3 Year Anniversary

Three years ago today I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In that time, I have:

• Learned that carbohydrates are a sugar - seriously did not know this before - there's a whole lot of sugars out there
• gotten a pump (YAY)
• gone to more doctor's appointments than probably the 23 years previous combined (maybe)
• memorized the spiel given by TSA agents given prior to the patdown
• Been swabbed for explosives many times, by said TSA agents
• Used the expressions "I"m going to go shoot up" and "I'm super high" without risk of prison time :) (although with some weird looks)
• found out I have incredibly awesome and caring friends
• learned that doctors are an incredible resource, and that if one isn't doing what you need, to ask questions, come prepared, or find a new doctor.
• had my pump confused for a pager, a cell phone and probably many other things that people didn't even tell me about
• learned the importance of health insurance, and been so, so thankful that I have it
• moved to a new country
• grown way more comfortable with needles
• participated in a 3-year diabetes study
• done a whole host of other things entirely unrelated to being diabetic!!

I remember the period of time when I was diabetic but undiagnosed, the day of my diagnosis, and the subsequent weeks of initial treatment so clearly. Even having seen my dad live with diabetes, I was so upset, frustrated and anxious about being diabetic. While it does suck some times, mostly it's just an annoyance. 

World Diabetes Day is coming up soon (November 14th (aka Claire's Birthday!)) and this year I'm participating in a WDD postcard exchange, which could be kind of cool!  I have just discovered this whole online community of diabetics and some of it is medically helpful, some funny, and some just helpful to know that there are other people out there dealing with some of the same issues. 

An Incredible Weekend!

I just had a truly terrific weekend from start to finish! On Friday the school did two trips to the Corsini Winery nearby, and I helped to chaperone the afternoon tour. So we left campus at 2:30pm and hopped onto a bus for a 30 minute drive out of the city. It was beautiful, up on a hill, with a lovely little garden and views of vineyards, olive tree groves, and rolling Tuscan hills. Our tour guide was really nice, she had even come in our day off. The Corsini Winery makes three different types of chianti wine (basic, medium, and super fancy - not what they're really called, but you get the idea). They also make two types of extra virgin olive oil (organic and non-organic). We were shown around the winery, saw and learned about how they make the wine and the olive oil, and then we had tastings of the wines and olive oil (with bread and a meats platter). It was really cool to see everything, and I learned more about Tuscan wines and a whole lot about olive oil. I really enjoyed all three wines, but I think the middle one was my favourite. The olive oils tasted very, very strongly of olives, which I wasn't expecting. I'm not sure if it's because it's how olive oil is supposed to taste, and it's just super processed in the States, or if it's just a different style of olive oil. . . . Shall have to look into that more, I suppose.

We arrived back in Florence around 6pm, had a little break, and then I met up with a couple students and colleagues for a gelato run. We went across the Arno river to a delicious gelateria that all of the students had been raving about, and finally took me to last Tuesday. As evidenced by the fact that I went twice in one week, this is gooooood gelato! It is really creamy, and they have a good array of flavors - I got the caffe and the nutella yogurt. I still don't know a lot of Italian, but I quickly mastered ordering gelato in Italian, so if you come out to visit, that's what we'll be eating :) The students parted ways after gelato and James (a colleague) and his friend from New Jersey came over and we played Ticket to Ride and drank some chianti. All in all a good day.

Saturday during the day was fairly low-key; I did laundry, tidied up, and read a book. I did grocery shopping in the afternoon, and then that evening I went over to Shelley's apartment for dinner with her and Linda. Shelley has a new bread machine and it was so nice to have fresh bread with flavor (they don't use any salt or herbs or really anything to flavor the bread in Florence). It was a really nice evening of eating, chatting, and hanging out - I really feel like I have good friends here :)

Sunday two students came over to bake - they don't have access to kitchens of their own. That was a really fun afternoon - we made peanut butter cookies and M&M cookies - such a nice treat. They didn't turn out perfectly - I still haven't found baking powder and baking soda here yet. But they were still really good, even if they looked funny, and tasted a tad different. While waiting for the cookies to bake we played some rounds of Bananagrams. It was really nice interacting with students outside of the office, and they enjoyed coming over too. And also, my apartment still smells of freshly baked cookies - so that's awesome!!

