Prague!

PRAGUE was beautiful! It was absolutely freezing, but I am so glad I got to see it with Cara who has been studying abroad there since September. She leaves on December 15th in just a few days, so it was really exciting to be able to spend her last weekend abroad with her in Prague. However, I have never had such bad luck travel-wise. I missed my flight from Florence and had to rebook so I didn't end up getting to her apartment in Prague until after midnight. When I finally arrived they had drinks waiting for me and we went out right away and I got to experience Prague with people who know what they're doing. Which is good, because I don't speak Czech...

We went sightseeing, drank Starbucks(!), climbed a small eiffel tower, saw the Lennon wall, walked Charles Bridge, and visited the Christmas markets. It was a beautiful and absolutely magical place, really.

Getting back was even more of a disaster than trying to get there. There was a huge snow storm so my flight from Prague to Munich was delayed, causing me to miss my flight back to Florence, and ended with me spending the night in a hotel and getting back to Florence the next afternoon. Other than missing class it wasn't all bad! I got free dinner and breakfast and I had time to shop in the Munich airport, and I love Germany so no complaining here!

That's life, eh? I've learned that while studying abroad. Things will not go as expected, and when they inevitably don't, you can allow yourself only five minutes to be upset, then pick yourself up and move on because, well, everything happens for a reason. Life is too unique and surprising to be planned out too well, and I've learned a lot more from the moments of struggle and confusion than when everything works out just as it should. No regrets!

Here are some photos of my weekend with my best:

View of Prague from the top of the tower

Cara!

Cara on Charles Bridge

Christmas Markets in Prague

Lennon Wall

Goodbye beautiful Prague, until next time!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It's definitely Christmas time in the city! Sparkling lights illuminate the streets and although it's been quite rainy lately, I can't help but feel the Christmas spirit whenever I walk around this beautiful city. The Christmas markets are up in Santa Croce, and vendors sell warm red wine, spices, ornaments, organic beer and wine, fresh warm pastries, and plenty of other goodies.

School-wise, the semester is definitely winding down. I finally finished sewing, dying, and painting my dress for Italian Fashion Design! Now only three papers, one exhibition, a presentation, and a final exam lay between me and a plane ride home after nearly four months of la vita Italiana!

Here are some pictures from my recent jaunts around Florence, ciao for now!

One of my favorite streets

Santa Croce church, and Christmas market

My finished masterpiece (better photos to come...)

A Weekend With Great Friends

Just another week in Florence, still winding down from an exciting weekend in Rome and back here in Florence with great friends! I met DU besties Cara and Vanessa in Rome for a fun filled Friday night of Rome shenanigans, then took the train back to Florence to show them around my abroad home for a few days. We managed to get a lot of great things in just a few days, here are some pictures that better capture our weekend. I miss them already! I'll be back down to Rome to visit Vanessa before we head back to the States, and I'll be visiting Cara at her abroad home in Prague the weekend of December 7th. The fun times are far from over, but I can't help but be amazed and sad by how fast these months have flown by!

School-wise, I have started to create my final project for Italian Fashion Design, a retro-inspired dress with the Florentine skyline silhouetted along the bottom hem of the circle-skirt.. It's a rough project in the making but I'll post pictures as soon as it gets presentable!

Fall Break in Greece, and More!

I can't believe that I haven't written a blog post in more than three weeks.. Oops! Time really has gotten away from me here and it's just hitting me now that I have exactly 29 days left until I leave my study abroad life behind and head back home to the states. The last time I blogged, October 26th, I was just about to head off to meet my mom and sister in Munich then spend a week in Greece island hopping with them for my fall break. Because I have three weeks worth of adventures to write about in one blog post I'll recap my favorite and most memorable experiences:

Greece recap:

- One of the most delicious meals of my life I had when we first got to the largest of the Greek islands, Naxos. Fun fact: Naxos is known for their local cheese and wine thought to cure heartbreak. We went to Deaudas, a restaurant right on the water of the port town recommended by a local. We ate olives, greek salads, dolmas, and practically drank their olive oil. It was absolutely amazing.

- Santorini is truly a magical place. The volcanic history, cliffs dropping hundreds of feet into bright blue water, and the famous blue and white buildings made for an experience I will never forget. You feel like you're on top of the world looking out over the most pristine oceanic horizon known to man. We ate a full fish dinner our first night in Santorini, which also happened to be Halloween back in the states, and watched the full harvest moon come up over the Adriatic Sea.

Naxos Island

Mom swimming in Greece

Me on the beach in November?!

Amy in Santorini

Santorini Sunset

Acropolis, Athens

Week in Florence with Mom and Amy:

After we got back from Greece my mom and sister stayed in Florence for a week so I got to show them around my new home, and I got experience life in a hotel in my own city. We went on a wine tasting tour through Tuscany all day that Sunday, which I had been waiting to do since I got here! The next night we took a cooking class across the river. We spent the week sight seeing and relaxing in beautiful Florence, and I'm so glad they lucked out with weather while they were here it was sunny and nice almost every day. Ah I'm getting so sad that they're not here anymore! I took them to my favorite restaurants, gelaterias, museums, and stores, so I think I did Florence justice with them.

Wine Tasting Tour in Tuscany

At the Cheese Farm!

Boboli Gardens in Florence with Amy

The weekend my mom and sister left I went on a field trip with my school to Arezzo, Assisi, and some more hill towns, which was beautiful and relaxing (for once the school field trip was relaxing..unheard of).

THEN! This last weekend I was in Barcelona with DU friends which was so so so much fun. We ate tapas, drank sangria, saw Gaudi's architecture, walked barefoot on the beach, experienced plenty of the Barcelona nightlife, and, again, shopped a ton.

Seafood Paella! YUM!

Gaudi Park

What a whirlwind of a month I've just had!! This weekend I'm off to visit friends in Rome, in a few weekends I'll be in Prague, then back home to Colorado on December 20th! Life is good, but I wish I could slow down time just a little to soak in everything that has happened, where I've been, and where I'm going. Happy Thanksgiving, until next time!

Roman Weekend

I'm finally done with midterms - now it's time to relax and recap the last week! Last Friday I trekked to Rome with my High Renaissance Art History class. We had three full 12 hour days of seeing art, going to churches, museums, villas, and seeing everything else Rome has to offer. When I say there is very little of Rome we didn't see on this trip, I am not exaggerating.. Our professor had us speed walking everywhere, barely having time to stop for bathroom breaks or for lunch. A lot of what we saw I had seen when I was in Rome with my mom last summer, so it was especially fun to revisit those places.

I was so excited that I got to see the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel for a second time, as well as one of my favorite museums, the Borghese Gallery, with its beautiful green gardens surrounding the villa. The Bernini sculptures in the Borghese are some of my favorite art works of all time, especially his Apollo and Daphne piece. On Saturday night we went out to an amazing restaurant near our hotel in the Campo dei Fiori, where Caesar was supposedly assassinated.. I had a pear and pistachio ravioli that was absolutely incredible. For dessert we had the house special, Nutella tiramisu... enough said. It was to die for.

Here are some pictures that can better describe what we did and everything we saw:

The Italian Flag - abstract?

Belvedere Torso

Spanish Steps at Night

Villa d'Este

Hadrian's Villa