Praha...Where Everything is Cheap

My past two weeks have been filled with far more homework and other activities than I have been used to. Last week, I spent my days at the boathouse, in class, and doing homework. Far more things to do than I thought. On Thursday of last week, my friend Freddy and I, as well as our other friend Annika from the boathouse, went out together on the town. We went to a couple of different bars and then Freddy slept on the couch of our apartment because his house is quite far away from where we were.

On Friday morning, we got up and Freddy had to run to grab lunch with his Uncle and grandmother at his Uncle's house. I stayed at home and did some homework and chores and things and then headed to the boathouse at 3pm. Following the boathouse, I grabbed a shower and and made some dinner. That night, I was very tired so I went to sleep kind of early.



On Saturday morning, I slept in and then headed to the boathouse in the morning. Afterwards, Freddy met up with me at the boathouse and came back to my apartment while I got a quick shower and got ready to head to my open studio for oil painting class. There, I finished my most recent painting of a still life in class and then headed back to my apartment and went to bed after dinner. Sunday morning, I woke up to explore Florence on my own. It was fun to walk around by myself for a couple of hours into areas that I had never been and take pictures of things I had never seen. Then, I did some grocery shopping, and homework for the rest of the day (finals are coming up and it stinks).






My week started off on Monday with my Italian class. After class was over, I went straight to the boathouse and did a lifting session with some cardio. Once that was finished, I had a lot to get done, so I ran home to grab a quick shower. Then, I threw some food in my bag and ran to the main student point to meet up with a girl in my Italian class and finish up an oral assignment. Once that was finished, I had a whole list of things to get done which lasted until dinner time where I was far too tired to stay up any later so I went to bed early.

My third Oil Painting (finished)

Tuesday started with my Oil Painting class (as usual), and we were all expected to start our final painting which is a 50x70cm piece of a cropped picture of a famous painting found in a museum in Florence. Our largest to date. I chose "Bronzino Ritratto di Eleonora di Toledo col figlio Giovanni" which is a painting of The Dutchess of Toledo, Eleanor, with her son Giovanni. This is super overwhelming especially when combined with the fact that I have only 2 class periods to paint a piece that will require 20+ hours of work. When I left oil painting (fairly stressed from the amount I have to do), I headed to my cooking class. In cooking, we made sea bass with roasted vegetables (I forget the technical name but thats not important). Tuesday night I took home my painting from earlier in the day and posted up in the living room for a very late night of painting. I ended up painting from 9pm until 2:30am and I was nowhere close to getting done.

The original

My final painting so far

On Wednesday morning, I woke up to go to Italian class. There we learned more about demands and descriptions of things so that was pretty cool. Following Italian class I went to the boathouse and got in a moderate 10k workout before going home to get ready for my drawing class. I got cleaned up and took a short nap before heading to my drawing class. Andrea was Andrea and I'm still not a fan of him. He looked at one of my drawings and still did not like it but honestly I am no longer concerned about that. I still have 4, 4-hour drawings to do for my final project. When Krista and I left class, it was pouring outside. I am determined to not purchase an umbrella from one of the 20 people that bombard me in the 3/4 mile walk to my apartment.

When we got back to our place, I made some food and then set up my painting in the living room again to stay up and get some things done. Another 3am night set me up for a tired day on Thursday. When I headed to design class on Thursday morning, I had three of my five final projects ready for review before they are actually due this next week. Once my five-hour class was over, I headed to the leather market in order to get some stuff done for Christmas shopping as well as gifts for my friends.

A Print shop in Florence (SO COOL INSIDE)

With much negotiating, I was able to get things for pretty good prices, only now, my bank account is VERY sad. I then headed to my apartment and got things packed up to send them home in the mail. The process of sending a package at an Italian post office TAKES SO LONG. To top it off, I had to take wine out of the packages I was sending because of customs, and then they wouldn't accept any form of payment other than cash. Cutting it close, I ran back to my apartment and grabbed a shower and some plain noodles for Thanksgiving dinner...elegant I know. I then packed my bag for the weekend in Prague and headed to the Santa Maria Novella train station to meet up with Bus2Alps for our trip.

