Buona notte ottobre; Buongiorno novembre

There has been a lot going on around here since the stomachache that was chocolate fest.  As a result, today’s blog is going to be a fairly random amalgamation of things.

For starters, I’ll throw out my best attempt at making all of my American followers jealous.  Yesterday--that would be Monday--was a holiday from school. Woo Hoo!  Who doesn’t love a country that celebrates All Saint’s Day?!  So while my host family was at the cemetery, leaving flowers and treats for their loved ones (Today is actually the Day of the Dead which, unbeknownst to me, they celebrate in Italy) I was using my rainy and dark, no-school-day as an opportunity to catch up on my American television.  Last week’s Gossip Girl: top notch.

Sunday night--with the help of Kristen’s host family and their passion for partying--we attempted to celebrate Halloween.  In Italy, Halloween is not a thing.  In recent years, the commercial world has tried to force the holiday on Italy.  Laughably, Italians do not understand or allow trick-or-treating and when they dress up--if they are among the few who do--they will only dress as scary things.

Holy Cross, your facebook photo albums are killing me right about now.  When you’re surrounded by only witches, cats, and creepy masks you begin to seriously pine for some good, old, costume creativity.

RIP: Holy Cross Halloween, McCormick Spice Girls 2009

The Heisman Trophy & Cinnamon Spice last Halloween

As Americans, we felt that we were entitled to screw Italian-Halloween and dress up as something hilarious as all, good Americans do... 

Unfortunately, our first plan fell through because it’s too far into the academic year.  Ideally, we would have gone as Italian school children.  Fun fact: public elementary school students in Italy don ridiculous smocks over their normal clothing. Whenever I see Nina heading out to school, it takes all I have in me to contain my laughter. Too funny. 

They seriously wear these... until they hit middle school. Absurd.

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Pia, if you are reading this entry, please stop reading now... You will hate my Halloween costume with a burning passion.  After last week’s fiasco with my vicious, Kebab-smackdown, I fear that this may strain our friendship. 

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Plan A: Italian school children

Plan B: A perfect 180 degrees from Italian school children... Gypsies

Yes, gypsies... 

No, not sexy gypsies with colorful scarves and gold bangle bracelets.

Real gypsies: the gangs of women that inundate the streets, banging their change cups, and groaning “Bambini” to innocent turisti while flashing them photographs of Italian children.  

After two months here, the HC kids have become very familiar with the classic, gypsy mannerisms as well as the essential, gypsy “uniform”-- unattractive, calf length skirts, tall socks, and awkward pigtail braids? I think yes.

The costume was questionably-offensive, however, it did receive laughs from the party-goers...native Italians cannot stand gypsies.  I’d say we mimic them pretty perfectly.  See for yourself.

The rest of the weekend was spent on a beautiful day-trip to Assisi, a lovely Umbrian town and the birthplace of San Francesco (Saint Francis).  Words cannot do Assisi any justice. How about some pictures?!

We ate lunch in an adorable, hole-in-the-wall restaurant located down a thin, cobblestoned alleyway.  Lauren and I mix-and-matched a plate of ravioli doused in spices with a plate of bolognese penne. 

To. Die. For.

Lucky for us--and our rapidly enlarging stomachs--Assisi is actually a hill.  We spent the entire day walking upwards, to various churches and castles, and today my aching calves are still in distress.  (Damn you, Holy-Cross-Stairs-Separation.)

Of course, the views were absolutely worth today's agony.  A few more Assisi landscape shots...

In other news, I cannot believe that it is November.  It is unreal to me how quickly time is flying. 

Other reasons for my excitement about the new month? Time for new, flavors-of-the-month at Grom: one of my favorite, Florentine gelaterie! I’ll give you one guess as to who will be checking that out first thing tomorrow.

Off to Rome on Thursday and I can hardly contain my excitement! Woo Hoo!

One word: EuroChocolate

Yeah, that’s right, a festival that unifies all of Europe for the sole purpose of celebrating chocolate---sounds like a worthy cause if you ask me!

Crowds  of people charging the chocolate tents

It goes without saying that I have been obsessed with the idea of this chocolate festival since the first time it was mentioned. Obsessed. Thus, when Elisa* mentioned EuroChocolate as a possible group trip, I freaked the hell out.

