MIA FAMIGLIA!

(March 6-13th, 2010)
My Family cammmeee tooo visiiittt!!!!!!

Lauren arrived a few hours before my parents, and the minute she gets to my apartment, "Kristen...I need a glass of wine." (shall i mention it was 10:30 am?) hehe!

So, throughout the week, my family did a few day trips of their own while I painstakingly dredged by way through midterm after midterm.  During the evenings, I spent time in their apartment doing work and just relaxing.  We out for so many amazing dinners...when they left I didn't know what to do for food for about a week!

Fortunately, I got to go on one day trip with them to Siena.  It was a wonderful day.  We had lunch in the Piazza in Siena, wondered around, took tons of photographs, and relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine.  I have never seen my mother get so excited over Panforte before, but she was drooling over the pastry counters!

I had an amazing time and I know they did as well...now only a few more months until I get to see them again!

The Adventures are Continuing Across Europe...

Have you ever fallen in love with a vacation spot? I mean...really fallen in love?  Yes...well I fell in love with Interlaken the minute I stepped off the bus. The town itself is so quaint and quiet, there is nothing not to like.  I can't even write about this trip. It was breathtaking to an extent that pictures can only explain it! 

The skiing was skiing I have never experienced before! You went from blackout snow storms at the summit of the mountain to pow-pow half way down, then to slush, green grass and sunshine at the bottom of the mountain.  If you weren't exhausted by the time you reached the bottom of Jungrau, you could hope back on the train at any junction and ride it back up to the top!  Neatest thing ever.  Experience it for yourself please!

Parigi!

February 17, 2010
PARIGI!!!! (aka Paris)

Oh Paris…I love you! We took the train to Paris from Florence on February 7 around 8pm. The train was the most interesting part of the trip if you ask me. We partied a while with a few bottles of wine until we were exhausted. We climbed into our hole-in-the-wall bunks…four people in one room! It was fun. Half way through the night, we heard our door open to have a girl standing in the doorway. Thank god we woke up because as it turns out, several people from our school had money, passports, Permisseo di Sigiorno’s, and credit card copies stolen while they were sleeping.

When we got to Paris, we took the subway to our hotel. We landed up staying in an Apart Hotel, which was a 23-story hotel with apartment style housing. Our room had four people with one bedroom, one bathroom, a full kitchen with a dishwasher and sink, and a pull out coach for the other two people in the apartment. Amanda and I got the bedroom thinking there were two to begin with. Guess not! Oops! We unpacked our belongings quickly, washed our faces and such, and then we headed back to the lobby where we left for a day at the Louvre.

I never imagined the Louvre to be so big, but it is mind-boggling! If you compare the property to the movie, it is nothing in comparison. I kid you not, mind blowing. I got to see the Mona Lisa and the Sphinx, as well as DumDum from the movie Night at the Museum. I don’t know how to actually say the statues real name; therefore, DumDum is going to have to work. We caught an amazing lunch near the Louvre. I had French Onion soup that was made without beef broth! Woah!

Also on Monday, we visited Notre Dam Cathedral. The exterior is just as I studied. There are gargoyles on the top of the church, surrounding the streets looking down on people. Watching you like hawks.

Tuesday was a field trip the Louis Vuitton Headquarters near Bourget and the Arc de Triomphe. We got a tour of the entire store as well as detailed descriptions of how the store is visually merchandised as well as how the garments are actually made. It was very interesting especially since Marc Jacobs is now the designer for LV Ready-to-Wear line.

We also attended TexWorld on Tuesday: a very large and famous textile trade show in Paris where millions of buyers and designers visit in just a few, short days. The overall set up of the show was interesting. The vendors were set up in categories of countries. The countries were grouped together in the show, and there were matching restaurants for the countries near each section of the show. One side of TexWorld was textile fabrics, and the other side was fixings: buttons, zippers, lace, beading etc. The show was informational because we had to meet with two vendors and interview each to gather as much information on the company as we could. This is what a buyer would do when they meet with vendors. Find out how business is doing, how are they doing this year in comparison to last year, the average price per meter of their textiles, what they sell best, whom they sell to and their main competition as well as key companies they sell to. All this information is extremely important when it comes to buying fabric because buyers and designers are placing a large sum of money on each order, so they want the best they can get.