The bus ride started at 9pm and we ended up arriving at 10am. It was a long night. But, all in all, I got my own two seats, so that was nice. As soon as I got to Prague, I checked into my hostel and dropped my stuff off before meeting up with Zach. (YES, I GOT TO SEE HIM). First, we walked around the city and Zach took me across the Charles Bridge (the most famous bridge in Prague) to see the John Lennon Wall. On the way there, Zach and I ran into a few of his friends from Miami. We got pictures at the Lennon wall and then walked around Prague some more with his friends. 

The astronomical clock

The candy heart I was given

On the walk back, we ran into my friends who were there too, and we witnessed an engagement! Then, while we were all exploring, we found a candy shop where they were making hard candy by hand. We talked with the two guys rolling the candy and it was awesome to see. The one guy cut off the end and then made a heart out of it and gave it to me...it was adorable.


We all bought some of the candy before leaving the store. Then, Zach and I split off and grabbed some food at an asian noodles place, which was super good. Then we walked around some more and I got a shower and we got ready for the night out with his friends.

Fish and Chips dinner with Zach

The "Prague Pub Crawl" is the most well-known pub crawl in Prague. We started off at their central location and they walked us to the first bar where I got to meet all of Zach's friends, who were super nice. They all continually said, "you are so lucky, he always speaks so highly of you" and "he always talks about you", etc. It was pretty great. We then headed to the second bar which was short lived and not my favorite place. Then we got the group rounded up and headed to the third bar. On the way there, we ran into one of the guys rolling the candy from earlier in the day (the one that gave me the candy heart)! After talking with him some more, we found out his name was Thomas and he was excited to see us. After chatting a little bit, we had to run to catch up with everyone to get to the third bar. We stayed there for about an hour and a half and it was a blast.

Looking from the bar

The bar is ice...

My cup

Inside of the Ice Pub

Silly faces

At 12:15am we all started walking to the largest club the the Czech Republic (possibly even in Europe?). This five story club had an ice pub in the basement that Zach and I totally wanted to hit up. We went in and it was SO COOL. Even the cups were made of ice. In fact, it was so cold that you were required to wear a provided fleece-lined poncho and gloves.

 
The next floors each had a different genre of music and it was cool to dance in different genres. Zach and I left the club at about 1:45am and walked to grab a cab back to our hostels. The following morning, Zach had to leave to get a plane ride home to Luxembourg so after saying goodbye to him, which is always so difficult to do, I met up with my friends and we explored some of Prague for the day.

 I picked up Zach and I's shirts for the pub crawl and we found the Christmas markets to check out. Then we headed to the highest point in Prague which was a smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower. We climbed to the top and got some great pictures! Afterwards, I headed back to my hostel and hung out because the week had taken a toll on me. I went to bed early and then woke up at about 8:30am.  

Yesterday we got on the bus to head back to Florence at 10am. The day was long, especially considering it was mostly spent on a bus, but I've come to the sad realization that this adventure of my semester is really coming to an end. I only have 12 more days until I will be at my house in Mars, PA. and while it is going to be awesome to be home, my sense of wander has only grown immensely and I will SURELY be back to Europe many more times in my life.

I wish I could spend a second semester in Florence. I've fallen in love with this city and I know I will be a wreck the day that I leave. Its funny to think about how scared I was when I first began this adventure. I spoke with some people I find pretty important, about it...Katie Anderson, Alycia Kime, Bella Hildebrandt, Zach and his family, my coworkers this summer, my family, and many more people. Now though? I don't want to leave this experience. To say that this has been the best semester of my life would be a severe understatement. I am thankful, humble, awed and amazed at everything I have experienced, everywhere I have been, everything I have seen, and all of the wonderful people I have met and who helped me to make it happen. I know that my outlook on life has changed and I would like to think that I have changed for the better. So go. Travel. AS MUCH as possible. Keep an open mind. You really never know what the possibilities are in this life unless you take a chance.

