I hope they call me on a mission!

Well, I've officially submitted my mission papers! What does this mean?

• I'm going on a mission!!
• I will be gone for 18 months.
• I don't know where I'll go yet - I don't get any say in the matter (it's all up to Heavenly Father!)
• I don't know when I'll go - I put Jan. 1 as my availability date, but it's not likely that I'll leave that soon.
• I will be preaching the gospel every day!

Now, this was totally unexpected. Before a few months ago, girls couldn't leave on missions until they were 21. But then General Conference came along (a big gathering of members all across the world where we listen to prophets and apostles of our church), and our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, made the announcement that changed a lot of lives:

CRAZY. My heart pounds so hard every time I watch it! I was just sitting there, watching conference on a projector in our little church building in Italy, when all of a sudden a wrench was thrown into my future plans. A huge, amazing wrench! You see, I wasn't really planning on serving a mission. I wasn't opposed to the idea, but I figured that by the time I was 21, I'd have a lot of other things going on and I wouldn't be able to go. But now? Perfect timing!

It didn't take long to make the decision to go on a mission after I heard the announcement. Usually I cannot make a decision to save my life, but this one was strangely easy! I guess it was really important that I get this one right.

I am so excited to spend a year and a half serving the Lord and teaching people the gospel. I already feel love for the people I will be serving, even though I don't know who or where they are, haha. Of course I'm also super nervous - If I weren't then I just wouldn't be the Panicky Pigeon, now would I? But that's okay, because I know this will be the experience of a lifetime.

Everyone in my family is freaking out about my mission call - it should come in a couple weeks, and then I will find out when and where I'm going! I, strangely enough, am not too worried about it. I know that wherever I get called will be where I'm supposed to go, and I'm not too picky anyway. Nobody told me that the most nerve-racking part would not be where I'll go, but the fact that I am going!

I know this church is true, and I cannot wait to find out where I'll spend the next year and a half! If you have any questions, please ask me because I LOVE talking about this!

DREAMS DO COME TRUE

All my life since a few years ago, I have dreamed of making a font of my own handwriting. Maybe it comes from my aforementioned obsession with preserving myself (note to self: research that), but for some reason it became a serious goal of mine to someday create my own font. I found a computer program that would assist me in my quest, and I was going to ask for it for Christmas.
One fine day, I pinterested upon an iPad app that lets you create your own fonts. I was so excited! It's called iFontMaker, and it was like $6.99! AND NOW I CAN MAKE ALL THE FONTS I WANT!!!!! So, without further ado, I'd like to present "AnnesFirstFont," a very creatively named font, if I do say so myself:

I started by writing the alphabet down on a piece of paper without really thinking about it (you know, so that I would have something to reference when I inevitably panicked and forgot what my real handwriting looks like). Then I just followed the prompts on the app, and voila! (or do I say "ecco!" now?), my own personal handwriting app was ready to use! If only I had better handwriting... But I really wanted to stay true to my real handwriting, so I left all my letters how I really write them, even if I know they look stupid. So let's all say a little prayer of thanks that I finally learned how to write my 9's - no joke, I used to be laughed at for them, and I remember being told "that is the worst way of writing a 9 I have ever seen!" on more than one occasion... I finally learned about halfway through high school.
Anyway, I have finally come to terms with my sloppy, juvenile quirky, unique handwriting. I've embraced it! It's the product of hiding my homeschool handwriting workbook so I wouldn't have to do it and basically being a Hopkin girl (sorry, sisters - we have to be the worst at handwriting. EVER). It's got... Character?

Italy's Best Kept Secret

Okay, so Ravenna isn't exactly a secret. It's actually home to tons of very famous mosaics. But you never really hear about it! Anyway, I'm in love with mosaics now. And Ravenna. We were only there for a day, but I really came to love what might be the only flat city in Italy. Even though our group of 24 girls stayed in the ghetto, and a kindly old man advised us not to walk in the direction of our hotel at night. Whoops.

I wish I would've snuck pictures of my very favorite mosaics that I saw at S. Apollinare, but I was obedient and didn't take any. Boo. Isn't Ravenna cute?

