Last Cuisine Meal

Caprese Salad/'Sour' Dough bread

Asparagus pasta

Gnocchi with shrimp sauce

Desserts: Canoli (in front), rum cake, and flakey ricotta filled goodies

Cuisine tonight was so yummy!! :) We started off by having caprese salad with ‘sour dough’ bread on the side to spread a cheese on top – the cheese was white with whipped cream inside?? Their sour dough is way different than ours - theirs has a yellow color to it and is more chewy rather than having that 'sour' taste to it...it was good, but not sour dough. We enjoyed those dishes with Greco di Tufo, a red vino I believe. Then we had asparagus pasta which was very yummy and all that the sauce was was butter and water mixed in with the cooked aspargus – that’s all!! So easy to make as well!! We drank Fiano di Avellino with that which was a bianco and was kinda dry, but left you with a sweet taste, pretty good. Then we made gnocchi and while we were waiting for that to cook, we drank a red wine called Falaughina and then when the gnocchi was done, we put a shrimp sauce on top which Christina made prior to class. She had to because you soak muscle sheels in oil, water and some vino overnight. Then when you are ready to heat it, you add chopped up chili peppers to it as well as garlic and the baby shrimp – it was so yummy! She said it didn't turn out as thick as it should've, but I still enjoyed it. For dessert we had 3 different treats. We had a canoli, some flakey dessert which was filled with ricotta inside and we had a rum cake, not much rum to it, but it was really sogging, so I didn't like it. After the desserts we had a glass of Amaro Siciliano which smelt like Jack Daniels but was incredibly thick. It was to sip on, "not to take like a shot" Christinas said. Ha. I didn't actually mind it, it reminded me of throat medicine, how it is a little thicker. I could only handle the little bit she gave us, plus the alcohol percentage was at 32% or something like that! Ha. Good last cuisine night though, very delish!! :)
Love you all, talk to you soon, off to Roma tomorrow for a field trip and then we are going to hang out for the last time there...well the next time I will go to Roma is on the 15th for my flight home!! :)
MISS YOU ALL!!
Talk soon!!
CIAO!! :)

Poland

30.04.2009 - 02.05.2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT DAR AND MIKEY B!! :) HOPE YOUR DAY WAS FABULOUS!!

I had such a great weekend spent in Poland!! :) On Thursday, Amy, Beth, Jenny and I left right after class to go to the train station because we had a flight on Thursday to Warsaw and then to Krakow. Flying from Warsaw to Krakow it was the first time I have ever flown on a plane that small!! It wasn't bumpy or anything which was great!! We got to our hostel late Thursday night so we just went to bed and then on Friday we slept in a bit and then we walked around the city which was a lot of fun - lots of shops and people to see. At 4pm we had to be back to the hostel so the bus could pick us up - we made reservations to go check out the Salt Mine in or near Krakow, I forget where it was located, but the drive was only like 45 minutes to get there. The salt mine was really neat. We had to walk down 800 steps to get to the bottom and on the way down there was so much to see, like the original steps which the workers carved out of the salt walls and we also saw churches which were built inside. Almost at the very bottom there was the largest church there where you can actually get married in and have your reception at the restaurant inside the mine as well - crazee!! I also saw the Last Supper...it was done in the 40's by a man carved out of salt on the wall - very neat!! After spending a few hours down there on the tour and licking the walls, it was time to take the lift up to the top which only took 40 seconds!! :) That was Fridays highlight and for Saturday it was Auschwitz-Birkenau. Wow, I don't know where to start to talk about Auschwitz, it was so sad just to think about all the lives that were lost, including those of my family members. :( I saw lots there, we were able to visit a few of the blocks and see suitcases, over 800 pairs of shoes, clothes (mostly of children), glasses, pots and pans, combs, and the one that got me sick to my stomach was hair. There was a room FULL of almost all of the hair that was shaved off of the victims before they were put in the 'showers'. I was so sadden when I saw it...SO crazee that it is the REAL hair...the only thing is is that the color has faded, but still...I even saw Block 11 - which is the only block that has been left as found. No changes have been done to it, just glass put up in front of doorways, etc. I also saw the Death Wall, which is near Block 11...the wall isn't the original one, but in the same place as the original...very sad!! :( After visiting the Blocks, we went over to the gas chambers and were able to walk through them. The only thing missing from inside were the shower heads, everything else was still original and in its original place. Very, very sad to walk through there...where at one time people had been killed!! It was hard to take it all in and walk through at the same time, so devastating how many lives were lost not only at Auschwitz, but other camps as well. After Auschwitz, we took a 20 minute drive to visit Birkenau. This camp is the one where the trains lead right into the camp. The tracks are no longer in use, but are still there. This camp we didn't spend much time at, but we did go into a few of the barracks there. In one we saw the beds which they packed 10+ people on each bunk and in another we saw the toilets which were just concrete slabs with holes placed evenly in them. If you spent too much time on the 'toilet' you were beaten. :( Ay, the whole tour was very sad, but I am so glad I did it!! After the tour, we needed to do something cheerful, so we went to the fair which wasn't far from our hostel at all. It was a blast and we rode a bunch of rides and ate the yummy fair food!! Haha!! :)
Love you all, see you soon!! Crazee...now that my last big trip is over, the countdown begins!! This trip was a great last trip for the semester, I really enjoyed it!! :)
Talk to you soon!!
CIAO!! :)
'Work will set you free' - entrance to Auschwitz
All the blocks at Auschwitz looked like this...3 story buildings
Death Wall
Railroad tracks at Birkenau
Toilets
Bunks

