American Breakfast for Dinner

Last night I cooked the American breakfast for dinner.  Everyone loved it!  They thought it was strange though that a lot of the stuff was sweet.  I'm glad it all worked out though because I got really stressed.  I went to one store which takes a half hour to get to by bus.  I went there because my friend wanted to buy a hot water maker so that she could make tea.  Finally someone who likes tea instead of coffee! But when we got there everything was so much more expensive than the supermarket that was closest to me.  So we ended up just going to the super market.  We didn't get to the supermarket until 7 and everyone was coming to my place at 8.  The supermarket took a little while because I had to hunt for the ingredients.  I didn't get back home until 7:30 and I also still had to clean my room because it was a mess.  I rushed and cleaned my room and then started dinner around 7:45.  Some people helped me cut the stuff though to save some time.  I made french toast with bananas, strawberries & ice cream, cream cheese eggs with sun dried tomatoes, potatoes with bell peppers, and bacon with brown sugar.  They didn't have syrup so I decided to go with ice cream since some restaurants in San Diego do it like that.  I wanted to get whipped cream but they didn't sell that either.  I would have made it but I didn't have a whisk or beaters so that would not really have worked out.  Everything would have been fairly quick to cook except for the fact that the kitchen is sooooooo tiny.  The stove is about the size of my nightstand and there is absolutely no space to even set anything.  I had to put the plates with all the food in different spots.  Small kitchens and cooking for 15 people definitely forces you to get creative.  I had the french toast plate on top of the fridge.  The bacon on top of the microwave.  The potatoes on the very limited counter top space.  I also had to cook one piece of french toast at a time because the pans were so small.  And the potatoes took foreverrrrr in a small pan.  It took about an hour to cook the potatoes.  Everything all together took about an hour and a half.  When I finally got to cook the eggs it was so nice how quickly the cooked! But luckily my friends Karolina, Jess, & Amy all helped me cook.  But there definitely was not anymore room in the kitchen with the four of us in there.  I would say that the kitchen is probably the size of Mombas bathroom minus the area for the tub and toilet.  If that helps you get a picture. :) Then we put all the desks in the hallway again to make one large table.  I also brought my ipod dock out.  Everyone had a lot of fun I think. What can I say?  I know how to bring some life to a place with food and music.  Two of my favorite things.  They all thought it was strange how sweet some American breakfast items are....but I didn't even think it was that sweet.  The hit of the party were the eggs though.  Being in Italy is nice because EVERYONE LOOOOOVES sun dried tomatoes, just like me! I'm glad they all liked the food that I cooked.  I told them this wasn't even one of the things I knew how to make that well, wait for mashed potatoes! Or some eggplant parmigiano. (Melanzane parmigiano. ) Some of them were joking that they want me to cook for them every night.  I told them if they buy the food I will cook for them....then I wouldn't have to eat at the mensa. How awesome would that be?!?  Today I went to lunch with my Greek friends and we made plans to go out tonight.  We are going to go to the exchange student event at 8 and Jess will meet us there.  After we might go out to Nirvana.  Every night is like a Friday night here.  Its perfect. :) I will keep you all updated!

