Blob Club

Caroline, Emma, and I are official members of the Blob Club! I didn't even know a place like this existed, but it does. A couple guys from Boston own it and it makes me feel so much at home: it's a real place not even half a block down from our apartment. Anyways, the two owners wanted to make it fun with trivia nights, foosball tournaments, group soccer games at a local park, and movie nights. They have local restaurants cater and becomes a social place at night, students can meet and talk instead of rage like most bars around here do. The bartender looks EXACTLY like Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean (but his real name is Kiko) so I loved it the second I walked in. When we were signing up for our membership, I met a younger guy named Mark. After talking for a few minutes, I learned he is studying abroad, is from New York, and he opened for Deadmou5, a famous DJ/artist and Mark has traveled all over Europe to perform at concerts. He DJ'ed at the bar last night and says he loves the Blob Club- so it seems legit! Here is a picture of my roommates and I before going out to the the Blob Club. Dressing up for a night out on the town! So glad I wore my new shirt I bought with Grandma, Mom, and  aunt Jackie. Going to be repeating outfits by next week, not even mad about it!

We almost did a spur-of-the-moment night/day trip out to Sienna, but with the changes in the government, a lot of the transit places go on strike, so of course the rail workers were on strike. It was so nice to stay in since we have only been here for 5 days, but thinking about walking 5 minutes to hop on a train and go anywhere in Europe sounded so adventurous! Going to do that on Friday though after getting through this week. Does class really have to start tomorrow??

Last night we went to a great pizza place with an adorable outdoor patio. Our waiter, Gladi, gave us pointers of fun places to go on the other side of the river and brought out champaign for our table because it was Carolines real birthday today: two days ago we went out at midnight but yesterday was her real day, and the waiters helped us celebrate! I got a 4 stagioni pizza: its 4 seasons in Italian, and had mushrooms, grilled peppers, artichokes, and a piece of bologna in the middle. Could only eat half of it, so luckily I have some great left-overs for lunch. First time taking a picture of my food!

Marble statue butts

So its saturday and been a few days since an update! But the past 2 nights we have stayed in and made our own dinners while venturing out and trying Italian lunch foods. Except yesterday all I had was gelato, pistacchio and vanilla flavored! Went to a nice market and bought some pesto, sauce, tomatoes, and pasta! First time making pasta for myself. Funny because they have Barilla pasta over here, which reminds me of the giant factory they have in Iowa. But all of the windows of places to eat have so many fresh looking panini's, pizza, gelato, desserts, and so much more! Below is the roommates and I at the gelato shop. So cute!

With the people watching comes really fun photo opps. My roommate Liz (the one on the right in the gelato photo) sniped some good shots of odd tourist photos and it makes it so entertaining! It's hypocritical because we take those photos too but I just had to laugh with the one below. We are 2 blocks from the Galleria degli Uffizi and go through it every time we walk to class, so this will be a daily occurrence for me! I feel like taking photos of other people would be something I would do with my brothers. Miss those guys!

We really shopped til we dropped yesterday, went in to so many stores and it was so hard to not buy it all! I ended up getting a cute coat, but it was a super sale and knew that mom would approve. We did a good amount of people watching as well, went south of the river and saw a crew team rowing under the Ponte Vecchio. What a great place to row! It was much quieter on the other side of the river and theres so many more trees, can definitely see myself going over to the other side to get some peace and quiet or to study or sit on a patch of grass and have some wine. Even on a cloudy day its gorgeous!

