Ja Picu!!!!

Last night I went to go get chinese food. That's right, chinese food... in Italy. Two of my friends in the program are both Chinese citizens so they found a place where we could go and get some Chinese-Italian food. And it was soooooo good! I had shrimp lo mein, spring rolls, vegetable fried rice, and chinese fried ice cream.

My main dish.

Gang and Dan both ordered for us in Mandarin, which is one way of compensating for our lack of knowledge in the Italian language.

Rae and her pineapple chicken and Dan's black bean chicken.

That's not Tripe...

So Dan and Gang Gang invited me over for dinner the other night. It was absolutely delicious. We had pork chops with pasta and tomatoes with scrambled eggs. I may or may not have mistaken the eggs for tripe (we bought some at the grocery store and I just assumed that's what we were having.) but it all turned out fine. I love how everyone here really enjoys cooking. We've all been taking turns inviting different people over.

Also, I'm super jealous of their apartment. So so so nice.

Todi...

So last Sunday we were fortunate enough to visit the town of Todi, located in the region of Umbria. It has been a longstanding tradition at Temple Rome to visit and explore the town in the morning and attend a wedding style Italian feast in the afternoon. First of all, Todi is absolutely beautiful. It is a tiny medieval town located on top of this tiny hill that overlooks miles and miles of farmland. We saw fields of wheat, watermelon, and ironically enough sunflowers; which are harvested and used to create oil. I kept thinking about my mom anytime we’d pass an acre or two of huge yellow and black fields of flowers. There are also tons of sheep, goats, and horses freely grazing throughout the region. We went into a few churches which are filled with beautiful pieces of art. And in the one we walked in to find an orchestra and opera singer practicing for Sunday’s mass. I just sat in the pew for half an hour and listened. The churches here are mind blowing. I could have sat in that church for hours just listening and looking around.

Todi.

Walking through Todi.

2nd church in Todi.

This was one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in.

It was also the one with the orchestra.

Natalie!

View from the courtyard.

View from the courtyard.

Coady outside in the courtyard.

Alex and Laura!

View from the second floor dining room.

Then the afternoon came and it was beyond describable. Sooooo many courses, so little time in between courses! Soooo wonderful! Everything was served with fizzy mineral water and white, red, and sweet desert wine that are all grown and made right on the property. I slept the whole way home.

First Course were these apertif's that I didn't get a picture of... but out in the courtyard they had blood orange juice (so good) and a variety of small finger-sized pizza's! Sooooo delicious.

2nd course: I'm not entirely sure what each type os meat there were...

But I think it was salami, ham, and wild boar.

3rd course: Cheese Pastry.

4th course: Risotto.

5th course: Wild Boar and pasta.

(My favorite.)

6th course: Venison.

(Way more appetizing than my picture leads you to believe.)

7th and 8th course: Potatoes. Chicken.

9th course: Salad.

10th course: Tiramisu

(My second favorite.)

11th and 12th course: Sweet Desert wine. Biscotti. Fruit.

13th course: Esspresso.

Hoagie Heritage Day...

So yesterday was one of those "only in Philadelphia" days...

Played tennis with Scott.

Had a lot of fun.

Realized how much I miss tennis.

And how out of shape I am.

Then we met up with Tim and Chrissy.

Biked to the PMA for what else...

Wawa Free Hoagie Day!

They gave out over 1300 hoagies that stretched over a mile long to anyone that was willing to wait in line. Being the frugal college students that we are we had no problem passing the time. Especially since we were able to get seconds... There was Wawa Idol, (which was basically Wawa employees competing in an American Idol contest), a Wawa cover band complete with a menagerie of Wawa jingles, a Rocky Balboa lookalike contest, and speech from Mayor Nutter.

To top it all off we waited as night approached and sat on the famous PMA steps and watched Rocky on a giant screen. There's something pretty surreal about seeing the place where you are sitting being displayed on the screen with Sylvester Stalone running on top of it.

Just an ordinary day in the city of brotherly love...

Argan...

A few weeks ago KB and I got together again in center city to catch up. It just so happened to be the same day as the Philly Pride parade so we watched as tons of people gathered between locust and Penns Landing. It was nice to see so many different types of people out and about in the city. There's just something about being in the presence of a large crowd that are just celebrating life.

Anyways after the parade went by KB and I decided to catch up over some lunch, which is starting to become a pattern with us. But definitely a pattern I enjoy, because it seems like anytime we go out together we find a great new restaurant. This time we ate at Argan Morrocan Cuisine, which is located in the lower level of a building on 17th street. (I actually have to duck to enter.) I had originally heard about it from Christine who said they had a really great variety of vegetarian options, but I ended up getting the lamb which was seriously soooo soooo good. And I need to find out what kind of bread they used. I'd liken it to a cornbread type pita, but even better. And warm. Sooo good. And at $6.50 a sandwich I was pretty pleased!

Long Overdue...

Ok-- I'm officially a bad blogger. It has been far too long. And I really don't have an excuse other than every time I go to update my blog my camera is either not charged, at Caitlin and Christine's, or back in Philly.

(So I guess those are excuses... lame ones, but still.)

Anyways; here is what i have been up to!!!!

(In reverse chronological order because blogger uploads photos strangely.)

Caitlin Bought a dress at the Kinetic Sculpture contest and art fair in Kensington!

Greg came to visit!!! And we creepily stalked Eric from "The Tim and Eric Show" for about 45 minutes.

End result: We didn't meet him, but definitely out-creeped our usual selves.

Lizabeast was probably making fun of CW here... most likely.

Laura Jane was also in attendanceeee!

Love this girl. AND she's from the 717!

Almost had to amputate.

It was badd--with two d's.

Luckily a bag of frozen pea's did the trick.

Next up: Thai and Laotian food with Liz, CW, and Chrissy.

The restaurant was beautiful, and very reasonably priced.

Exploring Passyunk.

(Note CW in the window)

This was the first week Chrissy moved into Italian Market.

We walked around to get our bearings and had lunch.

Dinner of champions.

CW made me peas and macaroni with an Arizona Ice tea as thanks for helping her clean the apartment.

And beleive me when I tell you...

It was soooooooo disgusting.

Still don't believe me, click here.

But look at how beautiful it is now!

Such a nice space, except for the no air conditioning.

Oh this night was great.

Cait and Dee made me spaghetti...

I ate it ALLL it was soo good.

And the two of them made extra because they knew I like to eat.

So considerate. Then we got sucked into HBO movies.

Mother's DAY!

Madre and Padre came to visit! Such a good day.

More on that later...

Kitchen slow dances with Dee.

I had a Birthday.

Wonderful friends, cake, and pie.

Alex got free tickets to see an early screening of the film "BABIES" in center city. And she asked me to go with her!

Sooo much fun. Sooo adorable. I want to go to Mongolia.

School ended. And with it, so did Sophomore year.

(This was actually one of our last meals this semester together

and it just so happened to be on my birthday)