Settling In

As you all know, I arrived in Florence last Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning, I had orientation, which was very informational (every thing from where classes were to where to shop, not to mention repeated reminders to be careful of trusting anyone we meet) and very boring.

On Friday night, Lorenzo de Medici (my school in Italy) hosted a welcome dinner at the Palazzo Borghese. Now there is a place to have dinner! The building was absolutely incredible, decorated in the height of the luxurious. It was buffet style, but the meal was brought out in courses. First appetizers, different types of salads, tomatoes with mozzarella, etc. Then they brought out several different types of pasta, including risotto (my favorite!). Last, they brought out several desserts, which were scrumptious. It wasn't perfect, but it was very good and, more importantly, it was free!

Two of the girls I live with went on a school trip for the weekend to Cinqueterra, so the other four of us spent the weekend exploring Florence. This was also the weekend of the Florence Gelato Festival, which we greatly enjoyed. The main part of the festival was across the river, on the Piazza Pitti. There were about 10 different gelatarias that participated, all with several different flavors to try. I discovered my new favorite: cannella (cinnamon).

We also explored the Mercato Centrale, and bought some essentials, like bread, olive oil, wine, and cheese, as well as ingredients to me to make risotto for dinner. We're all on tight budgets, so the more we can make for ourselves, the better.
Sara, enjoying dinner.


Kim


Mai

Yesterday was the first day of class. My teacher, Marco, gave us a brief run through of expectations throughout the course and then walked us around the Mercato Centrale, showing us where to buy the best meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, and wine (and pointing out where we can get a discount), as well as teaching us what to look for. The man at the cheese counter gave us free samples of about 6 different cheeses and 6 different dried meats. Yum!

Today was the first day of practical cooking in class. Marco started by showing us knife techniques, and then we moved into the recipes. In each class, we will make a four course meal (appetizer, first course, second course, and dessert). Today, we made a creamy leek soup (topped with chives and fresh, homemade bread), pesto pasta (topped with toasted walnuts and tomatoes), stuffed tomatoes, and homemade almond and lemon macaroons. He showed us how to plate each course artfully. Because my birthday is Friday, I got to have the demonstration plates.


Everything was delicious! I can't wait for tomorrow!

Italian Apartment!!

I'm now all moved in to my apartment for the next few months. It is absolutely amazing! I'm also very lucky to be living with girls who seem incredibly nice so far. All of the other girls attend University of North Carolina. I share a room with Jen. We have a window looking out over the Mercato Centrale and our own ensuite bathroom. In the room next to us is Mai and Kathy. And in the room closest to the kitchen is Sara and Kim. We have an amazing kitchen with a table with a marble top. From our dining room window, we can see the Duomo. I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the entire world!

This is the view looking down from my bedroom window.

This is the view looking out from my bedroom.

This is our living room.

This is our little dinning room.

This is our kitchen, which I can't wait to use.

This is my bedroom. My bed is the one by the window.

This the entry way to our building. We have 3 keys. One for the front door, one for the gate in this picture, and one for our actual apartment. I feel very safe.

We walked about 2 blocks from our apartment and found this. We are in such a great location!

And this is the view we discovered looking out our dining room window tonight. Wow. I'm going to go stare at this some more. I have orientation in the morning!

Left Over Pictures (moving backwards in time)

The Chalice Well, in Glastonbury. This is where the Holy Grail is said to have been hidden by Joseph of Arimathea.
What is left of Glastonbury Abbey
Stonehenge, one of the most interesting sites in the UK. (In my opinion)
Avebury, the largest stone circle in Europe
Glastonbury Tor. The one place in Glastonbury I didn't get to go.
This is my favorite picture from the British Museum. Only the Brits would have the audacity to steal an entire monument.
The iconic Rosetta Stone
A really big door the Brits stole from Egypt
A guardian figure.

These are just some pictures from the UK I didn't get the chance to share yet.

