is famous because of parmesan cheese. It was about two and a half hours north of Florence and the parmesan factory we visited was outside the main town. We learned ALL about every step to make parmesan along with the fact that it can’t be called parmesan cheese unless it is at least one year old and from Parma. In the storage room where they age the cheese on wood shelves the cheeses were stacked at least 30 feet high! Our favorite part of course was being able to sample two different ages of parmesan at the end. We went to a small restaurant in the town of Parma for lunch where they had several different kinds of prosciutto for us to try. I think it was strategic that they served us it for lunch before they took us to the official “Prosciutto Museum,” which was our next stop. It was interesting, but I don’t know if ever needed to know all that information! We got home around 7:30pm and all fell asleep, fieldtrips are tiring!

Saturday morning Kayla and I decided to make a trip to the Barberino outlet mall. It’s about a 40 minute bus ride to the mall where there are over 90 outlet stores. The outlet mall is in the beautiful hillside and is set up like a little village with a few adorable bridges over lush gullies. We spent a few hours looking around, but didn’t find much. Our outlets in the states in my opinion are way better! We had a relaxing lunch then headed back to Florence. It was nice to be in Florence for the weekend! Especially since it’s really starting to feel more and more like Christmas since most window displays have “Buon Natale” or Merry Christmas in them. There are beautiful Christmas lights hanging throughout the city! My favorites are the fleur-de-lis lights that hang from the buildings over the streets in the city center. So gorgeous! There are several markets in the piazzas since the holidays are approaching that have booths selling hand crafted goods as well as fresh olive oils and wines. We had fun looking around then Kayla and I made dinner together and had our dose of America by watching a few episodes of Law & Order SVU online!

Sunday Kayla, Jillian and her roommate Meghan and I packed lunches and took the city bus to the small town of Fiesole that is up on the hill a few miles outside of Florence. We were so excited to see an outdoor market going on in their main piazza as well. I got an adorable hand-made hat that will be perfect to keep me warm when I go to Interlaken, Switzerland in two weeks. We then hiked up this little road to a lookout point that has a few benches and enjoyed our lunches as well as the most spectacular view of all of Florence! It was slightly cloudy but it was gorgeous with the sun rays coming down from the clouds. Since Florence is surrounded by large hills and sits in a basin you could see the entire city including the Duomo right next to my apartment! We sat there for probably an hour just taking in the awesome view. I definitely want to go back up there one more time before I leave. A little above the lookout point is a beautiful old monastery that we explored a little bit before coming home. It was a perfect little half day trip, and it was a nice to escape the city! You really feel like you are in Tuscany and in another time when you are up in Fiesole! We loved it!

Lots going on this week with school, Thanksgiving and Rome! I should have lots to report next week! Love you all!!!

~Ciao Ciao,

Kara

General Update November 15, 2009

Everything has been wonderful as always here in Florence! A huge change occurred in the city center as the new Florence mayor made the area surrounding the Duomo a pedestrian only zone so it is completely free of cars! It is amazing and all the Florentines are so happy about it! It actually affects me as well because my apartment is literally on Piazza Duomo so my walk to school is much more carefree as I don’t have to dodge cars just lots of tourists and gypsies! My only concern about this big change is…how am I going to get to the airport with all my luggage to come back to the states? I’m literally going to have to haul 4 months worth of souvenirs and clothing a few blocks just to be picked up by a taxi! I guess I’ll just deal with that as it comes!

My school arranged for us to go after classes last Tuesday to a Tea House. It was so neat! It was cozy, dimly lit and decorated with Indian designs and incense. The owner named Rocco had quite the personality and was so excited to share with us some of his favorite teas and how he made them. The first tea he brought our group was a Chai tea, which happens to be my all-time favorite tea. It was unbelievable! He told us he makes his Chai with 5 different blends of spices before mixing it with black tea, white sugar and cream. The intense flavor was far better than any Chai I’ve ever tasted! We all thought it tasted like Christmas in a cup! SO good! The second tea was a pineapple tea that was served lukewarm, which was interesting. It had a great taste, but after having had the Chai we weren’t too impressed. With the teas Rocco also brought out various kinds of pound cake he had made for our group earlier that day. Everything was so delicious and it was nice to have some food that felt a little more American.

Another big change last week was that I decided to get bangs! I had been contemplating getting them ever since I got to Italy, but was working up the nerve to actually do it. One of my roommates is really good at cutting hair and always cuts her own hair so after she gave one of my other roommates bangs I really started thinking seriously about her giving me them as well. I finally did it last Wednesday night! They are definitely taking some getting used to, but they are fun for the time being. They look pretty dramatic if I were them straight down so I have been pushing them to the side. We will see how I feel about them as time goes on!

