Journalism This Summer

I like to write, obviously. If you didn’t know, I am an aspiring journalist. So, I thought I would take a second to share all of the things I have written thus far this summer (since I’ve dedicated my summer to writing this year). Here are the links to all of my stories, in case you’re interested. Let me know what you think. More to come soon!

http://2012.nyuvillagebeat.org/archives/407

http://2012.nyuvillagebeat.org/archives/image/sweet-life-for-abused-dog-2

http://2012.nyuvillagebeat.org/archives/517

http://2012.nyuvillagebeat.org/archives/video/breaking-barriers

http://www.restaurantgirl.com/gizmo-girl/stuffed-burger-anyone.html

http://www.restaurantgirl.com/gizmo-girl/mini-ice-cream-sandwich-fun.html

http://www.restaurantgirl.com/gizmo-girl/the-perfectly-chilled-wine.html

http://www.restaurantgirl.com/gizmo-girl/smokehouse-bbq-at-home.html

x Ricky

 

Disneyland Paris: Yes, We Rode Space Mountain Ten Times

Ciao! This weekend we took what I expect to be my last European adventure for this semester…and we went out with a bang! Literally, there were fireworks on Saturday night. Toni, Brianna, Ming, and I all spent the weekend at Disneyland Paris! It was the first trip we booked when we got here because we knew it was the one thing we wanted to do. It was so worth it! We stayed on the Disney property, so once we got there all we had to worry about for the entire weekend was how early we needed to get to Starbucks in the morning to beat the line. Because we stayed on the property, we were allowed in the park two hours early every morning! Naturally, we took advantage of it and got to the park a little after 8AM every day. That is, of course, after having a Disney breakfast filled with croissants and the most amazing butter I’ve ever tasted in my life. Before I dive into our Disneyland weekend of magic, I need to explain the picture above. On most of our trips, we fly Ryan Air, which is a budget airline that flies almost everywhere in Europe. The prices are crazy low, but so is the quality of everything…including take-off times, seats, and the general feeling you have when you get off the plane. This little number was on the back of the seats, and I noticed how oddly demanding it was. In an emergency landing, you must remove your earrings, high heels, and even dentures. I don’t know about any of you, but it takes me a good two minutes or so to remove my dentures properly. I just felt like it was a little unfair, especially during such a scary time.

This is another example of the amazing service that Ryan Air provides. Yes, that is a man raising his hand to get the flight attendant’s attention. I don’t think they ever came for him. Come to think of it, he’s probably still on the plane patiently waiting for Maria….

So, like I said, we got to the park every morning a little after 8. This was the very first morning, and as you can see we were all very excited. One very cool thing about this weekend was that Disneyland Paris is currently celebrating their 20-year anniversary! Everything was decorated (even more than usual) and they had some cool special events planned! Yay for best friends at Disneyland!

Brianna, Toni, and Ming walking into the park on the very first day. **‘Cause they’re three best friends that anybody could have…**

The beautiful Disneyland Paris castle! Being in the park made me feel like I was back in America! Can’t wait to be back in my homeland! Only a couple of weeks!

Remember how I told you we got into the park at 8AM everyday? Well, this is what happens when you’re the only ones in the park that early. That’s the line for Space Mountain…arguably the most popular Disney attraction. We rode it ten times…in three days. It was much different than the ones in the US! This Space Mountain went upside down! It was wayyyy more intense than the other ones! We liked the front car the best, obviously. We also took a different picture every single time. Blasty blast.

On Friday, we made sure to be back on Main Street for the nightly parade! We saw all of our favorite characters (except Mulan…Ming was very upset about that one) and got some great pics! We also fell in love with the song they play during the parade. It was a special 20th anniversary song, and it was just the catchiest little song we ever did hear. We’ve been listening to it all day today because Toni found it on YouTube. Take a listen if you’d like! Beware though, it’s addicting. Magic Everywhere (Disneyland Paris)

This is my best friend…doing his thing with his Mickey Mouse gloves on. Does it get anymore hardcore than that? He’s pretty awesome. Mingy Mouse, we shall call him.

Ming(y Mouse) and I in front of the Space Mountain poster like a couple of bad kids. Duh.

Everyone knows that Monsters Inc. is one of the best movies ever to grace the big screen, so I obviously had to take a picture of me being sanitized. Right beside this, they had the things from the movie that collected the scream for energy. Kids could scream in them and it would tell them how much energy they produced. This is obviously in a little corner of the park where no one really goes. We got out of there right quick. I guess it’s a nice place for parents to take their kids so they can blow off some scream…haha…get it? Scream instead of steam?….. I crack myself up sometimes.

Because we never had to wait more than ten minutes for a ride, we ended up riding everything a ton of times. Consequently, we saw about a billion pictures of ourselves in different variations of our surprised look. This was the only one that we actually bought a copy of. We just couldn’t pass it up. This was the second time we rode the Tower of Terror. It was also the time we decided not to hold onto the support bars during the ride. It made it much more interesting…especially the part where I felt my whole body come about four inches off of the seat. 😛 Now we will remember it forever.

Saturday night was a long night for us all…. This was in line for Thunder Mountain at 11PM. Enough said.

On Saturday night, they had an amazing fireworks/water/multimedia/Jesus show to celebrate 20 years of Disneyland Paris magic! The show was absolutely amazing. They literally brought the castle to life for half an hour.

