21st celebrations and visitors

Sorry for the large gap between posts, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. Even though I'm busy, I actually do have a ton of free time, which I generally use to watch my TV shows from the week or take a nap. I guess I've just been procrastinating writing this next post because I'm lazy. Last you heard from me I was just arriving back from my wonderful (not) trip to Rome. Last Sunday night was the Super Bowl, obviously, and we went to Space to watch it. It was nice to finally see the club without raging music and lights. It was a chill night. We watched the first half of the game and the half time show and food and drinks were brought to us. I personally loved Madonna. I keep seeing people make fun of her on Twitter, but I thought it was an amazing performance, minus MIA's slip up. Monday I ran a few errands and relaxed all day. It was my roommate, Michele's 21st birthday so we went to Acqua al 2 for dinner. This place was suggested by many people to us, including our advisor here, Milva. This place definitely did not disappoint. We got salad and pasta samplers for the table as our starters. This food was amazing and it just kept coming. It consisted of greek salad, caprese, and some noodle salad, and for the pasta we got 5 different types; a blue cheese pasta, rigatoni with eggplant and red sauce, corkscrew pasta with mushrooms, a meat sauce pasta, and one more I can't remember. All I know is that I enjoyed every last bite and was extremely full, but we had all also ordered steaks for our main course. I got blueberry steak, which was recommended to us by just about everyone who has eaten there. I can't really explain the taste, because it didn't seem much like blueberry to me, but it was a great contrast with the steak. We decided to change the pace up from the usual Monday night Yab and go to Lion's Fountain. This is a bar that is filled with college students and the ceiling is covered with t-shirts from different universities. It was nice to be able to go out dressed a little more casual and be able to have actual conversations at the bar for once. I had my second week of classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I grew to like them even more the second time around. My Public Relations class has definitely become my favorite. Not only am I interested in the subject, but the teacher is awesome. He's crazy, funny, and speaks great English. I had gotten a cold, so I decided to take off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night so that I could be ready for my visitors over the weekend. It was a great idea and I felt almost 100 percent by Friday. Rebecca, Hannah, and Sara came for the weekend from London to visit Heather and I and celebrate my 21st birthday. All of our friends from Florence went to Amsterdam for the weekend, so it was good to have them, and I'm really glad they came on a quieter weekend because it gave us a lot of time to do the things we wanted and see each other. On Thursday Heather and I made a list of the things we wanted to do with them so that we would have everything planned for the weekend. They arrived Friday around 2 and we immediately took them to Antico Noe for the best sandwiches in Florence. We ate our sandwiches while we walked to the Ponte Vecchio. We walked around, shopped, and got gelato. We had a reservation for dinner at El Gato y La Volpe for 9, and we still had a couple hours to relax. We decided to go to the grocery store and pick up a few bottles of wine for the weekend. We came back to our apartment and drank wine and just hung out. It was amazing to be with our school friends and just have fun doing nothing. That is the one thing that's different here that I miss, a house full of girls with something entertaining always going on. We got to dinner and our table wasn't ready so they gave us all champagne until we were seated. We ordered family style, which was cheap and delicious, the perfect spot to go with groups of people. We got a large appetizer platter with meats, vegetables, and caprese. The bread at this restaurant is also the best I have had in Florence so far, so we obviously got a refill of that. They have this homemade balsamic that is thick, so we indulged in that too. Our main course consisted of 3 different pastas; four cheese gnocchi, tortellini with truffle sauce, and penne with broccoli and chicken. We ate until we were in food comas and just sat around at dinner until almost midnight. We then headed to a bar called Naima to get another drink. While we were there we decided not to go to the clubs and save the rest of our energy for Saturday, since it was my 21st birthday Saturday at midnight. We woke up Saturday feeling refreshed and headed towards the Duomo. One of the coolest things to do in Florence is to climb to the top of the Duomo and look out over the entire city of Florence. We stopped at Astor and got some coffee before the big climb. The climb took about 20 minutes, and involved a lot of winding and steep stairs. There were a few points that I got a little nauseous/freaked out because of how high we were, but it was worth it. Once we got up there the view was unbeatable. You could literally see the entire city of Florence. We stayed up there just looking out and taking pictures for about 45 minutes, and then began the journey