stay here forevs?

Ciao ciao! Happy Easter weekend to me! Happy MidWeek for you all!

Well let’s all ask Shelley why she didn’t update yesterday!? Well that is probs because she got to baking yesterday and found out her paper on a pastry chef was due TODAY! Haha

So what is new?

Well Tuesday I woke up and actually got dressed for class since we were supposed to be doing a site tour and talk with a manager at a hotel here. (Usually I go to class in my workout clothes!) However, got to class and found out we are going next week because he didn’t think we are ready for our final. Sucks to suck, we’re never going to be. I can’t wait till that class (Hospitality Accounting) and Special Events are over especially!! Made it through that excruciating class and came home to eat and go do Spartacus.

All pumped up and ready to go, get to the gym, only a few minutes in, the guy comes and tells me they have to close the gym…….UGH! I was so mad. They have to close till next Tuesday because of the construction going on. Alexa and I aren’t happy. So he let me workout till 12:30 and then I had to leave. So then I came home and finished some of my workout then went to walk around my apartment. (I will get to how hard it is to walk around here when I explain my Wednesday!) Then I went to the market and came home to get ready for Baking!

Well, went to school to “work on my paper”, but finally got to see my lab partner Valerie since she missed class last week and I caught up with her for a bit and heard all about her trip to Sicily! So jealous. She went with her friend and they are both friends with this guy who has family in Sicily. He ended up getting them a sweet deal and they were driven around by the guy’s dad’s personal driver because they are pretty rich! Val explained the guy even walked around with them and carried her shopping bags and purses! How cute! It is apparently a custom in Sicily that the guy carries the woman’s purse!

However, then continuing our catch up conversation. If I wasn’t so jealous that she works at a bakery here before, I am even more jealous now! She went here last semester and came back again this semester. Now she has decided she is staying here forever and her husband will probs move here eventually and they might open a bakery eventually. I was like YOU CAN’T!! She was my reason to go to California….. She told me to come in the summer.. and I was like hmmmmmm…….pondering. haha! It could happen! I am so jealous! However, it just gives me another reason to come back to good ol’ Firenze! If I could live here I would, but everyone knows I prefer Sicily!

So then we went into baking. One of the guys in my class set his paper down and I was like why did you write that already and he was like it’s due today and I was like no it’s not! It’s due the week before finals! And then Jeff and Val were like no it’s due today! I was like WHAT! He said the week before finals. The other girl in my class didn’t have hers either, but neither did Jeff and Val SO chef got to class and said it can be due next Tuesday! I was like I am so sorry!! I had it down as due before finals!!

SO then we proceeded with class. We really didn’t do much because we are making these huge cakes I guess in the end. So yesterday we prepped the cake doughs and layers and then put them in the freezer to continue next week. So we made this whipped dough with hazelnuts that turned out almost crusty but didn’t taste very good I didn’t think. Val and I made a sablet dough, which consisted of butter, sugar, modern salt, spice, egg yolks, baking powder, and flour. It turned out quite spicy but was so cool to make because we got to put it in a pastry bag and form the cake in the springform pan (MISS THOSE!!). Also, we made this whipped olive oil cake with lots of almond flour! That one didn’t taste too bad. Then we made these custard type things that are going to go in between the cake layers and also a raspberry sauce as well. For the first time like ever, I didn’t eat my dinner in baking it seems like. I didn’t like any of it really!

SO then I came home to make my chicken and pasta! Then I went to find my pastry of the day, CANOLI of course! I am still stuck on finding a different canoli place to go to every day. So I went to this place by the train station and got one and then raced home to tell Alexa all about Valerie moving here! It was so good! Chocolate on the inside, once again a success!

So then it was time to knock out this 6-page paper on a pastry chef. I decided to do an American pastry chef because mainly every Italian pastry chef I looked up- the websites came up in Italian. SO needless to say I chose David Lebovitz who used to be a pastry chef in America, but now lives in Paris for good! Living the sweet life and has written many cookbooks that I cannot wait to look up! It seems like he has some pretty good recipes I could make! He’s a pretty legit pastry chef if you ask me!

