A Man in Uniform

Again, I promise not spoilers. I have been lucky enough to read a lot lately. My collection of books has been growing. Finally I might be able to make it a manageable size again.

A Man in Uniform is written by Kate Taylor. Once I found out that Kate is Canadian, I looked for the use of the well known "eh", and sure enough it was there! I feel as if the eighteenth century upper class citizens used such language. The book is surrounding a well known lawyer Maitre Dubon. He leads a comfortable life, with a very strict routine, until he takes on a mysterious widow as his new client.
I quite enjoyed the writing style. This book was quite enjoyable. There is some mystery. I found myself trying to figure out what was going to happen next, often I was wrong. This is a perfect read whether for a beach vacation or just to relax before going to bed.

The Hunger Games

Don't worry I wont give away any spoilers. The Hunger Games is the first of the trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. I had heard of these books, but had no plan to read them, up until my brother's fiance handed me the first and the second, Catching Fire.

Once I started the first book, I was hooked. I flew through the first two books in a matter of days. It feels as if the main character, Katniss, is sitting with you telling the story from her point of view. The grammar is that of a friend having a conversation with you. I think that this is what makes the books so addicting. I feel as if this leads to some sentences that just don't work. I noticed this only a few times, but enough that it does detract from the book. However that is my only complaint. Now that I have flown through the first two books, I must wait up to three business days for the delivery of the third, Mokingjay. I can not wait to dive into the next book. Also coming up is the release of the movie on March 23rd. You can believe that I will be seeing it. The books are such a hit that there is already a release date for the second movie in 2013.

Essentially, I loved these books. I hope that the movies won't disappoint. I encourage anyone and everyone to read these.

Oh how I want to travel!

Spring break is coming up soon. As it is my senior year, I feel as if I should have an epic spring break. I, how ever, traveled all over Europe for 4 months and am broke. So instead I will be staying at school and working. That doesn't mean that I can't look longingly at the places that some day I will be able to go to. Here are a few that I would LOVE to go to:

Machu Picchu, Peru- It's not that far away, right? Who wouldn't want to hike through the mountains, so high up that the air is thin. Just think, those paths are the same ones that ancient messengers took to spread news to and from the city.
Isla Mujeres, Mexico- I have to admit, this is only because I have been before and fell in love. It may have been because of the amazing friends that I was with, or the friends that I made or the wonderful beaches or all of the above. I had so much fun the first time in Cancun that I will always want to go back.
Whistler Mountain, Canada- This is where the 2010 Winter Olympics were held. I would love to be this guy! What a rush it would be to have free range of the mountain and, just maybe, take advantage of the resort's Champagne Sabering lessons. I would feel like the king of the mountain, well at least until I fell down it, but hey a girls gotta try!

My passport is just begging to be used. All three are worth candidates, with breath taking views. At least I have my silver lining; I don't have to choose since I can't have any. Some day I will do all three of these things.

Eating in Italy the right way

This weekend I did a trip to Palermo Sicily. This is something I have been wanting to do the whole time I have been here. This post is going to be dedicated to the food I ate while in the trip, mostly because that was a huge reason I wanted to go. Thursday was a holiday, so no classes. I left nice and early in the morning, arriving in Napoli around noon. Napoli (Naples) is the birth place of pizza, so of course we had to have lunch there. Then we continued on to Palermo. Palermo is the home of cannolis, gelato, aranchini and many other things. I have found gelato that is fantastic so that I wasn't worried about finding. I am happy to announce that I found all of my food and they were all pretty darn good. So here are the pictures and a few more details about them.
This pizza right here was amazing. It was from a pizzeria with the nicest people in it. They didn't speak a lick of English ( always a good sign!). The oven was a wood burning bread oven that looked like it had been there since the place was build decades ago. The flavors were so good. Words can not explain this pizza. Other than the pizza though there is nothing in Napoli but garbage.
Once in Palermo, I was on the hunt for two things- arancini and cannoli. Arancini is a rice ball with either ham and cheese filling or ragu filling. The ones I found were the ham and cheese. It was incredible. The fact that they are deep fried probably helps.I had only one food left to find, and I was fearing that it would be the hardest. For the fact that cannolis come from Palermo, they were not sold in very many places. In the end I wandered into a bar and found mini cannolis worth trying. It was as good as any cannolo I have had, but not amazing. So that was probably the least favorite food of the weekend. Overall it was a great success of a last weekend in Italy.

