i've got a bad case of wonderlust.

mom, you started it.  when i read your email as soon as my alarm went off this morning saying, "would you at all be interested in a job in rome?!" i knew the productivity of my tuesday was shot.

really, my 2nd thoughts about returning to the states began on the night of march 4th after returning from the venice carnevale celebrations.  as you may recall, this is when my quarter-life-crisis began with a skype conversation with my parents.  as much as i want to avoid admitting it, my decision to move to nyc in the fall hinged greatly on the fact that i'd be able to travel easily and affordably at least until december 31st.

now that that's not an option, am i really ready to leave europe and the international life i'm currently living? as HM tells me, "it suits no one better." and i have to say, i agree - especially since we've become friends with our neighbors and the weather is improving, my social life has begun to exist again and we all must agree that this is an exciting development as i enter my 25th year of life.

then today, i get a letter from my mom with various clippings from newspapers, inflight magazines, and the like (turning into my grandmother, i swear) including a clip with a travel blog excerpt.  my mom had circled the clip and at the bottom written, "could you contribute to some travel blogs?!"

of course, as soon as i could, i went to the blog link, began exploring the website, applied for an online internship and now have about 14 tabs open with various other travel blogs, travel/adventure books on amazon, guides to the vagabond lifestyle, and links to finding organic farm work.  i think the most appropriate tab holds the amazon page for  the renaissance soul: life design for people with too many passions to just pick one. i mean, could that describe me more accurately?! i think not. (those of you still looking for something to send to me for my birthday -- ahem, i would like this, please)

so, mom, thanks for reawakening my wonderlust with our original skype chat and then for encouraging it with your email and snail mail (that just happened to be received in the same day).  in response to your question email question, "hi, have we met? hell yes i would like a job in rome if you know someone with one to offer."

i must tell you, that you may have (accidentally?) convinced me to not move back to the states in july.....

stay tuned, of course.

x!

cronicles della mia cucina: hummus!

so, being a vegetarian in italy is un po' dificile.  vegetarianism is a concept that they don't quite understand here -- you know, they like eating the animals.  so! while they cook loads of things at school with only veggies -- i was getting sick of eating just pasta/rice/another starch with various sauces at home for dinners.  i was missing my veggie foods that consisted of things other than pasta, veggies, and sauce. 

nothing a quick google search of "how to make hummus" couldn't solve! 

now, i had heard that finding tahini (an ingredient that is essential to hummus production) in bella italia was difficult if not impossible. however, the coolest little bio store down the street did not fail me and has jars of tahini for very cheap. success #1! 

i half followed recipes, and half made it up along the way but essentially, i sauteed a red pepper (because i couldn't find already roasted red peppers) and then mixed everything together in our little hand mixer device (production would be much easier with a food processor, however, we don't have one and i don't want to buy one).  

what is "everything"? i used:

1 can of chickpeas

1/3 cup of tahini

1 or 2 lemons worth of juice

2 tbls olive oil (it's good to use the oil from the jar of red peppers, if you get them already roasted)

1/2 c - 3/4 c of roasted red peppers (i roasted mine with peperoncino)

tobasco sauce (to taste -- this is the crucial ingredient)

then you mix everything together! 

mix as much as you like based on how smooth you like it (haha?)

and enjoy! 

since the first red-pepper hummus experience, i've made multiple other kinds of hummus including pesto hummus and black bean hummus (i found black beans! so exciting).

you can really just put whatever you want in with the chickpea mixture and it should be delicious.

xo!

cronicles della mia cucina: adding to the list

thanks to a few recent email requests to share recipes, i've been given too many new ideas of things to whip up in the kitchen.

at the top of the list, these fully loaded granola bars found on shutterbean.com (a new favorite blog to follow)

soon after, DR's deliciously cheesy risotto that he said "is easy and good if you can find fresh veggies and good cheeses," and i believe italy has both of those things.

and now i'm hungry.

xo!

my new obsession: the combination of writing and design

this is soon-to-be my new hobby. you know, when i have free time. the integration of these two artistic themes is just.so.cool!

see inspirations below:

jonathan safron foer's tree of codes

brian dettmer's "book autopsies" -- these are just so incredible.


nothing like a little art inspiration to get your tuesday started.  have a good one!

x!

my quarter-life crisis.

so, last night, after a wonderful day in venezia for carnevale, i was having a much-overdue skype catch up with the parents.

this is when it happened. my mom said, "elizabeth, i have some terrible news for you." after assuring me that no one was dead/seriously injured/ill, i (jokingly) asked, "haha did i get kicked off of your free flights?!" and she said, "no, but you will be in 2 weeks."  for some random reason, the airline decided that instead of allowing children to keep the benefits of free flights until their 25th birthday, they now will be cut off at age 24. and that will be me in 2 weeks.

