Updates... continued

So Ellen has headed off to Vienna to sing all the lyrics of the Sound of Music to her hearts content, and I'm currently waiting for it to be four o'clock to go see the Christmas tree lighting at the Duomo. Have we mentioned how beautiful Florence is at Christmastime? It's gorgeous all lit up! (pictures to come... eventually) So yes, we know we've been very lapse about this blog but when the internet is spatty and there's so many wonderful things for us to be doing can you blame us? Of course you can, but we can take it. :) SO FINALLY here is the lovely post on Madrid.

At the beginning of November, Ellen and I hopped aboard RyanAir (take two was quite as successful as the first, though I will never get used to how they clap when we land) to Madrid to see my friend Marion and Ellen's friend Blake who happen to both be studying with the same program in Seville, who knew? It was a fabulous quick little weekend get together and included things like seeing the Prato, the Palace Real (absolutely gorgeous, sadly no photos allowed), a little bit of shopping in the Plaza del Sol, eating Paillas, Churros and drinking a little Sangria, and a super fun afternoon in the Retiro Park. All in all it was such a good weekend seeing friends and was a great start to the beginning of the end of the semester!

Ellen at the hostel!

Hey it's Times Square!... in Madrid

Starbucks... duh

Mule of Mississippi? Our waiter had difficulty translating why it was named this.

Look who I found in Madrid! She's obviously so happy to see me!

And then Ellen finds Blake! Who knew?

Me and Ellen at the Palace Real.

All the girls at the Park.

*Okay so blogger legitimately despises me and won't let me upload the rest of the photos, so to see our yummy paillas, churros and cute christmas tree photo go to my facebook. Sorry yall, I tried.

Updates

There are none. Because Blogger refuses to upload my photos. No worries though, in just 11 days we can update you in person! And then you can all hear about Madrid, London, Rome, Barcelona, and alllll of Eastern Europe, not to mention our day-to-day life in Florence. In the meantime... Miriam? Help!!

--Elle

Siena

Just a few weeks ago, a few LONG weeks ago (where has the time gone??), I was confronted with a cancelled Italian class, a homework-free Thursday, and a gloriously long weekend. Miriam, sadly, was not so fortunate, and so I was left to my own devices. What's a girl to do? Explore Tuscany of course! I recruited our friend Mary Haley, headed to the BUS station (add that to my list of Italian transportation!), and hopped aboard a double-decker bus (how cool, right?) headed to Siena.

Il Campo, the most popular square in all the land according to my good friend Little Ricky.

Thanks for the advice Rick!

Duomas are quite the rage in Tuscany. Have to admit this one was particularly stunning!

Thanks for the adventure, MH!

Buon Compleanno al mio Papà

Goodness are we behind! November hit, and badda-bing, badda-boom we were traveling and paper writing and making new friends and keeping up with old friends. Somewhere in that mess, our blog got lost. We promise to update y'all soon, but until then.... Happy belated birthday to il mio papa! I hope you liked your Italian Chi Omega, UVA-colored Owl tie!

A French tribute to mon pere from my birthday!

Miriam Cooks and Ellen Takes Artsy Photos

Don't worry the post on Madrid is headed your way soon, but in the meantime here's a fun little story about a random Monday night! So while Ellen and I both might have dropped out of our cooking classes at the beginning of the semester (whoops) it doesn't mean we haven't picked up a thing or two about the culinary arts from our time in Italy, I mean after all I'm pretty sure this entire culture revolves around food (and with good reason!). Come Monday night and due to inspirations from my friend Kassi (who is a culinary genius, check out her blog ciaodownbella.blogspot.com) and in hopes of saving a few euros I called up Ellen with the announcement that I would be making dinner that night and to get excited! Her response? "You make it, I'll eat it." So I racked my brain to think of what ingredients we already had in the apartment, pasta and.... well nothing. So one trip to the fresh market, a stop at Meta (with a frantic call to Kait and Kassi to find out what the word for heavy cream was), 103 stairs, two pots, one pan and a slightly burnt wrist later, voila! Pasta with a vodka cream sauce (made from scratch!) and green beans (fagioli verdi) with garlic and pine nuts (pinoli)! Who knew?

The Halloween Party

We know, we know! We've been a bit neglectful about the blog lately, but can you blame us? First it was fall break, then Halloween, a holiday from school and then Madrid this past weekend, but no worries you will hear all very soon! Starting with the Halloween party. So, while we sadly won't be in Italy for Carnival (seriously, I'm racking my brain for a way to return just for that week, totally feasible right?), we figured that Halloween would be just as big a celebration in Italy right? Wrong. While Italians are quite festive people, Halloween is not quite their thing (you can't exactly trick-or-treat when everyone lives in hundreds-of-years-old apartments) so instead we decided to have a very merry Halloween party, American style! A quick trip to the 99 cent store and Billa and we were set for decorations, candy, and three different kinds of homemade punch. Needless to say, the night was quite a howling success!

The Sex and the City ladies: Charlotte, Carrie, Samantha and Miranda (of course)

This would be one of my roommates... should I be afraid?

Fiorintina soccer player!

1950's housewife

Phantom of the Opera and Justin Bieber (he actually wasn't dressed up, talk about an awkward moment)

The Moroccan gets clever!

I thought she was an Afghan blanket, nope... "I'm a Scottish jail person." (Oh, Anna Claire!)

Charlotte, Carrie, Rosie the Riveter and the Southern Belle

Candace as the cutest cat ever!

Audrey Hepburn and the Moroccan

"I'm from Jackson, Mississippi, y'all!"

European Chocolate Festival

So, since I am currently awaiting the arrival of the entire Taylor (and now Murray) clan and Ellen is off galavanting in the east (you should all get REAL excited for that blog post, I can't wait to hear about all her adventures), I figured that now was as good a time as ever for the next post.

This week in Perugia (formally the home of Amanda Knox) is the European Chocolate Festival. Yes, you read that correctly. EUROPEAN CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. Last Saturday, Ellen, Kassie, Kait, Hannah, David, Conner and Harry and I all hopped the train (along with -I'm pretty sure- all 6,000 of the other American students in Florence) and headed to the (COLD!) north of Italy to indulge ourselves a little in the deliciousness known as European chocolate. Needless to say I was unprepared. Chocolate and chocolate related things were everywhere in the city. Vendors selling cioccolato caldo (milk, dark and white hot chocolate), chocolate covered fruits, chocolate shots, chocolate kebabs (the most creative dish from the whole festival), chocolate crepes, baci (Perugian chocolate kisses), and of course all different kinds of just good old chocolate blocks. After exhausting ourselves eating chocolate and dancing to the Cioccolato song (a song for the festival that played constantly throughout the city) we had lunch at a very cool pizzeria owned by the most precious old Italian man. Energy renewed we got back out there and downed some more chocolate and bought plenty to take back to Florence with us (well maybe not plenty, sadly Ellen and I ate all of ours by the next day). Then it was back on the train and straight into a chocolate coma. Best festival ever.

Welcome to Perugia!

Pumped up about some chocolate!

Seriously that's just a large column of chocolate that he's shaving.

First purchase of the day! (chocolate covered apples)

Chocolate covered bananas

Cioccolato Caldo

This is Kassie dancing to the cioccolato song, ain't she cute?

Baci!

XO

Chocolate crepe!

Chocolate shot!

Perugia