It happened. My worlds have finally collided. My host family and my family had the opportunity of meeting. I had my expectations of what this dinner was going to be like–awkward, strange, uncomfortable. But I was wrong, in fact, I was beyond wrong. Let me mind you, the family is an Italian family speaking very little English. They have a daughter named Beatrice, the mother Elizabetta, and the father Marco. Beatrice taught herself English and normally would be the translator for the parents to me whenever I would attend the dinners within their home. But not tonight.

Right away, my mother and Elizabetta bonded over the fact that they both have ancestors from Sicily. They talked about their heritage and the lineage within their two families and how they both wished to visit there sometime in there lives. Marco was running late, as he normally does, due to work but when he arrived he surprised us all. He had taken the time out of his crazy week and had learned English. Maybe not the entire language, but enough to hold a conversation with my father and mother without translation. Beatrice and I were blown away. This tall, awkward man, transformed into this completely knowledgeable, English conversationalist.

The evening was everything that I hoped for and more. I was thrilled that these two parts of my life came together and actually bonded. They were very happy to have the opportunity to meet each other and talked about meeting again in the future, this time in the United States. They exchanged emails and promised to write each other throughout the times a part. I find this pen pal-esk friendship to be very valuable and something that I know I, as well as my parents, will cherish forever.

If you or anyone you know is planning on study abroad, tell them to consider doing a host family, even if it is just once a week for dinner. It has been the best experience of my life and has taught me more about myself than I ever expected.

Below is a picture of my family and my host family.

This weekend we decided to stay in Italy but travel outside of Florence to Milan and Lake Como. I can honestly say that Lake Como is now my second favorite place that we have visited, behind Amsterdam. I say this because the quaint towns alongside the lake reminded me of the place I used to call my happy place during my childhood. The smell, the happiness of the people, the small, family run businesses, everything there was pure bliss.

When riding on the ferry across this huge lake, I could only think about my memories from my childhood lake house and how much I missed it. I thought about the new family who lives in the family house and if they appreciate it as much as we all used it. Lake Como was not just a place that helped me to reminisce on wonderful memories from my childhood but also helped me to create new ones. We lucked out with the weather and were able to sit in the sunshine by the lake and really take in the beauty of it all.

The best part was taking a gondola up the side of the mountain and being able to see a panoramic view of the entire lake and all the distant mountains behind it. None of the pictures below do this view justice, but man was it surreal. For those of you who don’t know, I am very afraid of heights so this climb up and down really made my palms sweat. I definitely succeeded with making myself uncomfortable!

Although Lake Como is a tourist attraction, a lot of the local business owners do not speak English. Our Italian was put to the test and honestly, we knew more than I thought. We were able to order, ask for the check, pay, and were able to ask basic questions. Being that we don’t take an Italian course, we have managed pretty well. Saying goodbye to this beautiful place was hard, but I will be back.

This week happens to be my spring break. We planned to go to Amsterdam, Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg. I am currently in Vienna, Austria. I stayed in a hostel, thinking I was saving money and being continuing to push myself out of my comfort zone. It was going just fine until my friend Maddy got this feeling that something was wrong. And she was right, we found bed bugs.

Luckily, we have only been there for 30 minutes so none of our belongings and baggage had been contaminated. We packed up faster than I have ever seen us move, found a hotel, and left. Are we really studying abroad if something like this doesn’t happy to us? Note to self: don’t stay in hostels anymore!!

Tonight, my host family made me a traditional Italian dish, what they think to be the most popular one within Italy. It is called pasta agilo olio e peperoncino or pasta with garlic, oil, and pepper flakes. They were surprised that I had yet to try it so they made sure that I got the opportunity and knew how to make it for later. Getting to know my host family has gotten easier with each time that I have gone to dinner with them. Beatrice has become one of my closest friends and promised that she would come visit me in the US sometime in the future. Elizabetta and Marco try so hard to speak English and do fairly well for knowing nothing. They feel bad when they cannot communicate with me as well as they would like to, but I don’t mind, it is the experience that I am here for and I appreciate them trying. They go above and beyond, knowing that I have relatives from Sicily, Elizabetta bought me a dozen oranges from Sicily to try. She also is having some of her friends, who also speak English, come over to meet me. It is very thoughtful the effort that she is putting in to make me feel as comfortable as possible. I am truly lucky.

Now for the fun part, the recipe. I thought I would share how to make this dish with all of you in case you wanted to try it yourself.

