thankful

i am a little late on this but we should be thankful every day, not just on the fourth thursday of november, right? the last week has been a difficult one, but a good one. i know what you are thinking: she's in italy. i don't feel bad for her. (that has been said to me since i have been here by one who shall not be named. and i laughed. because she is funny and because it's true.) and you should not feel bad for me! my life here is full of new exciting adventures, great friends, and italian food. this week was no different--it was full but also empty, missing family gatherings, friend reunions, and football victories (go dores!) back in the great state of tennessee. however, this thanksgiving more than any other before i was reminded how thankful i am for where i am, where i've come from, who i'm with, and most importantly who is Lord.

1. friends: christie and her sweet family hosted us for a traditional italian dinner on thanksgiving day (thanks to her iphone for this pic!).

2. god's creation (this is the view from the villa where we had thanksgiving festivities--including a fire. mmm my favorite)--also thankful for friends like annie who take these incredible pictures.

3. the quiet and still of the country...so refreshing after the busy city of florence

in preparation for a restful and quiet weekend, i started reading a book that had been recommended to me by a younger but wiser wonderful friend in an encouraging email she sent me just a few days after i arrived in florence back in august...little did i know upon downloading it on my new kindle for mac app (which rocks, by the way. it's my newest obsession. and it's free. boom. you can just download a book and read it on your laptop-great for us kindle-less folks!) that it is all about thanksgiving! not the holiday, but actually living a life of giving thanks (or at least it is so far).

it's called one thousand gifts: a dare to live fully right where you are by ann voskamp.
here's a little taste:
"because how else do we accept his free gift of salvation if not with thanksgiving? thanksgiving is the evidence of our acceptance of whatever he gives. thanksgiving is the manifestation of our yes! to his grace. thanksgiving is inherent to a true salvation experience; thanksgiving is necessary to live the well, whole,  fullest life."

"'he who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that i may show him the salvation of god' (psalm 50:23). thanksgiving--giving thanks in everything--prepares the way that god might show us his fullest salvation in christ."

i promise this is relevant to the things i am thankful for (and it's just an incredible book definitely worth mentioning and quoting multiple times):

4. god's grace. how quickly i forget!

5. la mia familia...oh how i miss them. especially on days like these (i.e. thanksgiving--blogging in retrospect here. oops!)

here's the whole gang looking fancy for some big important thing that happened earlier this year...that's right folks, we gained a new member! after the beautiful wedding festivities, i got my very own sister [-in-law] (and my brother got his very own wife of course, but that's not the point here...). sorry for the cheese--weddings just do this to me.

here they are (although missing said new member) in their more natural state...howling with laughter

this lovely turkey toilet was bestowed upon the ivy yard several years ago as a gift. i repeat: we did not do this ourselves!!! that would be concerning. and would definitely give tennessee a bad name...but the ivy clan does love a good prank. and i suppose we were deserving of this sign that fateful thanksgiving morning after we ourselves had previously gifted this lovely porcelain express to our dear friends the bellotts. aren't they crafty??

paper airplanes in the cove (no, we don't call them cul-de-sacs/culs-de-sac?? here...not sure why but i promise we call it a cove. it's pretty official. like, it's on the street sign. i have done some serious debating and investigations on this point). totally normal. and definitely fun at every age for the ivys.

these kids are pretty cool too, i guess...oh cousins! they're just the best. also, paxton, that shirt looks familiar...i think we may have an outfit repeater on our hands. anyway, just a bit of nostalgia setting in thinking about all the gran's-stuffing-and-homemade-roll-eating, paper-airplane-throwing, movie-watching, wii-fit-ing, and family-loving going on without me...

6. on to where i AM: i am thankful for that too! friday night was declared "friendsgiving," a feast of real, old-fashioned, traditional thanksgiving food (or at least as traditional as one can get in a foreign country just a few days after canned pumpkin is declared "out of season"--a crisis, i know)--refer back to #1. friends: so thankful to be able to celebrate a day of thanks cooking, eating, singing, and just laughing with these wonderful people.

the cooks in the kitchen

moral support

 the feast! complete with elements from each of our families' thanksgiving dinners (i made mom's spinach casserole and sweet potato casserole. casserole much? fun fact: it was a few of the crew's first casserole. ever. crazy, right? don't worry, i educated them. and i think they enjoyed their casserole experience(s)! i mean, what's not to like?)