This weekend was one of the funnest weekends of my entire life. I got to feel like a kid again with three of my best friends. Can’t think of a better last trip to take during our time here!

Learn Italian: Dream – Sogno (pronounced SOAN-yoh)

x Ricky.

 

To All Of The Crazies That I Haven’t Seen In Three Months:…

“Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life’s a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.”

-Marilyn Monroe

Once in a while, I get in these moods to write. I’m not sure why tonight is one of those nights, considering I just spent most of my night working on a paper for school, but I’m going with it. I suppose this is one of those rare times when I can reassure myself that I am studying the right thing. The following is my late-night attempt to satisfy my hunger to write….

For the last three months I have been living, once again, in an unfamiliar city. During these months, I have had some of the most amazing experiences of my life. I’ve seen things I never thought I would get to see, visited places I never thought I would get to visit, and–perhaps most importantly–met people I never expected to meet. I realized soon after I came to Italy that making friends here was not anything like making friends freshman year of college. By now, each of us have figured out what we want, how we want to act, and the person we are. This makes for some interesting dynamics. People are much more willing to let the real them make an appearance than they were two years ago. In some situations, this has hurt, but in most it has simply made making friends that much more fun. This has made me realize how much I love the real things in life. The things that will never go away, whether you want them to or not. I have a number of things that I would consider to be real in my life. One of them being the amazing group of people, in both Ohio and New York, that always have my back.

Homesick isn’t a word I’ve used often during my time away from home, even in New York. I prefer to think about the next time I will see someone rather than think about how depressed I am that I can’t see them right now. Three months is a long time, though. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing my family, the longest I’ve gone without eating Crossroads Pizza, and the longest I’ve gone without seeing my little cousins since the day they were born. Nevertheless, I have continued to stay close with everyone since the day I left. Missing home is never really an option for me. I don’t have enough space in my brain to sit around and be depressed about something I can’t change. Instead, I just hop on Skype and chat with my mom for a while, or text Kippie and make sure she knows she’s the most gorgeous girl in the whole wide world. The little things like these are the things that keep the distance between me and the people I love invisible.

Thinking about not having seen everyone in such a long time is crazy to me. It seems like just yesterday that I was saying “See ya later!” to my parents at the airport. I guess the fact that I am sitting up at two in the morning to write a letter to everyone back home explains a little bit about why it hasn’t seemed so long. 🙂 I suppose the main reason I make such an effort to stay close with these people is the fact that they have helped me transform my life. I wish I could explain how much every one of the people in my life today have changed me for the better in the last three years.

I have smiled more in the last three years of my life than I did in the first 17 years combined. And it’s the people around me that have made me an optimist. Whether it’s seeing my parents struggle with something and finally win the battle, or just never being allowed to be in a bad mood around David, I am always learning that there is something to smile about.

Family, I miss you all dearly. Every single day I think about how excited I am to come back home! Kip, you’re the strongest little lady I know, and I respect you so much. I miss laughing with you more than you could imagine. Sara, I miss everything about our friendship. I can’t imagine my life without you and I don’t ever want to have to. David, I can’t believe I won’t see you until August. I am so glad that we have been able to still talk every day like always even though we’re on different sides of the world. Casey, all I want is to drive around in my car with you and listen to MMMs all day long. That would be perfect. Hannah, we’ve been best friends since the beginning of time, and I can’t believe we’re still as close as we are. Can’t wait to see you, BCF. Chris, Teresa, and all of my Kent people: I can’t wait to come back and play boardgames with you! I’m so glad we all became such amazing friends. Everyone else, you can’t even imagine how crazy excited I am to see you all.

Thank you for reading my rant about my amazing people. I figured since they all make me smile so much, I could try to give them something to smile about. 😀

Find something to smile about tonight. Whether you’re with the people you love or not, I know from experience that a smile can travel at least 4,625 miles. 🙂

Miss you guys like crazy!

Leanrn Italian: Sorriso – Smile

x Ricky

 

Easter Weekend on the Amalfi Coast!

Hello, world! First off, I would like to say that I hope everyone had an amazing Easter, and no matter what religion you are, got to spend some valuable time with the people you love. For the last two Easters, I have been away from my family. It seems weird thinking that life still exists in Ohio for everyone else when I’m not there. Sometimes it seems like, in my head, my mom is spending all of her time while I’m at school waiting by the computer to Skype and waiting at the CAK airport for me to walk through the gate. And then my mom tells me something fun that she, my dad, and Kip did the other day, and I remember that they still live in real life, too! Then I get to hear fun stories, and it makes up for me not being there. I spent this Easter weekend, as well as last year’s, with Toni’s family. They are always very welcoming, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re Italian and I always eat the most amazing food with them. This year, they came to us! Toni’s parents, grandparents, sister, and cousin all came to Italy for their spring break trip! Toni’s dad was born in Italy, near the Amalfi Coast, and lived there until he was seven. He hadn’t been back since just a few years after he moved to America, so he obviously was dying to get back to “his town” and see his family. 🙂

Toni and I left last Thursday afternoon to meet the family in Rome for the night. Rome was just a stopping point, so we were only there for one night. A guy in the elevator who said he was from America recommended a place right across the street for dinner. He said he had traveled all over the city, and this place had the best food around. We didn’t have anything else in mind, so we decided to give it a try. Everyone was starving. All seemed well until they brought us two pizzas that looked like they just came frozen out of the cafeteria supply truck.The food continued to get worse, so we were all banned from listening to advice from any Americans in elevators. Needless to say, we still had a fun night goofing off in the hotel room and planning a away to steal food from the McDonald’s supply truck sitting across the street.

