Week 10 Update
Hi again guys :)
Another week has come and gone. Only five more weeks here...
This week was very lowkey. After traveling a crazy amount, I took the week/weekend to kick up my feet and relax and get back into somewhat of a regular gym/eating routine. It's hard to stick to a routine with flights at obscure hours of the morning and restaurants that don't open for dinner until 8 pm.
Very exciting news though! As many of you know, yoga is a huge part of my life, and I'm enrolled in a pre-teacher training course here at my university that has given me the opportunity to practice & learn about yoga's origins, history, pillars, and even the Hindu Sanskrit language that is used to teach yoga. I scored 100% on my midterm which I was psyched about, and my professor pulled me aside and asked if I'd be down to teach a part of our practice next Monday!! I had the opportunity to put together a flow and reached out to my instructor back at Carolina for some help/feedback on it. I'm so freaking excited to be able to teach it to my class tomorrow :)) A huge step for me since I want to do the 200 hours of teacher training after I graduate, and it'll be a nice taste of what teaching a class is like.
This week in my Nutrition class, we baked eggplant parmagina. This is a traditional Italian dish that is made by slicing pieces of eggplant and baking them, and then placing them in a little dish and covering/layering the pieces in red sauce and parmesan cheese. We got to make the red sauce ourselves (absolutely delicious, SO THANKFUL that I have all of these recipes and can bring them home with me) and put together the dish. Thankfully there are a few other kids in my class who are dairy free like me, so we had our own little tins with the baked eggplant & red sauce :)
In my Mediterranean Diet class, we learned about the role of fish in a Mediterranean diet and the wide variety of seafood that is present in dishes. Seafood is much more popular than red meat or poultry, and small fish and shellfish are a readily available source of protein. For our tasting, we had crackers (for us gluten free people) and bread with a butter and anchovy paste, as well as a salad with red beans, fresh onion, and canned tuna filet. I'll be the first to admit that I've always said how gross tuna & anchovies are, and I've never even tried them. Since coming abroad I've made an effort to try new foods and dishes and I can honestly say that this tasting was my favorite so far. It was delicious and so easy to prepare, I even ran by the store after class and grabbed the ingredients so I could make it at home. Don't knock it till ya try it!
The weather in Florence this week/weekend was beautiful once again, with the temperature in the low to mid 70s. We're so lucky to have our terrace in our apartment, so I spent most of my downtime tanning in the sun or doing some early morning yoga before it got too warm
Riley and I also have been craving chocolate chip banana bread for the better part of the last 6 weeks, so we finally made it! We found a 4 ingredient recipe on Pinterest (bananas, oats, peanut butter, and chocolate chips) that was gluten and dairy free. So yummy and easy to make! I made a bunch of simple and delicious meals this week, including a citrus salad, Pad Thai with rice noodles/carrot noodles/zucchini noodles, and even roasted some almonds in the oven with salt, olive oil, and sesame seeds. Eat better, not less!! It's so easy to cook clean, healthy meals!
On Saturday night, my roommates and I put together our own drinks & Apertivo spread. A lot of rooftop bars here charge crazy prices for a glass of wine and appetizers, so we decided to do it ourselves! I made lentils & bruschetta (a Trader Joes recipe and roommate favorite), Maggie made guacamole, Gina put together a charcuterie board, and Riley prepped a veggie platter with hummus. It was 70 and sunny and we watched the sunset surrounded by good food and good music. I might have a hard time adjusting back to regular life when I leave this fantasy land I call home.
Another week has come and gone. Only five more weeks here...
This week was very lowkey. After traveling a crazy amount, I took the week/weekend to kick up my feet and relax and get back into somewhat of a regular gym/eating routine. It's hard to stick to a routine with flights at obscure hours of the morning and restaurants that don't open for dinner until 8 pm.
Very exciting news though! As many of you know, yoga is a huge part of my life, and I'm enrolled in a pre-teacher training course here at my university that has given me the opportunity to practice & learn about yoga's origins, history, pillars, and even the Hindu Sanskrit language that is used to teach yoga. I scored 100% on my midterm which I was psyched about, and my professor pulled me aside and asked if I'd be down to teach a part of our practice next Monday!! I had the opportunity to put together a flow and reached out to my instructor back at Carolina for some help/feedback on it. I'm so freaking excited to be able to teach it to my class tomorrow :)) A huge step for me since I want to do the 200 hours of teacher training after I graduate, and it'll be a nice taste of what teaching a class is like.