Last Weekend Before School and the Start of School

Sorry for not keeping up with the blog posts recently,  I have been super busy!!  A ton of new exchange students came this past week because unlike my school in the U.S., their schools actually told them the correct dates to get here. But it is good that I got here before because then I can show the new exchange students around. :)  The day after I went to Nirvana I didn't do very much.  I played foozball with some of the people in my residence hall during the day.  I watched some of a movie called Benvenuti al Sud.  Welcome to the South.  It was really funny.  The film was about a guy from the North of Italy that gets transferred to an office in Napoli. They have a ton of stereotypes in the movie which makes it very funny. Everyone in the North is afraid of Napoli.  They think that everything is the mafia.  For example, in the film when the guy was first moving he wore a bullet proof vest under his suit.  But maybe it isn't as funny if you don't understand how people in the North think of Southern Italy. Anyways,  after the movie I was going to go the Piadineria with Ali because he had work there but he was running late so I didn't go.  Instead I went with the Turkish guy on my floor, Tomas(?? everyone is a bit confused what his name actually is...) to go out to dinner.  On our way there we met my Greek friends Costos and Villius ( goes by Bill to make it easier) and some new people.  The new people were from Wales and Poland.  We talked with them for a bit and then made plans for the next day.  They were just coming back from Milano.   Then we walked around the center.  I took him to a kebab place and he was really happy because the owners were Turkish so they all understood each other.  I think it must be very hard here for him because neither his Italian or his English is very good.  But at least he trys! :)  After the Kebab we walked over to eat by the church.  The church here is so beautiful, as are most things in Italy.  Following, our meal we went to the Piadineria for dessert.  MMMMMM  I love piadinas! (Just in case you couldn't tell, since almost every time I post a blog the Piadineria is usually mentioned.) Everyone that works there knows me now because I go so often.  Plus my friend works there so he introduced me to everyone.  After the piadinas Tomas and I walked back to our residence hall.  A bit of a walk from the center.  I'm glad I am meeting so many people because now I don't have to be in my room at dark every night since now I have people to walk with.  Then I came home and skyped for a bit with Brian.  :)  I love skype.  It is the best thing ever!!!!!  It makes it much easier to not get so homesick.  After I skyped with Brian I got to go on my first Vespa ride!  I was so excited.  Everyone on my floor was making fun of me for how excited I was.  They were all really surprised that I had never been on a vespa or motorcycle.  But the vespa was so fun!  I only got to go on a short ride though because I guess that tags on the vespa mean that only one person can go on it so we could only go on the residential streets.  But when Pierro,  the owner of the Vespa and Ali's friend who works at the Piadineria, changes the tags he said that I could go out on it more around the city.  Yay Vespas!!!!
On Sunday  I went to lunch with a group of about 7 people.  The guy from Hungary,  the Greek guys,  the Welsh girl,  a Turkish girl, and the guy from Poland.  It was nice that we could all go together to the mensa.  But still,  most of them don't eat there every meal like me. One of the Greek guys is really obsessed with the gym, so after the mensa we went to the really nice gym to take a tour.  I felt like I was back in America.  It was huge and very clean and very spacious.  They also had 4 pools just like SDSU!  But two were inside and two outside.  Unfortunately,  the price for American space is extremely steep!  Between 80-100 Euros a month.  I would never pay that! After our tour at the gym we saw one of the other residence halls.  It is brand new and soooo nice.   It also has a proper bathroom.  After seeing other residence halls I am convinced that I live in the worst one.   But although the facilities are the worse I hear that the freedoms are the best.  We can have parties and do whatever we want and invite over whoever we want.  The other dorms you have to sign people in, no parties,  and just a ton of rules.  I will just count my blessings though and be happy I can do what I want. :) After seeing the other dorm,  we came back to ours for a round of foozball......a very big thing here.   Then that evening Bill and Jess (Welsh girl) and I went out for a quick dinner.  Then I returned home and just kind of stayed in for the night. 
Yesterday was the first day of classes for my faculty.  It isn't like in the U.S.  where everyone's classes start on the same day.  Most students don't start til March 5. But Jess and I are in the same faculty so we went together to try to figure out the classes.  They are soooo not helpful here.  So we went to some different offices to try to figure out what to do.  We also met Jess' friend Amy, also from Wales, so we could all try to figure it out together.  We sort of figured it out.  We are all taking cinema together now.  Which is good because now we can help each other out.  After our cinema class we spoke to the teacher just to introduce ourselves and ask what is the best so that we can pass the class.  Then we met the other students.  There is one American guy in the class.  He does the same program as me so he eats at the mensa every meal too.  Yay!!  So after class Andrew, the American, and I went to lunch at the mensa. He really reminds me of my friend Aaron Rosenbaum.  Then I showed him a little bit around the city.  It took a while though because I ran into my friend Nicolo and then I ran into my friend Pierro.  Living in a small city is kind of nice because you see people you know everywhere you go.  The new people think I'm really popular but it is more that I just have met a lot of people and its a small town.  We went to my favorite park.  Andrew left but I stayed and read for a while.  I started a new book called Let the Great World Spin.  It is really good so far!  Afterwards I came home and then went to the gym.  There are 6 buildings at my residence but my building is the best because it has a common room and the gym.  All the others just have study rooms.  Booooring.  After the gym  I took a quick shower and went to eat really quick.  I rushed everything so I could get ready to go to Nirvana.  Amy, Jess, and I were to supposed to go to a party before at my friend Mira's house but it was a very far walk so we decided to just have a drink in the center instead.  We hung out there for about 30 minutes and ran into some other people that I knew so the chatted with us for a bit.   Then we went to Nirvana.  We were going to walk but then I saw a taxi and I decided that would be better.  Jess and Amy were saying no we can walk its fine, but then when we were in the taxi and they saw how long it was they were happy that I convinced them to take the taxi.  When we got to Nirvana we met a bunch of my friends there.  We met a group of about 5 other girls that I know.  I also ran into my friend Pierro there as well.  Small towns, you really see everyone!  Especially at the club since it is the ONLY club in Pavia.  We got home this morning around 4 and then we had class at 11. We went to class and they were going to have us watch an Alfred Hitchock film - Rope but Jess, Amy, and I left.  They are ridiculous here.  They dubbed over the film!  It is terrible watching a film where the mouths don't match up with the sounds.  So we decided we would rather just rent the movie and watch it in its original language- English. :)  We all thought it was very strange they would just dub it over because the three of us have taken film classes before where we watched foreign films but we never dub it over!  We just read the subtitles.  We think the Italians are lazy and we now know why they have an economic crisis.  They never work hence shops are almost never open meaning that they are not making income.  They open sometimes around 9 or 10. They take two hour lunches here around 1-3.  They close everything down rather than having shifts for lunch so the store can remain open.  They open again sometimes on time around 330 or maybe 4. And then they close again at 9.  And forget about Sundays!  Never open.  Even the main supermarket is only open for a few hours sometimes on Sunday....even though there website says that they are closed.  Its a hit and miss if they are open.  Anyways,  I have to go try to go to the market while it is still open because tonight I am cooking an American breakfast for dinner.  I think maybe 15-20 people are coming.  What can I say?  I'm just like my Mama feeding the world. ;) My only problem for breakfast?? Where to find syrup in Italy.  I guess I will be going on the hunt for syrup now....or making my own! :)

