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

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...

So Halloween isn't really a thing here....instead All Saints Day (November 1st) is a national holiday where everybody gets work and school off. Except the American students. So that's cool. Good thing we plan on celebrating Halloween in style tonight regardless. :) Here's a little blog one of our professors sent us about Halloween/All Saints Day in Italy (kinda interesting!): http://www.athomeintuscany.org/2009/10/20/ognissanti-in-tuscany/ Just got back from a 10 day backpacking trip around Europe: Portugal, Spain and Prague. So tired. Blogs about those trips to come soon...and lots of pictures of course! PS....10 days out of Italy=NOT a good thing for my Italian language skills, which are minimal in the first place. This morning when I was basically a zombie leaving my apartment to go to school, I ran into my sweet older Italian neighbor lady and literally just stared at her because I couldn't remember how to say goodmorning in Italian. GOODMORNING. Like the firs...

LAST weekend, my friend Briana and I took a casual weekend trip to London, UK. And I need to move there. It was definitely my favorite city so far (but how can I even say that...I've loved them all). All of the buildings were so regal and stately and just GORGEOUS and clean. The weather was a lot like home, with leaves blowing everywhere, grass and parks all over the place, and beautiful trees blowing in the wind. And who WOULDN'T fall in love with all of the double decker buses and classic black taxis and the fact that drivers sit on the right side of the car and they drive on the left side of the road. It was crazy. And I loved it. Just walking around London. Some Deltas met up in London (because we love each other and we love Delta Phi Omega). Classic picture by the Tube Map in London. Realistically though, we only took the Tube once because its expensive and we were on a budget. We walked EVERYWHERE. Another opportunity to tone our butts and legs. Always appreciated. ...