I love where I am!!

There are so many things to say about Florence, then Italy, and even in a larger scale Europe. I am going to be honest and say that I would be totally fine with never leaving! At least once a day I remind my roommates how much I love Florence, and how I just love being here. Here are a few things that make Florence "e il meglio che c'e!!"

1. Artisans. If you are an artist, you buy a shop and everyday, all day, you work in your shop painting, sculpting, hat-making, sewing...people pass by your shop and look in the window to watch you at work. What an amazing life- everyday you do what you love and are passionate about!
2. Window Shopping. Every store has elaborate displays with incredible clothing. Plus there are stores everywhere! Such incredible shopping, it is really ridiculous!
3. Every Italian has a beautiful dog. Every dog wears an ensemble. Every dog goes grocery shopping or clothes shopping with their owener -- taking a break in between by just popping a squat on the street to pee or poop.
4. Absolutely zero sterotypes. This is just one of the most incredible things. I love being here because you wake up every morning and put on whatever you're feeeling for the day. Clothes are an expression of personality, individual taste. There is no way to group people together, it's beautiful! Everyone is confident in their own expression. I have become a mood dresser for sure! Meg and I have been trying to figure out what our style is, and until just recently we came to a conclusion: we dress the way we feel-- it is so much less stressful not having to try to place yourself into this mold other people create for yourself!
5. Work out videos. Some of you may know that Meg and I brought several workout videos to 'do' to keep us fit here in Italia. Well the problem occureeed when the videos required weights and we thought that bringing more clothes was more important than packing ten pounds worth of weights. So...what did we do to resolve this? Only in Italy can you use wine bottles as weights in your work out videos! Please picture it: me holding a one legged squat position while I use two wine bottles as my free weights in a bicep curl. Only in Italy, right?!
6. Pastries. There is ALWAYS an amazing pastry shop around every corner. Meg and I are currently in the process of becoming freinds and regulars at this incredible pastry shop around the corner from our house. every day there are new pastries filled with nutella, mini chocolate pies, sfogli and so so so much more!!
7. Gelato. Meg and I are getting so nervous about coming back to the states and not having a delicous secret gelato shop to complete our lunch or dinner. Waco really needs to hop on the train with this Gelato business. If you are reading this and are an entrepreneur, I beg you to start a gelato shop out at Baylor. You would bank!!
8. Italian Food. OH MY GOODNESS. The food here is incomprable. I am able to eat parmesan with just about every meal (Amy I know you would feel like you were in Heaven just like I do when they bring a huge bowl of parmesean to you at every meal)! I really could not even begin to describe how _______ this food is. (You could fill that blank with just about every honorable word you could think of and it still would not suffice.)
9. Sunsets. Sunrises. Breathtaking, remarkable... it is insane! When I go running I run lungarno (along the Arno river) and by the end of the run I am crossing the bridge just in time to see the sun rising behind the Montagne di Italia! It is like nothing you have ever seen before!! And recently my roommates and I have started this tradition of going once a week to Piazza di Michelangelo (which overlooks the entire city of Florence). We bring a bottle of wine and some cheese as we watch the sun set over the city of Florence. It is indescribable. Literally the sky is scattered with an array of pastels......aammaazziinngg!
10. Chill. I have never been so relaxed in my entire life. I have not been stressed once since I have been here. I love love love it!! Every dinner we plan for at least a two hour session, there are no 'to go' coffees. If you want a cappuccino you go to a cafe and you sit while you drink your cappuccino, and then you leave. It is the way life is meant to be spent-- relaxed!

This is the first list of the many resons I have for loving Florence. There will be more to come..trust me! And I also want to apologize for the grammar, spelling, etc. Meg is not with me to check this over before I post! She is always the good writer...im just letting you know my thoughts which are a bit scattered (like me)! Ha well I hope you enjoy this little insight of our lives!

Ode to Nutella

Ode to Nutella

Sweet, o so sweet,

Why no sooner did we meet?

The very presence your scent,

Chocolate-hazelnut, begins my descent.

More and more I desire,

The sweet taste of your attire.

When I dip into you,

Parts of me become anew.

Parts of you seem to remain,

In the crevasse of my domain.

On my lip you will stay,

Until, my saliva melts you away.

Why must your stay be short lived?

When there is so much more you could have gived.

I need no other to satisfy,

Please be replenished or I will die.

This is a poem my roommate wrote in the midst of a Nutella high. It is currently written out on a poster and hanging in our kitchen.

Where would we be without Samuele...

This is our friend/tour guide Samuele


"And this is the biggest anchor in all of Europe." -Samuele
"Really!"-Us
"I don't know, probably."
And that is how the tour went.

