waiting for me in america.

though i have loved florence, italy, and for that matter the european lifestyle dearly, there are still some things i have missed from america. in the next few days i will be reintroduced to these things i have missed from home:

• dryers
• sweet potatoe fries
• peanut butter
• mountains
• mexican food
• family and friends
• a traditional american breakfast
• smoothies
• baby annabelle my pup
• space to walk to breathe and be
• the concept of lines
• free water

oh how i will miss...

• the bakery right across the street from my apartment containing individual size nutella chocolate pies
• listening to the sounds of the arno's water from my apartment window
• 3am rambling chats with my ROOM (jgcassard)
• the fresh fruit stands on street corners
• walking as my main form of transportation
• being surrounded with the beautiful italian culture
• florence's golden light
• speaking the language
• home made gelato
• spaghetti pomodoro fresco e basicilo (nothing will compare)
• my italian professors
• the true friendships i have developed here

barcelona: oh what a weekend.

after a 12 hour travel day consisting of a 7am wake up call train to bologna (my favorite place in the world..ha) a 2 and a half hour pit stop at the oh so glamorous mcdonals. bus to the airport flight to girona.and another hour bur ride to barcelona. we are here, we are here, we are here!!  Denny Moody greeted us at the train station and walked us to our hostel. without wasting any time we began our spanish adventure. oh what a night! we ate dinner at bo de' b, one of denny's favorite restaurants off the beaten path where we had delicious chicken sandwiches complimented by patatas bravas a traditional spanish tapas.  you will never have an appetizer like it.

we made our way to l'ovella nergra where we tried the famous sangria. it was all i had thought it would be. after 5 of us shared a little sip of the spanish culture we metro-ed out way through the city to another one of denny's hot spots. we met all of his friends in his program and enjoyed the company of each other and our newfound acquaintances. we talked with them about their anxieties and excitements about traveling home as our weekend visit was the last day of their program. nervousness and excitement filled the conversations. before long it was time to go and attempt the third leg of our journey that night. we took the night bus to a popular discoteca right on the beach called opium. with the help of our good friend chaz we got in free of charge. we spent the night and into the morning letting the music move through us without a care in the world. when we felt that are feet could barely carry us anymore and our arms were swaying purposelessly to the beat of the music we decided to call it a night, or say good morning. by 530am we were on the metro and heading back towards our hostel.

the next day we saw the beauty and creativity offered by park guell that contained mosaic works from gaudi and breathtaking views of the city. after we explored we stopped by a market to pick up a snack which turned into a full fledged picnic in the park with strawberries nutella, cheese bread and meat. the picnic was a great way to spend our afternoon enjoying the park filled with birthday parties, row boats, and amazing works of art! denny surprised us with the amazing watershow that takes place on weekend nights. it was a large fountain water show set to music with changing colors. once again the picnic blanket got put to good use as we watched with amazement and appreciation for this simple pleasure that so quickly captivated us. for dinner we went to champagneria and got some other tapas chicken sandwiches and red champagne. it was quite a hot commodity as the entire place was crowded with small children sitting up above the crowd and there was barely room to stand. it was a wonderful cultural experience we were fortunate enough to be a part of. after champagneria we went to find a place to watch the soccer match between the competitive rivals madrid and barcelona. we watched the match at a little cafe where a few others were eagerly enticed by the players' every move. the crowd ranged from a young boy and his father to the owner of the cafe and what seemed to be his family. it was a comfortable atmosphere where i could yet again enjoy an awesome cultural experience. the nail biting game however ended in a tie!

our last day in barcelona denny being the awesome tour guide and friend that he is took us on yet another day of exploring barcelona, our day began with seeing the sagrada familia which was a remarkable sight to see and interesting to learn that even though it was started in the 1800s it is still not yet complete. the vast building give off two completely different perceptions to its audience. the two sides oppose each other as one is more modern and the other representing the 1800s. its status remains incomplete due to the fact that it is only funded by private donations. after the sagrada familia i was introduced to spanish churros and i dont think i will ever think of churros the same way again. shorter and fatter than your typical americanized churro, but what sent this one over the top was its delicious caramel filling. enough said. later we went to the beach for picnic number two and a little nap to follow. once the wind started to blow and we became a little chilly we made as much warmth a human dog pile would allow and appreciated daily barcelona beach life. once the sun began to set  bo de' b  was calling our name and we set out for round 2! the weekend was such a special treat and what better way to see the beautiful city than to have our own personal tour guide. a huge thanks to denny as he made our trip so fun and stress free!!

