Day 29 - July 28

 Thursday. Last day of class :( I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee my food class. I loveeeeeeeeeee my teacher. And I loveeeeeeeeeeee all my new friends I have met and cooked with in that class! It is so weird to say goodbye to the people I have bonded with for the past month, even just through a class, because I really may never see them ever again. It is such a weird feeling!! Our cooking final went amazing. We cooked spaghetti with a very simple olive oil, cheese, and pepper sauce for the first course and we had 3 celebrity (old students of our teacher's) judges to be served. It was so much fun. I felt like we were on iron chef...only we got to pick the ingredient. I had to make a presentation about the food and where it cmae from and talk about how to make it. It tasted delicious and we ate every last bit of food that was cooked today. At the end of class we all took pictures with Marco, our teacher, and let me tell you that he is quite the character. He was telling everyone how he demanded us to take pictures and that they were totally necessary when we asked if it was ok. He also said that he loved our class...how much? Enough to make a little heart with his hands over the top of my head when we took a picture together!! It was so funny because he wouldn't seem like the kind of person to be funny like that! The picture is
great...and I still need to upload it :) So the rest of the day I was busy, busy, busy. I had to go out and take my pictures for my final project, study for my test, and edit more pictures for my portfolio. I am swamped. I think that I got some good pictures throughout the day, but that never means that my teacher thinks the same thing like ever. I was so stressed out about the exam and the final and all the editing that I had to do that I didn't even get to finish everything! Unfortunately my portfolio is the thing that had to suffer because I did not have time to edit my pictures in the correct format to be  printed. Everything else was done for a grade so I felt those were a little more important. So after we all went crazy a little bit in there trying to keep up with all the work, I forced a group picture! It was so funny. My teacher is NOT photogenic and does NOT know how to take a picture like at all. I even got a picture of him and I together and it took us like 5 times to get one where he at least is looking at the camera with his eyes open. It was like working with a child. But it was really funny because I was laughing at him the whole time and meanwhile we all think that he has a crush on me so he was really nervous...or at least that is what we think. Probably not all that true. But I had to rush out of class to make it for the program dinner for steak tonight!!! We all got dressed up and headed to the restaurant. We had a blast!!! I am really going to miss a lot of the people I have met here and it is weird that I won't be seeing them or talking to them on a regular basis after this weekend!! We all had such a great time eating. I got the famous Florentine steak with the blueberry sauce...oh my god. That is like heavenly. So tasty!!! We also got a pasta sampler...5 different pastas passed around, then dessert sampler which was 4 different slices of dessert!!! There was a chocolate brownie cake, terrimisu, fruit tart, and I think cheesecake or something? I actually do not remember! It was such a good dinner and I am so happy that I got to experience all of this. I loved every second of my time here and it is so sad to think about it being over!! We all decided to go out together in celebration of our last night. It was a good time, but Carrie and I went home early so we could get some sleep before our extremely busy day tomorrow. It will be my last day tomorrow and my goal is to shop until literally all my money is gone!!! I want to get a bunch of stuff done so I don't want to be up too late!!! Can't wait to be coming home, but I really am so sad to leave Florence!!! It has been such an amazing experience that has probably changed who I am and who I will be in the future, but in such an awesome way. I also have made some friends that will last forever I think. I am really close to some of the girls and I know we will make the effort to drive the ridiculous amount of hours that are between us. We just have so much fun and I have become used to talking, seeing, and living with them everyday. Can't believe it is over!!!

Day 28 - July 27

 Wednesday. So my second to last day of classes and I start the week off with a written final in my food class. I woke up early to study (since last night didn't go too well) and I didn't even look over my recipes). But surprisingly the test went very well!! I think I did fine on it and just had to write 10 short answers explaining 3 different regions of Italy, and the recipes that went along with that region. It went pretty easily. So my next thing to do was photography class. Today we walked around a little bit and took some more pictures for another project that was actually due today. It was a little overwhelming because on top of that new project we had to make a 10 picture portfolio of printed pictures, turn in a final project on Italian culture (10 photos), and a paper explaning our view...plus a written test in there tomorrow too. It is way too much! But the project we did today was on macro pictures which means that you are super close to the subject or one thing is in focus while everything else is blurred and very abstract. They were very interesting and cool pictures and I wish we would have had more time to spend on this subject, but it is a little late now. Anyway, I feel like I got a lot done today. I edited 4 other pictures to be printed for my portfolio and finished my macro project. Just one more day to go in this class before I can relax!!!
 After class was over, there was a group of us that wanted to go to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. It is called Gatto del Volpe. They serve family style for 15 euros. It is the best deal around! Appetizers including meats, veggies, caprise salad, and bruschettas. Then we get 3 different pastas for our main dish...we got penne vodka (2 orders of that because it is unbelievably good) and a mushroom tortolini with a truffle sauce. Talk about amazing. Then we also get unlimited wine and water, which is a really big deal because water is not free. You have to pay and sometimes it is a lot for water, but the wine alone was worth the 15 euros!! We drink a lot of wine while we eat dinner. So obviously it was a great dinner and an awesome night! I love that place...and their penne vodka :) We then all came back to the apartment and studied for tests in the morning/next day. I wanted to get some sleep since I had a cooking final and then all my photography stuff to do during the day. I passed out with my nook on my chest because I was reading and fell asleep right in the middle of it. Only one more day of classes left!! I know it will be sad for my food class to be over, but my photography class has been so stressful and hard that I will be looking forward to 6:45 when I am done with that class.

