A day without dumbbells is like a day without Sunshine!

No lie, this is the phrase of the week! I was at the gym this weekend and heard a trainer yell this through the gym. Really? Well for all of you folks who don't know that my nickname is Sunshine, I thought it was cute. But as I was doing my squats and counting the minutes until I get to leave the gym, I started to think about all of it: the semester ending, moving, my sister's wedding, packing!! organizing! (thankfully I have a bntf who lives to organize) and hello did I mention moving to Italy for the remainder of the year!! It's alot and I think a little bit of the reality is finally catching up to me. Back in the days before I moved to Reno, I do not know how I did it, how did I think I could move my life across the United States and live a fruitful existance?? I had no fear, no worries no hesitation. Dont' get me wrong, I am totally embracing the change and the scenery to be Italy, I mean does it get any better, but what is catching up to me is the whole culmination of it all. I don't know how to process it all. Do i do a little italian jig and pack my favorite sandals and hair ties to sit in the tuscan sun and absorb all the culture I possibly can? OR do I sit patiently waiting until my plane lands and have it dawn on me just then that I can't run down the street to share my gelato with my fav and sit and sob over my yummy italian ice cream and countdown the minutes until I return to the states???? What's a girl to do!!!!!

EMBRACE CHANGE!

Do it all, pack and organize every minute I get now, day dream about italian men, gelato, pasta, italian clothes lines (b/c p.s. they don't believe in dryers) and my Italian husband i am going to meet, the sites I will see, the messy hair, quick jaunts to the square for fresh veggies, hours under the sun picking olives during harvest and taking a moment amongst the trees while atop of my ladder to sit and say "wow I really am doing this" "this is really my life right now!" I think this sounds much better like the more delicious channel perhaps.

I do recall when I was in Reno what helped me to pass the time when I did get homesick, it was the stories and reunions and plans to eat, play and gossip with my fav's and family. Beign able to imagine me at home telling them about my many stories and pictures and foods and all of it, picturing my fav's and getting to see them again after being away for a short while, that's what helped me to continue to embrace the change and live excited about what the day would bring.

so all in all, it really isn't a day without sunshine ever, i mean i am always gonna be around, i just might be in italy for a minute, but rest assured there will be loads of stories, good times and delicious experiences to share when I return, this just this is what makes me excited for my journey!!!

128 days!!! Really it is, we counted today, for some reason 128 is a good number, it's like something familiar, maybe it's the number of days it takes to get some kind of foodborne illness or trimester, cycle thing that i've studied in nutrition, it just feels familiar! So yes it begins, 128 days until ms. italiano is on a jet plane back pack, journal, digestive enzymes in hand starting the adventure of a lifetime....i can hardly wait.

words of wisdom: i have started my search: I was in class the other day and began my seeking out words of wisdom that i feel will help me along on my journey and of course give me good things to add to my blog, per usual. in one of my lectures i was able to find some words of wisdom that could apply to my journey and it's busting out the gates! –bahala na: "Leave it to God" So i think what has recently become the new reality is the options i now have in front of me. either i have since unconsciously began praying to the patron saint raphaela, the saint of travelers and mental illness, or a new born courage has become my companion, but i feel like the phrase bahala na is soemthing i could very well add to my mantra. i plan on putting it on my chalkboard in my room, once i move the dirty laundry to reach it. Either way i am influenced by horscopes, paragraphs, sometimes pages in books, music, quirky magazine articles about living your life fully, or embracing change or most importantly a word that shadows all; grace; give me anything about grace and i will devour it. I just know that my eyes are wider and i am curious and ready to start a new chapter.

anyways my rant is coming to an end and i must drive home to rest before my very busy week. Italy is everywhere and filling up my life. by the time i get there i will feel like i know everything about it and I cannot wait to learn more.

goog night all, ciao!

Crazy, Sexy Italy

Well then Uncle Ted, Italian men love American women, we will have to see wont we!!  I am looking forward to the moments that I experienced today.  I was at my cardiologists appointment, telling my fellow medical doctor about my future travels to italy and all that I would be getting dirty doing.  his reaction, his face was just in astonishment, like "how could you not be doing this trip to italy??"  He was like dumb-founded, speechless, and I was like hey you know what, pat on my back, I am doing this!  I am going to have this adventure and hopefully love it.  What am I saying, i love that i got a blog out of it and will have documented proof that i am a celebrity in my own head! AAHHHHH i can't wait, can't I just take everyone with me though???

My new favorite italian phrase, lord knows i'll butcher it's spelling:

mia-fato-pierche-con-no-shiala (english terms, it was very nice to meet you) i can say this even after not having listened to my italian in the car for four hours, really i'm slowly morphing into mrs. italiano....you better believe it!  Ciao!

So I got distracted....shoot me! Too busy being cranky!