Mystery and Legend

This will be my last post from the UK. I'm writing this as I am sitting in the London City Airport, waiting for my flight to Florence (and can I just mention that I love how easy it has been to get around England using public transportation?).

Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity. I can't post pictures right now as I have no desire to dig through my bag to find the connecting cord, but I promise to post an update with nothing but pictures. I still have several from the British Museum I'd like to share as well. My tour group was supposed to pick me up yesterday morning at 7:50. However, due to horrendous traffic, they didn't manage to get to my youth hostel until 8:30. The rest of my group was made up of Chinese tourists who, though very talkative amongst themselves, had nothing to say to me.

Our first stop of the morning was Avebury, which is about two hours from London. Avebury is the largest stone circle in all of Europe, so large in fact that the village of Avebury is actually built inside it! Though not nearly as sophisticated as Stonehenge, Avebury is in fact more than 2000 years older (which perhaps explains the lack of sophistication).

The next stop was Stonehenge itself. I'm told that "henge" means "hanging" or "hung" making Stonehenge "hanging stones." Kinda nifty, right? Stonehenge was everything I wanted it to be. They provide free audio guides with admission, which I found incredibly helpful. They explained what I was seeing, as well as what I would see at different times through out the year. Stonehenge does in fact work as a calendar, but I have to wonder what else it was built for. The audio guide told me two myths about the building of Stonehenge, and interestingly enough, both involved the stones having been flown from Ireland. Makes you wonder right?

The last stop of the day was Glastonbury. This was something really special. The ruins of the abbey are worth seeing just for the amazing architecture (they even have part of the floor tiles saved), but the myths surrounding Glastonbury make it even more special. The abbey was destroyed during the Reformation period, when King Henry VIII's men got a little carried away collecting money from the monastery. Glastonbury is special because it is said to be where Joseph of Arimathea came after Christ's death. There is a thorn growing there that is said to be where he struck the ground with his staff. The Brits believe that Joseph of Arimathea was the great uncle of Jesus. I remember hearing in my King Arthur class last fall that this was not true, that he was a follower of Jesus, but that him being related to Jesus was part of the King Arthur legend, in which Galahad is Joseph's grandson and that is why he could achieve the Grail. (Dad maybe you could clear that up? Does Joseph of Arimathea's relationship to Jesus get mentioned in the Bible?) Glastonbury is also said to have been the resting place of Arthur and his queen, Guinevere. In the 11th century, a monk had a dream that there bodies where buried near the abbey. The next morning, he ordered and excavation and, low and behold, they found two bodies (I'm not saying I believe that these bodies were actually Arthur and Guinevere, but that is still pretty cool). They put the body of Arthur in an extravagant tomb before the high altar with the King of England present. The tomb was destroyed when the abbey was ransacked. I wonder what happened to body.

After I finished exploring the abbey, I made my way to the Chalice Well Garden. The Chalice Well is a well over a spring that has never run dry, not even during the hottest summer. According to legend, this well is where Joseph of Arimathea hid the chalice from the last supper. The pools around the well are said to have healing properties, and they also have a place with cups for people to drink the water from the well. I decided not to use one of the cups, but I did drink some of the water from my cupped hands and I dipped my feet into the pool. I'll let you all know if I feel anything special in the next couple of days.

I didn't have time to make my way to the Glastonbury Tor, which is said to be where Avalon might have been. The bus ride to the Tor took 12 minutes, and then I would have had to walk up it, and I didn't have enough time to do it. I guess this means that I have to make another trip...

The reason the tour group visits all three sites in the same trip is rather interesting. All three sites fall on ley lines, places of stron magnetic pull. Even more intriguing, all three sites lie on the same ley line.

The whole day was extraordinary. Unfortunately, the late start in the morning, coupled with the other people in the group being late getting back to the bus in Glastonbury, meant that our arrival in Lonon was much later than expected (8:15, instead of the original 6:30), and I missed getting to see Wicked (which started at 7:30). This is my only real disappointment on this trip. Other than that, I have had an amazing time in England. As I said, they have a marvelous public transportation system, which was made the whole trip incredibly easy. I may have to look into publishing houses in London after I graduate.