So, here's to my final two weeks in Europe, next weekend when I get to spend a day with my teammate Eileen in Florence, and the rest of my time soaking up as much of this place as humanly possible!

I'll Race You to The Top of the Duomo!

What a fast week this has been...time is continuing to fly by here in Italy and I am doing my best to make the most of it! This week has been quite a productive one in terms of school work and getting things done around Florence and I just can not wait to share it with you all. In my last post, I talked about running a 12k with Societa Cannotierri Firenze on Sunday and doing fairly well to end it. This week, I have some pretty cool stuff in store as well.

Let me take you all back to Monday. So, on Monday, I woke up for my Italian class at 7:45AM and laid in bed until I absolutely had to get up...(my legs were feelin' the pain from the previous day for sure).  Once I got out of bed, I grabbed some breakfast and headed to my Italian class where I had a verbal speaking exercise. Here, I had a show and tell of sorts where I had to speak for 3 minutes about an item of my choosing entirely in Italian. I chose my Societa Canotierri Firenze rowing uni for my object and I was actually able to do quite well! (I can even somewhat understand peoples' conversations in passing on the street). After class was over, I went back home and did some homework that needed to get done, ran to the grocery store, watched some netflix, hungout outside for a while and then did some drawing homework for about three hours that night. Afterwards, I headed to bed because my body was still pretty worn out from the previous day's race.

Early stages of one of my oil paintings

On Tuesday, I got up for Oil Painting class and arrived right on time. Presently, we are working on a still-life painting of cacti, vases, and a few other assorted objects. Additionally, as well as simultaneously, we are expected to paint a portion of a famous painting from the museum of our choosing in Florence...(talk about pressure). Right now, my painting is looking good so I'm really excited about it! Since my Oil Painting class is five and a half hours long, we get a 30 min. break for lunch. On my lunch break, Belinda, who is a friend of mine, and I went to the advisers' offices in order to sign up for some of the free activities being offered to students. For me, this included Italian Folk Dancing...yeah you read that correctly...and also the Ballet in Florence. (How awesome is it that I will be able to go to the Italian Ballet for free?! They had a limited number of spots and I was actually able to get in!). After Oil Painting was over, I headed to the Mercado Centrale for my cooking class with Michelle. When I arrived, Michelle taught us about the newest region of Italy that we would be cooking from which was Napoli, or as we know it, "Naples".

Bernardo (Left), Michelle (Right)

Instead of the traditional Napoli cuisine of Pizza, Michelle taught us how to make eggplant parmesan which was thebomb.com and then some. After class was over, I headed back to my apartment and got changed to go to the boathouse. When I arrived, I put my stuff in my locker, as per usual, and got ready for a tough workout. Since the trainers were working with the kids teams on the ergs, I went to the treadmill and got in a run. Then I erged for a while and then I did some pieces afterwards. The gym was very full on Tuesday so getting everything done was my main goal. After the boathouse, I got home and got showered and then studied for my Italian quiz the next day before going to bed.

Eggplant Parm...yum!

On Wednesday morning, I woke up at 7:00AM just so that I could review some of the material for my exam in Italian. The exam went wayyyyy faster than expected and I was happy to leave class early. When I got back, I still wasn't feeling all too well so I decided to take a nap between that and my second class. After waking up, I still wasn't feeling very well but it was off to Andrea's class for Drawing 101. I'm not quite sure if you remember or not, but the last time I spoke of Andrea, my cliche Italian drawing professor, was much earlier on in the semester. Andrea is quite a particular man of sorts and I am not quite sure that I could call myself his biggest fan. We have been drawing still life drawings for the entire semester and then last week we drew a human model in order to get poses down. He is very specific to his techniques and what he requires of us for class and homework, which can make class difficult at times. I would consider myself a pretty decent drawer, however Andrea does not necessarily agree. This week we drew a naked woman. There certainly is a time for everything. Andrea didn't like it. I don't prefer Andrea. After class, I got back to my apartment and had to get some homework done before the next day and so I stayed home and made some dinner and then finished my homework and went to bed.