This last Tuesday my school arranged for us to take a cooking class at a cooking school called In Tavalo. It was set up with various cooking tables so all my friends and I had a stove and countertop to work on. The first dish we made or “antipasti” was this eggplant dish. I had recently tried eggplant and didn’t love it, but this creation was fantastic. We had a hilarious chef that helped through all the steps of cooking our meal named Roberto. Roberto over the course of the evening told me that I had “sexy hands that aren’t meant for the kitchen” after watching my manicured fingers daintily try to peel the potatoes. He proceeded to give me the nickname “Miss America.” It was pretty funny. But anyways the eggplant dish was a thin slice of eggplant then a layer of cheese topped with a dollop of a mashed potato mixed with zucchini pieces then another eggplant slice with another tier of the same cheese and mashed potato/zucchini mix topped off with one last slice of eggplant. This was then placed in the oven to be baked and it turned out amazing!!! It was so easy to make and was a really interesting, different, but delicious appetizer. Our main course was ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese finished in a butter and sage sauce. It was so fun to make the pasta for the ravioli from scratch! We kneaded the egg and flours together, rolled it, cut it, and placed it through the pasta press several times before individually cutting each ravioli piece. They turned out amazing and eating our creations was even more fun! The dessert we made was a panecotta that was really simple to make. It basically was cream, sugar and gelatin that we mixed then refrigerated. They served it to us drizzled with a strawberry sauce. So basically our meal was amazing and it was so fun to cook an authentic Italian dinner with my friends.

This last Wednesday night Jillian and I went out for drinks with my friend Tyler and his friend “G” to this mellow little lounge called Lochness. Afterwards we all went to fashion designer Roberto Cavalli’s new club called Cavalli Club. Its located on the other side of the Arno River from where I live and would only be a 25 minute walk or so, but it was nice since Tyler lives in Florence that we got to ride in a car since it has been pretty cold at night time! The club was amazing. It is very trendy and chic and Cavalli’s signature leopard print covers the seats and stairs throughout the club. A huge screen plays reruns of Cavalli’s fashion shows and absolutely gorgeous round crystal chandeliers hang in numerous spots. Cavalli spent over $3 million to renovate the location for the club which was actually an old church!!! He left the vaulted ceilings in place, but it feels pretty strange when you think about it that the DJ booth and dance floor are now where the alter of the church used to be! Kind of ironic. But we had so much fun and a bunch of kids from our program ended up showing up as well. At the club there was even a special brand of vodka called “Roberto Cavalli Vodka” it was crazy!

Thursday night we all had a surprise birthday for our friend Ryan at his house. It was Mexican themed so his roommates decorated the apartment and everyone brought chips, salsa and guacamole. Someone even made a make-shift piñata since those are hard to come by over here in Italy! We all had a great time and later went to a Mexican restaurant. I wasn’t a fan, it was greasy and gross. But honestly while I’m in Italy I want to try to stick to the Italian cuisine anyway.

Today (Sunday) there was an Olive Oil Festival going on in several piazzas throughout Florence. The biggest one was in the piazza in front of our school called Piazza della Reppublica. There we probably about 40 booths set up selling various olive oils, cheeses, wines, honeys, jams, spreads, meats, chestnuts, cookies, etc. Our favorite part was of course the samples! It was so much fun and felt just so Italian! It is definitely important to take advantage of all the fun things Florence has to offer because there is always something interesting going on!

Our time in Florence is slowly dwindling down so we are trying to make the most of every minute of every day that is left! I’ll keep you updated!

Xoxo

Ciao Kara

Venice

Venice

November 13-14, 2009

Friday at 7am we left on a charter bus with our school to go to Venice. We arrived around 11am, checked into our hotel with the group and had a free hour for lunch. We had an authentic Italian lunch before meeting up with our group at Frari Rocco, a church in Venice. We had two tour guide as well as dorky headsets that allowed us to hear the tour guides from a distance. They gave us a brief history of several art pieces in the church and showed us several private chapels within the church that were beautiful. We then headed to the ‘Scuola,’ which means school in Italian but in this case refers to the meeting place of a group or brotherhood within Venice. It was compared to the Free-Masons but obviously on a much smaller scale. It was gorgeous. My first words upon entering were “I want to have a ball here!” haha it was so ornately decorated from floor to ceiling with beautiful art panels. Later we went to a gondola workshop where they make gondolas. There are only five in all of Venice. The man who spoke to us runs and works there and his grandfather opened the workshop in the late 1800s and it has been in business ever since. He told us the whole process of making gondolas and described all the detail the goes into it including the fifteen different kinds of wood used to make them! I was amazed to learn that each gondola is specially made for its gondolier (the man who pushes the gondola). The weight of the gondolier is taken into account and the gondola is balanced accordingly. He also discussed the intense restrictions for the gondolas by the city of Venice. They must all be painted black a tradition that has continued since the 1800s and the colors of seats and interiors are limited as well. The total price of a single gondola is about €35,000 so around $50,000 US dollars. It was also amazing to hear that to this day there is only ONE female gondolier! The gondola maker told us that the people in charge of the gondolas are mafia-esque and that it is very hard to become a gondolier. The occupation is often only passed down through families and one must go to school and take a very rigorous exam to become one! It was overall pretty interesting!

