Cheese, Caving, and Cray

Hey Y'all!

I just can't even believe how long it has been since I have posted on here!  Time has literally flown since Spring Break.  Seriously the fastest 2 months of my life.  There has been so much going on that there is no possible way I am going to be able to fit it on here haha.  But I guess you'll just have to ask me all about it!

Today was the last day of class, and I literally didn't even realize that until 10 minutes ago when my roommate said it.  I guess I am just in denial of this wonderful fantasy of a semester ending.  Since April, my roommates and I have had a calendar with plans we have for every single day and we have done almost everything!  It just blows my mind that a week from Saturday there is no calendar.

At this point we are in serious crunch time.  We have all been going around town buying the things we have wanted all semester, for example, last week Doll bought the box of gelato from the grocery store that we have been eying and IT WAS DELICIOUS.  Since then Laura has bought 2 more boxes.  Personally I am just happy that we did this at the end of the semester or it would've been a gelato disaster.

Anyhoo, I think the best way to cover these past couple weeks would be to pick out some of my favorite stories and give you the low down.  So here we go people.

On my Spring Break trip I ventured all over Northern Europa and one of my favorite places I went to was Amsterdam!  First off, it was completely adorable.  I'm telling you, Dutch architecture just makes you want to smile.  All the colorful buildings are skinny and tall, and they squeeze right up next to each other along the rivers.  Also, they are filled with Dutch people who are completely charming and speak English really well haha.  Anyways, one of my favorite parts of visiting was doing a Wine and Cheese tasting at Reypenaer!  I felt like such a fancy cheese and wine connoisseur.

My Cheese Notes

Arlina CUTTING THE CHEESE haha

Oh we do this everyday

Another unbelievably awesome place I went one weekend was Budapest, Hungary.  This was probably one of my favorite weekends because we got to do so much!  Everything there was soooooo cheap so we just went all out.  I got a massage for like 12 bucks at the thermal baths, and we ate full dinners for like 8 dollars haha.  But one of my favorite parts was going CAVING!  We literally crawled through the caves with headlamps and coveralls.  I was loving life haha.

Going down into the cave!

Chillin in the caves of Hungry, ya know.

Dirty bootays.

In Florence they have this huge celebration that takes over the entire city called Notte Bianca (aka White Night).  They have art, music, and acrobatic performances in all of the Piazzas around the city, and people travel from all over Italy to come celebrate.  That night we went to aperitivo at one of the restaurants right in the middle of Florence and it was packed!  Everyone was looking super swanky and  seriously everyone and their mother was out walking around the streets.  One of the coolest things we saw was this acrobatics/dancing/opera performance, but literally I don't even know how to describe it haha.  It was one of the coolest/weirdest things I have ever seen.

Wearing white on Notte Bianca!

People straight crawlin.

They brought out the porter potties!! You know it's a big deal if you see these suckers.

This was the acrobatic/dance/opera performance!  There were dancers on the bikes, and then girl was singing opera out of that huge red dress thing, and then there was an acrobat who came out from the bottom of the dress and she was flipping all over the place.  I told you, so weird--but so cool!

I probably could go on with this for ever and ever, but there are finals that need to be studied for and more life that needs to be lived!  I'll try to put up some other fun times soon!

Ciao Ciao for now,

Mason 

Callen, Chocolate, and Mumford

Ciao Ciao!

I just can't even believe how fast time is flying by here.  Where have the days gone?! It's already March 18, like what?  I am going on Spring Break on Thursday.  This is not happening.  But at the same time I look back, and I have already done so much!  In these 8 weeks I had tracked some serious mileage, and I have made some unforgettable memories.  I just wish I could write about everything, but I think that would take another 8 weeks just to get everything down haha.

Anyhoo, since the last post I wrote MAJOR things have happened.

1. CALLEN CAME TO VISIT
2. We traveled to Verona (aka the city of love, and also the place where Romeo & Juliet was based)
3. I went to the Perugina Chocolate Factory
4. Elise and I went to the Mumford & Sons concert!!!

Let me just hit the highlights of these extravagant adventures...

Callen in Florence/ Verona
First off, I just need to set the scene here.  I am 19 years old, Callen is 18 years old, and we just spent her Spring Break traveling around Italy! What kind of lives are we living?!  Great ones.  --Thanks Mom & Dad.  When she first got here I met her at the airport with a chocolate croissant, and from there we took to the town!

Callen on the Ponte Vecchio

Callen's first Panino!

Random Parade we ran into, complete with men in tights

Her first full day we traveled to Verona with a student tour group called FlorenceForFun.  We had an old Italian dude as out tour guide, and I could barely understand a single thing he said.  I also think the guy smoked at least 30 cigarettes throughout our day haha.  But Verona was GORGEOUS! It was definitely a smaller place compared to Florence, but it had it's own unique charm.  We hit all the major spots in the town.  We saw Juliet's house,  we rubbed the boob of her statue for luck in finding new love, and we signed the wall where people tuck away their love letters.  The rest of the day we galavanted around being ridiculous, and it was great.

Verona!

Creepy crying baby that is actually a grown man.  It was as creepy as it sounds.

Almost Burril!

Yeah...

Just eating an apple in Verona

Our personal paparazzi, Raymoundo wanted a picture of the apple eating too

Romeo's wall of love

Beautiful Verona

Awww 

Oh yes.

Mom signed the wall too!

Locks of Love in Juliet's house

Rubbing Juliet's boob...it's a thing

Lake Garda

Sista love

Some lady posing with her little dog, and some lady posing with her little skirt

During the rest of her week in Flo-town I showed her all my favorite places, where I go to class, and all the major attractions this wonderful city has to offer.

Climbing the Duomo

"I'm fabulous."

"I'm the Queen of the World"

Florence doin its thang

Channeling her inner Italian

Cheesin'

Got that Florence glow

Hello beautiful

Works of art... drinkable art that is

Straight sippin'

Just catching up on my Italian news

Heart shaped pizza from our BFF Roberto at Gusta Pizza

Having Callen was unbelievable. We just tore up the town, and she came at the perfect time.  After all this traveling and new experiences having something familiar back in my life was really nice.  I am so grateful for every experience we shared.

Perugina Chocolate Factory

I had to include this in my blog post because this was so cool! It was like stepping right into Willy Wonka's factory.  The floor was made of candy, and the air smelled of melted chocolate.  Let's not forget that there was free chocolate EVERYWHERE!  This place is the eqivilant of Hershey chocolate in the US, they make a chocolate called Baci which means kiss in Italian.  It is a little piece of chocolate filled with crushed hazelnut and chocolate and topped with a single hazelnut.  So good.

While we were there we got to sample every kind of chocolate they sell, and I, like a straight up GENIUS, brought tupperware.  I filled that thing up to the brim and now I have a semester worth of free top-of-the-notch chocolate!!!  I am just so proud haha.

Dang big Italian kiss

FREE SAMPLES GALORE

This is just unreal

Candy Floors!

 Mumford & Sons Concert

So first off, the reason I even got to go to this amazing event was because my roommate, Elise, bought an extra ticket and she let me go with her! Words cannot even describe how fun this concert was.  We were literally right in the front, and I have never felt more like a sardine in my life, but it was TOTALLY worth it.  They were seriously 10 times better live than they are on the record, and there is nothing like jammin' out with 100,000 Italians.  They know how to get down fa show.

New friend Jamie reppin' his new shirt!

SOOOO EXCITED!

This guy whipped out a panino right before they came on haha

We were so close!

This piano man... oh man

Hello everyone behind us!

Also, I will be putting up all my recipes per Mrs. Tish's request!  I just have to get through midterms!