I apologize for the extreme lapse in time since I've last posted. In my defense, here are all of the crazy things that have happened in the last month:

* I was extremely sick when we returned from Venice and Verona. In fact, I ended up having to go to the emergency room here in Florence. It ended up being a respiratory infection and sinus infection, which antibiotics quickly took care of. However, for a while there I couldn't sleep due to all the coughing and pain in my sinuses.

* I made a grand 9 day European adventure for fall break.

* I made a week-long trip back to the United States for my cousin's wedding.

So let me tell you about all the exciting things I've been up to!

For the last nine days of October, we had no school. So my roommates Katie and Samantha and I planned this extravagant trip through 5 major European cities. We started bright and early on October 23, taking a train from Florence to Milan, Italy. We spent a day in Milan walking around and gawking at the beautiful Duomo there:

We spent a significant amount of time discussing whether we liked Milan's Duomo or Florence's Duomo better, a conversation that ended with the consensus that they are equally magnificent, just very different.

The next day, we flew to Prague. Immediately, two things struck me about the country:

1. The money is extremely different. In the Czech Republic, they use Czech crowns. One US dollar is equivalent to about 22 crowns. This made for quite an interesting time figuring out how much we were actually paying for things.

2. The language is extremely different. I never knew you could fit so many consonants together and still make a word.

However, the initial observations were quickly overwhelmed by the beauty and rich culture that flourishes in Prague. When we were checking into our hostel, I saw a flier for a free tour. Considering our budget, and the fact that we knew nothing about Prague, we decided to test out the free tour, despite our lack of enthusiasm for organized tours. We spent a few hours of our day on this tour, and I must say it was the most fascinating tour I have ever been on. The tour guide was funny and interactive and gave us quite the concise history of Prague. It was so nice to know what we were looking at and taking pictures of. We were thoroughly impressed with our free tour, and thrilled to find out that these free tours are offered in every major European city! Good news for us.

We spent the afternoon getting Starbucks (!!!) and then Czeching out (sorry, I had to...) the main attraction in Prague, the castle:

The cathedral of the castle.

Our next stop was Paris. Flying into Paris, we caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, and it was magnificent. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a famous building. We took our free tour, which was equally amazing to the tour in Prague, and it didn't take long for me to realize that Paris is as fabulous as it is cracked up to be. We saw all the major sights, walked up the Eiffel Tower, and toured the Museum D'Orsay, the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre (I got to see Mona):

The outside of the Louvre.

I must say though that my favorite sight was watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night:

It was magical.

Next we were off to London. We again took our free tour, seeing all the main sights:

The London Eye and Stephen's Tower, which houses Big Ben.

Westminster Abbey, where we attended an Evensong service one night.

Parliament, which is a spectacular sight by night.

We did all the touristy things, like got fish and chips and took pictures with red double-decker buses and red phonebooths. We all agreed that it curbed some homesickness to be in a place where there were similar foods and everyone spoke English. We also all agreed that as much as we loved every place we visited, London was our top pick.

Our last destination was Edinburgh, Scotland. Our trip here was short, so it essentially included our free tour and some time spent near the beautiful castle there:

The castle.

The highlight of our time in Edinburgh was all the connections to the Harry Potter books:

The cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first two books.

Inspiration for a character? You tell me.

Overall, we had a safe and enjoyable trip. I feel so blessed to have been able to see so much during our break, and with such enjoyable people.

Ciao,

Sarah

Everyday Life

It's a cozy Friday afternoon, and I am procrastinating packing everything needed for a 9 day vacation into my backpack (packing efficiently has never been my forte). So before I leave for my grand adventure, I thought I'd give you a little insight into my everyday life in Florence.

I'm taking four classes, all of which I actually like.

Italian is very interesting to learn and I am slowly picking up on vocab and grammar. It's similar to Spanish, which I know a little of and it's been helpful to have a background in Latin (although I don't remember much).

Psychology of crime is absolutely fascinating. Last year and this past summer I watched a lot of the TV show "Criminal Minds," and therefore I find the material of Psych of crime very interesting. We discuss lots of different theories of criminal behavior and victimization, and we also discuss major controversial issues within the field such as the death penalty. Recently, we went on a field trip to the serial killer museum here in Florence.