A Day in the Life: Siena

I didn't want to post this until we'd left Siena, because who knows what crazed lunatic could be reading my blog, just waiting to find out my usual route to school so he could abduct me and my roommate and kill us... So, I am posting this when I am safely out of Siena (to any crazies out there: HA. Joke's on you, I'm already gone). Anyway, I am a big fan of record keeping - right now I have my regular journal, a smash book, a page-a-day journal, this blog, and a sketch book. I have developed a sort of obsessive need to preserve myself so that when I am gone, my posterity will know who I was... Okay, this blog post has gotten off to a much more morbid start than I intended.
Anyway, I have loved living in Siena so much. I have learned so much, and I am so grateful for the time I spent here and all the people I have met. I am going to have some amazing memories of this place, but sometimes my brain is lame and forgets important stuff. So I decided to go around and take pictures of all the everyday things I have gotten used to seeing and have somehow become ordinary. And believe me when I say that the following collage contains a fraction of a fraction of the pictures I took. Like, a fraction.

1. This is the desk I like to sit at in the student room at my school. I do lots of homework and internet-ing here.

2. The Duomo! Isn't it pretty? I've been here like a million times. The marble floors are only uncovered every once in a while, and we were lucky enough to be here while they were visible.

3. San Domenico - we come on field trips here a lot for Humanities 201. Inside is the strangest mish-mash of random art I have ever seen, but that makes it kind of cute.

4. THE CHRISTMAS STORE. I have no idea what it is for the other 10 months a year, but one day this store just popped up on my walk to school.

5. Just a pretty view from my walk to school.

6. This is a wall in the student room at my school. It's a picture of all the different contradas in Siena (such as unicorn, goose, etc.).

7. The Campo! We pass this on our way to school, and we come here to sit and chit-chat all the time. I like how everyone just sits on the ground and hangs out. I wish we had places like this at home!

8. La Bottega next to our school, where I buy lunch a lot.

9. Another piazza we pass on our walk to school every day. It looks really cool lit up at night!

10. This is my typical breakfast setting. Elephant placemat, mug with a 3 on it (I have no idea why - Katie's has a 6 on it). Every morning we are fed yogurt with cereal in it, fruit, milk with nesquick, and either a pastry or another carb (the last part is optional).

11. The laundromat where we (occasionally) do laundry. It's a little more ghetto than other laundromats we've found, but it's cheaper. And that's what really counts.

12. The creepy little sad boy picture that stares at me as I sit on my bed.

13. The window in which we check ourselves out each morning on our way to school. Yes, we are wearing the same cardigan.

14. The Campo, this time at night. Hands down my favorite place in Siena.

15. The Tartuca fountain on the street to our school. Each contrada has a fountain, and we aren't really sure if the water from this one is potable or not, but we drink it anyway... We call it turtle water.

16. Pretty red Vespa. *sigh*

17. PIGEONS, Y U NO LIVE IN ALASKA??

This is my beautiful Siena, that I will remember and miss forever. Don't get me wrong, I love America - the land of the free, the home of the abundant public bathrooms. It'll be great to be home in a few days. But this has been an amazing semester, and Siena will always have a special place in my heart. Forza Siena!

New Resolve

Since I only have a little while left in Italy (wahhhh), nostalgia is starting to hit me (I don't think you can actually have nostalgia for something you still have. But that's not important). I could write a list ten miles long of all the stuff I am going to miss, and one item on that list would definitely be fashion. Everyone dresses so well here (okay, maybe not the highschoolers)! I feel too casual to walk through the streets of Siena when I'm wearing a cardigan, scarf, and boots. I keep telling myself that when I get home to my full closet, I will dress nicer from now on! I wish I had taken more creeper pics of people's cute outfits, because I only have a few...

*Sigh.* Italian fashion, I will miss you.

San G.

This weekend, we had Thursday and Friday off for fall break (which I think should always be observed by BYU). On Thursday, we went to Florence (yes, again. It's really pretty there!), on Friday we did laundry and homework (see? I'm still being responsible), and on Saturday, my roommate Katie and I decided to return to San Gimignano (which we have started calling San G.). We had been there before with our host parents, but it was just for a couple hours and it was raining, so we decided to go back. I'm so glad we did.

This time, we decided to walk all around the walls, which brought us to many magical scenes. One little gem was the park where I took some creeper pics of those small children. Their parents didn't see me though, because I was hidden behind a wall and a tree. Stealth mode, you know? Katie and I decided to play at the park too, and I got some pretty good pics of her, if I do say so myself!

