October 31, 2011 HAPPY HALLOWEEN

October 31, 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Although they don’t really celebrate Halloween here, I am doing my best to celebrate it in my own little ways. When I was out and about yesterday I bought an orange flower barrette for my hair so I wore that and my scarf that has some orange in it. In Italian we learned some different Halloweeny words and Willi and I doodled Halloween pictures in my Italian notebook. Before my Dante class, I bought a bag of M&Ms (one of the only American Halloween candies I could find) and shared them with my friends sitting around me in class. A few people are going out this evening for Halloween but because of our big midterm tomorrow, most people are staying in. But we did have our little Halloween party with Massimo last week so it’s all good :) Anyway, I hope all of you are having a wonderful Halloween carving pumpkins, greeting trick-or-treaters and dressing up!

This morning I got to sleep in and then headed into school to do some more studying so I could kind of spread it out and not have to cram it all in this evening. I ate lunch while I was studying in the classroom and then I had a meeting with Jodie about my final paper for my Medici class. I was under the impression that it was due before Rome (November 17) but apparently it’s not due until December 2 so I have plenty of time. I guess I don’t need to worry about that quite yet! Then we had Italian at 1:15 and, as I said, we learned a few Halloween words but then learned useful things the rest of the time :P After Italian I had my Dante class and, as I have said before, I am very happy to have moved onto Purgatorio; it is much more uplifting and hopeful. After class, I stuck around for about half an hour, then picked up some groceries for the week and headed home. Heading home around 5:15, it was already getting dark and, by about 5:45, it was pitch black outside…how crazy is that?! It made me feel like it was so much later.

When I got home, I studied for my midterm for about an hour and a half and, once my brain just couldn’t take it anymore, I turned on some music and stretched for a very long time, which felt really good. If I can spend this much time stretching every day, I will be a lot more flexible. Unfortunately, I don’t have this kind of time every day but I am sure going to work toward finding more time. After stretching, I wrote some of this blog post and then went through my midterm PowerPoint a few more times before dinner.

We had dinner as an entire family tonight because Daniela is finally feeling a little better! She seemed a lot better at dinner, which was good to see. We started off with Andrea’s delicious pasta (the one with a bit of a bite that I love) and I definitely had seconds on that. For our main dish, we had had salad, cooked yellow and red peppers and a soy burger for me, some sort of meat for Daniela and Franzi. We finished off with homemade pudding of sorts that Daniela made special for us to celebrate Halloween. She didn’t know anything she could make that would be orange and, because it was vanilla and caramel, it was kind of yellow so she decided that would be close enough :) It was so sweet of her and so yummy!

I will probably just go through my PowerPoint a couple more times, post my blog, stretch for a little while longer, and then read until I go to bed. I don’t think I should spend a whole lot longer studying or my brain might explode. I am so looking forward to tomorrow around 10:30 or 11:00 when the midterm will be all over and I can finally relax a little bit. It will definitely be a huge load off my shoulders. Anyway, I had better get going because I should also try to get to bed early, as well, because our midterm is at 9:00. Once again, have a wonderful Halloween!

All my love,

Kari

Doodling in my Italian notebook with Willi :)

October 30, 2011

October 30, 2011

This morning I woke up around 9:30, having very much enjoyed the extra hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings Time. I had a very long and lovely breakfast and then decided to go out and enjoy the day a little bit before I went back to my studying. It was another sunny day with a high of about seventy so I took the bus into town and then, as I do so often, just walked around, exploring new places. Unfortunately, there weren’t any markets today but I still had a lovely walk. I love seeing all of the fall colors (finally!) and seeing all the families out doing things together. I got some lunch at the Mercato Centrale and then headed home around 12:30. When I got home, I did a little bit of homework for my Weaving the Tale class and then studied for my midterm for the next three hours, which was not a whole lot of fun but something I definitely needed to sit down and do.

Around 4:15, Franzi and I caught the bus to Santa Maria Novella and then the bus that would take us up to San Miniato for Vespers at 5:30. The bus ride took about forty-five minutes, which was kind of ridiculous, but we met a family from France/South Africa (who spoke English) on the bus so it made the time go by a lot more quickly, talking to them. I love meeting random people and getting to know them :) Thankfully, even though we had such a long bus ride, we made it in time for Vespers. The view from San Miniato was spectacular and, although we had just missed the sunset (unfortunately), the sky was pink and the whole city kind of glowed. Vespers was very interesting and the Gregorian chants were really beautiful. We actually happened to sit by a priest who was visiting and spoke some English so he helped us follow along. When we came out of Vespers, in was completely dark and the city lights were twinkling below us—it was absolutely gorgeous! We had some troubles getting home because the bus never came in the 35 minutes we stood waiting for it (they are supposed to come every ten minutes), so we made our way to another bus, hoping it would get us somewhere we recognized. We got lucky and it dropped us off near our house and we walked from there. We got home around 7:45 and just in time for dinner!

Dinner this evening was just Andrea, Franzi and I because Daniela still is not feeling well. She has been sleeping almost the whole weekend, though, so hopefully that will really help. It’s so weird not having her around the house…I mean, she’s in the house, but not out and about. Andrea made us a wonderful dinner, filled with comfort food, perfect for a chilly Sunday night (waiting for the bus was so cold). We started with linguini with pesto that was absolutely delicious and I had so much of it! For our main course, we had omelets, which was perfect because, for whatever reason, Franzi and I were talking about omelets on the bus ride home and I began to really crave one…and then Andrea made them for dinner! We also had bread, oil and beans with our main dish. We finished off with clementines, which were sweet and delicious as always :)

Now I am all bundled up in my room, finishing up this blog and hoping my fingers don’t freeze off :P I have so many layers of clothing on and I am still cold. Apparently, in Italy, it is against the law to turn on your heat before November 1, so all of the houses are absolutely freezing right now. We are so looking forward to Tuesday and could not think of a better reward for finishing our midterm :) I think Daniela and Andrea are looking forward to it as well because they are always bundled up in four or five layers. I understand that it saves energy but, when people are freezing, I think they should just let people turn it on, at least for a few hours per day. I mean, I wore my “texting gloves” while I was on the computer a few nights ago…yes, our house is that cold at times. Anyway, once I post this, I am going to stretch and then head right to bed. Not only am I really tired, but also I am ready to be all warm and snuggled in my bed! I hope you have all had wonderful weekends and have a lovely start to your week! Oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN tomorrow!

All my love,

Kari

At San Miniato, overlooking Florence

Right after sunset :) Note the fall colors!

Florence...one more time :)

October 29, 2011

October 29, 2011

This morning I slept in until 9:00, getting about nine and a half hours of sleep, had breakfast, got ready, and caught the bus into town. I met Erin in front of Linguaviva at 10:45 and we went looking for an internet café. We found a cute little diner-type place that had wifi, not far from school, and set up for our study session there. Before going to bed last night, I made a PowerPoint with all of the images we need to be able to identify for our midterm along with the dates I knew. This morning, Erin and I went through it and added the missing dates, the patron, the location of the artwork and the material used for the work. We have to know quite a few pieces of art, by ten different artists, so it took us about two and a half hours to finish it all up, but it was definitely nice to have someone to study with. I had a cup of tea while we were there, which was lovely and made studying a little better, as well.

