quick week review, and SICILY!!

Ciao a tutti! Once again, it’s been a long and crazy week. Apologies as always for the late update. From now on, I will be in Rome (besides a night trip to Tuscany and a long weekend trip to Greece), so the updates will be more frequent, I promise!

Quick overview of the beginning of the week:

MONDAY: I was feeling a little better (finally), but had an appointment at the American clinic so I decided it would be best to go and get checked out. My mom went with me. It was a great clinic, good to know for the next month in case anything else happens! The doctor said that I was at the end of a minor case of E. Coli. He said it was pretty typical to catch something like this after a trip to Morocco. He gave me some intense meds that I have been taking and feel almost all back to normal now (a week later). I get tired very easily, but other than that no tummy aches! YAY! I had to skip photography because of the appointment, so I emailed my professor and he told me that he cancelled class anyway because he had a stomach virus as well. Perfecto!

Sophia, my mom, Toni, Silvana, Michele and I at Le Fate

My mom and I walked around Trastevere some, picked up my meds, visited San Francisco a Ripa with the Healeys (Dave and Becky are visiting with my mom this week!) and got to see some relics which was interesting, then went out to dinner at Le Fate. This is a famous restaurant in Rome with traditional Roman food. Mmm. We met Dave’s relatives there who we would be staying with in Sicily the next weekend! Silvana, Toni, (the parents) and Sophia (the sister) were visiting Michele (the son) who is studying in Rome. I’d tried to meet up with him a few times but he’s in Medical School and is very busy with his studies. It was a fabulous dinner! I had to be careful what I ate because I was still recovering, but Silvana didn’t understand (she only speaks Italian) and kept feeding me more and more and more. It was wonderful - a peek at what our weekend in Sicily would be like! I went back to my apartment that evening and caught up on some sleep.

Dinner with the nuns!

TUESDAY: My big class day! I headed to Piazza del Popolo for my on-site. The whole class was there on time, but our professor was nowhere to be found. After 30 minutes, someone called her to see what the deal was. She was so surprised that we were all there - “Didn’t you see the message?? Class is cancelled today!” Apparently she wrote something online or on-campus, but no one in the class saw it! Oops! That freed up my morning a lot. I went back to the apartment, made a little lunch, then rested and washed a bunch of clothes. 

At 2:15 I headed to painting class to finish up the figure painting. After class, my mom met me at my apartment and we hung out for awhile. The internet wasn’t working well at the hotel, so she got to check her email which was good. That night for dinner, we walked to a restaurant near my apartment to meet Dave, Becky, and some nuns that they knew who worked at the Vatican. Cool! I was excited because I’d never met a nun. I didn’t really know what to expect. It was so neat because the 3 nuns that we met were really cool and so open, interesting, and just normal people. They had stories of their travels all over the world, we listened to when and why they decided to become sisters, and learned a lot about their lifestyle. It was so interesting. They invited me to go to Palm Sunday with them at the Vatican if they could find an extra ticket for me, which would be such an amazing experience!! They also want me to come over to teach them yoga haha. They asked, “can we wear our habits?” I told them I could work around that. I hope it works out, that would be an interesting story to tell:) I slept at the hotel that night since Wednesday my only class wasn’t until 2:15.

WEDNESDAY: The visitors headed to Florence for the day and left me with the key to the hotel. Magnifico! I slept in, meditated, ran some on the treadmill downstairs, sat in the sauna, took a nice long hot shower, and did a great yoga practice. By the time I finished pampering myself, it was almost time for class! I headed to fresco and worked on my wall. We’re in the final stages now, so it’s pretty much a race to finish our walls in time. Wednesday we worked on our columns. I only have to do my main centerpiece (which should take about 3 classes), then I’ll be all done! After class, I went back to the apartment and packed up for Sicily. I had a nice and quiet night at the apartment. It was good to be back. I miss Rome when I’m away for so long! But Thursday I would be off again. Oooh the life of a European...

practically a swiss guard...

THURSDAY: I met my mom at St. Peter’s for a Scavi tour - a special tour that they have a very very limited number of tickets for. Dave had talked to the nuns that we went to dinner with and they squeezed us into the tour with some tickets they found. The Scavi tour takes you down under the Vatican to view the excavations they are doing there. It was really fascinating. There were pagan and Christian graves from 2000 years ago!! We also saw St. Peter’s tomb, which was neat. After the tour, I took my mom to Old Bridge (a must-do in Rome), then we headed over to the art building so that I could show her where I do all my work! She got to see my fresco, photo lab, and paintings. It was fun! We walked to the Pantheon afterwards for an outdoor lunch with a view. It was a great afternoon:) We ate up then headed back to her hotel to get ready for Sicily!

SICILY!

homemade meatballs with my
favorite sicilian dessert
in the background

Toni picked us up at the airport and took us straight to his and Silvana’s house for a lovely dinner. OH MY GOODNESS. This weekend was like a food marathon. You literally can’t say no to them because they get offended and just dump more food on your plate. At the same time, it’s absolutely delicious so you just stuff yourself full and deal with it haha. This is what I learned after that first night. We arrived and there were 2 huge plates of cheese on the table, with Toni’s home made olives. I was starving, so we ate alot of that. Silvana brought out literally the best lasagna I have ever tasted in my entire life. It was so rich, and so sweet, and so perfecto! I was stuffed after that because we thought that was all that there was. Nope.

Next came plates full of freshly made meatballs, and after THAT desert! AH!! How do these people stay skinny?? It was all absolutely amazing. We finished dinner, then Toni and Silvana took us to their guest apartments. They had one apartment for Becky and Dave and another for me and my mom, but they wanted to be all together. Silvana and Toni wouldn’t let that happen (Sicilians are very stubborn and offer us sooo much!), so after they left my mom and I snuck back downstairs to stay in the extra room in Dave and Becky’s apartment haha. Toni and Silvana weren’t too happy when they found out, but they slowly accepted it:)

the whole crew with rosalio di cannola in Monreale

Friday we spent the day traveling around Sicily. In the morning, Silvana and Toni took us all to Monreale. This was a beautiful little mountain town where the famous Sicilian church is located. Toni explained everything to me and my mom, while Dave and Becky walked around taking lots of pictures. Dave was excited because he just wrote a book about Sicily and there was a sculpture in the church that he referenced. It was really beautiful! My mom and I climbed up to the top of the church for a gorgeous view of the coast. 