As we walked around the beautiful walls of San G., we came upon some lovely views. Now, I've seen the Tuscan Countryside (and I mean, I've really seen it), but this time it was fall. And there's really nothing quite like autumnal Tuscany.

I know I've said I love my life plenty of times before, but I didn't even know the half of it. So now, let me just say with perfect conviction, I LOVE MY LIFE. I'm so glad we came to San G. To be perfectly honest, one of our main motivations in coming was to eat more of the world's best gelato... So I guess you could say that we came for the gelato and stayed for San G.

The gelato is literally the best thing I have ever eaten in my whole life (and I don't mess around with the word "literally"). Words really cannot describe. And since it's fall and it gets dark earlier, we got to see the countryside at night, which was really cute but does not photograph well. In any case, this was one of the best days ever.

This is 'alloweeeen

I didn't expect Halloween in Italy to be that exciting. It's fairly new here, so I was surprised to see store windows selling Halloween decorations. Now, they definitely go for the more scary themes here, whereas I prefer to ignore the creepy parts of the holiday and take advantage of the pumpkins and leaves and princess costumes and massive amounts of candy. My favorite part of Halloween here is how the Italians pronounce it: they either over-pronounce the H, as in "hhhhhhhaloweeeeeen," or they don't pronounce it at all, as in "'aloweeeeen." It's cute.
My study abroad group decided to throw our own little Halloween party, but we had it on Monday night instead of on real Halloween since we have a midterm due at midnight tonight and we knew we'd all be working on that (I would like to point out that our American professor who knew full well that tonight is Halloween and we should not have to be working on school is the one who made our midterm due tonight. *cough*). We all dressed up as whatever we could come up with what we had brought with us to Italy. I decided to be a zucca (pumpkin)! If abundance of pins on Pinterest is any indication, I figure people must really be in love with pumpkin lately. I just wrapped a blanket around myself and zipped my orange hoodie over it. Easiest and comfiest costume ever.
At our party, we ate cake and gelato, played this fun charades game, and had a variety show. We had been forewarned about the variety show and each set of roommates was encouraged to do something at it. Well, my roommate Katie and I are not very talented. So we didn't really prepare anything until the night before the party when we were laying in our beds. For some reason, we started singing "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago to each other. Why? I don't know. It was neither the first nor the last time spontaneous roommate duets would occur. As we laid there after a long day, weak and weary, performing the song at the variety show seemed like a really good idea. But we knew sometimes ideas that seem great at night don't seem so great in the morning, so we decided that if it was still a funny idea by breakfast the next day, we would sing our duet in the variety show.
It didn't seem funny in the morning. But when we were at the party, after having played a crazy charades game and having eaten gelato, it seemed like a good idea again. So we sang (not lip-synced - SANG) and danced to Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" for our study abroad group. I think it went swimmingly.

I don't know.

Happy Italloween!

Misc.

It's been sort of a slow week (yes, that can happen in Italy, too). Not much to report, except that my roommate and I taught Relief Society in Italian on Sunday - that was pretty cool! I think it went well. We mostly followed a script we had written in advance, but sometimes we had to improvise. It was scary, but a good experience! Anyway, I thought I'd just post some miscellaneous pics for fun since I don't have much to blog about. Enjoy!

The Ponte Vecchio

More Firenze

The Fortezza in Siena. Fall has... Fallen?

The Siena Duomo

Siena, ti amo.

The end!

Livin' the dream.../nightmare?

How do you condense eighteen hours and twenty miles into a small-ish blog post? I don't know, but I will try.

On Friday, we had a day off school. We've already done all the must-see's, so a few of us decided to have a relaxing stroll around the Tuscan countryside. So we awoke at 5:30 AM and hopped on a bus to Pienza. The plan was to hike from Pienza to Monticchiello to Montepulciano - thoroughly planned by one of our friends and estimated to be about 6 miles. Doesn't sound too hard, right? We got off the bus in Pienza, which is famous for its pecorino (sheep cheese), so we explored the adorable little town and found a market at which we bought pears and cheese. Then we enjoyed said pears and cheese overlooking a breathtaking Tuscan landscape. So far, livin' the dream.

Pecorino!

