EuroKelsey: It's Been a While

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long since my last update. I've been distracted by all the amazing things going on around me. Since my last update, I turned 20 (yikes! I feel so old!). We celebrated by going out to a club and then the bar that we live above. We've decided that the Fish Pub (which is directly underneath us) is our new favorite place! When the owner, Lorenzo, found out that we live right above him, he offered us free drinks, and when he found out it was my birthday, he bought the four of us roses from the rose vendor. So nice! Now, whenever we go in, he refers to us as family.

I've also made a whole bunch of amazing food in my class. I can make several kinds of bread from scratch, a couple different soups, pasta dishes, meat dishes, desserts, and finger foods. I can't wait to share the recipes with everyone! I'll put pictures of some of the things we made at the bottom of this post.

Last week, I got to have dinner with Burt, Walter, and Ellen. We found a cute little restaurant not far from my apartment that had great food. Though, I'm not sure it's possible to have really bad food in Italy. Maybe I just haven't found it yet. Afterwards, I took Ellen out for a little bit to celebrate her graduation from high school. Congrats again, Ellen!

This past weekend, I went with Janet, Henry, and Henry's cousin Giovanni to Rimini for a few days. Rimini is a town right on the beach. We stayed in a fantastic hotel right on the water. We spent Saturday in San Marino, which is actually a small republic within Italy.

There are some gorgeous views from the cliffs and towers.

We spent Sunday at the beach, sunning and swimming. It felt great to finally get something resembling a tan!

I've been going on some really interesting trips around Florence through my school. I got to see how gelato is made a few weeks ago. Last week, I got to see the famous pharmacy at Santa Maria Novella, and today I got to go look a leather workshop.

One of the master craftsmen at work

There's only one week left in this session, so most people are getting ready to go home. I'm so glad to have another month to explore such an amazing city!