A Much Needed Update!

It has been MUCH too long since I've last posted, but busy days, weekends, and midterms week kept me from my weekly posts.
Midterms went well! I'm happy it's over. School is such a distraction from all my fun experiences here :P
After a week of midterms which included: art history, health psychology, and evil philosophers (no photo midterm, and macroeconomics is next week, eek) Catherine and I took a JCU planned day trip to the Thermal Baths also known as Terme di Papi. The thermal bath was a large swimming pool (not exactly what i was expecting!) that had spouts on the left end that released extremelyyy hot sulfur water, probably 120 degrees. Of course Catherine, Maria, and I took advantage of the warm water, and hung out as closely to those spouts as our bodies would let us. Here in Rome, the showers and watering system is less than reliable, and you are always going to get either a too hot or too cold shower lol. Then, Catherine and I went and got mud facials! I had never gotten a facial before, so I felt a little silly for spoiling myself. I always pictured a facial to be more for an older woman that has done her deeds to deserve such pampering, perhaps like a mother? hmm momma, want a facial? hehe. But we figured, why not? We are in Italy, and they are all into the "natural" stuff, so we might as well try it. Mmmmm, well...I certaintly enjoyed my facial :] Who could complain about getting their face massaged? It was lovely.
Saturday, Catherine and I went to the CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! in Perugia :] Mmm, I had been looking forward to the chocolate festival alll semester. I knew I had to go, and experience it and splurge some cash on chocolate. We left around 6:30 AM, rode the metro, and then got to the Termini (train station) in time to make our 7:45 AM train out to Perugia.
Now, we took a regional train, which is a BIG difference from the trains I've been accustomed to. You don't have a reserved seat, but it is usually a 15 dollar ticket. So I'm not complaining. BUT, these regional trains are a mad house to get through. You are pushing and shoving and you can hardly breathe because people are wanting one of the few seats left. So for three and a half hours Catherine and I sat/stood in the same corridor as the bathroom. I'd never been on such a packed train! People were standing like sardines in the aisles for almost four straight hours! It was awful. But we made it! Getting to the city center of perugia was odd, you had to take a bunch of "city escalators" which basically took you to the top of a hill, and then there we were :] Chocolate was everyywhere. I won't get into detail but they had EVERYTHING. Chocolate bars, hot chocolate, truffles, chocolate kebabs, chocolate crepes, Nutella everywhere, Chocolate covered fruits, chocolate shaped like various animals, chocolate ravioli, and just...I could go on. It was wonderful. They had major brands like Nestle (european Nestle though), Milka, Lindt, Toberlone, and just so much yummy goodness! I got chocolate pasta, and then a different chocolate bar (I tried a variety, such as milk chocolate with dried strawberries, and white chocolate with cinnamon) from various stands that looked appealing to me :] I came home a happy camper!
The train on the way home was the same way, except this time I was prepared. I had my adrenaline pumping, and when that train stopped for us to get on it I pushed and shoved my way through and ran like a mad woman (while listening to some Lil Wayne ahhh hahahah. i'm so funny) to grab two seats. Catherine and I split up (it was a divide and conquer kind of idea, so whoever got two seats first would call the other and then we'd find them :]) Catherine luckily saw me in my course of action, and quickly followed. It was magical to have seats on a train for three and a half hours...definitely worth running and looking silly like every body else in the crowd.
On Sunday, Catherine and I then went to the mall :] ... which was about an hour and a half commute hahaha. You take the metro to Termini, then get on the number 38 bus, ride it from the first stop to the last, and then boom you are at the mall. It was a relaxing day, and successful one, and of course the bus ride home was about the same experience as trying to get a seat on the train. I somehow managed to push and shove (I'm learning the way of the Italians here...mind you), and I found a seat on the bus....the bus was packed...people sitting on each other, and random strangers body parts smushed up against you... it's lovely.
All, in all. It was wonderful :]


