Carpe Diem Tuesday

Ciao a tutti! Smile - it's almost hump day!

I had a rather difficult morning. I barely slept, which is especially frustrating since I was exhausted and even got to bed at a reasonable hour. I walked to class in icky rain. My Italian class went pretty well today though - we had a subsitute teacher and there was something about her I really liked. She seemed to move at a faster pace, which helped energize me and get me out of my lack-of-sleep fog.

When I came home I was faced with a dilemma of dire proportions: go back to sleep or make breakfast? I attempted sleep first, but my stomach got the best of me. Oat-time it was!

Today I used this delectable comestible from the1- euro store:

Apple-blueberry sauce!

Add it to cinnamony oats...

Appley, blueberry-y, cinnamony goodness!

Not long after, I started crashing and gave in to the nap-urge. It was either that or do nothing productive and think about all day. Slept for about two hours, which got me up to a grand total of maybe 4 hours? Ick. I've dealt with worse though, I'm a tough cookie :)

I got up and made some coffee. Made a second breakfast that got a little messy...

I have resolved to turn myself into an egg person, at least while I am here, because it is a perfect protein, cheap, and protein is generally a bit lower for me. Carbs, though - noooo problemo. Got those covered. ANYway, I have been experimenting with soft-boiled eggs and I have yet to conquer the cracking skill. As you can quite clearly see. No matter...

It still tasted good! Those little toast things are all the rage in Europe. They are like little mini toast crackers, about the size of my palm. When I was at my homestay in France and lived with a little old French lady named Monique, I had these every morning with nutella and her homemade strawberry confiture. Mmmmm :)

I was determined to not let this Tuesday turn into another day of 'blah.' After breakfast #2, I worked on my scrapbook. I brought a journal with me, but since I started the blog, I haven't felt the need to write in it as often, so I have turned it into my study-abroad scrapbook. I've been holding on to various tickets, tags, business cards, etc. for this purpose and it's been piling up. It's gonna be a prettttty sweet scrapbook!

Then, I took a walk. I will NOT be in Florence sitting on my butt all day in the apartment because I'm tired. Nope. So out I went! The great thing about this city is that you can just walk anywhere and there is so much to look at. I really had no earthly idea where I was going or where I was, but it didn't matter. And my golden rule here is "all roads lead to the Duomo," which semi-true. After about 45 minutes it occurred to me that I was starving, and so I found my way to the Duomo and headed on home. I passed by our favorite bakery on our street and as usual noticed the interesting looking olive-studded rolls that I have been dying to try. I walked by, figuring I would just wait to go home, and then I stopped - if not now, WHEN? I turned right around and got me one:

I was expecting a crispy, crunchier bread, but this was light and fluffy and olivey. Yum! It felt GREAT too, to just do it and stop saying "oh, next time." Carpe diem was my theme today :)

I decided I needed something a little more substantial before yoga club, so I threw some spinach and parmeggiano reggiano in a pan, and put it over a little (we're talking half a cup max) whole wheat penne and tomato. It fit the bill quite nicely.

Yoga was really nice. The style is a little new to me, but it is a very relaxing, meditative class and I love it. The teacher is really cool too. And on my walk home, a little old man was playing the accordion in the street. It was like being in a movie. Made me smile.

As part of my 'carpe diem' day, I picked something up at the grocery store that I have been eyeing: SQUASH! I have wanted to make roasted squash for ages because I adore roasted sweet potatoes (SO far superior to french fries) and today was the day!

I cut some up into long wedges and some up into little, chunky wedges, just to see which one I liked better. I seasoned them with a little olive oil and sea salt, and then cinnamon + a sprinkle of cane sugar on some, cinnamon + honey  on some, and rosemary on some. I love playing with my food :)

I ended up liking the little wedges a little more - they got crispier and held the flavors better. The bigger ones didn't quite cook enough. I like a little char ;)

I have a good bit of reading to do, but I still feel good about today because I stopped thinking, planning, making excuses and started DOing. It's an awesome feeling.

Tomorrow I am wandering over to the other side of the river to check out a market there and see if I can find the restaurant the fam and I ate at when we visited Firenze a couple summers ago. And, hey, who knows what else will happen?!

~Namaste~