The pic I am using for my project

On Thursday morning, I had design class. So, I got to design class, which is another five and a half hour course, we had a work day for our final projects. I am currently working on my self-portrait which I have decided will be a typeface image of myself much like a project that I did my sophomore year in design...only that image was of Audrey Hepburn, I can understand how one might get the two of us confused though. *hair flip* Anywho, following design class, I went to the boathouse and got in an endurance workout of running, two endurance pieces on the erg, and then some biking. Massimo was also at the boathouse while I was there and he had me hangout with him while he was training another guy there. After he finished with the training, we had a mini Foosball tournament in the back room by the ergs. The Italians are very intense when it comes to Foosball. Not to brag or anything but uhhh, I shocked them with my skills. Afterwards, I got a shower and then my roommates and I headed to the Odeon for appertivos. This week I got a Mojito and that was much better when compared to last week. The food was good and afterwards, we went to get gelato across the bridge, for only 10 euros total! When we got back, we were all kind of tired so we headed to bed.

I got to sleep in on Friday and it was certainly just what I needed. When I woke up, I did some chores around the house for a while and got a lot done. Then, I took my husband journal with me by the Arno and did some journaling as well as some reading. (Many people do not know this, but my husband journal is a journal of love letters, wishes, prayers, verses, dreams and just things about me, that I have for my husband-to-be. I have been writing to him since the summer after my senior year of high school and I plan on giving it to him once we are engaged.) After my journaling, I got in a quick workout and then headed home and got cleaned up. Then, Natalie and I went shopping. Natalie found a great pair of black leather boots, and so did I (for a steal of only 39 euro)! We finished shopping and then ran to Conad (the grocery store) for some wine. We finished off the week with some wine and watching "Wish Upon a Star" on Netflix. (Its a throwback Disney Channel movie we both remembered from 1996...so it was awesome). Then we headed to bed.

Today, Natalie, Krista and I woke up early in order to get to the Duomo by 8:15AM. We wanted to be able to go to the top without all of the people that are normally there, especially during tourist season. So, at 8:30AM, after paying our 10 euro entrance fee, we got into the Duomo and scaled the 463 stair steps in order to get to the top of the Dome. It was absolutely breathtaking. There is no better way to explain the Duomo than exquisite. From the top, we could see all of Florence. After staying there for about 45 minutes, we went down and attended an Italian Catholic Mass, which was really awesome to see...regardless if you are Catholic or not. The rest of today, we kind of just walked around Florence and I helped a few of my friends haggle for some leather bags and such and it was really fun! All in all, a great week!

Highs and Lows of the Week:

Highs:

I won the #TweetforaSeat contest being run by Bus2alps so I saved enough money that I will be able to go on one more trip this semester! I will be going to Prague on Thanksgiving and then also Thanksgiving weekend so I am super pumped about that...and Zach will be there some of the time I am there so I am very excited to see him. Also, I got leather boots. I mean come on, they are leather boots.

 Lows:

This week marked the one month period until I will be going home and I don't want that to happen haha. At the same time, I miss my team and family and friends and everything but I am working more on living where my feet are planted.  Still have time for some adventures :).

A Dream Date (or Week-date)...in Florence, Italy

I sincerely apologize for the lack of posts every week. Despite what everything may seem, I do in fact have course work to complete while I am in Italy, and so I have been pretty busy with that these past couple of weeks. It is my goal to finish this post and then continue posting every week as I was towards the beginning of the semester! Anyways...now to my past two weeks!

Following Fall Break, I went to the boathouse as soon as we got back to our apartment to get in a workout after the long break. After finishing my workout, I talked some with Freddy (Federico), who is my Irish-Italian friend at the boathouse, as well as Massimo who is our friend and also the personal trainer at the boathouse. We spent some time together and then I headed back to my apartment. After a quick shower, I went with Krista, Natalie and Nina to grab a panino from a local shop (it was amazing in case you were curious). When we got back to our place, all of us were pretty tired so we decided it would be early to bed.