Oh! I never spoke about Florence (which was the weekend before this past one)
We left for Florence Friday morning, and as soon as we get there we had about a two hour tour of the heart of Florence. Which of course included the outside of the Duomo, Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza della signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Galleria degli Uffizi, and Ponte Vecchio.
All the girls were of course ready to conquer the leather markets, which is what we spent the majority of our Friday afternoon doing. I found myself a pair of leather gloves to go with my purple jacket :], and two hats (very old fashioned, cute wool hats!). I also had a waffle with gelato on it at some point during the day, which was wonderful :] I need to remember to do that on my waffles at home...with ice cream i guess. hmm.
We spent friday night out at a wonderful little restaurant recommended by API, and then we went out just for drinks at a pub of some kind. It was a nice relaxing night.
Saturday morning, a group of us went to climb up the Duomo to see the city view, which of course was magical like every other one I've seen haha. But the climb up was nauseating! It was a small little corridor of winding stairs. I felt very uneasy and claustrophobic of course.
Afterwards, we went to the Galleria dell'Academia, which is where the statue of David by Michelangelo currently is! We had a free pass there, so we pretty much went to the see the statue, roamed around a little bit and then we were all ready to go back out into Florence. The statue itself was breathtaking! The proportions are very interesting to me, because the hands and feet are so big compared to the rest of the body, but they create these statues with the intentions of people looking up at them, which makes sense.
Then we wandered the city, where I found myself a pair of beautiful leather boots! (gotta get ready for winter!) And we were off back to Rome.

Ciao,
Kate

Florence

I would love to tell you all about my weekend in Florence, but unfortunately I have my first midterm on Monday.

You can expect to hear about Florence in a few days...or a week

Ciao

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

I really need to blog about this.....
The API directors told me of a few good places near campus to get cheeses, international foods, and various other foods. I invited Carolyn along because I knew she would appreciate good food shopping, and probably would encourage me to buy anything that looked like it needed to be in my belly..mmmmm I was right.
We first made our way to what is said to be one of the best local cheese shops in Rome. You could smelll the cheese as soon as you walked in. So I splurged and got pecorino romano, mozzarella di buffalo, and milano salami. I need to go back and take pictures...it also helped that the family that owns it was really sweet, and tried to talk with their hands and in italian since my italian is less than... sufficient. haha.
Our next stop was a lovely chocolate shop, where I picked up an assortment of chocolates with hazelnut, and rice krispies...nom nom nom.
Then we made our way to what was potentially a very DANGEROUS store, because it was an international food stores, full of mexican food, ranch dressing, queso, pancake mix, cake mixes...everything I miss dearly. I guiltily bought a taco kit, queso, tortilla chips, pancake mix, and syrup.
Oh! we also had hummus for lunch, which I had been craving for days. I need to find the perfect recipe for homemade hummus <3


Om nom nom. I cannot wait to make pancakesssssss.


Ciao,
Kate

Baklava, please.

mmmm, after a busy week in Rome full of classes (including a cooking class!), studying, walking, and picture taking I was very much ready to experience a weekend in Greece!

I'm never sure where to begin, so I'll just start from where I remember.

We woke up bright and early, hoping to leave our apartment by 7:30 to make our 11 AM flight to Athens. The commute to the airport is kind of a pain in the ass to say the least. We have to take the metro to Termini (Rome train station), and then catch a 30 minute train to Fumicinio (Rome airport). The train to the airport only leaves every 22 and 52 of the hour. Yuck. We were racing to make the 8:22 AM train, and had minutes to spare. But we did it! We got the airport, checked in, and had about 45 minutes of waiting time by the gate. So we did well for our first trip to the airport, let alone with 6 girls (Catherine, Carolyn, Tori, Liat, Raina, and me).

I was a nervous wreck about the flight, especially since I compared easyJet to the "Ikea" of flight airlines. Hah. And I just hate flying in general. You would think that since I've flown transatlantic flights since I was 9 years old I could handle flying, but nope...it just gets worse with age. Lovely. Okay anyways.

Tori, Liat, and Raina went straight to Mykonos (an island off of Greece) by ferry once we arrived. While Carolyn, Catherine, and I went into Athens for the night. It was about an hour bus ride from the airport into the Syntagma Square of Athens (city center).

We stayed at Athens Backpackers hostel, which was...ehh, about what you get for 20 euros worth. or maybe 25..don't remember. We shared a room with 3 other girls, which wasn't bad, except when we had to wake up at 2:30 AM to catch our 5:45 AM flight from Athens to Mykonos. It's difficult to pack in pitch black light, so we packed in the hallways haha. 