BTW, I forgot my camera that day. Because I would forget my camera on the day featuring my favorite thing ever, the Tuscan countryside. Oh well. I just used my iPhone (which only lived for part of the journey...). After our little snack in Pienza, we hiked to Monticchiello. This part of the hike was glorious. We walked along a dirt road, enjoying the sunny day, and there weren't many hills. As soon as we got to the entrance of Monticchiello, I had an overwhelming deja-vu moment - probably because I really had deja vu'd this town with my family last time I came to Italy. It turns out the adorable, quaint little town I think about all the time when I remember my first trip to Italy is actually Monticchiello, and I just didn't pay attention enough to the names of towns when I was 12. All these memories came flooding back to me, and it made me miss my family! I could remember sitting by my mom on the steps to the church, and my dad laughing (probably politely, I now realize) at me sticking my finger in this little hole in the church (kind of the same concept of the Mouth of Truth - it was an inside joke?). I think Monticchiello wins the world's most picturesque town award.

Monticchiello

After we ate our panini, we were on the road again. Now, here's where I have to condense. We found the trail we were supposed to take, but it was marked "Privato," so we were too nervous about getting in trouble to take that one. We could either accept defeat and turn back to Pienza, or we could take this other road that we figured would eventually lead to Montepulciano. We chose the latter. At this point, we should've only had a few miles left if we could've taken the private road, but it turns out the public road is super long. And it turns into a highway, where cars go swooshing past you, and occasionally they honk. But it waits to turn into a highway until you've walked so many kilometers that you no longer have the option of turning back. It's so helpful when Italians honk at for walking on the side of the road. I feel like yelling, "BUILD A STINKIN' SIDEWALK IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO WALK HERE!" Sorry. This has happened to our group a lot in Italy. Anyway. I was having a good attitude, and it really wasn't hard to until we had been walking on the highway/jumping into the ditch on the side of the road as cars drove past and a praying mantis decided to pray on my ankle, which was not only freaky but kind of painful. And, for me, that's when the day really went south. See, it was pretty hot outside, and we'd walked much more than six miles at this point, and one of the girls in my group became extremely dehydrated, to the point where we couldn't walk very fast or else we would get separated. In the attempt to condense, I will just say that after walking for a very long time, we came to a sign saying "Montepulciano: 4km" and after 4 kilometers, we came to another sign saying "Montepulciano: 6km" and that was still a lie (Mom: "Scottish understatement much?" comes to mind). Eventually, we made it to Montepulciano, 10 minutes late for the last bus out of Montepulciano. Commence panic mode. All of our stressful-situation sides came through. It turns out distressed Anne gets very quiet and just mourns inside. It started getting dark, and eventually we made our way to the train station, which was closed (as was the tourist information center), and my phone died. We found a hotel, and decided before booking it we would call our host parents from a payphone to let them know we would not be home for our delicious dinner that night. Luckily for me and Katie, Paola and Marco came to our rescue! We really do have the best host parents ever. We said our goodbyes to the other girls (they decided to take a taxi home), went to the Conad, and feasted on a curb while we waited: bread, prosciutto, cheese, chocolate, and Diet Coke - the works. That night, we didn't set our alarms for the next day. I had the best night's sleep ever. One girl calculated it using Google Maps, and it turns out we walked about 20 miles, probably more when you add in exploring. It wasn't really that hard, it was just stressful - you know I'm prone to panicking!

Tuscany!

(I'm still glad I went - I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on this!)

Anne vs. Food: Florence Round Two

Last weekend, we went to Florence again. Our first day, we did all the educational stuff - the Uffizi, the Academia, the Medici chapel, etc. Unfortunately, they don't let you take pictures of any of that. So, suffice it to say that all of that was really cool and amazing and I love my life.
That night, we were on our own for dinner. Because of the good reviews we heard from some of the girls the last time we were in Florence, we knew exactly where we were going for dinner: The Diner. Yes, a real American diner, complete with English-speaking waitresses and free pitchers of water.

CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

Let's pretend it didn't rain that day and make my hair really frizzy and weird in that picture. I went for the breakfast-for-dinner option and ordered my very favorite thing in the whole world, chocolate chip pancakes. It's been too long, CCP. I almost couldn't finish the three massive, delicious pancakes they brought me (the depressing thing is that this was probably fewer calories than my usual dinners with my host family). I couldn't even bring myself to feel bad that I was eating at an American restaurant in Italy. I eat authentic Italian food every single night - I kind of missed American food. We had a blast speaking really loud english, putting our elbows on the table, shamelessly taking pictures, guzzling our free water, eating the free candy, using the free bathroom, etc. We had a typical American restaurant experience, and I have to say it was just what I needed after more than a month and a half of suppressing my inner-American.
Going to the diner for dinner wouldn't have been that shameful - I mean, I think it's pretty understandable to be craving some good ol' American comfort food after such a long string of Italian meals. But the truly embarrassing part is that we returned to the diner for lunch the next day... Apparently the pancakes didn't hold me over for long. What I really needed was a hamburger.