Bright and early, Saturday morning, the Holy Cross crew boarded the train to Perugia: the location of Chocolate Fest and the birthplace of Baci, a famous Italian candy that consists of chocolate and hazelnuts. (Rather a bummer for us nut-allergy kids of the world.)  Anyhow, the city of Perugia is perched up in the rolling hills of Umbria, making it quite the picturesque locale for chocolate-lovers around the world to flock.

Though this looks incredibly fake, it is my actual photo of Perugia.

The chocolate festival itself is much how you would imagine it to be: stands upon stands of vendors selling chocolate everything.  We purchased Choco Cards which earned us a little chocolate treat from every vendor.  Quite a deal indeed.

What's up, Choco Cards?!?!

Unfortunately, as most of these things go, too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing.  After suffocating myself in chocolate for a few hours, I put myself over the edge with a  “Chocolate Kebab.”  This is going to sound rather disgusting in its description, but bear with me... it looked like a great idea at the time.

Good, old Italian puns.
Pericoloso: dangerous
Goloso: delicious

L'Adair and I practicing for the chocolate-filled day to come.

True kebab is a nasty, Middle-Eastern fast-food that, for some odd reason, dominates all of Europe.  (Disclaimer: I would include a photo of it, but it would ruin your appetite and the beauty of this blog post dedicated to all things chocolatey and delicious.)  A kebab is a wrap of sorts filled with meat, onions, vegetables, lettuce, spicy sauce, creamy sauce, and oftentimes french fries.  It is bizarre. To me, the worst part is the fact that the meat is not only an absolutely unknown specimen, but it is also hanging from the ceiling and spinning in circles all day long.  The person making the wrap does so by shaving the meat off of this unknown animal. Um ew. Clearly, I am not a fan and will never eat one of these ungodly creations.

Things that I will eat: Chocolate kebab.  In this case, the chocolate is the meat of the sandwich.  (In my opinion, the chocolate should always be the meat of the sandwich!)  The bread is a thick, sweet pastry that is doused in fruit syrup and stuffed with chocolate shavings--here, the chocolate spins around and the server shaves the chocolate. Nom nom nom.

Ahhh! Chocolate Kebab! I'm devastated that I don't have a close-up photo.
Sadly, this is an un-google-able item.

After a few chocolate bars, a few chocolate candies, a cup of dark-hot chocolate,** a gelato, and this chocolate kebab, I decided that I would never eat another morsel of chocolate for the rest of my life.

Obviously, this lasted all of a few hours, until I was back in Florence and reunited with my divine supply of Reese’s cups, product of Colleen’s American care package.  Oh the life of a chocoholic...

*Elisa is our adorable, little Italian friend.  In reality, she is a super-cute, cool, Italian university student that we pretend is our friend.  Let’s ignore the fact that Holy Cross pays her to hang out with us.

**In Italy, hot chocolate (or cioccolato caldo) is code for hot, chocolate pudding.  It is nearly impossible to drink the heavenly concoction because of its super-thickness thus it is generally accompanied by a spoon.  At chocolate festival, they upped the game with a wafer cookie straw and a perfect dollop of whipped cream. Pure perfection.

Just a short stroll through London

Like every American girl, I’ve dreamt of visiting London since Amanda Bynes found her long-lost father, Lindsay Lohan found her long-lost mother, and Mary-Kate and Ashley met adorable Brits while winning that Model U.N. competition.

Thus, this past week, when I leapt across the English Channel and landed in the perfectly majestic city of London, England, I was instantly reborn as an incredibly peppy and excited, little girl once again.  Of course, the fact that I was traveling with none other than Lauren (my HC Florence friend), Audrey (my HC Galway friend), and Christine (my HC friend on fall break!) certainly magnified my excitement by 1 million percent.

Me, Lauren, Audrey, & Christine in London :)

Our trip did begin with a rocky start... 