We were given free time until 7pm so we decided to find our way back to the hotel to relax and freshen up before meeting back up with the group for a tour of Saint Mark’s Basilica. Venice is quite confusing to say the least as it is full of winding pathways, canals, bridges and islands since the city was constructed on marshlands. We contemplated skipping the tour of the Basilica and to just go to dinner, but I am SO happy we didn’t. Our group was granted entry after hours at St. Mark’s Basilica, which is very rare. As we walked in the outer corridors were slightly flooded since Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in all of Venice. But as we entered the main church all the lights were off. It was amazing! You could just tell how massive the interior was but you could barely see a thing. Our group was the only people in the whole church and we all just sat quietly in awe. The church was first built in the 800s!!!! So it is way older than most of the places I have been in across Europe! Sitting there in the dark cathedral was unbelievable. Slowly one by one the dim lights were turned on illuminating the millions of mosaic gold leaf and glass tiles that decorate every inch of the walls and ceilings of the grand church. The lights had such a way of reflecting off the tiles that it was surreal and almost magical. The gold leaf tiles were insane! They sparkled like nothing I have ever seen! It is by far my favorite church interior that I have seen since being in Europe. It was breathtaking. And the fact that we were the only ones there made the experience even more special. My tour guide was astonished when we were informed that they would let us walk up past the alter where normally only the priests are allowed to have a look at the crypt of Saint Mark and the gorgeous alter piece. It was really rare that they let us do that! The alter piece was exquisite and covered with hundreds of precious stones like emeralds and sapphires and made of pure gold. It normally is not seen by the public because it is placed past the alter so it was amazing to have the chance to see it. We then went below the alter to see the actual burial place of Saint Mark one of Jesus’ disciples. Supposedly his body was stolen and smuggled to Venice while hidden in the meat of pigs so that the Arab people would not question or search the package since they despise pigs. The body of St. Mark has been lost a few times since it has been in Venice as floods have dislodged the body, but miraculously it has always been recovered. I just love my program; they allow us to do the most amazing things!

We grabbed dinner and turned in early since we had to be up early Saturday morning with our group. It was amazing to stay in an actual hotel instead of a hostel. It was amazing to have fresh towels and shampoo provided and to have a bathroom in our room instead of a communal one! Oh the life of luxury! We have become quite accustomed to living without most conveniences! We all slept like babies too! The beds were so comfortable! I mean my bed in Florence is fine, but it will definitely be nice to have my bed back home and in Dallas. We all had breakfast in our hotel and headed to Piazza San Marco to climb the tower there. It had the most spectacular view of Venice! It really is amazing to see the city from above and all the various islands! For the rest of the day until 5pm we were given free time so we took the opportunity to take a vapporetto (water bus) to the island of Morono that is famous for its beautiful glass. It was about an hour ride and once we got there we had lunch and wandered in and out of all the different glass shops. The jewelry is so pretty and the glasswork is just so ornate and beautiful. After about two hours we went back to Piazza San Marco and made our way slowly back to the hotel, while window shopping.

It was a quick trip, but it was all we needed especially since I had been there before. Even though it has been eight years my memory is pretty incredible. We got back to Florence last night (Saturday) so it was nice we still have some of the weekend to enjoy here!

A dopo! (Until later)

Xoxo ciao

Kara

London

London

November 5-8, 2009

We landed at London Stansted airport Thursday night late and Jillian, Kayla and I were so excited for a wonderful weekend! We took a shuttle into the city and then a cab to our hostel that was located in Soho. Shelley and a group of girls who are studying with SMU in Paris were supposed to meet up with us at our hostel to celebrate Shelley’s 21^st birthday weekend. We got in so late Thursday that they had already gone to bed, but they left us a message at the front desk outlining their plans for the next day. They wanted to do the walking tour Friday, but we decided to do the ‘Original Tour’ on the double-decker buses instead and would meet up with them later on in the day.

So Friday morning we got up bright and early at 7 after having arrived at the hostel at 1am and headed to Starbucks across the street from our hotel for breakfast. The Starbucks tasted unbelievable and was just so reminiscent of home and we were so happy to see they had started using their red holiday cups so we ordered Chai tea and gingerbread lattes! I ordered what I assumed was oatmeal, but it turned out o be porridge. It was nasty! At least I know for next time! But anyways the streets and stores in Soho had all just been decorated for Christmas so we were freaking out like little children on Christmas morning! It was all so beautiful! Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Europe Christmas comes early indeed! We bought passes for the double-decker bus tour and hopped on! Even though it was very cold we climbed up on the top of the bus and enjoyed the open air and beautiful views of the city. Our guide was amazing and pretty funny so we decided instead of hopping on and off throughout the over two hour tour we would stay on for the whole time once through before deciding where we wanted to get off and spend our time. The tour was amazing as all the trees were all the gorgeous fall colors! We saw literally all the sights from the bus: Hyde Park, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the London Eye, the London Bridge, the Tower, Buckingham Palace, the Financial District, the smallest pub in London, etc. It was wonderful. The entire time we were freaking out professing our love for the city. Literally I am so impressed and in love with London. It is so clean and everything is so beautiful. The people were so nice, they speak ENGLISH and there is SO much to do! Two full days was hardly enough time! I could have happily spent a week there!

It was bizarre being in an English speaking country! It was the first time in three months that I was somewhere where English was the primary language. It was shocking when people greeted me and asked me questions in English. It actually took me a few seconds to process what they were asking me! And more than once I answered in Italian. So weird. It was definitely a little taste of the culture shock I know I will experience when I get back to the US.