After that I did my Italian homework and cleaned up after the baking party. I skyped with some people, wrote a couple of emails, and then I got ready for my night out.

The school arranged for students to get discounted tickets to a concert Sunday night at 9pm, and I jumped on board and also bought a 10 euro ticket. The concert was Vivaldi's Four Seasons  and it was INCREDIBLE! I absolutely loved it. There was also an opera soprano, who sang four or five songs throughout the evening. She had a really fantastic and very impressive voice, and she got really animated, which was cool to see. But the best part, for me, was definitely the Vivaldi. There were eight musicians, three violins, a viola, a double bass, a cello, a harpsichord and an instrument that I didn't recognize, but looked old and somewhat like a sitar. The first violinist was unbelievably talented, and the other two violinists were really incredible as well. It was cool to see such a small ensemble perform classical music, I paid more attention to the movement of the bows, the instruments, and the musicians than I have at symphony performances. Particularly with "Spring" I felt that the visual part of watching the concert augmented the experience of hearing it. Which was a neat experience. I was really blown away by the whole thing and can't wait to go back.

It really was a great weekend in Florence, and while I've had some incredible weekends since moving to Italy, they have been while traveling around Europe. It was nice to feel really good about being in Florence, and I'm excited for more weekends to come.

  

Paris!

Paris was so incredibly fantastic. I absolutely loved every second of being there and cannot wait to go back (no trip planned for now, but I'm definitely making it back there)!!!! I had wanted to visit Paris for such a long time, having spent so many years studying french. And when I found out that the school was doing a trip to Paris, it was the one trip that I really, really wanted to chaperone. Fortunately it seems the students felt the same way about the city as I did, and lots signed up so we needed four chaperones. While I was super excited to go, a small part of me was worried that I had hyped it up too much in my head, and that it would be disappointing. Thankfully this was no where near the case; Paris blew my expectations out of the water. I loved it!

We (myself and the other three chaperones) flew in Thursday afternoon, arriving at our hotel around 4pm. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Canal de la Villette and it was actually really nice. It is a really new hotel and very "green", which was cool. I had a room on the top floor with a little balcony, and had lovely views of the canal and boats.

 The little garden walkway by the canal - we walked along here everyday to the metro

Thursday we spent the afternoon mapping out the routes and modes of transportation we would need to take the next couple of days with the students. Then, we took those routes to time it all out. I'm really glad we did that because it allowed us time to not only familiarize ourselves with the metro, but also to find all of the meeting points for the tours we would take. Traveling with such a large group of students (63) meant that everything took slightly longer, and since most of the time we had to switch metro lines, it was good to know in advance!

That night we walked around and came across a little restaurant that looked nice, and had escargots, which was our unanimous requirement for dinner that night. It turned out to be really nice, with good food, friendly staff, and not too expensive! Win!  We had escargot as appetizers to share, and they were garlicky, buttery, and all together delicious!  I had duck as my main course and it was also really perfectly done. We all went to bed relatively early that night, as we had an early start on Friday.

Friday morning we did a biking tour of Paris, through a company that caters to English speaking groups. It was FANTASTIC!!! I totally recommend doing a biking tour of any city, as a really good way to get an overview. They split us up into five smaller groups of about 12, which was the perfect sized group. They had really comfortable, easily adjusted bikes, and we all set off with our respective guides. It was a three hour tour, and we basically biked all around the city center, stopping to learn about various sites, the history of various areas, and some french culture. We were mostly on bike paths or really small streets, so it was nice and comfortable. We saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, the Pompidou Centre, Victor Hugo's house, a private garden, some old courtyards and streets, the Latin Quarter, and much, much more. In my group I had a student who had just started learning how to ride a bike, and was really scared, but wanted to try. The guides fit her and another student with a tandem bike, and they did just fine, although I think it was a little harder for them with all of the stopping and starting we did. This was definitely my favourite guided activity of any city, and gave me a good sense of orientation of the city, and also a good overview of the various places, so I could chose to explore more in depth.