The trip down to the coast was possibly the first time Toni’s family saw my true colors…and by true colors, I mean my ridiculous inability to stay awake when I’m in a car and not driving. I spent three years of my life driving over 100 miles a day for my job (shootout to all the Crossroads Pizza customers!), so now when I get in a car and someone else is driving, all I want to do is sit back and relax. I fell asleep probably about 20 minutes outside of Rome and continued to sleep until I was woken up by Niki (Toni’s sister) taking pictures of me and my open-mouth breathing, sleeping body. By the end of the weekend, Niki probably had at least 15 pictures of me in all different types of sleeping positions. Mostly from our private tour van, because I had the whole backseat to myself. While Carlo (Toni’s dad) was having a panic attack because we were driving on the side of a cliff, I was passed out dreaming of dreamy things.

After about 40 minutes driving about four feet from the edge of a 500-foot cliff, we finally got to the hotel. The hotel we stayed at was a remodeled convent. I tried to request Whoopie’s room but I don’t think the guy understood my English correctly.

I snapped this picture of the town of Amalfi on our drive up to the hotel.

This was the left side of our view from our hotel room’s balcony. The water was ridiculously blue…all the time.

The rocks were the most beautiful part of this area. Everything was made from stone (like most smaller cities in Italy, most streets and sidewalks were made of cobblestone), and the rocks that surrounded the beach and hid right underneath the water all looked perfectly placed in nature.

Yes, ladies and gents, those are ALL lemons. I’m dead serious. The coast is known for their lemon production (including part of Carlo’s family), and it is easy to see why! I didn’t get to try one of the huge lemons, but we had locally produced lemon candy and lemon cake multiple times…both were delicious. We got the candy just a few blocks down from these lemons. The actual town of Amalfi was actually very small, with one central area for everything. So, the time that wasn’t spent eating, riding around in the tour van, (or my third option: sleeping), was spent here in the main square of town. There was one long street with the church, a bunch of little restaurants and cafes, shops, food vendors, everything! It was a nice place to chill out in the evening.

During our days in Amalfi, we spent most of the time visiting different little towns around Amalfi. On Saturday, we went to the town Carlo grew up in. He hand’t made plans to meet up with anyone, so it was literally a shot in the dark when it came to actually finding anyone. So, we hopped in the van, I fell asleep, and then Gianlucca made his way up the mountain! We stopped at a little market that a member of Carlo’s family owns, and just minutes later we were all outside the market meeting all of Carlo’s extended family! It was like a scene from a movie. Such a unique experience.

On Sunday, we went to the town of Positano, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful towns in the whole world. (For anyone who has ever seen the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun,” Positano is the place she goes to visit and meet up with her new boyfriend’s family. Thought that was interesting! :P) It really is gorgeous. There are shops lining every inch of a street that is barely wide enough for one car to pass through, that runs all the way down to the water. While we were doing some shopping, we had some unfortunate weather  and had to take shelter in a church. Turns out, the church was about to have Easter mass in five minutes. None of us were dressed for church, the place was almost completely full, and I had never even been to a Catholic mass in English, let alone in Italian! I found it to be quite an interesting experience. Still not sure why we were standing up and sitting down again so much, but hey…I can’t figure out everything on the first try.

In Italy, the Monday after Easter is just as important (if not more important) than Easter itself. Pasquetta, Easter Monday, is a time of celebration in Italy. In Amalfi, the streets shut down and everyone has one huge celebration in the streets! Unfortunately for us, that meant that we had to leave town by 7AM or risk not being able to get back to Florence in time for Tuesday classes. After some crazy talks with the hotel manager and the travel agent, we devised a plan and agreed to travel home early Monday morning.

These are pictures of two different mornings on the coast. I thought the morning was the most beautiful part of the day there. Everything seemed very tranquil. Fishermen were going setting up for the day, the waves were crashing against the rocks on shore, and life just seemed good.

After an hour-long bus ride and a four hour train ride, we finally got back to Florence…which had officially been completely taken over by tourists.

I had an amazing weekend and got to see some of the most beautiful places in the world! I want to thank Toni’s family SO much for a wonderful and relaxing weekend. You guys are the best!

Learn Italian: Lemon – Limone (pronounced lee-MOH-nay)

x Ricky

 

Spring Break Part Three: Brussels, Belgium

Chelllllooo! Sorry for the delay on this last spring break post…the last few weeks have been a little crazy. Midterms are finally over and now I have a whole two weeks to enjoy before I have to start working on ten-page papers and studying for finals! Hooray!

So, here goes! From Barcelona, a small group of us traveled to Brussels, Belgium! The main reason for this leg of the trip was to go to Sensation, which is a huge, touring music festival that features some of the best house music artists in the world! I’ll get to the actual concert later; first I’ll tell you about the city itself.

Much to our surprise, we had a ton of fun in Brussels! We were expecting to have to mosey our way around for a few days just waiting for Sensation, but we ended up really enjoying the city. Brussels is a very small city, which was nice because we only had a couple of days there and we were able to see and do almost everything we set out to. There aren’t really many tourist attractions in Brussels expect for the European Union buildings (Brussels is the capital of the European Union), but there is a ton of architecture and culture to appreciate. The buildings in these pictures are just some buildings in one of the main squares in the middle of town. I thought they were really cool because of the gold detail. All of the architecture in Brussels was very detailed.