Wednesday: We attended the Pierre Cardin Museum in the morning, which was extremely boring to the point I do not even want to talk about it. We also visited a very famous store called Collette, as well as St. Honoree, Palais Royale and Marais (a shopping area in close approximation with Tribecca, NYC).

On Wednesday night, Amanda and I were relaxing with our friend Sayam when he suggested we get Chinese across the street from our hotel. We walked in to the restaurant to see it was more fancy than we expected. Turns out, we sat down, had water delivered to our table, and then we were greeted by warm hand towels to clean our paws before we ate. I knew we were in trouble at that point. Then our menus arrived. French, no prices…oh shit. As it turned out, Amanda and I shared one plate that was 45 Euros alone. It was ‘vegetarian’: a blob of pureed tofu with ground veggies on top a bed of asparagus wrapped in coral, a clear sauce and slices of seaweed. Our meal came to a grand total of 30 Euros per person. We were so hungry by the time we left that we took a trip to the grocery store for wine, cheese, snacks and fruit. Yes, we drank and pigged out. After that, we went to a lounge bar on the other side of the river where my drinks cost me 40 Euros for two beverages. OMG>What an expensive night!

Thursday: We attended a meeting at the OECD called Organization for Economic Development. I decided to go out the night before this meeting with Sayam and Amanda and was exhausted this day so I actually fell asleep in the first row during the presentation! How embarrassing! Obviously, it wasn’t too exciting. I didn’t even make it through the first 15 minutes before I felt my head bobbing around. Oh yea, the economic part of the industry does not entice me in the least bit!

Printemps: The world’s most elegant department store comprised of 6 floors with a mid-high level price point. We attended an informational session in Printemps with one of the general directors of the store. He spoke with our classes about how the merchandise is purchased, how the store functions on a daily basis, and then he went into a PowerPoint on the current and upcoming trends for this season and Spring/Summer 2010. At this point, I again, felt myself dosing off. I guess I fell asleep at one point and woke up to my friend Rebecca (to my right) elbowing me in the ribs saying, “Kristen! Wake up! You are snoring!” How embarrassing…but it was so amusing that our entire row was laughing to the point we almost were excused.

Friday and Saturday were filled with Premier Vision (world’s largest textile trade show), shopping, wondering around Paris, and eating as much delicious food as possible, photography sessions and playing. Overall, Paris was an amazing trip. I fell in love with the people and the city and I cannot wait to go back in the spring. This upcoming weekend we are heading to Roma to visit our good friend from FIT, Brittany. Roma info to follow!

Wine Tasting Day in Greve in Chianti

February 15^th

I Just noticed that I haven’t written in one month, maybe a little less.  Life has been hectic lately.  I just got back from a week in Paris with school, and the weekend before we went to Venice, and the weekend before that we went on a wine tasting to Greve in Chianti.

I guess I will start by telling you about our tour of Greve in Chianti.  We woke up around 6am Saturday morning only to find out it was pouring.  We bundled up and walked to the train station anyways.  We boarded the bus around 8am and arrived to our location around 9/930 am. We got off the bus thinking “where in the hell are we?”  Where were we really though? Greve in Chianti:  A quaint town averaging a total of one street, about ¾ mile long.  We walked around, walked to the top of the hill of Greve where we could see miles and miles of vineyards and olive trees.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  After wondering around here for a bit,, we made our way to the market in the center near the famous singing butcher, who literally sings while butchering up his baby lamb chops or Charlotte. 

After walking around the market, I bought socks because by that time, my feet were soaked through my leather boots and cold as hell.  The socks are about an inch thick and made of heavy gauged sheep’s wool…don’t ask, they were sooo warm. 

We hopped back on the bus and made our way up to Pasano for our wine tasting.  We got a tour of the family villa we were visiting and got free lemons and oranges from the families gardens.  Lunch was amazing.  We were served three different reds, two Chianti’s and one ‘better than Chianti’.  I landed upon buying a bottle of ‘better than Chianti’ and a bottle of olive oil, which was also made at the family Villa as well. 

For food, we were served crostini’s with olive oil and cheese.  Then, pasta with homemade tomato sauce, then pasta with homemade pesto sauce, the biscotti with Prosecco….and then? Grappa.  May as well just drink gas from the car, it was that bad.  And to think I drank two shots of it just to make me warmer? Little did I know that it was 55% alcohol! Haha, a fun walk back down the hill that was!