Back to Athens! The first we did was grabbed some lunch right by the Acropolis. I had a salami and feta sandwich (I had to get feta cheese! I was in greece after all!) It was reallyyy good :] And of course, I had my first piece of Baklava. It was amazing, and huge. Everyone does baklava differently, but in Greece they use honey as their syrup, and then usually pistachios...but you can find them with lots of different nuts.

We walked to the Acropolis after lunch, and saw all we needed to see which included: the Parthenon, Old Temple of Athena, Erechtheum, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Eleusinion, Herodes Atticus, Stoa of Eumenes, Theatre of Dionysus, and Odeon of Pericles. Among a lot of other things that I just can't remember...goodness

We only got to spend a little over an hour there because they closed at 6:30, but we made the best of it. 

After that the New Acropolis Museum is right across the street from the Acropolis ruins, so we had to spend a few hours there! What made all of this so much better was the fact that BOTH of these trips were free. We saved about 17 euro total on our little excursion. I'm not complaining. I enjoyed the museum because I read up a lot about it when I wrote a reserach paper on the Elgin Marbles :] so I felt like I actually knew something about what I was looking at.

We then took a little 3 euro train ride (a dinky little blue and white train that cruised through the town...slowlyyy) through the more historical parts of Athens, which included the Plaka neighborhood, the acropolis remains, and we saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus, and Hadrian's Arch.

We hopped off once we realized it wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be and wander through the Plaka neighborhood for the remainder of the night. We had some greek dinner of course! I had a greek salad (I was nervous about flying in the morning) and Carolyn and Catherine had gyros. We then wandered throughout Plaka some more, picked out some souvenirs, and of course I ran into a little place that had endless amounts of baklava in so many different flavors. It was the best baklava I had allll weekend :]

We then took a "nap", slept for 3 hours. and started our journey to Mykonos. Woke up at 2:30, was out and walking to the bus by 3 am. A dog followed us from the hostel to the bus stop (about 10 minutes), which was creepy but comforting at the same time. Carolyn believed it to be good luck, so I took her word on it. The dog was actually rather sweet, and crossed the road before us and then began to bark once we were on the bus because I'm assuming he was sad we left him. Haha.

The plane ride to Mykonos was a breeze, only 30 minutes, and not a pedal jumper plane like I assumed. Ahh I was feeling good.

We take a taxi to Mama's Pension (our hostel) around 6 AM, and realized once we got there that NO one was awake, and we had no phones to call anybody let alone had no clue which door was the owners to wake them up and ask for a room key. I made the mistake of knocking on a door which I thought (based on context clues/my silly assumptions) was the owners...mmm...it wasn't. I woke up a very frightened older couple, which spoke no english and told me "up, up!" not sure...possibly where the owner's room was? With no luck, we opened a door, saw a couch and warmth (it was absolutely freezing outside) so we slept on that couch for about an hour. Haha. When the sun came up, I found the appropriate green door, and got us a room from the very sweet lady named Christina, who ended up being a savior for us throughout our stay. We slept in too late (11:30 am!) because we missed our alarm, but we made the best of our day in Mykonos!

We visited Little Venice and the famous windmills first. A very rude man came up to us and decided to explain what he believed to be the appropriate picture taking etiquette. Personally I think he was just an asshole who was trying to ruin three young girls day in Mykonos, but we won't get into that.

We walked through Little Venice, and I saw a sign that said "Waffles" at a restaurant. My eyes lit up immediately. I missed waffles terribly...I needed a waffle. We proceeded to have the best waffles ever, full of ice cream, maple syrup, and just...waffle goodness. Then we continued on and spent the day walking throughout the town of Mykonos. Oh! I'm forgetting the encounter we had with a Pelican that was the size of a 7 year old child. He could've sat down and had waffles with us, and I would've thought nothing of it because it was a damn huge bird. This pelican was just waltzing through the corridor of a street, while we were eating our waffles, when one of the waiters at the restaurant picked the child of a bird up and threw it into the water. You had to see it, but it definitely was a sight.

After our "brunch" we just wandered throughout Mykonos, found some churches, souvenir shops, and just various little sights that we enjoyed.

We wanted to go to a beach, so we took a taxi to one that Catherine said was beautiful (I can't remember the name of it...so sorry) but once we got there we immediately laid down on lawn chairs that faced the water, and then took like a 30 minute nap haha. After that I decided I was craving hot chocolate, which immediately sparked an interest in Carolyn and Catherine. We had hot chocolate and baklava at a waterfront restaurant as a pre dinner snack haha.

