Musings of Italy Via New York City

It just occurred to me: Why didn't I go to Little Italy when I was in New York City?? That would've been perfect since I'm going to REAL Italy in less than three months. LESS THAN THREE MONTHS! Someone pinch me, please. It is just too amazing to be real. But it is! I leave from New York City on September 8th and I'll stop briefly in Zurich, Switzerland on the way before arriving in Rome. After that there's a three-day orientation in Rome before I go to my host family in Brescia!

I am so looking forward to it! I absolutely love traveling and airports. I love the sound of rolling suitcases and the interesting people-watching and the feeling you get in your head and belly the moment the plane lifts off the ground. I even love the smell of airports and airplanes, not because it smells good, necessarily, but because of the wonderful associations it has in my mind.

One thing I did discover on my trip to New York, though, was that traveling is slightly less relaxing without parents to depend on. In the past, I've always been able to let them take care of getting me where I need to go when I need to go there, coordinating everything. This time I had to do that all by myself, which wasn't quite as easy. A big part of that may have been the fact that I was flying space-available (I fly for free since my parents used to work for US Air) which is a great deal more complicated than normal flying. There's all the hassle of making sure you're on the standby list and waiting for everyone else to board and keeping your fingers crossed that there'll be a seat for you. But I won't have to deal with any of that on the way to Italy. It'll probably be super fun and exciting because I'll be traveling with a bunch of other AFS-ers.

Alright, so New York City. Wonderful, obviously. The last (and only other) time I went there was spring break of last year. That time I did more of the tourist-y things like the Empire State Building and riding the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty and visiting Times Square and all those sorts of things. This time I did more of the shopping-eating-exploring sort of thing. Which was totally fun. I was lucky to get to spend my weekend there with my old neighbors Jenna and Michaela Scott, staying at Jenna's apartment. They were super sweet and hospitable.

We ate so much good food while I was there. I'm about to talk about it in detail, because I'm crazy about food. If it bores you, go ahead and skip over this paragraph. I don't mind... The first night we met their dad (who's one of MY dad's best friends) at a Mexican restaurant. It was super delicious. Their salsa was the perfect balance of spicy-ness and cool limey-ness. We also had guacamole which I've always avoided because my dad hates it so I assumed it was gross, but it was awesome. For my main course I ordered Chiles Rellenos (that's a chile stuffed with melted cheese and covered with an egg batter) and it was really good. The Saturday morning that I was there, we went to the Waverly Diner and I had Eggs Benedict which was yummy and a cafe latte. For lunch Jenna and I went to The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English, where I ate Risotto "Tater Tots" and a Fig & Prosciutto flatbread pizza which also had a rosemary crust, fig jam, and gorgonzola. The figs were so plump and sweet and had the most incredible contrast with the prosciutto and gorgonzola. It was so good. My mouth is watering a little just thinking about it. That night we stopped by Cafe Angelique right down the street from the apartment for dessert. I had a Frozen Mint Lemonade. It was very refreshing and very minty. Unlike most "mint" things, it didn't taste like mint flavoring so much as actual mint sprigs. It reminded my of the mint leaves I used to pluck from my grandmother's garden when I was younger. So, yes. Lots of incredible food.

You can expect that I'll be telling you a ton about the food while I'm in Italy. Food is one of my biggest passions. To be totally honest, the food is a big part of why I chose Italy as my exchange destination. I've considered becoming a food critic one day and this blog will give me an opportunity for some practice in that area. The only problem is that I love just about everything I eat so it is a bit hard for me to be actually "critical." It'll probably be more like bubbly gushing about the deliciousness of everything!

So, I also did some shopping in New York. Whenever I shop now I alway try to think in the back of my head "what will be useful in Italy?" I don't know much about the styles there in comparison to here. Is it the same? I don't really know. All I really have to go by is what I see in the pictures on my host sister's facebook page and the school website. Lots of scarves, I think. It gets cold in the wintertime. The stuff I got in New York is more summery (specifically the most adorable pair of Free People shorts and a flowy white dress, a pretty embroidered tank top and a grey tshirt dress from H&M ) but I think I'll get good use out of it. I'll worry about packing when it gets a little closer to time.

