La Mia Famiglia

I apologize that I have not written anything in the past week and a half to two weeks. I have been incredibly busy with last minute activities, and sucking up the last bit of my life here in Italy. With that being said, this blog post is going to be a bit out of order (still need to write about Prague and my last couple weeks of school), but its super important and really exciting so I hope you will let it slide!

Wednesday morning my family arrived in Torino for what is the start or our two week journey around Italy. I had not seen them but through Skype for over 8 months and to be honest it was a tad bit weird when I first saw them. It was sad that they were as tired as they were because they could only last for about 5 hours in Torino, but in that time I was able to show them around the heart of the city and take them to all of my favorite places in the city that were open.

Picking the family up from the bus stop.

We had lunch at what potentially became my favorite place to eat in Torino; a panini shop named I Love Panino. In the last 3 1/2 months that they have been opened I ate there a lot (I was actually their first ever customer) and I have my own panini there! I also took them on a nice 3 hour tour of the city. We stopped off at all of the main piazzas and buildings in the city as well as my favorite gelatoria and visited the river Po. It was nice to show them the city that I had lived in for 9 months in person rather than just through photos or behind me in Skype.

Myself and Claudia and Max.

Showing the family around Torino (Piazza Castello)

Eating at my favorite Gelateria in Torino one last time!

It was a huge teaser to have them show up for 5 hours because after that they left for Milano to go to Venice the next day. I on the other hand had to stay back in Torino to complete my last couple of exams for school. We ended up meeting back up Saturday in Deiva Marina (a small beach town west of the Cinque Terre).

We happened to find out that from Saturday night at 9pm to Sunday night at 9pm there was going to be a train strike and for me it was in some ways a comical way of introducing them to Italy! Either way we managed to get some time in at the Cinque Terre, and made our way to Florence today. I will be going back through once I get back to America to actually blog about these separately, but I just wanted to give a quick update on what all has been going on!

The family in the Cinque Terre

Mom and Dad enjoying themselves!

Boats in dry dock in Manarola.

Aunt Gail and I both on the walk of love... lonely and wishing our better halves were with us!!!

Today we spent the day traveling between the Cinque Terre and Florence, but we were lucky enough to be able to stop off in Pisa and have a look around at the leaning tower as well as the Duomo and baptismal house! Before I had gone to Pisa I had heard a lot of mixed reviews; "stay for 1 hour, take that classic tourist photo and go home." or "Pisa is really cool. You can hang out on the lawn and just soak up the sun and people watch." I must say that it was more like the second to me. I really enjoyed the time we spent there, and in fact after we left I could have spent another 2 or so hours more!

Sibling fun with the tower!

On top of the tower.

The angle on the first floor looking out towards the Cathedral.

I will be writing another blog post when I get a chance. Right now it is 12.17am and tomorrow we have a tour starting at 9am from our hotel. We are going to do a private tour of the Tuscany countryside as well as a vineyard.

Are We There Yet, Because I Hope Not

So today I was checking into my next few weeks and what my schedule was going to look like, and I had an absolutely terrible realization that we only have 6 weeks left!!!!!!!! That might seem like a lot, but when you think that spring break just ended, and Easter break is next weekend, and after that we only have a month left... well I am starting to worry!!

My Outlook calendar has literally everything I HAVE to do each day as well as my traveling plans, so I thought that I would update you all on some of the travels that I will be doing in the next couple of weeks before I come back to the states. Don't worry mom and dad... all that blue that you see on Monday through Thursday is class that is mandatory... well unless we went out too late the night before, or it is nice outside and we want to go to the park!!

It is sad to think that my time here is over, but I must say that I have really enjoyed my time here. I have had the greatest 7 months of my life so far and am looking forward to these 6 weeks left. I had a great trip to Aosta this weekend at Silvia's (an Italian friend of ours) house with my roommate Marcus, then in a few weeks I am going to go to Cyprus or Saluzzo. The weekend after that we are going to travel to Crete, Greece and rent a villa and Vespas for the weekend, followed by a crazy weekend in Prague for Marcus's birthday celebration! After all of this traveling my family will arrive and we will have 2 weeks to travel Italy before I have to go back to the states!

