Week 12

 This week seemed to fly by so fast! It was a holiday on Monday because of Easter weekend, so Ashley and I decided to check out another park, Giardino dell'Orticultura, which was very pretty. There were a lot of families there and groups of teens playing with soccer balls and volleyballs. We couldn't find how to get to this slope area where we could get prime sun exposure, so we just sat down on the grass and chilled. I was pretty tired because I had gotten only about 4 hours of sleep, but I was glad we had a chance to explore more of Florence. It ended up getting a little chilly, so as we were deciding whether or not to leave, I got a bbm from Merkrebs saying she was finally in Florence. We ended up meeting her on Guelfa, and then walked to her hostel to get her friend. Ashley and I had been craving Tijuana all day and invited them along, but they really were looking forward to Italian food so they went somewhere else. I got a peach margarita and nachos with cheese, chicken, and guac. Since we both had been up really late, we didn't do anything else that night except watch an episode of SNL. Katie finally got back from Barcelona at around 12:30, and we all caught up a bit before going to sleep.


After class on Tuesday, Katie, Ashley and I tried to explore and find a new sandwich shop I heard of that is on Pinto, but we couldn't find it and ended up going to good ol' Pino's. I ended up getting a pasta dish with stringbeans which was soo good. That night, I went with Ashley and Gerald to BeBop, where a Beatles cover band plays weekly. They were really good, and it was cute because they dressed up like them! Ashley and I stayed the whole time, till 1:30, and then went to Mr. Pizza before going home in the rain.


For dinner on Wednesday we made chicken parm again. That night, Merkrebs and her friend Talia, who is studying abroad here, came over to pregame before going to 21. When we got there, I was shocked at how crowded it was! We hadn't been there in a while, so I didn't realize how many people would be there. Merkrebs, Ashley, and I ended up dancing on this couch thing for a while, which was fun. The wall behind us was literally steamy, it was pretty gross. The music ended up not being so good, and the club was just so filled with annoying Americans, so we left and Merkrebs tried this panino from a place right across from Pino's that stays open late.

Thursday, I was actually able to wake up for Cooking which was good, and we made little aperitivo bread things; one was Bruchetta with tomatoes, one was with rosemary oil salt and pepper, and another was with rosemary and beans. We also did an oil tasting, which really grossed me out in the end because we were just eating olive oil off spoons! Though I was good at describing the oils, I completely failed at figuring out which region of Italy they came from. Later, after Italian, Ashley met Katie and me and we went to the sandwich shop that Merkrebs had tried the night before. It was pretty good, and the owner let us taste some of the meat and cheese before we chose what we wanted. The paninis were only 50 cents more than Pino's, but I think I like Pino's more anyway because its pressed. That night we didn't do anything except Jillian Michels workout video, and we also caught up on some shows including Glee, Modern Family, and New Girl before going to sleep.

 

Friday, I had to wake up early to go to a make-up class for World Religions at 9:00. There were only 4 of us who came, including me. We watched a documentary about Buddhist monks trying to find the reincarnation of their lama, which was pretty strange and interesting to learn about. Afterwards, I came back and slept till 3ish. We ended up running errands a bit later because we needed more food and 5 lightbulbs.... We later went out with Fani and Gerald to Babylon, which was lots of fun. Babylon is literally 5 minutes away from us and we never realized it existed! It had a few rooms with different music and the first room was playing 60s music at first and I really didn't think it would be fun, but then we moved to another room with better music and stayed there for the rest of the night. We stayed there pretty late, about 4 am, before heading back to the apartment.


Yesterday, we did nothing once again, and we rescheduled our trip to Cinque Terre since it would have been miserable to go today in the rain and cold weather. We are now going May 6th, right before finals. Hopefully the weather is beautiful then, or at least warmer. Ashley and I made fritatta for dinner (notice that it was ME who actually helped make it this time!) which was delicious! Ashley and I also ended up meeting up with this girl Melissa, who is studying abroad in Florence too, and Rachel, who was visiting her (she was one of my sister's roommate) at Space, which was really fun. We had only been to Space one other time, so I was glad we got to go again. We stayed there pretty late, and got late night panini's from that place before going to bed.


Today is already starting out to be a lazy day again. I really want the weather here to get sunny again instead of cold and rainy. For once, the weather in Allentown is actually sunny and warm- if we went to Cinque Terre today we'd be walking around in 30 degree wet weather! Last night was Phi Sig formal, and I'm really sad I couldn't be there. As much as I love living in Florence and consider this to be one of my homes just as much as I consider Muhlenberg to be home too, I just really know I missed out on a good semester at school. However, I really cannot complain, I'm so extremely lucky and grateful that I have this opportunity to travel all around Europe- when is the next time I'll be able to do this?? Probably not till I have a decent job and can afford it.


On a happier note, my parents, who have been in England for the past few days visiting my sister, are coming to Florence tomorrow! They're staying here till Wednesday, and I hope they'll enjoy it here. The weather doesn't look like it's going to be that bad, which will be nice. I feel a little pressure to make sure they have a great time and really see how well I'm doing here (gotta brush up on my Italian a bit tonight!). I was going to try to go to a couple museums today since its "free museum week" but I am not quite sure that will happen since we're being pretty lazy. I'm probably going to end up doing my homework so I don't have to worry about making time for it when my parents are here, and I'll end up stalking formal pictures on FB once they go up. I can't believe I only have 4 weeks left here!