Storm Stories

So you know how I said everyone had their own stories about the snowstorm? Well, I have one, too. Actually several, some of which belong to my friends from Rome, but I don't think they'll mind me sharing them...

First, I tell you mine, and build the suspense for the craziest snow story. I was in Roma taking the GMAT on Friday morning, and after I was done, I grabbed a panino at the best sandwich shop ever (200 Gradi--as recommended by my friends Laura and Jason), and it started to SNOW! Snow in Roma is even less frequent than it is in Firenze, so as you can imagine people were going nuts. It was so fun, and I walking back to my friends' apartment from the test center, so I saw the Vatican, Castel Santangelo, the Tiber and other really neat places becoming a winter wonderland. I wish I had had my camera to take pictures, especially of the river with the snow. BELLISSIMO! I even stumbled upon a Mercato di Natale (Christmas market) in Piazza Navona. But after a long morning of testing and a couple hours of walking with my heavy backpack (complete with 2 days wardrobe, laptop, GMAT prep books and work materials..), I was ready to take a bus the last 4 k to Piazza Bologna from Termini. So I waited for the right bus, and hopped on, happy to be warm and sitting down, and ready to be at the apartment drinking warm tea in about 15 minutes. 45 minutes later we had gone 3 stops and were not moving in traffic. Needless to say, even if I had gotten off the bus then and ran to Piazza Bologna (impossible with my stuff and boots), I wouldn't have made in time. So I got off the bus and walked back to Termini and took the next FrecciaRossa ("red arrow" in Italian) train to Firenze. These Freccia trains are high-speed, so you get places in record time. Usually. To get to Roma from Firenze takes 3.5 hours in a car, and only 1 hour and 40 minutes on the train! Plus, when you aren't in a tunnel, it is a beautiful trip. It took us 3.5 hours to train to Florence. We stopped many times and other altavelocita trains passed us for some reason. Chi sa? But I must commend my fellow travelers--no one was complaining too badly and there was a great sense of comraderie. Well played, italiani! Even when we found out the central train station in Firenze was closed and we were going to have to stop at another one, people didn't freak out too much. The station change actually worked wonderfully for me! I was planning on heading to my friend Marti's house anyways, and she lives less than 10 minutes from the secondary station. Perfetto! So I trudged over to Marti's, happy to be back home and ready for a fun time with friends. Turns out Sarah (photographer of the picture I posted of the snowy Duomo) was snowed in down there too! So we had fun waiting for out Roman friends together...

So we waited...and waited...and waited... We did a lot of things to pass the time: skyped various family members, ate a delicious ragu and polenta dinner, watched a movie (which coincidentally also had a huge snowstorm in it), looked at the awesome pictures Marti and Sarah took, baked for the Austria trip, talked, and (this is awesome) MADE SNOW ICE CREAM! It was delicious! And super easy. I'll post the recipe tomorrow. And we took a nap from 3:30am to 5am.

Yes, a nap from 3:30 to 5 in the morning. Our poor friends arrived at 6 am after driving for 13 hours! Mamma mia- che casino! But they were such good sports about it and had many funny moments to tell us about the next morning. Or I suppose it was the same morning...anyways, they slept for several hours, and we had a yummy breakfast, and then they went to Austria, and I walked across town to go on my phototaking excursion that I posted about below!

So I guess the point of all this is that everyone has a good storm story, and as long as you remain good-natured about the whole ordeal, it will be an awesome memory in years to come. I'm sure none of us will forget this snowstorm!

Calm After the Storm...

Can you believe that this is what I saw on Saturday afternoon? I feel so blessed! After my friends left Firenze for their Austrian holiday, I walked back to the center, dug out my camera, put on my Bean Boots (thank goodness for LL Bean!) and hiked up to Piazzale Michelangelo. The boots were a serious help--other people knew how unforgettable the view would be, but italiani in this part of the country aren't used to snow, so people were having a hard time walking, especially up the hill. Even though it was hard to walk up, it was worth every bit of effort. Everything was absolutely gorgeous! For more pictures, check out my album on facebook (here). Not only was everything beautiful, but everyone was so happy and goodnatured--I went shopping for Christmas presents after my picture-taking adventure, and it was so much fun. Everyone had a story about the storm that they were dying to share! Everyone had their cameras out, too, so I didn't feel like a tourist in my own city. And spontaneous snowball fights were everywhere, as were snowmen, snowwomen, and snowfamilies... So festive and fun! This was definitely an "I love Italia" day. I can't believe I LIVE here. And I love how I find something new to love almost every day.

You'll Never Believe What Happened...

Yesterday, something absolutely incredible and unbelievable happened: it SNOWED in FIRENZE! And not just flurries that stick to the ground for two seconds then melt, but about 12 inches of powdery whiteness! This never happens and was apparently the biggest snowstorm to hit Florence in at least 30 years. While the snow caused un gran casino (a big mess) that I'll describe in a different post, it was beautiful and really changed the whole feel of the city... The picture above is an amazing photo that my dear friend Sarah took yesterday afternoon--Enjoy!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bars!