Not just any hamburger - a BACON CHEESEBURGER.

Oh man. Finally, real bacon, not pancetta. This picture was snapped in the one millisecond I could restrain myself before shoving this delicious hunk of amazingness in my mouth, grease streaming down my hands. And let me tell you something about the Italians, they have magic potatoes. Like, their fries are better than in America. And that's the beauty of the Italian diner. Well, that and the fact that, like the other restaurants in Italy, you don't have to tip.

Carboverloading

Last weekend might have been the best weekend ever. We had Friday off at school, so lots of girls in my group took weekend trips. Some friends and I decided to go to Cinque Terre! Now, I didn't know a whole lot about Cinque Terre except that there are lots of pretty pictures of it on Pinterest pinned to people's "Places I want to go" boards. But that was enough to tell me that I should want to go - Pinterest never lies, right?
Now, you've heard of carbo-loading - when marathon runners stock up on carbs so they will have the energy to run 26.2 miles. Well, we took that concept a little too far this weekend. We carb-overloaded. Cinque Terre is known for its focaccia and its pesto. We took advantage, to say the least. But we were preparing for our hike?
The day we arrived, we stayed in the first little town, Riomaggiore. We explored the colorful little town, swam at the beach, and ate at an adorable, delicious restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was like a dream!

It turns out, Riomaggiore keeps the tourists away by setting their clock tower to chime for five minutes straight at 7 in the morning. Go figure. We got up and got our hiking gear on - heavy backpacks and all. Even though I normally despise hiking, I was pumped for this one - how many times do you get the chance to hike the Cinque Terre?
Before we left Riomaggiore, we ate breakfast at what we have dubbed the best bakery in Italy, maybe all the world. It was called Panificio Rosi, and everything in there looked amazing. We picked our pastries and climbed on some rocks by the shore to eat.

I'll never feel the same about breakfast.
Then we set off on our hike. Cinque Terre's cruel secret is that the hike between each town gets significantly harder as you go on. Normally hiking straight up the side of a cliff when it's a billion degrees and 100% humidity wouldn't be my cup of tea, but the views were amazing and I had a blast! The whole time, I just kept thinking how blessed I was to be there. Plus, I think we managed to work through about 1/8 of the carbs we consumed. And each town we came to was adorable and somehow unique - I was in heaven.

After we hiked all the way to the last town, Monte Rosso, we had a little bit of time to cool off by the sea, grab some focaccia, and jump on the train back to Siena. I loved every minute of our trip, and if I ever become super rich, I'm buying a colorful little apartment in the Cinque Terre. And a gym membership.

Florence, round one

For my Humanities 201 class, we took a little field trip on over to Florence yesterday...

Firenze!

It was beautiful! And the view was well worth the 400+ steps to the top of the duomo. Not to mention I had the BEST panino yesterday - prosciutto, brie, and sun-dried tomatoes. We will definitely return on our own time so we have more time to explore. As gorgeous as Florence is, though, I am grateful to live in Siena where everyone's a little more relaxed.

Siena has a McDonald's...

As fun as Rome was, I am so excited to be in Siena! Except I don't love homework. But besides homework, it's great! Okay, besides homework and trying to figure out laundry. But there are a lot of things to love about Siena, and I would say two of the most obvious are the abundance of dachshunds and pigeons! Haha seriously, though, I have never seen so many dachshunds in my life. And there are pigeon feathers floating down from above, like, all the time. I think I might be in heaven. No wait, it's just Siena.

The world's cutest pigeon

How cute is that pigeon?? It flew down and landed in the Campo near us and I think I almost had a heart attack because it was so cute! Look how fluffy it is! Okay, enough about the pigeon. The world's cutest pigeon. That was just chilling on the ground, taking a break next to us. With its fluffy feathers. Okay, really now, enough.