28-29.04.2009

Tuesday:

Happy Birthday Nanny!! :) I hope you had a GREAT day, you deserve it!! :) Sorry I was unable to email you, internet was down all day!! :( Ry told me he called you though, for the both of us, what a sweetie!! :)

Wednesday:

Torta Pasqualina

Colombo cake ('shaped like a dove')

Cuisine night!! Yummy...tonight we pretended it was Easter even though it was a few weeks ago. Our cuisine class got canceled on April 1st because Christina was sick and since it was before Easter, we were going to be making the traditional dishes for that holiday. First we started to make Torta Pasqualina which is made up of many paper-thin layers of dough with ricotta and spinach as the main bulk. Before adding a few layers on top of the ricotta and spinach, you create indents with your spoon and then crack an egg in each indentation - very interesting. After we put that in the oven, we went to the table and ate salami with sweet bread. The salami still had the skin on it, so we had to peel it off - I was thinking of you Poppo when we were eating it because you would have liked it...but they were cut too thick...if I were the cutter, they would have been thin and tasty!! :) After that, we went back in the kitchen and made a walnut pasta - it was super easy to make and really tasty. More pasta to come...homemade pesto was next (Jimmy, you would've loved this one!!). I would've enjoyed it more if cooked potatoes and green beans weren't with the pasta, but that's ok, the pesto was amazing!! Next food was cheese, and we had a TON of them!! I didn't try them all because a few of them were bleu cheese, which I am not a fan of and they were really creamy!! :/ I really enjoyed one of them which I spread over a saltine and it was delish!! With the cheeses, we ate the Torta P - which I didn't like. Ha, too much spinach for my liking...the egg was the best part about it and it wasn't that good, just a weird combo to me. If all that food wasn't enough...we still had a sweet to come. We ended up having a Colomba cake and Colombus got his name from the word colomba meaning dove. It was 'shaped' like a dove and was very light cake with chocolate chips in it and on top had almonds, I enjoyed it, even though I was beyond stuffed!! We had a vino with this dessert and it was my favorite of the night (we had 3 in total) it was called Asti and it was a sparkling bianco vino - very yummy...and she said it was cheap...score!! :)
I know I am going to miss my cuisine class, but it's great because I now have all the recipes to make all these wonderful dishes (Sorry, but I won't be making all of these dishes for all of you, you can ask me for the recipes though!! Ha!)!!
Love and miss you all!!
Talk soon!!
CIAO!! :)

MILANO

PINK AND ORANGE!! :)

Thought of my cooz Nicoletti!! Sorry Dani, looked for your name, couldn't find it!! :(

Mama mia, this is your size coffee!! Ha!! :)

Leaving our mark behind...inside the wardrobe at our hostel!!

Since I am behind on this because of being out of town and the internet being down, I am just going to write about the highlights, so here it goes!!

Milano was an experience. Bethany and I went there Saturday-Monday (25-27.04.2009) to go to the Milano 2009 Furniture Show on Sunday. The entire weekend it was pouring rain, so it was a good thing the fair was indoors. It was HUGE!! 16 buildings in total FULL of furniture/lighting...insane!! We were not able to walk through all of them, not even a fourth of the buildings, I am not sure how many square feet each building was, but they were insanely HUGE!! It was a lot of fun walking around and checking out the new lines of furniture, mostly modern pieces. Overall the weekend was okay, not my favorite, maybe because there wasn't much to do because of the rain, what a damper!! :/ I REALLY enjoyed the fair though, which is great because it was the main reason we went to Milano!! :)
I miss you all, can't believe I will be home soon!!
Talk soon!!
CIAO!! :)