Fashion design has proved to be my hardest class, although seeing my hard work pay off has been very rewarding. The first thing my teacher made us do on the first day of class was draw a model in our favorite outfit. Not let me tell you, I can NOT draw. I have good handwriting and I love to color, but I absolutely positively can NOT draw. So I was literally laughing out loud at my little first day drawing. However, we recently handed in our mid-term project and I was pretty proud of mine. Let me show you the results of many, many hours of work for my fashion design mid-term:

The instructions for the mid-term were to create a moodboard and three outfits inspired by the Gothic Lolita style. The Gothic Lolita style is basically a combination of Victorian and Gothic. This is my moodboard, which is basically a visual representation of the style you are being inspired by. It's your way of communicating to other people what your inspiration is.

These are my three outfits. My favorite is the last one. In fact, if someone made this dress for me, I would wear it. I was very proud of how they turned out, and I a newfound appreciation for animation artists.

My last class, Food and Wine pairing, is my absolute favorite. Essentially we learn about food, then cook it and pair it with wine. At the end of every class, we eat the food we've cooked and drink wine. We make some incredible food too. Last week was my favorite because we made all sorts of seafood, which is my favorite food:

As an appetizer, we made slices of croutons with smoked salmon on top. On top of the smoked salmon we added a little piece of lemon and drizzled melted butter on top.

The next course was pasta with clams and tomatoes.

The main course was fried seafood. We fried some anchovies, calamari and shrimp. I had never had anchovies, but they were actually really good! I also learned that anchovies are in caesar salad dressing.

When I'm not in class, I'm usually on some sort of adventure with one or more of my lovely roommates:

This is Katie, aka Kmc (pronounced "Kay-mick"). She is my direct roommate, so when we go to bed at the same time, we have pillow talk. Katie is a gentle spirit and really loves her dog, so we talk about our dogs a lot. She is studying art and is incredible at anything requiring artistic talent, although she will always be modest about it. She is also a vegetarian, which has really fascinated the other three of us who are big meat-lovers.

This is Sam, aka "Dallas Diva." Although actually from Austin, Sam is the definition of sweet and sassy, and I mean this is the most positive sense. Sam is studying interior design and is really struggling with the fact that we can't decorate our apartment. Sam and I share intense loves of Starbucks, Ryan Reynolds, chocolate and Diet Coke (Coke Zero for the Diva). Sam is always keeping us updated on celebrity gossip and new movie releases.

This is Kristen, aka "Tewks." She hails from Tewskbury, which is near Boston and has the best accent, although she will always deny it. One time she tried to tell someone she was from Florida, and they told her that she was absolutely not because her accent is so strong. Tewks is like rays of sunshine and the minute she comes into the living room we are laughing because she is so funny. She is always keeping our apartment lively with some "jams" (music).

I love all three of my roommates, and we often talk about how lucky we are to be living together because we've heard of other people who have some rough rooming situations.

Tomorrow morning, Katie, Sam and I are leaving on our big fall break adventure. We are very sad that Tewks is not coming with, but she is going to Morocco, which will also be awesome. Tomorrow we take a train to Milan where we will stay for a day. Sunday we fly to Prague for a day, then to Paris for two days, London for three days, and Edinburgh for a day. We are very very excited for all the fun we will have, and also for Starbucks. Prayers for safe travels are much appreciated, with the recent travel alerts. I will have lots of pictures and stories to post when I return!

Ciao,

Sarah

Venice

Sunday morning we headed to Venice. Now I have seen a lot of things in the two months I've been here, but I have never seen any city in my life as unique as Venice. First of all, in order to get to Venice you have to take a boat. Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands are all connected by 409 adorable little bridges:

Because of this, all transportation is by foot or boat. The classic Venetian boat is the gondola, which we took full advantage of:

Some of the Reparata girls on the gondola! It was very romantic.

One of the most interesting things about Venice is that it is actually sinking. Recent research shows that it may not be sinking anymore, but that has not be officially confirmed. The city is still sometimes threatened by frequent low-level floods, however. In fact, when we were visiting it rained the whole day. I purchased an umbrella, which was destroyed within the first five minutes of our tour due to the wind. However, regardless of the weather, Venice was incredible and may even be my favorite place we've visited:

One of the churches in Venice.

A view from one of the bridges.

Piazza San Marco

Mozart's house!

The view from Piazza San Marco.

Another unique thing about Venice is the plethora of masks that exist:

The reason that there are so many masks is because there is a huge carnival in Venice every year from two weeks before Ash Wednesday through Mardi Gras. The carnival initially started started as a time of celebration through all social classes, as the masks hid any form of identity between social classes. Now the carnival is mainly held to bring back the culture and history of Venice.