My flight to Florence leaves in an hour. I'll update again later.

Back in London!

     Hello again!
     As many of you may know, I spent the last two days in Cornwall (the southwest of England). It was absolutely gorgeous! A little chilly, though.

     The reason I went to Cornwall was to visit Tintagel Castle, which is along the coast line and is said to be the birthplace of King Arthur. I was staying in a little town called Bodmin, and from Bodmin it takes two buses to get to Tintagel. It was entirely worth the trip. Unfortunately, my camera battery died on me, so I wasn't able to take any pictures. Luckily, as I was getting off the bus, I met a girl named Madeline, who is about my age and turned out to live in New Hampshire, about 30 minutes from where I go to school! The two of us ended up spending the day together exploring and her camera is working, so she will send me those pictures when she can.

     We arrived at Tintagel at about noon and as soon as we arrived we were told that the Castle was closed because of high winds. You have to understand that Tintagel is located on incredibly high (and steep) cliffs on something that is very close to being an island. The winds were so strong that people could barely stand. Not to be discouraged, we decided to stick around for a while to see if the wind died down. We went down to the beach, and then climbed part of the hill. We made it almost half way before the winds stopped us from going any further. I felt like I was about to be blown off the cliff! I almost lost my glasses a couple times, too! After we made it back down (very slowly and holding on to as many things as possible), we took a break and grabbed lunch in the little cafe, chatting about books and such. Sometime while we were in there, it started to drizzle. Eventually we decided to pop into the gift shop and if there was no sign of hope, buy a few postcards and call it a day.

     Luckily for us, just as we completed our purchases, they told us that the Castle had been reopened! We climbed up to the top of the cliffs to see the ruins.

     The view is indescribable. Even with the fog, we could see for miles and the water is a lovely turquoise color. The ruins are just as amazing. You can get a sense of how long they have been standing and get a real sense of the people who lived there at one point. The rooms and windows are so small, though, that it seems hard to think anyone lived there! Like many other old buildings, the doorways that remain are also incredibly low. It's a good thing I'm so short! The well still remains, and there is also even an old tunnel!

     After we climbed back down (being even more careful this time. The wind was starting to pick up again and it was already wet from the rain, not to mention the steps are uneven to begin with), we went back down to the beach. The tide had gone out at that point, as we could venture out a little bit further and poke into the caves that are there. One of them had a pool of sea foam still sitting on the bottom.

     We made our way back through the little town to the bus stop. Let me tell you, those people embrace the tourism trade! Nearly every shop had something to do with either Arthur or Merlin. we poked our heads into a few of them before hopping back on the bus to go back to our respective destinations.

     I am now back in London, having gotten a train back early this morning. After checking into my hostel, I got my camera battery situation worked out, so I can take pictures the rest of my trip (Yay!!). Tomorrow will be a busy day. A bus will pick me up from my hostel at 7:50 a.m. to take me to explore some other King Arthur related sites, including Glastonbury and Stonehenge. I'll get back to London by 6:30 p.m., grab a quick bite to eat, and then head to the Victoria Apollo to see Wicked on stage, something I have been dying to do for a while and am so glad to have the opportunity to do.

     Thursday will be another early morning. My flight leaves for Florence at 9:25 a.m. putting me there at 12:40 p.m. I'll then check in and move into my apartment, which is on the Piazza del Mercato. As I understand, this is a very central location, only a few blocks from the Duomo. Very lucky!

First Few Days: Enriching and Lucky!

     Shortly after arriving in London, I got some pretty exciting news: My friend Lisa, from school, was also in London. I met up with her and her cousin in Chinatown for dinner. We had some pretty good food, then explored Picadilly Circle. So much fun!


