Everything Sweet

I cannot tell you how much I love my new class. I am taking a course called Pastry Shop where we are learning how to make so many different kinds of doughs, pastries, and tarts. This class has most definitely been my favorite part of Italy so far.

My class is at 9:00 unfortunately which has already gotten a tidbit old and it has only been a few days. But fortunately Bryn and Kim have class at nine too. In fact, Kim is in my class which is so great. I love spending time with her. If you saw me walking to class, you would probably laugh. I am dressed head to toe in full-fledged chef attire: chef's hat, chef's coat, and black and white checked chef's pants. I haven't taken a picture of my outfit so far because I don't seem to care what I look like when I go to class but I will take one soon so y'all can check it out haha!

Tuesday was our first day of class and we had a substitute because our teacher wasn't able to be there. Our sub was the head pastry chef at Apicius (our school). He is a funny Italian man who knows a lot about pastries. We made a pastry dough called pate choux which me made into two different recipes: Paris-Brest and Bongo (street name: profiteroles). Pate choux is not a very thick dough so we manipulated the shapes by using piping bags. I have not seen a piping bag since the last time I decorated a cake at home before I came to Italy. Being able to use a piping bag for the first time in a while was so excited. I'm the biggest nerd. Chef asked me about my technique and I got to explain to him that I have worked in a bakery for two years decorating cakes. The profiteroles were filled with a chocolate cream and dipped in chocolate ganache and topped with yogurt chips. The Paris-Brest were cut in half and filled with a hazelnut buttercream. The downfall of this class is going to be that we get to eat anything that we make.

Finished product

That night we decided to go get Gusta pizza, our new weekly tradition, where we ran into my friend Isabelle and her sweet parents who are here visiting for a few weeks. It was so nice to see her parents and share a little bit of Italy with them. After Gusta, we grabbed a bottle of wine and sat on the bridge overlooking the Ponte Vecchio and watched the sunset. We hadn't planned on doing anything this night but as we were walking home, we walked by Red Garter and decided that we had to go in, of course. Our spontaneity led to use having ourselves a great time.

The next morning in class we met our real teacher who is an American but has lived in Italy for a few years now. We went through the long process of making puff pastry. I have always heard that puff pastry from scratch is one of the hardest things to make, and now I believe it. We ended up making a Millefoglie cake which is a traditional Italian cake made of puff pastry and pastry cream. We also made small pizzas with the puff pastry. They were delicious.

After class, the pastry chef pulled me aside and told me that he had a cake order coming up and that he wanted me to help him with it. Can you imagine my excitement? Me, nerdy baker girl? I feel more than honored that he wants me to help him with a cake. He does more fondant work and he knows that I only use buttercream but I cannot wait to work on this cake with him. It will be about a week and a half from now so be ready to hear about it.

Last night, we just went to Red Garter to grab some food and then I came home and skyped with Phillip's mom and Riley! It was so good to see them and talk to them for a little bit.

Today in class we made short doughs. We made fruit tarts and mini lemon meringue pies. We used fresh strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries on top of pastry cream on top of a lemon tart dough. For the lemon meringue pies, we used the same lemon dough and then made a lemon cream and then italian meringue. They both were absolutely delicious.

I'm writing this blog from the comfort of my mom's hotel room. SHE'S FINALLY HERE! It was so good to see my mom for the first time in a month. Poor thing is passed out right now but I may have to wake her up soon so that I can show her around my home for the past month. I'm so excited about her being here and we are going to do so many things in the next week. We haven't exactly planned out our weekend but I believe we are going to Rome tomorrow and maybe a wine tour this weekend. I will let you know all about it. Ciao!

Where The Bloody Hell Is My Freaking Kit-Kat

Ciao! What a weekend. First of all, it is so weird that two of my roommates are back in the States right now. It's truthfully amazing how quickly three weeks go by. Since I left y'all, we had family dinner with all of us roommates on Thursday night where we made pesto and tomato sauce pasta (again ha!) with a giant salad and some bottles of wine. Our last night to all be together was unfortunate because we all had to study for our exams the next day, except for Kelsie who had already had hers. We luckily had a study break and ran around town trying to find gelato. It was good to be with all of us for Val's and Kelsie's last night here.

