melissa grace kreider

Ciao a tutti!

This entry will be rather quick-finals are approaching and I don't have time to properly update! All I do is work, work, work.

This past weekend was my birthday weekend and I treated myself to a six-day-long excursion to London, UK and Hamburg, Germany. The catch? I went alone. Granted, I met up with a lovely girl in London who I met in Paris and is studying in Warick (us study abroad kids have the craziest stories...), but the traveling bit was done completely alone.

Why London and Hamburg, you ask? My very favorite band, Motion City Soundtrack (NEW ALBUM JUNE 12TH!!!!!!!!), were playing two nights in London and one night in Hamburg (coincidentally on my birthday). Not only that, but London was on my bucket list and I'm up for traveling anywhere at least once. For the record, all three shows were special and amazing in their own way, and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday! 

London-Four things; delays, rain, English and Nando's. My flight from Pisa was delayed TWO HOURS due to "AIR TRAFFIC" [excuse me?] and I had to step off of the plane at Gatwick and hurry to XOYO for the first concert I had purchased tickets to. I was almost late and it caused me major anxiety. New city, completely alone, no idea where to go-I'm thankful that I'm well-versed with subway systems. I ended up making it with plenty of time to spare.

Rain. The entire time I was there from the minute I stepped off the plane to when I hopped borders, it was either cold or torrential downpouring. The real London experience! I didn't mind & refused to allow it to get to me-there's nothing I could do about it!

English. I will selfishly admit that it was wonderful being in an English-speaking country. It felt great to be 100% completely understood when I spoke and not have to cut corners. On Thursday I met up with my friend and she showed me around. Buckingham, the London Eye, Cybercandy (massive candy store-in love), but most importantly...

NANDO'S! Famous for their chicken, Nando's is a chain restaurant in the UK that serves dangerously delish sandwich-things. Since I do not partake in foods of the meaty variety, I had a bean burger with hot sauce, a side of ratatouille and finished up with CHEESECAKE AND CUSTARD. I want to go back. So. Badly. It was fantastic!

My last night in London was spent at the second night of Motion City Soundtrack and friends I had met the night before. I got up the next morning at 4:30 to fly to Hamburg.

The band signed my tattoo (why: it's a Motion City Soundtrack tattoo) !

Buckingham via torrential downpour! Still beautiful.

Hamburg-Three things; smoothies, German, and punk rock.

Smoothies: I arrived in Hamburg around 9am Friday morning and immediately entered the first supermarket and saw what I have been looking for since my arrival in Florence: Smoothies! These beauts were only 89 cents a piece; strawberry, raspberry and banana. For some reason, I can't find things distinctly smoothie-like in Florence, so I had at least two of these a day my entire stay in Hamburg. 

German: This language, I tell ya. Angry, angry language. Most of the time when I travel around, I can get by with the Romance languages; they're all similar in sound and pronunciation. GERMAN IS THE WONDERLAND OF LANGUAGES. I couldn't even try to guess what signs said or what people were saying to each other, let alone me. Very frustrating, but I found humor in the fact that no one could tell I wasn't a native. I am completely Aryan: fair skinned, blue-eyed, and before I dyed my locks red, dirty blonde hair. I was spoken at in German right off the bat and given a puzzled look when I obviously didn't understand. It was a great change from Italy, where I stick out like a sore thumb. ;]

Wait...huh?

Punk rock: The place I was staying in Hamburg oozed this weird, punk/grunge feeling. I liked it, of course, but felt unsafe walking around at night. There were so many homeless punx asking for money, just generally causing trouble. I loved it, but I had to be careful. 

When I said oozing-I meant it.

 Traveling Alone: Traveling alone was nice, actually. Therapeutic. I already love traveling, so that wasn't the issue at all. Traveling is almost like a game to me. A formula, you could say. To the plane to the shuttle to the train to the subway. This stop, that stop, west/east. Good fun, in my opinion! The only thing that miffed me a bit was not having anyone to share in my excitement of something new; I had no one to tell. In one aspect, it taught me so much to support myself and keep myself entertained, but it got a bit lonely at times.

Spending my nineteenth birthday alone? More fun than I thought it would be! Of course I would have loved to spend it with my family and friends, but I am on another continent and can't. In fact, I was in Hamburg, Germany. How could I complain?! I had Starbucks coffee and bagels for breakfast. I told the diner I chose to eat at that it was my birthday and they gave me free cheesecake. It was a relaxing day of window-shopping and at the end, another Motion City show. It was perfect with minor hiccups (getting lost looking for the venue, riot police, torrential rain, you know. the usual)! 

All of the members from the band signed my ticket, I got the setlist and a guitar pick!