Afterwards, we headed to Palermo for a nice (small) lunch - we were still full from last night! We went to a restaurant that Dave had actually seen on a show on Food Network because they were famous for their spleen and lungs (no thank you!) called Antica Focacceria San Francesco. We had panelle, crocche. I stuck with a caprese salad and eggplant. They ordered us some cannolis for dessert. The sweets here are TO DIE FOR, especially they ones with ricotta cheese. Yum yum yum.

my mom and i with the cooker of the spleen and lungs!
EW.

I was pretty exhausted from the day, so Toni drove Dave and I back to the apartment to rest up while the moms went shopping some more. They shopped ALL DAY LONG, and finally met us back at our room a few hours later. For dinner, we went to Toni and Silvana’s again. We told them that we can’t eat as much every meal because our tummies would explode, so tonight we just had 4 courses (“just”...really??).


It was really amazing, though. Silvana is an excellent cook. We had the cheeses, bread, and olives again, then Silvana brought out homemade linguini with clams. It was incredible. We got the recipe from her so when I get home I can make you all a traditional Sicilian meal! After dinner was dessert again, and some fresh fruit. Mmmm. A few other relatives stopped by to chat, so we got back to the apartment around 1am and slept very well after all our food!

silvana's yummy pasta!

Saturday was a more relaxing day. We went to a small town in the morning for the moms to finish their platter shopping (they were looking for nice Sicilian plates to take home). I took a bunch of pictures at the fountain outside, and tried lots of fresh veggies that Silvana picked up at a market there. Afterwards, Silvana drove my mom and I to Scopello to see the famous cliffs - that's where they've filmed lots of movies (like the part in Ocean's 12) and it was magnificent. We took some photos there, then were on our way to the traditional Sicilian meal in the mountains of Sicily. It was about an hour drive, and we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Dave, Becky, my mom, and Toni were in one car, and I went with Silvana, Sergio, and Maria (more of Dave's relatives). Their car was all English speaking, while mine was only Italian! AH! I was practically fluent by the time we got to the restaurant haha. It's hard to SPEAK the language for me, but I can understand most of what they say. They just speak so fast!

yoga in segesta

We got the restaurant and ate and ate and ate. It was probably around a 20 course meal - and we skipped the first course! SO. MUCH. FOOD. It was amazing, but I definitely had to pace myself. I'm not going to need to eat for the rest of the month!! Let's see..we had eggplant, zucchini, pork, quail egg, sheep, meatballs, potatoes, ribs, artichokes, califlower, snails, tomatoes, bread, olives, stuffed mushrooms, proscuitto, kabobs, AND SO MUCH MORE. I can't even remember everything. It was all fantastic, but I really couldn't move afterwards. We were there for over 3 hours, just eating nonstop. Whenever I said "no thanks", Silvana or Toni would yell "MANGA MANGA MANGA!!!!" (eat, eat, eat!!!). Haha oh goodness. We told them for dinner we didn't want anything at all!

silvana tried yoga
on the beach

My mom and I visited Segesta after lunch with Tony and Silvana, while everyone else headed home. Segesta is a beautiful place in Sicily where there are 2000 year old temples and amphitheaters that you can walk around and explore. It was gorgeous! Toni and Silvana were exhausted after lunch, so they pointed us in the right direction and  took a nice long nap in the car. My mom and I walked up to the temple and looked around, then took a bus to the amphitheater. It was a beautiful day, with the flowers such gorgeous colors and the weather perfecto - I even got a little sunburnt! I did some yoga in the 2000 year old architecture, we talked and walked, and then headed back down on the bus (it was only about 2 miles). Silvana took us to the beach and we walked along the water, picking up pretty shells and sea glass:) 

dinner at maria and sergio's

We went back to the apartment and didn't have too much time before we were picked up once again and on our way. It's funny because we would just get shuttled around without ever knowing where we were going! It was great to not have to worry about anything and just go with the flow. Tony and Silvana took us up to Sergio and Maria's mountain house for dinner. Dinner?? After our 4 hour lunch?? AH. They promised it wouldn't be too much food (as they always said), then brought out a couple huge pizzas and oodles and oodles of Sicilian desserts - cannoli, sfincia san giuseppe, cassata siciliana, cassatelle...SO GREAT. Once again, I was stuffed. Even after their "small" meal! We sat around after dinner and Tony brought out his guitar for some singing. We sang some traditional Sicilian songs, then they moved on to Beatles, "New York, New York", and "We are the Champions" haha - the only American songs they knew! It was lots of fun:)

sicily with my momma :)

Sunday was a relaxing day in Castellamare (where we were staying). Dave, Becky, and my mom woke up early to go to mass at Dave's family church, but I slept in some which was nice! I woke up around 10:30 and did a nice, long, much needed yoga and meditation practice for a couple hours. By the time I got out of the shower, the parents were all home from church. We ate a big 3 hour long lunch (again) at the restaurant next to our apartment. Dave treated the whole Buffa family that showed up - about 20 people! It was lots of fun to meet some new people in Dave's family. It was crazy - there were tons of people all around me speaking THREE different languages! Since Italian is so close to Spanish, Becky was talking to one girl in Spanish (she's fluent), then Tony was talking to us in English with a couple other relatives, and the rest were speaking Italian or Sicilian! It was so chaotic - the Italian way:) We ate and ate once again. Lots of seafood today because we were right beside the bay. Mmmmm:)

Afterwards we packed up and headed to Tony and Silvana's one more time to print out our boarding passes for the flight back to Roma. We get in laaaate tonight, then have a special tour of the Vatican archives and restoration projects at 8am (ah so early!) - it'll definitely be worth the early wake-up though. The Healeys and my mom leave Tuesday morning, so I have one more day with them. I'm excited for photo tomorrow to develop my Morocco, Turkey, and Sicily pictures!!