for those of you who know me, at all, i used those free flights A LOT. what am i going to do?!?! last night i had dreams of being stuck in airports and all day today i've been feeling anxious, like i need to be going places! and doing things!

the bulk of my "move to new york in september" plan hinged upon the fact that NYC is a gateway city and i could very easily use the end of my free flights go visit all of the people i need to visit! what do i do now?! 


i mean, how do i get to alaska to visit seth? and to el salvador to visit jordan?! and to SD to visit amy and caitlin!? and all the other places i need to go?!?! i can't comprehend that i have to plan ahead more than 2 weeks and actually purchase plane tickets. it's blowing my mind. and before you call me out for sounding like a very spoiled brat -- i recognize that being able to travel for free is a MAJOR luxury. which is why i'm so distraught at having it taken away from me!!

the more i think about this, the more claustrophobic and stuck in one place it makes me feel.

xx

"what's the bora?" you ask. well, i have answers!

my friend, bien, recently asked to explain a bit more about what the bora actually was. in fact, the exact request was,

"please explain this "bora." i was looking at those pictures online and i read your blog, but... dear god! does that happen every year? just like that?? what do people do about their cars?? have sick "bora" car insurance?? how are you surviving this??! it looks terrifying slash really awesome because i like standing outside in hurricanes... the two times one's blown intensely through this part of virginia.


I WANT INFORMATION."


happily, i obliged to give a lesson on the weather of trieste. 

the bora is a north wind that comes to trieste from siberia. it's cold in siberia, thus, this wind is very cold.  trieste is "famous for" the bora.  we have the bora here like other places have snow in the winter -- it's our severe weather.  the bora will be around usually for 3-4 days at a time and beautiful weather can follow. it's exceptionally miserable when the boar is paired with a rainstorm -- this combination makes the use of an umbrella simply laughable. 

yes, it does happen every year and all the time however, this year (this week) there have been record-breaking wind speeds.  i think it got up to 140-170kph which is really fast.  it usually is pretty strong winds -- there are banisters along the sidewalks throughout the city so that when the bora blows you can hold on to stop yourself from being blown into oncoming traffic -- but this week has been particularly bad.  many triestini people that i've talked to have said that this is as bad as they've seen it in 10/15/50 years (it varies but the conclusion is that it's bad) and i'm pretty sure that they should've cancelled school. 

again, here are the photos of the bora this week.  the 2 most hilarious things that have happened this week because of the bora are:

1. the shutter on my window got shattered in half and blown off of the outside wall of my apartment one night.  would have sucked if i owned or rented my apartment. but since the school does, it's not my problem and is allowed to be hilarious. 

2.  there are a bunch of cranes down by the water and one of them FLOATED AWAY the other day. just like floated out to sea.  the wind just blew it out there. there are some pictures of this on both of those links i just pasted. 

one not-so-hilarious thing is that a ton (like 150) of people have been hospitalized from bora-related injuries.  these include being hit in the head by something that was blown off of something else as well as injuries from the wind picking people up and slamming them back down onto the ground. isn't that INSANE?! the wind slamming you down onto the ground so hard that you have to go to the hospital. 

again, i think school should have been cancelled all week because i have to walk about a mile to school each morning and i could have been hit in the head or slammed onto the ground. and i'm pretty sure my insurance would not cover such problems. 

other people's insurance, however, i think, does cover bora-related problems. like if something falls on your car or house from the bora then it's covered by insurance, i think. i asked but no one seems to be totally sure. 

and yes, it is terrifying. i have been having the craziest dreams this week -- the wind is SO LOUD outside my window and we are on the top floor of our apartment building so we could feel the whole apartment shaking at times.  also! i have to ride a bus/tram up a mountain each morning to school and riding a bus that's driving up the side of a mountain with insane gusts of wind is not my favorite morning-time activity. 

SO! that's a lot of information about the bora. and as you may understand, the weather here has contributed to my decision to not stay here another year. BUT! the bora is gone today and behind it has come beautiful blue skies and warmer weather. AND! it's friday! 

any questions?!

x!

the bora.

for those of you who are unacquainted with the bora, it is a north wind that trieste is "famous for."  it comes to us from russia, making it nice and chilly.  today, the bora is as bad as it's been since we've been here.

it's terrifying, actually. we're having gusts of 120kph+ wind and you can hear them everywhere. walking home, it was literally blowing us into things.  i mean, that's legitimate hurricane speed winds!

oh, and it just blew the shutter off of my bedroom window. oops?!

maybe school will be cancelled?

x!

check out v's post on the bora. 

UPDATE! check out this article for some photos of the bora and its damage from around trieste today.  sadly, school was not cancelled, so we had to walk and bus to school today.  walking was difficult and there were roof tiles and upside down things all over the sidewalks.  and the bus ride up the mountain was terrifying. and now it's snowing.

ALSO, multiple people at school today (who have lived in trieste fore their whole lives) were saying that they have never seen the bora this bad before.