The best thing about Brussels was the fact that it was the most authentic city we visited. We often came across people who spoke no English at all, and as scary as that is, it was very refreshing to be visiting a place that wasn’t dripping with tourists and the locals who hate them. The people in Brussels were also very nice. They were extremely willing to help us out and let us know where we could get the best waffles and chocolate. We learned that Belgium is famous for three things: waffles, chocolate, and beer. We had a lot of all three. 🙂

It was easy to see (and taste) why Belgium is famous for waffles. The waffles they serve are very different from those in the US. First off, they are more crunchy than you would imagine. They have a little fluffiness inside, but besides that the whole waffle make a crunch when you bite into it. Second, powdered sugar is the ONLY thing Belgians put on their waffles…no syrup, no butter, no strawberries, no whipped cream. I decided to look like a fool for a few minutes and eat mine with strawberries because they just looked too good to pass up. The last thing we learned is that waffles are eaten at every time of the day, no just breakfast. I had one for lunch!

The chocolate stores we found were something you had to see to believe. The whole store was nothing but things made of, with, or covered in chocolate. The chocolate truffles were just sitting out in big bowls for you to pick out yourself, and there were at least a dozen different flavors! My favorite one was a dark chocolate truffle made with Bailey’s Irish Cream Liquor.

Oh, the beer. Before I went to Brussels, I always thought I wasn’t a beer person. Turns out, I just don’t like the watered down crap that everyone drinks in the US. My favorite beer was called Kriek. We had heard from multiple people that this was the beer to try, so on our first night there we found a bar that served it. It was like nothing I’ve ever tasted! At first, it tasted like a very sweet beer, and then it tasted like cherries! A few of these could get someone in a lot of trouble because it tastes just like juice after a while! After that first night, at least one of us got a glass of Kriek at every place we went. It was great with dinner, too!

The food in Belgium was some of the best we had all trip! The first picture was Jill’s dinner, which included sausage, potatoes, and some of the most amazing thick-cut bacon I’ve ever tasted. The bottom picture is what I got. It was almost like a mashed potato casserole with veggies, pork, and cheese inside. I definitely did not regretting getting it! It was like the ultimate comfort food dish!

Sensation time!!! All day Saturday was spent mentally and physically preparing ourselves for this crazy concert! In case you hadn’t already guessed, you had to wear white to gain entry into the arena. We put a lot of thought into our white-out wardrobe, and I think we all looked great! We also all had some pretty great tans going on. 😉

Our Sensation crew (no clue where Brianna and Toni were during this picture)! From left to right: Jill, Kevin, Josh, Ming, Sophia, and I. Ming came all the way from London to meet us for the concert and it made the event that much better! Going crazy with my best friend/roommate was absolutely amazing!

The train ride and bus ride to Sensation were some of the most unforgettable things about the whole night. The train from where we were staying to venue was almost an hour long, and everyone was going nuts with excitement! The bus ride from the train station to the venue was just ridiculous. Everyone was so hyped up about going to the concert that even the bus driver was getting in on the action and driving like a maniac. On multiple occasions, the entire bus started chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” Nothing like being annoying American tourists everywhere we go! We had to make sure Belgium knew America was taking over the country for the night. 😉

My best friend/roommate/favorite Asian/one of the coolest kids I’ve ever met, and I outside the venue. 🙂

There are really no words to describe what the concert was like. It was like the biggest light show ever, combined with crazy water stuff, combined with some of the best music you’ll ever hear in your entire life. I am so glad I got talked into going to this crazy thing. It was honestly a night I will never forget.

We left the concert at around 5:30 AM and it wasn’t even over yet! We were delirious, dehydrated, sweaty, and filthy…but we were some of the happiest hippos around. 😉

I bought these shoes from H&M for about $20 the week before the concert. I had to post a picture of them so everyone could get a feel for how filthy we actually were after the concert. I truly have no clue what was on that floor, and I’m sure I really don’t want to either. Needless to say, I threw the shoes away before we left the country.

After ten days, three countries, and countless memories made, the three amigos returned back to Florence. It was the most unforgettable ten days of my life and I hope I remember ever single detail for the rest of my life!

The end. 🙂

Learn Italian: Goodbye! – Arrivederci! 

x Ricky

 

Spring Break Part Two: Barcelona, Spain

Hellooooooo, Barcelona! After an amazing three days in Lisbon, we took a glorious flight (with our posse of nine Maffia-ers) to Barcelona, Spain! I was extremely excited for this part of the trip because the last time I came to Europe I fell completely in love with Madrid! I soon found out that they are two very different cities in many ways. The main difference was that Barcelona is part of an area called Catalonia. Although it is still part of Spain, the people who live in this region identify very strongly with their Catalan culture. So much so, actually, that they speak a very different dialect of Spanish. I always thought that there were just some different pronunciations between Spanish and Catalan, but I quickly realized that my four years of high school Spanish was going to be of very little use in this city. They spell things differently, they pronounce things differently, and they often even use completely different words than in traditional Spanish. It was very interesting to see the cultural aspect of all of this. The people of Barcelona really enjoy embracing their strong Catalan roots. We got to see this first hand throughout the city with the work of Gaudi.