Turkey Turkey!

PICTURES ADDED! :)

Off to Turkey! Unfortunately, I was still not feeling well on Thursday morning. I tried to narrow down what it might be. #1: undercooked meat (since I’ve been cooking chicken and red meat for dinner a few nights). #2: red meat in general (my stomach doesn’t respond well to it anyways - but usually not this bad at all!). #3: I picked up a virus in Morocco. Hmm. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it goes away.

hagia sophia!

I felt miserable during the whole metro/train/plane ride. Luckily I slept most of the plane so that helped some. It’s the weirdest sickness - awful cramps (it feels like I’m having contractions like giving birth or something) that make me keel over and forget to breath, really dizzy, a fever that comes and goes, and other tummy-related issues. Ugh. I made it to Turkey fine, though, and after searching for a little while I found my mommy!! It was so good to see her!! I feel terrible that I have to be sick for our weekend trip together, but it’s also nice to have her here to take care of me:) She’s the best mom ever!

We made it to the hotel via taxi fine. It’s right by all the tourist attractions which is really nice. We were greeted by Mustafa and Fatih, two really wonderful Turkish men. Mustafa owns the hotel and doesn’t speak quite as good English as Fatih (who is younger and seems to be in charge of the front desk). They helped us unload everything, pointed us in the direction of a pharmacy and a place to get soup, and gave us some good ideas about what to do while we are here.

We moved into the hotel room, and I rested for a little while. The cramps were really bad on Thursday, so I couldn’t do much at all. My mom and I walked up to a restaurant nearby to get some plain food that I could keep down and help to settle my tummy. We found a nice place up the block from us near the Grand Bizarre. Everything looked so wonderful, if only I could eat more! My appetite is almost non-existant, but I tried what I could. We got some lentil soup, veggies, hummus, fresh bread, and tea. Mmmm!

After lunch we mozied around a little bit, making our way to the pharmacy. Luckily the man spoke English and he gave me some medicine that we hoped would help. We walked by the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and so many other amazing buildings. Even the little houses and stores are so cool here - bright colors, ancient stones, or aged wood. It’s really a magnificent city. I couldn’t wait to bring my big camera out to get some good shots!

We headed back to the hotel because I was feeling pretty rough. The rest of the day we spent sleeping, resting, and attempting to recouperate in our hotel. Later in the evening we watched “The Tourist” with Johnny Depp (my mom’s favorite), then got to bed nice and early.

Friday I STILL wasn’t feeling good. Oh no! Jada texted me asking my symptoms, and she told me that she had the same thing. Uh oh. That means I probably picked it up in Morocco somewhere. We researched a little bit and figured out I have all the symptoms of E. Coli. Eeeek!! I sure hope that’s not the case. A lot of my symptoms are hard to prescribe because they’re typical of a lot of viruses. To be safe, I emailed API in Rome and asked if they could give me recommendations for doctors in Rome so that I could go when I get home on Monday. We figured out that it’s definitely a virus (and not food poisoning) since it’s been 3 days now. On Monday I’m planning on getting some bloodwork done to check for everything. It’s no fun being sick when I’m in such a beautiful city!

inside the blue mosque

I decided that whether I was sitting in the hotel room or wandering the streets of Istanbul, my stomach would hurt. SO after a yummy breakfast on our hotel’s rooftop terrace of fruit, cereal, bread, olives, eggs, and tea (if only I could eat some of it), my mom and I headed out. We asked if there were bananas at breakfast since those might help my tummy, and they said no. A few minutes later, though, Mustafa brought us out some! He must have bought some just for me and cut them up. How sweeeeet! We were the last ones at breakfast, so Mustafa took us outside to see the great view, and explained some stuff for us. We told him we were planning on walking around and checking out a few mosques, and he said it was his day off so he would love to go with us and show us around. Perfect! We headed out with our new friend.

Mustafa took us all around, explaining different parts of the city. In one fountain that they were restoring he said that instead of water, it used to have cherry juice coming out of it! It was free for everyone to drink. Yummm. We walked around, took lots of pictures, and then went inside the Blue Mosque. It was absolutely beautiful. The tiles and decorations inside were stunning. We got there right around prayer time so we had to be quick, but there was so much to see! The Arabic writing was everywhere, just like in Morocco. SO PRETTY. We had to take off our shoes, and I was wearing leggings and a big shirt, so they made me wear this long skirt thingy. My style doesn’t fly with the Turks, I suppose:)

my momma and i in front of the blue mosque!

After visiting the mosque, we walked through the Grand Bizarre with Mustafa. IT WAS SO HUGE. If he hadn’t been there with us, we definitely would have gotten lost. There was so much to see and to buy..we are definitely going back there. We did make one purchase though. My mom just got her new house on Strawberry Street, and she has a carriage house out back with a great balcony. She told me she wanted to get some hanging lights to put out there, so I had to spill a secret: I bought her hanging lights from Morocco to put out there!! Haha oh well, she was still excited even if it’s not a surprise. The ones I got for her were very Moroccan and fairly small, so we decided to get some Turkish ones, too, because they would look great together. After searching for awhile, we found a good shop with lots of choices. Too MANY choices! We stayed for about an hour trying to figure out what colors, size, and designs we liked best. After we figured it out, the man who owned the shop put it all together for us and wrapped it up. Luckily there was a chair in there, so I got to sit down and rest for awhile. My stomach was starting to act up again, so we headed back to the hotel.