Does anyone get enough sleep in this world?  after the few days ending last week and the weekend, i finally bit the bullet, I am officially a COMMITTED ITALIANO!!!!!  I signed the paperwork, copied my passport and closed my eyes really tight , first cuz my computer screen was awfully bright, but secondly because I hope, I pray, I cannot wait to experience Italy first hand.  I got really lame thrusday night and started googling like study abroad videos and such and I was wait a minute, "i can do this" it does look like so much fun and i can't even imagine all the journals and pictures and fun exciting new things I will see.  how is it that everyone says that study abroad changes their life forever, who can say no to that????? not me, no sir italiano, this senorina is on a jet plane and heading east to the great land of italy.  not into the count down just yet, but i assure you there will be one, and the anxiety will be palpable.  

Anyways so never thought of a kinship word i could use besides italy, but i think since i've commited i'm okay, it's like the new last name, feel like i got married or something, the new mrs. italiano!  hahaha, i'm funny.  anyways so after my hours of packing lists, banking accounts, budgeting and whatnot i threw it to the wind, hoping for lots of gelato and fun shoes, mascara, messy hair (all one color mind you) preferably not my current blend, but yea i am excited.  I cannot wait to have stories, i'll never shut up, i can see it now!

so the story begins i guess here, and i'm glad i have this to document everyhting.  i am planning on starting my search for a place to have a going away party and of coures the new many journals i will fill while away in italy.  i hope that my luggage makes it, otherwsie i'll layer on the clothes and just carry my journals iwht me, who needs hair product?  

okay okay so i must rest my head, but i wanted to update you all ( yeah hehe like i still haven't sent this link to anyone with a pulse, i told my kitty cat about it, she could care less) but no really ms. celebrity, mrs italiano, must get soem rest, busy week ahead.  i will try and check in and keep you up to date on the upcoming orientation where we learn our destination for living arrangements and flights.  Until then arrevadercheee.  yeah i got no clue how to spell anything italian.

Nixing the word Italy from my vocabulary...

Okay so I understand i am in the commitment stage where I am weighing the options "to go, or not to go" this is the question. but overall i don't think i've used the word italy more than a million times during the day today. it's starting to weigh on me already, i hear it and i'm sick of the word, i cannot imagine anyone else wanting to still talk italy. i mean how many other ways can you come to the decision about a place that you cannot say? not sure? yeah me neither.

i have done the pro's and con's list, checked out flights with the bff to assure some emotional support at some point during my stay, got the whole family on board to monopolize my mother's credit card miles for a family visit at another point during my stay, so yeah pretty much if i'm feeling alone, someone i'm related to or something will be in the nearby italian neighborhood. i think what i need is a few days away from "italy." so starting right now, at 11:15pm, yeah i know its late, what can i say im a nerd when it comes to school, so right now at 11:15pm tuesday evening, i am going to remove the word italy from my vocabulary and use the word........hmmm........????...thinking...how about, (looking to the ceiling of the library office space to think of something quirky and fruity, that i can picture myself saying in conversation to others, "oh yeah of course i'm going, where? where am i going, you ask, oh you know &*%$#, i am not sure what i got in place of it.

why dont you give me a day to think about it and then it'll hit the street and i'll be the new it girl who created the next new fly saying! yeah not so much, but really let me sleep on it and we'll see what the slumber brings me.

hoping for more than the uuzz (city speak for usual) yeah i know i'm already an it girl

p.s. i love how i talk to this blog like i'm an entertainer, celebrity, talking out loud even, its hilarious, it's like a dear diary and i think i kinda like it. just ask me if i've sent the link to this to anyone yet, NO!

okay so again hoping for more tahn the uuzz

ciao!

Italy! Is it possible?

Hello! Sarah here, florencegirl, beginning the journey, well four days late to beginning my journey but none-the-less, beginning the journey towards changing my life. I got accepted this passed weekend to a Study Abroad program in Florence Italy. I will be living in Italy for four months this coming Fall semester. I am a full time student and full time worker in the world of food service. I want to document my journey and all that leads up to it to track my experiences, challenges, stressors, and small anecdotal moments that pop into my head about my fast approaching experience.

Here I am, in case you are beyond the two friends and three family members that will read this, I will tell you who I am and what's my deal. My name is Sarah, I am studying to become a registered dietitian. I have had a long journey in school and have come upon this idealic opportunity to study abroad in a small country called italy. The program is for sustainable agriculture based around the mediterrean diet and all it's worth. I am thrilled and looking forward to this experience a great deal. I have seen the julie/julia blog and was inspired to write my own story, because additionaly I am a writer, yes I know, no way!! but really it's true and I am hoping that in some way shape or form, italy does something to my writing.

okay so for real, this is a documentation of the journey i will be taking from last saturday until my fateful return from florence. I hope that this blog brings you lots of entertainment and lots of hope, i am hoping it does both for me. so hang on because here comes the swan dive into the commitment of italy and whatever it shall bring me....1....2......3.....here it gooooooooeeeeesssssssss *splash*