We got to see the work of Antoni Gaudi throughout the city of Barcelona. Gaudi was a famous architect who embraced his love for Catalonia in all of his work. This building was right down the street from our hotel. As you can see, it is very easy to spot his work after seeing it once. A lot of the buildings looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. We learned that his inspiration came from his love of nature, religion, and Catalonia. He died in 1926 at the age of 73 in a tragic accident. At the time of his death, he was still working on many projects including his most famous work (the Sagrada Familia) and a proposal for a skyscraper hotel to be built in New York City.

These are some pictures from the Gaudi Park (Park Guell). We weren’t completely sure what we were going to see when we headed out for it the morning after we arrived, but it ended up being pretty cool! It was basically a park designed by Gaudi that had some really cool views of the city and really awesome architecture (obviously). We spent about an hour there and even got some popsicles from an ice cream stand! (We also asked the ice cream man how to get to our next destination. He was very helpful. For future reference…when you need help getting somewhere, go after someone selling stuff that tastes good. They’re always happy.) The weather was great the whole time we were in Barcelona, but we definitely got to appreciate it while we were at the park. There were plenty of open spaces to enjoy the sun! Cool fact for anyone who watches America’s Next Top Model: the season finale of cycle 7 (CariDee’s cycle) was filmed at this park! Check it out!

After a long day of some tourist stuff (and a ton of little shopping), we decided to check out the local market that we had heard so much about. It was definitely the place to be. I really wish we would have just saved our money and eaten lunch there! They had absolutely everything! Fresh fruit, bread, meat, alcohol…it was like a supermarket that was full of fresh, local stuff! We spent a good 45 minutes just walking around looking at everything! One cultural difference we’ve noticed a few times here is that Europeans are very weird about touching fruit before you buy it. At the grocery store, you put on plastic gloves to pick out your apples and other fruits and veggies. At this market, Brianna was almost forced to buy a huge mango just because she picked it up to show us. Now that I actually think about it, I’m not sure why people are okay with everyone touching produce in the States. Definitely something I had to get used to when I first came here. I actually ended up buying a bunch of mixed fruit for just a couple of euros from one of the venders and I had it for breakfast for the next two days! I also bought some cut up coconut. If you have never tried to eat coconut off of the skin/shell/skeleton/fuzziness/whateveritis, you should try…it’s pretty entertaining. You kinda have to gnaw it off. If it’s a big piece, you end up just hacking away at it with your front teeth. It’s a good snack to eat if you want something that’s going to take you so long to eat that by the time you actually get any substance into your mouth, you’re not hungry anymore.

We had a gorgeous view of the city from the roof of our hotel. We stayed at a five-star hotel right in the center of downtown Barcelona, and it was amazing! We had 11 people split into two suites which each had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was perfect! It was one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed. The roof of the main hotel building had a bar, a spa, a pool, and a little lounge area. And obviously a crazy view! I wish we could have watched the sunset/sunrise from the roof one night or morning! That would have been awesome! But even being up there at dusk was great. Barcelona reminded me a lot of New York City because of how big and busy is it. It was so nice to be in a place that had huge sidewalks, lots of cabs, and multiple Starbucks. Getting Starbucks during spring break was one of the most rejuvenating things I’ve ever experienced. Italian espresso is the best in the world…don’t get me wrong. But there’s something soothing about saying the words “venti skim latte” and knowing you’re getting something amazing in return. Oh, how I miss my Starbucks.

During our last full day in Barcelona, we decided to do a bus tour of the city! It took us to all the places we wanted to see and we could get on and off the bus as many times as we wanted to take pictures! The picture above is of the Olympic Stadium from when the Olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992! I thought it would be a cool thing to see just because I’m not sure how many more times I’m going to be able to see buildings that were built for the Olympic games! The stadium really wasn’t that impressive, but it was still fun to see. The bus tour overall was definitely worth the money. We got to see parts of the city that we definitely wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. My favorite part about the bus tour was getting to see the bay with all of the sailboats. I really want to own a sailboat one day! I think it would be so fun to go sailing on the weekends.

THIS is the Sagrada Familia. It is Gaudi’s most famous piece of architecture. Construction of this masterpiece is so expensive that it is still not complete after almost 130 years! It is currently expected to be completed in 2026. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my life. The outside looks like a sandcastle, and the inside just looks like something you would only see in a dream. It’s easy to see why it has taken them so long to build it. Every detail of the place is thought out so carefully. It’s just something you have to see in person to really believe how amazing it is. It was a great way to end our day of touring the city!

The nightlife in Barcelona wasn’t quite what we had expected, but we made it fun in our own ways…as you can see in this picture. You see, it is illegal for cabs to drive more people than there are seats…but we had five people and we weren’t about to pay for two cabs. So…whenever we hailed a cab, Brianna just hid around the corner a bit…then, as we were getting in, we would distract the driver and Brianna would sneak into the cab and sit on the floor behind the driver’s seat. Surprisingly, we pulled this off multiple times in one night. Then, we got caught once…but luckily Brianna’s ninja skills impressed him and he let us all ride in one.

All in all, Barcelona was very different from what we expected, but we had a great time anyway! It was great to be in a city with so much history and culture to witness. And, of course, I loved being back in a big city that reminded me so much of New York.