After we had finished up the PowerPoint, my brain was spinning a little bit so I decided to take a break from it for the rest of the afternoon and go back to studying at night. Besides, it was a lovely day—about 70 degrees and sunny—so I figured I should enjoy the warmth and sunshine before it left for the rest of my time here :P I decided to walk home to drop of my backpack and computer before I spent the rest of the day out and about so I did just that. On my walk home, I discovered trees with leaves that were changing colors and crunched my way through leaves in a few parks! It took a while but fall is finally sort of starting to come to Florence :) Once I got home, I dropped off my stuff, and headed back to the city, walking back through the parks. There were so many people out today, especially in the parks, which was so nice! Once I had made my way through the parks, I decided just to wander around the city, as I so often do. I walked across the river to Santo Spirito and explored the neighborhoods around there for a while before heading back to the other side of the river. I wandered over toward Santa Croce and explored that area for a while, and then headed back toward the Duomo. I decided to stop in the Paperback Exchange—an English bookstore that had been recommended by our professors—and was so glad I did. The bookstore is half like a normal bookstore and half like a Half Price Books, for those of you familiar with that. Kind of their point is that you buy a used book, read it, and then exchange it for credit to buy other books. I spent probably about an hour there, looking around and reading the backs of so many different books. I love bookstores and it was nice to have an English one. They have couches in there, as well, so I sat down and read a little bit, as well. It was just lovely :) While I was there, an American couple who were living in Florence for a few years came in and I overhead the girl who worked there telling them that she was from Wisconsin but had gone to college in Minneapolis. When I was checking out, I asked her where she had gone and she told me the University of Minnesota. Small world right? But wait, it gets crazier—I told her I was from Minnetonka and she said that she had done her student teaching at Minnetonka High School in the art department when she was in college! IT’S A SMALL WORLD!!! Anyway, that was pretty cool :) After that, it was around 5:00 and I had done a lot of walking, so I decided to head home.

When I got home, I decided I should probably get back to my homework and studying, which I was not super excited about, but figured it had to be done. Instead of going right back into studying for my midterm, I decided to finish up my reflectory for Purgatorio first—crazy what a “study break” is this weekend…I never would have called reading Dante a study break before! Once that was finished, I decided to take on the studying and used my PowerPoint to study until dinner.

It was just Franzi and I eating dinner this evening, because Andrea and Daniela had eaten lunch around four or five. And, because Daniela is sick, Andrea prepared dinner for us because Daniela was sleeping, as she had been doing most of the day. We started off with a type of lentil/barley soup that was very creamy and delicious. For our main dish we had green beans with olive oil, bread and those yummy “pizza pockets” with tomato sauce and mozzarella. For dessert, Andrea had set out special Tuscan biscotti (that was delicious), dessert wine and clementines. It was quite a lovely dinner and Andrea did a wonderful job :) He does a really good job of taking over for Daniela when she is sick although it was kind of funny when he tried to give us new sheets for our beds. He opened up the closet and really had no idea which sheets were which. He originally gave us three pillowcases (instead of a pillowcase, fitted sheet and top sheet) so we had to help him out a little bit. It was funny :)

Well, now that dinner is over I suppose I had better get back to studying. I’ll probably just study for another hour or so and then do some ready before I go to bed. I found my mind racing a little bit too much last night as I went to bed, having worked on my Inferno worksheet/essay and midterm PowerPoint for many hours leading up to that time. I am going to try to give my mind a little bit of a break tonight. Then tomorrow I will probably sleep in a bit and then it will be back to studying! Gosh I am so excited for this midterm to be over…Tuesday at 11:00 cannot come soon enough (that’s what time it will be all over with!) I look forward to a *hopefully* less stressful weekend next weekend. Oh well, I’m learning a lot, right?! :P I hope you’re all having very relaxing Saturdays! Oh and I almost forgot! Tomorrow starts Daylight Savings for us here in Italy so I get to sleep an extra hour! AND that means that, for an entire week, I’ll only be six hours ahead :)

All my love,

Kari

It's finally starting to look like fall!

Leaf crunching :)

Street artists drawing classic monsters for Halloween (Sonja-LOOK! IT'S DRACULA!) 

October 28, 2011

October 28, 2011

This morning I woke up around 7:30 and headed into school around 8:30 for the guest lecture at 9:00. This morning’s lecture was on digital photography, which, unfortunately, was not really what I was expecting. Unlike the other guest lectures, the “lecture” was very scatter-brained and didn’t have much coherence or direction. It was kind of a smattering of the history of photography, the history of cameras, photos taken in Florence that they had found on Flickr and some mistakes people made with their digital cameras like putting it on the wrong ISO. In short, I didn’t really learn anything and it wasn’t really fun and interesting. Oh well, it was nice to hear other professors talk and kind of get to know other people. The upside of going was that, following the lecture, there was a sort of reception with coffee and pastries, during which we could mingle with the visiting professors and they asked us about our experience with the program. I had a delicious apple pastry and got to talk to the professor who will be teaching with the program next fall, so it made the morning worth it :)

After the coffee break, I met with my Dante group to share our relectories on this week’s readings and then had lunch and did some homework. At 12:30, my Dante group (Leah, Tyler, Franzi and me) headed across town to our professor, Katy’s apartment. Once a week, Katy is having one of the discussion groups over to her apartment for tea, coffee and a treat, while discussing questions about Dante and what we are doing in class. We didn’t really know what to except but ended up having a wonderful time! I actually wish we could go over to her place every week :) First of all, she, her husband and daughter, are renting out an apartment (complete with furniture, movies, books…everything) from a couple that lives in Spain but this is kind of their vacation home. It is a GORGEOUS apartment and very cool architecturally. She made tea for the three of us girls and coffee for her and Tyler and then offered us a cake she had bought at her favorite bakery that morning (which was absolutely delicious, by the way!) Once we were all well fed and content, we discussed some different points about Dante and got some questions cleared up about different assignments, which really reduced my stress level :P It was a lovely visit and I am kind of hoping that it will happen again, although, with all the different groups, it probably won’t happen. Even so, it was very nice of her to have us over and to be so open to helping us…and feeding us ;)

After meeting with Katy, I took a little walk with Leah so we could just talk and hang out before we spent much of our weekend studying and doing all the homework we have. We eventually ended up back at Linguaviva where we found Willi and the three of us ended up just talking about everything and nothing for about an hour, which was so nice and very much needed by all of us. After they left to go home, I got to Skype with my Grandparents, my cousins and my aunt all at once, which was quite a treat! Skype is such a wonderful invention, so thank you to whoever created it! After Skyping, I headed home.

