Flu Flu Go Away...

... come again when I'm not in Rome (or don't please, ever)

So yes, I have been sick ALL weekend. 

What started off as some sniffles Friday morning quickly turned into massive chills and a high fever by the afternoon and with that, my weekend was ruined.

I did have some fun at work Thursday night though! 

Chef Andrea asked me to come in early and he taught me how to make a typical Italian cookie filled with nutella.

Before baking:

After:

and the final product:

They were so yummy and he served them to his students on Friday morning before class started, still awaiting final reviews on them!

So he makes his own limoncello, an alcoholic drink typically served after meals to aid in digestion, and sells it in the shop! 

I have been lucky enough to be able to help with every step along the way 

and finally on Thursday night we bottled it up!

And back to my uneventful weekend.

I spent all of Friday in bed. 

So I was trying to fall asleep when there arose such a clatter, so I sprung from my bed to see what was the matter. Hehe.

I assume what I saw was a procession of the Stations of the Cross.

It was so beautiful!

Saturday, Sunday, and now Monday have been spent in bed trying to get well! 

Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling much better and can enjoy the lovely weather Rome is having!

This week I am looking forward to spending my Holy Week here in Rome! I have tickets to all of the masses at St. Peter's and am psyched! This will make up for missing the Palm Sunday mass in the square :(

I hope all y'all had a wonderful weekend and have a great Holy Week!

Ciao!

Papa Francesco, la la la la la la la

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!!!

I can't believe I am already 3 1/2 weeks into my Roman adventure!

It seems like just yesterday I walked into a room full of all of my friends and family saying goodbye to me! 

I am learning so much and experiencing so many amazing things though!

Like Monday, I was taught how to properly make Roman style pizza and focaccia. 

This was the workspace and it's right next to the bar so all of the customers can see the pizza masters hard at work!

I got to use a wood fire oven! SO COOL!

I learned a lot of their family secrets so unfortunately I can't divulge anything too juicy, but a lot more went into making this pizza than I had anticipated.

Tuesday was my roommate's last night here in Rome :( 

She got here in December so her three months are up and I am roommate-less until May! 

She spent her last night coming to my work and taking a class with our supervisors and some students from the American University in Rome.

We had so much fun making zeppole sale with various toppings

It was essentially just fried pizza dough!

Carbonara con spaghetti alla chitarra

To make this we use this cool tool that has strings like a guitar and you place the pasta dough on top and roll over the dough with a rolling pin. When all of the dough is pushed through, you "play" the chitarra and the spaghetti falls out. This is the perfect spaghetti for carbonara because it is thicker.

This is our pasta area (you can see the chitarra on the counter)

And of course, tiramisu

(all of these pictures were taken from my wonderful supervisor, Alessandro)

I rushed home after work so that I could try to get a little bit of sleep before waking up super early so that I could see Papa Francesco, as the Italians call him!

St. Peter's Square was so beautiful so early in the morning with no one around. 

I was one of the first in line, of course. 

But this means absolutely nothing to Italians. By the time 7:30 rolled around and the guards were getting close to opening up the square, all of these Italian old people came out of nowhere and shoved their way to the front. It was a hot mess to say the least. 

Even though I was pushed back quite a bit, I still got a pretty decent spot and ended up next to these two girls who were here on spring break with their group from the University of Arkansas!!!!! 

Such a small world!

We could see Papa Francesco on the big screens greeting the lucky lucky people inside and then we watched him walk outside and get into his pope mobile. 

This is when things got even crazier! People were screaming and trying to figure out where he was coming from.

Well he came this way

Then this way

And then finally this way

And I couldn't resist a selfie....

Then he took his seat up on the stage

And he was greeted by about a dozen priests who all spoke different languages and spoke on behalf of the pilgrims there from various regions. The pope would then say something back and the priest would translate it in their respective language. 

It was a very cool experience! 

Then we sang the Our Father in Latin and he bestowed an apostolic blessing on us and our families back home!

Then, because of the fangirl I am, I stayed after while he went around shaking hands with the people who got special invitations (or knew important people). He did this for about 45 minutes before I noticed the pope mobile coming around.