After a few days of being crazy tourists in Barcelona, we were off to Brussels, Belgium for what was to become one of the craziest weekends of our lives….

Learn Catalan: Sneaky – Furtivo

P.S. – I’d like to wish a very happy birthday to my dad! I can’t think of a single person in my life who is more supportive of every single decision I make. Thank you so much for trusting me with my crazy life, for teaching me that real men drink Southern Comfort, and for talking me through things when we both get frustrated with the women in our house. Most of all though, thank you for showing me the unmeasurable value of keeping calm and trusting God with every part of my life. You are the hardest working man I know, and I wish I could be there to thank you for it every single day. Happy birthday, dad! I love you and miss you more every day!

x Ricky

 

Spring Break Part One: Lisbon, Portugal

The amount of fun we had on spring break cannot be described in words…and if it could, it would be a lot of words. So, I am going to try to fill everyone in on all of the adventures in not one, not two, but three blog posts: one for each city we visited during our nine days of amazingness. Today, I will be taking you on a virtual trip to Lisbon, Portugal!

We arrived in Lisbon, or Lisboa as the Portuguese call it, last Friday afternoon. Although we all arrived at different times over a two day period, much of our Via Maffia family met up in this wonderful city! All together, we were a wonderful group of 12…which was definitely a challenge when trying to do things together (specifically going out to eat because almost all restaurants in Europe are small). The first night there, we went to a traditional Portuguese restaurant and enjoyed the fruits of the locals’ labor…fish. Since we were right by the water, all of the seafood was fresh…so we obviously took advantage of it.

I’m not sure what kind of fish this was…I lost track after eating so much of it. But, this was the best meal I had in Lisbon. The restaurant we went to has been featured in the New York Times and it definitely showed. Our waiter brought out the live catch of the day. How much fresher can it honestly get? The restaurant only had about 5 tables…we knew it was going to be great. Interesting fact about restaurants in Portugal…they charge you for everything you touch. They put bread and cheese on the table when you sit down, and every single thing you touch is at least one euro. Our bill at the end of the first dinner was a bit of a surprise, but we had fun and had amazing food, so we sucked it up and gave them our life savings.

The hostel we landed in Lisbon was a Godsend. It was very clean, the people were friendly, and it was dirt cheap. We all stayed in one place, which made things very convenient. AND…the beds came with these amazing storage lockers under them. Obviously, we had to make sure we could fit both Toni and Brianna in one just in case a burglar were to come in and try to steal my ladies. It worked…*phew*.

These pictures were taken from the great terrace our hostel had. The terrace itself was huge and we all took advantage of it to watch the sunset and just chill at random times during the day. It had one of the coolest views of the city ever and it was very relaxing after a long day of touristy stuff or after a fun night out! The night life in Lisbon was very different than what we are used to in Florence. It was a ton of bars on a few central streets and everyone just got drinks and partied in the streets! It was definitely an experience! We had a ton of fun though! Not what we were expecting, but still crazy and entertaining!

Speaking of touristy things, our hostel provided us information on a free walking tour of the city…which we OBVIOUSLY took advantage of. We were shown around the city by a local who knew stories about absolutely everything. We got great views of the city, some really cool local stories, and some exercise! One of the most interesting things he told us was a story about the huge earthquake that destroyed most of Lisbon back in the day. The earthquake lasted nine minutes total (which is a LONG earthquake in case you aren’t up on your earthquake education) and it happened on All Saints’ Day. If you’re not familiar, All Saints’ Day is a Catholic holiday during which people light candles to honor those who have passed in their family. Because of this, much of the city caught on fire because the candles falling during the earthquake. The citizens of Lisbon ran to the water because it was retreating. They didn’t know that the water was retreating because of a tsunami wave. Soon, a wave that was over 25 meters high came crashing down onto the city. After this tragedy, the leaders of Lisbon began to rebuild the city with wood, subsequently creating the first anti-seismic buildings in Europe.Today, much of the new city is built on top of the water, ensuring that history doesn’t repeat itself.

This was another very cool thing we learned about on the tour. It is a doll hospital! It’s been featured in a bunch of different news stories and has won tons of awards and it was honestly one of the most original things I learned about on the whole trip. It does exactly what it promises…it fixes any kind of doll and treats it just as if it were a real person in a hospital. There are operating and recovery rooms, the family can see the doll right when it comes out of surgery, and it promises that any doll will as good as new after they are finished with it. How cool is that?!

After the walking tour, we took matters into our own hands and visited the nearby city of Cascais which is famous for the tower pictured above. The view from the tower was breathtaking and the actual tower itself (used as a defense mechanism during battle) was really cool too. There were even jail cells in the basement (which we of course visited) where they used to hold prisoners! The city of Cascais is gorgeous. They are famous for these little pastries that are filled with a sweet custard…we had a lot of them and they were delicious. We were told by the tour guide that the original makers of these desserts was located in Cascais near the water and all of the others throughout the city were just replicas. However, during a blind taste-test last year, the original did not win best tasting. But, at least we can say we tried the original!

Our last full day in Lisbon was spent at the beach…duh. I can’t even describe how amazingly perfect the weather was! I fell asleep on the beach for about four hours and we all got some great color! My skin, after not having tanned for months, soaked up the sun like no other. I was very happy with it, of course! We spent the whole day traveling around the beach town, looking at the little shops, eating a a British Pub (not sure what we were thinking there, but hey…it was food), and just soaking up the sun and each others’ awesomeness. Couldn’t have ended the first leg of our trip in a better way!