Once I got home, I decided to finish up my worksheet on Inferno for my Dante class.  When I say worksheet, you all probably think it’s really simple and won’t take me a long time…wrong! Basically it’s a ten to fifteen page paper in disguise. The “worksheet” had six “short” answers for which we needed two-three paragraphs, a geographical description of Inferno that was another two-three paragraphs, ten characters of Inferno whom we needed to explain the literary and history background of, as well as circle of Hell and sin, and, finally, five literary terms to define and give examples of from the text. Sorry, you didn’t need to know all of that, but I needed to share :P When I was finished (I FINISHED IT BEFORE DINNER!!) I double-spaced it (and then put it back in single space) to see how long it was and it was fifteen pages…CRAZY! Anyway, I did indeed finish it and even emailed it off to Katy so I am officially done with it and can focus on studying for my Medici midterm.

Andrea made dinner this evening because Daniela was not feeling well. She had the first course with us but then had to go lie down. Apparently she has a fever, which I really hope I do not pick up. I am ready to be all finished with this whole being sick thing. Tonight was PIZZA NIGHT so we started out with my favorite airy bread rolls, cheese and salami. I had four…oops :) For our main course we had, of course, margharita pizza, which was absolutely wonderful as well. We finished off our meal with clementines and little slices of the cake we had last night. A lovely dinner, although we missed Daniela! Andrea did a wonderful job of taking over though!

After dinner, I did my assigned reading in Purgatorio (WOO no more Inferno!) for Monday’s class and then decided I needed to be done with homework for the night, to give my brain a little bit of a break! So, after posting this, I will probably do the usual—stretch and head to bed early. This week has really worn me out so I am about ready for bed already at 9:15 as I am writing this. Tomorrow I am meeting Erin at 10:45 to study for our midterm but I will still be able to sleep in some! Plus, if I do go to bed early, I won’t need to sleep in too late. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Friday and a lovely start to your weekend!

All my love,

Kari

October 27, 2011

October 27, 2011

This morning I did not have to wake up as early as I did yesterday but it still seemed too early with the sun not being up. However, Daylight Savings Time is on Sunday so hopefully that will make things better for a little while. I met my Medici class at 9:00 at Santa Trinita church, which I had not yet been to, and looked at the artwork and talked about some of the families that are buried there. After that, we headed over to a different church a few streets away and looked at a very ornate tomb/monument there, which was very interesting. It was misting and pretty chilly outside this morning so it was actually nice to be inside. After class, I ran a few errands around town and then headed back to school where I had lunch and studied for my Italian quiz (which was over everything we have learned so far…scary!) At 1:15, I went to Italian and took my quiz, which was no trouble at all and I got one hundred percent! After that, we worked on indirect pronouns, which are useful but not really much fun to learn :P

After Italian, I headed over to the Accademia (the museum that is home to Michelangelo’s David) to attend a guest lecture about musical instruments there. The professor giving the lecture is actually the professor that will be the guest professor next fall so it was fun to hear her talk and picture her being here next fall! It was very interesting to see all of the old instruments and even hear some of them being played! You will all be happy to know that, before I left for home, I made sure to see the David, even though I had already seen it when I was here last time. It is a pretty incredible work of art, and the way it is set in the museum really makes it seem even more grandiose! It really is a breathtaking piece of artwork.

After the Accademia, I headed home because I knew that Marco and Massimo were over at our house. Right when I got home, Massimo and Andrea headed out to run some errands and, because Marco wouldn’t take a nap, Daniela was a little overwhelmed so I offered to look after him for a while—I ended up “babysitting” him for about an hour and a half while Daniela got some other things done around the house. It was SO much fun to get to play with an infant all evening! I had planned on getting some homework done so I would have less this weekend but I figured I had earned it after this week :) We had a LOT of fun and he was so smiley today!

Around 7:00, Silvia (Marco and Massimo’s mom) came to pick up Marco so I put on my devil horns that I had gotten at the 99-cent store and got ready for our little Halloween party. I dressed up as a devil, Franzi as a ninja, Massimo as a cowboy, Daniela as a Viking, and Andrea as a woman (so funny!). For dinner we started with buttered noodles with a creamy cheese that was so delicious. We followed that with meatballs (sort of like Swedish meatballs) and mashed potatoes! Talk about comfort food! We finished off with a chestnut torte of sorts, which was lovely as well. A perfect Halloween meal! After dinner, I went to get the little pumpkin chocolates I had bought for the party and we taught Massimo how to trick-or-treat. I divided the candy between myself, Franzi, Andrea and Daniela, gave Massimo a bag, and then he had to go around and say “trick-or-treat” to each one of us to get the candy. He really enjoyed it and it was so much fun for us as well! It was pretty late at that point so we played for a little bit longer, took some photos and then they took Massimo home. It was such a fun evening!

Now I’m going to finish up this blog, stretch, perhaps do a little bit of homework and then head to bed because Massimo and Marco completely wore me out…I am exhausted. I am really happy that we celebrated tonight because I realized that my Medici midterm is the day after Halloween so I’ll probably want to be studying that evening :/ Anyway, it was lovely to celebrate tonight! Tomorrow morning I am attending a guest lecture on digital photography, which should be fun and interesting. Well, I’d best go. Enjoy the fall and Halloween festivities and carve a pumpkin for me!

All my love,

Kari

Marco and me :) 

It's true love

Eating a Halloween mask

All of us!!

Massimo and me!

Learning how to Trick-or-Treat!

The banner that Andrea bought for our party!

October 26, 2011

October 26, 2011

This morning I had to wake up at 6:45, which was no fun at all. It was pouring rain and one of those days when you wish you could stay in bed, reading all day. But, instead, I got to take the bus—full of wet umbrellas and people—to school, drop off my backpack, and walk in the rain to Palazzo Davanzati where we were meeting at 8:30 for my Weaving the Tale class. It was kind of cold outside with the rain but not too cold; however, when we got into the stone palace with tile flooring, it was freezing. I was very glad I had worn a scarf! Even though I was really tired and a little unmotivated due to the rain and the early hour, it was a really interesting palace, unlike anything we had seen so far. In one of the bedrooms, we followed the story of one of the frescoes that was incredibly interesting and was almost like watching a movie as it wound all the way around the room. While we were in different rooms of the palace, we also discussed today’s reading from the Decameron, which was interesting to see all the ways in which it connected with the palace.