The other biggest thing I did in New York was visiting the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. It was phenomenal! I could go on and on and on about it, but I won't since I can't rationally connect it to Italy without a big stretch (that's the hard thing about this blog - deciding what is and isn't relevant). But if you're going to New York any time soon I highly recommend that exhibit.

I suppose that's it for now. I'll be back with more about my Italy preparations soon. In the mean time, I want to know who's reading this. Click "follow" over to the right, and if you have anything to say (like maybe what is and isn't cool to wear in Italy if you know, or even just "hi") leave me a comment! Later!

Like a crazy person.

Even though it is still three months away (which is simultaneously incredibly near and incredibly far) leaving has already started to make me feel strange. It is like the whole goodbye thing has already started. I think that's because school is over. I am completely and totally finished with American high school. Which is WEIRD. And it is making me like a crazy person.

As a junior marshal (one L or two? google doesn't even know), I attended graduation, and in a way I felt like it was MY graduation, too. I'm not ever going to do the whole high school graduation thing as a graduate. I'll still be in Italy this time next year. My school here is just going to mail me my diploma when I get back. And I'm not particularly bothered by that. The whole wearing a cap and gown and walking across the stage thing has never been particularly important to me, and besides I'll get to do that after college. I'm not extremely attached to my school either. Still, I had a funny melancholy feeling the whole time, because this is the end. I'm not even sure why I should be sad about not returning to school. Before, I've never felt particularly attached to my school. In fact, I've always wanted like crazy to get out and do something much less ordinary, just like I am. So I'm having trouble putting a finger on the exact reason for the end of school making me feel so odd.

There are people I'm going to miss indescribable amounts, but most of them I will see over the summer, so it isn't really goodbye yet. They can't be the reason for my weird-ness. I think what I'm actually mourning at the moment is the entire network of familiar faces that I have at school. It's the people who I see and recognize, but don't know on any more than a superficial level. People who I can expect to see in a particular hallway at a particular time. You know how you get in a routine and you cross paths with the same people on a daily basis? Them. Does that make sense? I'm having trouble describing what I mean. I'm going to miss familiarity, which is something I've always taken for granted but won't have for much longer. In Italy, everything is going to be different and unfamiliar, and that scares me a little.*

I'm just going to blame my ridiculous waves of nostalgia during the past week or so on hormones. I mean, I am clearly not in my right mind when I am sniffling and stifling tears over a critical reading passage in the SAT about a character feeling a disconnect with her mother after being apart for a long time. (True story. I sorta teared up during the SAT.) Such silliness can't last long, I'm sure.

But everything is going to be okay because it is summer now! My summer is going to be great; I can already tell. Lots of marvelous things are in store. For one thing, my visa information came in the mail the other day, and it looks like I'm going to have to make a trip to Miami to get that all squared away. Which my parents find stressful, but which I see as really cool. I'm still not sure when I'll be going there, but it'll be exciting when I do!

And speaking of exciting, I'm going to New York City on Friday! It is a slightly sudden trip, and I am absolutely thrilled. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. Hopefully somehow in a way that relates to Italy... hmm... well this is going to be my first on my own traveling experience, so I guess I could look at it as practice for Italy. That might be a stretch, but oh well. Maybe I'll even make some pertinent observations about America's culture and how that's reflected in our country's most populous city and by knowing my own culture more closely I'll be better prepared to immerse myself in a different culture. So, it does relate! I'm perfectly justified in telling you all about my adventures in New York. Until then!!

*My mother said she hoped I would display some "honesty" and "raw emotions" on my blog. Happy, Mama? I don't want to sound like an overly dramatic emotional teenager, but she doesn't want me to be purely factual with a blog that sounds like an agenda. I'll find a balance eventually, I'm sure. I'm going to do my best to make this an authentic account of my genuine experience.