The Via Maffia family fell in love with Lisbon, obviously!

…and onto Barcelona, Spain we went….

Learn Portuguese: The Beach – A Praia

x Ricky

 

Life Under the Tuscan Sun

‘Tis a beautiful day here in Florence! The Tuscan sun has finally decided to start waking us every morning, and we couldn’t be happier about it! Today, it’s a comfortable 72 degrees with plenty of sunshine and a nice breeze. Does it get any better than that? I’m in such a great mood when I walk to school everyday now that it’s so beautiful out.

My Italian class this morning was quite an interesting one. Our professor decided that it would be a good idea to bring some grandmothers in to chat with us a little about art and Italy. It was aimed at being a speaking exercise, but we honestly forgot all about it being an exercise and ended up having a blast talking to Adriana, our grandma for the day. She asked us about where we grew up, how many siblings we have, what our favorite parts about Italy are, etc. She was such a sweetheart. It was nice to talk to someone who was a little older. We all made a collage of all-things-Italy from magazine clippings. It was a fun way to spend my Thursday morning. 🙂

To celebrate this amazing weather, Toni and I decided we needed to go spend some money get out of the apartment. So, after class, she met me at H&M to pick up some spring wear. We didn’t really find much, but we both got a couple of new things to reward ourself for another week of handwork. 😛 We are both really missing our American stores about now. We would both consider cutting off our left foot just to walk (or I guess, at that point, wobble) into an Express. And I am, of course, missing my American Eagle like crazy. No matter what I do, my heart will always belong to that store. I also miss my AE crew like crazy!

After the shopping, we needed to get some lunch…duh. So where did we choose? The most authentic food you can get over here: Hard Rock Cafe. Let me tell you, a 20 dollar chicken wing has never tasted so good. It was also just fun to be in an American environment. It was spacious, the waiters were very nice, and they had American music playing. We enjoyed it quite a bit. An Italian family even came up and asked if I would take a picture for them. Obviously, it’s a big deal over here. 😛 Perfect lunch for a day like this.

I had to post this card that I received from my wonderful family. My mom and grandmother have been sending me cards every week since I left for school in the fall of 2010, and they promised to keep it up even though I’m across the ocean. For some reason, I really liked this one. It’s one of my favorites that I’ve ever gotten. It’s so nice to feel the love from 4,000 miles away! Thanks mom, dad, Kip, grandma, and Dave for always making sure I get a little note from home at the start of each week. It means a lot. 🙂

We are looking forward to a great weekend with great weather! Only a week until Spring Break! Cannot wait!!! 🙂

Learn Italian: Primavera – Spring

x Ricky

 

Our Weekend In Roma!

In case you didn’t know, we spent the weekend in Rome! 🙂 I honestly don’t think I’ve ever fallen in love with a city so fast. If I were to ever live in a city other than NYC, it would be Rome…for sure. We had so many cool experiences, and they’re all best told through pictures. So, the following is our trip to Rome in pictures! (By the way, all of these pictures were taken with my iPhone. More pictures taken by people who joined us on our trip will be posted on Facebook soon!)

Day one got a little bit of a late start, so we had to take a later train. Someone looked up the schedule and said that the trains were running about every 15 minutes so we could leave for the station whenever. So, we casually left and made it to the train station about two minutes before the last train for three hours was scheduled to leave. Luckily, it was delayed ten minutes and we decided we could make it. So, we tried rushing to the automated ticket machines to buy our tickets, but they wouldn’t let us choose that train because according to the schedule it had already left. We sprinted to the actual ticket counter and tried to communicate our dilemma as quickly as possible in our broken Italian. He understood, we bought the tickets in one transaction, we ran to the train, and we made it with seconds to spare. We looked like we were in a movie, running through the station, yelling “Aspettami! Aspettami!” The train ride was fun though. Sophia and I (pictured above) had a great time listening to some tunes and making fun of everyone on the train.

When we got to the hostel (which was an apartment owned by the hostel company, located about 10 minutes away from the actual hostel), we had to figure out how we were going to get five people into a two-person room without any of the people in the building realizing it. (You see, the bookings got a little screwed up and we only had enough beds for everyone the second night.) Pictured above is the little guest book we found while we were trying to solve our dilemma. (And by solve our dilemma, I mean Brianna and I were in the room while everyone else waited in the hallway for further instructions.)

This was the room that we fit five people in the first night in Rome. It worked out pretty well, actually. We found a little cot in the corner, and when we put that together with the other two beds, we had ourselves a little California King to share for the night. (By the way, there was a maintenance man in the main part of the apartment while we were trying to get everyone in, so we had to have people run in while he was turned around talking on the phone and while Brianna distracted him with a million random questions about the kitchen. “Can we use these forks?”)

The Trevi Fountain was one of our favorite things about Rome. We went a total of three times, and the general consensus agreed that it was the best at night. There weren’t as many people, and the fountain was beautiful when it was all lit up. Of course, we all made a wish. 🙂 Also, Toni and I are pretty sure that we found the gelato place they went to on The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Yeah, be jealous.