On Sunday, I woke up at about 9:30am and headed to the boathouse for a little bit of cardio as well as a lifting session...(gotta come back to my team in great shape!). Once I finished at the boathouse, I headed to the grocery store to pick up a couple of necessities since the cupboards were quite literally bare. Once I got back home and showered, I made sure to throw my laundry in the washer and clean up because Zachary Tolles would be in Florence the following day! (I was only slightly excited... ;) ). The rest of the day consisted of me finishing up some homework and getting ready for the week.

I could hardly sleep on Sunday night. The funny thing about our long distance relationships is that no matter how long it has been since I've seen him, I still feel like a kid on Christmas Eve right before seeing him, and that feeling hasn't changed the past three years. I woke up at 6AM and did a few things for Marietta (what else was I to do?), then, I went to my Italian class early and then got back to my apartment shortly after. I made sure that my apartment was picked up some, worked on a little bit of homework, and folded my clothes. I left my apartment for the Santa Maria Novella train station at 12:35PM and arrived promptly at 12:50PM.

Once I got to the station, I checked the arrival boards to see which platform I should meet Zach at. I knew that he was coming from Rome where he and some classmates had been spending part of their fall break. I saw that his train, arriving at 1:17PM, was at platform 10 so I patiently waited to see him walking towards me. I was looking in another direction when I felt someone near me and it was him! Cheesy, I know, but I had crazy butterflies. He kissed me and then we headed back towards my apartment.

As soon as we got to my apartment, I introduced him to my roommates (who I am sure were getting annoyed with how much I was talking about him). I let him sleep for about two hours because he had had a long day, and I watched some Netflix. We decided to go and get panini at the same place that I had gone with my friends and we ate them while walking along the Arno. I showed him the docks to my boathouse and we walked around a little bit which was a lot of fun. When we got back to my apartment, we hung out with my roommates for a while and then headed to bed.

On Tuesday morning, we ran to the grocery store to get some stuff for the rest of the week. After putting all of the stuff away, Zach hung out at my apartment while I went to the boathouse to go on the water with Bryan. When I came back, we made some risotto that I learned to make in cooking class and it was delicious, seriously though. Then, I ran to my cooking class and Zach hung out at the apartment again until I was finished.

In cooking class, we were focused on the Tuscan region of Italy. Here, we got to make pan-fried veal cutlets with mushrooms on the side (SO DELICIOUS). When I got back to the apartment, Zach and I hung out with our roommates and a couple of friends while I worked on a pamphlet for my high school's soccer banquet for the night then it was off to bed.

On Wednesday morning, I wanted to take Zach to see one of the best free gems of Florence, Piazza Michelangelo. We woke up at about 9AM and got ready to take somewhat of a long walk to get to the lookout on the top of the mountain. Once we got to the top, the day was beautiful and we stayed there and talked about everything and nothing all at the same time for a couple hours. While we were at the top, we also looked at the Church of Michelangelo which was certainly nothing when compared to the Duomo but still beautiful in and of itself. Following our trip to the Piazza, I took Zach to Santa Croce which is another popular church in Florence and we got to sit outside and enjoy street performers, vendors, and the beautiful smells, sights, and people of Florence.

When we headed back to my apartment, I wanted to show Zach the boathouse so that is what we did. I got changed to go workout and he got his stuff together and then we headed to the boathouse. I'm pretty sure that he was surprised, as most people who are not members are, at how nice the boathouse was. Societa Canottieri Firenze used to be owned by the Medici family. The Medici family was one of the most prominent and wealthiest families to ever see Florence so it is kind of a big deal. After introducing him to Freddy, I went to go get in my workout for the day.

