October 15th, 2012 - Barcelona, Spain

Where to even begin with this city? 

Let me start by saying that after everything that happened on this trip, I still came away having had a great day and a half there, thankful for wonderful friends (new and old), delicious food, and a good old-fashioned reminder that experience is the best teacher. 

My roommates Anne and Rachael and I arrived in Barcelona at 9:30 or so on Thursday night. The city was beautiful, the airport smelled like coconut, everything was shiny - it seemed like a dream. However, not five minutes after we stepped out of the bus and entered the Metro, we were hit with paint from behind, followed by a toothless man who offered us tissues, coaxed into setting our stuff down to clean ourselves up and then surrounded by four men who eventually made off with my wallet - yep, some toothless Barcelonian man made off with not just my cash, but my credit/debit cards, Metro card, IDs, iPod, and headphones. (Thank goodness those guys left me my passport - they had easy access to it, but maybe they felt bad enough that they thought they'd let me partially off the hook.)

Needless to say, the first night was a little rough. And the first half of the next day. But once we got settled, we met up with my friend Lee (who goes to school with me at home) and she managed to snap us out of our funk and get our spirits up! We turned the whole trip around by having beer and burgers in an Irish pub that night, and then we headed in early for a good night's sleep before hitting up all the touristy things Barcelona had to offer on Saturday. That included walking two+ hours either way to one of the most stunning parks I've ever visited, seeing the beautiful Santa Maria del Mar cathedral, and then settling in for some of the best food I've had since coming to Europe. Dinner included paella with fresh crawfish, mussels, and crab, followed by chocolate pastries, caramel-filled cookies, and an eventual trip to a nearby gelato stand where I had Kinder flavored gelato in a chocolate covered cone. We topped all that off with some more shopping, pictures, and laughing, which made for a really great trip. 

Lee and me - watching soccer in an American bar, eating burgers. 

Seafood paella!

Me and Rachael with our desserts! 

God bless you, Starbucks. 

Food markets - dried fruit

Chocolate!!

Barcelona from above

I would like to say a quick "Thank God" for the following things: 

1. My fantastic roommates, who not only kept me from bursting into tears in the middle of the subway station, but also for helping me with money and keeping me calm until things could get sorted out.

2. My mother, who didn't even yell that much when I told her what happened. And who spent twenty minutes chatting the Capital One guy online so we could get my cards cancelled ASAP. 

3. Lee, who helped turn this entire weekend around. 

4. The nice police officers in Barcelona who did the best they could with my zero-Spanish knowledge and their limited English. 

5. Milan. Never had the city felt so warm and welcoming - even the men who continuously try to sell me umbrellas on the street when I'm clearly already holding one seemed less terrifying and more familiar. Plus, the rainy season has officially started which means it's the perfect shade of grey and drizzly - AKA sweater weather, my favorite weather.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

October 10th, 2012 - Milan, Week Six!

Guys, I cut my hair today! It is so surprising to me what Italians offer for free and what they charge a fortune for. Why is it that I can get my hair cut and dyed at a salon sponsored by London Fashion Week for free, but I have to pay upwards of 7 euros for 100 grams of honey (roughly 1/3 of a cup)? Nevertheless, I can't complain because I am so happy to have something new and exciting! Besides a new hairdo, I'm also getting ready to leave for Barcelona this weekend with Rachael and Anne. We'll be meeting up with my friend Lee, who goes to UNL with me but is studying in Spain this semester. I am so excited to see a familiar face! I'll update you as soon as I get back. For now, have a great week!

October 6th, 2012 - Milan, Week Five!

Just wanted to do a quick post to let you know what I've been up to! It has been a very quiet weekend so far - my roommates have all gone away to Oktoberfest in Munich, so I have the whole apartment to myself. It's kind of a wonderful feeling! As much as I love all of the girls I'm living with, privacy and quiet is hard to come by, so it's nice to have a little break. 