Day 27 - July 26

 I cannot believe I am in my last week!! I have a feeling this is how all my entries are going to start until it comes down to the day I come home. It seems like I have been here forever, but at the same time it is weird that it is coming to an end. Anyways...Tuesday morning and I am excited to go to my last cooking lesson before our finals on Wednesday and Thursday. Oh my god. I had no idea what I had coming my way. Seafood day. When I walked in, I knew it was not going to be pleasant because of the smell. We had mussels, which were alive and we learned that we had to kill them by ripping off the beard that allows them to breathe. That so was not even the worst of it. Then shrimp, luckily without the heads on them, had to be cracked open, peeled and the little legs had to be ripped off and it had to be opened up to pull the vein out of it before cooking. Awesome. Then came the anchovies. Luckily they were also beheaded before we got to them. My teacher wasn't happy but I was thankful. He held it up...stuck his thumb down where the head would be, split the body completely open then pulled the bone out and twisted the tail off. I thought I was going to be sick. And finally the calamary. Squid. Full bodied, eyes and tenticles and head and guts all still intact. I was unable to watch at this point and I was literally sick to my stomach. My teacher laughed at me but kept explaining how to cut off the long tenticles and twist the head off and pull the brain/guts out in one piece, then cut out the eyes...or squeeze till they pop out sometimes. I wanted to throw up. I was so appalled by what he was telling me that I couldn't even look in the same general direction as the rest of the class. Luckily there were a few others that felt the same way I did, so I wasn't alone in my disgust. After the massacre of fish was over, he explained the other things that will go along with the fish. Pasta...my specialty, a sponge cake, and zucchine flan. The pasta was cut into little, tiny chunks where I then took a knife and pressed down to curl it around the edge until I could unravel it to make a cute little circular pasta! It was really cute...but was such a long process. There were 4 of us doing it, but it still probably took the longest out of everything else to prepare. It was cooked with brocolli, which is something I miss. Pasta and brocolli, but it is not the same as home of course. It was boiled down and sauted until it was basically mush. Then anchovies were added to the sauce, against my will. The zucchine flan was not my favorite and the cake was way too much over kill with the ricotto cheese. Needless to say I did not eat very much at all today.
 I didn't feel good for the rest of the day and didn't even eat until after photography class around like 8pm. Photography was good because we edited our pictures, sent them in, learned about our final more which is going to be big. We have a written test, a 10 picture portfolio to be printed out, along with another 10 picture assignment having to do with Italian culture. My emphasis is going to be on food I believe, since that is basically what my entire trip has been molded around. Lorenzo de Medici (my school) put on a farewell dinner for us tonight as well. I went into it expecting what we got for the welcome dinner...basically appetizers that were not filling whatsoever. Instead we get a full blown meal. Best part...for free!! We got lasagna that was the best I have had this whole trip, risotto, salad with grilled chicken (no dressing because they do not believe in salad dressing), grilled garlic/butter potatoes, and not one but two helpings of teramisu. I was stuffed beyond belief because of course I did not let a single morsel of food go to waste. I ate everything and was miserably happy the rest of the night. We eventually went home and I had to study for my final in Food class in the morning. We have to know 3 different regions, and about 12 recipes. So studying is what I should do the whole night. Too bad I have ADD and JJ was online and there were people in and out of our apartment. I didn't even start to write my paper until after midnight and begin reading the information 45 minutes after that. I decided though that I would be better off going to sleep and reading in the morning instead of staying up now. Goodnight!!!! 4 days left!!