On the way we stopped in a nice restaurant to try and get some food down again. Mustafa wasn’t hungry, so he took our lights back to the hotel for us. I ate some plain rice and soup, and my mom shared the rice and got a veggie dish. We finished it off with tea. Yum! It was getting colder (apparently the mornings here are warmer than the afternoons), so we got back to the hotel and warmed up. It was nice to rest for awhile again. BOO TUMMY PROBLEMS. We hung out in the hotel for awhile, and heard back from Jada (who went to Morocco with me and was having the same symptoms). She went to the doctor in America and was diagnosed with a mild E. Coli. I set up an appointment in Rome with an Internal Medicine Doctor for Monday, so hopefully that will take care of everything.

Around 6:30 we headed to see the Whirling Dervishes - a famous Turkish religious tradition. We got lost on the way there, but saw lots of cool sites and eventually made it. We ended up being 10 minutes late (somehow it took us over an hour to walk to a place 20 minutes away), so my mom and I sat in separate seats. It was really neat to see this age-old tradition. Some Dervishes played instruments and chanted. while 5 literally whirled around in circles for 30 minutes. The spinning didn’t help my stomach haha, I had to close my eyes for a little while. The ceremony is an 800 year old tradition of turning towards the truth to grow through love, and in finding the truth, arrive at the “Perfect”. Very cool.

We started the walk home (much shorter than the walk there), but not before stopping in a bakery called Hafiz Mustafa. They were so nice! My mom and I bought lots of chocolates, baklava, cookies, etc. for later then were on our way. We also got Mustafa a little treat for taking us around (because the box had his name on it). Back at the hotel, we watched a movie then went to sleep.

Friday was our spice tour! We woke up, got a yummy breakfast, then headed toward the spice market to meet our guide, Selin (later she told us she was named after Celine Dion haha). Once again, we got a little lost along the way but made it there fine - and even a little earlier! We’ve learned to give ourselves plenty of time for looking around haha. My stomach wasn’t cramping as severely or as often this morning, so that was a good sign! I was hoping to be able to try all the great Turkish foods and spices on our tour.

There were 2 other families on the tour with us, one from Canada and the other originally from San Fransisco but living for a few months currently in Madrid. Once everyone was there, we headed into the market. Selin was great. She explained all the foods we passed, got us samples of everything, and made sure we had time to buy everything we wanted. It was a really really wonderful experience. We went through spice, seafood, olive, pickle, linen, and SO many more stores, trying everything we saw! My mom and I got some great gifts and presents for ourselves:). After spending a few hours on the European side, we headed over to the Asian side of Istanbul on a ferry. It was my first time in Asia - a new continent for me!! It looks like it was a 3 continent week for me - Africa last weekend, Europe this week, and Asia for lunch on Friday. Perfect!

pig head. YUCK.

We hit up some more stores on the Asian side, then settled into a nice restaurant in the Asian spice market for a genuine Turkish lunch. Selin ordered all her favorites for us, and we chatted and ate. Unfortunately, half way through lunch my stomach started acting up again so I had to stop eating. At least I got to try a lot this morning! The pain was getting pretty severe again after lunch, so we headed back on the ferry and Selin tried to get us to go to the American hospital nearby. We considered it, but I wanted to rest before doing anything else (we’d been out from 10am - 5pm and my body wasn’t able to handle that) before making any decisions. We said our goodbyes then grabbed a taxi home.

We spent the rest of the evening in the hotel, as my stomach pains slowly got worse. We hung out, I slept for a few hours, then we watched a movie together in bed. The VCU game was airing in the US at 6pm yall’s time, so we stayed up until 1am getting ready to watch the game. It was near impossible to find streaming online, and after a failed attempt at an iphone application of live march madness streaming, we asked Ahmed at the front desk. He found us a website and let us use his computer to watch some. I was too exhausted and starting to feel worse, so I tried to sleep while my mom messed with the computer. Unfortunately, the internet kept cutting in and out until it was gone completely and wouldn’t let us log on. She gave up around 2:30 in the morning, and went to bed.

I barely slept at all that night. My cramps were as bad as Thursday - the worst day by far. They kept waking me up from the pain. I’m counting the days to be back in Rome so that I could go to the doctor and get some medicine to make it stop! We slept in a little bit, and woke up to Martha Young calling us on the telephone. She is a friend we know living in Turkey, who took a bus to Istanbul to see us on Sunday! My mom made plans to meet up with her, then she hopped in the shower. I could barely move from exhaustion and the cramping. The front desk called to let us know they extended breakfast for us if we were interested in getting some, so we felt bad and headed upstairs for food.

me, mustafa, and martha!

Martha met us at the hotel and sat with us while we finished breakfast. I didn’t have the energy to go out yet, so I decided to rest for a couple hours in the hotel and then meet them later for the Hagia Sophia. Martha and my mom went on their way. I showered up at the hotel and then tried to get some more rest. At 2, my mom and Martha came back to check up on me. I was still struggling, but didn't want to spend my last day in bed. We headed out and about!

Martha has many friends in Istanbul, so we got the full tour and hospitality. Her one good friend Mustafa (a common name here) owns the cafe right in front of the Hagia Sophia! A perfect location. We stopped there first, got some tea, caught up, skyped with her husband Ken (who is back in Virginia - Martha is living here for a year teaching English in the government), tried some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice mixed with a splash of orange juice (almost up to par with the blood red oj YUM!), then went into a couple of Mustafa's stores. I found some cool pants, and my mom got some great pillow cases for her new house. Next stop: the Hagia Sophia!

inside the hagia sophia

It was gorgeous. We spent lots of time just getting lost in the amazing building. It was built with so many different materials and mediums of art. Absolutely beautiful. I brought my big black and white camera, and my mom took so many pictures on her digital one that her camera died! It was really wonderful. Afterwards, we headed to the Cistern - an underground reservoir. Very neat. The lighting made all the columns look gorgeous. It was a good day of exploring! We met Mustafa afterwards at a neat hookah restaurant. Underneath the restaurant they discovered an entire castle buried deep in the ground that they are excavating now. We walked down there and took a look. The ancient stones and arches from hundreds and hundreds of years ago (built in 300 AD) were still in tact and were really fantastic.

