What am I doing here anyways?

This is the dessert I created for my Restaurant Desserts class,
a pear tart with vanilla ice cream (it didn't freeze so I used it as a
sauce) and balsamic reduction sauce.

I only need 8 hours of credit to complete my degree in Management from the wonderful University of Georgia. Its crazy to think how quickly those 121 hours flew by! These 8 hours could be in ANYTHING, so I took this opportunity to study abroad. I'm at Florence University of the Arts studying at the culinary school Apicius, and to get even more detailed, I'm in the Pastry Arts Program. I'm taking 5 classes and getting credit for my internship working at the bakery run by the school. I'll describe these things in a little more detail below! I can't believe we just had midterms and that my time here is already halfway over! 

After my first week in the front I can foam the milk, by the
end of the semester I'm hoping to be able to make a bear
like my friend Rafaelo! 

Internship: The pastry students run a bakery here in Florence called Fedora. The 7 of us in my program are split into two groups, so every other week each group works in the morning preparing things for the shop. We make cakes, breakfast pastries, individual desserts, and sandwiches. One person also gets to work in the front of the store making coffee (espressos, macchiatos, lattes, etc.) and serving the customers. The we have to get to the store around 6:15 am so we can start right at 6:30. For me this means waking up around 5:30 am! For those of you who are late night fans, I'm getting up about the time you're starting to watch Kimmel!

This is by far one of the most interesting desserts I've ever
made: Tomato Ravioli in a mango "pasta". I was skeptical,
but it was really good!

Restaurant Production Desserts: This class is taught by Chef Ilaria. She is so full of energy! In this class we learn about how to create a menu for a restaurant, how to plate a dessert, and how to prepare a dessert in the proper amount of time for a restaurant. 

My version of a Sacher torte

Chef Simone teaching us how to make cremino

Italian Confectionery Art: This class is also taught by Chef Simone, and its a little more broad than the others, but lately we've been focusing on learning about gelatin, pectin, and xanthan gum. We've made chutneys, jams, glazes, and jellies.

Baking Techniques 2: The other students in my class took the first part of this class last semester so that's why its number 2. This class is taught by Chef Andrea, and we have 2 culinary students that join us. In this class we learn about the different types of meringue (did you know there are 3?), what type of dough is suitable for different types of recipes, and how to balance a mousse.

Dessert Styling: This one is also taught by Chef Simone. We learn about how to market and package desserts depending on the style of the shop, how to properly cut and dry fruits for decorations, and the art of piping! Thanks to all those "Happy Birthday"s I write at Bruster's on cakes, my piping is pretty darn good! 

My thoughts on Valentines Day

This week has been busy, and quite honestly a little tough. Getting up at 5:30 am to work at the bakery for my internship is tiring, and the weather hasn't been too cheery. Its been cold and rainy. I think the thing that got me (like that smoke got Sweet Brown, thankfully no bronchitis fo me) was that this was the first week where it really hit me that I don't have my usual support system here. I was missing everyone, but during this time, it made me realize how I've taken for granted the way that you all care for me. On this day when we celebrate love (or just big ol' boxes of chocolate, side note: do you think Valentines Day is Forrest Gump's mom's/Sally Field's fav holiday?) I want to take a minute to say how thankful I am for the love I receive every day. From my Heavenly father, from my parents, from my sister, from the best friends around, from my family, and my church family, and you dear blog reader, I can say with certainty that I am well loved! Sometimes its easy to forget, but I'm thankful for the reminders I've had this week. Here's a list of a some things that helped me remember to be appreciative of you all:

• Skyping with my dad
• E-mails from my mom
• Getting great facebook messages from friends
• Having a friend ask how she could pray for me
• seeing an amazing sunset from a God that loves me more than I'll ever be able to understand
• watching videos that some Northbrookers made for me before I left (they made me laugh and cry and I can't believe you sneaky loving people made those for me!)

 I often find myself dwelling on the things I don't have instead of being grateful for the things I DO have. So if you're like me, maybe you just need a little reminder of how you are loved. And here it is: YOU ARE GREAT! THE coolest. Awesome! Thank you for the reminders of how I AM loved, thank you for your love, and for sticking by me through thick and thin. I'd be lost without you guys, and I love each and every one of you!

Sending much love your way with a way cool European stamp,
Laura

P.S. I'm now the master (kinda) of making macaroons thanks to Mr. Miyagi's school of Macaroons

P.S. take two: Here's a song for you. Confession: I once attempted to pitch a fit for my mom to buy me this cd because I thought "The Way You Love Me" was the best song ever. Thankfully my mom did not give into the bratty attempt, but I got it as a Christmas present a few weeks later and then I felt bad about it. Good parenting move mom!

And now a bonus because I just thought of this song. I don't understand his jacket at the beginning, and its pretty obvious that this video inspired Beiber's dancing fever. Also, I wish the sight of my flawless abs could shatter a mirror.

First Post!

So here's my long overdue first blog post! (I'm looking at you LaShon) Now I'm officially a blogger. How does it feel you ask? It feels like I'm just writing an e-mail, but now I'm freaking out a little because I realize that its to the whole world. Hi world. Dang. That's scary. Anyways, I feel like I should start with a few disclaimers. Number 1: I'm not a writer, and I don't really claim to be one either. I'm sorry if my grammar usage makes you cringe, or if I'm not the most compelling person you've ever met. See, did I even use compelling correctly?! I don't even know. Blogs really make for a crazy sense of paranoia. I'm all for some constructive criticism and advice, questions, writing suggestions, just please keep from being too mean. Please. I also really don't want to be boring. So let me know if I am. Number 2: I will be sarcastic and try to make jokes. I know they're cheesy. Don't worry, I'll punch myself in the face for you. Number 3: I'll make comparisons on here to try to describe things better for you. Its how I link things in my mind, and I'm sorry if it offends you. I'm in not saying things in the US are better than they are here, or that Italy is way better than there. Yah dig? Sorry I'm not sorry. Ok. I think that settles it! 