 I'm headed to Milan, Amsterdam/Arnhem and Meerhout (Belgium) this weekend, look for words on that in the coming weeks.

Hope everything is well with you across the pond!

-m.

My contest winner, Amy Willoughby, finally received her prize in the mail!

     The association that I volunteer for is named LIDA, an acronym that stands for Italian League for the Rights of Animals. As a long-time vegan (vegetarian in Italy), I feel strongly towards this topic and I’m completely for protecting the rights of our fellow furry friends. LIDA was started in 1977 and is still active in the Florentine community today while fighting for the rights of animals-cats to kangaroos! One of the things that LIDA does is promote kennels that are in need of volunteers.  On Saturday April 14^th, my classmates and I traveled to one of the kennels associated with LIDA; Canile di Montesporteli. In the countryside of Florence, we stood in the freezing, pouring rain and visited with the dogs. Some of the dogs that were graciously given a home had been there since 2003 and one even as early as 2000. Seeing them there broke my heart.

I have a dog at home; Armani. He just turned a year old..

~Armani Appreciation Post 2k12~ I could never even imagine abandoning him or in some way having him end up alone, without an owner for close to a decade. I wanted to take each and every one of them home with me. Some of the dogs we saw were so excited to see us they were literally SHAKING. All these poor creatures want is a home and special attention. Going to Canile di Montesporteli  made me realize that the situation of strays is not unlike the one in America, only in Italy, the dogs are not put down after a certain amount of time of going unclaimed or adopted.

Leone has been in Canile di Montesporteli since 2003.     I just can't. It almost made me cry! I am so grateful that people like the ones we met at the kennel exist to give the 85 dogs dry shelter and food at Canile di Montespertoli. The property is privately owned and out of the goodness of their hearts, they have a kennel for stray and abandoned dogs. If I could, I would visit the shelter every single week just to play, feed, and visit the poor things since they crave attention so badly. Dogs need love, too! 

    I do not regret taking an Italian course with Service Learning because it puts me in real life situations in the Italian community and culture. Here in Italy it is ridiculously expensive to spay or nuture your pet, and it's a giant problem in Florence that LIDA and small kennels such as this one are fighting to change. If I didn't give my time to volunteering, I would never be aware of things like this and be able to make a comparison to my mother country. 

    While learning so much from one day, I'm still heartbroken over these animals..

Ciao for now,

-m.

The awesome ladies that run the place-planning fundraising events.There were two more of these complexes for housing.

You might be aware: Easter Happened. It was very strange being away from home for Easter this April because I was unable to gorge myself with Starburst jelly beans and eat dark chocolate until I puked. I mean, get up early and go to church with my mother then hang out with my family. 

But really, all of those things are what makes Easter, well, Easter. For me, at least! While you're abroad, you try to make as many things homey as possible. You might hang things on the walls, keep traditions, or for comfort, make food that your parents used to make you. For Holidays, we like to cram 10 people into our tiny Italian kitchen and cook a meal fit for an army. 

Before dinner I attended Mass at the church right down the road from my apartment, Santo Spirito. It was a beautiful service, and I took communion from a decrepit Italian preist.

Inside of Santo Spirito-phone quality.

After Mass, we walked back (in the pouring rain) and began the mad dash to cook for ten people. We were able to prepare things like dessert a few days beforehand.

My roommate shaped a bunny rabbit out of dough to put on top of our apple pie-adorable!

Either way we still had mass food to prepare-

The Assembly Line-but it all eventually got finished! We had appetizers of pizza bread (One of my roommate's family traditions!) and homemade bruschetta. 

Appetizers!

For dinner we had prepared a ridiculously wide range of food: pasta con pesto (for us vegetarians, and my favorite. I'm literally an addict.), salad, asparagus, breaded green beans, mashed potatoes and roasted chicken with onions, rosemary and gravy. 

The table at dinner!
     We tore through dinner and arrived at dessert: a two-layer cake covered in nutella and apple pie with panna gelato (cream-flavored, not vanilla!). I still can't believe how much I ate in one day; but it was so worth it. All of us ended up playing charades to end the day. Even the fact that our kitchen is miniscule made it feel more homey and comfortable! 

Pie <3

      Getting together and making food really made Easter feel special and it made me feel at home in Florence on a holiday that I usually spend with my family. When you're abroad, you really have to do things like this sometimes to keep your head. :]

Ciao for now,

-m

All of us girls, taken by Marisa's boyfriend who was visiting :]

Congrats to the contest winner, Amy Willoughby! This photo, taken in Key West, Florida, got the most likes on my fan page. Amy will be receiving something completely fabulous in the mail this week straight from Firenze itself! 

I reccommend that you check out Amy's work here on Facebook.

ciao for now,

-m. xx