Still working on a blog post for the opera, the beach, and the usual week in Torino, so check back tomorrow!!

My Beard: Uniting Family And Friends Since September

As you all should have noticed by now, I have somewhat of an AWESOME Amish beard going on! To be honest this beard started as just a small defience to my mother. The background behind that is actually very simple;
1. Before I came here I lived with my parents
2. My mom hated my beard
3. She made me shave my beard
4. Now I am halfway across the world
5. She has no say
6. My beard is long!

However as of recently I have been noticing that my beard has been getting a lot of attention from family and friends alike on Facebook. For this reason I have decided to post some of those comments for you all to see!

My mom thinks I am ugly with a beard

 

Best Part; The two of them liked each others posts

With that being said, I was going to shave tomorrow since it would be the end of "No Shave November", but I couldn't live with myself if I ruined relationships amongst family and friends!

The beard shall live on, and with it the hair!

And to the people that don't like this.... Maybe when you get here I will clean up a little bit ;-)!

Why Are the Lions Playing AGAIN??

Every year for Thanksgiving my family does 2 things. We go to one side of the family on Thanksgiving, and we go to the other side that weekend. This has been the tradition for as long as I can remember. However this year since I am studying abroad I will be without either side of my family on either day. In fact right now it is 9:30 am and I am in a hostel in Dublin, eating breakfast and getting ready to go on a tour of the city!

Besides the traditional food that every family has each year, there is one thing I enjoy about Thanksgiving that I don't think is unique or special, but rather just something that I look forward to every year; after eating lunch we all sit and watch the Detriot Lions get killed by whoever it is that they are playing that year!

But before I talk about that, here is the background history for those of you who might not know what Thanksgiving is about; Thanksgiving is a holiday that is charished in America every year. In fact I would go out on a limb to say that besides the fact that Americans spend a lot of money for presents, in some households Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas. However, just to make sure that everyone truly knows what Thanksgiving is about, I pulled this off of the History.com website for you all to have the "official" storyline of Thanksgiving.

This is how I envision it.

   
      "In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn't until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November."

 Before pulling that up I actually had no idea that President Lincoln proclaimed it for a specific day in 1863 (learn something new everyday!).

 

I would also say that Thanksgiving is about food and watching the Detroit Lions get murdered!!

This is Detroits record since 2000; an abominable 2-9.

This is what it always looks like.

2000 Detroit 34, New England 9 - W
2001 Green Bay 29, Detroit 27 - L
2002 New England 20, Detroit 12 - L
2003 Detroit 22, Green Bay 14 - W
2004 Indianapolis 41, Detroit 9 - L (bad)
2005 Atlanta 27, Detroit 7 - L
2006 Miami 27, Detroit 10 - L
2007 Green Bay 37, Detroit 26 - L
2008 Tennessee 47, Detroit 10 - L
2009 Green Bay 34, Detroit 12 - L
2010 New England 45, Detroit 24- L

On a more serious note, Thanksgiving always gives me a chance to reflect on the things that I am actually thankful for. Every year while we are sitting around with family eating we spend some time to go around and talk about the things that we are thankful for. This year not being home for Thanksgiving has made me recognize how thankful I am to have a family that truly cares about me.

This is my family after my sister's graduation!

This year I am going to simply say that I am thankful for one thing, my family, because I feel that every year I under-appreciate my family because I am surrounded by them every day. I have amazing parents, and awesome sisters, and so this year I say "mom, dad, Kortney, and Kelsey, I am thankful for you all!"

So today tell the people you love that you love them, and of course don't forget to watch the Detroit Lions get murdered by Green Bay, because that is exactly what 20+ Americans in Dublin, Ireland are doing! Except we will be drinking Guiness and not Bud Light! (Dad go get a Guiness and drink up at first kick-off of the lions game!!)