then...the moment you've all been waiting for. the pumpkin pie!!! from scratch. and i mean scratch. christie made the pie crust, amy pureed the fresh pumpkin, and annie whipped the cream. don't worry, i was there too. just making the casseroles. and then they elected me to cut the pie, which we ate warm because we were just impatient...is there like a policy on the correct temperature at which to serve pumpkin pie? if so, we weren't sure. so we dug in!

delish. yep, that's whipped cream melting off the pie.

the holiday festivities continued saturday morning, when i arose bright and early to catch the train to verona with annie! which leads me to...
7. travel: when else in my life am i going to be able to casually hop on a train (my new favorite means of transportation) in the morning and be transported to a magical city, a completely different world with it's own traditions and culture, for the day and see the setting of shakespeare's famous play romeo and juliet??? probably never.

in fair verona, where we lay our scene...it was beginning to look a lot like christmas!

our main destination in this lovely city was juliet's house (duh!)

this is in the courtyard of juliet's house (right under THE balcony)! it's one of those lucky "touch this creepy statue and something good will happen" things (europe loves these. we have seen them almost everywhere we've been. florence's is a little pig!). i have no idea what it means but everyone else was doing it so we thought we would join in! for tradition's sake.

annie on the balcony! i really wanted to recite the balcony scene from romeo and juliet for the many onlookers below but resisted to maintain my dignity (and also because i have forgotten it...we memorized it it 9th grade english. sorry, ms. kitts!). also, annie and i were conveniently matching if you couldn't tell. i promise we didn't plan it! i tend to do this accidentally with friends...

inside the house, there is a room where you can write a letter (or an e-mail...less traditional and definitely less cool. letter-writing is definitely a lost art.) to juliet! so naturally, we did. and then there's the wall of graffiti and gum in the entryway to the house.

then we wandered the streets and hiked up to the top of that hill to get a view of the city! then we got some chocolate covered strawberries, naturally

then it was off to the amphitheater! so beautiful.

after seeing the city, i sat with annie for a while in a nearby park and we talked about life and watched the sun set over the city and the people live life around us. and i was thankful. i was cold and very underdressed for below-freezing weather and had to say "no, mi dispiace" to multiple gypsies, but i was overcome with thanksgiving. for a week of firsts (i.e. first fire of the season, first time cooking an entire thanksgiving meal ourselves, first casserole tastings, first thanksgiving with friends), a week of memories i will never forget, a week of friends, food, and fellowship, and most of all a week of thanks to the one who has given everything. 

"oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever!

let the redeemed of the LORD say so,

whom he has redeemed from trouble

and gathered in from the lands,

from the east and from the west,

from the north and from the south."

-psalm 107:1-3

back in the saddle again

well i am a little late on the posting once again...we have now been back in florence for two weeks. and it has absolutely FLOWN by.

we (and by that i mean i) celebrated being back in florence by eating some delicious macarons i brought back from a bakery around the corner from the apartment.

we jumped right back into classes and then had some visitors our first weekend back! so we did some tourist-y things around florence...

i even sported my tennis shoes in typical tourist fashion:

our first stop was the uffizi, where our tour guide christie shared all her knowledge from her renaissance class with us! then, we ate lunch at one of our favorite spots, cinque, and then headed to get some gelato at perche no (which means 'why not?' in italian...very appropriate for a gelato spot). they have coffee crunch gelato. it rocks.

next stop: duomo. we went into the church briefly and then climbed the 463 stairs to the top of the dome to get a beautiful view of the city! it was incredible. but also tiring (i was glad to be wearing the tennies...)!

this was about half-way up. walking around the inside of the dome. (with christie and rachel, who was visiting from scotland!) then is was on to more stairs! and then another tiny walkway. we were really high up! i walked close to the wall...

margaret walking in the tiny pathway inside the dome and the stairs between the inner and outer domes (so cool!!! but not so much for the claustrophobic...)

after enjoying the views of florence, almost blowing away, and snapping a few pics, we began our descent...and had to get out of the way for the people coming up. luckily nat is very flexible (i was clearly still in the way, in typical fashion...)!

nat inside the church. 

after our small hike, we went on to explore and shop in the san lorenzo market. loved having sweet friends here! i adopted them as my family for the weekend. it was so fun showing them my little world here. and it is always fun and refreshing to have a new perspective on this wonderful city!

we were up on top of that! it's really very high, i promise. also, thanks to nat for this and many other pictures--she has mad skillz.

after bidding farewell to our visitors, it was back to a "normal" week of classes, exploring the city, and seeing incredible works of art. i checked many things off my florence "bucket list." my favorite outing was the ferragamo museum. it is almost exclusively dedicated to shoes that salvatore ferragamo designed. from "invisible sandals" made out of fishing line to rainbow wedges to sparkly red shoes made for marilyn monroe. it was AWESOME. i could have stayed there all day. and bought all of the shoes...also i decided that i love high heels. i have have resolved to embrace my height and wear them. one day, at least.