22.04.2009 - Wednesday

This morning was an early morning. We got up around 4am and got ready to leave for the Roma airport. The train left 5am, so we walked over to the station and the doors were locked…what the heck yo?? We waited out front for a few minutes and no one showed up like they were suppose to, so we walked around the building, through construction, and got on the train. As we sat down, the train took off…wow, talk about timing!! Ha. We ate our sandwiches just before this lady sat down near us who stunk like dookie. It was SO gross, we all were having a hard time breathing. She even set her luggage thing next to our bags, not touching luckily, and it was brown…suppose to be orange, that’s how dirty it was, SO gross!! :/ We got to the airport by 7:30am and I walked with mom and Nan over to the bus stop for T5 (it was their terminal which was 800M away from the other terminals). I said goodbye to them and before I knew it, they were driving off!! :( I had a few tears and I tried to hold them back, but it didn’t happen. After, I walked back to the train station and waited for a train to bring me to Termini. From there, I caught another train to Ostienza and then another to PF. I was home by 12pm, so a 7 hour turn around. Once I got home, I took a shower, I cant stand the dirty feeling of still being on a train and then I took a two hour, much needed, nap!! :) At 3pm Ryan and I had a Skype date set up, so we got on there and it wasn’t really working, so we got on gmail’s video chat and wow, the picture is so much more clear than Skype!! :) It was great to see Ryan…aww…I miss you LOTS baby!! After talking with him for some time, I took another shower to defrost. For some reason I was frozen and the heaters no longer turn on because it’s not “winter.” Well guess what…to us Arizonans, it feels like winter out here!! Haha!! After, I went to bed around 8:30pm and watched 27 Dresses.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

CIAO!! :)

21.04.2009 - Tuesday

Bfast was the start of our day today as well and then after we decided to go into town while it was still early and before the stores started closing, in hopes to purchase some things. We went to a Chinese store where we all scored and bought one thing or another!! Ha!! It was very exciting. After the Chinese store, Nan found this one store where she bought a top and then my mom bought some Limecello in a pretty bottle at a little store. We grabbed a slice of pizza on our way home and then took nap when we got back after our shopping. Very happy that we all got a few things, turned out well!! We all took an hour and a half nap and after, my mom and I walked to Despar to pick up some food for tomorrows bfast. We have to take the 5am train, so we are going to be needing some food!! We bought salami, cheese and bread to make some sandwiches. After Despar, my mom went with me back to my room to grab some things in hopes to fit it in moms/Nans suitcases to go back home. They ended up fitting ALL of it except for 2 pairs of shoes and I gave them lots to take back for me!! Ha!! After we packed it all up, Nan handed me a bag with a little owl inside!! She is SO cute!! We went into this little store a few days ago and I saw an owl and was saying how cute it was and that owls are my newest collection, even though I only have one owl mosaic so far, but for some reason, I really enjoy them. When I went upstairs with my mom, Nan stayed down and bought it without me knowing…sneaky!! :) Aw, I LOVE it!! Thanks again Nanny!! :) I ran back with my mom to bring back the extras because I didn’t want to take it with me tomorrow on the train (I am going with them to Roma tomorrow). Then for dinner we went downstairs where I wore my Roma jersey…not a good idea, seeing that Pasquele (our waiter) was a Viterbese fan…not a Roma…ha, so while I was at the table, I had to zip my jacket up all the way!! It was funny!! After dinner, we went back upstairs and went to bed around 10:30 – which is late because we have to be out of the hotel by 4:40am tomorrow!!

Love you all!!

CIAO X3!! :)

20.04.2009 - Monday

Massage day!! :) Nan had a GREAT idea to go get a massage. So my mom ran to the place, right near the hotel may I add, and set up an appointment. There was only one opening, so we told Nan to take it. So at 11am, Nan went for her massage while my mom and I went to four different banks, trying to trade in American money for Euros…wow, why it is SO hard here? Two wouldn’t do it and then ones computer froze, so the last one we went to was able to do it. It took a full hour to get Euros, then it was perfect timing to go pick Nan up. She was so relaxed and enjoyed it – “a different experience” she explained to us, not like an American massage!! O no…ha, the lady said that she could give me and my mom a massage at 3 and 4pm, so we were excited for that!! Since it was only 12pm, we had time to kill and my mom wanted to go into the city center to find some souvenirs, so Nan and I joined her. Since it was mid-day, NOTHING was open, so we headed back where Nan took a nap and my mom and I went to my dorm. I took a shower while my mom was online. Then we walked back and I went to get my massage. Nan was right, NOT like an American massage…ha, you started off lying on your back…interesting. Ha, it was basically a full-body cream application. It felt good though. Mom was next, so I went back to the hotel and waited for 5pm to roll around, when she was done. Around 7pm, we decided to go into town for the last time and go to dinner. It was raining out and the restaurant that was recommended to go to was closed, so we found a little hole-in-the-wall where we all got a salad and mom/Nan got a pasta dish and I got a pizza – last pizza at that. Ha!! Serious this time!! After, as we were walking home, I decided to stop over the Iowa girls apartment so my mom and Nan could meet them!! :) Cassie was over there as well, so it was fun to have them meet each other!! :) After hanging there for a few minutes, Cass left with us and we walked back home and went to bed shortly after. Aw, mom/Nan are leaving in a few days…sad…but exciting, because that means May is approaching QUICKLY!! :)

Love and MISS you ALL!!

CIAO X3!! :)