down. This was the hardest workout I've had since coming to Florence. Everyone says they are going to work out abroad, but I just don't see how people do it. Between all the traveling and your messed up sleeping schedule, I can't find the energy to go to a gym. Oh well, I guess when it gets nicer out I can run around the Arno River, shouldn't be too hard to get myself to do that. Anyways, after the Duomo we headed to Gusta Pizza, which was on our list of can't miss restaurants. It was across the river so it took us a little to find it, but once we did we could see why everyone raves about this place. The pizzas were literally to do for. I got a pizza with spicy salami and mozzarella. Every pizza on the menu looked amazing, and I will definitely be going back there soon. After lunch we were going to see The David, but we didn't know where it was and all decided we didn't care that much about seeing it. Instead we walked all the way to this store called Brandy Melville. It was a little bit of a trek but the clothes were so cute and pretty cheap, so we all enjoyed that. Our next stop was the leather market to get scarves, hats, and of course stop by Massimo's leather. Every person who heard I was going to Florence told me to make sure to get a leather jacket from Massimo and I can see why. They are so cute and he gives students pretty reasonable prices for real leather. Rebecca, Sara, and I all got our leather jackets. It was a great purchase. In fact, Rebecca practically slept in hers because she was so obsessed with it. For dinner we had wanted to go to this mexican restaurant called Tijuana but they didn't have any reservations so we found another mexican place online and made our way there. We had the address and knew where it was, but when we arrived the restaurant was no where to be found. It turns out it was actually this place called The Club House, which was in fact not Mexican, and they must have put up fake advertising online or something. We ate there anyways, and the food was pretty good. They gave us free shots before dinner that I'm pretty sure were actually just juice. When we left they also gave me a free bottle of wine for my birthday. We came back to my apartment and got ready to head to Space. We decided to buy a table so that we could be in VIP and have bottle service. It worked out really well. Let's just say my first night of being 21 was a success. The next morning was a huge struggle for me to get out of bed, but what else would one expect after their 21st birthday. The next morning was kind of like a scene from The Hangover. I took my camera out expecting there to be no pictures, but to my surprise, the front was dented, the screen was cracked, and I took about 30 pictures, some even with people I don't know. We were all dying, and just to add to that, it turns out Rebecca stole someone's coat, and we ran into her after lunch and she asked if someone accidentally took her jacket, which was when Rebecca put all the pieces together and told her. I'm still not sure how exactly it happened, but it was hilarious. The visitors left in the afternoon and then Brittny, Bari, and one of their roommates came over for a little to hang out and then we went to Zaza's with them. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. The rest of the night was spent just relaxing because I was exhausted from the weekend and everyone was just getting home from Amsterdam. On Monday we went to dinner for my birthday with my Florence friends, and were able to get a reservation at Tijuana this time. The meal was filled with sangria, frozen margaritas, nachos, and fajitas galore. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Monday night a lot of people were going out and we went to Yab. I always have fun there, and it was another good night. It was round two of my birthday celebrations, so waking up for my 9 A.M. on Tuesday was brutal. We went on a field trip to the San Miniato Church. We had to take a 45 minute bus ride there, and once we got off you could see all of Florence in the distance. It was absolutely beautiful. It was quite an entertaining class seeing as Me, Heather, Dave, Ross, and Daniel all went out the night before. The guys were all in their clothes from the night before, and we were all definitely riding the struggle bus. We all walked back to Florence downhill. It was about a 30 minute walk, but nice to get some fresh air. I ended up skipping wine tasting for the day, because I could not fathom smelling or tasting wine. Today after class I stopped by the chocolate fair that has been in Piazza del Republica all week. I was literally in heaven. I split chocolate covered strawberrys with milk and white chocolate and sprinkles and a chocolate covered waffle. My mouth has never been so happy before. We walked around and scoped out the rest of the chocolate and decided we wanted pretty much everything there. Calories don't count in Florence do they? I got another fruit stick of chocolate covered strawberries and bananas before we left, and I am planning on going back there tomorrow for some more goodies. Now I am done with my classes for the week and tomorrow I am going to Interlaken, Switzerland. While I'm there I am going to paraglide, go night sledding, eat lots of chocolate and fondue, and take a day trip to Zurich. I will update more after the weekend!