We party...Italian style

Hello all,

So as promised...my first post as a 21 year old! This week/weekend has been amazing.

My birthday morning started out with my roommate Sarah making a enormous "german" like pancake for me. It was so large..that it almost did not fit in our oven (image a 2 foot by 2 foot pancake baking). All of the girls and I feasted on this decliciouness that consisted of a pancake like batter with bananas, lemon juice and powdered sugar sprinkled on top (or rather heaped on top since we were all craving sugar!).

My roommate Faith then showed up with the most beautiful bouquet of sunflowers, greenery and these little red berries. They are so beautiful and have not wilted a bit so far. That made me soo happy. We decided to go outside and walk around a bit for my birthday. Much to our surprise, we walked behind our building to Santa Cruce (the square behind our house) and found a GERMANFEST!!!!

Well that just made my day. As you all know, I love being german, love german food, love german people, love german chocolate, candy everything. So it was pretty much the best day ever. It also felt nice to understand a language once again around here...because they were mostly germans and austrians who knew Italian, but also german of course. Oma, you would have loved it...there were sasuage stands, weinerschnitzel stands, german beer stands, huge pretzels, german potatoes salad, sauerkraut, everything. So my roomates and I ordered bratwurst...which were probably a good foot long, and sat and ate for a while. We then decided to buy some candy at the haribo candy shop (Laurie-Ann loved it so much she invested in over 20 euros worth of candy!) I then discovered a stand with fresh pickels, marzipan, lebkuchen, and all my favorite german cookies. I decided to buy only the mazipan though, and am so glad that I did. I felt home again!!

We walked aroudn the rest of the day in search of boots, because that is really what I wanted to buy, and my shoes are all wearing out! No such luck...but I will go again this week. There are tons of boots, i just want to be in love with them!

So in the evening, we decided that we were going to go to this Italian resturant that is owned by the people of the Oil Shoppe (where we get panini's all the time). So we dressed up, and walked down there...as we walked in we realized we were the only people there! But our favorite chef was there, and we had an excellent time. The girls told him it was my birthday, and he got all excited. He gave us a bottle of wine to start with, and then prepared the most amazing meal ever. It began with bread which we dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar of course. Then he brought out the antipasta platter which consisted of grilled veggies, cheese, thin meats, bruschetta and more! SOo yummy. Then he brought out three different noodle dishes....one with a cream and meat sauce, one with a red sauce and zucchini, and one gnocchi (my favorite noodle) and a cheese like sauce over it. Then he brought out our creme brulee dessert and torched it...adding a candle on top of mine and torching it on!! It was so delicious, and so fun!

My roomies then gave me a card that Laurie Anne had handpainted with a picture of boots, and they all signed it and gave me euros to go myself a nice pair of boots. They also paid for my expensive Italian dinner. So sweet of them.

This night was not just a celebration of my birthday though...it was also a celebration of our one month anniversary in Italy, and one month celebration with my roommates for being together. (In case you have not gathered yet...Caitliln and I really lucked out and have the most amazing roommates ever....we are already planning roadtrips to visit when we get home).

Then of course, we had to end the night with dancing. We have made friends with the manager at the club we go to, TWICE, and we just happened to see him earlier at the germanfest. Well, he found out it was my birthday and reserved us a section in the VIP section of the club. So there was a table and couches with a happy birthday amy, reserved for amy sign. IT was awesome. Then a little after midnight, he came over, and one of the bar tenders brought a huge bucket of ice with champagne and glasses in it and i light sparkler and we got a bottle of champagne for free! It was the best! So we danced all night long!! It was by far one of the best birthday's ever.

Friday I didn't do much, but I did go out for coffee with someone we had met here. His name is Michael, he is actually from Ethopia, Africa and has been living in Italy for 6 years. He is a very nice guy (we met him at TWICE) and we had a nice conversation. It's so amazing to see how people from all over the world follow America and politics and sometimes know more than Americans do about our country. It's shameful how little I know about the politics and issues going on around the rest of the world.

Then Caitlin and i went to the train station to find a way to go to the airport and pick up Jenn and Autumn and Amy from their flight from Spain. After about an hour trying to figure out how to get there (we took the bus, which was a first for us in Florence since we walk everywhere) we arrived at the airport. Caitlin was making fun of me cause I was tearing up at all the reunions occuring around the airport. When Jenn and Autumn got off the bus however, tears started flowing out of both my eyes and Caitlins! I had missed those girls so much (We will all be living together when we get back to the states). We just sat around and talked for a while, and then we went dancing..IT was really lame that night though..much too crowded with very creepy men...so we went home shortly after being there.

Saturday we wandered around town, showing the girls the sites and Florence. We had a really nice day with them, and then in the afternoon the boys came from Rome to stay with us (billy, john and jake). We hadn't originally planned on seeing them, but last minute they came so it was definitely a full house in Corso Dei Tintori 6. We of course went out dancing again. It was sooo fun that night...We ended up staying up really late and talking, and then called a cab for the girls to get to the airport way early in the morning.

Sunday, being so exhausted..i woke up and made a huge pot of vegetable soup because I was in the need of some comfort food. I made a huge batch because I knew the girls would come in wanting some....it was gone shortly! I love cooking and am so glad that we have a nice kitchen here. It saves us money, and makes me less stressed. Then I cleaned a lot of the apartment (it gets so dirty here) and did homework.

Today I am not feeling well (its a mixture of not getting enough sleep, the change of season, the fact that I have a chest cold, and the fact that my asthma gets worse everyday I am here). But hopefully some good night's rest will cure it, and I will be back up and around ASAP.

Love to you all.

Also, i got a postcard in the mail today (yipee!! my first piece of mail) from Emily and her two friends as well as my two youth ministers and it just made my day! So thanks Emily, Armon, Jean, Claire and Eric!

Write again soon!

Love
Amy