sb part 1: orange festival

45 minutes from rodos is the small village of haraki consisting of about two supermarkets and only a handful of restaurants and one lovely little beach. on our taxi ride in from the airport our driver, antonio seemed confused as to why we were going all the way out to little haraki and what exactly it was we were going to do there. we soon found out from the surprise of the many greek people we encountered that is was not yet tourist season. it does not begin until may. judging by the ghost town essence this little town gave off it imediately reaffirmed this newfound knowledge and i then understood antonio's confusion. he dropped us off at out little beachside apartment and my realization of the true beauty of greece holds began to sink in. since we were in fact the only ones occupying this humble abode, in a strange way i did not feel like the tourist that i indeed was. the greek hospitality we were welcomed with was definitely unlike any other country i have visited amongst my travles. we were treated as long lost friends. stella, the owner of haraki mare brought us gifts upon our arrival consisting of fresh oranges, home made olives, and a sweet food that was eaten on bread (i am not quite sure what it was) none the less we were welcomed with open arms.

our first day in greece, stella recommended for us to go to the orange festival in the next village over. with our plans to go into our spring break trip with no plans we gladly accpeted the request and set out for our first adventure. with anticipation as to what this orange festival would contain and excitement as to where we would end up we followed the route stella gave us with little hesitation. along the walk we encountered endless fields of wildflowers, small white washed houses, and the nautral beauties of the greek countryside. after walking for about thirty minutes we cam to a crossroads not sure exactly which way to go. we let the distant music lead our footsteps relying on the fact that the music we heard was in fact from the orange festival. the huge wooden oranges lining the street after we had turned also helped direct us. it was literally one large festival in celebration of oranges!!! it was wonderful. booths loned the outskirts of the venue giving smaples of freshly squeezed orange juice, orange cake, candied orange peels, orange marmelade, orange jam with greek yogurt and many other foods that i couldnt quite distinguish into one particular catergory but i am willing to bet some sort of orange contents are within the recipie.

There was a huge bbq with different kinds of meats and breads. it smelled so good. it briefly took me back to the annual easter celebration celebrated by my family carrying out lebanese traditions from our heritage. there was also a large stage that provided many different talents to the audience members that sat in the crowd. a band played lively music and differnt sytles of greek dancing took place one right after another. it was nearly mesmorizing to watch as their feet moved with such intention to the fast paced music that filled the air. one of my favorite parts about the dancing and for that matter the festival in general was the sense of family you felt just from being there. this sense of family was demonstrated when all of the dancers dressed in the traditional attire finished their dance and the fellow festival atendees picked up their last step right where they left off. people from all ages; four year olds who could barely walk to young agile adults to grandma's and grandpa's joined arms and began to dance the traditional greek dance. i loved watching and i wanted desperately to lean and be a part of this community this family this culture.

after we got our share of orange juice for the week we made our way back to haraki, once again by foot. during the week we made some dinners within the confines of our little kitchen mostly of the cheapest and easiest ingridentis we could find from the one supermarket that was open. our home made dinners consisted of pasta with oil, salt, and garlic powder. the nights we didnt cook we ate at this little place down the board walk from our apartment. it was called haraki dreams. oh the amazing experiences we had there. we quickly became regulars and good friends withthe owner mike, because of the wonderful treatment we received and many because it was nearly the only restuarant open in haraki.

sb part 2: lindos

the next day we were ready to embark on our next greek adventure of making our way to the neighboring town of lindos. we caught a ride from stella's sister's husbad (again with the greek hospitality) to the main road where the city bus from rhodes town to lindos stops, or so we hoped. he told us to wave the bus down to ensure that it would stop for us. if it did pass us by we would have to wait an hour for the next bus into lindos. you better believe i was waving that bus down like it was my job! i didnt want to miss it and once we got on the bus everyone was giggling to themselves, most likely about the crazy american girl waving the bus down. lol. either way we managed to get on and were on our way to lindos.

lindos is a white washed city similar to santarini only smaller and does not contain many of the stereotypical blue roof domed house tops. we were captivated once we arrived and we began exploring as we made our way through the quiet town of lindos. there were so many wonderful shops i could not help but purchase nearly everything in sight to remind me of the breakthtaking city that lies in one of the countries i have always wanted to visit. the only souvinere i bought for myself was a small greek flag. the rest of the mass amounts of greek trinkets are for my loved ones. :) my ture love for them will shine through towards the end of this blog once they are informed of what i had to do to keep those souvineres for them. lol.