After riding the bus tour until noon we decided to hop off at “the Tower,” which has been many things over its existence including a fortress, prison and castle. It now is famous for holding the ‘Crown Jewels’ of England. We first walked around the perimeter of the fortress which had examples of the old castle interiors and even some people in the authentic customary apparel of the Middle Ages. My favorite part was definitely seeing the Crown Jewels! They were pretty unbelievable. Especially the fact that most of the things on display are still worn during particular ceremonies is insane. The crowns were exquisite and I especially liked that most of them had fleur-de-lis on them (my sorority’s symbol). The tableware was pretty amazing too like the huge solid gold platters and serving dishes. We then went into the tower where they had all the armor on display including the armor for the horses. There were also interactive stations that taught you the proper use of certain medieval weapons. It was really interesting.

We took a break and grabbed lunch. Everyone had told me the food in London was nothing special, but we loved it! They have every kind of cuisine you could ever want and lots of great restaurant chains that we don’t have in the states. For lunch I went to this great ‘create your own salad’ place that was amazing! The salads are just so boring in Italy literally mixed greens and tomatoes so it was nice to get a little creative and have all my favorite things including grilled chicken in mine. We then walked to Buckingham Palace, which honestly wasn’t quite as grandeur as I expected, but still pretty awesome and took some pictures in front of it. Green Park is located right next to Buckingham Palace and looked absolutely gorgeous so we decided to venture in. The entrance to the park had huge wrought iron fences with gilded gold on it and was breathtaking as we walked in to see all the picture perfect autumn trees and leaf-filled pathways. We took the opportunity to frolic in the leaves and take lots of fun pictures. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves playing for a solid half hour. It is something I will never forget. We were just so happy and carefree.

Afterwards we took ‘the tube,’ which we became experts at, to go see the famous department store Harrods. It is the craziest department store I have ever seen! It is giant, beautifully decorated and just so unique. You literally could get so lost there! It was fun exploring all the different departments. We were on a quest to find somewhere to have ‘high-tea,’ but it was pretty pricey at Harrods so we went down the street to another department store called Harvey Nichols that my fashion teacher who used to live in London had recommended to me. We took the elevator to the fifth floor where there was a boutique market, champagne bar and a café. We sat at the café and each had scones and a pot of tea. I ordered a chai tea and loved just being able to sit down and relax after a busy day. On the way back to the hotel we stopped into the popular English chain store called Top Shop to look around. It is like the stores H&M and Zara, but still pretty pricey especially with the dollar to pound conversion. Everything was adorable, but we just had fun looking around.

We went back to the hostel, changed for dinner and met up with Shelley and the SMU girls for Shelley’s birthday dinner! It turned out that they had switched hostels after their accommodations were not as sanitary as they had hoped. Luckily ours was perfectly acceptable, but since we ended up at different hostels it was harder to coordinate schedules. We had a fun dinner and it was so great getting to see Shelley on her real birthday especially her 21^st. We all went to a pub after for celebratory pints of Strongbow cider (one of our new favorites) before heading into **** to look for a club to go to. Since it was a weekend every few feet club promoters would try to lure you to their clubs by giving you flyers or enticing you with free entrance or drinks. Since there were nine of us and it was Friday night when most clubs have cover charges we went to this club called Ruby Blue where we got in for free since it was Shelley’s birthday. We had a great time dancing and enjoyed the usual blend of American music. Once again: we just love London.

Saturday morning we got an early start to our day again with a Starbucks breakfast before heading to the Portobello markets just outside of the city. The market is in Notting Hill (like the movie) and is just adorable. The area reminded me of a little bit of parts of Portland. It had adorable brightly painted old buildings and cottages and lots of antique stores. The Portobello market is on one whole street with stands set up along it that sell antiques to jewelry to clothing to fresh produce, etc. It was so fun! I bought a really unique headband decorated with beautiful peacock feathers and an ‘I heart London’ shirt! I couldn’t resist. We then took the tube to the Camden Lock Markets around noon and had fun shopping around there. That area was a lot more alternative and had lots of funkier stores as well as cute booths. We could have easily spent another three hours there, but we only had a two so we did a quick sweep through before grabbing lunch. Kayla opted for a lunch of authentic fish and chips; I was surprised to find out that the chips are really fries! I didn’t know that! On our loop back to the tube we shopped a little more and I ended up getting bamboozled into buying this body scrub made of salt from the Dead Sea. The saleslady had done a demonstration on me by washing my hands in it and my skin felt amazingly soft and hydrated. She said when you use it you don’t need lotion so since my skin has been neglected since coming abroad due to a lack of my favorite lotions, I caved and bought it. Luckily I haven’t regretted it! It smells amazing and works wonders! I should be on the infomercial! Haha.

On our way back to our hostel we stopped at a kiosk and bought tickets to see the musical Wicked for that night. I had no idea that London was such a mecca for musicals! Literally every musical I have ever heard of is always playing there nearly every night! I’m used to plays or musicals coming through an area then not returning for years, so it was so fun that we had so many options! I had seen Wicked, but Kayla and Jillian hadn’t and it is my favorite musical so I was more than willing to see it again! We got pretty cheap tickets so we were so excited to go! Especially me, since by this point I know all the songs and lyrics!