With my workout finished, we headed home and decided to make homemade pasta for dinner. After kneading the dough, Zach made spaghetti (or what he tried to make spaghetti) while I made some bowtie pasta. The only form of vegetable that I had readily available were potatoes. So we had rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes with pasta tossed in pesto....yeah I know, got enough starch?. Once we finished dinner, we got ready with Natalie and Krista to go to a local salsa dancing bar to meet up with Bryan. Called "Salamanca", the bar wasn't really our scene so after having a tequila shot each, and hanging out for a while, we decided to leave. As we were leaving, we ran into a crowd of our other friends and convinced them to come with us to Jimmy's, which is more of a local bar geared towards American students.

When we got to Jimmy's, we all signed up for the beer pong tournament and waited for it to get started. As we were waiting, Zach's friend, Colleen, from Miami, walked into Jimmy's! (What a coincidence!). I met her and we talked for a little bit before she had to leave and meet up with a friend that night. Zach and I were a force to be reckoned with at beer pong but we ended up losing, no big deal. Following Jimmy's, Zach, Krista, Natalie and I headed to the secret bakery to show Zach what we had all be raving about. Once we got our treats, he could see. Secret bakeries are the best.

On Thursday morning, we woke up mid-morning and decided to make a pizza. I was in charge of the dough....added too much water (oh boy). So, we ended up with more dough than expected but regardless our pizza was awesome so it was great! Then, I headed to the boathouse and got in a workout for the day. Once I got back to my apartment I took a shower and decided to take Zach to my favorite Gelataria in Florence. We got gelato and sat on the bridge next to the Ponte Vecchio (quite possibly my favorite place), and the weather was gorgeous, so we sat and talked for a while.

That night, I got to take Zach and two of his friends from school, Colleen and Maggie, to my cooking professor's restaurant. The food was delicious, as always, and we got unlimited wine and food for the night. I also got to meet some other people from Miami Universtiy at Jimmy's that night. It was cool to finally meet these people that Zach had told me about.

On Friday morning, we woke up and made some breakfast with the eggs and prosciutto and bread that we had gotten. Some of my roommates had gone to Venice for the day, so it was pretty quiet in the apartment. We ate our eggs and bacon with clementines and watched some episodes of Parks and Rec while I worked some more on the pamphlet for my high school. Afterwards, we headed outside so that I could show Zach where some of my classes are and we also explored around Florence for a bit. I was looking for some fabric to make our Halloween costumes. With no such luck, we ran into H&M and I bought a long-sleeved shirt and skirt for myself for that night. Once we got back to the apartment, I cut out a "P" and an "S" from an old plain t-shirt and stitched them on to each of our shirts...because we go together like salt and pepper, of course. We then headed to the Halloween pub crawl with one of my roommates that stayed in Florence as well. Halloween is not a celebrated holiday in Europe, however in Florence, due to the 40,000+ student population each year, Halloween has become more prevalent since it is a very Americanized cultural aspect of October. Parents were even walking children around the city in their costumes to go trick-or-treating. The pub crawl was okay but not good enough for us to want to stay the whole time so we left and met up at my friend's place and hung out there for a while before we headed to one of the clubs.

Once we got to club 21, since Zach and I had attended the pub crawl, our bracelets got us free admission to the club. We got in and waited for our friends. As soon as all of us were in the club, we danced for a while and had a good time. Zach and I left a little bit earlier than everyone else because of a group of obnoxious Italian men that kept trying to start a fight with Zach...which he was not having. We sat by the Arno for a bit and then headed back to my apartment and grabbed some food. Two of my roommates that met us at the club walked into the apartment shortly afterwards and we all talked about the night before going to bed.

On Saturday morning, we woke up at about 11AM and made breakfast. We then went outside and walked around a bit and I took Zach to Societa Canottieri Firenze's lawn along the water because it was closed inside. We played cards and he taught me how to play Gin rummy, (of which I beat him twice, no big deal), for a couple of hours that afternoon until the sunset. The Ponte Vecchio in the distance was gorgeous and it was cool to sit there undisturbed by other people. We walked back to my apartment and got changed to go to dinner at a nice restaurant. After getting changed, we took a bottle of wine to the steps of the Duomo and sat and talked and laughed for about an hour and a half and cheered to an awesome week together as we drank red wine together.