Pasta Agilo Olio E Peperoncino Recipe: 

Ingredients:

• Salt
• 2 to 3 whole fresh peperoncini (small red chiles), or small dried red chiles
• ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
• ¾ pound linguine or spaghetti

Preparation:

1. Put a pot of salted water on to boil. Remove the stems of the peperoncini, halve them lengthwise, then slice them into 1/4-inch lengths. Put the oil, garlic and peperoncini in a large deep pan set over medium-high heat, and cook until the garlic is translucent and golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the parsley to the pan, and turn off the heat.
2. Meanwhile, cook the pasta until it is aldente, nearly but not quite done and still a bit chalky in the middle. Drain, and reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
3. When the oil has cooled for a couple of minutes, add 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water, and reduce over high heat by about half. Add the pasta, and stir vigorously as it continues to cook. Add the reserved pasta water a bit at a time as necessary to finish cooking the pasta, and develop the thickened sauce. Season with salt, and serve.

If you end up making this, please comment below what you thought of it. I am curious! Enjoy.

Amsterdam. A place that was planned last minute to visit but turned out to be my favorite place to explore. I have never felt so at home as I did there and was terribly sad to be leaving after 3 short days. I experienced many firsts while here; first hostel, first beer brewery, first time seeing prostitutes. This city comes to life at night and I never believed that until being here for myself. There are so many authentic pubs, funky bars, and diverse restaurants, I felt as though i didn’t have enough time to explore it all. We started the trip by going to the Anne Frank House. Sad yet rich with history, this museum opened my eyes to how long ago Europe was founded and how much it experienced. Anne Frank was a true inspiration and being able to sign my name in the visitor book was an honor. I was in awe at this museum and left feeling extremely fortunate.

Amsterdam is known for their tulips, and being that they are one of my favorite flowers, I thought it was only appropriate to go to the museum and see how they came into this beautiful city. This was a small museum but rich with facts about tulips. Each year, Amsterdam has a tulip festival to celebrate spring and the blooming of their beloved flower. We also explored the canals and made our way by boat through each of them. We went through a street that reminded me of San Francisco’s more well off neighborhoods. There beautiful homes lined the streets with huge windows on each floor and chandeliers hanging within. I was unable to take pictures because we were on a boat but boy were they beautiful. And pictures don’t do any of this justice, anyway.

If you ever happen to be in Amsterdam, i recommend trying a stropwafel. They are phenomenal. They are flat waffle crackers with fillings in the middle. I had one with carmel inside. It was delicious. One thing i noticed is that within this city, bikes are a part of their day to day lives. It is said that there are just about the same number of bikes as there are people, which to me is so awesome. They give people with bikes their own street ways and bike riders basically run this town. It not only is environmentally friendly but it also is a fun way to get from one side to the other.

I have not written in awhile, I have been studying for midterms and getting organized for a week of actual school work. Tonight I am going to meet my host family. I have been waiting for this since before I came to Italy. I applied to get a family and was placed on a waiting list since there was such a high demand of students looking for a little extra emersion into the Italian culture. But alas, I am meeting them.

I have been told that I am meeting with a family of three; father, mother Elizabetta, and the 19-year-old daughter Beatrice. I am assigned to meeting them Tuesday nights for dinner at their home, and because this week is the first week, they have so kindly offered to meet me at my university and show me how to use the bus. As you can imagine, I am very nervous. I am about to go into someone else’s home, sit at their table and enjoy a home cooked meal cooked by one of them. I am however, mostly excited. I know I am going to feel uncomfortable the first time, but I this is good for me, in fact, it is everything that I wanted from this experience abroad.

Obsessed is an understatement. They are better than I ever anticipated. The daughter is the only one who speaks English so she does a lot of the translating for the parents. She is very embarrassed by her parents English and always apologizes when they do it. I do appreciate, however, the parents trying to communicate with me. I try and speak Italian too but I too know very little. It is interesting because the daughter and I have a lot in common and I really enjoy talking to her. She told me about the Italian school system and how they attend high school for 5 years. She told me about how she has to take an exit exam to graduate and move onto university. And how the students within the classes are ranked from 1-10. She taught me how to make traditional tomato sauce with a pinch of sugar and vinegar. She said it was to make the sauce a little bit more savory. We had spaghetti and she recommended I put chilly flakes, olive oil and oregano on top (definitely recommend this, it was fantastic). I had the best meal at their while being in Italy and they barley put any time or effort into preparing it.

I am very excited to go back next week and get to know this family even better. I think this is going to be an incredible experience that I am going to remember forever. Definitely the highlight of my study abroad experience thus far.

