Let me just start this off by saying that life is weird, yo. Life is weird and amazing and beautiful and crazy and I would not want it any other way. So as you read this, think about your life and whether you love how crazy and beautiful it is or not. Just a little nugget for you this morning. Well, evening for anyone in the states reading this. EITHER WAY.
Lets see- what have I been up to. Hmm. We've been in and out of seminars and have a hit a few towns in between. Except you probably already guessed that. OH! I promised updates on our presentation and my domestic activities. How could I forget that?
Presentation: It went well, I would say. I know we had a lot of fun doing it and everyone else seemed to enjoy our activities. I know it is a topic Ash and I both love dearly, so of course we're going to enjoy it. I had a touch of anxiety throughout the day leading up to our time slot though, so I would say that was the only downside to it all. I do not at all enjoy being in a spotlight intentionally or being in front of a group of people- so that was taxing, but I prevailed and it's over. I could not have asked for a better partner to work with on this presentation and a better friend to tell me to pull it together right before we started. Thank you, Ash for being my gem.
We herded everyone into the room to the song "ABC, Easy As 123"- I mean, that was the title of our presentation, so it only felt right. After that we went through our super short Prezi on the program evaluation we are doing with Chelsea High School's Peer Mediator group and then moved outside to facilitate some actual activities with the group. No one left in tears, with broken bones or got into a physical altercation, so I'm calling it a victory.
Here are a few shots from the day:
That same day I set out to cook Gnocchi, but there was a slight gnocchi disaster so it didn't exactly happen. Turns out all of the potatoes in this area are too new so they're still holding too much water and when we were trying to make the dough we never could get it to not be sticky. So we scrapped that idea. But that was not the end to the cooking adventure- oh no. Yesterday I cooked focaccia di patate, which is basically potato pizza if we're being honest. BUT IT WAS SO MUCH MORE ELEGANT THAN THE POTATO PIZZA YOU'RE PICTURING IN YOUR HEAD AND FAR MORE DELICIOUS. Here's proof of the emotional roller coaster:
This is Christina, the chef and my spirit animal. It's whatevs.
And this is my beautifully delicious creation
How do I know that it was a success? Sydney ate it! She's had a love-hate relationship with the food since we've been here and she ate my potato pizza, so I'm calling it a huge success. So, thank you Sydney for being my standard for success. It was quite the adventure and I must say that my domestic skills are coming along very nicely. This does not change the fact though that I will most certainly have to end up with a spouse that cooks. That's just a fact of life.
Additionally, we've been into Pisa and Lucca the past few days. In Lucca, I did something that I absolutely never do which was buy myself something on a trip. But I couldn't help it. There was this coffee mug and it literally begged me to buy it. Begged I say. BEGGED. We stumbled upon a weekend artists' market and a vegan festival market and there was a tent with handmade clay bowls and such. That's when I spotted it from across the table. It was most certainly drool at first sight. I figured with my coffee addiciton it would be a great purchase, so after I circled the table twice then walked away and walked back up three more times- I went in for the kill. I'm lucky they didn't get suspicious of me and call security. I would show you a picture of it, but it's packaged all nicely and I don't want to ruin that until I get home. Sorry 'bout it.
I did find (with the help of Dr. Becky's husband and the Rick Steves Italy book) this phenomial whiskey bar that serves craft beer and we all ate there for lunch. The food was just as good as the beverages and the decor of this place was so on point that it almost hurt. Definitely a good find. After we finished lunch, like typical tourists everyone wanted a picture with the owner who happened to also be our waiter. Turns out that this palce was featured on some Food Network show last year so that was super exciting. Maybe I do have good taste afterall. Hair flip.
And then, as if the day could not get any better, I found gelato.. on a sweet, hot waffle. WHAT?! YES. That happened and this is real life. It was like every dream I've ever had coming to fruition all at once. That is how delicious it was. I mean, how have I not found it until this point? The humanity of it all!
So that's Lucca in a nutshell.
Pisa was.. Pisa. I didn't get another leaning tower picture because I mean, lets be honest- it's leaning exactly like it was last year. But I did stop and stare at it for 5 seconds. We had our moment of reconnection and then I moved because there were more important things to do like eat gelato and people watch.
As much fun as that day was, it was bittersweet at the end because we had to say goodbye to the GSU participants. This was a huge bummer as they were all absolutely delightful. GiGi, Cara and Katie- you are certainly missed. We dropped them off at the train station in Lucca on our way out of town. We did FaceTime that evening though after they got into their hotel, so no one had to sit with their sadness for too long.
That should get you all caught right up to this exact moment that we are sitting in. Today we are going into Florence, so we shall see what adventures we find there. Be sure to keep yourselves together over there in the states, as I am not there to keep everyone in line. I shall return with stories, photos and more likely than not embarrassing stories for you all soon enough.
Pace tutto.
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