Our First Adventures

Ciao to all my loved ones! It has been a fabulously busy week, filled with the first few days of classes and weekend trips. Starting classes was a little rough for some of us, because we definitely felt like we were on a four month vacation until Monday morning came around- I guess a little dose of reality is good for everyone. As promised, I wanted to show some pictures of our apartment!

This is me and two of my roommates in front of our apartment door.

This is mine and Katie's room.

This is our bathroom; I love the blue tile. A fresh bouquet of tiger lilies (my favorite flowers) were waiting for us when we arrived!

This is our living room! It is very cozy and the four of us love spending nights together here. On rare occasion, we can be found watching Jersey Shore in italian here.

I don't have pictures of the kitchen or living room, but they are cute, and very small. We really love our apartment and are starting to get to know the people and the area around it very well!

The weekend before classes started was a full weekend. On Saturday my roommates and I were feeling very adventurous. So we went to the train station and got on a train to Forte dei Marmi, a sea town in northern Tuscany:

It really became an adventure when we got off the train and found that no one in sight spoke English. So we figured out how to ask "Where is the beach?" in Italian. A kind storeowner told us it was about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Since a taxi was very expensive, we walked 45 minutes to the beach in our flip-flops. The long walk was absolutely worth it, however, when we reached the beach:

We spent a significant amount of time on the beach, and then walked along the board-walk:

There were lots of people fishing along the boardwalk, and it was fun to watch them reel in fish after fish. The coast of Italy is so beautiful and unique to me; it is unlike anything I've ever seen. I think it's because I have never seen such huge mountains (some of which are snow-capped even!) and such beautiful, blue water. The Italian coastline is the meeting point of such a rare duo.

On Sunday, our neighbors from downstairs, who are also study abroad students, asked us to go on another adventure. So we went on this beautiful hike through the ritziest part of Florence up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. Along the way we saw many fabulous things:

This is Sam and I in front of Galileo Galilei's house.

Part of someone's property in the rich area of Florence. It's so lush and green, it's beautiful.

This is the church of San Miniato al Monte. The doors open to an incredible view of Florence.

We also ran across another wedding :)

Then we finally reached the Piazzale Michelangelo, which has the most incredible view of Florence:

Isn't it beautiful?

This is a picture from the Piazzale at night, taken by my roommate Katie.

We just got back from our weekend excursion in Pisa and Cinque Terre, which I will blog about soon. I miss you all and hope you are doing well!

Ciao,

Sarah

Beginnings

Ciao bellas!

Our first few days here in Florence have been such a whirlwind and we JUST got internet in our apartment so sorry for such a delay in updates!

Last Friday I said my last goodbye in the cities, drove to Rochester and packed like a mad-woman. Saturday morning my whole family drove me to the airport and I left on a flight from Minneapolis to Philadelphia. From Philadelphia, I flew to Munich, Germany:

This is my plane flying over the ocean!

Once I arrived, I slept for 18 hours. I woke up to my roommate knocking on our hotel room door! We eventually found our other 2 apartment-mates, and over the last few days we have had so much orientation. So far we have just walked around the city alot, been given many tours, and received an overload of information about living here. So instead of giving you a play-by-play of every day of the last week, I will just tell you some of my favorite things so far via pictures :)

The beautiful scenery-

This was the view from the roof of our hotel, the Grand Hotel Baglioni. This was the view of the Duomo (the dome-shaped building) we saw while we ate breakfast during orientation. At night, we came up here to drink wine. The view is breath-taking, the picture barely does it justice.

This is the view along the Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio. It is absolutely beautiful, especially as the sun goes down.

This is nothing special, just a little taste of Italian architecture.

The food and wine-

This is me and two of my roommates, Sam and Katie at the Mercato Centrale. Here they have incredible amounts of fresh fruits, incredible meats and warm bread. Everything is fairly cheap too and very authentic.

Meet aperitivo. The way aperitivo works is you pay around 5 euros for a glass of wine, and you get unlimited appetizers foods. Since we are on a budget, this is a great way to get wine and dinner for fairly cheap.

These pictures are from our cooking class we did during orientation. The first picture is of Eggplant Parmesan, which was delicious! The second is of some pasta that we made from scratch! We made the dough and flattened it and then put it through a machine to cut it into strips. Don't worry, I'm bringing home the recipes. The last picture is of my cooking group with our chef, Roberto.

The random things you see-

When we were walking back from our cooking class, we ran across a modeling session for what appeared to be an Italian wedding magazine. If you know how much I love weddings and wedding magazines, you'll know how excited I was to snatch this photo :)

I hope all is going well with everyone. I love getting e-mails, and I promise I'll write back as soon as I can! When I get more time, I will post pictures of our apartment.

Ciao,

Sarah

City Skylines

I do not claim to be anything more than slightly artsy. However, if someone asked me who my favorite artist is, I would in a heartbeat say James Blakeway. He is an incredible photographer and founder & CEO of Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas, Inc. He is best known for his incredible panoramic shots of city skylines, world attractions and national parks.

There is something about city skylines that make me incredibly happy. In fact, there is a quiz on sporcle that I love to play where you look at pictures of city skylines around the world and guess the city name. Maybe it's the fact that if you are looking at a city skyline, you are somewhere lively and exciting. Or maybe it's the way the city lights shine against the night sky. Or maybe it's the way that the size of a big city humbles me and reminds me of how small I am in comparison to this massive and incredible world we live in. Here are some of my favorite city skylines and panoramic photographs:

Part of the beautiful Chicago skyline. Chicago is probably my favorite city in the United States. I have many fond memories of a missions trip, family vacations, and trips with friends to Chicago.

Santa Barbara, where I spent my freshman year of college at Westmont. Pictures of Santa Barbara remind me of a year spent close to my Aunt Paula, Uncle Ben and Granny. It also reminds me of the few, but wonderful, friends I still have in Santa Barbara who will be graduating from Westmont this spring!

The glorious Grand Canyon. Just the mention of the dreaded Kabob Trail will send my entire family into fits of laughter. On a more serious note, I do not know how you can look at this picture (let alone, the actual thing) and deny the existence of a divine creator.

There are clearly thousands of other beautiful city skylines and panoramic images besides the three I have just posted. However, no other view evokes quite the same emotions out of me than the following two-

Now I know it's not the best quality, but you can't mistake that glorious Neon Kahler hotel sign- this is obviously Rochester. It's not much of a skyline, but every time I drive down Highway 52S, past all the downtown exits, and look to the left and see all the Mayo Clinic buildings, my heart is content; this is home. Although I never fully appreciated Rochester until I left it, I realize now how blessed I was to be raised and educated here. Rochester is and always will be home.

Minneapolis. My true home away from home. I have spent a majority of the last two years here and have so many "favorites" in this city- favorite restaurants, favorite coffee shops, favorite lakes, favorite rollerblading areas, etc. I will absolutely miss all the coffee dates, rollerblading adventures, runs around Lake Calhoun, girls nights downtown that will happen while I am away. Thankfully, I get to come back to this in December! What a beautiful place.

At this point, I'm sure you're wondering what the point of all this city skyline talk is. The reason all of these places I have shown you are so special to me is because I am emotionally connected to them in some way, mostly through experiences with family or friends. And in ten days, I will be introduced to another skyline that I can guarantee will be one of my favorites:

This is Florence, Italy. Starting August 29th, Florence will be home for 3 1/2 months. I am absolutely thrilled for this adventure and want to keep you updated on my journey. This truly is una vita bella, a beautiful life.

Ciao,

Sarah