This shouldn't need to be explained. A good book is irreplaceable. It makes you feel and, in doing so, satisfies something within you. It plays with the faculties of your mind and takes you on a journey or educates you about something new and interesting. It captures you, takes you away and then places you (sometimes gently and sometimes not so gently) back where you were as a new person. Good books still continue to amaze me because just as I feel like something new will never be written and I will never be impressed again, I am.

I love Chinese food and I am desperately missing it in Italy. I love the noodles and rice and the vegetables and teriyaki sauce! There is just something about Chinese food (which I'm sure you all have experienced) which is so satisfying! My favorite Chinese comes in buffet form because then you can try things you'd never try if you were ordering it for delivery or take out because, at least for me, I hate ordering something new and then hating it and wishing I had ordered something else. But with a buffet you can just go get something new and not feel bad about eating the stuff you didn't like! Also, Chinese buffets have those amazing donuts fried dough things. YUM!

We have quite a bit of down time after classes in Alba so I've been rewatching the TV series Veronica Mars. My mom and I used to watch it a couple of years ago when it was still on TV and we loved it. Veronica is a smart and sassy (like me!) high-school girl who works for her dad who is a private detective. The plots were always well done and there was an overarching mystery with each individual (usually episodic) mystery woven in. Also, I just loved how she never took crap from anyone but still seemed to care what they thought of her deep inside--I can relate. As much as both of us would like to completely not care, we do. She kicks butt, catches punks, solves "mysteries" and I enjoy watching her do it.

We visit a lot of churches here in Italy. Usually when we visit a place, the churches are the main attractions so I've seen quite a few during my stay here so far. My favorite part of the churches are the stained glass windows. A few years ago, when my dad lived in a different house, he had a workshop in the garage out back where he made stained glass windows as a hobby. I would go out there and watch him and we even made a window together that I designed. I love those memories and I really liked the art so I appreciate the ridiculous intricacies of the stained glass windows in churches. I can imagine some of these windows were one man's life work or the work of a company of artists working for years. They amaze me.

Who wouldn't?! Out of our back windows and off our back balcony we can see the Alps on a clear day. Alba is in the Northern Piedmonte region of Italy and we're pretty close to France, the Alps and Switzerland. I love being able to wake up and eat my cereal while looking at the snow-capped Alps in the distance--it's amazing.

There is something nostalgic about seeing clothes out to dry. I don't have many memories of my mom hanging up clothes but I do know she did it on a line in the backyard. I mainly just think it is a nice, homey, quaint thing to do and it makes me feel happy inside to see colorful clothes blowing in the sweet, warm air. A spring and summery thing. It's a custom I enjoy seeing and it seems to be a custom just about everywhere! In Alba we have a clothesline off our back balcony so it's nice to use it an see our laundry flapping in the breeze.

Oh my god do I love gelato. Now that it is getting warmer, there are gelato places open all over the place here in Italy. You know how I feel about ice cream and gelato is a subtype of ice cream in my book (my favorite subtype). I am lucky enough to not only be surrounded by gelato currently but live near a terrific gelato place back home as well.

If you've never had gelato, it is usually explained as a softer version of ice cream and made in a different way but I have never really been able to explain what makes it so different and so much better. It is creamier somehow and the flavor is more intense but still subtle. Also, there are so many different flavors. There are two types of gelato, milk-based and fruit-based and I prefer the fruit-based ones. They are usually made fresh from real fruit and they just make me feel less guilty about eating them since they are technically servings of fruit.\

I love looking in at displays or going into gelaterias and looking at the brightly colored gelato all piled high in the case. They usually have lovely displays like the one in the picture above and it just makes everything look so much more appetizing! Oh god now I really want gelato!

It's Valentine's Day and I'm having a hard time with it as it is the first one I've been single for in a very long time. I wanted to go on a bakery crawl with the girls I live with here in Italy but they weren't up for it and so I feel sort of shitty today. It's not really about the whole love thing or not having a boy (though that does add a lovely shade of heartache) but the fact that today is going to be like every other day. I like holidays and the specialness they bring to an otherwise routine daily operation. I seek out the variety they bring and the excuse they give me to make the day particularly special. I just want someone to do it with me. I will probably go do a small bakery run by myself but it really won't seem like anything except me kidding myself unless someone else joins in. Oh well--there's always next year.

After a long winter (one that is particularly long and cold here in Italy this year), it is nice to have the warmth and relief of a sunny day. These days give you hope that Spring is indeed on its way and true relief will come soon, that your coat is only going to be needed for a little while longer and you should start to dust off those dresses and skirts that you've been missing since early Fall. On top of this, sunny days have so many possibilities for outdoor activity! I love to hike and ride outside when it's sunny and sometimes I just like to lay in the grass. Mostly, though, sunny days just make me smile.

Sorry but I'm not explaining this one. It comes from pure spite but no one will understand why.

The shower in my apartment in Alba is horrible. Horrible pressure and fluctuating temperatures make me miss my shower back home. I love the feeling of a hot shower when you are numb to the bones with cold. A hot shower is even good in the summer when you are sticky and hot. I'm always tempted to take a cold shower when I'm hot but I end up feeling the best after a hot one. It's as simple as just feeling clean, refreshed, and ready for something new.

Mozzarella is absolutely everywhere in Italy. It is used in pizzas, salads, panini, appetizers and all sorts of dishes. My favorite application of it is, of course, in pizza but caprese salad (shown above) is also delicious and very refreshing! Mozzarella has different varieties and, though I don't know them, I do know that Buffalo mozzarella is the tastiest (no idea if the milk is from buffaloes or from a place called Buffalo). Creamy, cheesy and tasty!

Here in Italy I am surrounded by leather. For some reason I am especially attracted to leather belts (though I also love handbags and shoes!). I have a misson to buy a really cool belt while I'm here and I've already started looking though I doubt I'll find anything before I visit Florence in April (leather capital!). I want something carved with a pattern--something unique and more than just plain leather. I'm not one for gaudy buckles like the ones in the picture but I do love the one on top with the design on the leather etched into it. That's what I want and I've got my eye out!

This book, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, is a terrific read and I just finished it. We don't have a lot of schoolwork here in Italy so I've been reading a lot and this one struck me personally. It is very original and well done and the writing style and structure are very different, something I appreciate as an English major who reads way too many books that seem too similar. The book was recommended to me by a classmate in my Creative Writing class last semester who did a feature on the book for an assignment. I saw it in the library we have here in Alba and decided to start reading it.

It's a story about a book called The History of Love, its author (who, in the book, is not Nicole Krauss) and those who it has touched. There are four main characters (as well as a few who pop in) and they each have separate chapters and stories which, eventually, weave together. It's a great work of fiction and I highly recommend it!