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