Seeing that One-Legged Stool

This doesn't really have anything to do with my study abroad experience but on Wednesday, January 26th my cousin Tina and Chris had a beautiful baby boy in the afternoon in Kansas! Congrats to both of them! His name is Michael, after my cousin, and he was born on my Uncle Bobby's birthday. It's funny how this happened - out of all 365 days of the year, he is born on my Uncle's birthday. Wow. Anyways, I am so happy for them and now I must shop for adorable Italian baby boy clothes... yes!

So I know it's been awhile since I posted and I've noted that I need to step up my game. It will get better! So last weekend my roommates and I went to Prague, Czech Republic because we did not have class on Friday. I didn't really know what to expect because we didn't have much time to plan the trip and, out of the 5 places that we thought we possibly wanted to go, Prague had the cheapest flight/hostel combined price. So Praha it was! The hostel we stayed at had gotten rave reviews in all the books we looked at and was #1 on hostelworld.com (a great website, I recommend it) and ending up costing $65 each for all 3 nights! We had bunk beds and the room wasn't huge but the beds were extremely comfortable. To my cousin Matt – I thoroughly checked that place for bed bugs and I think my roommates thought I was a bit insane but it was all clear. Here is a pic of the hostel bathroom - gorgeous! We arrived on Thursday night and decided to go out to a place near our hostel...

Last week I had class canceled one morning so I slept in and then took a really long walk by myself around our neighborhood. It was really wonderful to get to know this area better and I discovered a lot of really amazing stores and little shops. I stopped at the bread store (panetteria) and got a panini, or basically a mini loaf of bread for a sandwich. It was 30 Euro cents - so cheap - and extremely fresh! I came back to the apartment and made myself some grilled zucchini and put that on there along with some cheese and EVOO. It was delicious and great after the long, cold walk. Here is the picture! P.S. It may be a very good thing that this shop is literally across the street... or a very bad thing!

I've decided that every time I go grocery shopping I'm going to try something new and post a pic of it here - here is my first attempt! I got these sort of spinach and cheese pattys that I fried in a bit of olive oil and put on top of salads for lunch. It was a nice addition to the salad and made it more filling. Here is a picture. There is also balsamic, EVOO and gorgonzola on the salad.

I should have posted these earlier! Here are some pics of my appartment. I share it with 5 other study abroad students and our Community Assistant, Maria, who is Italian and practices law in the mornings and studies music in the afternoon to get her MFA... she's pretty legit. Our kitchen. The refrigerator (so small!) Bathroom (one of the three in the apartment) The living room (partial view) The music room My bedroom and Steph, my roommate! View from our balcony

It’s been 7 days or so since I last posted so a lot has happened and I’ll be brief. One week ago my program started, though it seems like it was two or three weeks ago. Orientation is over and was pretty standard as far as program orientations go. Lots of meetings, going over rules, being told how to not get your bag stolen, ect. We got a lovely taste of Italian bureaucracy when applying for our “permit to stay” at the Italian post office. This took forever and cost 30 Euros and we also have to go back to various police stations individually for another appointment which they give you. Fortunately, my appointment is not during my scheduled class time which is lucky! There are two highlights of orientation that I’d like to go over. 1.        Discovering Appertivo   - This is a wonderful concept that America should definitely adopt. For a flat fee, usually between 7 and 10 Euros, you get entrance into a bar or restaurant, a drink and access to an all-you...

So much has happened since I last posted, so I'll be brief. Sunday I woke up and Ernesta made me breakfast per usual. I would walk into the kitchen and there would be a cup on the table and these sort of dried bread biscuits. I would put nutella on a biscuit and she would heat up milk and then make coffee (actually espresso) on the stove and then make me a latte right there. I would dip the biscuit into the latte and eat it while she squeezed oranges for my juice. Literally I felt so guilty that she did all of this for me but she insisted! What a great lady. Then her nephew, Michele, took me on a long walk around the city (I think 2.5 hours) and we saw the Duomo and other sights as well as what seemed like all of the fashion district. AMAZING. I wore these heeled boots I got for the trip and by the end my feet hurt but it's fine, they seemed to be plenty fashionable enough for the people around me, so I was glad I looked Milanese! My feet will have to catch up to my shoe ta...