After dinner and walking around, we napped and then got ready! The first day we moved in we met a group of 6 guys (I think I already talked about them) but us and about 10 of our girlfriends from ISU and Gustavus went to their apartment to celebrate Carolines 21st birthday! It was really fun, went out to a few bars and came home. Went to Astar, Twice, and the Red Garter. All full of Italians but still kept the night to dancing around with my girls. They are so much fun and can't wait to see what the next week brings! I am going to try to take more photos of the food. Can't get over all of the food. Anyways, thats the end for today! Much love, AF

Out and about

After the crazy hassel of taking a taxi and driving like a maniac through tini streets, we finally found our apartment! Our friend, Jeremy, hauled a good amount of our luggage up the three flights of stairs and arrived at our cute antique door. Opened it up and I couldn't believe it! We had a wonderfully bright and colorful apartment and everything smelled new. Caroline and I walked into our room and found it to be similar to our dorm set-up, but still was so cute with off-white closets and desks with black accents. Our window opens up to a small alley and a pully clothes-line. So excited to do my first load of laundry! As some of the other girls met guys the floor below us, all from places between Michigan and the east coast.

After settling in, we heard from a travel group that was having a wine/dinner night at a local restaurant. We showed up at the stairs of the duomo and there were 100 college students there! Saw our friends from gustavus and 10 of us from ISU were there. So funny how small of a world it is talking to people that know friends from high school! Dinner was so great- had ciabatta with tomatoes and a garlic mix, also roasted red peppers, zucchini, and squash. The next round included mozzerella, tomatoes, and various Italian meats. I knew one was bologna but no clue what the others were. The main course included ravioli with a spicier tomato sauce and hamburger. The other two dishes were chicken and alfredo, and stuffed spinach ravioli with mushroom sauce. No wonder people get fat coming here, the food is so good!

After dinner we went to a "discoteca", called Yab. I felt like I was on an episode of the Jersey Shore with the loud music and people jumping and dancing everywhere. A lot of kids from dinner went and it was so fun to meet people and have a girls night out with my Iowa State friends. We left after about an hour and found an Irish pub ran by Bill Unplugged, at least thats his facebook name. They were playing hockey on a HUGE screen, and have American movie nights on Thursday. He had Boondock Saints posters hanging up everywhere, so I felt at home. Tonight is Zoolander, so might have to stop by! Caroline asked him about his Irish family, he told us of the secret places in Ireland to visit, and to not go over St. Patties day. Had some Irish beer and headed home. Except we got lost, but a guy with a THICK Boston accent recognized our voices and was a musician that played at "The Blob Club" down the street. He helped us find the road our apartment was on and was on his way. Not a creepy guy that followed us home, so it's actually nice to see there's some helpful people to help us get around!

Lastly, we walked around the market this afternoon after orientation and boy were some of those sellers creeping me out! "ooo I love american girls" and saying weird stuff that like to get us to come look at their items. We decided if we ever felt we were getting hit on by weird guys, we would tell them we were from Canada. Used that response a few times and we usually giggle about it after. Also went to a grocery store and got a pineapple! SOOO glad they have that, been craving it since I left. A few items I hope are what they are and not something else, but hard to tell without a dictionary and they're all in Italian. Yay for adventures! Making dinner soon with my roommates and having the Gustavus group and the ISU apartment over. Going to be nice to say we cooked a large meal on our third day! Much needed,   since my dad said I was sooo domesticated over winter break. Show off some cooking skills to the roommates, and stay in and relax tonight. Just another day in Italy! Much love, AF

YAY!! we are HERE!

Wow, what a day that it has been! So as we left the airport in MSP, that was really tough but the security guy liked my rain boots from Fleet Farm, and saw Emma so it made me very happy. Easy flight to Atlanta, and Emma and I had some good grub. I ate Q-Doba since I figured Italy didn't have that, and emma ate a precious sandwich from an earthy restaurant. The most interesting part of our travel was the 8-hour long flight from ATL to Paris, which we flew Air-France and most of the men were well groomed with french accents. Anyways, while we were eating our dinner at 6, I figured it was only appropriate to have some wine. The precious beverage cart Frenchman came to our row and I asked how much the wine was. In a snappy, mature, and so very informative tone- "This is AirFrance, the wine is free." Emma and I both looked at each other, giggled, and enjoyed our free beverage. It even came in a little personal bottle to pour yourself! Anyways, that was quite amusing.