After two hours at the palace, we headed back (through the pouring rain) to the newer Linguaviva building, which is down the road from where we have classes. At 11:00, I attended my first guest lecture, by a professor of art history from Coe College, who lectured on art and identity in reference to World War II. The lecture was all about how art lives beyond us and creates an identity for us after we are gone. She talked a lot about the looting and bombing of Florence and what the citizens of Florence did to prevent this. It was much more in depth than what I am saying here but, if you are interested, I took extensive notes and would love to talk to you more about it individually. It was really an excellent lecture and I kind of wished she were one of the professors for the program because I would have loved to hear her talk more than just an hour! I was very glad I had chosen to attend :)

Following the lecture, Jodie had arranged for everyone to get lunch together, which was delivered to Linguaviva. We had absolutely delicious food (and the most incredible desserts) while talking with each other and with the visiting professors. After an hour of eating and socializing, I headed to my Dante class, which I was very happy was inside today and not on site. I am very happy to say that today was our last day of Inferno and now we finally get to move onto Purgatorio. While we were in class, the sun came out, which I think made everyone a little more motivated. After class, I Skyped for a little while and then caught the bus home around 4:30.

When I got home, Daniela told me that, because they couldn’t arrange for the whole family to come over for a Halloween party, Massimo is coming over tomorrow to have a little Halloween celebration, so I am very excited for that :) I just need to figure out a costume really quickly! I thought I would have the weekend to think of something but I guess it doesn’t really matter if I am not that dressed up; it will still be fun! Then, until dinner, I worked on homework, which was not a lot of fun, but it feels good to be getting some of it done.

For dinner this evening, we started out with my favorite, GNOCCHI WITH PESTO, and I most definitely had seconds :) To continue with my favorites, we had melanzana al parmeseana (Eggplant Parmesan) for our main dish, along with some other vegetables. For dessert, we had clementines again, which were delicious.

I am pretty tired from getting up so early and having a fairly busy day so I am hoping to get to bed fairly early. I also have class at 9:00 tomorrow and Friday so I can’t sleep in too late to make up for going to bed late. However I do want to get a little more homework done before I go to bed, as well as stretch, so I’d better get going so I can finish those things up. I hope you’re all staying warm and, to those of you where snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, let me know how that is…that’s crazy!

All my love,

Kari  

October 25, 2011

October 25, 2011

This morning, I woke up to find out I had been cast as Maggie in A Chorus Line at St. Olaf, so that was a wonderful way to start my day :) In addition, I got to sleep in until 10:00, so I have definitely been catching up on sleep and doing my best to get over this cold as quickly as possible. I am feeling a little better, slowly but surely. I think it will take a little bit longer, though, because I’m not quite there yet. I had breakfast and did some homework and then, around 11:30, headed into school to use the internet and do some more homework. I had lunch in our classroom around 12:30 and then headed to Italian at 1:15. We only have nine days of Italian left so things are starting to really get crazy and we’re learning at a very fast pace. Our quiz on Friday is over everything we have learned so far, which is really scary but will hopefully be all right. After Italian, I used the internet for a while longer, Skyped and then caught the bus home to drop off my computer and books before I headed to the Uffizi for my Medici class.

We met out in front of the Uffizi at 5:00 and it had finally finished pouring rain and was just drizzling. Apparently it rains every day in November so I guess I’d better get used to it…it’s pretty dreary, though, so hopefully there will be more sunshine than usual! In the Uffizi, we started at the beginning and kind of made our way through Medici patronage up until Fra Filipo Lippi, where we had to stop because class was over. It was really interesting to see the evolution of the art form as well as how different the same scene could be portrayed by different artists in different times. At the end of class, we got back our papers and I am very happy with how I did :) Who knew I could write an art history paper?! When class was over at 6:30, I walked back to Santa Maria Novella with Erin, and caught the bus home.

I got home around 7:00 and, because my homework for tomorrow is finished, I was able to relax a little bit before dinner. For dinner this evening we started out with a kind of creamy rice and asparagus dish that was so delicious and warmed me up. For our main dish, while Daniela and Franzi had ham and bread, Andrea and I had caprese salad and we all had boiled peppers and potatoes. For dessert we had clementines, which are just perfect this time of year, which is funny to me since it’s almost November! A lovely dinner, as usual.

Despite getting so much sleep, I am still incredibly tired by the end of the day so once again I will probably head to bed pretty soon. However, not without stretching first as, now that I’ve been cast in A Chorus Line, I really need to limber up! I’m going to have to be very diligent about stretching but I think I can do it! I hope the weather wherever you are is nicer than here and allows you to enjoy fall a little bit more! Hopefully we’ll have more sunshine soon :)

All my love,

Kari

October 24, 2011

October 24, 2011

This morning I woke up at 9:00, after another ten hours of sleep, which I guess I really needed. I have been so tired this weekend and I suppose it’s because I am sick but I kind of forget about it…I should be a little more aware of that. Anyway, I have had a lot of sleep over the past few nights so hopefully that will really help. I had breakfast, got ready, and headed to school. Upon checking my mail this morning, I found five letters! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Julie, Mom, France and Sterling for making my week :) My first class of the day was Weaving the Tale at 10:45, which actually went pretty well for being my first class after break. I still really love The Decameron so discussing it is a lot of fun. After class, I had my lunch with everyone else in the classroom. At 1:00 we had a group meeting during which we signed up for visitor lectures to attend this week. Thankfully they decided we could pick three out of the five to attend so it won’t be as overwhelming. I am also excited because that means I was able to pick the three that really interested me. After our short meeting, we had Italian class, which was actually pretty difficult after taking a week and a half off. Following Italian, I had half an hour and then Dante. Today was thankfully one of our last days discussing Inferno because I really am not liking it at this point in the poem…I think we move onto Purgatorio next week, which will be nice.

After Dante, around 4:30, I headed home. When I got home I worked on homework until dinner. It’s difficult to get back into the swing of things after having such a long break. Especially because we didn’t have much homework before fall break and all of a sudden it’s pouring down on us. Oh well, hopefully I will get back into it soon enough and it won’t be too difficult. It will probably be a little easier after this week, as well, once the visitors have left. Then I will have more time to work on homework and get a start on some of my final projects. Anyway, it was nice to have a lot of this evening to work on homework and feel a little more in control.

For dinner this evening we started out with spaghetti with a tomato and parmesan sauce that was warm and perfect for such a chilly day. For our main dish, we had “cheeseburgers” (Italian hamburgers—not quite the same as American hamburgers—with some fancy cheese melted on; no bun, of course), and salad. It was nice to get some protein in my system, being sick. For dessert we had the most delicious little torte that had chocolate cream filling—I could have eaten the entire thing by myself!

I am not feeling so well this evening so I’ll probably stretch, read in bed for a little while and then go to bed. Thankfully, because I did not sign up for the visitor lecture tomorrow morning, I don’t have class until Italian at 1:15 so I can sleep in again tomorrow. Hopefully I will feel better in the morning. I hope you’re all having a lovely day and much better weather than we had today. It was cold, rainy, cloudy…just yucky. I miss then sun…hopefully you all can enjoy it for me!

