January 2013
1 post
122 days and some boot cut jeans
It has been 122 days since my last blog post and 1 day since I last wore boot cut jeans. This is a startling fact, I know. The boot cut jeans were so startling though that they did manage to bring me out of a four month blogging hiatus.
I am so scarred by my apparel choices yesterday that I felt the need to blog about it. Maybe that’s the trick, whenever there is nothing to write about, just put...
September 2012
2 posts
I don't even know what I have been doing.
I couldn’t even tell you how long it’s been since I posted without looking back on the blog which is shameful in and of itself, let alone the number of times that I start a post with some sort of acknowledgement about how long its been since I’ve posted.
What have I been doing while away? A lot of homework. Everything that is the anathema of excitement. For example, just now I...
August 2012
2 posts
back in action
First, let’s all collectively bid ado to my old laptop, Harold. He is dead. Fortunately, the brand-spanking new MacBook that I have been lusting for since I was in the womb is warming my lap as I type.
It was almost as if Harold could sense that our time together was coming to a close because he stopped functioning entirely a full week before my new computer was delivered. Awesome, thank...
I am 20
Though I like to think that I am the most alluringly eccentric 20-year-old ever, I am not. 20 is just a weird age. It is a bizarre in between year where I occasionally act like an ultra-mature adult but most of the time it seems like I should still be living under my mom’s supervision. Here is me being 20 today:
Being 20 means you are still young enough to get care packages of the most...
lobsterfest the aftermath: onion
Current sunburn status: peeling. Hence the onion title. My skin is peeling off like papery onion flakes. You think this is gross? TRY HAVING IT ON YOUR BODY. This striking imagery is to make up for the fact that there haven’t been any pictures lately. Disappointing, I know. It’s hard to get through a whole blog post with out something pretty to look at.
In other news I have finally...
July 2012
3 posts
lobsterfest
And so I have entitled my sunburn healing process. Lobsterfest. How many days will it take for my skin to return to a normal tone? No one knows. It’s current shade is somewhere between ripened tomato and firetruck. All over my body. My whole entire surface area is red, thanks to six and a half hours spent floating down an unknown Missouri river. I will say that the six hours were definitely...
June 2012
2 posts
water sports for all
So I took a one month hiatus. I mean, who wouldn’t deserve an extended blogging break after studying (gallivanting) in Europe and working hard (hanging out) back in St. Louis? Blogging is so taxing, let me tell you.
Before I get to the point, here are the highlights of what I’ve been doing for this month:
Sweating. It’s very hot here. Sometimes the air is so humid it’s...
April 2012
7 posts
HEY I LEAVE TOMORROW
…and by leave I really mean start my four day saga of going home. There will be overnight stays in Bologna, Paris, DC and then I finally get to Portland! It’ll be a marathon but I am ready. I have spent my last days being lazy all over town, eating all the classics in excess (lots of panini, kebabs, and gelato) and enjoying the sun after last week’s rain. The great news is that if you look really...
The Home Stretch (steak and goat cheese)
HEY LOOK I’VE ALMOST MADE IT! I have one week left of classes before I set (figurative) sail for the homeland. You might want to be hearing some sort of personal reflection on how my semester has been. No. I don’t want to talk about that right now. I just want to tell you about my troubles with goat cheese.
I would say that I spend at least one hour each week in Italy in active...
Magic Pumpkin. It's real.
So no one told me that squash season is not spring. Maybe they didn’t tell me because that is a pretty common knowledge kind of fact. However, I was undeterred by the seasons because I HAD to make a squash and farro and spinach recipe I found online (all my number one fave ingredients). I was on a mission. I took myself, mission in mind, to the central market only to realize that there was...
The Lundquist/Rhodes Ladies do Italy
So the rumors are true, my mom and sister did visit me. Either they love me enough to take a hectic overseas flight or they were just really craving some lasagna, I’m not sure which. Regardless, we had a wonderful time! For over a week I completely disregarded my homework and forgot that I knew how to cook so that I could only eat out. It was GREAT. We visited Venice for my birthday weekend...
