snow?!

I woke up this morning to do my usual lounging around, catching up on the news, and updating my blog, but then looked out my window to see SNOW on the ground.  They had been calling for a snow/rain mix, but I didn't expect any of it to stick.  We don't have a lot (and actually most of it is being melted by the rain now), but it was definitely enough to feel a little festive. Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?!

Last week was pretty typical for me...classes, going to the villa for cards, last dinner at Anna's (SAD), private cooking lesson to learn how to make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, and doing some work for these next few weeks.  On Friday, BC sponsored a trip to Verona which I was pretty excited about since I didn't remember much about it from the last time I went.  It actually turned out to be a rather unfortunate day though because our typical leader, Caterina, had just gotten back from BC the night before so she put two of our other professors in charge for the day.  One of them had never been to Verona before except to take her child to the doctor and the other one only seemed to know how to say "Arco Romano" (Roman Arch) and other miscellaneous and unnecessary tidbits of information.  I did finally get my chocolate calda (hot chocolate) there though!  It was awesome (looked like it was just going to be straight chocolate pudding, but actually had some liquid consistency to it).  

After we finished up the day in Verona, a few friends and I took a train to Venice for the night.  We arrived around dinner time, checked into the hostel and then went to find something to eat.  Venice is so ridiculous to try and maneuver around, but luckily one of my friends had spent 3 days there prior to our semester abroad so he knew his way around pretty well.  We found dinner at some small restaurant not far from the hostel and had some decent food.  I had read that pasta e fagioli soup was supposed to be great in Venice, but I ordered it and was not that impressed.  Maybe I am just used to something different since I'm from the states, but I think from now on I'll stick to some other dishes.  After dinner, my friend who knew his way around Venice also had a cousin living in the Wake Forest house in Venice so we headed over there to hang out for a while.  That house is absolutely disgusting.  I took some photos for you guys to see because I can't even describe how nice it is.  Its right on the Grand Canal, has many huge common rooms, a professional kitchen, huge bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.  I was in awe.  I was also excited to be able to have some NC conversations with those kids, but apparently Wake no longer admits NC students because they were all from the rest of the country.  Quite unfortunate.  Most of them were really nice so we had a fun night of being in a more college-like atmosphere which was a nice change for just one night.  

Saturday we woke up fairly early to make sure we could get the most in for the day.  Originally when we checked in the hostel told us that in the morning we should come to the front desk, pick up a voucher and then head over to the Chinese Buffet for a free breakfast.  We were all a little sketched out by this proposition, but figured it was free so we might as well try.  That morning though the Chinese Buffet was closed so we quickly realized that we would instead be eating day old croissants from the bar next door (I'm not sure which would have been a better option.)  The rest of the day we spent just walking around THE ENTIRE CITY.  As my friend Kristin said, I really wish we had pedometers here to see how much we walk in a day.  Jeff and I had already been to Venice (and I'm going back for 4 days in Dec/Jan) so we didn't feel the need to pay to see things this time, but we still had a great time just walking around. Venice is such a unique city.  We walked into about every store that sold Murano glass (which is approximately 1 million) and stood in awe at each one.  To finish the day off we took a water bus around the entire island (we were too cheap to pay the 80 euro for the gondola ride) and got to see a gorgeous sunset over the water.  We took a train back to Parma around 7 and as usual nothing can ever go smoothly with public transportation.  When we purchased our tickets we were given only one each and it said that we would be going to Parma via Bologna.  We weren't sure if this meant that we would need to switch trains in Bologna or not, but assumed probably not since we had only been issued one ticket.  The ride from Parma to Bologna was nice and smooth, no complaints there.  Then once we arrived in Bologna it seemed that everyone was getting off the train, so the boys got off to see if they could figure out if we were supposed to switch.  Dave came back on and said that he thought we needed to go to another train, but by the time we could start to gather our things the train started to move again.  We figured we could just deal with it at the next train station, but there would be no next train station as this train never gained speed and headed straight for the docking station away from all civilization and lights. PERFECT. We immediately grabbed up our things and tried to get off the train at this point, but they had locked all of the doors assuming that everyone was already off the train.  We freaked a little and started power walking towards the front of the train, trying to make it to the conductor so he could let us off, but before we could do that all of the lights on the train went off.  We all jumped and then screamed that someone needed to pull the emergency lock on the door and as soon as we did we all fell off of the train into some dark alley way.  There was a man standing alone at the end so we all decided to turn around and walk away (Kristin and I were a little more on a mission with this and booked it to the train station).  We had to cross over a million train tracks always looking to make sure a EuroStar train wasn't about to come and pummel us, but we made it safely back and in time to catch the train we were supposed to be on.  Nothing like a little adrenaline rush, right? haha.  We made it back to Parma safely and I had the entire apartment to myself.  I blasted Christmas music (obviously), took a loooong hot shower and just chilled out for the night.  