All my love,

Kari

October 23, 2011

October 23, 2011

This morning I slept in until 10:00, which was wonderful. I felt a little better this morning than I did yesterday so hopefully I will continue to get better from here. I had a long, lovely breakfast and then got ready for the day. It was a beautiful day—sunny and pretty warm—so I decided it would be good for me to go out and get a little sunshine. I took the bus into town and went to Santo Spirito where I have been going to the market the past few weekends. However, for some reason it was not there this weekend so I walked by the river and into the city center. I was glad I did because I found a different market in Piazza della Republica that was wonderful. It was full people selling what they had made on their land and farms. There was lots of jam, honey, olive oil and wine. In addition to selling their products, they also had a lot of it out to taste so that was delicious. It was also kind of a free wine tasting, which was nice. It was really a lot of fun! After exploring the market, I walked around some more in the city center and then caught the bus home. When I got home, I had a light lunch and finished up my homework for tomorrow. After that I read for a while and was able to just relax for a while.

For dinner this evening we started out with warm rice and bean soup, which tasted just wonderful because it is really quite chilly in our house. For our main course, we had little “pockets” with tomato sauce and mozzarella—kind of like little pizza pockets. We also had some cooked vegetables that I don’t remember the name of and bread with cheese. For dessert we had an almond cream cake thing that was absolutely delicious and apples.

Wow that was another pretty short post. Well this week we have some visitors from ACM schools coming to give guest lectures, as well as our usual classes, so I will be especially busy. I think it will be interesting, though, so it should be worth it. But I’d better go to bed early tonight so that I can rest up just a little bit more before the craziness. I can’t believe fall break is already over—it flew by!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend and have a happy Monday tomorrow :)

All my love,

Kari

October 22, 2011

October 22, 2011

I apologize in advance because this blog is going to be quite short and not very interesting, as I have done very little today. But that will give you more time to read my London blogs from the past week. I woke up this morning at 10:45, which was absolutely wonderful and had breakfast in my pajamas. Franzi was still asleep so I brought my computer out to breakfast with me and was uploading my London photos (which you can see at http://kariinitaly.shutterfly.com/pictures/408) and ended up drinking tea and doing that for about an hour. Around 11:45, I heard people at the door and some friends of Daniela and Andrea’s came in, apparently to have lunch over here. I had no idea they were coming and, therefore, was still in my pajamas. I was also not feeling very well at all this morning (I have a cold…) so I looked even worse. Of course they came in and Daniela introduced me to them, but thankfully explained that I was sick. What a bad first impression :P Oh well.

Once they were over, I was more motivated to get ready for the day, although I stayed in the sweatpants and sweatshirt that I had slept in. When I looked a little more presentable, I headed to the supermarket to get groceries for the week because I didn’t have anything left. It was really a lovely day out but it did kind of wear me out to walk to the supermarket and back, so I figured I had better lay low today. I have a tendency to overdo it when I am sick and I already did that for the past week in London, so I kind of owe it to myself to relax today and tomorrow. When I got back from the supermarket, Franzi had left for an internet café and Daniela and Andrea were still entertaining so I decided to do a little bit of homework. I don’t have much left so I’m finishing the last of it up a little bit at a time. When I came back out of my room about an hour later, I had the house to myself. Franzi was going to be gone until dinner and Daniela and Andrea were out for the evening. I decided I would try to Skype my family to tell them about London, not knowing if Skype would work with my internet here at home. However I got lucky and it worked very well so I got to Skype with all of them and then with Sonja for a bit longer :) After that, I did some reading for class and uploaded some more photos, taking advantage of the good internet.

Daniela left us dinner this evening, as they were out. We started with penne pasta with a creamy tomato/cheese sauce. We followed that with some cooked vegetables and bread and cheese for me, meat for Franzi. We finished off with some incredibly delicious pineapple cake thing that Daniela had made for their lunch today. It was kind of nice to have the house to ourselves this evening and just kind of relax at dinner. Now I’m going to do a little more homework, read for a little bit, and then head to back to try and sleep off this cold. I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend!

All my love,

Kari

PHOTOS FROM LONDON!

Well my computer was a TROOPER tonight and decided to let me share a few photos with you from London :) So here are a few...

The Thames at night

Peter Pan!

Harrods

Westminster Abbey

Classic

The theatre majors in front of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Piccadilly Circus

SIMON!

Covent Garden

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

London Blogs!

So I am sure you all have been going through withdrawal, not having my blogs to read every day ;) But, lucky for you, I finished typing up my entries that I kept this week and am going to post them all tonight. That’s a lot of blogs…I apologize if it’s kind of an overwhelming task to read all of them. But hey, you can spread them out throughout the weekend, if you would like :) I had an absolutely incredible time in London and was very sad to go after such a short time. However, now that I am back in Florence, I really am glad to be home.

As for photos from the week, I took about 350 so it could be a while before those go up but I promise they will eventually! I don’t know if my internet here at home can handle it but, if not, I’ll upload them at school some day this upcoming week. I will do my best to at least post a few for a little preview, however. But it will all depend on how my internet is feeling and if it wants to be nice to me.

I hope you all had a lovely week and had beautiful fall weather, as I did in London. Have a wonderful rest of your Friday and a lovely start to your weekend :) Happy reading!

Love, Kari

October 21, 2011

October 21, 2011

We woke up this morning at 6:00, which was really hard having gone to bed around midnight. We got all packed up and went downstairs for an earlier breakfast at 6:30 (breakfast doesn’t technically start until 7:00 but they were very nice and made us our breakfast early). At 7:00 we headed to the tube station and took the tube to Victoria where we headed to the Victoria bus station. We got the bus to Stansted Airport at 8:00. I slept throughout the entire bus ride and we arrived at 9:15. We had no trouble with security and such and our gate wasn’t posted yet so we hung out in the main area with all the shops. I still had some pounds to use and I realized that, since we were through security, I could go to Boots (the British equivilant of Walgreens) and get some lotion (they don’t have lotion in Italy…okay, they do, but only in small bottles for outrageous prices. They just don’t use lotion, I guess). Anyway, I bought lotion and something to drink of the plane (Oasis—Sonja, do you remember Oasis? The citrus drink that was so delicious?) . Then we went to Starbucks and I bought a raspberry-peach muffin for the flight with my remaining pounds. We then spent the next twenty or so minutes in the London 2012 Olympics store until our gate was posted.

When it was, we headed there and only had to wait about fifteen minutes before we boarded. It was much more orderly than on our way here, thankfully, and we only left a couple minutes late. It was not a bad flight—just under two hours—and I was much happier having left on time. We landed in Pisa around 2:30 Italy time (1:30 London time) and had to wait about an hour to get our bus. We left Pisa around 4:00 and arrived in Florence around 5:15. From the Santa Maria Novella Station, we caught our #4 bus home, as usual. Although I was sad to leave London, it is nice to be back in Florence and especially back in our apartment. I really do feel at home here and it’s nice to be back in our room and with our family. When we got home, we unpacked and started a load of laundry. After that, I started typing up my blog entries from the week. I journaled every night before bed so all I had to do was type them, but it still took a little while.

