The Day to Day

It's always amazing how fast time flies by and I feel like I can't quite believe the holidays are upon us once again. Thanksgiving is really late this year and is the beginning of a very busy few weeks of travel for me. I know, I can hear all the violins playing.

We have a four day weekend for our Thanksgiving Break and I'm off to explore Barcelona. I've wanted to visit there since '92 when our high school Spanish trip dropped it from the itinerary due to the Olympics. We get back to Milan in time for the start of the Fiera, a huge festival of goods from all over the world. For those of you in Savannah, think Christmas in the South times 10. It's really that big. And living in the city means I can go more than once!

After the Fiera, I'll be heading to Stockholm, Sweden for the Google Teacher Academy. I applied in October and was one of only 26 chosen for this group. When finished with the two day workshop I'll be a Google Certified Teacher and this, I think, is super exciting!

You can see my video application here.

Finally, Caitlin and I are making a quick run to Florence for some last minute shopping. I'm taking gift requests...seriously! It's such a shame most of my immediate family lives where scarves at not necessary because otherwise they would each have one in every color.

Anyways, back to the here and now.

I've been collecting some pictures of some odds and ends in recent weeks and thought I would share them!

In early November I was offered a chance to attend a cooking class with Clara, who owns and operates Cook In Milano. Several of us from school met at her place on a Monday night and made gnocchi, a vegetable tort, and a chocolate lava cake. Clara was so nice and welcoming and if you visit Milan I would recommend her cooking classes.

Clara and Jill discussing something important!

Olivier practices his gnocchi rolling skills

Ali gets the lava cake ready to bake...yum!

Found this little gem in Clara's kitchen--

Now that I've settled in to my new place, I've been trying to make it feel like I actually live here and am not just passing through. As I travel, I'm always on the look out for cool things made by locals and have been buying a fair bit of art. So, I set out to take my collection and put it up on the wall of my living room. 

You may have seen on Facebook a few weeks back that I took my Guernica poster to a local frame shop and navigated that whole experience in Italian. It felt like such an accomplishment. I started planning around that large Picasso work by using paper the size of each frame. This way, I was able to rearrange several times before committing! 

My project in action--

Clockwise from the bottom- Verona; San Raphael, France; two of Rome; Venice; Kronborg Castle in Denmark; Amsterdam; London; Siena; and, of course, Picasso's Guernica in the middle

And now, a really random one. On the tram Thursday night I stood by this guy...with his extravagant outfit and winged shoes. I promise I tried to get a good picture of the shoes in action as I stalked him down the street, but no such luck; it was too dark and he was too fast!

His shoes had wings. I was so enthralled by them.
August Alderman, I think you need a pair. 

This morning, Caitlin and I went for breakfast at a place that advertises its "American-ness." This is never a good idea for us, as our expectations are way too high for what we're realistically going to get. But, nonetheless, we tried it out.

Ehhhh, the eggs were a little under done and the hashbrowns were a little sad,
but the bacon was just on the right side of floppy. My Aunt Joni will like that one! 

This place sells a few items they've deemed American.

Please note those RIDICULOUS prices! 

They're serving a Thanksgiving meal this coming week too.

Anyone else notice a slight problem?
Venerdi= Friday. Hmmmm.

I had found a store that I wanted to check out, so we headed there after breakfast.

I found my favorite holiday Yankee candle scent! Happy. Girl.

Let's NOT discuss how much Yankee candles cost here. 

And, Caitlin found this amazing knife holder thing-a-ma-jig that I was in desperate need of. And it is so fun. So I must share.

finally, my knives have a home

I'll be home December 20th in the evening. We'll be headed to the Whitemarsh Jalapeno's around 9 if anyone wants to come for a margarita and some cheese dip! I hope to see a bunch of people while I'm home and would love to plan some of those meetings as walks instead of meals! Send me some dates for my calendar!