We all changed back at the hostel into cute dressy outfits and headed to Dukes Hotel for high tea. It is the most adorable boutique hotel completely off the beaten path in London that had been recommended to me. It is amazing. We were taken back into the parlor and seated on comfortable couches. It was so cute and cozy. We each ordered the Dukes Special, which was pricey but came with a pot of tea and a good sized assortment of tea sandwiches, pastries, and desserts. I just love the whole concept of high tea. It is so great to just relax and enjoy your friends’ company while having a snack. The whole time we were there we kept expressing how blessed we are and reminding ourselves to savor the moment. It was another experience I will never forget. I felt so blessed to be abroad, to be in amazing London, to have made such great friends and blessed just to experience all of this. I could have sat in that tea room forever. It definitely wasn’t reality it was so perfect and we were all so content. I can’t wait to go back to Dukes in the future and my dream is to actually stay there! It’s so adorable.

We then took a cab to the London Eye, the biggest Ferris wheel in the world, for a spin! We had bought discounted tickets at our hostel and wanted to squeeze it in before going to see Wicked. It was a beautiful night and the city lights were crystal clear. Part of what was so fun too was that we were all dressed up. It just made us feel so sophisticated and was the icing on the cake of what was a perfect day and night. You stand in a basically a pod with like fifteen people as you go around the Ferris wheel so we ended up talking to two American boys who just graduated from college last year. One of them works in finance and commutes to London every two or three weeks and is transitioning into living in London full-time for a few years. I talked to him for awhile and was so jealous! After seeing London I realized how much I would LOVE to live there for a year or two at some point in my life. I’m obsessed with the city; it’s definitely my favorite in the world. I like it WAY better than New York City. If I had a second study abroad experience I would go to London in a heartbeat.

Anyways we dashed off to see Wicked, which was amazing even the second time seeing it! It was so funny hearing the actors say everything with a British accent! The vocals were definitely better the first time I saw it in LA, but it was still great! Kayla and Jillian loved it too, they were freaking out the whole time over the amazing songs, characters and creative storyline and its clever intertwining with the plot of the Wizard of Oz. We were leaving early Sunday morning for our flight back to Italy so we couldn’t decide what to do after the musical. Our bus for the airport left at 4:20am!!!! We debated not sleeping at all and just going out, but ended up walking around and sleeping about an hour before taking a cab to our shuttle. Our flight left at 8:25am and we were devastated to be leaving London so soon. After having travelled so much over the course of the last three months I really appreciate that London has so much to do. In most of the cities I have travelled to you can do and see everything in two or three days, but I definitely could’ve spent another 3-5 days there. I can’t wait to come back. We were just so lucky with our weather too since it only rained a tiny bit. Upon flying into Pisa we were absolutely exhausted after a cab, shuttle and flight all before noon. We had an hour train left to get back to Florence. However…the trains headed to Florence decided to go on strike on Sunday! Just our luck! So we were stranded in Pisa and trying to figure out how to get home as swiftly as possible since we were on the brink of falling asleep standing up. We decided the easiest and cheapest way to get home to Florence after talking to a taxi was to split a cab fare amongst ourselves and two other girls who were in our same predicament. Upon reaching Florence we realized there had been a miscommunication with the driver about what he would charge us for the 45 minute drive. We tried to explain what we had thought he would charge us and he was standing his ground and clearly overcharging us. We ended up handing him a wad of money (about ¾ of the price he charged us) and briskly walked away. He shouted at us in Italian but we kept on walking and then he followed us for a few blocks after realizing we hadn’t paid the whole fare, but we took a few detours through some alleys and lost him. It was an interesting day! But we finally got home safe and sound and EXHAUSTED. Let’s just say I fell asleep at 6pm Sunday night and didn’t wake up until Monday at 11am!

It was such an amazing weekend, one I will surely never forget! Can’t wait to report more of my adventures!

Love you! Ciao!

~Kara

October 25, 2009

October 25, 2009

We are headed home to Florence after a great weekend in Barcelona!

After arriving Friday afternoon Jillian and I went to see the huge cathedral called La Sagrada Familia in the city. It is huge and looks like a giant sand castle! It was pretty amazing! We then met up with Jeff who we met in Madrid. We went with him to the really famous park by artist Gaudi called Guell Park. It was really funky and decorated with multi-colored tiles and had really unique structures throughout the park. It also has the world’s largest bench in it! We ended up going to dinner and enjoying a few pitchers of sangria with Jeff then went to this beautiful water show called “The Magic Fountain.” It was beautiful and choreographed to music like the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Various songs played for the whole fifteen minute show and were all American songs! It was just so fun to think that we were in Barcelona, Spain experiencing it! After getting drinks and going out to a really fun club on the beach, we ended up spending all afternoon and night with Jeff…well at least until 4 am! We had so much fun and it felt so much safer having a guy with us!