one of the most exciting parts of our visit to lindos was the donkey ride we took through the city up the the acropolis. they were quite different than the camel i rode in morocco but definitely an experience i will remember. there was no such an idea to ride hercules (my donkey's proud name) side saddle considering i was wearing a dress. the man who was guiding my donkey urged me to quickly hop up on the saddle and there was no turning back. the donkeys started to take off down the city streets before julianna could even saddle up. her donkey passed us up the hill with impressive speed- he managed to get away from the man that was leading him and julianna was hanging on for dear life dress, purse, souvineres and all! once we got up to the acropolis we took in the amazing view of the city from above. out hunger led us down to a small gyro shop near the center of the city. i think it is safe to say this was the best gyro i have ever had in my life!!! they were delicious beyond description. it was run by this little old greek woman who was so friendly and eager to serve us.

sb part 3: friendships around the world.

one night while we were at mikes a strangely familiar face walked in and straight up to the bar. jacqueline and julianna recognized this young man from the orange festival. he was one of the talented greek dancers up on stage. we introduced ourselves and he welcomed us to haraki. the next night while we were enjoying the usual crepe at mike's restaurant we asked where spiros was. all mike said was that he was working at another bar in the next village over and before we could say anything else he offered to drive us over. we had no other plans in store so we accepted the offer not sure what the night would entail. we talked to spiros and once formal introductions were out of the way he asked us our plans for the rest of our time in greece. we told him our plans to travel to rodos town the following day. before we could say another word spiros offered to drive us the 50 minute trek from haraki to rodos town just as spiros had promised he was waiting for us at mikes bar to take us into rodos, he showed us around old town, we ventured through local markets and the harbor and looked in shops. we saw many of the natural beauties greece had to offer such as the fields filled with poppies, the beaches and caves. spiros took us to one of his favorite restaurants called pita papu, meaning grandfather's pitas. i think it is safe to say those were the best pitas i have ever had. it was such an amazing experience and a privilege to have our own local tour guide showing us the ins and outs of greece.

the next day as our wonderful trip was coming to a close we lounged on the beach and hiked up the mountains and hills surrounding the little village of haraki and were blessed with the sight of the sparkling water distant islands and the rolling hills abundant in wild flowers. hiking and lounging with no agenda to adhear to was so peaceful and relaxing. the day was ours and i spent part of my time hiking alone and sat overlooking the water just reflecting, praying and thinking. i am so extremely blessed to have had this opportunity to travel and meet amazing people and be presented with challenges that i know i can overcome. this lifestyle is just a completely new way of living for me and i have enjoyed it to the utmost!

speaking of challenges one of the minor ones i was faced with took place at the airport in rodos town on my wat back to pisa. my suitcase was 5kg over the weight requirement. i could either pay 35 euros or think of an alternative plan. my good friend jacqueline also encountered the same problem. after several trial and errors i literall walked through security with a bar of greek olive oil soap in each one of my pockets, two tank tops, a shirt, two sweaters one tied around my waist with toms in the pockets of my sweatshirt, tennis shoes on my feet and my hands filled with my devotional book and journal. oh ryan air, how i will miss you! we got through security just fine and i proceeded to take apart my creative masterpiece of clothing and reassemble my suitcase's previous contents. our flight was delayed two hours so we got some free samples at the duty free store and got a few games of good old fashioned cards in! one thing i have learned, never travel anywhere without a deck of cards! this spring break was so amazing and one i know i will remember for years to come.

here.i.am.

as the days pass me by more quickly than the one before i stumble upon the sudden realization that my italian adventure is nearing its end. with a mere 16 days before i begin my journey back to the us strange senses of excitement, fear, sadness and confusion rush in and out exchanging turns occupying my mind. i have a strong sensation i will miss the simple pleasures about the italian day to day life i have been living for the past three and a half months. my jumbled up emotions have placed me in a different mindset each day. i am excited to go home and see my friends and family, but i am sometimes afraid of how much i will actually miss not only the day to day challenges of living in a different country but the city and everything that this inciting experience has offered me. the language, the food, the people, the friends, traveling, and the memories. i am afraid because i do not know if i will ever have the chance to be back here. it sounds so strange but i feel like i am leaving home and going home at the same time. i have grown attached to florence for its character, beauty, history, and life. i am overcome with sadness at the thought of the sudden and abrupt abandonment i will cast on florence. i wonder if i should have had an impact on the lives of my favorite barista, how will it be once i leave? i am sure life will carry on just fine when i leave. then it will be time for the next group of study abroad students come along and leave their mark on this remarkable city. i will be parting ways from the people i have made outstanding friendships with, we will go from our beds being across the room to across the country. i would like to say i have had some small impact on florence in exchange for the immense impact it had on me.