A Perfect Stay In Paris!

Bonjour!

Ready for break!!

Unfortunately that is the extent of my French, but it is only the start to my wonderful time there. To kick off our 10 day backpacking trip around Europe, we flew out of Rome into Paris Friday afternoon and had the rest of the night to just hang out in Paris. The sights were absolutely breathtaking, but I do have to say Paris wasn't everything I dreamed of and more. Since I did not know any French, it was incredibly hard to communicate with anyone, even converse in a simple friendly conversation. The Parisian's were also very snotty; they were not friendly or willing to help (on the contrary they weren't rude, either). We stayed in a hostel called Woodstock, and yes it was straight from the hippy times: there was a bright colored spiral set of stairs (not to worry, I was on the top floor), the side of a punch buggy with wicked cool bumper stickers hanging on the wall, and of course there were "couch surfers" who were so interesting to talk with. I got to meet people from all over the world staying in the hostel, which honestly is one of my favorite experiences.
We were in Paris for four days, so we were able to cover most of the main sights of the city. Everything we saw was absolutely beautiful!

       We made it to the bridge with the locks! NEATO! Very cool to see, especially the different locks and their own individual designs. 

 The Arc de Triomphe! (and gardens on the left). The Arc is located in the center of an incredibly, and circular, street. To get to the center, you had to go through an underground tunnel and come up in the center. The eternal flame is also located here!

 THE LOUVRE!! We entered in the glass triangle.      My main girl, Mona Lisa! Yes, it is incredibly small and I do have to say many people do not know this. There were so many security guards around the painting and even a line to get up close! In the Louvre, Raphael had a whole exhibit dedicated to himself alone. This was the first museum I was in without a tour guide and it was so different! We actually played guess the artists and were pointing out specifics of each painting-- looks like we are learning about our art history!!

GO STEELERS!!!

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower!!

Totes defines our relationship LOL

Well here are all of my best pictures of the Eiffel Tower! Sorry to say, but these pictures don't do justice-- it was so magical just to be there! We kept busy the entire four days we were there, especially while climbing the Eiffel Tower. Yup, you heard right, we climbed the whole entire Eiffel Tower by foot (I guess that's my preparation for the half marathon!). Even though I struggled with the French culture, I still had a fantastic time! Our next stop was London! Stay tuned!

Ky xx

Magnificent Modern Rome!

CIAO !!!

It seems like it's been forever since I have posted on here, but I have been so incredibly busy with travels that I haven't had a spare moment! I am just as excited to write about my ten day fall break as you are to hear about it (don't get too jealous!), but first I want to talk a little about the Modern Art Rome Weekend 1 credit course I had three weekends ago. The course was taught by an elder couple who we all call "The Drs", they are the Drs. Wilkins and are retired professors of art history and architecture. Going into this course, I was thinking how modern is the Eternal City? As it turns out, some things are wonderfully modern (being finished in 2002) and are just so great to see. A lot of the modern architecture is based from the fascist era; Mussolini had a great influence on many of these buildings, and it was very neat to see. This was a busy three day course filled with lots of traveling, but it was well worth every minute (and the learning experience is priceless). Here are some pictures to  express the modern art here in Rome:

Above is Mussolini's House and a picture inside of the ball room.

These three images are all from the Olympic games held in Italy during 1932 and in the 1960s. The track and field was still in use today for school children and athletes. There were mosaics all leading up to the stadium which were really neat, but of course my favorite one was of the swimmers and divers!

Super modern bridge!

Mussolini's Obelisk

The two above images are the main modern architecture buildings Rome has to offer. On the left is the Auditorium, which is the concert hall of Rome. It was completed in 2002 and consists of different halls and recording studios; a wide variety of artists play here ranging from classic composers to jazz and more current artists such as Norah Jones. The area of the Auditorium was filled with a younger crowd, many looked like students, but it was a great atmosphere! The right picture is of the new (still in the making) of Rome's convention center. This isn't the best picture, so if you get a minute do a Google search. The building had an estimated cost of over $10 million and the finish date is always changing.

One of the coolest stops was at the Fashion Museum of Italy!! Here are a few dresses that stood out to me, or you could basically say the dresses I wish I owned.

The gown on the left was worn by Audrey Hepburn. In the middle are dresses all by Gucci, Versace and Emilio Pucci.

JFK Suit!

John Wayne's Suit!

THE SUIT OF JAMES BOND!

 Just having a good old time up on Vittorino Emanuele! 

This is of a modern church about an hour away from center city. It is a Catholic church, and we were lucky enough to get to attend a mass! It is called a children's mass, which means the priest actively has children participate in a question and answer segment during his sermon. The atmosphere was incredibly lively and there was dancing and singing all throughout the service. As you can see, the church is very open-- way different from the other churches in Rome-- but it helped to keep focus. This was definitely a cool experience. 

Modern Art was a great three day class. I got to see, and learn, an incredible amount that I would have never known about while here in Rome. This modernization continued with me all throughout break as I visited a modern art museum while in Paris, too! I am doing my best to keep posting, especially about Fall Break, so don't worry!!!

I hope you all are prepared for Frakenstorm... Please be safe, my prayers are with you all. I also feel so included, because my Facebook and Twitter news feeds have been flooded with information about Sandy. God Bless!