Exhausted Saturday morning we met up with one of our best friends Kayla at our hostel and spent the day with her. We went to La Mercat de la Boqueria, which is like a huge farmers market indoors. They had vendors with fresh fruit juices, breads, seafood, meats, eggs, chocolates, etc. It was located off of the main street in Barcelona called Las Ramblas. Since Barcelona is a beach city we walked down the boardwalk and soaked in every bit of the beautifully perfect mid-70 degree weather! It reminded me of being in Newport! We were so lucky to have amazing weather our whole time there! It was so fun to meet up with Kayla for the day too because she had opted to go to Paris by herself for the whole first part of the trip. We grabbed lunch at a café near the marina. The girls ordered paella, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it…so I stuck with chicken J We all took a siesta then for the rest of the night Jillian and I wandered around the streets of Barcelona. It’s an amazing city, I really liked it a lot. We had been seriously warned about pick pockets in the city, so other than being paranoid we enjoyed every second!

Today (Sunday) we got to go to the Picasso museum in Barcelona, which was so interesting! The collection is organized by year so you can really see all the creative stages Picasso went through and how drastically his artistic style changed over his lifetime.

This has been a truly amazing trip, but I must say I’m so excited to go home to Florence! I really loved Spain and definitely want to travel within it more in the future! I loved using my Spanish too! Every city we visited was so unique and had beauties and wonderful things of its own!

Jillian was the perfect travel partner, I was so blessed to have made her friendship and had her company this week! We have so much fun together and share so many qualities that make us great friends and ideal travelers!

Overall…AMAZING trip J

Con amor,

K

October 23, 2009

October 23, 2009

We are now headed to Barcelona after a fantastic two days in Madrid and day in San Sebastian. I loved Madrid! Definitely not as much blatant Spanish culture like Sevilla, but it was a beautiful city. It’s amazingly wonderful how barely anyone speaks English and how un-touristy Madrid is even though it’s a pretty major city. Our hostel was great, actually all of our hostels have been so far, but our Madrid hostel was very central and our favorite. The first night we walked around after arriving late and grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant—haha we love our Italian and didn’t feel guilty eating it since the Spanish aren’t exactly known for their cuisine. It’s still hard adjusting to the late dinner hours though!

Tuesday we started the day by going to the Palacio Real the palace in Madrid. It was pretty large since it contains a mere 2,800 rooms! Each room was ornately decorated; one even had walls covered in detailed porcelain. It was funny because on the train we had picked up a Spanish tabloid magazine and got all the latest hot Spanish gossip! Supposedly the Prince of Spain is dating/engaged to a gorgeous soap opera star, which is ruffling the feathers of the Spanish people because they don’t want an actress to possibly be the Queen of Spain…BIG drama! Anyways it is this prince that lives here.

Sadly our arrival to Madrid brought cold, wet weather! Literally up until the day we got there it had been warm and beautiful! But we still loved every second! We walked through Plaza Mayor and Puerta de Sol (the city center and geographical center of Spain).

We met up with my friend Leela Harpur who is studying abroad with SMU in Madrid for a late lunch. It was so fun seeing a familiar face! It was great hearing about her life in Spain. Jillian and I then headed to the huge park in Madrid called Parque de El Retiro. It is gorgeous!!! It’s like a smaller version of Central Park but is still big! It has fountains, a lake, statues and winding pathways. It was so picturesque since all of the leaves were changing colors to beautiful fall shades! I just loved it!

The famous museum to see in Madrid is called the Prado and has free admission from 6-8pm so we walked through and saw lots of beautiful paintings by Vasquez, Miro, and Goya to name a few. My very favorite part though was stumbling across a painting I knew a lot about! It was a painting by Raimundo de Madraza that had been in SMU’s Meadows Museum my freshman year!!! I had had to write an essay about the painting as well as deliver a speech while standing in front of it in our museum. SMU’s Meadows Museum has the largest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain! So that was really amazing!

The hardest part about staying in hostels is that you normally want to spend as little time as possible there. Meaning you get up early and go go go all day and night long. But ended up loving this hostel and felt comfortable taking siestas! It was really nice that everywhere we went we had plenty of time to do and see everything we wanted to!

Tuesday night Jillian and I were planning on doing a “Pub Crawl” with our hostel, which is basically where they take you to several (up to 10) different bars and clubs where there are free/discounted drinks. We were waiting in the lobby and this really cute guy came and asked us if we wanted to join him and his friends in the kitchen for some wine. We joined them and low and behold 3 of the 4 guys live in Newport!!!! What are the chances! Two of them even are currently living on Spyglass Hill in Harbor Ridge in the neighborhood right next to mine! One of them works at the Wine Bar in Corona del Mar and the other works at CB Richard Ellis on Jamboree and knows who my uncle Drew is who works there too! They were all around 26 years old and honestly such great guys! We had so much fun hanging out and talking with them all night! They made me really miss American boys! We also hung out with two Australians we met that night too! We all did a Pub Crawl together that didn’t even start until midnight! The guy who worked at our hostel led us to a total of two bars and one club before the group of us separated from him. The whole night the guys were beyond amazing and fun and not letting us pay for anything. They were so easy to talk to and not awkward at all. We all ended up heading back to our hostel at about almost 4am where we hung out for a few hours then Jeff, Jillian and I ended up staying up until almost 7am talking! It was crazy but so fun! Jeff even decided to stay in Barcelona Friday instead of leave with his friends so he could meet up with us once we got there.