So we landed in Paris and saw the sunrise, all I can say is WOW watching that with fog and rolling very-green hills. Reminded me of the movie PS I Love You. 10 other people were there heading to Florence: 7 from ISU, 2 from Gustavus (Jeremy and Nicole, reminds me of my good friends from HS), and a girl from NYU studying anthropology. We chatted, giggled, and were slightly dilutional from traveling for 18 or so hours. We hung out for 2 hours, boarded our really tini plane and was made fun of by security for how I say Bonjour... just another thing to laugh about!

We arrived in Florence after crossing over the Apennines mountain range with not a cloud in the sky and it felt like 70! Even though it was only 55, but still, leaving the airport was amazing because it's all historical buildings with mostly all sidewalk and street between, with the occasional green strip of trees and grass. Mopeds zoomed everywhere, I thought I might die with how fast our taxi driver was going through the tini streets and between other cars. Finally arrived at the Hotel Garden, our wonderful 1892 "Queen Hotel". It's had a few slabs of paint put on the walls with a friendly Indian family running the place. So excited to see what breakfast is in the morning! We have 5 girls in our room, all with a bed: Ashley, Caroline, Megan, Emma, and I. We met up with the other group from ISU of 4 girls and left for dinner at 6. Since most restaurants are still on siesta at 6 and don't open until 7, we stopped at a Wine and Cocktail bar to spend the hour. It was so fun to just hang out and relax, talk about the craziness of traveling (Ashley getting her luggage lost, someone pickpocketing kates wallet at H&M, Emma's hair catching fire to take a photo, and Jessie tripping up the curb... not wine induced but definitely worrisome!)  But after that we went to a Mediterranean Cafe and had some veggie salmon pasta and some more wine. Definitely splurged a bit the first night but it was so fun! We walked so much, went to the Duomo, replica of the statue of David, walked across the Ponte Vecchio, and the Machiavelli Palace, looked through a lot of windows and did some people watching! Wow, this place is amazing, and can't believe the adventure I've already had the first day. Move in day tomorrow! Much love, AF

A few nerves and lots to pack

Welcome everyone to my quirky blog, where I will (hopefully) update everyone on my crazy roller coaster adventure off to Italy for the semester! I will be in Florence until May, which gives me about 4 months to explore all over Europe.

As I sit in my room, it's about 1AM and have Allie (my 12 week old puppy) sitting on my bed, I realize how much of a fail I've been packing. I leave in about, oh, 34 hours and both suitcases are empty and I left many piles of stuff I think I'll "need" when I get across the pond. That word "need" is used very lightly, since I probably will end up packing enough to last me a year. It's been awesome talking to so many people about my upcoming adventure and all the rules to follow, and break (not too badly), which makes it hard to fall asleep thinking about!

I have been texting Emma and Caroline (two of my SIX roommates) just about everyday, checking in with what we are all bringing, when and where we will be when we fly on Monday, best place to get coffee, and what pages have "airport lingo" in my pocket phrase book. Thats another thing I did a bad job of: learning Italian. oops. The past two nights I have been reading to Allie (again, she's a dog) and I think she likes it when I can count to ten. There are lots of similarities to spanish, so survival will be obtainable. It's easy to worry if they don't speak English, even though it's a fact that most people do. But like at school, sometimes it can be annoying and almost rude to not speak the country's main language. It is a free country in the US, and after googling "Italian people", they all appear friendly over the internet. Minus the Mob. Might have to practice some Italian with Emma on the plane since I'm sure she's been practicing, too, and not reading so much into the People magazines she told me she was bringing. At least I have my stack of coloring books to keep my busy! Plus, if we don't do too well, there is at least 3-6 hours on our two layovers in Georgia and Paris. Going to make it there somehow!

In the meantime, I'll do my best to take some pictures and enjoy the last day I have at home. So here's to this crazy blog of mine, and hope you enjoy it! Much love, AF