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

So my roommate Teagan is hilarious. Here's her blog, which could give a whole different perspective on our time here. SO FUN TO READ. And she's obsessed with food. FEED ME BEAUTIFUL

Okay so here's the deal. Italian men are unique. So unique. NOTHING like American men, can't even be compared. You can stereotype them and you can make generalizations about them, but the one thing that rings true, I think, for pretty much ALL Italian men, is that they aren't afraid to tell you how they feel. They think you look good? No hesitation. They're going to tell you that you look good. If it makes them look like a fool, they don't care. I'm actually not even sure if they notice. It's not a weird thing to see a beautiful girl in the street and say "You look beautiful" or something along those lines in Italian. Yeah, it can be super creepy, especially if they mutter it under their breath or include some sort of kissing noise at you as you pass them on the street. But to a certain degree its something that can be appreciated. If you're in a bar, and a guy thinks he likes you, he's going to say it."But I'm in love with you!...

  Restaurant seating in the middle of the street.   My straight-uphill walk to school every morning.   The Center.

  Hand-made Italian Pizza, done in three minutes, made with real mozzarella cheese, and shaped like a heart if the guy who made it think you're cute.    My school, The Umbra Institute. Oh and Ciao Ciao's the little alimentari underneath, with "un panino caprese" for 2.80 euro, the most delicious sandwich in town.   THIS. Need I say more? "I'll meet you at the fountain."   This girl.   THIS girl.   THIS girl. And boxed wine (note the tavernello box on the counter...1.75 euro at the priori store)

  Bidets. Which we literally never used. Except my roommate Crystal, who washed her feet in it. Oh and when we drank wine in the bathroom because its the biggest room in the apartment. Then it made for a great little drink table.   Buildings and streets like this.  MY FRIENDS.  Giant, old, graffiti-covered doors.  And trying to get them unlocked after coming home from the bars in the middle of the night.    ALL OF THE DOGS. They are everywhere and they are SO CUTE.   Just sitting on the steps, enjoying the life.   The trains!

If you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, which can be anything from your house to bitter, old resentments, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, either externally or internally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared, most of all, to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you. From Minneapolis. To Italy. New friends. Breath-taking scenery. New friends becoming old friends. Holidays away from home. Exploring Europe. December. The most incredible four months of my life.

So every Tuesday this semester, I participated in a service project for an organization called Unicef. Basically, every week, we met with this group of cute old Italian ladies, and we made dolls. Well we each made one doll, because it took FOREVER. It was so fun though. The ladies didn't speak any English, so we had to speak Italian to them, which was generally a super huge struggle, but also really fun. ACTUALLY, on one of our last days, we witnessed a big fight, all in Italian, between a couple of the women. It was really entertaining, because of their animated voices and huge gestures, and I was completely entranced in their words, trying to understand what was going on. All in all, once the woman who initiated the argument finally stormed out and slammed the door (all while yelling "ci vediamo!" aka "see ya later/we will see each other"...quite the dramatic exit...not..hahahha), the older lady who's in charge happened to be standing next to me. She was...

So I just finished my final lit paper, due tomorrow. My class was all about women and men travelling in Italy in the 1800s basically. We read lots of narratives and books and short stories about people travelling through Italy during those times. And I just finished a ten page paper about it. What was really cool about the class was that I learned about how much I have in common with young travellers from different time periods. Travelling, studying abroad, taking a grand tour, whatever you're doing, its all the same. We have many of the same goals today as travellers had back then. See the monuments. Learn the language. Immerse yourself in the culture. See the art. Keep a diary. Make connections. So I started thinking to myself...which of these goals have I accomplished? Okay well, I saw a HELL of a lot of art this semester. And churches, and monuments. I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see and more. I could probably last a good couple of years without having to see anoth...

Being among ancient ruins under the Italian sun. Sitting the Colosseum and listening to Giampiero talk about the Roman Empire. My roommates. Going out any night of the week and knowing that by midnight, the whole center will be completely full of people. Also Dempsey's. My AMAZING and HILARIOUS friends. Being able to hop a train to any Italian city just for a day because we liked the movie that was filmed there. (AKA Arezzo from "La Vita e' Bella"--Mandi and I went last week.) Exploring Perugia, the most beautiful city in Italia, and finding hidden places like this. To be continued...

So yesterday. Last minute, after we finished our finals, we were drinking wine and wandering our beautiful city. We got gelato, had pizza for lunch, rode the ferris wheel overlooking the valley, and then got invited to go to the hot springs. The HOT SPRINGS? Like, WHAT? I didn't even know we HAD those around here. Well, we do. And my roommate's friend's Italian boyfriend wanted to take us. So we get in the car, well three cars full, a bunch of American girls and Italian boys, and we headed out into the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE to go swimming in the hot springs. It was SPECTACULAR. It was like a natural hot tub, on the side of  mountain in Italy, with only the BEST of views. Turns out some of the best experiences come from spontaneous decisions. I'm so glad I went. Why Italians are funny: You know how in Minnesota if you get out of a pool/hot tub, even if its freezing and in the winter, you just go barefoot in a towel until you're in the house/in the car/dried off? Well...

I realized I actually didn't write anything about my weekend in Denmark. I completely forgot to tell anyone that I went. It was a REALLY chill weekend, hanging out with friends from Gustavus, staying in my friends apartment near Copenhagen, exploring the city, having home-cooked meals, and going out in Copenhagen at night. Not a single map was opened, not a single tour was taken...we just spent time together and  enjoyed the beauty of being Gusties and being in Copenhagen together. I loved it. However, the thing that made my trip to Copenhagen so significant was the fact that I went ALONE. I met friends there, yeah (they were SAINTS and picked me up at the airport), but I travelled to Rome and flew to Denmark ALONE. I've never done anything like it before. I mean I've flown alone before, in the U.S, but never in a different country. I was nervous. I had to take a really early morning bus from Perugia to Rome on the Friday morning after thanksgiving...then spend like three...

I got a letter from my amazing-best-grandma-in-the-world yesterday. She told me how she loved reading my blog and hearing about my adventures, but was wondering how classes were going (you know...if I actually have time to LEARN between backpacking to different countries in Europe). Well. Fun fact. Classes are kind of a joke. In my mind. I mean, I love learning, I love classes, but let's be real. Homework? I don't have time for that. I have literally never been less academically stressed in my life. I was more stressed out about my classes in middle school than I am here. I have this theory here: DO THE WORK. GET IT DONE. DO WELL. NO STRESS. I'm only taking four classes, two of which I think are SO AWESOME and SO FUN that they don't even feel like real work. The other two...we just won't talk about them. The truth is, I came to Italy to be in Italy and to explore Europe, not to study. None of my classes count for my major or my minor...or really any of my gen eds. I...