Yep! It parked right in front of me. All of the Italian old women and I squealed in excitement and awaited Papa Francesco's walk to the pope mobile.

During this time, people were singing to the tune of Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (the part where it's like I love you baby)

So imagine and sing in your head, or out loud, Papa Francesco la la la la la la la, Papa Francesco la la la la la la la. And on and on and on and on until he was done talking. 

Those crazy Italians.

I said see you later to Papa and off he went!

It was such a fun time and a cool experience. 

I was able to practice my Italian with the women around me and they were very impressed!

I guess the four hours of one-on-one tutoring a week is coming in handy!

Here's a picture of the cat that always greets me before/after Italian class!

Ciao!

Chocolate, Waffles, and Beer, OH MY!

Brussels, Brussels, Brussels.

This weekend I went out of my Italian comfort zone and entered a country with THREE national languages, none of which I speak may I add.

It was beautiful. Everything about this place was as magical as I had imagined!

Manneken Pis was all dressed up!

My roommate and I started off our trip with waffles. This waffle was so perfect. Fluffy and crunchy all at the same time.

The trick is, those sneaky Belgian people use yeast instead of baking powder or soda. It looks like this when they scoop and spread it onto the waffle maker. 

Let's just say, I'm changing the recipe I use.

That first night we went on a beer tour! I learned more about beer than I ever knew was possible.

We started off the night with two very famous Belgian Trappist beers, Westmalle Blonde and Chimay Blue.

There are only 10 Trappist beers (made by Trappist monks) and 6 of them are Belgian. 

They were delicious and quite different from each other. 

We learned how to perfectly pour these beers (she said I did it perfectly....)

We then headed to another pub where we tried three different beers.

We tried them one at a time while munching on some toasted barley to enhance the flavors.

My favorite was the Lambic Cantillon. 

The next day we headed to a truly magical town called Bruges. 

It is seriously like something out of a storybook. 

After walking around for awhile, we went to the chocolate factory.

One of my favorite exhibits showed the three main chocolates and what is in them!

But my absolute favorite thing was this:

I feel like my whole live has been a lie... Thanks, mom.

Included in this tour were free samples and hot chocolate from local chocolate shops. 

And to answer your questions, yes, that tasted exactly like Coca Cola.

The hot chocolate was genius. They had molded different kinds of chocolate and stuck wooden skewers in them. They gave you steamed milk along with the skewers and all you had to do was put it in and stir! Incredible.

We were sick of sweet foods (and it was freezing) so we opted for some soup from scratch at this cute little cafe!

We said goodbye to the cute little town and headed back to Brussels!

We got some fries from this amazing place for dinner. We did have to wait in this line, but it was worth it. 

They have a special sauce called andalouse and it's a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup, and spices. 

It tasted just like cane's sauce. So yummy!

That night we headed to a secret(ish) bar called Au Bon Vieux Temps. 

Here they sell the world's best beer.

So of course I ordered it. It was delicious and worth every euro. 

We also walked by Delirium. They have over 3000 beers on hand so we had to check it out.

It was crawling with drunk college students so we decided to bow out.

But right outside, is the female version of Manneken Pis, Jeanneke Pis.

Sunday morning, I got up bright and early to head to the big cathedral in downtown Brussels for mass.

Needless to say, it was beautiful.

Not only was the mass said in Dutch and French, but so were the homilies.

Two different priests gave two different homilies (I think) in each language. That meant 30 minutes of homily I did not understand. At least I could glance around at all of the beautiful stained glass and statues.

Afterwards, we made our way to the Atomium, which is 30 minutes away by metro.

It was huge!

We had lunch, thanks to my dad, at a great Belgian pub. We both tried the trio of traditional Belgian foods, and of course that included frittes.

And a very popular beer, Lindeman's Pecheresse. 

And our last stop before going back to Roma.

Thanks to my dad (who offered to pay), we were able to try the world's best beer one last time. 

I also tried one last Trappist beer before leaving, Rochefort. 

I wish I could've tried all 6 Belgians, but a weekend can only be filled with so much beer.

Thank you Belgium for our wonderful weekend!