wednesday night, we went to a wine tasting with our program. before we had even begun the tasting process, christie, amy, and i experienced an uncontrollable fit of laughter. tears included. mostly because the whhord whhhiskey was said at a nearby table. whhhy am i saying it that whhhay? whhhy am i saying whhhat whhhhat whhhhay?
(consult this video for reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh2WcxP4XU8)
*warning: not recommending watching past the first minute. just sayin...

after regaining our composure, we had a lovely evening (complete with cheese and tuscan salami) learning about wine and trying to taste and smell different flavors in them. it was kind of a struggle. but i definitely smelled grapes in them all...afterward we headed to our favorite gelato spot, cantina. AND it gets better...their newest flavor: wHiskey della cantina. no joke. don't worry, we laughed some more before all ordering it. it tasted like fall. wonderful.

friday, a big group of us went to see breaking dawn (the last twilight movie). kind of creepy. but awesome. it was in original sound, with italian subtitles...so it wasn't that much of a cultural experience. but definitely a necessary one. they even had freshly popped popcorn! a small taste of home...

we are now gearing up for a short(er) week and THANKSGIVING festivities. is this real life? (another youtube reference...guilty as charged) where has time gone??? i'll let you know if i find out.

ciao for now!

fall break: part II

MONDAY night, we arrived in prague, lovingly referred to by our travel bunch as prahahahaha. as soon as we stepped off the train, the czech puns began: czech that out, czech that off the list, etc. after successfully navigating the metro and tram system to the little town budget hotel, we settled in to our room, which was surprisingly very nice and comfortable. upon setting out for a late dinner, we found that every restaurant in the vicinity of our lovely hotel was closed. part of the problem was that it was now 10:45, as we had spent quite a while dealing with class registration (weird that we are already doing that? i think so.)--go 'dores! anyway, after wandering to the charles bridge and taking in the city at night, we settled in at the golden arches. yes, that's right, i ate mcdonald's twice in one week while on a cool european vacation. i PROMISE it was the ONLY open eating establishment in the entire czech republic...maybe. anyway, the great news is this time i actually got my chicken mcnuggets! at least i ate a balanced mcdonald's diet. if that's possible. another bonus: it was definitely the swankiest/swankyest (is that a word?) fast food restaurant i have ever been in. AND they had toblerone mcflurrys. so euro.

after a satisfying dinner and a good night's sleep, we headed out to see the city!

first off: we crossed the charles bridge. lovely.

next stop: old town square. complete with the astronomical clock (at this point, speaking no czech and never having been to prague, my mentality became "hey, that looks important! i'll take a picture and look it up later"...hence, i have many pictures of unidentified objects) the great news is our very own amy has invented an app for searching the identity of objects in photographs (you heard it here first! but that's triple-top-secret. wouldn't want anyone stealing the idea...)

then: the jewish quarter. 

the jewish cemetary: in some places there are twelve layers of bodies under the ground. a tangible and heartbreaking picture of the oppression of the war.

after some sightseeing, we found some "old traditional goodies," specifically "trdelnik," (can you pronounce that? i can't...needless to say, we did not pick up on very much czech during our stay). it's a pastry wrapped around a metal cylinder, cooked over a fire, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. delicious. then, we got tickets to go to a classical music concert in a beautiful church. there are concerts everywhere in prague. it's just lovely. after a relaxing hour being serenaded by a string quartet, we stopped at an outside restaurant in old town square where we sat under heaters and snuggled with blankets they gave us (it was FREEZING) and enjoyed some hot wine, another "prague thing." so cultured, i know.

then, on to the main event: the most delicious dinner i have ever eaten. some food-y friends who had visited prague a few weeks before said that this restaurant was a must-do in prague. so we headed to a new part of the city and enjoyed the tasting menu, which included salmon sashimi, pork and watermelon salad, chicken satay, calamari, duck sliders, and toffee pudding. YUM. my mouth is watering just talking about it. 

it was such a treat. how can you go wrong with good food and good friends???

just forgetting about my camera's double flash...typical. i kind of like this though, so here ya go!

day 2: after a starbucks run (there was one right across the street from the little town budget hotel. did i mention that? destiny.), where i was given the name "berry" by a very confused czech barista (a new one for me). i enjoyed my pike place roast and good ole fashioned blueberry muffin just the same. a small taste of home...then we were off to prague castle, the most important monument in prague, and possibly in the entire czech republic! kind of a big deal. it is HUGE. 