Sunday morning we woke up to go to the Christmas market off of our main piazza in Parma.  It was so cute, lots of samples of food and Christmas decorations.  It was fun to just spend some time looking around and walking around with the locals.  Afterwards, I headed back to my apartment to do some work for this week and then went to the villa for our Thanksgiving Dinner!  It took us all afternoon to prepare but it was absolutely amazing.  My friend Jeff is an awesome cook and he made a great turkey, stuffing, apple pie and pumpkin pie.  I made the veggies (green beans and broccoli), Nate made mashed potatoes (I've never seen a larger pot of them in my life), Dave made this French Canadian dish (potatoes, meat, onions and seasoning-AWESOME), Kristin and Steph made the world's best chocolate cookies that we learned how to make at Anna's last week.  It was so much food, but totally worth it.  Although it wasn't quite like being home, it was definitely a nice alternative to get to spend a pseudo Thanksgiving with 10 other people in our program.  So fun!  

Today I've got to do some work on my final presentation for my Organizational Behavior class.  It shouldn't be too bad since I have already done all of the research, but also doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, so I'm procrastinating a little.  Its hard to believe I only have 2 days in Parma this week before I head off to London!  I can't wait.  My roomies there have a great itinerary planned out for us and I'm just so excited to see them all and hang out in a city where they speak English and love the Christmas season as much as I do!  I will be taking tons and tons of photos to share with you all so no worries there.  

I hope you all are doing well.  I got home from Venice and had lots of update emails which was great!  I wish you guys the best Thanksgiving ever and hopefully I will get to talk with you all soon! Ciao!

Love,

E

haven't had any pics in a while

I realized today that I hadn't uploaded pics for you guys to see in a while so I thought I would put up a couple while I'm taking a break from studying. They are from the past few weeks of traveling and in Parma. Enjoy!!
Private cooking lesson to learn how to make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world!

Overlooking the gorgeous sunset in Sicily.

All of the students in my cooking class at our last lesson :(

Just me hanging out at the top of Erice (Sicily) overlooking the Mediterranean.

Cinque Terre. My favorite place in the world.

More of Cinque Terre. I can't ever get enough of this place.

the best cannoli of my life.

I've made to back from my adventures down south and let's just say it was an interesting trip.  I ate the best cannoli of my life, saw one of the prettiest sunsets over the Mediterranean, ate real Sicilian pizza, avoided the major rain storm that was supposed to ruin our weekend and tasted Marsala wine from Marsala.  However, I also drank 4 Nalgenes of Sicilian tap water before realizing that it was making me sick, stayed in a town that had NO restaurants (not an exaggeration), couldn't figure out the public transportation system and saw more rabid dogs than was comforting.  Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome trip and I'm so glad I went, but it just wasn't quite what we were expecting.

I think this is what has made me most excited about my travels abroad because most of the places I have been have not at all resembled the conceptualized versions I held of them (Portugal and Sicily being the most different).  So despite living in the ghetto of Sicily for 2 nights (where a tour guidebook said that money laundering was one of the biggest activities in the city) we felt pretty safe and got to experience some great sights.  