When we got to the restaurant, our dinner had so kindly been paid for by Mr. and Mrs. Tolles and we were very grateful. First, we got an appetizer of basically Italian meets with mushroom truffle spread. Then, I ordered rigatoni with meat sauce while Zach got the Lasagne al forno (lasagna with meat sauce). The third course consisted of roasted hen on cabbage for me and some sort of meat for Zach (I can not remember exactly what he ordered). At that point I was stuffed and so I took the hen home for leftovers.

The walk home was really cold and so as soon as I got back, I put on about three layers to stay warm. We planned on relaxing and getting gelato together one last time but ended up falling asleep at 9PM for the night. 

Sunday morning was difficult, as it always is when he leaves. We woke up at 6AM since we had gone to bed so early but I didn't sleep well that night. I woke up every hour on the hour (which my body seems to do the night before he leaves). Zach ate some breakfast, I wasn't hungry. Then, at 9:15AM, I walked him to the train station for his 10:00AM train. After figuring out his reservation, it was time for him to leave. I cried like I always do and it was very difficult saying good bye, but what a great week we had together :). I finished up the day by completing my fall break blog entry and then it was early to bed.

The rest of the week kind of went by quickly, I wasn't feeling the greatest this week so I went to bed early most nights and made sure that I worked out some everyday. On Friday, my friends invited me to go and get apertivos with them at the Odeon theater. Apertivos are basically unlimited appetizers and a drink for 10 euros. We got there and had a good time. We found out that it was only 8 euros for students (with a 20% discount), so that was great! I ordered a Moscow Mule to drink and was surprised when I found fresh ginger inside of it, (because normally it is made with ginger soda), but nonetheless it was good. We got gelato afterwards and then went home and talked while Nina dyed Natalie's hair darker...with a box kit. Nina then spent the night at our apartment and it was fun!

Saturday morning, Nina, Natalie and I went on an adventure where we ended up walking about 5 miles around Florence that morning. We found a jewelry shop where I was able to find a mount for some sea glass I had found in Barcelona! Following our adventure, we came back to the apartment, ate some lunch, I made my sea glass charm, and I took a nap (still not feeling totally stellar).  After my nap, I did some work and then watched parks and Rec, ate dinner, and went to bed early in preparation for my race the next morning. 

On Sunday morning, I woke up at 7:30 in preparation to be at the boathouse by 8:15AM. The annual 10k race (or what I thought was a 10k race), began at 9:30AM, which would give me plenty of time to stretch and warm up. I was running with my friend Freddy. As soon as he got there, he then told me that the race was actually a 12k race with 6k of it being uphill (to the highest point in Florence..........). So, I thought, 'what the heck?'. Freddy and I ran it together in just over an hour. Afterwards, we got ready for the awards ceremony. I ended up placing third in my age group and I won a bottle of wine, (in Italy, wine is always a prize), as well as a cool belt by Lee. It was a win-win situation for sure...plus I got a cool t-shirt!

Me after the 12k race

Me, Massimo and Freddy

The awards ceremony after the race

The rest of the day, I did some homework, took a nap, watched some Netflix and Skyped my Mom and sister. I watched Good Will Hunting for the first time, which was really a great movie, and then I headed to bed, because I was exhausted from the race. That's all for now though! Thanks for reading and get ready for next week's post!

Highs and Lows of the Past Two Weeks:

Highs

I got to see Zach for an entire week! I mean what could be better than that?! I also did pretty well in the race held by Societa Canottieri Firenze without any training whatsoever, so that felt pretty awesome. I am in the works of possibly planning one last trip so hopefully that works out!

Lows

I miss America. As Americans, we take some of the simplest things for granted and to be honest, I am guilty of it too. All I know is that I will be so much more thankful for things when I get back to the states. I'm also sad that this semester is getting closer to being over with, it has gone by so fast.