part of this WHOLE experience has been the traveling I have been fortunate enough to be able to do. But also to have met such wonderful people that I trust and find happiness with to share these travels makes each individual trip an unforgettable memory! 
My friendships I have made here in Palermo are what has kept me here in Europe for more than a year now! Without them, I would not be able to stay such a long time and distance away from my family and friends back home. So a shout out to all my amazing friends I've made here in Palermo....LOVE YOU GUYS!! :) haha.. and then from here, 
I have made so many more friendships with people from all over the world! Amazing...These relationships have also positively influenced my decisions of places to travel. A lot of my friends have the same urge as me to travel and see as much as they can while they are able to. I swear, the more you travel, the more you want to keep traveling!!! A perfect example: on our way back from Amsterdam, Sabrina, my good friend, and I were discussing where we should go next! :) But I have to back up a bit...skipped some other trips!
Milan has always been a city 
I have wanted to visit since I have moved to Italy. To be honest, not many people suggest Milan as a top city in Italy to visit. Most people will list a lot of other cities before Milan, but I always knew I wanted to go there.....so my friend Sabrina and I decided to go for Thanksgiving! 
There's really no reason we chose this holiday, but I did want to do something fun this weekend to keep my mind busy from thinking about how my family will be together without me! Holidays are always hard to miss when you know your family is getting together without you...Family is the most important thing in my life and has been the hardest thing to be away from while being here. If I haven't said it before, thank god for Skype! Anyways, Sabrina and I had the best time in Milan. The city had a different style about it than southern Italy which I enjoyed. The 2 pictures shown are of the Duomo..one of the best things I've seen when we came up from the Subway at night and saw this amazingly lit Cathedral..one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen..the pictures do it no justice! Another thing I enjoyed was something called an aperitivo, which is like a happy hour in America sort of, originates in Milan, so they are known to have the best aperitifs. Basically, you buy a drink and then you get all the food they have out for free. The thing is, they can range from little snack foods to being an actual dinner with pasta dishes and hot plates. One aperitivo right next to our hotel was the best aperitivo I have ever scene. It was basically an American buffet only you just pay for your drink...so much amazing Italian food kept coming and coming! We also went to some amazing dance clubs (disco tech as they call it ..I can only image Americans these days calling clubs disco techs haha).We were really lucky to find some really great bars, clubs, aperitifs, and people! Below is one place we found that had a nice aperitivo, a great club scene and dancing, and met some nice people! It can be really difficult to go to a large, new city and find the best places to dine or for entertainment. The BEST thing to do I have learned is to ask locals. Most sites on the internet will lead you to the biggest tourist places.
If you ask locals, they will tell you the best places to really experience the culture you have traveled to see.Life is all about who you know and the relationships you make...people can take you in directions you would never imagine going! Another example of this for me, is during the Fall, I had the opportunity to be an Actress in a film!! Of course, I never expected doing this while I lived in Palermo! All about the people you know...one of the mom's I work for is a producer in the film industry and at the time, she was working on a film that was being produced in Palermo. She introduced me to the director, and he decided I would work for this extra part in the film!! It really was nothing, but soooo much fun and what an experience! I still got my hair and makeup done, wardrobe...everything! My part was a girlfriend of one of the main actors in the film. We come on-screen walking and he's yelling at me, basically telling me he doesn't want to be together anymore. I get mad at him, SLAP him, and walk off-screen. HAHA crazy huh?
First of all, I've never slapped ANYONE before! I also felt so bad because this actor I slapped wanted me to really do it so it looked real, so of course I did. He was such a sweet guy, and only like 17 years old! Felt bad, but he was great about it....throughout the 10 slaps/takes we did. That's acting baby! :) Overall, it was such a fun experience...I even got paid for my part! The best part about it was meeting the cast and crew. There were some famous people in this film that I was lucky to have met. I really had fun and got to know the Director and some of the actresses and actors. Above is a picture of an actress, Kiera, that I had a lot of fun with. I even got a chance to go out with them a bunch of times while they were in Palermo filming. Great people and I hope to stay in touch with a few of them! We'll see if we some day see a movie out there called Chamber Film! I hope so!! :)When the Christmas, Natale in Italian, season came, I was very anxious to come home to be with my family! It was strange not to see snow on the ground and I was actually excited to be in some snow for awhile! I've said many times here that I would almost rather have snow sometimes than rain because here in Palermo it rains all the time in the winter instead of snow. I hate umbrellas and snow can really be pretty and fun sometimes..until you start getting into the 4th month of snow, I know...not fun. I just know that Christmas just wouldn't be right without being with my family, so I was very happy I was able to make the trip home..even if it took about 25 hours of traveling and waiting to get there, it was well worth it! :)
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