Wednesday we were pretty exhausted after only getting like three hours sleep, but we got ourselves up and to the Reina Sofia museum that is famous for its abstract art collection. It was so interesting! We saw tons of Picasso’s works including his extremely famous anti-war piece “Guernica.” After spending a few hours there we gathered baguettes, turkey, cheese and fruit and had a make-shift picnic in the Retiro Park. It was freezing cold, but the autumn leaves were just too gorgeous to pass up!

Later on we met up with Matt Furman the Fiji from SMU who I took as my date to my Kappa formal last February. He is studying abroad in Madrid too so he and some other SMU guys met us outside the Real Madrid soccer stadium for drinks because they were going to the game after. The atmosphere around the stadium was crazy! The team bus drove by and the streets went wild! It was so fun to see! It was great to see some of the SMU guys too!

Thursday morning early we managed to barely miss our train to San Sebastian because we couldn’t find the platform so we had to take a slower train that ended up not getting us there until around 4pm. We had heard such amazing things about San Sebastian so we were really sad that we had less than 24 hours there. It was cold and rainy so it made it a little bit better to know we weren’t going to be missing out on sunny beach weather because San Sebastian is a gorgeous beach town. I just loved the town though! I will definitely 100% come back hopefully in the near future! It reminded me of Nice on the French Riviera, but I think even prettier. It has a huge beautiful bay with an island surrounded by hills. Even though it was really stormy it was absolutely gorgeous! At one point there was a full rainbow that started from the huge Jesus statue that is on the top of one of the hills overlooking the sea. It was unbelievably beautiful. We tried to see the whole town since we were only there one afternoon and night, but even though I would’ve loved more time there, given the weather and our time crunch we still got to see most of it! But I cannot wait to come back here someday!

I’m so excited to finally see Barcelona today!!! I’ll keep you posted on my adventures!

Xox K

Sevilla, Spain Oct. 19

October 19, 2009
Sunday morning we took the 3 hour train to Sevilla. We walked around town and saw the Gothic Cathedral where Christopher Colombus’ tomb is. It’s the biggest Gothic Cathedral in the world! It’s beautiful. We loved Sevilla because it definitely has a stronger Spanish culture. All the buildings are so cute and colorful! We liked it much better than Granada. One thing I’m loving about Spain is that they have chicken on their menus unlike Italy! At lunch Jillian bribed me to eat bell peppers which I never would have even tried before coming to Europe to study abroad. She said if I ate them she would buy me churros con chocolate! Of course I took her up on it! I even ended up liking the bell peppers! But the churros were even more amazing haha! You buy them then they give you a cup of hot chocolate to dip them in! I’ve also been drinking lots of coffee this trip! I never really loved it before coming abroad!

Later Sunday we went with a group from our hostel to a flamenco dancing show! Sevilla is the flamenco capital of the world! They took us off the beaten path to a dimly lit bar where we enjoyed sangria and an amazing flamenco performance. There was one guitar player, one singer and one dancer. It was so unique and beautiful!

Unfortunately I have barely been sleeping at all this trip because I have a cough that acts up when I lay down and the medicine hasn’t been doing the trick. It’s awful! It’s hard too because the hours in Spain are so odd because of the “Siesta” so no one even has dinner until 9pm at the very earliest.

Today we just roamed the city. We saw the Plaza de Espana and the Alcazar Palace where the royalty lived and continues to live. We people watched and had a relaxing day! There’s really not too much to do in Sevilla but it was wonderful to see! We are currently almost to Madrid where we’ll spend the next full two days. Lots to do there! Can’t wait!
Ciao!
~K

Granada, Spain Oct. 17

Last night we arrived in Granada after a train, a bus, a plane and a bus--basically a LONG day of travelling! We grabbed dinner, got our bearings and headed to bed so we could get an early start Saturday.

We woke up at 7 and got to the ticket counter for the Alhambra at 8am because they only give out a limited number of tickets per day and you are given an exact appointment time in which you may enter. Ours was at 2pm. So until then we wandered around the city.

Granada is a relatively small city, but its really cute. Everything architecturally here is much more plain compared to the intricate details of the Florentine building facades. It feels absolutely amazing to speak Spanish again!!!!! After taking it my whole life it is really the first time I've been able to put it to use in the "real world." It is coming back to me SO well! I can have pretty detailed conversations with the locals, which has been great! In the beginning it was hard to get back into the habit of saying "gracias" not "grazie." Realizing all the times so far where Italian words have almost slipped out makes me realize that I've learned more Italian than I thought! I'm so excited to be here in Spain for 10 days and see how much my Spanish continues to improve! Part of me is sad that I didn't study abroad in Spain just because I know I would've become fluent, but nothing beats the Italian culture for me!

Since the Arabs inhabited Spain for many years their culture is everything. Lots of great shops with fun jewelry. So at 2pm we arrived at the Alhambra for our appointment to view the huge palace. The grounds are so green and lush and have the most gorgeous gardens! We explored and enjoyed all the panoramas from the gardens and on top of the fortress. The whole property is on top of a huge hill so it is quite a workout walking around it! As we made our way around the grounds aimlessly we noticed after about two hours that you didn't even need a ticket to be in the area we had been walking around. We decided to ask what the ticket was good for and found out it got us into the main palace. The main palace is the building with the large fountain in the center courtyard. This was the single image of the Alhambra that I had always known, ever since my AP World History class sophomore year in high school. We were excited to see it! We give the lady our ticket and she informs us that we are two hours late for our reservation so we can't go in. No one had told us that the main entrance where we gave our ticket at 2pm wasn't the area our reservation was good for! There were no signs and the ticket did not specify! We were so mad! We had woken up so early to get the tickets, waited in the cold, arrived early to our appointment and didn't even get to see the actual Alhambra palace. I guess I'll just have to come back again one day!