     This morning I got up after a lovely 11 hours of sleep and enjoyed the free breakfast provided by my hostel. Then I got ready to head out for the day. I spent about 3 hours touring the British Museum. So much to see! It was so nice to explore all the things they have from Ancient Greece and Egypt. They took an entire monument from Greece!


     After that, I went to Harrod's to see the Chocolate Bar again. My uncle took me the last time, and I just had to go again. I had a taste of 3 different types of hot chocolate. It was pure HEAVEN!! I can't even tell you which one I liked best.

     Tomorrow morning, I head by train to Cornwall to see Tintagel. It will the start of another adventure!

So Tired!!!

     I left yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m., then went on to Charlotte, North Carolina for an overnight flight to London. The flight from the US to the UK is about 8 hours. Despite what the airline had told me, I was stuck in a middle seat for those 8 hours, and they don’t give you much room! Very cramped! I tried to sleep during the flight, but being used to being up until around 2 a.m., sleep well, didn’t happen. I did however, watch both The King’s Speech and Gulliver’s Travels. I thought about watching the first part of Deathly Hallows, but Dobby dying at the end never fails to make me sob, and I somehow thought that might make the people around me slightly uncomfortable.

     I finally arrived in London at around 7:30 a.m. local time (around 2:30 a.m. Eastern). Then I took the train into London, and then the tube to Camden. I am now safely inside my hostel. However, check in doesn’t start until 2 p.m., so I’m mostly just hanging out downstairs until then.

I could really use a nap!!

Bring on the Church-Sanctioned Indulgence!

     Hello everyone!

     This blog is to keep my family and friends up to date on my whereabouts and plans during my time abroad this summer. I’ll try to post frequent updates, with a lot of pictures

     I set out on Thursday afternoon (yikes!!) First stop: UK. I’ll arrive in London on Friday morning (May 20). I’ll spend some time in London, playing tourist. I can’t wait to see the British Museum!

     On Sunday, May 22, I’ll head to Cornwall to see Tintagel Castle, the supposed birthplace of King Arthur. Yay for embracing the geek-dom!

     I’ll head back to London on May 24.

     On May 25, I have a fantastic daytrip through Anderson Tours, that will take me to Stonehenge, Avebury, Glastonbury, and Chalice Well Gardens. (More geek fun!)

     The next day, I’ll head to Florence and check in with Lorenzo de Medici, my school in Italy, and move into my apartment for the summer. Classes start on May 30. My first class: Current Trends in Italian Cuisine. The school gives the description: “Students will be introduced to the major elements that distinguish high-level Italian cooking through the original recipes from authentic master chefs…During each lesson students, besides learning how to prepare the recipes, will learn about the history of the foods, regional differences and nutritional values. Students will also learn basic cooking skills and how to choose ingredients, comparing their eating habits with those of a typical Italian family. Particular attention will be given to the presentation, decoration and the color scheme of the dishes. During the semester a visit to a food market, a wine testing session at a wine store, and a meal at a Mediterranean restaurant are generally scheduled.” Who wants me to cook for them when I get back?

     The weekend of June 10, I’ll spend just outside Sienna with a couple of my dad’s siblings. I’m very excited!! I am incredibly lucky to have an absolutely amazing family, so this promises to be a fantastic weekend.

     Then on June 24, I’ll meet my parents in Venice for the weekend. This will be an easy weekend. Much better to let my parents spend their money for me then to spend it myself!

     Somewhere in there, I’ll see another of my dad’s siblings, as well as my mom’s best friend.

     After seeing my parents though, the barrage of family visits will be over and I can go back to spending nights and weekends with the new friends I’ll, hopefully, make this summer.

     Then I start my second class of the summer, Italian Renaissance Civilization and Culture. Is there a better place than Florence to take this class? I think not!

     Other than that, my plans are still up in the air. I received my youth Eurail pass today, which gives me a lot of freedom to travel within in Italy. Any ideas where I should go?

     I’ll head back home at the end of July and will spend a month hanging around and making some money before I head back to Keene for my senior year!