Venice

The wonderful Lauren Held made her way to Italy from Madrid. We spent the weekend making very unhealthy but delicious Italian food. On Sunday we took a train up to Venice, well because who doesn't want to do that. The weather was cold and by now I would think that it would make sense to dress warmer. I keep just not doing for some reason. Other than that the day went pretty well. We got off the train and wandered through the back allies to make it to San Marco Square. Afterward Lauren was able to have her first Italian pizza. The pizza was good but the waiter was not the most pleasant. In the words of Lauren- he was salty. After lunch we had to have dessert. We then had a friends day filled with shopping, in Italian style. There was hot wine and crepes involved. The biggest attraction of course is the Gondola ride. I have been before but I am so glad that I went again.

Prague!

This was my first trip to the Czech Republic, and it was wonderful! The trip getting there wasn't so amazing. The bus ride ended up taking around 13.5 hours. Luckily I can sleep through just about anything. The Swiss Alps at night covered in snow are breathless, but there are no picture because no camera would be able to come anywhere near as breath taking. Now I knew Prague was going to be cold, but I did not prepare for how cold. Europe's temperature decided to take a nose dive the weekend I travel north. Despite freezing tempetures I had an amazing trip. Friday morning I had the best breakfast that I had since being in Europe. Well I had it every day. The morning was occupied by a walking tour of the city. The tour guide took us to all of the big monuments- the Powder Tower, the city hall, the shopping center, the National Theater and the Clock Tower.
After the tour we were taken to a bagel shop. It was so good. I have not had a bagel since before leaving the states and I missed them so much. The food overall in Prague was really delectable. The oldest synagogue is located in the old Jewish Ghetto of Prague. This was a new experience for me. The men were in the main chamber while women were outside looking through slits in the wall. The ladies were all very nice. One even took the time to explain to me the different traditions of the religion. I was very glad to have gone, and had the opportunity to learn more about a new religion. Afterward we took a nap in our very warm beds before dinner. Dinner was in a large local restaurant. The food was fantastic. Italy is supposed to have good food but as far as I have seen the really good stuff is up north. I had a potato soup in a bread bowl. Normally I am not a fan of Rye bread, but this was good.
Saturday started out with another walking tour to different parts of the city. We visited the St. Charles bridge, the John Lennon wall, Starbuck and the Prague Castle. The castle was much less of a castle than I pictured. It was much more like a palace or a fortress. The view from the top was spectacular. There were colorful fall tress speckled through the old city. It did make me miss having a fall.The rest of the day was used to explore the city on our own. There was a Christmas market in the main square. There were glass blowers and metal workers making decorations right there. There was a large variety of foods. I of course tried all of them. For our evening entertainment we took three tours with Ivan. He is a strange and slightly awkward man who is pretty funny. The first was of the underground of Prague. The whole city used to be an entire floor lower. There was a problem with flooding so to fix the problem the streets were filled in to raise the level. You can see small allies, homes and wells.
The second tour was of the hidden microbreweries of Prague. The first two were most defiantly hidden, the third was not. The first two beers were good and the third was not. Along with us on the tour was a very nice German couple who were enjoyable to talk to.
The last tour was a ghost tour. The tour guide was very awkward and not very interesting. This one was free because we had taken the other two. She was not a good entertainer, so even though she knew her information, she didn't capture us. The stories was interesting. The next morning I got up early to get as much out of Prague as possible. Sadly not much is open on Sunday at 9 am. So I got some coffee and enjoyed being in Prague. It is a good thing that I did because that 13 hour bus ride home was harsh, but so worth it!

Vespa Riding in Chianti

This was a trip that I splurged on. It was a bit expensive for being only one day, but I couldn't leave Tuscany without riding on a Vespa. I was very happy when my mother decieded to go along with us, as well as her good friend Becky. They are a blast and I was glad to spend time with my mom. Up until the day of the weather was calling for rain all day. When the day came it was cloudy but not raining. Throughout the day it did get a bit cold, but there were only a few drops the whole day. At points it was even beautiful out. We were picked up in Florence, then driven to a farm in Chianti. I got my dog fill, which makes me very happy! There were about 6 dogs in total and almost 80 horse. There were a few cats too but they don't matter all that much. When we were being given the scooters, my mother was not. She was worried about not being very good at driving, but they were not even going to let her try. So I offered my scooter just for her to try out on. She actually said no. Of all people my other said no they told me not to. Of course she did try and she did wonderfully. She even got to drive her own. Getting used to the scooters was pretty easy, getting used to the cars on the road, not as easy. We mostly took little dirt roads that had very few car, and some pretty wonderful views. For lunch we stopped at a small restaurant that had no one else in it. The chef was so nice to us and completely adorable. He must have been almost 70 years old and gay. The food was so good. When we complimented him on it he showed us how to make it and gave us the recipe. On top of that we all enjoyed a bottle of champange for the newly wed couple in the group. Afterward we headed to a small town within a castle to have a wine tasting and to look around. Despite the dreary weather, ever step of the trip was fun. I was so tired after the day that I was ready to sleep as soon as we were back. This trip was well worth it.