Three very LONG months

I can't believe that we have only been here two weeks. A lot of the days drag by because we do the same thing over and over. Our schedule is the same everyday and since everything is so expensive we spend a lot of time just sitting in the apartment. Atleast it is the weekend now. I was planning on going to the beach this weekend but it is supposed to be rainy, so I think I am going to go get my nose pierced tomorrow with a few friends who also want piercings. We are desperate for things to break the routine. We are all dying to get out of Florence, but really have no money for that. On the upside, due to complaints from us and our parents, we will now receive 50 euros a week for food. Hopefully that will help with the budgets a lot.

I am having trouble thinking straight because it reeks like cigarettes in here right now and it is giving me a huge headache. I absolutely detest cigarettes and HATE the fact that in Europe people smoke them left and right no matter where they are.

I haven't blogged about gelato yet but I have gotten it twice and it beats ice cream by a long shot. In the US, gelato is usually expensive, but here it is one of the few things you can get for fairly cheap. There are so many flavors it's almost overwhelming. So far I have tried caffe (coffee), biscotti (cookie), pesce (peach), crema (cream) and bites of a few other flavors from friends. When you order gelato here you generally get more than one flavor at a time. A very popular flavor is nutella, but since I don't really like actual nutella I have not personally tried it.

I saw peanut butter today. It looked weird and not very good. I did not buy it and don't plan on it.

We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I got cheese fondue which came in a little personal pot with a candle under it. My meal (including drink) was less than 12 euros which is much cheaper than anywhere else we have seen so far. I got a peach daquiri which was probably the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I went with Gabby and Mackenzie, who are the only two people here that I feel like I can be somewhat myself with because I know they aren't judging me, and I really like them. It was nice to have a girls night out.

We were going to go to SPACE tonight for black & white night, but ended up kinda poopy after getting back for dinner. Instead we are going to Sinful on Saturday which is a special night at SPACE with a bunch of different DJs.

I don't really have much to report about the week. It was mostly full of classes and plenty of watching LOST (I am on the 5th season now). It's getting a little lonely here, not just because I'm in Italy, but because I'm in college in general. I miss being surrounded by people that I love and people who love me. It's hard being with the same 15 people all the time and I often feel like kind of an outsider.

I have been very inspired to draw lately and think I am going to get myself a sketch pad. The architecture here is absolutely crazy, and I have been wanting to sit in the Piazza de Santa Croce one day and draw the church.

I have been listening to the Rocket Summer in excess this week. Bryce Avary is my absolute favorite and his music puts me in the mood to create. It's kind of an awesome soundtrack for studying abroad and experiencing new things, especially when I am having a hard time getting through.

I literally just sat and scratched a bug bite ON THE BOTTOM OF MY FOOT for a full 5 minutes before I could proceed. I have never had chicken pox but I certainly feel your pain! I cannot even describe how miserable these bug bites are. Yeah, it just happened again. I have to stop blogging to go scratch and KILL NAZ.. MOSQUITOS. (That reference is for Katy Devine<3)

Buona notte!

Pannacotta Recipe :)

Panna Cotta:
6 grams of gelatin (the sheets)
40 ml of milk
200 ml of whipping cream
40 grams of sugar
1/2 a vanilla bean (fairly certain you can use extract)

Strawberry Sauce:
300 grans fresh strawberries
180 grams of sugar

Procedure:
Whisk together the cream, vanilla, and sugar
Put the gelatin in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes
Heat the milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat until hot but do not boil
Wring out the gelatin and put it into the warm milk; stir until gelatin melts
In a saucepan, warm the cream mixture over low heat stirring continuously until just boiling; remove from heat; add the milk/gelatin to the cream and stir to mix well
Run individual-serving foil cups (look like mini pie plates) or ramekins under cold water. Shake out excess water but do not dry
Fill each cup with the panna cotta until full, being sure the tops are level; refrigerate for atleast one hour before serving (he told us 3 to 4 hours, but a quicker way is to put them in the freezer for 45 minutes)

We ate ours in the cup with the strawberry sauce on top but you are supposed to flip them out of the cups and then top them. I don't know how to make the sauce but I'm sure you can find the procedure for that only any cooking website, it was just a very smooth sauce kind of like a jam!

There you go! Delicious!