Our group cycling through the streets

That afternoon we had a guided tour of Musee D'Orsay, which is an art museum mostly centered around Impressionism. Although right now, most of the main impressionist area is under renovation, which was unfortunate. But we did get to see some Monets, Manets, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and much more. I have to say, I don't think I'm a fan of guided museum tours, as we didn't get to see everything, just the highlighted works of art. I stayed around at the end to look around some more on my own, and appreciated that more.

That night I went to dinner with Linda and Shelley (two of the other chaperones) near our hotel and again it was a great meal. I had a delicious steak, and we had really nice red wine and a delicious creme brulee!! I was so tired from all of the walking and biking around though, that I fell asleep immediately after dinner.

Saturday we did a walking tour of the city. When I first saw that on the itinerary I was not too excited, especially as we had the biking tour the day before. However, it too was great. It was themed around the French Revolution, so it was a nice focus to the tour, that make it totally relevant and new to the students. It was cool to walk through the city and stop and see where major historical events had actually happened. Our tour guide was great for this tour, she was really engaging with the students, and used funny stories and anecdotes to help keep their attention.

After the tour we had some free time so I walked over to the Left Bank and wandered around on my own. It was really enjoyable and relaxing to just have time to myself. I had a crepe for lunch (yum), and wandered into Saint Sulpice, which is a really beautiful church, and the organist was playing, so I sat and listened for a while.

Sacre Coeur

That afternoon we met the students in front of the pyramid by the Louvre, and took them up to Montmartre to have a wander around. We went to Sacre Coeur, and walked through the surrounding neighborhood.  That night we met up at 8 for a night time tour of the Eiffel Tower. It was gorgeous at night, and cool to see it lit up. We had group passes all the way to the top. I didn't go all the way up though, unfortunately. Several students were late, and by the time they got there, and we waited for the elevator to the first level, it was already 9:15pm. And there was a 45 minute wait from the first level for the elevator to the very top, and then a twenty minute wait from the top to come down. And while I wanted to go up, my sugar was low, and I didn't have a snack with me (bad diabetic). So I ended up just on the first level, which was still really cool, and I got some incredible pictures. Then we went down (which took another half hour) and went to dinner. Going up to the very top is definitely something I want to do, and I hope to do it during the day, so that I'll be able to spot some of the sights I've seen.

From the Eiffel Tower

We had a lovely little dinner in a cafe that night, then went back to school. On Sunday there wasn't anything planned as students had flights out throughout the day. Shelley, Linda, James and I went to Notre Dame, and then walked around the little island and found an incredible cafe and had probably the best hot chocolate, with salted caramel ice cream. Delicious!

The tray with the hot chocolate - they brought out the steamed milk and heated chocolate and you could mix it however you liked. It was so decadent!

I absolutely loved Paris, and really can't wait to plan my next trip there - so if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll totally meet you there!!

Things I want to do the next time:
go to the Louvre - with such a big group, a guided tour would not have been feasible, so I want a good chunk of time there in the future
go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
walk around the Latin Quarter some more
see the Luxembourg gardens
Get closer to the Arc de Triomphe
and probably lots, lots more!

Off to Paris!

Ok, so I have a list of about six different blog posts that I plan on getting up, but it will have to wait, because tomorrow morning I leave for Paris for the weekend!!!!!  I am so incredibly excited! I am going with the school, which is super awesome. We have a group of 63 students, so much more manageable than the 195 we traveled with on Opening Tour.

I plan to take lots of pictures, and to post about it upon my return.

In the week and a half since my last blog post, I have:

• Met up with family I haven't seen since I was really little
• Learned how to make a three course italian dinner
• Watched two episodes of Glee with a group of students
• Led a field trip to Media World (the best buy equivalent) and the Coop (massive grocery store)
• Taken another Italian quiz
• Bought and built an Ikea dresser
• Taught people how to play euchre :)
• And had some fabulous meals out around Florence!

I'm absolutely loving living over here, even though there are things that I miss or am finding difficult. But it's such a cool experience, and the students and people I work with are great.