Took a taxi back home to Mama's pension, and then had dinner at a local greek restaurant.

Unfortunately, Catherine and Carolyn got food poisoning from there, which ended up being quite the Sunday trip home...two girls with food poisoning having to take multiple plane rides home is never a good thing. But they made it through, and were happy to be home. I went with Carolyn to a greek hospital, which was definitely a step up from other foreign hospital experiences I've had (erm, Nigeria for example), but it wasn't the greatest either lol. They had mercury thermometers (old school). And it just...wasn't like health care back home.

I'm impressed by how short I made this post, but I'm tired of blogging and I have homework I need to do.

Ciao,

Kate

Fetticuine a Soffitto

So, just a few minutes ago Claudia and I were indulging in our first kitchen creation. We made torta di ricotta con gocce di dioccolato (yes I name dropped that last time, but whatever). As we were sitting here, eating our wonderful creation, not to brag but damn it was good, I look up at the ceiling because I don't know why and I see my noodle. There is a background story to this noodle.
It was the second time all my roommates and I were cooking in the kitchen and I convinced them that all the italians throw the noodles onto the wall/ceiling and if it sticks then they know its "al dente"...I'm such a bad bullshitter. No one really believed me, but I threw the noodle anyways. It hasn't moved. Nope, not for what I'd guess has been about 20-25 days.
I think that noodle has become a part of our household, and has made it's way into our hearts...it brings us together as not six but seven roommates.