So, last night I got to Skype my family a little bit before hunkering down with a bottle of white wine and the first season of Friday Night Lights. It was perfectly lovely! Today, however, will be a little bit more adventurous - after I finish the boring rituals of my morning (working out, getting dressed, eating breakfast), I'll be heading down to the market to pick up some fresh fruits and veggies, and then hopefully tracking down a giant second-hand bookstore that is supposedly somewhere in the nearby vicinity. Later I'd also like to go exploring and find the California Bakery, which apparently has the best American-style apple pie in the city! Between all of that, I've got some homework to finish up and some Skyping to do and some general laziness to enjoy. 

To top it off, it's the perfect fall day here in Milan - a little breezy, a little overcast, a little chilly. It's looking like a very good day. 

Hope everyone had a good week!

October 2nd, 2012 - Milan, Week Five!

It has officially been one month since I've moved to Milan. How crazy that time has flown this fast! I am loving every second that I get to spend here, and I am so grateful that I've gotten to know such wonderful roommates and that my classes are turning out to be extremely rewarding! (The accidental economics class that I signed up for is going to be terribly difficult but I think it'll probably be my favorite. Who would've thought!)

I just wanted to do a quick list of some things I've learned since I've been here - just a little reminder of what's been good this month :)

1. Patience is a virtue. This is ESPECIALLY true here in Milan. Italians have zero ideas about time efficiency, especially when it comes to bureaucratic paperwork. I waited three and half weeks for a Metro pass that was supposed to take 10 days. My appointment to get my residency permit has been rescheduled three separate times. Yesterday I accidentally waited in the wrong line for a solid forty-five minutes (granted, that was partially my own fault, but the two and a half hour lunch breaks are still really getting me). Yet, while all of this is oftentimes irritating when it's happening, it has helped me realize just how precious my time is, and how easy it is to squander it on silly things. That makes all of my free time even more appreciated!

2. The people you live with can make or break your experience - I was fortunate enough to be placed in an apartment with five other wonderful girls, as well as a roomful of great people just two floors down. This has made my travels, my everyday struggles, and my long evenings that much more entertaining. I love them all dearly!

3. Before I left, a lot of people really encouraged me to "find myself" and "go crazy" because this was my time to do whatever I want before I "settle down." What I've found is that being abroad isn't the time to go wild - it's the time to see how the person I've carefully cultivated over the last 20 years fits into the greater world system. By the same token, when you do what you want, when you take the adventures you suddenly decide you want to take, all while still trying to keep the essence of who you are, the world doesn't fall apart. 

4. There is a difference between being independent and being alone. There is also a difference between being comfortably alone and being lonely. Travel really teaches you that lesson quickly. 

5. Distance does not affect the relationships with which you were most comfortable upon leaving. I am so blessed to have such caring friends and family who have taken the time out of their schedules to email me, write me messages, send me selfies, and read about my travels. I am too grateful for words! 

September 29th, 2012 - Edinburgh, Alnmouth & Alnwick, Scotland

This weekend I was lucky enough to visit Edinburgh, Scotland! I took a little trip all on my own and, though it was initially terrifying, it was also liberating and exciting and a beautiful city to visit. 

The first night I got there, I checked into my hostel and proudly meandered around the city for awhile until I got hungry and settled into an authentic Scottish pub for a deliciously non-Italian dinner - a burger and fries. I am not in the least bit sorry. It was scrumptious. I then topped it off with a large cafe mocha from Starbucks, and hung around to hear a beautiful Scottish man play his guitar on the street corner for a while. All in all, a wonderful night!

My hostel, inside and out!

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to catch my train from Edinburgh to the tiny town of Alnmouth, Scotland (AKA The Middle of Nowhere). From Alnmouth, I trekked up a small mountain to the bus stop, where I had to wait three quarters of an hour before my bus would arrive to take me to Alnwick, where I was planning to visit the castle that Harry Potter was filmed in. This forty-five minutes would lead to an inordinate amount of selfies on my camera, as well as some really judgmental looks from the gardener across the street. The fact that there are that many selfies on my camera is something I'm actually a little bit sorry for. 