Martha had to catch her bus back to her town in Turkey - about a 6 hour bus ride. We said our goodbyes, then my mom and I wandered around a little bit more for some last minute shopping. We were very successful in our endeavors! My stomach was cramping, but I hung in there since I slept so much this morning. We came back around 9:30, packed everything up, then went to bed to get some rest for our early early flight (we leave the hotel at 4:45 am. AH.)

What a perfect weekend! Istanbul is a truly amazing city. I know I always say this, but I definitely recommend it to you travelers out there. I hope to come back some day to experience the night life - I hear it's awesome! I wish my stomach had cooperated, but it was still an extremely successful weekend of traveling, as always:)

a very short week

Hey guys. Sorry the last posts were so long! This one is short and sweet to still give you time to catch up on my spring break travels. The week went well, I just had classes and lived it up in Rome! I'm starting to realize how bad I am going to miss it here. It's definitely going to be a bittersweet. I have definitely fallen in love with everything about Rome, but I am SO excited to come home and see all of YOU!! :)

newly scanned in picture from prague

Monday was a good day! I did some yoga, taught some yoga (the theme this week was "Traveler's Yoga" - we did stretches for our tight traveled muscles and worked on the core to work off all that yummy food), and had photography class. Photography was really great this week. We all sat down, and Serafino decided he had an exciting activity for us. After a huge introduction that none of us understood, he said the most amazing thing. "The best photographs are the ones that we don't take." I thought back to my travels this week, and realized he was completely right. Don't get me wrong, I got some amazing pictures, but the most amazing and unforgettable moments pass by too quickly or are too fragile to pause for a photograph. We all went around the room and talked about one photograph that we didn't take in the past week that really touched us. I loved hearing about everyone's week - the way they described the picture that they wished they had taken. Some poetically, some formally, some as a story, and some in a very technical sense. It was an amazing thing to hear everyone open up about the little moments in life that we remember - whether or not we capture it on film.

prague houses - newly scanned in

I tried to develop my film, but encountered a problem. Again. I am just failing with photo stuff recently! But at least this time I can still have my pictures. I bought the film I used in Morocco in Valencia when I was visiting Jada. We checked the film to be sure it fit my camera, then were on our way. Unfortunately, we didn't notice and important detail - I bought COLOR film! Oops. Serafino told me I could get it developed at a store nearby, then scan the negatives into the computer so they'll still be black and white. Works for me! It actually worked out pretty well, because I think the pictures are going to look awesome in color, too. Best of both worlds! I spent the rest of class scanning in my other roll to the computer so I could have them for life. Awesomeee.

Tuesday, my on-site class met at St. Peter's Square! It was so nice leave 15 minutes before class instead of 45- an hour haha (St. Peter's is super close to my apartment). It was so cool to finally go inside! I've been holding off because I knew visitors would pay (SINS) so I could spend my money on other travels. It's getting towards the end, though, and I still haven't seen the Sistine Chapel...I'm disappointed in myself. I want to see it SOOOO BAD but I keep making plans to and then they fall through. I'm definitely going next week with my mom when she visits (YAY) and probably a time or two afterwards as well. Perfecto! My class just went into the basilica and underground to some of the tombs. It was really neat.

altarpiece at St. Peter's

After class I grabbed gelato at Old Bridge with a couple friends from class who hadn't been there yet. SO GOOD. One of my friends bought me a present from her spring break travels, it was so sweet! :) Then I headed home for some lunch. I made a fresh salad from my market purchases - spinach, blue cheese, raisins, apples, oil and vinegar. MMmmmmm. Painting class was next, so I hurried over. The models were sick, so we had a lecture. Yes, it was interesting, but yes, I did fall asleep for a little while. It was a long day for sit in the dark for 3 hours haha.

I dropped one of my classes because after weighing the pros and cons of the rest of my time in Europe, I decided it was best for me to not be in that class. It was taking over my life, and I knew I couldn't enjoy my final month here with that looming over me. So I headed to school this morning, printed out my ticket for TURKEY tomorrow with my mommy (!!!!!), and then came home. I was feeling like absolute death. I think I must have eaten something bad, because I got some sort of stomach bug/food poisoning and haven't gotten out of bed since I got back from printing my ticket this morning. I better feel back to normal tomorrow, it would be awful traveling to Istanbul with a bug!! Eww. Oh well. I've been eating the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) to help ease my poor little tummy.

Plan for the weekend:

I'm meeting my mom in Istanbul, Turkey!! She's flying over today (probably about to get on a plane in a few hours), and meeting me there tomorrow morning! We're staying in Turkey for a few days, then she'll be in Rome with our friends Dave and Becky Healey until April 12. The second weekend, we're going to Sicily to stay with Dave's family!! I'm so excited for the next couple weeks. It's just making the time go by even faster AH!

spring break (part 2): MOROCCO!!

MOROCCO

Okay. I'm trying to pull my thoughts together. I jotted down notes throughout my week to be sure I would remember everything, and just the NOTES (bullet points) from the 3/4ish days in this country took up 4 big pages. front and back. And I write realllllyyy small haha. Here it goes.

My trip to Morocco was one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on. Morocco was so different than anywhere else I've ever been. There is just sooo much I want to share!! I broke it up into sections because there are so many pictures and stories. SO prepare yourself for some excitement!


TRAVEL DAY

stop sign in arabic!

Thursday was a long day. We had to wake up really early to make it to our flight, so we didn't get much sleep at all. Greg had told us how to get to the airport using the metro, so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. We made our way to the airport and got there with a little time to spare. Jada's two other friends from Valencia were going on the trip too, so I met Katie and Molly after we went through security. We hadn't eaten yet, so we grabbed breakfast in the airport before boarding. The flight wasn't too bad - a couple hours from Madrid. I slept most of the time since I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before (Greg's bed was small for Jada and I to share and my light sleeping doesn't help with that).