Week 3 at last; the week that every one said would be the turning point from being homesick to enjoying my time overseas. They could not have been more right. Week 3 has been nothing but smiles, sunshine and lots of firsts. I came to Italy for myself, and as weird and cliche as this may sound, my main goal for this trip is to gain my self confidence and to figure out what type of person I want to become. Being homesick has really prevented me from doing that thus far, but this week has opened my eyes to why people decide to go abroad and the beauty that comes from it. Self reflection has been on my mind a lot, not just solely adjusting my overall characteristics but also putting myself in uncomfortable situations to extract characteristics I didn’t know existed within myself. I have begun to do more of what I came here to do, explore. I walked by myself to different tourist attractions, such as the Santa Croce Church and the Duomo. I decided that after being here for 3 weeks it was time to go inside of them, to walk through them and to see the beauty that these monuments had to offer. It may not seem like a lot, but for me, going out and doing something by myself is a huge step in the right direction. I have been so reliant on what my friends are doing and their schedules that I forgot about the reasons why I am here and what I need to accomplish before I leave. Everyone has different agendas, (totally okay) but I need to remember what mine is.

I went to multiple museums, Academia Gallery, Pitti Palace, Boboli Gardens, Palazzo Vecchio, to name a few. All of which were amazing for their own reasons. I have seen the David statue; which is more magnificent in person than i ever imagined, the old amphitheater ruins under the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Pitti family palace and how they lived. I love studying in a city where everything is so hands on. I am given the opportunity during class, after a lecture on the museum, to go view it and really understand the information. Being a visual learner, this is a dream. I have found a new obsession for art and museums.

As week 3 comes to an end, I have come to the realization of just how much I have grown. I am looking forward to achieving my goals for this semester and watching myself transform into the person I’ve always wanted to be. To another week of confidence, independence and being uncomfortable! Cheers!

Last night I did one of my favorite things so far while here in Italy. I took a cooking class. It was a group of 35, gathered around a burner and some metal cutting stations, learning how to make 2 sauces: ragu alla bolognese and sugo all’agliona, handmade pasta, vegetable flan (or béchamel), and panna cotta. My absolute favorite, to both make and eat, was the ragu alla bolognese (I will add the recipe at the bottom) because it had the most ingredients and smelled amazing. In fact, my clothes still have the aroma of onions and tomatoes. We put on our white aprons and got cooking.

This was my favorite part so far because the chief, who was our instructor, Walter, was a cute, rounder man who was loving the idea of having 35 young woman to teach how to cook. He was cracking jokes and making the whole experience entertaining and engaging. We all got to be hands on with chopping vegetables, stirring the sauces, melting the gelatin, and making the egg based pasta. It is so rewarding to make food from scratch and in the end be able to eat it, satisfied with the work you put into making it. I love seeing how involved in the Italian culture cooking is. Most of the natives know how to cook and know exactly what to pair with what, something I wish I was better at. Interestingly enough, since being in Italy I have done more cooking than when I am at school or at home. I constantly ask myself why this might be and I finally figured it out tonight; everything is so much more accessible here. You take a detour on your way home from class to stop by the fresh market for the vegetables, go to the bakery for the freshly made pasta, and stop at the deli for some Italian sausage and vualá, dinner for the night. (All of which is under 20 euro, in case you were wondering).

Making pasta from scratch is something I have always wanted to do and as a matter of fact, it is easier than it looks. (If you have never tried it, I recommend doing it!) We made fettuccine to pair with the Bolognese sauce. We made this pasta with egg instead of with water and began mixing it with flour until we had dough that could be molded into the pasta shapes. After about 15 minutes of rotating through the steps on flattening out the pasta, we had our finish product and were ready to start cooking it.

I wish I could go in depth about all of the things that we made but I would be here forever. Take away from my experience, defiantly learn to become a better cook. I found this to be very rewarding and want to continue to learn different aspects of this culture in ways that I normally wouldn’t do.

How to make Ragu Alla Bolognese:

500g ground beef, 1, sausage, 1 stalk celery, 1 onion, 1 carrot, extra virgin olive oil, salt paper to taste, a tablespoon of tomato paste or can tomatoes, white wine, nutmeg

Finely cut carrot, celery, and onion in the same quantities and put into frying pan with olive oil and aromatic herbs, white wine and allow to fry. Add the meat and break it up with the wooden spoon, add the tomato paste, stir well and cover with vegetable broth and cook until completely reduced. Add salt and pepper and serve over pasta. Your finish product is the picture below!

We went to Paris–The city of Love! And let me tell you, did I love that city. Something about the atmosphere and the way the city resembled New York made me feel a sense of familiarity and comfort. The city uses the Metro, similar to that of the Subway in New York. It constantly has something going on, is a very big city, and has the most interesting smells on every corner. One of my good friends is studying abroad there so she was our personal tour guide for the weekend, making the trip a lot less stressful. We got the cutest, most quaint AirBnb right outside the city of Paris–still just a Metro ride away. It was decorated in all white, something I imagined a home in Paris to look like. It was very small, but was just big enough for the 4 of us. It was the perfect arrangement!