We had a lot of trouble trying to find good breakfast in Rome. Usually, Italians just eat pastries and things of that sort, but for some reason we couldn’t find anything like that. We definitely weren’t successful in our search on Saturday. Brianna ended up getting this (pictured above), which was supposed to be fresh strawberries in yogurt. It was more like some kind of white sweet cream and strawberry syrup. Not really great for breakfast, or ever. But, fortunately, this was the only bad food we encountered in Rome.

Ahhh, the Vatican. There was honestly nothing I enjoyed more than Vatican city on this trip. We spent almost our entire Saturday there, and every second of it was amazing. This picture was taken outside St. Peter’s Basilica.

This is another picture from the large area outside St. Peter’s. It was such a beautiful day and seeing all of these amazing buildings in the sunlight made them that much better. The building in the middle of the top of this picture is where the Pope lives. I think you can look up online exactly which window leads to his bedroom, actually. I was pretty content with just knowing I was that close to the building!

This is part of the Vatican Museum. The inside of the museum itself is just as beautiful as the art it holds.

We kept having to remind ourselves to look up in the museum because all of the ceilings were brilliant looking, as you can see from this picture.

So, they are VERY strict about people not taking pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but I managed to get this (very grainy, yet still effective) picture with the front-facing camera on my iPhone. I think it’s something everyone should strive to see before they die. Pictures and words just don’t do it justice. We probably spent about half an hour in just this room and when we left we all wished we would’ve stayed longer.

This…is the coolest looking staircase you’ll ever see. It is how you exit the Vatican Museum, and we were all obsessed with it.

St. Peter’s Basilica…the feeling you get when you walk into this place is something I have never felt before. There is a sense of calmness that literally overtakes all of your other thoughts when you see the pure beauty that is this place. We wandered around for about 45 minutes, just taking in everything we could. We also stepped into the quiet prayer room and talked with God for a little while. It felt very appropriate, given our surroundings.

I sent this picture to my dad as soon as I took it because I was so overwhelmed by how beautiful this part of the Basilica was. Everything was so detailed. It was amazing thinking about how much time it must have taken to do all of this. All I could think about when I was walking through the Basilica was about how I want to take my family back there one day.

Had to post a picture to let everyone know how janky and small the elevator in our hostel was. Sophia and I were scared for our lives every time we stepped foot in it.

The Colosseum was so much cooler than I thought it was going to be. The history behind it was fascinating to learn about, and just being at such an iconic place felt so cool.

Sophia and I inside the Colosseum. AH!…Ecco la.

It looks so different inside than you think it would! So cool, though!

The floor of the Colosseum.

We ended our trip with a little shopping and stumbled across this beautiful courtyard. Couldn’t believe how great this picture turned out.

Overall, it was one of the most amazing weekends of my life. We honestly couldn’t have picked a better place to go for our first weekend trip. Definitely going back to Rome! Hopefully one more time before the end of the semester and many times more throughout the rest of my life! More pictures will be up on Facebook soon!

Learn Italian: Ecco la! – Here it is!

x Ricky

 

Tourists Invade Our Home

THE TOURISTS ARE HERE! Florence is officially entering its tourist season (not really, we’re still about a month away from when the real season starts, but still…) and it’s gonna be a hectic one! If you look in the distance, you can see the tiny Tuscan streets filled with Asians tourists looking to soak up some spaghetti and cannoli of what Italy has to offer. Once April rolls around, Florence will officially have more tourists and students than residents walking the streets. That should be fun.

So I had to snap a picture of the Chocolate Festival that has been going on for the last couple of weeks. I haven’t personally attended, but everyone that has gone says that they have some of the best chocolate ever, including…wait for it…WHITE HOT CHOCOLATE. I didn’t even know that was a thing. But, everyone has said that its legit the best thing they’ve ever tasted, so I’m assuming it’s pretty awesome.

Remember that amazing gnocchi I talked about a couple of weeks ago? Well the place is right around the corner and we have dinner there at least once a week now…whoopsies. They gave us free sparkling white wine (or what the rest of the world mistakenly calls Champagne…listen people, it’s not champagne unless it’s from France, okay?).

This was our poor attempt at a picture of the whole group. You get the point…we love each other…and food.

Sophia and I shared a bottle of wine for just the two of us the mussels for our first course. They were amazzzzzing! Best mussels I’ve had here! Definitely getting them every time we go back! Duh.

Tonight while shopping, I had two life-alterning finds come my way. First, I found a place that sells Kiehl’s (thank you Baby Jesus). Me without Kiehl’s for 3 whole months would be bad news bears. Second, SABON!!!! My mother told me about this store in Bryant Park that sold Sabon and she loved all of the stuff she bought! I never got a chance to go in the city, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found it here! Brianna, Toni, and I got some Ginger Orange body lotion. It. Smells. So. Good. It also makes your hands feel like Jesus. So, we’re hoping it does the same for the rest of our bodies.

I’ve had a rough couple of days, so I decided to hang up the pictures my mom sent me with her cards. I have a nice little collage started on the side of my wardrobe. (Of course, Pookie and Pepper are getting the most attention from everyone. Cuties. 😉 )

Going to Space tonight! Can’t wait!! It’s been a really great weekend so far! I’m feeling much better about life in general. Can’t wait to share more of our upcoming adventures with you guys! Spring break is just a couple of weeks away! I cannot wait to tell everyone where we’re going!! Share the post if you like! Subscribe to get emails! Do your thang! 🙂

Learn Italian: Dogs – Cani

x Ricky