I love my host family! My roommate, Katie, and I live with a couple right outside Siena. Our host dad raised two Palio horses and our mom cooks the yummiest, hugest dinners! So huge that Katie and I are in physical pain after we eat and we have to take a nightly passegiata to try to digest. I started out really nervous to speak Italian to my host parents (shocker), but I am getting better! I still panic a little when they talk to me, and all the Italian words I've learned turn into English or French...  But they are really nice and try to slow down and speak up. My host dad always says, "ANNE! COME VA? VA BENE?" They are so cute!

We don't have internet at our home, so we only have the school as a source for internet. But it closes on the weekend, which was a problem because we desperately needed wifi last weekend. After a long day of walking and exploring Siena on Saturday, we realized Saturday evening was our last chance to find an internet cafe or something. But we really didn't want to walk all the way back into town because we were tired and our feet hurt (when they told us Siena is hilly, they weren't kidding). Then we remembered that there is a sign for McDonald's near our house, and McDonald's always has free wifi! So we were like, "Let's just walk to McDonald's - the sign says it's two minutes away!" Sounds easy enough, right? WRONG. For a more detailed story, you should read my roommate's blog, but let's just say, it's by no means two minutes away. Maybe by spaceship or something. The only reason we kept going was the Big Mac wrappers strewn on the grown that signaled that we must be getting closer.

After walking for hours to get there, we had about 15 minutes to use the wifi and we didn't even have time to order our Cokes before we had to turn back to go to dinner. But we've never felt so patriotic! And this isn't the first time I've gone to ridiculous lengths to find a McDonald's - the Frankfurt airport with my family comes to mind. Maybe the saddest part of the story is that later that night, we found out we can get wifi by sitting on the steps to our school, even when it's closed.

p.s. This post's layout is a little weird... But I'm too lazy to fix it! Enjoy!

Arrivederci, Roma!

I really should post on my blog more often, I have so much going on! We finished up our two weeks in Rome, which I will miss dearly! I had a fabulous time. I really enjoyed trekking all around the streets of Rome with 23 other American girls and observing the many double-takes we attracted. And, you know, the masterpieces were pretty cool too. However, you can't always take pictures inside museums. But you can always take pictures of your amazing new friends!

At the Rome YSA dance (HA),  outside Villa Borghese, and waiting for the bus

I am so going to miss spending all day every day with these girls! But it's not like I don't see most of them every day at school now, haha. But we were seriously blessed to have such an amazing group!

You know what you can also take pictures of? Food. And since I felt too weird pulling out my big camera to take a picture in a restaurant, most of them are low-quality iPhone pics that I tried to snap inconspicuously. Which didn't really work. Oh well!

Bucatini all'Amatriciana, GNOCCHI, best Fanta ever,
fresh tomato pizza, Indian food, and Carbonara!

Oh gosh. It's hitting me how many carbs I have eaten... Whoops! This doesn't even include any of the breads and pastries we had for breakfast at our hotel. Speaking of our hotel, I think I'm going to miss it! We had a great time giving the staff funny personalities that probably weren't their real personalities. But we didn't actually speak to them much, so we just had to guess. Anyway...

Our hotel, our waiter, and the chef...

Okay, so our chef wasn't really Haymitch from the Hunger Games. But he looked just like him, so we called him Haymitch behind his back. Good ol' Haymitch, always so stern - but he's a real softie. And then there was our waiter, who we were pretty sure was like fifteen, but we had some good times with him anyway, haha. I didn't include a picture of the front desk guy, because we only had creeper pics of him. But we had a pretend personality for him too, haha.

Rome was a blast. It was exhausting, but so amazing. It was an experience I will never forget - especially because I now have it documented in about ten different ways. And now I am in Siena - more on that later. Ciao ciao!

Mangio mangio mangio

Rome has already changed me. For one thing, I have stopped doing my hair. The Italians don’t seem to care much about their hair, and you know what they say: when in Rome, eh?

I have been living the dream. Everything here is amazing! I can’t believe we have two weeks to tour Rome. The fact that it can be this hot and humid and uncomfortable, and I am still having the time of my life is almost unbelievable. That’s how awesome it is here.

The food. Is. To die for. We eat breakfast at our hotel, which is a spread of breads (rolls, croissants, sliced bread), meats and cheeses, yogurt, and cocoa. And various other delicious, kind of strange little things. Then for lunch, we go out and find whatever we want. So far, I’ve had a few panini, some pizza, or bread and fruit. Then for dinner, so far we eat at our hotel. They serve us in courses – how cool is that! Our first course is usually a yummy al dente pasta or a soup. Our next course is meat, vegetables, and some form of potato. And then we have dessert. Most the stuff they’ve fed us has been delicious! And we keep our waiters well entertained… In a couple days, we’ll be on our own for dinner, though, so I’m sure there will be more foodventures.