Nirvana

The past couple days I have been kind of sick so I didn't do much.  I didn't end up going out on Wednesday night because I felt sick.  Thursday I just hung out for most of the day.  A big thing here is to play foozball so I played foozball for a while on Thursday.  Yesterday I was feeling a bit better and had a nice day.  I went to lunch at the mensa with a group of guys that live on my floor.  There are only two other girls on my floor and they never seem to be around!  There are two new guys on the floor from Turkey and Hungary.  A perfect match! ;)  They came with us to the mensa for the first time.  Everyone makes fun of me at the mensa because I always get two cups and refill my water like five times.  They give you freaking baby cups here! I found the best mensa now....unfortunately it is a 25 minute walk.  But I will go there when I am on campus.  I start classes on Monday.  I still have to figure it out.... They are not helpful here at all!  Anyways,  after lunch at the mensa I went shopping by the university for black heels.  I realized I forgot so many things. :(  I will just have to have my mom bring it when she comes.  It was quite a task trying to find cheap shoes.  Most of the shoes here are around 70 Euro+.  There are only two stores with cheap shoes.  One that is all 10 Euro and one that is all 30 Euro.  Unfortunately the 10 Euro store does not have heels.  Only boots.  The difficult thing about the 30 Euro store is that they have limited options for my size.  Apparently most European women wear like a size 6 therefore making it seem like I have huge feet.  I never thought I had big feet until now!  I wear a size 8 in the U.S. and most of my friends are a size 8 or bigger.   WTF?!?  My theory is that they wrap their feet like the Asians to make them smaller.  I guess they have smaller boobs too because almost every bras are As or Bs.  I didn't think I was that big!  Although maybe I am becoming more Italian because I have lost about 10 lbs since I have left home which is surprising since I eat pasta EVERY day.  Better for Hawaii!!!  After my serious hunt for some black heels I had a piadina.  Yuuuuummmm.  I wish I could eat piadina every day.  I know all the people at the piadina store because my friend worked there so they never want to charge us.  There is a girl that works there named Anita from Ukraine that I really like.  She told me where to go to buy cheap shoes.  We made plans to go shopping two weekends from now. :)   Following piadina I returned home to get ready for the night.  Then I went to my friends Karolina and Paulina's house to have a drink before going to Nirvana, the club in Pavia.  I also met a few people from Spain too.  Everyone is really friendly so it makes everything nice.  No drama!  Then a ton of us went to Nirvana.  It was really fun with lots of dancing.  The only bad thing about Nirvana is it is about a 40 minute walk from where I live.  They don't have taxis or anything at that time so you have to walk.  I think I will go to Nirvana while I am here, just not to often.  But luckily there are people that live where I do so they walk home with me. :)  Anyways,  today  I am going to clean my room because if you know me well enough you know my room is a mess. :)  But it is easier to keep it clean because I don't have as many clothes here.  I miss all my clothes! Hopefully Fairleigh and Papa aren't wearing them too much. ;)  TTFN ta ta for now!

