il mio tempo in italia: its christmastime in the city...

Happy Thanksgiving!! (a few days late I know)

I hope all of you were able to celebrate with your families and really enjoyed it. I am envious of all of you who did, but celebrating with some of my best friends from BC was exactly where I wanted to be if I couldn't be with family this year.

Last week was particularly short so there isn't much to report before I left for London. Last Monday evening we all went to a chocolate pastisserie on Via Cavour for chocolate calda on BC. It was interesting (the consistency of chocolate pudding!) and I wasn't too impressed, but it was an Italian experience and a good way to try and stay warm when it was cold and snowy outside. Tuesday I had my regular classes and then dinner with my roommates at Anna's house. She and her husband own the apartment I live in so she has been trying to find a time for us to come over for dinner all semester. It was weird going over there and not learning how to cook a meal, but no worries, we still ate well! She fixed all of my favorite dishes (pasta with homemade pesto, chicken with peppers, salad and chocolate/almond cake). We ended up just sitting around and talking for 3 hours in Italian and it was great. I love that I have been able to grow in my Italian this semester because I was so worried about that aspect. Its so rewarding to be able to have these lengthy conversations (even though I obviously make a million mistakes!) with locals who really appreciate our attempts. After our lengthy dinner I came back to the apartment to pack for London!

Wednesday I went to my two classes and then headed to the airport. This was the one and only time I have been able to fly out of the Parma airport and it was so nice. Not having to factor in an hour and a half train ride plus hour bus ride into my traveling was awesome! However, Sarah and I did have a little bit of problems getting there on the city bus because when I asked a woman on the bus she told me that we had already passed the airport 2 stops back. We ended up getting off at the next stop and trying to walk, only to find out 30 minutes later when we arrived at the airport that the bus had not in fact gone to the airport yet and that we had not needed to walk along the highway with our heavy luggage, haha. Public transportation is always an adventure! The flight to London was easy though and I arrived just in time for dinner. The girls had already ordered pizza once I got there and so we ate in Hil's room while watching Love Actually. I have watched that movie with these same girls every year at BC so it was nice to keep up the tradition this year. After the movie we went iceskating at Somerset House which was so festive and fun. It wasn't cold out at all so we were able to really enjoy it and surprisingly no one fell! It helped that we had hockey skates, but I was still quite impressed.

Thursday was Turkey Day but I didn't even realize it until we were on the way to breakfast that morning and Hil wished us a Happy Thanksgiving. So weird to be that separated from it all, but we had an awesome day none the less (just a little less family, food, football and parades than I'm used to). For breakfast I finally got the Starbucks that I had been craving! Not something I ever thought I would miss, but something about Starbucks and this time of year just makes me feel warm and happy. Soy chai lattes are not found in Italy so I drank my fair share while I was there to keep me going until Jan 4 (and of course they always reminded me of my mom). After breakfast, Caroline and I did a bus tour of the city that day which was nice because we got to see EVERYTHING. We only stopped off at one place though (Westminster Abbey) because we didn't have lots of time. Westminster was absolutely gorgeous! If any of you ever make it to London I hope that you will go. You aren't allowed to take pictures so I can't share the experience with you, but its not something that photos could do justice anyway. We also made sure to take pictures of Big Ben and a traditional touristy photo in the telephone booth there too. After the tour was over we headed back to Hil's room to get ready for the "Thanksgiving Dinner" that the BC-London program was hosting. It turned out to be quite the joke (they served us nachos, prosciutto wrapped sausages, and veggie platters), but it was fun to dress up and hang out with friends.

On Friday Claire was our tour guide for the day while Hil had class. We went to the Natural History Museum, Hyde Park (there was a Christmas festival) and the Tower of London. I took about a million photos while I was there so there are many to share later on. After we had finished touring for the day we went and got Indian food for dinner. I don't know whether the place was actually that good or if I was just so excited to not be eating Italian food, but it tasted phenomenal! Afterward we went to a bookstore where I bought a British comedy book (pretty funny trying to learn all these new words they use) and then went and saw Four Christmases. It wasn't that great of a movie, but nice to be in a movie theater again and hearing English. After that we headed to Claire's for the night and watched The Holiday. Well, I should say they watched it while I finally had to quit and pass out on the floor because I was so tired.

Saturday morning we had to wake up super early to get Caroline to the airport. Hil and I were still really tired so we went back to her apartment and slept for a little while longer and then got up and ready for the day. We decided we just wanted to have a good chill day in the city. We went to Borough Market, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Harrods! Borough Market is a huge food market near Hil's apartment and we just walked around to see all of the fun presentations. We also got to try some free samples and even saw some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for sale. So fun to see all of the Christmas decorations, but ridiculous to try and fight the crowds of people on the main shopping streets of London that day. It was worse than any Black Friday experience I have ever had in the states, but much more fun because we weren't actually there to buy anything. Harrods is an experience in itself. The ridiculous decorations and high end stores are overwhelming, but we spent a good couple of hours there just taking it all in. Then we decided we would get dinner from the market there (it is all so fresh and beautifully displayed) and then took it back to Hil's room. We had toyed around with the idea of going to see a play that night, but then decided against it because we didn't want to spend the money on a play we could see in the States and we also had a very important BC game to watch. We watched Serendipity while eating dinner and then Claire came over to watch the game with us. The final score ended up being closer than I would have liked, but at least we are going to the Championship! Go Eagles!

Sunday morning I had to wake up at 5:15 and head to the airport. I got there with plenty of time though and read some of my new book while I ate my last Starbucks for a while. I got back to my room around 1:15 and then just chilled out while blasting Christmas music all afternoon.

I can't believe its December 1st already!! My program is over in 10 days and the family comes in 18 days! So hard to believe. It also means I have to start doing some more intense work to finish out this semester. I have been working on outlining for a final all day so far today and finally finished that before I sat down to write this. Now I need to go study for a mock-final we are having in Italian tomorrow so I don't completely embarrass myself. So weird to be on this side of it now. We have our Christmas party on Wednesday night at Anna's and then this weekend we are headed to the Alps with the entire BC group. We have the option to ski, but I think most of my friends and I have decided that we will save the money and opt for ice skating and checking out the town (Aosta) while we are there. I also will have to find some time to do work too, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

I hope you all had great Thanksgivings at home and enjoy the fact that it is now officially okay to blast your Christmas music! Happy first week of December!

Much love,