Then there is the Great Gelato Debate of 2012. Basically, it boils down to quality versus quantity. Do you go with Old Bridge and get three large, yummy scoops for 1.50, or do you go with San Crispino and get a tiny, leveled off cup of the best gelato in all the world for 3.00? Or do you get both?

Just kidding, Mom. I have never gotten more than one gelato in a day. In fact, I don’t even get a gelato per day.

Today, we went to church! I wasn’t expecting the ward to have its own building, but they actually do have a nice little church building – the same exact layout of the one my family went to in Spain at Christmas. It was great meeting some of the members and the missionaries. Everyone was really welcoming and they had translators set up for those that wanted them. I tried to listen without translation, though. I understood surprisingly well in relief society! I was pretty excited about that. I think they tried to talk slower, haha. The other meetings were a little harder to understand, but I picked up bits and pieces. And I straightened my hair today!

This first week in Rome has been incredible, and I’m sure next week will be too. And then we’re off to Siena for some hard core learnin’!

Non parlo Italiano

Well, I made it! I'm in Rome. And I must say, it is looking as beautiful as ever.
The journey here was long. I left Alaska the morning of Sunday the 26th, which meant waking up at 4 and saying goodbye to my parents on my birthday. I was a lot sadder saying my goodbyes this year than last year. Probably because last year I still had my girl friends and, like, half my family. And America. And texting. And the peace of mind that everywhere I go there will be fully functional bathrooms. But it was also exciting to know that I was embarking on and adventure greater than I've ever experienced!
At the end of my first day here, I think it's safe to say I've already gained 50 pounds. For lunch we went to this delicious pizzeria near our hotel, where I pointed at and received this bad boy:

Notice that the water is sparkling. I totally forgot to watch out for that. But I drank it anyway, because, no joke, it is 10 THOUSAND degrees here. And we walked over all creation. But anyway, while I was eating my pizza, I felt something touching my foot. When I looked down, I saw it was a pigeon! I took it as a good sign.

Maybe I should've straightened this a bit. But I'm tired.

This is kind of what happened to me.

I also saw three dachshunds, which I again took as a good sign.

A quick post on #birthday2012

Since I wasn't really in Alaska for much of my actual birthday, we celebrated a couple nights earlier. Well, we actually celebrated it like three times because I signed up for a bunch of birthday deals online for different restaurants, so of course we had to take advantage of some of those. But for my official family party, this is what we did:

I attempted to make my own cake, but it was sort of a fail. Okay, it was a huge fail. I didn't end up with enough frosting to do anything cute, and then for some reason it sort of erupted. But it tasted good? Overall, I was very pleased with my early birthday, thanks to all the cute decorations and stuff my mom did! Best 19th birthday ever.

Farr Family Fun

Last week, my mom's side of the family congregated in Alaska for a bit of a reunion. It was super fun having most of the family here! Even though I had to work during a lot of the days, I still got to hang out with everyone in the evenings. My grandpa gave me the assignment of being the official photographer for the week, and he gave me an A- for a grade! I was praying for a C, so I was excited about that.

We had a great time playing in the backyard, having Old Trusty competitions (the one-legged, kneeing fights), celebrating August birthdays, hiking, taking portraits (maybe not so much fun for some), and of course, running our traditional Race of the Midnight Sun.

One of the highlights was on Thursday evening. To start the night off, we had a piano duet by my aunt Jenny and my cousin Carson (they did great!). Then my cousin Kyle gave us an awesome report on his mission to Salt Lake - there was hardly a dry eye in the Farr family. Then it was time for my sister Grace to open her mission call.

WHAT?!?!? We were so excited for her! The video's a little small and fuzzy, but you can definitely hear how excited we were. I know Grace would've rocked anywhere she was sent, but the fact that she got called to Argentina (the same country my dad went on his mission to) was perfect. My dad talks about Argentina ALL THE TIME and is always asking if he can take us there on our next family trip. And since she's not leaving until January, we get to spend Christmas with her! We're all so excited and proud of her!