Where to start? Where to start? I guess at the beginning. Sounds good. Cut to a scene of me freaking out in the Atlanta airport. Got that in your mind? Good. Now just make my eyes redder, and my hair a big mess. And then add in a bunch of people giving me crazy looks. Saying goodbye to my parents was pretty difficult mainly because I had no idea what to expect once I walked away. I've never flown by myself, and have only been out of the country once before. I'd been to the Philly airport before, so I wasn't worried. Plus they speak English. First leg of my trip = piece of cake. My flight went well, and was so fast! It was funny though because on our descent, I was looking at the fields thinking, man they need to water more or fertilize those or something. Only to realize they were covered with a little snow. I. Am. Smart. Don't worry about it. We don't get much snow down in Georgia! I got to experience de-icing procedures for the first time leaving Philadelphia. Basically its like taking the plane through a car wash. It was kinda fun to watch. My long flight to Munich is what scared me. It turned out to be just fine, and I ended up sitting by 3 other college kids studying abroad in Florence. Small world! But literally. The Munich airport involves quite a bit of up and down. About 10 different flights of stairs and escalators and elevators, so if you have to go there, prepare yourself. And all of the hallways look the same. Ellie told me about jail and how they make all the hallways look the same to confuse the inmates. The Munich airport operates under the same idea. Minus the orange crocs. We had to take a bus to our plane, and it was so weird to me to see snow on the ground since it was about 70 degrees in Georgia a week or so before I left. The flight to Florence went well too! I sat next to a girl from Florida (my first fellow southerner) and we flew over the Alps! The view was unreal. I can't even describe it to you, except that it looked like a backdrop in a movie! 3 out of 3 flights were a success. I'm now a world traveler. Can I get a sticker for that? Maybe a merit badge?

I thought landing in Florence would make things real, but I still just felt like I was going through the motions. We flew over an Ikea and I thought hey! Something familiar! When I went to get my bags, I almost didn't recognize one because it was completely covered in duct tape. Hey. Who put that there? When I lugged it off the carousel I realized why. It was ripped wide open at the top. Thankfully I don't think I lost anything. But thank you U.S. Airways for the superb treatment of my luggage. My other suitcase had a huge gash and hole in the side too. Whooo! Brand new luggage! I'm not too mad about it, except then I remind myself of how annoying it is, and the fact that I paid a pretty penny to check that second bag and I get pretty mad. Ok. Its fine. I was just excited to finally be in Italy! It was weird for me to have been talking about this trip for such a long time and then for it to actually happen. I kept feeling like it was still in the distant future, but no. I kept having to tell myself "Hey you! Wake up! You made it!" I met my program people in the airport and they gave us a packet of information and our keys to our apartments. They are a joke. I will take a picture of it to show you guys later. But they're huge! And kinda look like some kind of robot part.

I was the first stop to be dropped off at my apartment from our shuttle. I guess Don Corleone has first priority for his residents. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the fact that I live on Via Maffia. I couldn't make that up if I tried. When I walked in to our apartment, I wasn't expecting much, but ho.ly cow. Its super nice! Our walls are bright red and lime green. I felt like my middle school self decorated this place! But its pretty great. After I walked around the place, that's when things got real. All at once it hit me that I was here, and I freaked out. Again. I sat at the kitchen table thinking about what I should do now. Should I go out? No. You might get Taken. And sorry, but Liam Neeson isn't your dad. (Dad you're great, but you don't have a particular set of skills, that doesn't make sense to you I'm sure. It's from the movie) So I just sat for a bit trying to take everything in. And then my roommate walked in. I kept telling myself "Be cool. Be cool. Try to look like a normal human being." I'm really great at the pep talks. She's really nice, and she has been to Florence before! I felt so relived that a. she's been here before and decided to come back and b. that she survived. Side note, another pep talk I'd give myself was "hey, if the cast of Jersey Shore survived here, you can survive here." Social Darwinism right? 

How am I already to my 5th paragraph!? This isn't an essay. I didn't even have a thesis statement. Now I'm worried that I'm boring again. Ok. I'm going to end this post soon. Promise. My other two roommates are really nice too, and together our apartment represents America pretty well I think. Washington state, New Jersey, northern Virginia, and finally Georgia! Its weird for me to write this post because all of this happened about 2 weeks ago, and its so cool to see how I've really actually settled in here. In a way I wish I could go back and tell myself to stop freaking out and that everything is going to be fine! Culture shock was something that people had told me all about, but I wasn't too worried because I'd like to think I'm a pretty flexible person, but dang. It was a roller coaster of emotions the first couple of days. Starting classes helped me settle into a routine, and now it feels like I've been here for longer than I have. I say that, but at the same time I know there is still so much for me to learn about living here! This is where I'll leave you for now, and I promise to try harder when it comes to updating this!

This song has been stuck in my head since the Atlanta airport. You should watch this and we can be kindred spirits with this song stuck in our heads together!