We arrived in Marrakech in one piece! After going through passport control and getting a cool Arabic Moroccan stamp, we met our guide. We had decided to go through a travel program while in Morocco just to be safe and to get the most we could out of the trip. We chose Snow or Sand's "Camel Excursion through the Sahara" trip, and it was fabulous. Definitely recommended. Our local expert/guide person was named Simo and seemed great.

preview shot for later..

We hopped on our "minibus" (I don't know why they didn't just call it a bus) and got a run-down of the day. Apparently the Sahara was farther away then we thought. Simo told us we would be getting to our hotel around 8pm that night. That was about 8 hours away! He said it would be 6 hours of driving, but we would stop for lunch and shops along the way. At first I was a little disappointed that there was so much driving, but it MORE than definitely made up for the experiences that we had and all the things that we saw. But I'm jumping ahead of myself, let's continue with the timeline...

i got my orange!

The first stretch of the drive was 2 hours into the Atlas Mountains. About 3 minutes in, we were driving by the orange trees and I said something about how I'd always wanted to climb one in Rome. Simo stopped the bus and said, "come on!!" I was completely surprised, but jumped out of the bus anyways. Jada came with me, and the oranges were so high I couldn't reach them from the ground. After attempting to climb on Jada's shoulders and failing miserably, I climbed up the tree and grabbed one. SUCCESS! Simo told us not to eat it just because it tasted bad, but he said we could if we really wanted. I peeled it on the bus and handed it out to a few people. Literally, the sourest most bitter thing i have EVER eaten. Imagine eating a lemon straight up, then times that by 2394723480243148124903853 sourness. Yum..

Simo handed out sheets that had Arabic phrases for us to learn. He said the most important one for us to know would be "shokran" (pronounced shock-run). Jada was excited that there was a phrase on the sheet that translated to "i'm a vegetarian"! The mountains were beautiful, so much different than any other mountain range I've seen. The terrain of Morocco in general was much different than expected. It was very rocky and brown/red/pinkish. Sooo beautiful, though. I'm a big tree person, but being in Morocco made me appreciate how beautiful rocks can be too.

first moroccan food experience

Two hours in we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the side of the road. It's a good thing that we stopped - I was starting to get pretty queasy. Simo gave us the options for food, and I went with chicken skewers. YUM! They brought out Moroccan salad (tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, etc), bread, olives, and some dipping sauces. It was so good, and so different than any of the other cuisines I've tried on my trips this semester! Olives were a big thing in Morocco - they brought them out with bread instead of butter (like Italy). We got to know the other people in our group during lunch. There was me, Jada, Katie and Molly (from Valencia with Jada), 4 other people who study in Florence (Michael, Zach, Camille, and John), and one person who works as an advisor in Florence (Malissa). Everyone seemed really great! For dessert they brought out fresh oranges for us. Simo told us that oranges with cinnamon was a big treat here, and that they ate that for dessert a lot. Mom, you would fit in juuuuuust perfectly!

SO EXCITING

After lunch on the terrace of the restaurant, we went downstairs to the shops. Simo told us that we may want to get a scarf if we didn't have one in case there was a sandstorm while we were in the desert tomorrow. I already had some scarves with me, but we tried on a bunch for fun. Jada was in love. She has this weird joy of wearing random things as turbins - I guess you could call it a habit? quirk? obsession? Either way, when Alli Baba (yes, that was the shop owners name..am I living Aladdin?) offered to make a turbin with the scarf Jada was looking at, she literally jumped for joy. She had told me before we got the Morocco that she REALLY wanted to wear a turbin while she was here, but didn't know if it was disrespectful. Once Alli Baba made that turbin for her, she didn't take one off for the majority of the trip haha. Perfecto. He helped everyone in our group made one, and taught us how to ourselves. It was so cool!!! Most people ended up buying one for the desert trek. As we were piling back on the bus, Alli Baba ran after us with gifts. He handed out little slipper keychains for us to keep. How sweet:) I got a pinkish/purple one. YES.

me and jada with alli baba

The next few hours until the arrival at the hotel were pretty exhausting. It was another hour or two of the windy mountain roads, so we had to stop a lot to keep people from puking. The driving was INSANE here. No side railings for the cars + driving too fast + thousand foot drops do not make me feel happy. After awhile I learned to just close my eyes and try to sleep so that I wouldn't have to watch! Our driver knew what he was doing though, I just wasn't used to that lifestyle. Dad, come to Morocco and THEN try to make fun of my driving! :)

our mountain hotel!

Lots of hours later we made it to our hotel for the night. It was an awesome hotel in the middle of a mountain cliff! We couldn't see much at night, but when we woke up the rock walls all around us were a fun surprise. We unloaded the bus and walked across a rickety old bridge (that was "patched" with slabs of wood over the pieces that had broken) and up and down tons of steps before arriving at the hotel. So Moroccan. Our group had the whole hotel to ourselves! We were literally in the middle of nowhere in Morocco. It was just outside of the town Ouarzazate..they may have pics online if you want to read about it. We were greeted with the "Moroccan Whiskey" as they call it - it's just mint tea haha. They literally drink it all the time and all over Morocco. Fabuloso. Jada, Malissa, and I shared a huge room with nice big (yet rock hard) beds. We dropped our stuff off then headed downstairs for dinner.

dinner yum

Dinner was incredible. We all sat around two big circular tables by the fire, chatting about our rooms and our experiences abroad. We had a full course Moroccan dinner - starters of olives/bread/sauces and Moroccan soup (a blended vegetable mix), main courses of chicken tangine with cooked potatos/carrots/olives and couscous with veggies, and oranges with cinnamon as dessert. Mmmmmmm:) So happy and SO full. Jada was excited because her madre in Spain doesn't like that she's a vegetarian so she doesn't make her lots of veggie food. She ate sooooo much because it was such a treat to get all this un-meat food!!

singing/dancing/drumming after dinner

In the middle of dinner, some guys who worked at the hotel came in and put the drum heads by the fire. This helps to warm up the drums. Pretty cool. We had a great time after dinner learning how to play the drums, singing along with their chanting, and dancing! Everyone in the group was either playing drums or dancing, it was awesome. After awhile we set up a game of musical chairs to the drumming. I made it about half way through, but it was okay because once you got out you got to be a part of the drumming wooo. It was a late night, but SO much fun. I was exhausted after all the traveling, so even though the bed was a little hard, I slept like a rock.

