Abroad in Florence, Italy!: Giovedi, Venerdi, Saboto, Domenica, Lunedi... (Random memories throughout the week)

I have been in Florence, Italy for about 2 weeks now and I am completely in love with it. I am learning so much by living abroad and I feel like I am on a vacation. I have been touring around Florence getting to know the best restaurants, stores, museums, streets, tourist attractions ect. I feel like I don't have time for anything because I am busy doing things 24/7. I also feel like I walk so much in the day that, that takes up the majority of my day. It is still hot here and I sweat every-time I am out in the sun (today's high is 90 degrees) I like walking in the shade :).

Thursday September 8th:

I am in a class called Food, Culture and Society (I am taking this class for my GS 7 at St. Norbert College so I do get credit for it). The first day of class she said that we were going to cook. We (the class) didn’t have aprons and all of us were wearing tank tops, shorts and sandals (not proper cooking etiquette). Anyways we ended up cooking Crespelle alla Fliorentina. We basically made crepes, filling (to put in the crepes), and sauce (to put on top of the crepes when it goes into the oven). Everyone in the class got jobs to do to help contribute to the recipes. I was making the crepes on the oven. Let’s just say I don’t think I had good cooking etiquette because my professor definitely came over to me a couple of times to tell me I was doing something wrong. At first I turned the oven on and then left the pan on the burner with butter in the pan, I am never to leave a pan on the burner with nothing in it because I guess it can hurt our liver (when we eat the food that would be cooked in there, the food would be dangerous to eat, I don't know, something like that). But anyway I learned a lot that day. When the class was finished cooking, we got to eat the crepes and they were delicious! I forgot to take a picture of it, but when I make other food items in this class I will take a picture! Here are the ingredients:

Crepes:

Flour, milk, eggs, salt

Filling:

Boiled spinach, ricotta cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, Parmigianino reggiano cheese, garlic clove, olive oil

Sauce:

Flour, butter, milk, Parmigianino reggiano cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg

Thursday Night:

Brittany, Alexis and I wanted to get out of our apartment so we walked around the streets on our side of the river (I live on the less touristy side of the river, which is nice because it is not crowded). We decided that we wanted to get gelato so I got cheery cheesecake and yogurt nutella gelato for only 1.30euro (great deal, this shop is right around the corner from our apartment)! After we ate our gelato we figured how to get down to the river so we could be right by the water. We figured it out and we also saw that it is basically the ‘teenage hang out area at night’, so we looked around took some pictures and left. We decided that it would be better to come back in the next day in the afternoon to sit in the sun. Here are some pictures:

My favorite and cheapest gelato place!

Yay! We found out how to get down to the river!

Florence at night (I know it it kind of blurry)

Friday:

We took a tour throughout the Duomo Area of Florence:

Duomo Doors

Carriage rides in Duomo Area

Gates of Paradise

We even got free homemade tiramisu from our tour guide!!

Here are also some pictures of the San Lorenzo Market (biggest in Florence and cheapest place to find food). This market is about 30 minutes away from my apartment and it is only open Mon-Sat 7am to 2pm. There food there is amazing!!

The market building is green and red (that is how I can find it!)

Cheese :)

Meat and Cheese!

Bread (there is even nutella muffins!)

Fruit and Vegtables

Meat

Saturday:

We went to the beach! I took my first train ride in Florence (train station is right in town and about a 20 min. walk) and I was on it for about 2 hours. The beach that we went to was called Viagreggio Beach. It is a private beach and it was about 88 degrees with no clouds (yes a very hot day). I put my sunscreen on and luckily did not get burnt. On the other hand, my friends Alexis forgot to put sunscreen on her legs and she got a really bad burn (it looks like a rash on her ankle). Anyway here are some pictures (these are Alexis’ because I forgot my camera at my apartment):

From left: Brittany, Me, Alexis, Ashley, Ashley P.

From left: Alexis, Brittany, Me, Celia, Sarah

'Megan' in the sand

Florence (Firenze), 2011

Our private beach was called Amedeo Beach

Good thing there were umbrellas to get some shade!

Sunday:

Brittany and I went on another city walk to a city called Fiesole, Italy. Alexis stayed at our apartment because her sun burnt leg was bothering her and she wanted to sleep in. Anyway we took a 10 min. bus ride (bus tickets are about 1.20 euro) up to Fiesole, Italy from Florence. Once we got to Fiesole we stopped at the market that was selling homemade items:

Homemade Pottery

Glass Blowing

Pounding nails?? in copper to make designs

Market area of Fiesole

Then we started our hike up to the stop of the hill (I was sweating horribly because it was really hot out and we were going up hills that were really steep). I got a good exercise in at least. When we got up to the top of the hill, the view was breathtaking and worth the hike:

Duomo

Florence! You can even see the Duomo!

Brittany and !

Since it was September 11^th there was a movie showing at the cinema called September 11^th. It had subtitles in English and Italian so I went to see it because I wanted to honor 9/11. The movie was very interesting and different at the same time. First off, we ended up sitting next to a woman, who lives in Florence, but she was in New York City on Sep. 11^th, 2001 she told us (she speaks English too). She said that she was crying the whole day because the event was just horrible. Throughout the whole movie, she was crying and moving around (I think it just brought back horrible memories). Anyway here is the description of the movie:

11'09''01 - September 11 (Eleven Minutes, Nine Seconds, One Image), directed by Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitai, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mira Nair, Idrissa Ouedraogo, Shohei Imamura, Sean Penn, Ken Loach, Danis Tanovic, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Claude Lelouch.

Each of the 11 directors contributes an 11-minute, 9 seconds and 1 frame short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001.

A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what's happened. City kids in Burkina Faso think they've spotted Osama bin Laden. A deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who has left that morning for work at the World Trade Center. A Chilean remembers Allende. Events recall other deaths. A mother endures more than her son's death. And so on. The tone varies, as do the locales. Most stories are about others coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.

The movie was different but very different. I had to pay 4 euro for it and I don’t think I would have paid the 4 euro but it was nice to see on the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.

Movie Theater

Bikes outside of the Cinema

Monday:

Second week of classes started on September 12th. I have my Mediterranean Diet (I am also doing an independent study with a professor back at home so it counts for a Health Education class at SNC) class on Mondays and we cooked Hummus and Tzatziki. (Yes I am in two cooking classes, but I get credit for both of them at St. Norbert). I have not tried hummus before and I LOVED it!! I even got an apron to wear for my 2 cooking classes today.