Now that our relatives are gone, it's been a little gloomy. It's always sad to see them go, after we've had so much fun. But I guess it's time for us all to get ready for school and fall and funventures!

New Design!

Like my new design?!? I'm super excited about it! This is starting to look like a real blog! Of course, I can't take much of the credit for my new improvements. In fact, I must give all of the credit to my dear friend Lauren Chun over at Click Clack Clunk - she designed my shiny new banner, which was my only motivation to finally choose a blog name. I JUST LOVE HER! How cute is that pigeon? She also designed me a button, which I would somehow post on here, but I haven't really learned that yet. But it's on her blog, so you'll just have to look at it over there. :) In case you couldn't tell, she's a little more tech savvy than I am. Just a little bit.
I chose the name The Panicky Pigeon because... Well, that's me. 90% of my time is spent in a state of panic and my family calls me Pigeon because of my continuing childhood love for perching on people (let's pretend I wasn't just sitting on my mom's lap an hour ago).
Hopefully with this new design will come a new resolve to keep my blog updated. I will be setting off for Italy in a little over a week, so that should supply plenty of topics for posts, right? Woo hoo!
Anyway, I hope my many followers enjoy the improvements! I cannot praise Lauren enough! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Okay. Bye.

If your friends jumped off a dam, would you?

Last night was a night of unparalleled strength - no, not in that I jumped off a dam, but in that my friends were able to force me to jump off a dam using only their powers of persuasive language. It all started with Kristin and I scavenging for our other friends who had left before us to get to a birthday party at Eklutna.

Woodsventure?

The hunt was adventure enough for me and Kristin - we had pre-resolved not to go in the water at all, even though we brought swimsuits and a change of clothes just in case.

However, the second we found everyone, the persuasion began. Can you even call hardcore peer pressure persuasion? Almost everyone else had already jumped off the Eklutna dam into the lake multiple times, and we were the few holdouts. I don't know what the fascination is with forcing your friends to do stuff they don't want to, but it's apparently quite satisfying. Kristin was the first to give in.

Spread your wings, Kris.

After I saw Kristin jump off, I felt a little jealous. I wanted to be able to say I did something cool this summer, too. My main worry was that I would get out of the water and be freezing. Lately I've turned into my mom with my "core temperature" issues and have been nicknamed Pink Bunny because I wear my fluffy pink robe around basically every day.

It only took a few minutes for my friends to get me to agree to jump off the dam.

SHEER TERROR

It took me a million years to even get on the dam, because you had to push yourself up there, which took willpower, and I was lacking that. And then once I got on there, Leanne had to hold my hand as I inched out to the edge. Literally inched. Once I got up there, the height became scarier than the cold aspect. Scenes from those teen movies where bad stuff happens to kids who give in to peer pressure flashed through my mind, with particular emphasis on that scene from A Walk to Remember where that guy jumps off that tall thing into the water and breaks all his bones. Or something like that.

I was probably at the edge of the dam for a good ten minutes. Whining, stalling, looking back on the good times I'd had in my life and wishing I'd spent more time with my family, etc. When I finally jumped, it felt like I was in the air for a million years. I figured it would be one of those experiences where you're like, "I expected it to be so much worse, but it really wasn't that bad!" But it was actually one of those experiences where you're like, "OH MY GOSH WHAT WAS I THINKI--" SPLASH. And then water goes up your nose and you forget how to breathe. And swim. And so you make Leanne lifeguard you to safety.

But now I can say I jumped off a dam. And I don't have to do anything else cool the whole summer. Or maybe the rest of my life.

Grace's Photo Sesh

My dear sister Grace is putting her mission papers in soon (woo hoo!!) and everybody knows when you go on a mission, you need a photo shoot! Being the frugal family that we are (okay, Grace is really the only frugal one), she had me take her pictures. We had a big fun day of beautifying before the new and improved Grace, bossy photographer Anne, and assistant Mom headed out into the (only) sun(ny day in July). It was super fun taking pics of my hilarious sister, and she and my mom had great attitudes, considering I was very bossy and occasionally somewhat offensive (at one point, I may have barked, "But now SMILE!").

There was laughter...

And there were tears...

But most of all, there was adorable Grace. :)

My dad, who normally isn't big on complimenting, even said she'll probably get sent to Temple Square now. ;) Of course we know these pictures won't really factor into where she's sent, and we can't wait until she gets her call and we find out where she will spend a year and a half! *Proud sister moment*