In the meantime, here's some topics that I am planning on writing about, maybe if I say it on here, it will make me follow through?!?

• Italian Class
• Mosquitoes 
• Life in Florence vs. Life in the States (my observations)
• Things I miss from the states
• Suggestions? If there's anything you want to know, or hear about, put it in a comment :)

A Day in the Life

MORNING
8:02am - alarm goes off and I hop into the shower (or, more usually, I hit snooze for an extra eight minutes). Then I get dressed and ready for work. I leave between 8:45 and 9, depending on how many times I remember things I wanted to bring as I walk down the stairs - it is hard not living 500 feet from the office! This morning I went back in for my watch, and then again for the power adapter for my laptop, choosing not to go back for my thumb drive when I was already out the door to my apartment.
I usually stop at the bar on the way to work, yes, that's right, the bar. In Italy places that serve coffee and pastries are called bars - and they usually also serve alcohol, although I have yet to order that in the morning . . . yet. I get a cappuccino and some sort of pastry before continuing on to work. It takes me about 12 minutes to walk to work.

WORK
We're expected to be in around 9:30, although it's pretty flexible. This semester I try to arrive around 9:10 so that I can get settled and check my email before my class starts at 9:35. I am in Italian 101 with thirteen other Gonzaga students. I plan on writing a whole post about that soon, so for now, it's an awesome class although it's weird being in school at this level.
From 10:35 to around 1pm I hang out in my office, working on projects and pausing frequently to help students. Students come by the office to sign up for trips or events (Right now we're doing sign-ups for a wine tasting tour, cooking classes, yoga classes, and roommates for the upcoming trip to Paris). Students will also drop by to ask how certain things work here, where things can be found, and other "living in Florence" questions - some of which I already know the answer to, many of which I find out with the student.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday I generally go to lunch around 1:15pm, with colleagues. There are tons of great little restaurants and to-go places around here, so depending on the mood (and budget) we'll run out for a quick bite, or have a leisurely lunch. Often lunch at restaurants includes prosecco (my new favourite) or wine, which I first thought was strange to have at lunch, and now am getting used to it.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I have lunch in one of the pensione, which is where the students live and eat. There are nine of them, and I rotate through each one. This is really nice because I get to interact with lots of students, the food is great, and it's free! Lunch is the biggest meal of the day in the pensioni, so it is typically fruit or vegetables, a pasta dish, and then a meat main course.
I usually get back from lunch between 2 and 3pm, and then it's only a couple of hours until it's time to go home. The afternoon is usually a little quieter and I have more time to work on projects. Today I made a Breast Cancer Awareness bulletin board and put that up outside the Fitness Room.
I try to leave work right at 5, but it's been 5:30 or 6 most days. On Monday nights I come back at 7:45 for the Pensioni Representative Meetings - sort of like Residence Hall Association. Tuesday nights are either Glee Nights or Game Nights (alternating weeks), and the past two Wednesdays have all had some kind of trip (Fiorentina Game and the first round of cooking classes). So those nights I come back to campus for work in the evenings, but am usually home by 9 or 10.

EVENINGS
I now have internet at home (yay) so the evening are when I can Skype or chat with people from home. This is usually my intention each night, but I've been so tired recently that I crash into bed pretty early. Dinner varies depending on the day, time, and inclination. Sometimes I eat out, sometimes I make real food, and sometimes I eat cereal, oh, and last Wednesday, I had gelato for dinner - yes, that's right, for dinner!

Fridays are special days at work, because the students don't have class, so many of them leave on Thursday for weekend travel. So when I'm not traveling with the school, Fridays are a great day to get lots of things done!

We don't usually have events over the weekend, as a vast majority of students leave town. But September 25th was Corri la Vita - a run/walk for cancer and I arranged for a Gonzaga team for that event. This past weekend I met up with some of my mum's friends who were in the area and we toured around a couple of absolutely beautiful Tuscan towns - definitely deserves it's own blog post - so look out for that soon :)

So that's pretty much my life right now, I'm exploring more and more each week, and expanding my little world to include more stores, markets, and restaurants (and one or two historical sites, my whole life doesn't revolve around food, although i'd like it to)