As per usual, we spent most of the day on Friday traveling (bus, train, bus, plane, bus=9 hours) and arrived in Trapani, Sicily at about 5:30 pm.  We immediately threw down our things in the B&B (which was actually pretty nice) and then headed straight for food.  Much to our amazement after the owner of the B&B had promised us lots of options for restaurants just down the street, we couldn't find any food.  We finally stopped in a store and asked a woman about where to eat, but she just looked at us blankly and replied, "you don't have a car?".  Not exactly what you are hoping to hear when you haven't eaten much all day.  We finally did find a pizza shop where you could choose your own pizza toppings and they would make it fresh for you.  This took about 40 minutes and I'm pretty sure all of our faces were glued to the pizza making process for all of them in hopes of speeding up the process.  Luck did seem to turn our way though when we found a pastry shop that offered the world's largest and best chocolate chip cannolis for only 1.50 euro each.  It was an amazing find and gave us the energy to sprint back to the B&B in the rain (while ever so carefully carrying these precious food items) and eat straight for about 30 minutes in our room.  We decided to stay in that night since we were all exhausted and let's be honest, there weren't many places to go out in that town anyway.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the B&B and then waited around for the bus to take us to Marsala.  We had some time to kill so we went to the main square of the town and played cards while a bunch of old Sicilian men watched us closely and asked us questions about America and Obama (of course!).  Then when it was time for our bus to come we headed to the stop, only to figure out that we had been waiting at the wrong location which sent the 7 of us American girls sprinting around this square trying to find the correct location through asking a series of questions to the same old men who had been watching us all morning.  Each one seemed to have a different answer as to where the bus was supposed to pick us up so we finally just stood on the street corner and decided to take the next bus that came.  It didn't end up being the exact bus we wanted, but it got us to the bigger town over so we were just pleased to make it out of Paceco.  Once we were in Trapani we figured out the transportation a little better and made it to Marsala (40 min train ride) where we went to the Marsala wine factory and were able to do a free wine tasting.  The most interesting information we found out there was that people in Sicily don't use the Marsala wine to cook (unlike the rest of the world), but rather use it as a celebratory drink.  For lunch we did manage to find a place that served veal marsala though so we were pleased to be able to try it there.  After lunch we hustled back to Trapani where we caught another bus to Erice.  This place was gorgeous!!  It was the biggest mountain around and gave us breathtaking views of the coastline (especially at sunset!).  We spent quite some time up there and even took the cable cars up and down so that we could get a better view of the city while we waited for the bus.  This part was definitely the best portion of the trip!  The whole day I had been feeling pretty weird, but couldn't quite place what was causing the odd pains until I put two and two together that I had been drinking a lot of the Sicilian tap water.  I stopped drinking it by mid-afternoon, but it left me feeling pretty crummy all night which was unfortunate, but we opted for another chill night anyway so it wasn't too big of a deal.

Sunday we ate breakfast, paid the owner (who had no idea how much I owed him, very odd experience) and then headed down to see the historical center of Trapani before we headed out.  We ended up just doing some wandering around the city, saw a couple of cute churches, happened upon a local festival with food, ate lunch (the eggplant in Sicily is to die for, words can't even describe) and then grabbed a couple souvenirs as we headed to the bus stop.  We managed to make all of our public transportation modes back home and arrived in Parma around 9:30.  It was definitely a long weekend, but as usual totally worth it!  

It seems to me that our program is practically over at this point which is hard to believe.  I have my last official cooking lesson this week (so sad!), starting to prepare for my final projects and exams, and only have a couple more weekends of traveling left.  I'm definitely excited about all of the things I have coming up, but also very ready to see family and friends too.  It seems that all of Italy decided that this weekend would be a good time to put up all of the Christmas decorations so everything seems to be in full-swing.  Nate even told me that they started doing 

horse-drawn carriage rides in Parma this weekend which I can't wait to see!  I absolutely love this time of year!

On Friday we are headed, as a group of BC students, to Verona for the day to learn about some of the history of that city.  Then a few of my friends and I are headed to Venice afterwards.  We decided to stay just for one night (Friday) so we won't actually have a lot of time there, but I think it will still be good to go and see it with some friends.  We will be there for quite some time when the family comes, so I'm not too worried about missing out on anything. 

Hope all of you guys are doing well.  I still continue to be impressed with the BC football team!  Hope all of you enjoyed that game.  Keep sending me updates!

Ciao ragazzi,

E

a weekend in parma!

First of all, I need everyone to take a moment and realize that it is already Nov. 10th.  Now, can someone explain to me how this happened?!  I am absolutely in shock.  I don't even know what happened during the first 10 days of November, haha. Although I do know we are in luck with the new President-elect!

Alright, I'm quite exhausted after an amazing weekend with some friends, but I'm going to recount everything as well as possible...