When the bus did finally arrive, it brought me right where I needed to go, and I spent a fantastic few hours in the early afternoon wandering around the beautiful castle grounds and exploring the state rooms before having a quaint little picnic surrounded by approximately 100 school children with adorable Scottish accents. However, after I hiked back down to the town of Alnwick, it began to downpour rain within about twenty minutes. 

Not having a lot of options, I decided to go back to Alnmouth and hopefully catch a train back to Edinburgh, where I knew there was an abundance of things to do. Alnmouth, of course, had beautiful weather despite being a mere 4 miles away from the castle. The man at the ticket booth in the train station, however, was not sympathetic to my plight and casually informed me that I couldn't just hop on the next train to Edinburgh because I had a "reserved seat" on the 7:11 train, and would just have to wait another five and a half hours for it to arrive. He did, however, inform me that I could hike down to the town of Alnmouth itself. Alnmouth was approximately a mile and a half away, and though the walk was beautiful, the 'town' revealed itself to be one strip about two city blocks long of tearooms and B&Bs. I eventually found a tiny little cafe called The Dandelion, where I could use the spotty WiFi, drink espresso, listen to the rain that eventually hit the town, and read my new copy of J.K. Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy," which I picked up in town earlier that day. All in all, the day had its ups and downs, filled with excitement over castles, dismay over the sudden rainy weather, and a deep contentment as I sat and read in a baby cafe in the middle of nowhere. It was wonderful!

This morning, I knew my flight left at 12:45 so I didn't have much time, but I did enough room in the agenda to grab a muffin for breakfast, hike around Edinburgh for a while and drink a quick cup of coffee with a friend I met at the hostel. It was the perfect way to end the trip!

Now, I'm home, contentedly gorging on pasta and happy to have reliable internet with which to talk to my friends from home. Scotland will one day be merely a gorgeous memory of a weekend, but it will always be one of the best places I've visited!

September 24th, 2012 - Lugano, Switzerland

Too much to report! 

This weekend was a crazy flurry of friends, games, laughing and traveling. On Friday night, I spent a beautiful evening on the terrace reading The Catcher in the Rye and drinking red wine. And it was a very good thing that I did, because the rest of the weekend was pretty hectic! Saturday my roommates and I spent the afternoon at the market, where we bought fruit and bread and cheese for our impending trip to Switzerland. Later that night we got dressed up and went to the 'oldest pub in Milan' called "Magenta." We had such a great time talking, laughing, and eating excessively before crashing into bed for a short, albeit wonderful, night's sleep. 

The next day we all woke up and scrambled to make our train into Switzerland! We spent the day in Lugano, a beautiful little town about an hour north of Milano, where we picnicked by the lake, took a boat ride across and then hiked the hour and a half back, and finally rewarded ourselves with gelato. And maybe a couple of bars of Swiss chocolate to take back for later. And maybe some fresh bread later that night. What can I say, my roommates and I know how to eat.

Swiss life is a pretty good life.

Lugano, Switzerland

Me and Rachael!

Other highlights of the weekend included: Finding a place to run. Getting to pet a dog. Starting classes today (Italian Cinema - I think I'll be dropping it and replacing it with a history class instead. Something about gangster films with Italian subtitles just doesn't appeal to me.) Eating a lot of chocolate. Getting ready for Scotland this weekend!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

September 20th, 2012 - Milan, Week Three!

Oh, and I almost forgot the most important story of today!

Last week I said the weirdest thing that happened to me in Italy was accidentally walking into a Hare Krishna parade. Today topped that for sure! I was getting on the Metro with Lauren when we noticed a man playing a cute little tune on his accordion. It's pretty standard to see musicians playing on subway cars for money, but what was unexpected was his wife, who was walking up and down the aisles asking for money, all whilst openly and unabashedly breast-feeding her 18 month old. 

I feel like this game of trying to figure what's the weirdest thing that could happen while I'm here could get out of hand pretty quickly. I'm kind of excited about it.