It is amazing how much the terrain here resembles California!!! Even the weather!!! But anyways after a long day we went our for tapas or basically the Spanish version of appetizers and I had my very first Sangria! It was soooo good! I'm obsessed! We then walked down the main street in the opposite direction we had been going and were so excited to find it very busy with lots of fountains and cute shops and even an outdoor concert going on! This definitely heightened our impressions of Granada. Jillian and I decided we would still only give the city a "B" rating. It is beautiful, but we just didn't find it to be anything extra special. Nevertheless we loved it and can't wait for the rest of Spain!!!

adios!

~ K

Amsterdam Oct. 11

October 11, 2009
So I am currently on the train from Amsterdam back to Brussels for the night. Amsterdam was so amazing! The train ride there was so beautiful, lots of lush green farmland and waterways and canals as we entered Holland. We arrived late Friday night so we checked into our 30 person room hostel!!!! Yes you read it correctly---30 person! It supposedly is rated one of the top hostels in Europe. It was all we needed and everyone was super respectful. It was definitely bizarre though to see people smoking pot in our lobby!!!! WEIRD. It was definitely strange to see all the legal “coffee shops” around Amsterdam and know that it’s all legal is absolutely insane to me.
We found a great restaurant for dinner and our waiter was so sweet circling stuff on our map to go and see. After eating we decided to wander into the “Red Light District.” It was shocking! Even though we knew what it was before visiting it, seeing it was a completely different story! We thought it was so intriguing and hilarious! We kept exploring all the different alleys and looking at all the girls in their fluorescent bikinis standing under the neon lights in the windows. It’s just so awful that this is the life that they choose; they even have to pay taxes and get health benefits for it! So crazy! Also when we were still in the Red Light district we saw someone get mugged! I looked down this alley and saw flailing limbs and a person jump up and run away then literally seconds later two police officers on horseback went galloping after the guy, it was crazy! The guy was so dumb to try to mug someone when there were so many people still out walking around in the streets. Nonetheless witnessing that on our first night made us much more cautious about sticking together.

We woke up early to our free breakfast—a great thing about staying in hostels. We then made our way to the Anne Frank “Huis” or house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazi’s in WWII. The building was the office building of her father Otto Frank’s Jam Factory. I read the Diary of Anne Frank in 8th grade so it was really neat to see it in real life. The hidden “annex” where the 8 people including the Frank family hid was much bigger than the space I had imagined. It was basically a full apartment, but what was really crazy to me was the amount of time they had to remain there without any fresh air or sunlight because of the black-out curtains. The whole museum was very tastefully done. My favorite part was definitely getting to see Anne’s actual diary that they had on display.

We then shopped around this area called Jordan, which is the less-touristy area and more residential with some great boutiques. For lunch we got traditional Netherlands pancakes that were good, but kind of strange too….I think I prefer our pancakes in America. We headed back into the city center and did some major shopping. Amsterdam has amazing shopping!

Later Saturday night we met up with three of our friends from CEA that happened to be in the city for the weekend too. We had dinner together and walked around the city and showed them the red-light district…which we were still fascinated by!

Today we got an early start and walked by the flower market where they had tons of beautiful tulips which Holland is famous for. We then went to the Heineken Factory for the “Heineken Experience.” It was SO cool! Since it started in Amsterdam they offer this really great tour where they had interesting ways to communicate the company history and lots of interactive activities. One of the coolest parts was this room where you would stand and face this screen. It was supposed to simulate “brewing you” as if you were the actual ingredients. For example when we were “mixed” the floor would shake and real bubbles or mist would appear. We were mixed, heated, stirred, bottled, and enjoyed! It was really neat! When we were bottled the screen showed us being opened from inside of a box of Heineken and taken out and enjoyed at a rooftop party! It was a great and fun way to learn how beer is made! We were also given a fresh glass of Heineken and taught how to properly drink it. There was another room where you could sit on individual couches that had TV’s attached to each chair that showed all the Heineken commercials throughout the years starting in the 1950s. Each room was so fun and interesting! At the end we got another fresh glass of their beer, we opted for the Extra Cold version! The area where you could drink your beer and relax was awesome! The tabletops were interactive and sensitive to cold so wherever you set your cold beer a Heineken symbol would appear under it and if you set it on certain places on the tabletop image of a world map facts about certain cities would appear on the tabletop screen. It was so high-tech!

We were so glad we went! I must say that Heineken is not my very favorite beer, a little too bitter for me, but I still LOVED the experience and would highly recommend it!

We grabbed a quick lunch then got our bags and headed to the train station. We will have dinner in Brussels tonight and leave early tomorrow morning (Monday).

Overall I’m obsessed with Northern Europe!
~K