elyssa: five days in new york city

location: back in canada

i took fall reading week as an opportunity to head down to nyc. eat good food. drink good coffee. keep good company. and lastly, get in some good studying. the eating, drinking, and frolicking most definitely happened. the studying? not so much.

i got rained out. rain can be a serious morale killer. especially when every single book you're carrying gets drenched. and even more so, when you're standing on the street drenched down to your undergarments. thrilling, let me assure you..

i took the dismal weather as a sign from the heavens to shut the books and take the time to regroup. my days consisted of long walks alone through crowded streets and empty parks, with stops at hidden bookstores and many a starbucks.

outside looked like this:

inside, however, looked like this:

whole foods became my refuge. i went 3 times! traipsing through the beautiful columbus circle location and checking out all the goodies not found on canadian shelves immediately lifted my spirits.

indian food from the hot bar!

a mini fall cupcake!

seasonal lara bars!

honey roasted peanut butter!

blood orange chocolate!

i was in heaven. with food in my belly, even the grim outdoors became beautiful. lincoln center looked gorgeous in the twilight downpour.

with a change in mood, came a change in weather. sure enough, sunny skies for the remainder of my stay!

i started off one morning with yoga near bryant park at yoga to the people - an amazing, donation based yoga company with studios across the country. after walking 60+ blocks the day before, yoga was absolutely necessary..

yoga was my only formal exercise for the trip - but walking all day left my limbs feeling like they'd clocked several hours at the gym.

an emergency slim pret provided much needed energy on occasion..

some street nuts gave me the stamina for another 20 blocks or so..

long days left me craving a late night dinner of tofu and veggies at the zen palate..

and on my last day (joined by my mom!) - we walked a monumental 75 blocks and 12 avenues. darting through marathon runners gearing up for the big day (new york marathon - 45,000 runners!!)

our destination: candle 79. dare i say it?

candle 79 is my new favorite nyc restaurant.

and its vegan. oh my.

butternut squash wild mushroom crepe with beet salad and polenta fries.

antioxidant potion - sparkling water. concord grapes. blueberries. lemon. mint. ginger. agave.

freebie baby muffin.

tea and agave.

new goals:

now it's back to school and to the books for a grueling 3 more weeks. new york put me in a holiday state of mind..

christmas windows!

christmas cups!

..even with christmas on its way, the goal du jour is to stay focused. eat healthy. keep gymming and yogaing my way to sanity. study with purpose.

for the first time in forever i haven't been sick in months. must be the yoga. i shall keep yogaing.

i have the boy's birthday festivities and then thanksgiving around the corner. will be devising a bit of a clean week in anticipation of all the holiday frenzy. more on that soon.

current obsessions:

my new anthro turtle cardigan (dont judge, i love turtles). dreaming up thanksgiving dishes. christmas lights.

with love.

hira: storia di un grande amore

while everyone else is frantically searching for cheap flights around europe, planning extravagant weekends in barcelona, madrid, paris, and munich (oktoberfest! too bad i hate beer...) i am seeking something else. you know why i'm here. to learn italian. to be in torino. to BE in torino. hopefully, by wisely investing my time and money, i will come out of these four months with some perspective. every day, i think about what you said to me just before i left: 'there is no way you can go to italy for four months and NOT be changed'. i see it every day.

throwing myself into learning. in the last two weeks, i have gone from knowing absolutely NO italian to writing short essays and compositions. miraculous. recently, i purchased a childhood favorite, written in italian. my goal is to read five chapters a week and learn pages and pages of new vocabulary. the inside pages are already covered in my notes.

another way to learn italian? go to a calcio (futbol/soccer) match. on thursday, i went to the Juventus match at the stadium--i had purchased my ticket earlier than my friends, and so i was seated in a different zone. turns out, i loved being surrounded by screaming italian fans and the energy was flowing. they taught me the words to the juventus song that was chanted at various times throughout the match---juve, storia di un grande amore...

i went into this weekend with no plans. turns out, thats the best way to live in torino, because plans will evolve. i promise. friday evening started with a trip to the Bicerin, a tiny cafe in the middle of torino that serves up torino's traditional signature drink, the bicerin. there are only five cafes like this one that still serve the drink; the one we visited is the second oldest. bicerin a warmed concoction made up of coffee, dark chocolate, and fresh cream. so delicious. i can imagine myself here quite frequently when it starts snowing, but this can certainly keep me happy year-round..

later that night, the torino nightlife at its finest---i guess everyone is back from august vacations (people in italia like to take the month of august off and usually, the entire family heads south for the month, returning in the beginning to mid-september). lets just say that the sunrise looked beautiful over the river Po...

after a late night out, the best remedy for fatigue is found outdoors. long walks on the weekend have been keeping me healthy and happy (the pedometer you gave me works SO well--i love the stats and use it on my runs and long walks). heading over to piazza castello and piazza carlo felice, we come to the city center--alive with music and festivities. another day in the piazza. normal. 150 years of a unified italia coming right up.

appreciating young talent.

books festivals, CHOCOLATE festivals. free samples everywhere--the best local chocolatiers. i'm a lucky girl.

girl, put down that map. lets just wander through the piazzas.

i love my life.

hira: i enjoy long walks on the (beach) promenade.

today, i enjoyed an extra long walk by the river po that runs along valentino park. my roommate, regina from puebla, mexico, joined me for an adventure that took us to the greenest parts of torino, italia. my study abroad program, USAC (University Study Abroad Consortium) largely consists of American students, with some international students from Latin America and Europe thrown in for good measure. I have classes with students from Mexico, Serbia, Hungary and France---naturally, you know me well and have probably guessed that i have mostly been hanging with the international students/'foreigners'---although I am probably the foreigner in this case...I have never been much of a pub crawler, and so i choose to spend my nights having beautiful dinners with strangers and new friends, walking along the river and taking photos as the light changes, ever so slightly, to create the most wondrous scenery. i have been

struggling a bit with my OCD behavior--always feeling like i NEED to be doing something 'productive'. not allowing myself to just be. to breathe in the river scent. to follow that road that appears as if it will go nowhere. to climb those stairs that wind up to a hidden overlook. well, tonight i have been just...sitting. walking. sitting. walking.

perching. photographing. eating.

allow events to change you. you have to be willing to grow. growth is different from something that happens to you. you produce it. you live it. the prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

slow down.

ask stupid questions. growth is fueled by desire and innocence. assess the answer, not the question. imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

think with your mind. forget technology. creativity is not device-dependent.

still eating that gelato. i should maybe stop that. soon! it doesn't help that i live next to this particular gelaterria. fate?

oh yeah, i did actually mange to get an italian cell phone...it took me over a week, but it just didn't seem that necessary, ya know?