OFF TO THE SAHARA

The next day was my favorite day of the whole trip. Probably one of my favorite days of my entire life, actually. Jada and I had a plan to do yoga early, but that failed miserably when my alarm didn't go off. Oh well, we needed the rest! We had a quick breakfast of bread, honey, jam, mint tea, and an egg then were off for a hike to the gorge. When we walked outside in the morning it looked SO different than the night before! It kind of reminded me of Star Wars (thank you, Travis and Brett, for influencing my knowledge as a child).

laundry in the river

The hike was so cool. We walked through the trees and rocks on this tiny little path to the Todka Gorge. We passed lots of little towns/houses, people doing laundry in the river, and farmers along the way. It was really awesome to get out and about after being in the minibus for so long the day before. The little kiddies were so cute!! One of them came up to me with this really cool grass design that he made into an animal. I thought he was trying to sell it so I smiled at him and shook my head no thank you, but he pressed it into my hand gently and made a giving motion with his hands, then touched his heart and smiled as he walked away. It was a gift! I almost cried. It was so cute, he was precious. I even reached for my purse and he shook his head no. Everywhere you go in the world, we all have something in common. People just want to feel and give love.

We walked for an hour or two to and through the gorge. In the actual gorge, it's a really big place for rock climbing. We saw tons of people doing it, it was really neat. It looked scary! So tall! AH! I really enjoyed getting to see the daily lives of the people in this tiny Moroccan mountain town. It was something that I would never have the chance to do if I had stayed in one of the touristy places like Marrakech. I felt so lucky! One of my favorite things about Morocco is the Arabic writing everywhere. It's so beautiful. Jada probably hated me by the end of the trip because I kept gawking at how gorgeous it was. It kind of reminds me of a more lyrical version of sanskrit. It's interesting because the writing is so beautiful, but the actual pronunciation of the language is a little harsh. Curious.

jada, kati, molly, and i

The Sahara was still a few hours from the Gorge, so we grabbed a drink at a cafe in the Gorge (the coke bottles were sweet because they were in Arabic) and were on our way. We stopped an hour in for lunch, and I tried the chicken tangine with lemon. We got bananas for dessert this time, YAY! We made a couple more stops along the way for wine in the desert and at a shop known for its silver (since it's made right around there). I got a really cool ceramic pot for candles, aromas, etc. It's awesome. After I purchased my thingy I sat outside with the boys. They'd made friends with a local who'd offered them mint tea, so I had a glass and talked with them. Everyone's so nice in the mountains in the desert, I haven't heard as nice of things about the cities though.

SAHARAN CAMEL TREK

and we're off!

The rest of the drive was amazing as we watched the rocks from the Atlas mountains turn into sand for the Sahara. We reached the little hotel that the camels departed from and got our things together for our night sleeping under the Saharan stars. We left our bags at the hotel and made our way to our camels! Jada and I were in the very front of the caravan. Simo told us that they didn't name their pets in Morocco like we do, so we were allowed to name them if we wanted. Obviously we did. Mine was named Mufasa because he was at the front and was the leader, just like lion king. Jada went with Alli Babwa in honor of our friend from the turbin shop. Mohommad was our camel leader, so he grabbed Mufasa's reigns and we started the trek.

IT WAS SO COOL. Getting to the camp was a little over an hour trek. It was such an amazing experience. The hotel was right on the edge of the Saharan dunes, so we walked to the dunes and then were on our way. Soon enough, there was only sand to be seen in every direction. We were trekking during sunset, so it was a nice time of day (not too hot). We took TONS of pictures. The dunes that we camped near were the tallest ones in Morocco, and some of the tallest ones in the northern Sahara! We made it to the camp right before sunset, unloaded our things, then headed toward the tallest of the dunes to climb as the sun set behind us. IT WAS SO TALL. The one we climbed was the dune of Chebbi.

mufasa and i <3

I went most of the way up then sat down on top of the dune, looking out over the desert. Our group was all spread out across the dune, sitting in groups and talking or trying to make it all the way up. I closed my eyes and it felt like I was living The Alchemist. I watched the stars come out slowly as the sun sank further and further down. It was so surreal. Simo sat and talked with me for awhile, and I taught him to meditate. He gave up after a few minutes and headed down the dune with the others. I stayed on top of the world for a little while longer, meditating and doing a little bit of yoga. It was absolutely amazing. Never in a million years would I have pictured myself sitting on top of a dune in the Sahara desert, meditating as the sun sets and the stars begin to peek out. I was so happy.

our tent!

After a little while I walked down the dune in the pitch black and met everyone else at the camp.  I made friends with a kitty in the camp and named him Timon..I wanted to take him home with me!! We had some mint tea and smoked hookah with the caravaners and nomads while dinner was being prepared. Jada and I were laughing because there's a hookah bar in Richmond called Saharas, so when we go home we can go there and talk about how we actually smoked hookah in the REAL Sahara. Silly silly.

tea and hookah

Dinner was ready pretty quickly, so we all sat on the floor of our tent area around a few tables and ate up. There was so much food! Chicken Tangine, veggies, bread, olives, oranges for dessert..the usual. As always, it was amazing. This was probably the yummiest meal out of all of them! Jada and I split a bottle of wine with dinner, which was yummy too. We hungout with the caravanners and nomads after dinner, playing drums, singing, and just talking. We sang "In the desert, the mighty desert, the camels sleep tonight" and their favorite "i don't like couscous, every night couscous" songs.

mohammad and friends on the drums

I had some of the most amazing conversations that night with them. It was so crazy that we could relate and talk about the deepest and most interesting things together, but our lives were literally worlds and worlds different. Mohammad told me that they don't go to school, they just learn languages by the tourists that come through. He spoke English, Arabic, Bourbor, Spanish, Italian, and a little Japanese. How crazy is that. He also told me about the natural medicine that people do in the desert, which was really interesting since I'm considering going into that.

