Eat. Sleep. Yoga. Repeat!

SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that that's out of the way...

I apologize in advance for a lack of pictures - the eats were not too eventful. Mid-terms tend to suck my brain away. BUT it's Spring Break - fun is to be had and food to be eaten. Let the culinary tour of Florence begin!

I got a 95 on my Italian mid-term, mostly just because of tiny mistakes that I didn't realize were wrong, so I'm quite happy with it!

My last mid-term was for my cooking class. I have SO much info in my brain about nutrition basics now...it's pretty cool! I really just love learning about how food works, inside and outside of the body. Studying for this was actually pretty enjoyable because I genuinely wanted to learn, not just memorize to spit back out on the test and then forget it. The test went alright. It was all short answers and 2 essays, so LOTS of writing. My approach for tests like this is just to write every. single. thing I know about the topic. I was the last person to leave, so I hope that means I know a lot! And our teacher made us coffee. I love Italy.

Foodage was random, but when dinner time rolled around, I felt the need to have some fun with...

Polenta! Aka, corn meal. 

It's essentially like oats in that you throw some in a pot with water (3 parts water to 1 part polenta) and cook until it thickens. After that, I threw a teaspoon of oil and a garlic clove into a pan (best. smell. ever.) and then formed the polenta into little cakes and pan-fried them with a little fresh basil. They were really good but as a whole, needs some work. Maybe cook the garlic first, then make the polenta and add it in and then make the cakes? Hmm. Experiment time!

Being the official start of Spring Break and all, the roomies and I agreed that some celebratory gelato was definitely in order.

We tried a new place the school recommended. That fudgy goodness on the right would be chocolate. The other flavor was called "Ambrosia" - yogurt, honey, and cinnamon. This is pretty much exactly what I make at home, so obviously I had to try in gelato form! It was reeeaally good. I find it hard to compare gelato places though, mostly because they are all just wonderful in different ways! Grom is still a must-try for anyone who visits Florence though - you can just taste the high quality of the ingredients. Really though, gelato is just good. Get it.

After that ensued a scene of such utter goofiness, no words could possibly describe it sufficiently.

Today has been mostly grey outside, but that works for me because my plan was pretty much:

1. Sleep late - check.
2. Yoga - check.
3. Do generally nothing because I can! - check.

There is a cool-looking bead store on our street and my roommate is in a jewelry-making course here, so she wanted to check it out. It was SO cool! I think I'm going to go back and make some presents for people. I love projects!!!

We went across the street later for aperitivo - fixed price for a drink and a buffet. This place is perfect because they always have so much food, you really make a meal out of it. They have this cous cous that I just love...maybe because I just in general love cous cous. Either way, it's good food and a nice glass of prosecco in a funky atmosphere. I brought my camera with full intentions of using it, but it was super dark and they just wouldn't have come out well :(

Tomorrow I am taking a day trip to Livorno, which is a little town on the coast. You know what that means - SEAFOOD!! I promise, I will make up for the lack of pics!

Ok, off to catch up on my Office episodes...[Jim&Pam FOREVER!]

~Namaste~