Relaxing Days :)

Hi Everyone.  Nothing to exciting to report since returning to Venice.  I have just been hanging around in Pavia and exploring a little more.  I found this really cool market that they have every day (except for sunday of course) until 2 pm.  I bought some new boots for 10 Euros.  They had so many types of shoes and clothes and books etc.  I also went out to dinner for kebab panino.  So good!  Turkish kebab is a really big thing here in Pavia.  Its also really cheap!  There are about 6 or 7 kebab restaurants in Pavia....almost as many as Italian ones!  And then I went to the piadineria again.  Sooooo delicious.  Yet I am still not getting fat.  Yay!!  The food is fresher here and they don't use as much butter in their food.  Although they do use a lot of olive oil.  Yesterday  I went to a small party with Erasmus students.  My friend Karolina, from Poland,  invited me over to her house for the party.  It was only about 6 or 7 people including myself.  I taught them American drinking games. Hahaha.  They really enjoyed kings cup!  I met three new people at the party as well.  One girl from Poland,  one girl from Costa Rica, and one guy from Portugal.  Everyone I have met has been really friendly which has made it a lot easier to get settled.  Today I went to the Ticino river and read some of my favorite book...Dexter!  Hopefully I won't have any bad dreams tonight. ;)  I also went to a different phone company to switch so that I could save more money....then I can buy more shoes!  :)  Tonight I am going to the one club in Pavia with some of the Erasmus students.  It is called Nirvana.  Other than that nothing much to report.  Maybe this weekend I will have something though because I may go to the club in Milan on Friday night with some friends.  :)