It's Just Like Riding a Bike

Italy being the good Catholic country that it is meant that last weekend was a long one for us! For the first time since moving here, some friends and I decided to rent a car and drive to an agriturismo outside of Siena. You can learn more about agriturismi by clicking on the embedded link, but generally it's a small, family owned farm that allows guests to come and stay on the property. But, more on the agriturismo in a minute...other exciting parts of this adventure must be detailed first.

Love this city.

Awhile back, Caitlin, Grace, Katie and I started discussing the possibility of this trip. I found the place to stay and Caitlin said she'd take care of renting a car. I said, "Great! I don't want any part of driving, so have at it!"

Fast forward to last Thursday night. I get a text message that says, "No automatics available, so we got a manual car." This is probably a good time to mention that the girls that rented the car do not have any experience driving stick shift cars. How they drove it home that night is beyond me.

Friday morning, three of us met at the car and packed it up and were prepared to head to Opera to pick up Katie. And, then, we stalled, a time or two or three or more! I lost count!! We finally got going, only to be told by a nice Italian man when stalled at a green light, "Metti la prima! Vai!" (basically, put it in first and you go!) Yes, we know that.  Somehow we made it to Opera, picked up Katie and her full mug of tea, and began our road trip.

Caitlin, pre-stalling, Friday morning

A few more stalls later and Katie's mug was no longer full. And, me, the one who didn't want anything to do with the driving, found herself behind the wheel. (Once in a blue moon, like 18 years ago, I was the proud driver of a bare bones Toyota Tercel 5 speed.)

There was a ton of traffic headed out of town, so instead of taking about 4 hours to get to Siena, it took more like 6. We had plans to meet up with my landlord's (Luisa) family to pick olives, but arrived too late to actually pick anything. But, we did arrive in time for the sunset and a lovely time with Luisa and her family. Her parents are just about the cutest people ever.

sunset in Tuscany
view from just outside of Vescovado di Murlo

We headed to Siena for dinner and I was thankfully smart enough not to drive up a huge hill that would have lead into the city. We took a recommendation from a friend of Grace and we enjoyed plenty of freshly made pasta and delicious food.

Our agriturismo was great. It only allowed for a handful of people to stay there, was clean and inviting, and had some amazing homemade bread (among other things) for breakfast.

the view from our room

The next day we taxied back to Siena to spend the day in the town. It's such a beautiful place. We spent our time in the Duomo and then went to an exhibit of photography by Steve McCurry, the photographer made famous for his Afghan girl with the mysterious eyes back in the day. We had sandwiches from a crazy meat shop (boar salami) and dined on them in the middle of Piazza del Campo. It was another one of those moments where I was reminded how the life I'm able to live seems so surreal.

Christmas "balls" were for sale in many shops.
I'm kinda obsessed with this photo.

Siena is probably most famous for it's twice yearly horse race, the Palio. The 17 different neighborhoods, known individually as a contrada (plural- contrade), each have a representative compete in the July and August race. The race takes place right in the heart of the city, in front of the city hall and around Piazza del Campo. Last year I read an amazing book called The Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato that had a fictional palio set in the early days of the race as a focus of its plot. It might be a good one to pick up if you're interested in learning more.

handpainted bells, decorated in the colors of different contrade

We had made arrangements to have dinner at the agriturismo that night. The owner gave us a tour of the wine tanks and barrels and talked to us about their wine production each year before dinner. Joining us that night were two American couples and one Italian couple. Dinner was really good and served family style so it was nice to have this experience and share it with others.

family style.

We topped off the night with a few competitive rounds of Sequence, a game that no one except Grace has ever heard of. But, we loved it and I can't wait to play some more!

Sequence. Have you ever played?

Some other great pics from the weekend...

olives in Tuscany

the horse hooks used to hold-- you guessed it-- the horses!

Siena's Duomo

City Hall and the Tower

Poster Child

Just in case you thought I was just traveling around Europe, hopping from place to place on every whim, here's proof that I'm actually spending most of my time working.

I've become the poster child for my school's latest advertising campaign.

To see the proof click here. Look beneath the latest issue for issues 289 and 288 and you'll see yours truly on the cover. 

I would post an image here directly, but our cute little students' faces aren't supposed to pop up on our own random websites, so...