Just because you're on a budget doesn't mean you need to skip the festive gift-giving around Christmastime...making gifts for people is just as fun! This year, I started off with grand plans of making everyone I work with different variations on some food gifts, but life soon caught up with me and I realized that wasn't going to happen if I was going to study at all for my GMAT. So instead, I made my mother's famous peanut butter and chocolate bars! Here in Italy, where we don't have Reeses PB cups, I'm really excited to see how these go over, since that's exactly what they taste like. Best part, they are super easy to make. With a few substitutions, I was able to make ones almost just like my mom's (though they weren't nearly as pretty, at least the first two batches)! Here's the recipe with the overseas adjustments so you can enjoy them, too! Wish I had thought to take a picture!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bars

-Melt 125 grams of butter

-Add it to 1.5 bags Zucchero a Velo (app. 1.5 cups confectioners sugar) and 375 grams of Calve peanut spread, stir till combined

-Add in crushed Grancereale biscotti, approximately 200 grams or in the US, use graham crackers, mix well

-spread the mixture in the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 pan

-Melt ~350 grams fondente chocolate with 1 T vegetable oil

-Pour melted chocolate on top of peanut base

-Put in fridge for 20 mins, remove and cut into bars, put back into fridge until set completely

*I actually recommend that you store them in the fridge and take them out about 20 minutes before you wish to serve them.

There you have it! A bit of Americana here in Italia...

If Mary and Joseph Were on Gmail...

This morning, one of my lovely co-workers in Roma posted a very intriguing link on her facebook, and I've decided to re-post it here (thanks, BA!). It's basically how modern social media and technology would have been used to communicate the news of Jesus' birth, and it is actually really creative and interesting. But it really makes you think about what we would do today if confronted with a miracle. If God showed you something incredible, would you believe? It's hard to know, but definitely worth praying about--see Hebrews 1:11 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Here's the link--check it out!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/main/slices/religion/23817-if-mary-and-joseph-were-on-gmail

Sunflowers!

Sunflowers in December? I know, it doesn't make much sense to write about sunflowers in December--I ought to be writing about Italian Christmas traditions or how excited I am to see the Christkindlmarkt in my mother's birthplace, Munich, next week, but here I am thinking about sunflowers... Why? Well, for one, I really wanted the background of this blog to be a blue sky meeting a field filled with bright yellow sunflowers. So I looked for far too long for a free image on google and on my friends' facebook accounts for one that fit the bill, but alas! The photo I was looking for doesn't exist yet. That's alright, though, because one of the things I need to do before I leave Italia is go to the sunflower fields that bloom right here in Toscana in late June...I promise to let you know when that happens.

But then I started thinking more about how it is actually perfect to think about sunflowers in December...I'm not sure about where you are, but here in Firenze it rained for about a month straight until just a couple of days ago when it stopped (praise the Lord!). Thinking about sunflowers really brightens up my day--and having them in the pretty white Vietri pitcher I bought at the market is even better... It's surprising just how much of a difference something like fresh flowers makes, especially in winter. It's like being reminded of how there is a light in this world that will never be extinguished (check out John 1:1-5 to see what I'm talking about). In the long, dark days of winter, we can all benefit from that reality!

But of course, I couldn't just think about how great sunflowers are and how they're my absolute favorite (I talk about them all the time...). No, no, no. Instead of studying for my GMAT which is in two days, doing the dishes before I leave for Roma tomorrow, or even going to bed like I should, I decided to look up information on sunflowers. Here's something I didn't know about them: "The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiral pattern. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spiralswhere the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. " (thanks to wikipedia.en for the info and quote!). Who knew? Obviously whoever wrote the article did, and probably many of you, too.

But I'll leave you with that for this evening--there's so much more to share about sunflowers, the Light of the World, and oh so much more, but I'll save some for another time....

Here we go....

I feel the need to start this blog with a disclaimer--I am terrible at journaling and technological things, which leaves me with pretty low expectations about how this blogging experiment is going to go... HOWEVER I've started to feel overwhelmed about the fact that I am only going to be living in mia cara Italia for only 6 more months (for now at least--we'll see what the Lord has in store for me later in life). Every day here is richly filled, and I never am able to communicate everything to my family and friends back home. To help with that, I'm going to *try* to faithfully post things here several times a week to give a snapshot of what it looks like to live here in Firenze, work with Agape, and try to learn more about this wonderful world that God has created for us to live in for now! Be prepared for randomness, copious uses of exclamation points, and what I hope will be a contagious enthusiasm for life :) Every day is a gift, and each is different from the one before...so here's to be thankful and sharing our blessings with each other!

Ciao ciao for now,

Kylie