After walking around the property for a bit, we thanked the chef and were off back to Florence.  A good day indeed filled with lots of hiking up and down large hills, lots of wine and a good day’s worth of roommate company.  

An Excursion Through the Market

January 17, 2010:

Where to start… Well…the last few days have been hectic and crazy but filled with fun and excitement. Exploring on a daily basis is a must. Taking things back a few days, lets start with my jaunt to the market on Friday.


Friday morning, I woke up at 11…oops…and attempted to find the Mercato Centrale. Well…that became an experience of a lifetime. I started off heading in the right direction towards the market but somehow got sidetracked by a bunch of neat stores along the way. To make a long story short, about 45 minutes, I arrived at the market. It was exactly the same as I had remembered it from three years ago.
Let me give you a visual:


--The Meat Counter has bull testicals, eyeballs, brains, stomach, whole pig heads, and whole piglets. As well as these lovely concoctions, you can also find chicken beaks; chicken cluckers (AKA…Chickens hanging beard) chicken feet…and whatever you can possibly fathom eating.


--The Fish Counter…that was possibly more exciting than the meat counter. As I roamed the aisles of the fish section, I came across enormous octopus with beady eyeballs as well as whole squid. One fishmonger actually had a bowl of squid ink for sale. I nearly threw up on the spot. Other than that, you can find whole eels. I don’t even know where else to go from there. Oh, right, the entire shark that was in the market really creeped me out. Lovely.


Then you come across the fruits and vegetables, which were beautiful, and lovely, unlike the stinky, smelly, gross butcher counters.


You are probably wondering what I walked out of the market with? Well…tons of tomatoes, mushrooms, olive oil, olives, sundried tomatoes, Pecorino Romano cheese, baby clams and a few other items. Kristen should not be allowed to go to the market.

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Today we hit the soccer stadium. Fiorentina verses Bologna. The goalie was awful! Supposedly, he is some amazing goalie in Italy, and somehow, he let two goals just fly past him throughout the 1:30 game. What BS!


Running tomorrow morning and then heading back to the market with the entire apartment tomorrow to pick up basil and more tomatoes. Did I mention that tomorrow I would also continue the search for a warm scarf? I finally found toasty socks…now the hunt for scarves continues.

Excursions around the City

January 11, 2010

A gorgeous day! Sunny, with a few cloud puffs in the sky, tons of happy begging pigeons everything. Woke up, got out of bed really late. Our entire apartment was a mess this morning because we were all running so late.

Around 9am, we got breakfast, went to the bank and proceeded on with our hike up the Polimoda Hill. I had heard from a few people that the hill leading to school was a bit of a nightmare. It looked nothing like a nightmare until this morning. The road looks as though it is straight, but in reality, you get the top and it turns to the right...and KEEPS GOING UPHILL! We got the top and i was ready to take off every layer of clothing I had on because I was dripping wet! If I get that sweaty every day I am going to have to bring a change of clothing for each day I have school!

Our meeting with the agency went quickly. We heard what they had to say, we took notes, and bolted right after the meeting straight to an apartment we were dying to see. We got the first apartment half an hour later located near the Duomo. After the five flights of stairs, (by the way, I don't think I am going to gain a pound here) we get to the top to see the apartment. Three bedrooms, two were extremely tiny, no more than 4x7, and another, which was a double twin room, very spacious and comfortable. We then went onto the balcony and saw the incredible side view of the Duomo, front to back, only four blocks away. Simply stunning.

The landlord then said to us, I know you like this one, but I also have one downstairs. So we took the stairs to the next floor down. He opened the door only to reveal the biggest apartment I have ever seen in my entire life!!! You enter the room and straight ahead is an eight person dining room table. Directly to the left is an enormous family room with a TV and comfortable couches. Our room is then straight back from there, which has a huge stucco arch in the middle of it. We have a good sized kitchen with a kitchen table. Then two more bedrooms and another dining room. We also have a washing machine and brick-stone flooring.

Tonight we went out for dinner at another restaurant down the street. The food was wonderful, but if I don’t eat a salad and fruit soon, my body is going to hate me.

January 12, 2010
7:12 pm

This morning we had orientation at Polimoda on the hill. We went over permit of stays, only to find out our Visa’s do not let us out of the country until we get our permit of stays. What the hell Florence!? Don’t you know we are here for traveling?! GRR.