our first stop was the cathedral of st. vitus, which sits in the middle of the castle complex. complete with beautiful stained glass! then we went through the old royal palace, an exhibit on the history of prague castle, the basilica of st. george, and the exhibition of the national gallery.

after many museums, we walked down golden lane, a tiny shopping street in the castle complex. here i am with amy in front of cute little blue shop. don't mind my pippi longstocking-style striped socks with converse and cropped pants. it made quite the statement, but i was just with friends! i just wasn't really thinking when i packed my tiny backpack apparently...

the whole crew at a beautiful lookout over the city...minus the cool view

and there's the view! and beautiful changing leaves!

we had to stop and get some delicious pastries for energy before an afternoon of power-sightseeing. geg and i hiked across the city to go to the mucha museum (he started/invented art nouveau. it was really cool.) and the national museum, which happens to be closed for a five-year remodel, just fyi...so then we continued wandering and stumbled on some cool gardens, saw the national theater, and went to find the john lennon wall.

with geg, my sightseeing buddy, leaving our mark! 

after resting our tired feet, we had dinner at a cool thai restaurant close to our hotel and turned in early since we had a taxi coming at 5 AM to take us to the airport...it was all worth it when we arrived

IN PARIS!!!!

after settling in to the lovely home of one of my dear travel buddies (how nice to be in a home after staying in hostels for a week! a big thank you to our hostess and star tour guide!!!), we went to the market to stock the fridge, enjoyed baguette sandwiches (so french!) and explored the neighborhood. then we headed to the rodin museum. rodin's famous thinker is in this picture!

the museum is also surrounded by beautiful gardens. it was a lovely first taste of paris.

the next day, the sun came out!

casual eiffel tower in the background...it just doesn't get old.

the seine                                           the lock bridge!

musee d'orsay: possibly my favorite museum i have ever been to. this is a view of the city through the clock. the museum is in the old train station. everything about it is lovely: the architecture, they layout, the escalators, and of course the paintings. monet. manet. cezanne. renoir. degas. van gogh. incredible.

then we were off to ile de la cite & ile st louis (the two islands in paris) for crepes and more beautiful sights!

a flower market & the front of notre dame

with amy behind notre dame

the inside of notre dame & sainte chapelle (it has stained glass on all sides. beautiful.)

luxembourg gardens

and the main event: the eiffel tower! AND, look who we found?? our friends natalie and rachel, who are studying in scotland for the semester met us in this lovely city for the weekend!

reunited!!! sorry it's a little blurry...i'll try to choose more wisely when asking strangers to take group pictures. and then rachel and i tried to take the classic "finger touching the top of the eiffel tower" picture...it was not exactly successful. we probably needed to be a little farther back? oh well, i'll just have to go back! that pretty much sums up my attitude about paris. as we found through experience, it is impossible to do everything. the simplest solution is that i will just have to plan another trip. done and done. paris is officially maybe my favorite european city.

back to the sightseeing: we hit the ground running bright and early the next day to beat the crowds to the louvre (which is impossible, by the way, but it was still awesome!). we found this random painting so we thought we would take pictures with it. look familiar? crazy. also somewhat disappointingly small. but still cool.

outside of the louvre

stop for pain au chocolat (a necessity in paris!). it's blurry because i was trying to casually take a picture in a very nice establishment without making a scene. i have found that this is pretty much impossible when your camera has a double flash and when you're me...oops! i have decided to embrace my inner tourist. especially when it comes to picture taking. then we went to l'orangerie, where monet's water lilies are on display. another really cool museum. i could have sat there all day taking it all in (the water lilies are actually painted on curved boards and displayed in two oval-shaped rooms. also, the paintings are huge! it's just really beautiful.)

then we hopped on the metro (so big-city...i am now obsessed with metros.) and headed to the sacre coeur, a beautiful church with incredible views of paris.

like this one...with sweet friends! (and a really cool guy with sweet soccer/futbol tricks in the column in the background)

after getting a taste of paris in just three days, i have decided that i must go back. it's just going to have to happen. hands down. what an incredible way to end an incredible break!!! the next day, we got on a bus, then a plane, then yet another bus and were finally back in florence! we were welcomed by the paper we had due the next day...kind of cruel, if you ask me but hey, we are "studying" abroad...

we are now in the home stretch of this study abroad experience, which i CANNOT get over. soaking up all the italy i can! 

adieu, revoir, arrivederci, gute nacht!