I took a break for dinner (of course) at 8:00 and I had forgotten much I loved dinner with our family. We started out with homemade pesto on linguini, followed by chicken for Daniela and Franzi and a soy burger for me, along with potatoes with olive oil, as well as bread and cheese. We finished up with boiled chestnuts, which made me think of Christmas! We told them all about our week in London and it was so nice to talk with them and see them after having been gone four nights. It’s good to be back :)

After dinner, we put in another load of laundry and now I’m back to my blogs. But hey, I’m almost done! And then it’s on to editing my 350 photos from the week…how in the world did I take that many photos?! Anyway, photos may not be coming until sometime in the upcoming week when I have better internet because there is no way I can upload them all here at home. I mean, I can try, but I really doubt it. We’ll just have to see. Then I’ll probably head to bed fairly early, as I am just exhausted. I also have a bit of a cold, which is not surprising because everyone in my program had it last week, so I’ll spend the rest of my fall break (this weekend) laying low and relaxing. Tomorrow I look forward to not setting my alarm and spending the day in sweatpants and a sweatshirt :P I hope you have all had a wonderful week!

All my love,

Kari

October 20, 2011

October 20, 2011

This morning we woke up at 7:30 again, had breakfast (eggs, tomatoes and cheese today, along with the other things) and headed out. I went to the Savoy Theatre where Legally Blonde is playing and stood in line for a “lottery” ticket to see the show this evening. When I had gone yesterday, then man in the box office told me that, if you go to the theatre at 10:00 a.m. on the day of the performance, they give out ten tickets for ten pounds and fifteen for fifteen pounds—and wonderful seats in the fourth row, center nonetheless! So I got there early and got my 10 pound ticket for the evening! Talk about good luck with theatre tickets on this trip! After that, I wandered around by the river for a while, got some Starbucks (I really miss coffee shops…they don’t have them in Italy) and then headed to Covent Garden where I met up with Franzi to show her around. I pointed out some of my favorite places and then we split off again for a while. I went and looked at the Royal Opera House (also home to the Royal Ballet) and, while I was there, students of the Royal Ballet School were there—just like Billy Elliot! After looking around there for a while, I wandered through a food-stand market outside of Covent Garden and bought a PUMPKIN CUPCAKE! It was delicious :) I met back up with Franzi around 12:30 and we went to Muffinski’s to get some lunch (another favorite place from my trip last January). After that, we split off for the rest of the day.

First I headed to Dress Circle, which is a theatre store where I went in January and loved. I still love it and I bought the soundtrack of Matilda the Musical, which I saw in January. After that, I walked to Trafalgar Square where there is a huge London Olympics countdown (281 days!). From there, I walked to Buckingham Palace hoping there would be a few less people there :P I walked through Green Park the whole way there and it was just beautiful. It was a bit chillier today and not as sunny, but it still didn’t rain and was still quite lovely. There were so many people eating lunch in the park and walking around, enjoying the day. When I arrived at Buckingham Palace, there were definitely people there, but not like on Tuesday. From there I walked to Victoria just because and, from there, took the tube to Embankment where I visited the National Theatre area one more time, as well as the took in the view of Big Ben and all of the other wonderful landmarks on the river. After that, I had tea and a scone with jam and clotted cream in the crypt of St. Martin in the Field…it was lovely, although a café in a crypt does sound kind of weird. I also encountered a choir rehearsing in the church itself, which was lovely. After that, I wandered back to Covent Garden and then to Oxford Street to see the lights. I also grabbed a bite to eat.

At 7:30 I saw Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre, which was a lot of fun. I was also really close to it was wonderful to be able to see everyone and everything so well! I didn’t know a whole lot about the show, aside from a few songs and the plot line, having seen the movie, so it was fun to see something I really didn’t know about! Plus it was fun because Minnetonka is putting it on in the spring…I am definitely interested to see how it goes over. It’s a fun show but definitely has a specific audience. It’s very upbeat, silly and fun to watch, though, so I’m sure they’ll have fun with it :) After the show, I got on the tube, went home, and went to bed—not so ready for an early morning tomorrow and not liking the idea of leaving London quite yet.

October 19, 2011

October 19, 2011

Another wonderful day :) We woke up around 7:30 and headed down to breakfast at 8:00. Beans today instead of tomatoes but otherwise the same…delicious. Today we spent most of the day apart—Franzi went to some museums and met a friend, while I did some other things. I started off on Oxford Street, happening upon another Disney Store (it had a castle inside of it) and window shopping and enjoying the hustle and bustle. I then headed to the British Museum around 10:30. I had never been there so it was fun to do something new :) It was a beautiful museum, filled with history. The highlight for me (and many others, I am sure) was the Rosetta Stone, which was very interesting and cool to see. I spent quite some time there and then walked to Covent Garden. I hung out there for a while, watching some street performers and listening to some beautiful music. I then decided to take a walk and ended up walking all over the place. It sure makes the city seem smaller when you walk it like that. AND it was another beautiful day so it was just lovely to be outside. I walked by the river for a while, as well, and then headed to get some lunch. You are all going to think I am crazy but I ate lunch at Chipotle. Here’s the thing—I’ve been craving Mexican food for about a month and a half and you just can’t get it in Florence. So I took advantage of the opportunity and it was delicious. When I had finished my meal, I sat there for quite a while, writing postcards. Then, around 2:00, I headed to the theatre to see Driving Miss Daisy.

So you know how I got at ten pound ticket to sit in the really high balcony? Well, I got there and, when I showed my ticket, they said they had a seat in the eighth row center of the stalls and would I rather sit there, at no extra cost? UM YES OF COURSE!! So there you have it—I saw Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in the eighth row center in one of the most incredible, if not the most incredible pieces of theatre I have ever seen. It was a stunning show. I cried after the show, I was so excited and even paid roaming fees to call home because I had to share my excitement “in person!” Wow—I will never forget that. After the show, I found a cute little cupcake shop where I bought a red velvet cupcake for later and then headed to Victoria station to meet Franzi. We had dinner at The Shakespeare pub where I had eaten in January and it was delicious.

At 7:00, we headed across the street to the theatre to see Billy Elliot. Our seats were wonderful! We got them on broadwaybox.com so we got them at a very good price, too :) It was my fifth time seeing Billy Elliot (I am embarrassed to say that…) but I was just as excited and I certainly was not let down. It was spectacular, as always, and the audience just loved it. My favorite part of the show is always after the song “Electricity” and everyone roars and cheers for Billy for at least two minutes (he even got a partial standing ovation for it) and Billy always looks so completely happy and overcome—even breaking character, but in such a good way! Anyway, I loved it. We then caught the tube home and headed to bed, exhausted, but happy :)

October 18, 2011

October 18, 2011

Wow, what an INCREDIBLE day I London! We woke up this morning around 7:45 and headed down to breakfast. We were served so well and had tea, orange juice, cereal, bacon (not me :P ), eggs, tomatoes, toast and jam…so delicious! The people here are just wonderful. We decided to take the bus to Hyde Park around nine so we could take a double-decker bus, of course :) We took it to Royal Albert Hall and headed into the park. It was a beautiful fall day—sunny, a bit of wind, and the brisk autumn arm. The leaves were twirling in the air around us…I was so happy. We walked beneath the golden trees, along the water, seeing Peter Pan, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and even some Royal guards practicing their horsemanship. It was lovely walk on a lovely day.

