Less than a week!

Less than a week until I will be living in Florence! Now I only have a week left to pack and get my life in order. My room is a complete disaster with boxes and bags everywhere of stuff from high school, my apartment, and Bloomington all mixed together. Trying to pack everything I need for four months into one suitcase and one carry-on is a mess. Not to fear- I have all week to do it!

 I'm not great at saying goodbye to all of my friends and family, but I am sure getting a lot of practice. Last week, I had to say good-bye to everyone I met in Bloomington, IL. I only spent 3 months there but I met a lot of friends that I wasn't ready to leave yet. Lucky we had a fantastic send off at Pub II and some great memories. I had a great girls day in Florissant and caught up with the old youth group. It felt like no time had passed as we devoured brownies and caused all kinds of trouble. Then I had a 5 day adventure in Springfield to catch up with all my friends from college. This was barley enough time to see everyone I wanted to see. Between my roommates, Papa Murphys crew, HRA friends, and my family in Fordland I had a jam packed 5 days.  I am so lucky to have such great friends!

The Papa Murphy's crew gave me a great Italian send off. Amanda and I decided to make an Italian dish for dinner. The recipe I found was for a Spinach and Pesto Walnut Lasagna. I was so determined to make the pesto from scratch that I forced Amanda to go to 3 stores before we found fresh basil. After realizing that we didn't have a food processor, we had to take the mortar and pestle approach with a spoon and a bowl. Although it didn't turn out quite like a sauce, we mixed it all together and made what barely appeared like a lasagna. Somehow it still tasted fantastic and everyone went back for seconds. Our Italian cake was also a long-shot and it was a success. Amanda wanted a multi-colored layer cake and I wanted a multi-flavored cake. Combined we made a marble strawberry-kiwi Italy shaped cake. Clearly the Amanda-Stacey cooking team has a bright future.

I will spend this next week continuing to prep for Italy. I can't stop googling all things Italy and getting so excited. Dr. Dallas gave me Gabbe's travelbug for geocaching, so I am figuring out this world wide treasure hunt game. Shelley willed me an Italian straightener along with a long list of places to go in Florence! Paige and I started planning our week long adventure for Thanksgiving break. Thanks to my cousin Carina, I started reading a John Grishman book, Playing for Pizza, about an American football player who is sent to Italy and falls in love with the food and culture.

Less than a week... and I am (almost) ready!