We spent the whole day on Saturday exploring this mesmerizing city. We started the day by seeing the Louve. It is gigantic so we did not have time to see the entirety of it. In fact, we were told that if we were to stand at each piece of artwork for 3 minutes in the entire museum would talk 3 and a half months to see, which I thought was incredible and overwhelming at the same time. The palace itself was huge and although we were not in England, it had a Downton Abbey feel to it. Of course we did the touristy things in the courtyard of the palace, taking pictures with each other and pretending to hold up the big pyramid. Also do not let this picture deceive you, the sun was out for 5 minutes and then it was cold and rainy.

We got to go on a river boat cruise on the Seine, seeing all of the major monuments alongside the river. (We did this because we were unsure of where exactly the Yellow Coats were protesting and felt as though it was more safe). It was also very fun because we got to see everything we wanted to see but wouldn’t have had time to if we were walking. It truly was a beautiful experience, I mean drinking wine, talking and being driven around through Paris, what more could we ask for! We saw the lock bridge, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame de Paris, and the Eiffel Tower all while cruising along the river. It was fun because the night before we had watched the movie Ratatouille to get us in the mood for Paris. Although it is a children’s movie, something felt comforting about watching one of our favorite childhood movies before seeing all of the infamous monuments. We explored the shopping aspect of the city as well and saw the most beautiful mall I have ever seen, with chandeliers and marble flooring. (Don’t even get me started on the Louis Vuitton). We also explored the shop Laduree, which is the cutest shop, famous for its macaroons. I have had this weird habit of trying everything in coconut flavor (gelato, candy) so I had to continue my trend.

My friend, who we were there to visit, insisted she take us to an adorable coffee shop called Paul. It was everything we needed and more after a long morning of sightseeing. It was a fun bakery/sandwich shop. I got a caprese sandwich and a beignet and ordered it all in French. Interestingly enough, I know French better than I know Italian and could actually say a full sentence instead of just a couple of phrases. It felt very rewarding and fulfilling knowing that I could actually blend into the culture and with the people in another country. (Looks like I have to work harder in Italy).

Last but not least we saw the Eiffel Tower. It was much bigger than I ever imagined and was more beautiful that any picture I could ever take. Seeing it up close and in person made my stomach drop. I was in full shock and loved every minute of it. It was such a euphoric feeling seeing a monument so famous up close for the first time. Unfortunately, we did not have time to go to the top because we had dinner plans, but when I come back one day it will be at the top of my bucket list. The thing I struggle with the most is getting someone (a stranger) to take a group photo of us girls. I am constantly torn between asking someone and risking my phone being run off with or missing the opportunity to get the perfect picture. I took the risk.

And finally dinner time! We went to the best ramen place in Paris. (I am not just saying that, you can ask the constant line of people out the door). I was nervous because of the huge line that it would be a long wait for something that was mediocre, but I was very wrong. All these people are waiting in this line because this food was AMAZING! The ramen was like nothing I have ever tasted. It was a beef broth with a piece of meet, arugula, ramen, and a soft boiled egg. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I was in noodle heaven. After always having pizza and pasta, having something different was what made the meal that much better. Definitely a place to go to when in Paris.

Paris will forever have my heart. My absolute favorite place we have been thus far.

But until then,

Ciao!

This past weekend, my friends and I took the train ride into Pisa to see the infamous Leaning Tower. Upon arrival we looked up the history of the tower so we would know exactly what we were looking at and the significance of it. Here is what we found: “The tower was built as a freestanding bell tower for the cathedral of Pisa. [It] took 344 years to build, beginning in August 1173. It began to lean in 1178 once the construction on the second floor began. The lean was due to one side sinking into the soft ground” (Wikipedia.com).

While starring at this monument that was built during the Roman Empire, I thought to myself: “how lucky am I to be standing underneath this beautiful structure.” I did notice, however, that the monument was a lot smaller than I had anticipated it to be and was nothing like I imagined it would be from the pictures I had seen. It was interesting to me that within the small town of Pisa, the only thing that kept people coming and the businesses going was this structure. Interestingly enough, the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been reconstructed with metal wiring a few years back to help the tower from having such a dramatic lean. I was fascinated by this because how can such a big structure be pulled backwards with a couple of wires? But the town was determined to make sure this building did not fall and that the tourism for their quaint town did not end.

Behind where I am standing from this picture was a grass field as well as a handful of churches that are not even recognized, and yet are just as beautiful. There is a statue of an Angel, known now as the “Fallen Angel” since it is laying on its side, being overgrown with grass. I find the little courtyard in which all of these structures stand, a place where so many bodies have been over the years, to be a place of peace. It had this wonderful sound of nothingness. No echos. No voices. Just the sound of beauty, if beauty was a sound. Of course being the tourist that I am, I had to take the cliche holding of the tower picture, #basic, but totally worth it. No need for metal wires when you have the tourists constantly holding it up!