Back from Italy

I'm back from Italy - super jetlagged and trying to sort out my class schedule before Monday (when classes begin - ACK). I promise I'll post pictures soon!

Really cute cake video

Trapped by icicles!

I looked out my window this morning and this is what I found:
Icicles had completely encased my window - one was over 4 feet long! Very cool, especially the part where I opened my window and broke them off - half in one fell swoop and the others individually. Snapping icicles is so much fun :-)

Money, resolved

I've been stressing about money lately - I didn't know where on earth I'd find spending money for Italy since I'm flat broke, and I also needed to buy textbooks within the next few weeks. Well, yesterday my needs were unexpectedly met. About a year and a half ago I entered a recipe contest, where winning recipes were published in a book. The prize was a free cookbook and 25 dollars per recipe. Yesterday, months after I'd forgotten completely about it, a notification and the cookbook arrived in the mail, telling me that not one but SIX of my recipes had been accepted. 150 dollars that I hadn't been expecting! I literally cried from happiness, because this will help me out a great deal, financially speaking.

Yesterday, I also babysat for two adorable little girls. It was my first time sitting for the family and we hadn't discussed the hourly rate. I was figuring maybe $10 an hour, since that seems to be the going rate around here. Imagine my surprise when they wrote me a $75 check - paying 15 dollars an hour! I just about fell over backwards from surprise.

Less than a week before I leave for Italy, and my money problems seem to have resolved themselves. I am extraordinarily humbled and grateful for this.

Singing for the Pope!

I'm in my college's choir and we're doing a Winter tour to Italy. We're leaving in about a week and a half, and I am super excited! I've been blessed to receive financial aid from the college and the choir so that the trip is fully covered. I took Italian for 6 years - 4 years in high school and 4 semesters in college, so hopefully I should be able to get around pretty well.

But wait! There's more exciting news...
*drumroll please*
The choir has been granted a papal audience - we'll be singing for the Pope! How exciting is that? Words cannot even describe how awesome this is :-)

National De-lurking week

It's national delurking week this week, so I'd love it if you readers (all 2 of them!) would stop by and leave a comment. It's always great to see who's reading this blog, so if you want, tell me a little bit about yourself in the comments. Also, if there's any questions you have or if you'd like me to post about something, let me know - I'd love to hear it!

Busy as a bee!

This week has been super busy:
Monday: Work in the morning, then appointment in Boston requiring 3 hours travel time
Tuesday: Full day of work, plus teaching a Turkish marbling workshop for 12 students
Wednesday: Full day of work, then dinner party, work meeting, and lecture in Boston
Thursday: Full day of work, plus teaching a bookbinding workshop for 11 students
Friday: Full day of work, plus teaching a bookbinding workshop for 11 students
Needless to say, I am super tired right now! I'm supposed to meet up with friends and watch a movie tonight but I may need to take a nap before I start cooking dinner and before I meet up with them! Fortunately, tomorrow should be pretty low-key. I'm thinking of just lounging around and reading tomorrow.

In other news, I managed to snag a new babysitting gig while teaching the workshop today. One of the women there has two girls, ages 3 and 5 and wants me to start babysitting next week. Yay! Good opportunity, not only to earn extra money for the Republic of Georgia trip but also because I love babysitting and taking care of little kids.

Random things

I just bought a new bible and it's really gorgeous - maroon leather with gilded paper.

My radiator in my dorm room is alternately squealing, shrieking, and buzzing. I think it's finally gone crazy.

Sometimes, when the ducks outside my window quack (they do it nearly all the time) I quack back at them and listen to them pause in confusion at the sound of what probably resembles a cross between a donkey and a foghorn. Yes, I'm totally nuts :-P

I taught a bookbinding class for the first time ever today, and it was a lot of fun. I thought I'd be really bad at teaching and not be able to explain things properly, but people were able to understand my ramblings :-) ....well, most of them anyway!

I love bluegrass music, something that my friends think is hilarious. What? I just love the sound of a banjo!

I once worked on a farm for 5 months - taking care of sheep, cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, etc. as well as planting and tending to vegetables and helping run a sugar house for maple syrup production.

I've drunk a whole quart of maple syrup (the real stuff, not the fake stuff called pancake syrup) in one sitting...and enjoyed it!

I don't actually like pizza, soda, hotdogs or hamburgers. I know, I'm so un-American.

I was a picky eater up until the age of 18 months old at which point I devoured a whole lobster meant for my parent's dinner. My parents were so happy to see me eat anything that they just let me eat it. After that, I ate ANYTHING. Except for the aforementioned food items.

I was invited to dinner by a literary club held in a Boston Brahmin townhouse last night. There was a BUTLER. Who rang a BELL when it was time to enter the dining room. I didn't know butlers or dinner gongs still existed nowadays.

I love to read and can read as many as 3 or 4 books per day. I read really fast, which is great if I don't have much free time and not so great when it comes to packing books for vacations. I can't very well bring a suitcase full of books everywhere I go!

Republic of Georgia!!!!!! squeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

I might (finally) be going to the Republic of Georgia this summer!!!!!! I am BEYOND excited! I have been madly in love with this country for years, and particularly the music of this country.

Only hitch in the plans? Money....I don't have any. I'm financially independent from my parents and I think I'm too young to take out loans. I'm thinking maybe I could do some more babysitting in addition to my job and perhaps do some fundraisers.

Any fundraising suggestions?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!