We then headed to Harrods (I had never been there!) and gazed at all of the incredible things inside. It’s absolutely crazy! After that, we walked to Buckingham Palace where we accidentally happened upon the changing of the guard. It was so crowded but pretty cool to see. Plus, we got to see a lot of beef-eaters so it was worth it :P From there we walked to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, then across the river, stopping back at the National Theatre and heading down the river toward the Globe Theatre. We stopped for a light lunch at “Eat” and continued on our way. The wind had picked up and some clouds appeared so we stopped at Starbucks further down the path—I had caramel hot chocolate, which tasted like fall! We then saw the Globe Theatre (we did not take the tour) and headed across Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s. From there, Franzi headed off toward Tower Bridge and the Tower of London and I headed off to visit some of my favorite places.

I went to Covent Garden first, then to Leicester Square to look at theatre tickets for Thursday evening. While I was there, I noticed the theatre where Driving Miss Daisy was playing, starring James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave. I figured I’d at least look into tickets (how could you pass up such an incredible show?!) and got a ticket from tomorrow at 2:30 for ten pounds. It was so cheap because it will be really high up, in the highest balcony, but it’s DEFINITELY worth it. Just to see those two on stage together will be incredible.  I am so excited :)

Then I headed to Piccadilly Circus where I met up with Franzi again at 4:30 and we walked around for a little bit. At 5:30, I met my friend Simon (from high school and theatre) and we headed out to find dinner. Franzi met a friend of hers who was studying in London at the same time, so we went off with our respective friends. We found a little Chinese restaurant in Chinatown that was delicious (there’s no good Chinese food in Florence!) and spent an hour and a half catching up. It was so nice to be with a friend from home! At 7:30 we went to see Phantom of the Opera together, as our high school had just put it on last year. We had wonderful seats and we were very excited. However, the show was even more incredible than we could have ever imagined. The cast was flawless, the voices were breathtaking, the special effects mind-blowing and the orchestra dazzling…absolutely stunning. I left the theatre speechless. Wow—I haven’t the words. We stood at the stage door, just for fun, meeting the actress who played Christine (who was my height!) and Raoul (who was so cute). They were both very charming :) Then I said goodbye to Simon, and Franzi and I (and the rest of the theatre crowds) took the tube home. I journaled and then went straight to bed. A truly lovely day in London. 

October 17, 2011

October 17, 2011

This morning I slept until about 8:30, finished packing, got ready, had breakfast and took the bus into town. We bought some granola bars for later and some lunch to have on the bus. We headed over to the train station to catch our bus at 11:44 but, for some reason, the bus closed its doors in our faces and left without us. We had met two English couples and stuck with them. When one of the men complained, the man working for the bus company said only “eh, it’s Italy.” We were so frustrated. Thankfully, another bus was leaving in half an hour so we took that one to the airport. We arrived in an hour and had no problem getting through security and customs. We got to the gate, which was a very small area with four gates and way too many people. We waited for a long time and there was no announcement about any change in flight time. We befriended an older British woman in line who said she flies Ryan Air and they are never late…I guess there’s a first time for everything. Five minutes after our flight was scheduled to take off, they finally gave us some information—our flight was delayed an hour and a half. What an awful way to start the trip…here’s hoping things get better! We will miss our bus, though, so hopefully they will just let us get on a later one. Good thing we brought granola bars…it’s gonna be a lonnnnng day.

Okay, I am writing this second part once we are here safe and sound and I promise it gets better! Our flight finally left about an hour and a half late and our flight was fine. Nothing special but hey, it got us where we needed to go. We arrived, went through customs, got some pounds, found the buses and, thankfully, were able to use our tickets for a bus an hour later than scheduled. We sat by our same British woman friend who was just a delight—looking out for us and telling us everything we must do in London. We finally arrived in Victoria around 8:45, got pasties at my favorite pasty place (as we were STARVING by this point), got our tube passes for the week, and headed to the hotel. It’s so funny being back in London…it feels like coming home, in a sense. I feel so comfortable here and really know my way around—I LOVE it :)

Our hotel is LOVELY. Our room is on the top floor so very quiet and is actually a room for five people so very spacious. The people here are so nice as well. We dropped our stuff in the room and headed back out into London. We took the tube to the river and walked across the bridge right outside of Embankment tube station. The whole city was lit up around us! We stopped in the National Theatre Bookstore where I had a wonderful conversation with the man who worked there about theatre and my time in London this past January. I love the National! I finally pulled myself away and we crossed under the bridge to see the London Eye, Big Ben, and the Parliament Buildings all lit up. It was a gorgeous fall night and I was so happy to be out :) We headed home around 10:45, just as all the shows were letting out. We had some free tea in the lounge and then headed up to our room to journal and get some sleep. 

WELCOME TO LONDON

Hi Everyone :)

There is a computer in our hotel but I do not want to tie it up with all my blog posting so I just wanted to let you know I'm here, safe and sound! We had a little bit of a time getting here (flights delayed etc) but we're here and LOVING it! We went down to the river last night after checking in to see all the lights. It's SO beautiful and it's SO good to be back. Talk to you on Friday!

Love, Kari

October 16, 2011

October 16, 2011

This morning I woke up around 9:45, which was absolutely wonderful. I had a nice, leisurely breakfast, sent some emails, packed a little bag lunch and took my time getting ready. I finally headed into town around 11:45 and took the bus all the way across the river. I was not sure if there was always a market on Sundays in Santo Spirito but I decided to check it out anyway and I am SO glad that I did. Last week was more of an antique’s market but today was a combination famer’s market/arts and crafts market! There were stands selling pasta, bread, cheese, greens, fruits and vegetables, jams, sauces, dried flowers, homemade soaps, pottery, baskets, handmade clothing…you name it. I absolutely LOVED it. All of the arts and crafts were so beautiful to look at and all of the food looked so delicious. On one side of the market, I found an apple stand and the man was also selling APPLE CIDER so I bought a bottle to share with my family tonight at dinner. (I already tried some and it’s delicious!) I was so happy to find it because fall is definitely not complete without apple cider! I also bought a small loaf of rosemary bread so I could eat half with my lunch and give the other half to Daniela, as I am leaving tomorrow. It was a beautiful morning and so many people had come out for the market so I was so happy that my curiosity lead me there :)