-Lauren and I overestimating our free time until the train’s departure

-Lauren racing her zuper-cool, wheeled suitcase through Florence’s train station

-Me, downing the rest of my McDonald’s Coke while sprinting behind

-Both of us watching the final train to Pisa pulling out of the binario (New vocab word: binario means platform)

I am not sure how, but we did manage to arrive at Pisa’s Airport in time for take-off.  Granted, in order to do so, we rode a train from Florence to Lucca, a train from Lucca to Pisa, and a taxi from Pisa’s train station to its airport. Phewww. That’s what you get for buying cheap flights that don’t actually depart from Florence!

We spent all of Wednesday and Thursday hitting every touristy must-see imaginable--Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, you name it--and devouring any morsel of American food we came across--What’s up Starbucks and Chipotle?!  Let’s face it England, your food is nothing to write home about.

American food, you are amazing!

Fish N' Chips, ya' Gross.

How about a brief list of Trip Superlatives?

1. Easiest way to spend money: The Pound.  England, I’m just getting accustomed to the Euro.  Even after two months, sometimes I still forget it’s not the dollar (big mistake).  Why do you have to go on using a totally different currency? Better yet, a currency with an exchange rate of 1.6... ouch that hurts...

2. Best dressed: English School Children.  Straight out of a movie, every child in London is clad in matching, head-to-toe plaid, school uniforms.  Perfectly preppy and adorable.

It might be seen as potentially creepy that I snagged this shot on my own...

3. Most Athletic: Tottenham Hotspur.  Have you ever heard of them? Probably not.  Christine’s super-fan father booked us on a tour of the Hotspur stadium, White Hart Lane.  There, we accompanied a group of actual super-fans (middle-aged men and 10 year-old boys) on a 90-minute tour of the stadium.  We did learn some interesting and incredibly useful football facts, of course. Hilarious.

4. Greatest disappointment: The Queen’s guards at Buckingham Palace were locked behind gates.  I’m pretty certain that the Olsens and Amanda Bynes each had their turn at the guards... why not the Holy Cross crew?

5. Wildest goose chase: The hunt for Pandora charms.  My goal this year is to acquire a different Pandora charm for my charm bracelet from each place that I visit.  It was an absolute struggle to find a Pandora in London. Lauren was the best sport for trekking around the shopping district with me after I ambushed a saleswoman--wearing a Pandora bracelet--for the nearest location. 

New charm = happy ending

6. Most Likely to Succeed: Shakespeare.  Yes, we did make this trip an educational one by stopping to explore Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  Nana, I hope you are impressed.

7. Best ride:  The day-pass that we bought for the red, double-decker, tour bus was probably the greatest purchase made all week.  Pre-rain, we drove around on top, pointing like maniacs and giggling at the facts running through our headphones.  During the rain, we drove on the bottom and passed out--yes, we all literally fell asleep--to the dramatic British tunes playing between each stop. (Touristing is a tough business.)

I'm obviously a supporter of anything with Zac Efron's face on it.

Watch as my face gradually blows up as the week/my illness progresses. Real cute.

Peace out London; Hello Wizarding-World!

8. Nerdiest/Most exciting tourist stops: Anything Harry Potter.  We paced anxiously through London’s Kings Cross Station in search of Platform 9 3/4 (The Hogwarts Express departs from Platform 9 3/4 in the Harry Potter book series in case you are unaware).  There were a few moments of utter desperation and upset when we passed 9 and 10 and found nothing.  However, a train station employee may have overheard our poor attempts at British accents slurring HP dialogue and led our pathetic souls in the right direction.  God bless you, Sir.

9. Most disappointing realization:  I cannot afford Harrod’s.  Everything about Harrod’s is so perfect and palatial...gold-trimmed staircases, painted ceilings, designer everything.  After a stop in the bakery section and a short glimpse at the cupcakes, I did make a Harrod’s purchase after all.  Albeit it wasn’t the one I wanted to make... 

One day, Pucci scarf, one day...

10. Worst London souvenir:  Sickness.  I’ve now been on my deathbed for about 4 days and am ready to absolutely explode.  It seems like the antibiotics are starting to work now though so I may be able to break free tomorrow!

End result of 3 pharmacy visits and a doctor's house call.  Sweet deal.

11. Best Welcome-Home surprise: A gift from Colleen Elizabeth.  Nothing could have made me happier than an American parcel with such perfect timing.

London really was an absolute blast!  Thanks for such an amazing time, friends <3