My favorite thing that I heard that night was from Mohammad as well. He was trying to teach me the drums, and I told him I'd have to come back to learn. He said "yes just stay for a few weeks and you will be great". I joked that I would probably need forever to learn, and he smiled and said, "There is always time, but no watch". I loved that. He was referring to life in the desert, but I am taking that into my every day life with me. After he said that I started to think. I asked him, "So do you live your life by days, or by experiences?" He told me "I only live by adventures." Wow. Deep stuff right there.

beautiful desert moon

The whole night was kind of like that, just one amazing experience after another. They were just so wise. Mohammad spoke the best English, so he was the biggest talker. At one point he said something that my mother tells me, "you can sleep when you die." How cool is that?? The world really is a universal place filled with love, and we're all here to help each other grow. An incredible night.

We ended the night with some more singing, drumming (Brett, I thought of you the whole time you would have loved it), and riddles. They really liked riddles and they'd get annoyed if we didn't guess. I suppose it's because they have so much time in the dessert it's silly to just "give up" on riddles - you actually have the time to think it out! We slept under the stars and tried to keep warm. Yayyy.

Other amazing quote from the night: "Travel is like a disease. Don't let it go away" Dontcha worry, Mohammad, I won't.

BACK TO MARRAKECH

adios, jimi hendrix!

Saturday morning we woke up super early to head back to the hotel. The hour trek wasn't as exciting at 6am, especially for Jada ("i am NOT a morning person"). Actual quote from Jada that morning: "it doesn't matter how exciting something is, if i have to do it in the morning i will not enjoy it." Hahaha it was still really cool though. The night before I had asked Mohammad about the camels names, and he said they actually do name the ones that they really like. Apparently Jada and I had camels they really liked, because he said both of ours had names. Mine? Jimi Hendrix. Jada's? Hubbly Bubbly. Haha PERFECTO. So Mufasa and Alli Babwa were no more.

our campsite

At the hotel, we got breakfast (Moroccan pancakes yum) and then were on the way to the long drive back to Marrakech. It was going to be about 12 hours in the minibus. Yuck. At least we were stopping a lot along the way. And honestly, I could care less about the drive because the night in the desert was just too incredible and unforgettable. Before we left I bought a necklace from Mohammad that is the south cross as they call it. It's really neat - it depicts the camel trek through the desert, the tent, the 4 cardinal directions, and the stars. See if you can look it up online, if not I can add a picture in or show you when I get home!

so many herbs!

We drove alot alot alot. We had a few nice stops for coffee (nus nus is their specialty YUM) and drinks, but most of the stops were after lunch. We had a good lunch in a bigger town right before the mountains. I had the regular meal there with a big water to rehydrate from all the traveling. After lunch we went to an Herbalist which was AWESOME. He showed us all kinds of cool natural herbs and oils and spices for different ailments. So neat!! I got a few things to bring home:)

huge loom

The next stop was the rug shop! I had requested this stop because I really wanted a tapestry or rug from Morocco, and Travis would love to see the things that they had there. I took lots of pictures and videos of the loom, and we had a nice explanation of all of the different products. They were so beautiful. My big gift to myself was a gorgeous blanket made right there in the shop. It was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to use it all the time to remember this incredible trip!! The owner of the shop was getting a little too friendly by the end("you beautiful, where you from? you welcome here all the time, any time. please come back", but I took advantage of it to get a good price on my deals. When he asked for my name to find me on facebook, I took that as a good opportunity to thank him and leave. At least I got a bunch of cool stuff!

We stopped at Alli Baba's one more time for a drink before our last 2 hours to Marrakech. I had lots of dirhams (their currency) left because everything is SO cheap in Morocco! So I bought a little hookah there to remember our time in the desert. I figured I could exchange the rest of the money at the airport. The last 2 hours of the minibus ride were looooong, but we finally made it. IT WAS SO CRAZY THERE. I'm so happy we didn't spend the entire weekend just in Marrakech, because I feel like we got so much more of a cultural experience the way that we did it. We really immersed ourselves into the culture and lives of the people. The city was really cool though, just SO overwhelming. I also probably saved a lot of money by not spending the weekend there because I WANTED EVERYTHING haha. Another plus? Only getting catcalled at for one night instead of 3 days. The best name I got called was "Shakira", while someone yelled "sex machine" to Jada. Awesome..

atlas mountains

Dinner was really cool. We went to one of the main market squares and sat down at an outdoor restaurant there. It looked more like a market area than restaurant area, but that just made it cooler! We ate soooo much, once again. Bread, olives, tomato sauce, spicey sauce, veggies, rice, couscous, skewers (chicken and beef), and ended with mint tea. YUM. I don't know why it's so amazing everytime, but it really is.

We wandered around the main square after dinner and got to see all the craziness going on! SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE DOING SO MANY THINGS! Simo told us this is where you usually see snake charmers, but they weren't out at night because the snakes had to sleep. There were games, vendors, shows, you name it. The girls got henna on our hands which was awesome (it didn't stain very well so it didn't show up barely, but that's okay it was like 3 dollars). Back at the hotel, Jada and I shared a room. We packed up everything then took our first shower since Spain!! Ew, I know. It felt so nice to be clean, even if the shower wasn't that awesome (cold water, no curtain..the usual). I slept SO well, literally didn't move all night until my alarm went off at 5:45 to catch my plane. Ugh too early.

I caught the minibus to the airport and made it back to Rome safely. It was weird because it was completely empty in Marrakech at 6am, as opposed to more than crowded at midnight the night before. Europe's daylight savings thing started/ended (I never know which it is) today, so we're back to being 6 hours different from the east coast of the USA. WHAT A WEEKEND. I am so grateful to be living a life where I can travel so much to unique places like Morocco. I learned so much from this trip! It's great to be back in Rome, though. I missed my home sweet Rome :)