I knocked that paper out like all in one night! Perfectly 6 pages with proofreading and things to add soon-- GO ME! SEIGS could tell you that is like a miracle that I wrote that long of a paper in such a short time, but shoot I wonder why!? HAHA! Probs cause she wasn’t here to help me procrastinate! Haha Nor did I have my phone to help me procrastinate either!! Haha

So then I finally went to bed and woke up this morning to study for my LAST Italian quiz that was at noon. Then I went down to school to study some more cause I couldn’t focus (shocking?) and ask my teacher questions. Then I went in to take the quiz. UGHH I have no idea how I did.. Guess I will find out next Wednesday since we don’t have class on Monday. We have been doing teacher evaluations all week. I gave her and chef a nice evaluation, but the other 2 teacher I have……….hmmmmmm………

Then since the gym is closed, I had downloaded Biggest Loser Cardio Max onto my computer to do when I got home! Haven’t done it since like before Christmas break since Seigs is the one who owns the DVD. I will probs be paying for it tomorrow. I could already feel the soreness coming down the steps to meet Haleigh and Johanna at school again to tlak about our project.

That was a joke because our teacher has yet to email us what is due on the next part of the project! So I walked all the way down to school for nothing! At least I got yesterday’s One Life episode and a Golden Girls episode downloaded! Haha! So then I came home and stopped by another canoli place and picked one up! Tried a bite, but saving it for desert! Crunchy and chocolate on the inside! LEGIT! Can’t wait to make dinner. So then I picked up a few things at the store and came home.

Now I am sitting on my balcony tanning and enjoying this beautiful weather while writing this!

I am going to go make dinner soon and then work on my other paper that is ACTUALLY due before finals after I eat.

Tonight we are all going out somewhere thankfully! I need to go out!

MTV TRL Awards are being held in Santa Croce tonight. No one knows who is coming. Some say Eminem, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Britney Spears, etc. then it changed to no American artists, just Italians. Now everyone is thinking that it’s all Italian artists singing American songs. Apparently it is going to be a small TRL Awards just for the Italian community…. SO who knows. I guess we will see. I would cry if Lady Gaga was here. Haha! Santa Croce is a mess to walk around right now so I didn’t feel like waking around there! People were already camping out this morning for it apparently! haha

Florence is getting a little too busy for me. I cannot tell you how hard it is to walk to school now, especially around the Duomo. I swear these games of let’s walk at each other and see who moves first is beyond annoying and the stopping in the middle of the already too small of sidewalks is beyond old!!!! I need to find other ways to go. Hopefully once the TRL stuff is over, I can start walking behind Santa Croce again to avoid the Duomo. Walking through mass loads of people can only last me like one day until I am tired of it!! Haha

I actually have to write papers these days, which is why most of you probs haven’t heard from me! SO sorry for that! And so sorry my contactability since before Dublin has basically sucked. I am due for like 10 skype dates that I keep not having because of being so busy! Hopefully soon though! I am trying my best!

Chelsea and Lindsey come tomorrow! Julie, Debbie, Kate, Kate, Lana, Sarah, and Jessica all come on Saturday! Cannot wait to see them all!!!!!

Other than all of this, my friend Haleigh offered me a wild strawberry Crystal Light packet today. I was quite hesitant to take it since my stance these days is no American things I miss till I come home. However, I had to take it and will drink it tomorrow! Cannot wait! Gahh-- how I miss those things.

Alexa and I had the can I live here forever talk again yesterday. Still so-so these days! I am so jealous of Valerie and Stacey for coming here next semester but I can’t say I don’t miss America a lot and my family and friends of course! It’s going to be weird coming home soon! I know I said in the beginning I don’t think I will ever forget how it is to miss my material things from home, but to be honest I don’t crave American food as much, I barely remember what it is like to text on my blackberry, and so on. Unbelievable I know. I crave canoli, Gusta’s, pastries, and so on these days! I do however insanely miss unlimited internet and wifi on my blackberry! Haha! And I also miss being able to walk at a legit speed on regular concrete just to add in here! Haha

It’s going to be fun having Julie and Debbie (friends from work), as well as everyone else, here this weekend, but I will already have to tell them immediately when we are waking, I walk around and see things as NBD now.. so they’re going to have to tell me to slow down cause they want to see this and this! Haha

Well I skype my work again tomorrow while waiting to see Chelsea and Lindsey! I cannot wait to see their faces and hear their voices finally once again! It’s been so long it seems like! I am hoping to take Chelsea and Lindsey (Tricia’s roommates) to the pizza place here that has won the award for World’s Best Pizza tomorrow night if they get here early enough cause me and my friends have been wanting to go! SO we will see!

Until tomorrow! Ciao my friends! Gotta wake up and do 2 hours of working out tomorrow morning with my friend Lauren at the 2 classes she is going to teach.. hopefully I will make it through the whole thing! Haha!

Miss and Love!