Last Tuesday I had my usual classes followed by cooking class.  We learned how to make tiramasu (still not one of my favs even after having it homemade).  It was my favorite meal so far!  She fixed us pasta with homemade pesto, chicken and roasted peppers, salad, cheese course, and then the tiramasu.  Amazing!  Then after cooking I headed over to the villa for a long night of watching every single US news broadcasting station online.  We started out with quite a few of us watching at first, but then got down to two when they finally declared Barack the winner. I was so emotional it was a little embarassing.  I ended up only getting 25 minutes of sleep before I had to get up to go to class at 7:45.  It was well worth it though!  Wednesday we had our History of Parma class at a nearby fortress.  We ended up not having a lot of time to spend there, but it was nice to get away from the city and see a little bit in the surrounding area.  My other class for Wednesdays we cancelled after History of Parma so I was quite pleased and came back to nap for a few hours.  I managed to catch up on my sleep pretty quickly so that was nice.  After I woke up from my nap I took the rest of the day to myself and spent some time reflecting and talking with family.  Definitely a good way to remember my mom. Thursday I just did the class thing and then had intentions of going out that night, but the weather didn't seem to want me to do that (we had a pretty intense thunderstorm around 9).  I ended up just staying at the apartment and watching the Bourne Ultimatum (so good!) and falling asleep pretty early.  

Friday I cleaned the entire apartment so that it would be ready for my friends and got all of their beds ready.  Elena arrived around 10:30 pm after a long day of traveling so we took her back to Andrea's apartment and fed her some Parma food (cheese, prosciutto, bread, wine and a fake bday cake).  It was so good to see her! I love all my new friends here, but getting to see friends that have known me for 2 years is totally different.  I ended up heading back to my apartment late that night so that I could sleep in my own bed and do some last minute prep stuff before Hil and Claire arrived at 11:30 on Saturday.  I picked them up at the train station and then brought them back to my apartment so they could unload their stuff and change clothes.  They had a long train ride from Rome that morning so they were already pretty tired.  Then we went out to lunch, I took them on a walking tour of the city, got them their first Parma gelato, and then came back to my apartment to just chill out for a little while before dinner.  We decided to take them back to the place where we had our welcome dinner which turned out to be even better the second time around.  Andrea and Elena both hadn't felt well that day so we all went our separate ways after dinner and just chilled at our different apartments.  Sunday we planned to go to Cinque Terre (my favorite place if you remember!) which required us leaving Parma at 7:50.  Unfortunately, Elena and Andrea didn't make it to the train station in time so only Hilary, Claire and I got to go.  We still had a blast, but missed spending time with the other girls.  The weather was gorgeous (although much colder than the last time I went).  We ended up buying an unlimited train pass for the afternoon so that we could go back and forth between the 5 towns since we weren't hiking (we were all too exhausted and two of the trails were closed due to mudslides).  I think they got to see the highlights and both of them said they want to come back again so I hope that means they enjoyed it.  I could go back there a million times. We got back pretty late from Cinque Terre (although just before the train strike began, thank goodness!) so we immediately went to try and find a place to eat.  We ended up at a place some other students had recommended to me, but I ended up with the only meal that we were pleased with, which was unfortunate.  We weren't quite sure what we were ordering and so it definitely was a surprise when Claire's lasagna came out with some odd meat on top, brown sauce and cinamon and Hilary had some random parts of the seafood floating in her pasta.  haha.  I had pumpkin soup though and it was great!  Afterwards I took them to Milano Chocolat for gelato (still my favorite place) and then we came back here so that Nate could come over and hang out with them since he hadn't seen them yet.  He and Kristin had made sugar cookies so they brought them over and then we all just sat around and chatted for a while.  Almost like being back at BC, so good.

This morning we had a pretty chill time while we did a little more shopping around the city and then grabbed some lunch before they had to head back to London-town.  I was sad to see them leave because we had such a good time, but I know that I will see them in just 2 weeks so that is really exciting.  It was so nice to have them here!

This week should be pretty good.  I have another fake midterm tomorrow in Italian, two cooking lessons this week, and then I'm headed to Sicily this weekend! 

I hope you all are doing well.  BC kids, I hope you enjoyed the ND win for me!  So exciting! 

I guess I'll check back in with you guys after my trip down south. 

Much love,

E

train rides, snow, cheese and chocolate...

I've officially made it back from my 4th country this trip.  Switzerland was absolutely gorgeous!  