Day 26 - July 25

 Monday...last week of class. It is crazy to think that it is all amost done! Finals are this week and my last chances to see anything left in Florence!! I have so much I want to do this week, but I really just don't have enough time! Today in food class we made ravioli finally! Our teacher said that it was something that was going to be hard and difficult to do correctly...obviously he was underestimating my class' cooking skills. We made them so well! We also made this eggplant, tomatoe, olive appetizer. It was interesting because it was all cooked together and a little mushy, but it was not bad at all. Then we also made fried rice balls, which were obviously good. I mean how could something that is fried with cheese and rice in it not be good? Finally for dessert we made fried, sweet ravioli with honey drizzled on top. It was fantastic...and I know how to make homemade ravioli now too! So it was another successful day of cooking today. In between classes I had a lot of homework to do for photography because I had an assignment to turn in plus a paper explaining my selection. This one had to do with landscape photos, which was probably the easiest of all my assignments. I focused my pictures on things around Florence and it turned out alright...not necessarily my best work because I don't think my teacher liked them all that much. I mean I thought he had a crush on me?! Haha guess that didn't last that long...I am getting much better at photoshop though. I can make anything brighter or darker in a picture like a pro. So that will be great to go home and make all my pictures look even better for me to use to decorate my house/room. Maybe I will share my pictures with Taylor too... :) So after class was over I raced back to the apartment to get ready for my boat trip down the Arno River that I signed up for through school! It is basically a gongola ride down the river that flows in the middle of Florence. There were 2 boats with 2 guys pushing

us along with a big stick against the bottom of the river. These boats were 100 years old!!

It was really pretty because the sun was setting and we were seeing things that could only be seen from the river, not the streets. Although it was a very slow boat ride, it was relaxing to just sit there and enjoy the view. 5 euros well spent.

Carrie, Miyon, and I (my roommates) were starving after that too. So we met up with Liz (other roommate) for a nice dinner at this outdoor patio restaurant. We shared a bottle, or two, of wine and sat for a good hour or two just talking and soaking in one of our last nights in Florence. It is crazy to think that I am running out of time here so quickly! As much as I have loved being here though...I will say that I am kind of ready to be home. I miss being home and everyone there!! Can't believe something that I have been looking forward to for so long is actually coming to an end. I have mixed feelings about it ending, because I want to go home but don't want my trip to be over. I think it would all be better if everyone at home just came here with me!! That would be perfect :) Only 5 days left...ahhhh!!!

Day 25 - July 24

 Sunday = beach day. We wake up after a full nights sleep :) and get some breakfast. It was the best continental breakfast ever! Plus I basically filled my beach bag with snacks and fruit for later so it was even better. We headed to the beach intending on buying chairs and umbrellas to lay out on because they were only supposed to be 5 euros. Well instead we get there and the only 3 left are in the back corner away from the ocean and they are 10 euros, not 5. All of us are way too cheap for that so we decided to go find some space on the free sand. Funny to call it sand though...it was rocks and gravel. You couldn't lay too close to the water in the real sand because it had such high tides that you and your stuff would be drenched. It was soooooo not comfortable but we were happy just to be laying out. We were there for a while then it was kayaking time! We were all a little aprehensive at first because the ocean was a little rough, but I didn't want to miss. Carrie and I were partners and we were pretty good at it. She has done it before so I got a quick lesson before being pushed out into the water.

We rowed around for a while and hung out in the water with everyone, but then eventually made our way home. I was so exhausted from rowing that it took us forever to get back to where we started though. Carrie and I made a great team and didn't fall over once! There were 2 other kayakes that did tip so that made me happy that I was not one of them...that ocean is way too scary for me to be floating around out there! We get back, I reapply some sunscreen (you're welcome mom) and pass out on the rocks. I am going to be so sore tomorrow it is not even funny. Between hiking, kayaking, and laying in gravel, my whole body is going to hurt! On top of all those things, however, Carrie and I decided to (unintentionally) add to our overall "painful" weekend. We saw this awesome looking rock that was massive and half way in the ocean, half way on the shore. We wanted to take pictures on it. Little did we know that most of the beach was covered in, not sand, but rocks. Small, hard rocks. We did not take our flip flops and were miserable the entire way. It was so funny to watch from an outsiders view I am sure, but we have never hurt so bad walking to a stupid rock. The pictures weren't even good because I just look like I am in pain. It is funny now...but at the time...it was really bad.

Either way though I had such a great time and I got quite a good little tan which made me happy :) No sunburn this time either...which was even better. I got another smoothie (pineapple, banana, orange) and we walked towards the train to get home. It was a 3 hour train ride again, but at least this time it was a nonstop train. On the way there we had 3 different stops and some of the time we didn't even get seats. It was miserable. Finally we get home...I go through some of my million pictures it seems and go to bed. I was the first one of the apartment to sleep and it was amazing. Tomorrow starts my last week of classes!! Then it is home time!! Crazy to think I only have one week left...