okay i'm done.
ciao,
kate

Cinque Terre

Catherine and I woke up around 4:50 AM, ventured off to the metro and were on our train to Cinque Terre by 6:10 AM. The train was empty for the majority of the ride and of course the seats next to us get occupied on the first stop by two nigerian men. Which were friendly, until we all fell asleep of course. We chatted up our neighbors for a bit, and I got to tell them that I lived in Nigeria :]. It's funny because before we even spoke to them I immediately knew that they were Nigerian. It was just a sense that I had, no specific reason...I just knew. The man next to me was listening LOUDLY to his iPod, so I asked him what he was listening to...turns out it was Diana Ross and he let me take a listen for a little bit hahaha. I couldn't help but giggle a little on the inside. Okay...
We got to La Spezia around 10:00 AM, I think. Got breakfast at the train station, and waited for our connecting train to Cinque Terre. Which I believe was around 11? I don't quite remember...
As a bit of a background, Cinque Terre is 5 towns that are connected by hiking trails or 2-3 minute train rides. It's a touristy area, but it still maintains this natural, italian beauty about it. The five towns are: Corniglia (where our hostel was), Vernazza, Monterosso, Manarola, and Riomaggiorie.
We arrive in Corniglia, and we were instructed by the owner of our hostel to "take the green bus, and find the yellow building"...yes that's exactly what she said. Yellow buildings are, erm, common in country side Italy hah. Okay so we find the green bus, and to make a long story short about the green bus we were not allowed on the first one because the driver is less than sweet. So we waited for the next bus, and Catherine tries to step onto the bus (same driver, mind you) ... as she's getting on the bus the driver yells ATTENZIONE! NO!...and she wasn't allowed on, until he turned the bus around hahaha. We had some occurrences with the bus driver from then on...it was a hoot.
Corniglia was a cute little town, with not much to do...but it was my second favorite after Vernazza. Our hostel was adorable! I'm trying not to make this post too long, so I'll get to our day.
We took the train to Vernazza because (due to rain) the hiking trails from Corniglia to Vernazza, and Corniglia to Manarola were closed. So we arrive in Vernazza, and of course we had already had Gelato by that time, and then we sight see for a bit in the town, and are already thinking about FOOOOOD.
We enjoyed some pesto bruschetta, and pesto gnoochi...Pesto is what Cinque Terre is known for, so we went a little pesto crazy.
After that we decided it was time to begin our hike form Vernazza to Monterosso. It was about a two hour hike, and said to be the most intense...which it was. Catherine and I were definitely struggling through the first 30 minutes because it was all up mountain, and basically just endless amounts of steps. It evened out once we got to the higher part of the mountain, and then it slowly started to descend. The steps leading down to Monterosso were extremely wet from the rain, and I felt bad for anybody that had to walk up those steps. It was rough walking down! The view from the hike was unforgettable, you could see the coastline, and everywhere you turned it was just beautiful greenery and endless skyline.
Monterosso wasn't our favorite town at first, because we didn't realize you had to go through a tunnel to get to the rest of it! Then we walked for a bit, found a bar with a shoreline view, and sat down outside had some drinks and bruschetta, and chatted for a few hours. It was a bonding experience for Catherine and me. <3 ... we had some laughs, and just really felt relaxed with the view, and the drinks and the experience that we were in...I honestly have never felt so relaxed in my life. It seems like Italy just does that to me. Hah, Italy is good for my stress...so very good.
Oh I can't forget that while we were in Monterosso, we got our pesto! We had a free little tasting at a local shop that selled pestos, jams, wines...pastas, etc. who knows, and allll of the little tastings they had were amazing! it was really hard for me to decide on getting just a pesto jar, and a red pesto jar. I knew I'd use them both...
We then headed back to the train station to catch a train to Corniglia, we had to wait about 30 minutes but we met an adorable couple on their honeymoon and talked with them while we waited. The "green bus" in Corniglia stopped running at 8, so we found ourselves at the bottom of the mountain, with the city at the top..and our only hope was the 382 steps uphill you can take to get them. YES! (sarcasm)...we were exhausted at that point and hungry, but we trekked through it. And then we went and had dinner at a bar/restaurant that I think my father would have absolutely loved to go to. The vibe was his kind of place, they had some bluesy music playing, and it was just a very relaxed, small bar. Very local. The food was wonderful, as always.
Saturday we took the train from Corniglia to Manarola, and we spent just a few minutes in Manarola...we got gelato there too. They are stingy about their gelato in cinque terre! The gelaterias do not give you as much gelato as they would here in Rome for the price they make you pay...and it was pretty good gelato, but not as good as back home <3 haha. Anyways, we then took the Via dell'amore walk from Manarola to Riomaggiorie. Which is the a very easy 20 minute walk that is famous for all the locks you can find along the way. Basically couples go on this walk, with a lock of some sort (like a masterlock) and they "lock" their love away on these fences that border the trail. It overlooks the ocean and of course it probably one of the most romantic places you could take a girl. Luckily I experienced it with Catherine, hehe. We both wrote little "love" notes on the walls of the via dell'amore :], but I can't tell you what I wrote of course haha. but it has to do with love!
Riomaggiorie was another cute little town, where we got our lunch. HAWAIIAN PIZZA!!!! yummy. and then we also got two desserts haha. a chocolate cake and some sort of caramel gelatin type thing.
Once we got bored with Riomaggiore, we decided to go back to our favorite town Vernazza.
The trip to Vernazza was, uhh, detoured by me. I thought we were getting on the right train and I made the mistake of telling Catherine to "trust me", which she made the mistake of doing...so we hopped on the wrong train, and luckily it stopped at Monterosso, so we immediately hopped on another train and we were in Vernazza, probably 30 minutes later than expected haha. maybe less. Vernazza was were we bought our souvenirs! I got my first little ceramic bowl, not typical ceramic that is painted, but it had stone enamel in it or something. It's beautiful. I'll take a picture....and I got some more pasta that was locally made...as well as a little postcard that had a cat on it because cats were ALL over Cinque Terre! They had so many cat oriented souvenirs, but somehow I managed to resist that temptation to buy any of them...because I don't need a cliche cat souvenir....nope I don't. We dipped our feet in the water at Vernazza, and just enjoyed the rest of our relaxing day in Cinque Terre.
Now I'm back in Rome! Slept for over ten hours last night...I was thrilled about that.
Claudia and I just went to the store to pick up ingredients for two separate recipes we are making today :]
one is torta di ricotta con gocce di cioccolato, which is basically a chocolate cake dessert...I'm excited!!! and then the other is a risotto dish with asparagus. mmm mmm.
The other girls went off the Marino Wine/Grape festival, but I'll be staying in enjoying my lazy sunday, full of yummy food :]
(not to mention the york peppermint patties that liat's mother soo graciously brought for me back from America!) I think I'll already had like...six today. Not good.

Tanti baci,
Kate