After the market, I decided to go back to the Boboli Gardens and enjoy the beautiful fall weather while it lasted. This morning I found on the bookshelf in our room (full of books other students left—mostly history books) Room with a View. I knew the name but realized I had no idea what it was about so I read the back—I had no idea it was set in Florence! Anyway, I decided to bring it along with me for the day so, when I got to Boboli Gardens, I found a bench, tucked away from where all of the people were and read for a while. It was so beautiful to hear the birds, the wind in the trees, and take in the beautiful day while reading a wonderful book! I’m hooked! I probably won’t bring it with me to London but I’m sure I’ll finish it when I get back next weekend. After reading for a while, I got a little chilly (even though I actually wore a jacket today!) so decided to take a bit of a walk through the gardens. It actually turned into quite a long walk, as I discovered parts of the garden I had never seen before. My walk lead me first to a beautiful lawn with trees, overlooking the city, then to a beautiful panorama of Palazzo Pitti, the gardens, and Florence and, eventually, to the Belvedere Gate and the Bardini Gardens. I had no idea that there were more gardens and, upon realizing that my free ticket got me in there too, I ventured through a beautiful neighborhood until I came upon the gardens and, oh am I glad I did! Within the gardens, not only did I find blooms and gardens unlike those in Boboli, I encountered the most spectacular view of Florence I have on my trip thus far. I turned the corner and my breath left me…it was one of the most incredible views I have ever seen. You can see absolutely EVERYTHING, all the way up to Fiesole on the opposite side of the city. Finally pulling myself away from the view, I explored the rest of the garden, finding it very peaceful and much more quaint than Boboli.

After spending a while there, I decided to wander down a little road where, supposedly, there was a little church. I came upon the church early on—it was very quaint and beautiful in its simplicity. I decided to keep walking down the road and found myself amongst some of the most spectacular villas. Unfortunately, the road was walled and all of the villas were gated so, unless you peeked through cracks in the gates, you couldn’t really see the spectacular view. After wandering down that road for quite a while, I figured I should head back. I found my way back through Boboli Gardens to Palazzo Pitti and to the exit. What an incredible, beautiful day in the gardens!

Once I had left, I was a little bit hungry from all of the walking I had done so I stopped by one of my favorite little gelato places, in a quiet little neighborhood, and had some delicious peach and cream gelato (I cannot remember the exact name of the second one but it was some sort of Florentine specialty that was cream and some sort of fruity flavor). After enjoying my gelato, I headed back through the city and caught the bus home. I got home around five and decided I should probably pack, as I am leaving tomorrow. However, we have very tight restrictions for our luggage so I didn’t have a whole lot to pack—I am just going to wear the same things every day, which is totally fine with me. After I finished packing and had everything in order for tomorrow, I read some more of Room with a View.

For dinner this evening, we started out with penne pasta with a creamy tomato sauce that really warmed me up and was quite delicious. For our main dish, I had caprese salad, green beans and bread with cheese, while Daniela and Franzi had some sort of tuna fish salad thing. We followed that with pears and, finally, with gelato and a cake with nuts and raisins that Daniela had made that was very yummy. Oh, and we had the apple cider I bought at the farmer’s market today! It was a delicious “send off to London” dinner :)

Thankfully we don’t have to get up early tomorrow morning and rush to the airport. Our flight doesn’t leave until mid-afternoon so we don’t have to take the bus to the airport until about noon. But, by tomorrow evening, we’ll be in London! The hotel has free WIFI however, with the luggage constraints, I will not be bringing my computer. There is supposedly a computer in the lobby that we can use but who knows if it will be working or if other people will be on it. My point is, I am going to bring a journal to London and write a “blog post” every night so that, when I get back to Florence on Friday, I can type them up and post them. So don’t be looking for any posts by me until Friday or, depending on when we get home, Saturday. I am very much looking forward to London and spending some more time there :) I wish you all a wonderful end to your weekend and a lovely upcoming week! I hope you all are able to take some time to go for a walk and crunch through the leaves, bake something with apples or pumpkin, go to the orchard or carve a pumpkin—something fall-ish!

All my love,

Kari

At the farmer's market

Dried flowers

The view from Boboli Gardens of Palazzo Pitti and beyond

Bardini Gardens

Beautiful roses

The SPECTACULAR view

And again...wow

Delicious end to my day out :)

October 15, 2011

October 15, 2011

This morning, Franzi and I woke up around 6:15 and caught our train to Assisi at 8:00. It was about a two hour and forty-five minute train ride so I was glad to have my iPod and journal with me. We arrived in Assisi around 10:45. The train station is in the valley below Assisi (which is on a hill) and about three miles outside of it so you have to take a bus into town, but it doesn’t take long and only costs a Euro. When we first arrived, it was pretty chilly because the sun was under a cloud and there was a very brisk wind—fall is definitely here! In fact, almost everyone in Assisi had some type of winter jacket on. It makes me wonder what they’ll wear when it’s actually winter! I, on the other hand, had on a long sleeved, button up shirt. Granted I did wish I had a light jacket, but the winter coats seemed a bit excessive.

We got off the bus on the opposite side of town from the Cathedral of San Francesco so we could wander through the streets on our way there. It was so much fun because I recognized some many places from when I was there on choir tour! We looked in the churches, did some window-shopping, took lots of photos and even stopped in a theatre and could hear them rehearsing for some musical! We finally made it to the Cathedral of San Francesco (St. Francis of Assisi) and went inside. It was even more breathtaking than I remembered—the frescoes by Giotto are so beautiful and colorful. I have to say, though, nothing will ever compare to when our choir sang Ave Maria there. But it was still stunning :)

After seeing the cathedral, we ventured through the neighborhoods more off the main drag. We just wandered, getting some lunch, visiting another church and taking in the beautiful views. It was definitely just as beautiful and quaint as I remembered it. We had a wonderful day In Assisi! We caught the train home in the late afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful countryside out the window on the way home. When we got home, Andrea and Daniela were out for the evening so they had left us dinner. We ate dinner a little earlier than usual—7:30—and enjoyed some fantastic pasta. It was corkscrews with a tomato, basil sauce that had a maybe some peppers in it and a bit of a bite to it. For our main dish, we had cooked carrots, Brie cheese, pepperoni and rolls, which were all delicious as well. For dessert, we had pears and hazelnut chocolate bars that Daniela had left for us. It was a lovely dinner and very leisurely.

Now that our leisurely dinner is over, we are enjoying some tea because the house is very chilly and just kind of hanging out. I am pretty tired from the day and from getting up early so I’ll probably head to bed pretty early. Tomorrow I get to sleep in and then I’ll pack for London! I’ll do other things, as well, but that is my main task for tomorrow. Then we leave on Monday! I hope you are all staying a bit warmer than I am right now :)

All my love,

Kari

P.S. My internet was really cooperating this evening so you get plenty of photos!

In front of the Cathedral of San Francesco

The spectacular view

So beautiful

The lawn in front of the cathedral

A lovely little street

Within the Cathedral

San Francesco

Another church in Assisi

Once again, the beautiful view