Lately

1. Homemade eggs benedict

2. Jimmy's Birthday cake made by Ella and me

3. Homemade spicy chocolate gelato by Ella, Jeff and me

4. Cuddling and watching tv on my iPad

5. Diner pancakes

6. Leftover Steak and eggs

7 & 8. Skiing at Hunter Mountain with Molly

9. Lunch at Red eye with Jeff - turkey, brie, pear and avocado

10. Cuddling with Butchie

11. Brunch crepes with Jeff: Smoked salmon, goat cheese, avocado and onion

Roman Holiday

On Friday I went to Rome with Grace, Olivia and Carmen. We took an 11 am train and got in a little before one. I'm so happy I have a eurail pass! I was able to go to the station a couple minutes before the train and just get on. I love the ability to come and go as I please. When we got in we went to our hostel to drop off our stuff. It was a tiny hostel on the 5th floor of a small building. They only had a couple rooms and because of booking I was in a single and the rest of the girls were in a triple. We went to dinner at this over-priced but delicious trattoria near the hostel. We didn't realize how over-priced it was until we got our food and the portion size was tiny! The food was delicious though and they were playing The National, one of my newly favorite bands!

After lunch we went to the Trevi Fountain (or as David calls it - the Cherry fountain) and took some pictures. We got gelato at a place claiming to be one of the best - Il Gelato di San Crispino. I got honey and coffee. It was really good! The honey tasted like unprocessed honey which is less sweet and more flavorful than regular honey. After we made our way over to the Spanish steps. We sat there for a while, looking out at the beautiful sunset and taking in Rome. Everyone was exhausted and starting to get a little grumpy, so we went back to the hostel for a nap. We were slow moving and didn't get to dinner until 10. We went to a place called Alfredo that didn't have Alfredo on the menu. Olivia asked if they could make it and they said yes. When she got her dish it was pasta with tomato sauce, sausage and mushrooms (Olivia HATES mushrooms), but fortunately I was able to switch with her. I got carbonara and it tasted purely like black pepper, which I'm not the biggest fan of. Dinner overall was kind of a bust, service wasn't good and they didn't take credit cards!

We went out that night to a bar/club called the Shark. We ended up meeting a bunch of Spanish kids on the way there (we were actually going some where else), but we decided to go out with them. It was half indoors, half outdoors which was nice! The next morning I ended up heading back to Florence early than I had anticipated. Even though my trip to Rome was short, I'll be heading back soon for a class trip so I'll get to see everything I didn't the first time! 

Conveyer belt sushi!

Last night Mom and I went out for a really fun dinner at a Japanese place called Kome. The sushi comes around on a conveyer belt and you just grab what you want. At the end they count up your plates and charge you accordingly. One of the best parts was not having to wait to get food! To be honest I'm not sure exactly what I ate, but it was all delicious. My favorite thing was some type of tempura rice ball covered in a creamy sauce.

Today was such a hectic fun day! For my art history class we met at the San Marco museum (twice in two days!), went outside the Medici Palace and then to San Lorenzo. My cultures and context teacher was shadowing the lesson and I enjoyed having two brilliant professors in one place! I like it when worlds collide. Then my cultures and context professor, Bruce, and I walked over to the archeological museum. Our class was spent looking at art from the Etruscan period, including the famous Chimera! I went up to campus for Italian and then met my mom to show her around the campus. We walked down back down to florence, went shopping and then went out to dinner with Chloe. We wandered around down by the train station and stopped at a nice looking place that had seats outside. Mom got a salad and tagliolini with bolognese. Chloe and I eat had salads and then split a pizza with tuna, onions and olives. For dessert we went to Grom for gelato (as usual). I got dark chocolate and nugat! One of the best flavor combos yet!