Last week was pretty good too.  A lot of normal classes and things.  I feel like I get into the same 4 day routine while I am in Parma, even with what I eat.  I go to the grocery store here and buy the same things for those weeks because I know exactly how much of those things I need to buy to last me.  Its nice though because it puts some rigidity in my life when I'm spending one weekend in sunny and busy Barcelona and the next in cold and chill Lucerne.  We also had a 80s/Halloween party last week for one of the girl's birthday.  It was pretty fun and one of my friends even carved a pumpkin! We're trying to hold onto a few of the traditions of the states while not being the obnoxious American students.  

Friday morning we had a train out of Parma at 9:38 to head to Milan and then Lucerne.  We ended up having about a 20 minute delay on that train and had to sprint around the Milan train station trying to find our train before it left us.  It was a little ridiculous with all 9 of us, but somehow we managed to all get on the train before it pulled away.  I always seem to be running for some form of transportation while I am on these trips.  Keeping me on my toes I guess.  The train ride to Lucerne was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS.  It took us right through Lake Como and the very snowy Alps.  I kind of dozed off at one point and then woke up because I thought someone was shining a light in my face, but turns out it was just the snow reflecting in my eyes.  I looked out and was in an amazing mood for the rest of the day.  It also got me into the holiday spirit despite it only being Halloween at that point.  (I've already started the Christmas playlists on my computer).  Once we actually got to Lucerne though it wasn't quite as snowy.  Plenty cold, but not snowy.  We immediately went to the hostel once we got there (which turned out to be pretty nice!)  All the girls (6 of us) got our own room and the boys (3 of them) had what they thought was going to be their own room, but then they got a smelly/snoring roommate during the middle of the night on Friday. haha.  The accommodations were nice though, with clean amenities and a really good breakfast every morning. 

Friday night after getting settled into the hostel we went searching for a place to eat which proved to be a little more difficult than we thought. We either couldn't get in because they were closed or they wouldn't take a group of 9 of us.  Finally we found a place where almost everyone ordered German sausages.  I ended up with this traditional swiss plate (mushrooms, cream sauce poured over a pastry shell) that I had seen recommended online during my research for my trip.  Pretty good, but at that point we were all so hungry anything would have been good.  We took a while with dinner then took a long walk back to the hostel where we planned for the next day.  The mountain that everyone tells you to go up when you go to Lucerne was closed because of the massive amounts of snow they already have, so we weren't able to do that, but we spent most of Saturday just walking around and taking lots of cute pictures.  We have lots and lots of group photos in front of gorgeous backdrops.  Almost everything was closed Saturday because of All Saint's Day which was kind of a bummer when we were doing souvenir shopping, but other than that we didn't really miss out on much and just spent the time walking around.  Saturday night we made reservations for a fondue place that Sarah's host father had recommended.  It was really fun to experience "true fondue culture" although it wasn't that different than the Melting Pot.  We ended up just doing the cheese portion because we were all pretty full afterwards.  Then we spent the rest of the night at the only open pub in town watching soccer with the locals and just enjoying a good chill night inside where it was warm!

Sunday our train didn't leave until 12 so we had some time to run around and buy more chocolate before we headed out.  The fog was unbelievable over the lake so we also spent some time hanging out and watching the ferries come in and out eerily from the fog.  The train ride back took us a different route so we were able to see other parts of the Swiss countryside. There were a ton of waterfalls on the side of the mountains that were gorgeous to look at.  We made it back into Parma around 6:30 and then all headed back to our apartments to chill out for the night.

It was definitely nice to be away for the weekend and cnn.com.  I am so disgustingly obsessed its actually starting to annoy me.  I can't believe we will all know so soon!  I'm very ready to know so I can move on since there isn't much I can do at this point except sit around and wait.  My dad was awesome and sent in my absentee ballot so I've done my part. 

Hilary and Elena come to visit me this weekend!!  I am SO excited to see them.  Everyone has been having friends and family come visit over the past few weeks, so I am definitely ready for my turn.  I think we are just going to spend the weekend enjoying Parma and the food here. Should be good!  

I hope you guys are doing well!!  I'm thinking about some of you as we hit the 2 year anniversary tomorrow.  Its been hitting me pretty hard lately, but I'm also blessed to be surrounded by so many of these great experiences to distract me.  Please don't hesitate to email me how you are doing with it all.  I really do like talking it out with people, but if not know that I am thinking about you.

Love you all,

E

All of us after our walk through the Gutsch Forest!

The girls with a swiss horn.

Lion monument in Lucerne.

Most amazing hazelnut hot chocolate!

First dinner out with our traditional foods.