Samuele never went anywhere without his drum or his recorder; He would play them up and down the streets.

Mb and Samuele hit it off as you can tell.

Meg & Mb in Italy

The Dream continued...

Are we in a dream?

So we went to Venice this weekend for Carnavale, and let me tell you it was an experience I will probably never have again; it is hard to even put it into words. Carnavale is a huge deal here, sort of like Mardi Gras, and it lasts two weeks. We knew it would be big, but we were not prepared for the craziness of it all; we really felt like were in a dream. Upon walking out of the train station we were faced with costumes and characters of all sorts, loud music, and we were shocked to find that yes, Venice actually is all on water. We caught the ferry taxi tight outside of the train station to our hotel. It was quite a long journey considering we weren't exactly sure where we were going (We never laid eyes on a map the entire weekend). But never fear, the friendly Italians on buses always help us find our way. So after they got us to the right stop, we made it to our cozy little hotel. It was an entire other fiasco finding the bus stop once we left the hotel. An Italian boy that we asked for help literally yelled back at us three times as we kept going the wrong way and then resorted to running after us to take us the right way. We are very grateful for these kinds of people. It also helps us meet the locals, as we saw the same boy the next night on the bus and we exchanged hellos like we were old friends.

So back to the craziness of Venice...
People were dressed in huge, elaborate costumes, as you can see in the pictures. The people in these costumes are treated like celebrities as crowds of people surround them takinng their photos. They walk around very elegantly and pose for everyone to stare. The first night out we stumbled upon a massive drag queen fashion show, and that was our first eye opener of what this event was going to be like. Everywhere we turned there was a different party, music coming from every side, and the oddest combination of characters you can think of dancing together in one big jumble. My favorites were the ghostbusters and the dancing protesting pigs. What we like to describe it as is a combination of Alice and Wonderland and Accross the Universe.

The next day we got to explore ALL of Venice as we had our own personal tour guide, Samuele, a friendly Italian we met the night before. I know it seems a little creepy, but never fear mother Meg is here, and he was no creepy Italian. He was a lot fun, and he enjoyed working on his English and showing us around the city, as he was from Venice. Somehow he knew us so well, as he took us into a bakery and bought us all a pastry that he said we just had to try. We got to see a lot of the local scenes and hear about the history of Venice, although a few of his facts seemed a little out there. We had fun, nontheless. He showed us around again that night leading us through streets playing his bongo drum and recorder and introducing us to his friends. He attracted people wherever he walked because of his hilarious personality. Bess, he kind of reminded us of you!! So the night wore on, we got exhausted from all the excitement, and had to call it a night. It was an adventure, if not more!

The best gelato we have ever tasted!

Under the Tuscan Sun...

After about two weeks of rain it was so nice to see the sun this weekend. We couldn't have picked a better day to go to Cortona. This is a small Tuscan town about an hour away from Italy, where they filmed Under the Tuscan sun. It was a fun adventure, as we walked to the train station Saturday morning with no plans or schedule. We picked a destination that was leaving soon and less than $10...turned out to be Cortona! We hiked up the beautiful hill country from the train station to the town taking multiple photo stops on the way (MB wil have to post those later). It was an unexpected very long uphill walk, but the views were worth it. We spent the day relaxing and walking around, drinking hot chocolate. By the way, hot chocolate over here is far different from in the States; it is like drinking pure melted chocolate...no words can describe. So, as it got colder and our hand and toes turned numb, we frantically searched for a bus that would take us to the train station, and we made our way home. Without a map, plan, or any knowledge of the town, I would say we did pretty good.

The rest of the weekend turned out to be very relaxing. Being the only four students in the entire program who don't go out every night, we tried to be social for a few nights. It was a lot of fun, but I think watching movies in our apartment suits us best. There is a secret bakery here that is only open from 1:30 AM-4 AM. We had heard so much about this secrety bakery and its delicious pastries that we were just dying to go. So while all the other students who go are up partying and end their night with a chocolate croissant, we went to bed around 1030 only to wake up at 2 AM just to make a trip to the bakery. It was well worth it! Colleen was here to experience the delicousness with us...thanks for leaving us with such a great discovery!

We Love You Colleen!

Colleen Cooper, one of our best friends from home, got to come and stay with us for a week! She is living in North-East England working for a church and a ministry for these next five months! We had so much fun together, she got to share in our: crazy Bologna adventures, nightly Nutella treat sessions, Secret Bakery run, Piazza de Michelangelo hike, and so much much more! Here are some of the pics of our time together...thank you so much for coming down Colleen! We love you!