Day 24 - July 23

 Saturday morning we wake up early and meet to get on a 3 hour train ride to Cinque Terre!! This is probably one of the most exciting weekends I have had to look forward to because I have been wanting to do this very famous hike! We get there and the weather is beautiful, the hotel is actually pretty nice (AC, oh yea!) and the little beach town is adorable. We all grab some food, snacks, and water then prepare for our 4 hour hike! We start off at the first village where the hike to the second one is more like a walk on a paved road because it is supposed to be the easy part where everyone can go. After that it gets more difficult. The second part of the hike is closed because of a landslide, so obviously we skip over that. We take a train to the next village. There are 5 villages within Cinque Terre and the hike is what is in between all of them. So once we get to the third village we have the 2 big hikes to go. The first one took us about an hour and a half. It was gorgeous though. It was right along side the ocean and followed up and down the mountain. I was in love with it! We were very high up so we couldn't feel the waves, but the breeze made the weather basically perfect to hike in.

All the views were breathtaking and it was so crazy to see where we were climbing to, then get to the top and look back at what we had already accomplished. The hike, needless to say, was a very fulfilling achievement. There were a lot of parts that were just ledges to walk on with the mountain on the right and no much but a steepm, rocky cliff going down to the ocean. I tried to take pictures of what the hike was like, but I didn't get all that many from those parts...I chose to keep my life safe than get some pictures while walking. So the last hike also took us about the same time as the other long one. And the whole thing was unbelievable and totally worth every hard part we walked through and every one of the million steps we climbed to get to the through all the villages. Leg work out...check! Dad would have been so happy.

So then we got some smoothies as a celebration of finishing at this awesome place that made their smoothies with nothing but fresh fruit. You name the fruit...they will blend up the smoothie. We go back and rest (very little), shower, change, and head out for dinner. We are all starving and before we walk into the restaurant our program director Chiara asks if we all like seafood. Now I answered yes to this question, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. By saying yes I would try it out I ate muscles (not great, not bad), scallops (love them), calamary (absolutely disgusting), octopus (eww), shrimp (I made myself eat because everything else was yucky), crawdads with the full head and body (I literally couldn't even look at them), and swordfish (actually pretty good). Let me say that there were 2 shrimps that I didn't look at, but just ate because the seafood salad was horrible. There were like 3 tiny scallops, which was all that I liked, while the rest was calamary and tenticles and heads of octopus. I was almost throwing up on the table...not a joke. The crawdads came with a really good pasta so as soon as the plate was put in front of me, I looked away and let my friend take them off my plate and on to hers. It was awful. I was listening to her say "Crack the head open...suck out the juice...split the body...pull out the meat...it is soooo good." NO. NO. NO. The swordfish came as a fillet so that was ok, and I thought that was pretty good. Then for dessert we got some lemon sorbet. I survived through dinner and somehow got full...thanks to the pasta and bread. We went to the only bar in the area (that is how small Cinque Terre is) for just a little bit, then I headed to bed to get some sleep. It is funny because I have realized that at the end of all my blogs...sleep is the most important thing. I am always tired and I am usually always lacking enough sleep. At least I am having fun while doing it though!!

Our program director, Chiara, and I after dinner! Thanks for making me at least try all the fresh seafood! Sorry I couldn't really eat it all though...

Day 23 - July 22

 Friday...wine day!!! We first go to San Gigiminano (do not know how to spell it, or say it for that matter). It was a very small, cute city that was kind of covered in towers. This city was kind of known for its "skyscrapers" of the 12th century so it was very cool to see the different idea of how a city looked back then compared to our skyscraper citys now. There were even two buildings that were known as the Twin Towers that stand right next to each other...that part was a little sad to think about. Once our very short tour was done there we headed to Chianti for some wine tasting! We got a tour of the winery by the best
tour guide we've had so far. He was hilarious and you could totally tell he loved his wine. He showed us all the barrels to make the wine in and the vineyard and even his cellar of wine collections he has. It was so cool to hear all about the wine before we got to taste it. We got lunch and 3 different kinds of red wine. I loved the Chianti Classico, but I couldn't really tell you what it actually tasted like unfortunatly. Even with a quick wine lesson...I am no wine expert still. We had a lot of good food and it was interesting to actually be able to understand what people mean when they say that the wine brings out the taste in food. I got it now. It was really cool to experience what wines went with what foods and to be able to realize what wines I actually like or do not like. Before, wine all tasted the same and I never would be able to tell the difference. Now, I am a little better...just don't ask me to describe it to you, or explain what I taste. That I still can't do. So we took the bus ride home and I got to skype JJ for a little while, which was nice because I hadn't talked to him in like a week or so. We also went out for Mexican food again for dinner...that is how good it is. I loved that place, as bad as I feel not eating authentic Italian food, I could eat there everyday. We all got burritos and margaritas! Good way to end a long, wine filled day. After that we all went home and pretty much went to bed. Tomorrow morning was even earlier waking up at 6am to go to Cinqueterre for beach, hiking, and kayaking!! I am so excited about it!!