Buonanotte!!!

Ky xx

Truffle Hunting and more! Weekend 5 in Italy

Ciao!!!

Now that I am able to finally breathe, I am so thrilled to tell you all about last weekend. We started our journey Friday morning heading out to Perugia for the weekend. The trip was a small planned excursion with our one RA, Kyle, and only 15 of us students. The first activity was truffle hunting! Truffles are a type of fungi and, even though I do not like mushrooms, they were delicious! The hunting part took place in a fenced off area; we had two dogs with us to find the truffles. The dogs were absolutely adorable; we had to intensely follow the dogs because when they find a good truffle, they will try to eat it! Throughout the whole half hour of hunting, we were able to accumulate 10 truffles (worth around 150 Euro total). After hunting, the family cooked us an authentic Italian truffle lunch; everything we ate had truffles somehow incorporated in it- My favorite was the gnocchi! To end our experience we were given the title of official truffle hunters in individual awards! 

Our day was far from finished; after a fun filled day of hunting and then eating, we returned to our hotel for a cooking class! The place we stayed at was just a local family home that had little apartments attached at the bottom (they had a great ton of land). The cooking class was taught in the main part of the house and taught by the owner and her friend. This class seemed pretty legit, considering she had her own website Let's Cook in Umbria (definitely check it out!). Each person got a chance to go up and cook a portion of our meal... and of course I got the sausage part (LOL!). Needless to say, our meal was GREAT! Here are some fun pictures:

Since I am not the best cook around, this was such a cool experience! I feel like I've learned so much from just the few hours of cooking class; but as you can tell in the pictures, I LOVED every moment!!! We had such a long day on Friday that we were all just completely exhausted by the end of the night. 

Saturday was even a more eventful day! We first went to the Baci chocolate factory (a Nestlè product)-- I was hoping it would be like Willy Wonka, unfortunately it wasn't the same. Baci means "Kiss" in Italian, and it is similar to what a Hershey kiss is to us. Each piece is individually wrapped and there is a little saying inside (usually some sort of poetry). What is unique about the name is that it was originally called pugni meaning "Punch" but how strange would it be to give someone punches for Valentine's day-- not very romantic. Baci chocolate is crispy inside, like a Crunch bar but way better!! Their factory contains a museum, a chocolate cooking class, and of course the production line of all of the chocolate. After learning about the history, we were able to have a sample session of all of the chocolate-- YUM!! The chocolate was so fresh that it wasn't even wrapped!! There was a variety of chocolates such as the original Baci, milk chocolate bars, dark chocolate bars, white Baci, orange chocolate, and their signature rum candy. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the factory itself, but it was simply just an incredibly large factory with machines producing the chocolate. The only people inside were facilitating the machines and making sure they properly did their job (no real people dealt with the chocolate). The chocolate here was so great, and I definitely recommend tasting Baci chocolate when given the opportunity!!!!

After my indulgence of excellent chocolate, it was time for some wine tasting! We went to a vineyard to see how the wine was made, aged, stored, and bottled. The vineyard was privately owned and, according to the locals, produces the best wine around. They produce red, pink, and white wine along with a type of Italian champagne (Prosecco). Sparkling wine, champagne, can only be called champagne when imported from France and passes all of the regulations. The Prosecco was one of my favorite wines we have tasted-- it reminds me of the sparkling juice I have on Christmas morning with my brothers and sister!! We were treated to a great meal again, I know it seems as though all we do is eat, accompanied with the wine of the vineyard. It was fantastic! Here are a couple of photos of our day at the vineyard:

A long day at the vineyard was followed by some shopping time the the actual city of Perugia. The shopping here was the hippest, trendiest, younger crowd shopping scene around! The scene here was fashion, but more modern and chic. Some of the stores were big European chains; however, there was still a handful of privately owned boutique shops which were great! My purchase was of my Locman Italy watch-- I LOVE IT!! By far the best purchase on my trip!! It is just so beautiful!! 

That concludes our trip from Friday and Saturday. Sunday we ventured to Assisi, the holy lands of St. Francis, and spent the day there before returning home for the week. Assisi was very cool to see-- everywhere you looked there was either a monk, nun, or priest but all of them were incredibly friendly. i don't have an incredible amount to say about Assisi, but here are a few pictures to describe what it was like. Oh! We also got to see the castle of Assisi! It was very cool; the castle was built up on the hill to protect the city from the surrounding lands. Our day concluded with a private mass given to us by one of the priests teaching here in Rome. Enjoy the pics!

  The church of St. Francis
 

Roommate Allese on the left &
ARD Kyle on the right (loving the hat LOL)

The castle of Assisi!
  This is the chapel where are individual mass was held!



This weekend trip to Perugia was absolutely phenomenal! I loved every moment of it and all of the people who were on the trip! This weekend I have a Modern Art Class in Rome (1 credit course) which we will be visiting some super cool sites, or at least I hope! Just like this past week, next week is midterm week so it is going to be pretty tedious and intense. However, in 8 days I will be on my way to Paris and London for a week!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful evening!!! GO STEELERS!!!!

Arrivaderci!!!

Ky xx