Isn't this a good look for me?

As we were heading back to the boat, we found all these pigeons in Piazza San Marco. One of my friends had a granola bar, so we used it to feed the pigeons and one of them jumped on my hand!

Overall, Venice was absolutely beautiful and I want to go back as soon as possible.

Ciao,

Sarah

Verona

Early Saturday morning started our third excursion with our program to Verona and Venice. We spent Saturday morning and early afternoon in Verona, which is a beautiful town. At risk of being really repetitive with my pictures, I am going to show you the most unique things about Verona.

This building is an excellent example of how all the buildings in Verona used to look. The whole outside of the building is painted with frescoes. In Roman times, the entire outside and inside of buildings were painted with frescoes.

Some of an original road in Verona. It was actually true that "all roads led to Rome," and if I remember correctly this was a major road that led from Verona to Rome.

Verona is probably most well-known as the setting for Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." We learned that although Romeo and Juliet never actually existed in Verona, their families or families similar to the ones in the story did exist. This is what they say is the entrance to Romeo's house.

This is one of the walls of the pathway that lead's to Juliet's house. People used to be able to leave letters on Juliet's wall asking questions about love. If you've seen "Letters to Juliet," it was similar to what happens in the movie. This is no longer allowed, but you can write something on either side of the pathway that leads to Juliet's house.

Juliet's famous balcony.

Legend has it that if you touch Juliet's golden breast, you and your lover will happy forever.

This is a huge theatre in Verona. It is like a smaller version of the Colosseum.

In the late afternoon, we went a little outside of Verona to a quaint little vineyard and had wine tasting:

We tried three different red wines, including one sweet red wine which was delicious. I have never liked red wine very much, but since being here it has really grown on me. The host had some delicious cheese with jam on top to serve with the wine. It was so classy.

After the wine tasting, we took a tour of the vineyard and learned a little bit about the process of making wine. The process of making wine begins with the harvest of the grapes:

The beautiful vineyard.

They take only the best grapes from the vines. The rest are left for tourists like us to taste :)

The grapes are then places in wooden crates so that they can dry out:

As the grapes dry out, the sugar concentration increases in the grape which increases the alcohol content.

After the grapes are dried, they are all mashed up in this big machine:

Once the grapes are all mashed up, the chemicals and spices are added and the mixture is placed in large metal containers to initiate the fermentation process. Once the mixture has fermented, the wine is placed into wooden barrels to allow them to age:

Once the wine has aged the specified amount of time, the owners bottle it to sell:

Just like with the balsamic vinegar experience, this was another experience that was very non-touristy. Verona and the vineyard was another wonderful Italian Saturday :)

Ciao,

Sarah

Eurochocolate

Last weekend was quite eventful. In order to tell you everything that I want to, I'm going to split up the weekend into three different blog posts. So bright and early Friday morning started this very eventful weekend. My food and wine class took a field trip to the one and only:

Eurochocolate festival!!!! How cute is this sign?

The Eurochocolate festival is held every year in Perugia, Italy which is not far from Florence. Although we had to get up very early, the other girls in my class and I were super excited to experience the festival... what girl doesn't love chocolate? So we rode a bus to a parking lot and then took this absolutely adorable little tram to Perugia, which is situated high up on a hill:

We talked about how cute these little trams are for like ten minutes. Such girls.

Although smaller than I expected, the chocolate festival was everything I expected- everything you could imagine in chocolate. We tasted samples of hot chocolate (which was literally like liquid chocolate it was so thick), milk chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate liquore, and my favorite the chocolate covered cherries. Now normally I don't like chocolate covered cherries, but these cherries were so small and so sweet it was hard not to love them. We walked around the entire festival, browsing all the options for chocolate purchases:

The standard chocolate bar.

Chocolate pizzas. You could even order just a slice!

They even had chocolate-like products for dogs! I almost made a purchase for Bennett, but then decided to save my money knowing he would never appreciate it fully.

I clearly made some purchases. My first purchase was dark-chocolate covered almonds, which were so delicious I ate them before I could even take a picture! I also bought three little chocolate bars:

The one on the left is lavender flavored, the middle one is berry flavored and the one on the right has chili pepper flakes on it.

Getting up close and personal with my dark chocolate berry-flavored chocolate bar. So delicious!

Overall, the Eurochocolate festival was a wonderful time. It was nice to get to know the girls in my food and wine class a little better and I obviously enjoyed the plethora of chocolate.

Ciao,

Sarah