March 2012
2 posts
I'm back! (Again)
I’ve returned from spring break fresh-faced (not really) and ready to buckle down for the last part of the semester (definitely not true). Quin and Georgia and I went through Vienna, Prague and Budapest by train for nine days and it rocked!
Highlights include staying in some sweet digs courtesy of Georgia’s neighbor back home. Her family has an apartment in Vienna that was one million...
February 2012
7 posts
Surprise! I'm not dead or kidnapped.
Hey, so maybe it’s been a while since my last post. I would blame that on the persistent lack of internet in the apartments right now, but if I was honest with you it would really be because of the artist funk that I seem to be wallowing in. What’s a semester in Florence trying to be a real fine art maker without spending a lot of time moping around not having any great ideas? AN UNAUTHENTIC...
CHOCOLATE FEST
This is what’s going on: THERE IS A CHOCOLATE FEST IN TOWN. It’s the biggest news since Vivi Market. Stands of chocolatiers have filled Piazza della Republica and I could not be more pleased. I have consumed a chocolate covered waffle on a stick, orangettes, some of Quin’s chocolate bar, and more than my fair share of chocolate covered fruit kebabs (HEY, AMERICA, WHY DON’T...
What the heck have I even been doing?
WHERE HAVE I BEEN!? It’s been one week since I updated about the Palazzo Pitti (or as we like to call it - the Pity Palace) and that delicious sandwich I ate (but really which one because they are all delicious and I update about all of them).
Here’s what’s happened:
1. We went to Siena. I saw a lot of art that I know is actually very important and very old (like...
The Greatest Discovery Yet
Florence could be a wonderful place based solely upon the fact that I feel like I am constantly making awesome discoveries. But of course Florence isn’t satisfied by just doing that and so it also has to offer superb cuisine, a romantic language, beautiful people, even more beautiful architecture… the list really goes on and on.
So I really need to tell you how overjoyed I am at my...
January 2012
18 posts
We're Back!
This weekend we went to Rome for a hot second and we made it back unharmed (even though there was a fair amount of jaywalking).
First, here is the list of the things we saw:
The Capuchin Crypt
The Coliseum
The Pantheon
The Sistine Chapel
The Trevi Fountain
Villa Borghese
Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa
The Trajan Column
Two contemporary museums, Macro and Maxxi
SO MANY THINGS IN SUCH A SHORT...
I've moved on: the transition to farro
But first here are the weekend highlights (mainly centralizing around food, I will warn you now):
On Friday we took a tour of a vineyard and olive oil farm, I Greppi di Selli. It’s run by this awesome family who has owned the land for years and really believes in making food that’s good for the planet and good for people (and honestly who wouldn’t stand behind that?). After a homemade pastry...
BARLEY CONTINUES
Are you tired of seeing pictures of barley yet? Because I am definitely not tired of taking them so just get used to it. This is what Quin and I ate last night: barley salad with apricots and green onions and walnuts. Plus a lemon/honey vinaigrette kind of deal. The best part of it is that we have gone through only half of our barley stash. Literally. That’s it. We are set for life.
In other...
So about that orzo...
Hey, so here is a hot tip: ORZO IS NOT ORZO IN ITALY. Are you a fan of that yummy, kind of rice-ish, looks almost like a pine nut pasta? Me too. Too bad that in the land of pasta, orzo is not actually a pasta. What a funny trick, right? In Italian, orzo means “barley”. Surprise! You should take a few moments to let that settle in while I continue to tell you how a one-kilogram sack of...
I Fratelli Gusta
Everyone wants to know about the food. As a Lundquist, it’s in my blood to be concerned with what I’ll be eating for lunch when I am still in the middle of breakfast. At noon I’m already thinking about what’s for dinner and have started counting down. It’s genetic, I swear, I cannot help myself. And by such luck I have found myself in Italy, the land of all things...
Sto qui!
The great things about Florence (so basically all things):
I made it. I arrived. I survived planes and trains and foreign airports and even taxis. Getting here was a feat in and of itself and it makes everything seem better.
We had a wonderful, happy Italian man as our taxi driver. When he asked if Quin and I were American, he told us all about how he had been to the...