Run Kim Run

After my exam, that was absolutely ridiculous, Bryn and I waited around for Kimberly's exam to be over so that we could start our trip to Barcelona. We were feeling savvy because we had planned this Barcelona trip all by ourselves. This picture epitomizes our entire trip of running/speed-walking to every form of transportation we had to take the entire trip. It was taken at the very beginning of the trip while we were rushing to the train station to make our train and Kim realized she forgot her ticket and had to run back to the apartment. The stress didn't stop after getting to the train because we got off at the wrong train station in Rome. It was 11:00 at night, we were in a strange city and this girl was not happy. We decided to get a taxi to take us to our hotel, Hotel Laura, which was supposed to be close to the airport. Come to find out, there are two Hotel Laura's in Rome and we were taken to the wrong one, so the taxi driver had to drive us about thirty or so minutes to the other Hotel Laura. When we finally got there, the town around us was dead. We had a hard time finding the door to get into the hotel and when we finally did find the front desk, the man working it spoke ZERO English. He tried to take our passports to keep for the night. We said no to that one. We finally got into our room which was comfortable but quaint. The bathroom light shuttered when it was turned on and we didn't think there was another customer in the hotel because we were put in room 101 that was right off the lobby. Kim, Bryn and I were thinking, "we have received so many red flags." I felt so freaked out and stressed that I just wanted to go home at this point. Luckily, the beds were super comfortable and there was a TV which always makes me feel a bit more at ease. We passed out and woke up early the next morning to find the bus that would take us to the train station. The hotel man had some how communicated with me that the bus station was around the corner and we knew that the bus was at 6:30. It was 6:15 and we were leaving the hotel, we walked around the corner and it was no where to be found. I ran back inside to the hotel and asked the man for directions and he some how understood me and motioned to take a left and a left and it would be in front of me. Thank goodness that it was. We were those Americans running through the streets of Rome to get to our bus. We made it within two minutes of it leaving and it took us to the airport. Our flight was at 8:00 but we had to get our passports checked at the RyanAir station. And what do ya know. The line for this was the length of what I assume an Anaconda would be. I was stressed beyond belief. I felt for sure that there was no way we were going to make it. But the majority of the people in this line were also going to Barcelona and there was no way they would leave the airport with out the majority of their passengers. When we got on the plane, I finally relaxed. I had to or else my head probably would have exploded.

When we finally arrived in Barcelona, everything was looking up. Everyone was so nice! For the first time in my life, I was happy to hear people speaking Spanish around me because it made me feel like I was back in the States. We grabbed a bus to La Rambla, which is a very touristy street in Barcelona, where we came upon not one but two Starbucks. This trip has made me realize that I am truthfully addicted to coffee. I don't think I have been in as good of a mood the entire trip as I was when I finally had a grande cafe americano in my hand. I drank every single bit of it. We walked down to our hotel which, after everything we had been through, we were half expecting it to not even be there. But luckily, it was so nice. The beds were comfortable and spacious and we had AC, which was all we needed. That day we walked around Barcelona where the weather was so nice. We came across these boat tours that take you down the coast of Barcelona, which we decided to jump on to. We met the sweetest British couple who talked with us and told us all about their travels. They even gave us one of their Barcelona tour books which ended up being a huge help. It was so nice to be able to speak to others in English.