Venezia, Padova, & Verona

This weekend I had a long but amazing weekend.  On Saturday morning I had to be at the train station at 6:30 for the Venice trip.  I went with a group called Erasmus Student Network.  Erasmus is the exchange program for Europeans but they still let me go. :)  We left the train station at 7 and arrived in Venice around 11:30.  We had stopped along the way though to break up the trip.  It didn't seem like a very long drive though because we had a nice bus and I was sitting next to a guy from England named Matt.  It was nice to be around a native English speaker for a change!  Once we arrived in Venice we met some other people who smoke English as well.  Some from Portugal, Belgium & Poland.  I hung out with them for most of the trip.    We then took a ferry across the water ( I am still kind of confused as to what type of body of water it was).  The ride was amazing!  Even though everyone says that the water is so dirty it is such a beautiful light blue.  Very different from San Diego water.   The architecture surrounding the water is gorgeous at well.  The scenery was gorgeous there,  but that is the case of most of Italy.   When we arrived at our stop, we saw all the Carnivale madness.  I have never seen so many people before!  It was amazing.  There were people dressed up in the Carnivale masks everywhere you looked.  The ones in just the masks were mostly the tourists.  But others were wearing beautiful ornate outfits with there masks.  There were so many different types I couldn't even take pictures of all of them.  The joke of the trip was Italy really brings out the Japanese in people with all the photo taking. Hahaha.  There were people of all ages dressed in these ornate outfits.  Even little kids.  If I lived in Venice I would totally dress up!  You just get to walk around like a princess and everyone wants to take a photo with you.   It was sort of strange though to look inside a restaurant and a whole table of people dining in 16th century attire.  Most of the Carnivale stuff was in the m ain square of San Marco.  There was also an amazing church at San Marco.  I wish that cameras could capture the actual beauty of everything but there is nothing like it in real life.  After walking around San Marco we went kind of back a block or two into the city.  That gave us a chance to see the canals and the gondolas.  I didn't get a chance to go on a gondola so I guess I will have to go back to Venice. :)  I finally tried my first gelato in Italy and mmmmmm it was delicious.  Its a good thing it is really cold out because then I would be eating gelato every day!  We only got to spend about 4 or 5 hours Venice until we had to leave.  We took the water taxi back to our bus. It was the perfect time for a water taxi because it was sunset.  Che bella!
When we arrived back to the bus we drove to Padova.  We were running late so we ate dinner the second we got into the hotel before going to our rooms.  At dinner we had pasta and dessert.  But not enough!  I guess I am becoming accustomed to the Italian lifestyle because when they served the pasta I thought it was a kind of small portion but then I just assumed it was Primo piatto (1st plate).  All of us thought that there were going to bring us Secondo Piatto (2nd plate) but when they brought out dessert everyone was like What?!?  This is all we are getting to eat?  A little plate of pasta and a piece of cake?  So everyone (including myself) was starving.   After that we had to rush upstairs to get ready for a party.  They made a club in this huge warehouse and other Erasmus groups from Italy were there as well.  The club was completely disorganized.  There were probably 300 people there and everyone was trying to check there coats.  Checking coats was never something I thought about before coming here.  It was absolutely ridiculous!  It took almost 40 minutes to check the coats because there was no line and there was just a huge mob trying to push forward.  And then they had security guards that were pushing everyone back.  I am so glad we don't have to check coats in San Diego!  The party was fun but I was very tired.  Some of us left a little bit early (2 a.m.-Italian lifetsyle is crazy!) and got back to the hotel at 2:30.  I am so glad we left early because the party ended at 3a.m. and some people didn't get home until 5 a.m. because they were trying to get there coats.
The next day we toured around Padova a bit.  We only went around for about 2 hours but it is a fairly small city so we saw the main places.  They gave us a little tour.  One thing that was funny/interesting was the tradition of the university when people graduate.  When people earn their degree their friends rip off all their clothes and drag them down the stairs so they are hitting every stair.  At the bottom there is a book of their college life that the friends wrote.  It has all the bad things they have ever done in college.  They have to read the story of their life to their parents, grandparents, other relatives, and anyone else that is there to celebrate their graduation.  What a strange tradition! That was pretty much all of Padova.
After Padova we drove to Verona.  I loooooved Verona!  It was such a cute little city.  It was exactly what I imagined Italy to look like when you see it in movies.  Tall apartments with little balconies and plants on the balconies.  It was so quaint and beautiful.  They have the tiny Colosseum too.  The main attraction of Verona is the home of Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet.  How it was the home of a fictional character?  I do not know, but people travel from all over the world to see it and to touch to breast of Juliet with the hopes of an abundance of love in their life.  Juliet's breast is very shiny because she gets so much action. Hahaha. The walkway into the courtyard of Juliet is completely covered with writing of intials, hearts, poems, you name it.  There is also a iron gate next to the Juliet statue that has locks all over it.  The locks represent someones relationship.  If you and your love break up you  are supposed to go remove the lock from the gate.  One of the girls accidentally broke one of the locks and about 10 of them fell..... hope the same doesn't happen to whoever's relationship that was! After walking around the courtyard of Juliet we went to the town center.  There remains a pedestal that they chained the sinners too for public display.  Everyone takes pictures on it with one of the chains.  Following the courtyard we went to a cafe where we tried the specialty drink of the Veneto region... Spritz!  I guess it was specifically invited in Verona as well.  It is a aperitif drink made of white wine or prosecco( sparkling white wine) and Aperol an orange bitter.  It was very delicious.  When you order a drink like that they also just bring out food to you.  At this restaurant they brought out three different types of chips.    That was about all we did in Verona.  I would really like to go back and have more time to explore the beautiful little city.  :)