This week in my Nutrition class, we baked eggplant parmagina. This is a traditional Italian dish that is made by slicing pieces of eggplant and baking them, and then placing them in a little dish and covering/layering the pieces in red sauce and parmesan cheese. We got to make the red sauce ourselves (absolutely delicious, SO THANKFUL that I have all of these recipes and can bring them home with me) and put together the dish. Thankfully there are a few other kids in my class who are dairy free like me, so we had our own little tins with the baked eggplant & red sauce :)
In my Mediterranean Diet class, we learned about the role of fish in a Mediterranean diet and the wide variety of seafood that is present in dishes. Seafood is much more popular than red meat or poultry, and small fish and shellfish are a readily available source of protein. For our tasting, we had crackers (for us gluten free people) and bread with a butter and anchovy paste, as well as a salad with red beans, fresh onion, and canned tuna filet. I'll be the first to admit that I've always said how gross tuna & anchovies are, and I've never even tried them. Since coming abroad I've made an effort to try new foods and dishes and I can honestly say that this tasting was my favorite so far. It was delicious and so easy to prepare, I even ran by the store after class and grabbed the ingredients so I could make it at home. Don't knock it till ya try it!
The weather in Florence this week/weekend was beautiful once again, with the temperature in the low to mid 70s. We're so lucky to have our terrace in our apartment, so I spent most of my downtime tanning in the sun or doing some early morning yoga before it got too warm
Riley and I also have been craving chocolate chip banana bread for the better part of the last 6 weeks, so we finally made it! We found a 4 ingredient recipe on Pinterest (bananas, oats, peanut butter, and chocolate chips) that was gluten and dairy free. So yummy and easy to make! I made a bunch of simple and delicious meals this week, including a citrus salad, Pad Thai with rice noodles/carrot noodles/zucchini noodles, and even roasted some almonds in the oven with salt, olive oil, and sesame seeds. Eat better, not less!! It's so easy to cook clean, healthy meals!
On Saturday night, my roommates and I put together our own drinks & Apertivo spread. A lot of rooftop bars here charge crazy prices for a glass of wine and appetizers, so we decided to do it ourselves! I made lentils & bruschetta (a Trader Joes recipe and roommate favorite), Maggie made guacamole, Gina put together a charcuterie board, and Riley prepped a veggie platter with hummus. It was 70 and sunny and we watched the sunset surrounded by good food and good music. I might have a hard time adjusting back to regular life when I leave this fantasy land I call home.
On a heavier note though, a series of extremely horrific events took place at our downtown bars in Columbia on Thursday night/Friday morning. Sami Josephson was out with her friends on Thursday night, and was last seen at 2:12 AM entering a black Chevy Impala which she thought was her Uber. In a horrible turn of events, she was murdered and her body was dumped about 65 miles from campus in a rural South Carolina town. After she didn't return home Friday morning and her phone couldn't be tracked, her roommates filed a missing person report. Around 4 PM on Friday afternoon, 2 turkey hunters discovered her body about 40 feet off of a rural dirt road.
On Saturday night, less than 24 hours after her murder, her killer, Nathaniel D. Rowland was arrested in 5 Points (yes, HE CAME BACK TO 5 POINTS THE NEXT NIGHT) after a K-9 unit was notified of a black Chevy Impala driving around the 5 Points Area. A shocking and disturbing reminder to everyone to be so incredibly careful, as life is a precious gift that can be so brutally taken from us. While I didn't know Sami, she easily could have been a friend of mine, or even me. I take Ubers alone, and while I tell myself that I'm smart enough to avoid a situation like this (check both front and back license plates to make sure they match the license plate listed on the app, ask the driver who the ride is for, check for the Uber sticker on their windshield, watch them swipe 'ride started' on their phone, etc.), you can NEVER be too careful.
It angers me beyond words that our SC Law Enforcement Department (SLED) is more focused on busting underage drinking and kids in possession of fake IDs in 5 Points, while there are horrible people/active gang units/hood violence that takes place in Columbia that finds its way into areas where students are present. In 2015, a Carolina student was walking through 5 points and was hit with a stray bullet, paralyzing her from the waist down. Last year, a girl was brutally stabbed by a deranged middle-aged man. While no one should ever have to lose their life for a point to be proven, I hope this is a huge wake up call to our law enforcement to get their priorities straight and to stop worrying about the 19 year old frat boy holding a beer, but instead the gang members wandering around our bars at 2 am looking for an easy target to kidnap.
If you'd like to read more on the developing story, I've attached a few links. I also attached the link to the GoFundMe page that was started to help Sami's family cover costs for her memorial service.
I love you all so freaking much. Life is crazy, don't take a day of it for granted.
XO,
Katie girl
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