Friday I didn't have class.. since the school gives us off on friday's which allows for us to travel and or go on field trips with our class. I was able to sleep in for the first time since being here which was a wonderful treat. It was too cold out to go anywhere, so we did not make it to the market for fresh food for the weekend therefore too many euros were spent this weekend on food. I finally found cookies that I can eat here that do not have hazelnuts in them which was the best find of my life, they love hazelnuts over here hence all the nuetlla that is in every store I go into. It was a lazy day to say the least we went to a pizza place that was right by us which was very nice and relative cheap for a study abroad college student budget. Emily and I shared a pizza since we weren't hungry. I tucked myself into bed at 1130 which is way early for a friday night..
Saturday, our apartment had our first trip to PISA. We hoped on a train at 930 in the morning for a total of 12 euros and head to the town that was only known for the leading tower of pisa. I was so anxious to go and see it with my own eyes. Let me say it was BEAUTIFUL. We had to make a few stops before we made it there. Our first stop was at the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina.
We then crossed the river to the other side with the hopes of finding the tower. The next stop was at the oldest botanical garden which was nice but it would have been better if the flower were present. While looking through the botanical garden we got our first glimpse of the leaning tower of pisa we knew we were close.
We finally approached the leaning tower of pisa which is the only reason to travel to pisa. It would start to drizzle so we hurried and got the typical study abroad photo of you pushing the tower over. It took me a few tries but I was able to get it!
After we got the photos we explored saw the duomo and Baptisteria. Then we decided it was only right to spend the 15 euros and climb to the top of the tower, by far the coolest experience I have had since arriving in italy. You could actually feel the leaning in the building as you climbed the stairs. There were 286 of them, I was sore the next day... I snagged some beautiful pictures then decided it was time to head home.
On our way to the train we stopped and had by the far the best gelato ever at a place called La Bottega del Gelato. It was the cheapest I have paid for gelato since I got here. I got strawberry and chocolate... HEAVEN ON EARTH. Our nightlife on saturday was the normal first stop at Naima were Sergio loves us and then we went off to space, which is still bind blowing to me.
Sunday we were the laziest we have been since we got here even worse then Friday. The cold weather has put a damper on our moods. Never wanting to explore in the bitter cold. We discussed spring break and after long discussions we will be taking over three countries and four cities in nine days. Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and Brussels. In brussels I will be experiencing my first ever sensation white needless to say I am so excited. Thanks emily for your obsession with house music!!
Monday and Tuesday were both days full of classes the best part is I am yet to spend this week in the classroom, Monday morning for my food class we went to the market where my teacher had everyone try this unknown meat since I have an allergy I am hesitant to try things boy am I glad I didnt found out it was COWS STOMACH.. HOW GROSSS... we then continued our tour through the market seeing animals behind the glass window and I thought about becoming a vegeterain but that would just be absurd. My next class we went to the university of florence were we interacted with the students that were sitting on the quad we had come up with questions to ask them. I was shocked at how well they spoke english and how they answered our questions. We spoke about american politics, violence in american, and the social life here and in america. It was eye opening and so interesting to hear what they had to say. Today I woke up and went to Santa Croce which is a church in Florence. Then my second class we went to a cafe to learn more about the italian culture. My teacher treated us all to a cappaccino or a hot chocolate thank you sarah parker!! Needless to say I love the classes over here I hate to say it dad but I feel that I am actually on a vacation.
For dinner monday emily and I were chefs another was added, ARI yet again this time we cooked Chicken Saltimbocca and Homemade Bruschetta, My mother would probs asusme I would never have tried such a thing, proving you wrong yet again..... It was tight but having Ariana in there definitely helped it go a lot more smoothly and the division of labor was a lot easier to handle. For the bruschetta we bought fresh tomatoes, basil and a baguette. We "parboiled" the tomatoes...a phrase I had never heard of before last night. Basically you boil water and once it starts boiling you remove it from the heat and drop the tomatoes in for like two minutes. Then we removed them to ice water and peeled the skins off. After quartering them and removing the insides we chopped 'em up and added them to a bowl of garlic, oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped up basil and salt/pepper to taste. We sliced and toasted the baguette and voila! Delicious. For the chicken we needed the cutlets, prosciutto, freshly grated parmesan (that we grated ourselves!) and spinach. The recipe called for frozen spinach but why would we use frozen when we have the freshest market five minutes away from us. I don't know if they have them in the states but we bought these spinach balls. It looked like cooked spinach that had then been balled up and somehow stayed in that shape. We bought two, broke up the spinach with some olive oil and seasoned it. We seasoned both sides of the 12 cutlets with salt and pepper then laid 2 or 3 slices of prosciutto on top of the chicken. Then we spread some of the spinach mixture on top and then some of the Parmesan. Here's the fun part. We rolled up the cutlets so that they looked like little jellyrolls and threw them in the pan. We forgot to buy chicken broth so we had to improvise with the sauce a little but they came out SO delicious!! It was a great meal def bringing this recipe back to the states as well.
Tonight I am going out with three roomies Nisha Allie and Emily and we are finally going to meet up with ELAYNA at my favorite place NAIMA !
More to come later... hugs and kisses from italy
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