My future yacht

Bryn and our new friend 

Me, Bryn, and Kimberly

That night, after having showered, snacked, and relaxed for a bit, we decided we wanted to watch the Spain v. France Euro Cup match. And it wasn't hard to find the game on. We walked down the street and found this restaurant with a big group of people sitting outside at tables watching a tv that was set up on a fold-out table. The waiters were very quick in finding us a table outside. Since we were traveling on a budget this weekend, we bought a round of the cheapest beers they had, San Miguel, which was pretty good for a 1,50 euro beer. We had so much fun watching the game and drinking rounds of beers and occasionally ordering a plate or two of french fries. I was so happy to be in Spain as they beat France in the match. Barcelona went crazy when they won. Fireworks were going all night, which ended up getting annoying by the end of it. We stayed at the restaurant way past the ending of the game, continuing with our festivities and making friends with our waiter, Lucas. Lucas was so nice but creeping so hard at the same time. He joined us in conversation, bought me a rose, and tried to get my number. But fortunately since I am not from here, I can always use the excuse of "Oh, my phone doesn't work in Spain!" And I kept bringing up my boyfriend in every bit of conversation that I could. Kim, Bryn, and I kept chatting, having real heart to hearts, and speaking in British accents about Kit-Kat bars. By the end of the night, Lukas gave us a huge deal on our meals and drinks making us only pay 20 euro for the whole thing. The girls on a budget were quite happy. It was overall a fantastic first night in Barcelona.

Kim and Bryn 

With their San Miguels

The beginning of the night 

Fireworks in the distance after Spain won 

Outside watching the game 

With my flower 

Cerveseria Pepe 2

For the first time since I have been in Europe, I slept in. I didn't wake up until noon and then we hit the beach. It was so hot and it felt so nice to be in the sun. I don't know what it is about Europe but women love to tan without tops on. That is something I will never be comfortable with by any means. We laid in the sun for a long time, occasionally cooling off under the cold showers nearby because the ocean water was too dirty to get into. The sun took so much energy out of us that we just went down the street for dinner where we drank sangria and ate a Spanish rice dish called Paella and fried Calamari. We went in early and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

The next morning we woke up, checked out and took a bus tour around Barcelona. Seeing as we were in Barcelona in the first place, it was important that we saw what the city had to offer. We took a touristy bus tour which took us all through the city center of Barcelona, up the hill to the 1992 Olympic area which gave us a great view of the city, and down the beach. I took so many pictures but practically none with any of us in them, but I wanted to remember everything that I saw. Barcelona was incredible and I will definitely want to go back there again someday.

The Olympic Stadium

The View of Barcelona

Letting you know they have McDonald's

Our travels on the way back were looking good as we found the bus to the airport, checked in with RyanAir and had some time to spare to grab some food. Or at least we thought we did. After we ate, we looked up which gate we were in and were told that our plane was boarding. Lucky us that the gate was the farthest gate away from our current location. Here I was speed walking through yet another airport in order to make it to our plane on time.

We made it in time because the plane was actually taking forever to pile everyone on. RyanAir doesn't believe in boarding zones like a, b, and c zones. They take a more free-for-all approach which makes everything more hectic. We bought our bus tickets from the Rome airport to the Rome train station on the plane. We rode the bus to the train station where we looked up a train tickets and found a cheap three hour plane ride that was leaving in 20 minutes. Yet again, the train was the farthest away train that there could have been. Of course we ran through the train station to make it to our train. What we soon learned was that we weren't going to get home in three hours. The train was literally inching it's way down the track. We got about thirty minutes outside of Rome and stopped for 45 minutes because evidently, something was wrong with the tracks. At this point, I am H-ANGRY. I was not happy to be on a train and I was absolutely starved. Poor Bryn and Kimberly laughed while I angrily wrote my feelings down on paper because it made me feel so much better. Five and half hours later, we finally were back in Florence. I have never been happier to see the streets of Florence. What we learned from that train ride was that when we are traveling home from somewhere, splurge and take the more expensive train to get you home in an hour and half. We found an open pizza place right around the corner from our apartment called Mr. Pizza where we scarfed down some food and came home.

This entire time, we were under the impression that after our two roommates went home that no one else was moving in. Low and behold when we arrived home, we had three new roommates. I was surprised but after meeting them all, I am very excited for the next three weeks.

I started my new class today but I am about to pass out and will have to tell you all about it tomorrow. Sorry it took me so long to blog. I hope y'all have a fantastic day. Arrivederci!