"What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation." -Glenn Close

Hannah. Marg. Crystal. Mandi: The roommates take on Paris. Pictures are worth THOUSANDS OF WORDS. Loving each other in front of the Palace of Versailles! BAAAAH ITS BEAUTIFUL! More loving in front of the Palace Gardens. Roommates (minus Teagan) at the Palace of Versailles! YEAAAH BABY. Our hostel was just a few minutes from this beautiful site, as well as many sex shops and strip clubs. OHHH Paris. FINALLY AT THE LOUVRE. Childhood dreams coming true. So of course we have to goof off in front of world-famous historical monuments. The Mona Lisa! (Somewhat famous, from what I've heard) WADDAP DA VINCI CODE. Sharing a nutella-banana crepe on our walk to Notre Dame. Loving puppies all over the world. This is why my parents never let me go to the Humane Society as a child. This dog wanted me to take him home SO BAD!! I swear, if I'd had another 1,000 euro.... In front of Hotel De Ville! Mandi and I played this game at Notre Dame to see who could find St. Denis with his h...

It's Monday and I am in the HIGHEST OF SPIRITS. Perche, you ask?! Perche PARLO ITALIANO! Or at least enough to get by! Hahaha. First of all, I got my third Italian exam back (only one more left to go after this!) and I got NINETY NINE PERCENT BABY. 79/80. ROCKINNN Second of all, I had to go to this package-mailing store to send my poor broken camera home to my mom (so that it will be fixed before I go to Guatemala in January). And I had been warned ahead of time that they don't really speak English. So I prepared the words I would need to know to tell them what I needed, hopped the Mini-Metro down to Fontivegge, and went to the store. I walked in, said BUONGIORNO with confidence (it's important to always do that when entering a shop/store of any kind in Italy!) and said "Devo spedire un pacco." (I need to send a package.) I had this written down, and had been practicing it before I got there. APPARENTLY I had a nice Italian accent when I said it, because he...

My mom reminded me of this just today, after I told her that I managed to fit everything I need for a weekend in Paris into my purse. Yeah. My purse. If Margie Marks were reading this, she'd be in disbelief. When I used to sleep over at Elyssa's house, her mom, Margie, would always say "What, you forgot the kitchen sink?" because I literally packed EVERYTHING I could EVER POSSIBLY need, just for the one night at their house. And we lived five minutes away.  When I was little and we'd go on family road-trips, my mom would limit me to my one bag, but all of my dolls and clothes wouldn't fit in it...so I'd hide another bag full of stuff under my seat in the van....and she usually wouldn't notice until we were too far away from the house for her to do anything about it. I was cunning when it came to making sure I packed waaaay too much for anywhere we ever went. And yes, when we went to Mexico for Spring Break my freshmen year of high school, I iDID,...

So this past week, my roommate's dad came to visit. Teagan's dad is hilarious, so fun, a lot like my dad, and SUCH a trooper. So on his first day in Italy ( Friday ), Teagan and I took him to Florence. We visited the Duomo (again, for me, but it's still beautiful!), saw the Galileo Museum (VERY COOL, especially for little miss "History of Science," Teagan),  did some shopping, walked on the Arno River, crossed Ponte Vecchio, and had an AMAZING, DELICIOUS, traditional Tuscan meal for lunch. We had the house wine (as per usual), and Pappa al Pomodoro. Pappa al Pomodoro is basically a Tuscan peasant food, made from hardened bread, tomatoes,and some other spices/herbs. What makes this food so special? Like all Italian food, it's special because it's SO SIMPLE, yet UNBELIEVABLY DELICIOUS. All of the ingredients are SO FRESH. And then we had delicious chocolate hazelnut gelato. And took the train home. AND HAD METER PIZZA. Second time that week. The main sce...

So for the past two weeks I've  barely travelled...and it's been awesome. Fall break was, to say the least, completely draining. Ten days of backpacking+nearly physically harming fellow travellers due to frustration+language barriers+currency exchanges (the czech crown...WTFFFF)+seeing beautiful views, hiking, visiting churches and castles in multiple different countries= ONE TIRED-OF-TRAVELLING HANNAH. No joke. One can do with a break from beautiful cathedrals and art museums and views after ten straight days of it. It has been so relaxing to stay in/near Perugia for the past two weeks. Last weekend, I stayed in Perugia with friends, and then took a day trip with a class to Rome on Saturday. We visited the Keates/Shelley House (these English writers who escaped to Italy for health and lived right on the Spanish Steps in Rome)...and then saw the cemetary where they were buried (old...cool...cats EVERYWHERE (friends with the dead people, I guess)). It was actually my first tr...

Well isn't THIS the truth. Anyways. About two weeks ago, a group of five friends and I took a 10 day backpacking trip of Europe. To sum it up, we went from Rome to Portugal to Spain to the Czech Republic. We visited the cities of Lisbon, Seville, Barcelona and Prague. It was incredible. It was 10 straight days LIFE LESSONS, tests of PATIENCE, and adventures. Here's a little picture summary of the trip: The group, camped out at the train station in Rome, waiting to go to the airport. Night one of our trip: Sleeping in the Rome airport. Fun Fact: Airports are, in fact, NOT fun to sleep in. Especially when all you packed is one backpack, no blankets, no pillows, and no mattresses. An even MORE fun fact: The Rome airport is cold, especially in October, and especially at night. The next morning, we flew to Lisbon, Portugal! Enjoying the beautiful sunset in Lisbon. (Not posed or anything.) The girls (Mandi, Teagan, me, Allison) walking along the water in Lisbon on our firs...