Oh, and since my tote broke getting off the plane, I bought a new one today at the leather market in the center. Too much money but I needed it. Also, Amanda and I have done nothing but travel around the city shopping for sweaters and we have had no such luck. I am done shopping. After today, I quit.

Apartment Hunt Day 1

The Beginning of My Florence Excursion

Friday, January 8 and Saturday, January 9, 2010

The Departure

At 7:30am on Friday morning, my mother woke the entire house to make sure that we were fully functioning by 10am and ready to leave the house. We first had to drop the mongrels’ (dogs) off at the grandparents for their overnight hotel visit, and then we were on our way.

The ride to Philadelphia was a little iffy throughout parts. The weather forecast enlightened the northeast that we would only be seeing 2-4 inches of snowfall over a few hours, and that would be that. But nooo…this morning, we woke up to 3-4 inches already. And the snow was still falling. Therefore, the ride to the airport was slippery and stressful. I kept telling my father it was time to buy new tires, but he wanted to hear no such thing.

I arrived at the gate for check in after making my way through security. I don’t know how many of you have flown recently, but airport security didn’t even check to see how much liquid I had packed away in my carry on! I was shocked! Anyways, I got to my gate only to realize my second connecting flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Florence was cancelled. Supposedly, Germany is experiencing some life-threatening storm to the point that Lufthansa feels the need to cancel each and every one of their flights leaving from Frankfurt.

I am currently on the plane to Frankfurt, and of course, I have no slept a wink. Instead, I watched Julie and Julia, Bride Wars and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the fifteenth time. Too bad they didn’t have UP as a choice. That would have made my travels much better. J My computer is telling me it is 11:13pm…that is in the states. It is currently 5:15am Germany/Europe time and I feel dead already. When I get off this aircraft, I have to make my way through the hellish Frankfurt airport, without a connecting flight to reach! How interesting!! I find it slightly amusing only because it is completely beyond my control. A very brilliant individual always tells me to not worry about everything so much, that half the things I worry about are beyond my control. The other half I am convinced enjoy biting me in the rump…. like this connecting flight. Oh well!

We are landing in Frankfurt at 6:15am, only to find myself running through the airport. I will write again on my connecting flight, (if I ever get on one) and elaborate the lovely security procedures Frankfort is so very good at. Maybe this time, they will make me take off all my clothes in front of the line instead of the belt and shoes and such. Wouldn’t that be a hoot! I can hear it now, in the deep, throaty German language, ‘Excuse me mam, would you mind taking off all your clothing because we feel you are a harm to everyone around you?” haha…I am dreading it as I type.

Oops…here comes breakfast at 5am in the morning! Give me coffee!!! I hope it is like soup! Or schnooup as my dad says.

3:08pm:

-Wow…what a day. Got a connecting flight with my roommate Amanda this morning at 8am out of Frankfurt. I have never ran that fast through an airport before! I can tell you I was in a full sweat by the time I got to the appropriate gate.

12:57am, January 10, 2010

The last time I wrote I literally fell asleep on my laptop. I woke up around 9:30 by saying to my roommate, OMG! We just slept 14 hours! Thinking it was 930am. In reality, it was 9:30 PM. Wow. What a mess I am.

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So we woke up after our 7-hour nap and I showered and got ready for dinner. We then met up with the rest of the group down the hall at the hostel and went to dinner next door to the hostel. We had three bottles of wine split between 9 people and Pizza Margherita. Mmm. Tomorrow morning we are all waking up, buying internet access for the week and then Amanda and I are going to roam around again. Lucky me, my tote broke getting off my very last flight so now I have to buy a new tote tomorrow for school which starts in one week.

Tomorrow we are also meeting with our coordinator, Sass Brown, who is taking us around the city, showing us around and meeting with us to go over the apartment hunt, which starts on Monday morning. Amanda and I have decided to get an apartment in Historic Center right in the middle of everything. Even after being at the hostel for one day, we are so out of the way from everything major surrounding us that it isn’t worth living over here. I would rather live in the center, have a great experience there and walk the 40 minutes back and forth to school 8 times a week, two times a day. Tomorrow starts another day.

Sunday, January 10th, 3:22pm

So today we went on a tour of the city with the director, Sass Brown. She showed us the train station and some major monuments around the city. Tomorrow we are going to school in the morning, meeting the apartment agency, and then they are letting us loose on the city to find our apartments. I am so stressed because we don't know what we will actually be spending on an apartment. I guess I will let you know tomorrow afternoon!!