Check-in: Italy! Italy! Italy!

Let me apologize for my ridiculously long absence.  After my semester ended I took a mental break and embraced the sun and sea.  Living in Hawaii, it is such a crime to not go out and enjoy the beaches so I had to make up for definite lost beach time.  Can you blame me?  I kid, I kid.  But let me make it up to you all by sharing my extremely exciting news!  Can I get a drum roll please?  For my upcoming fall semester, I will be studying abroad in Florence, Italy! Yeeeeessssssss!  I've already set a countdown on my phone and as of today it is T-75 days till Florence baby.  

I know I want to blog about my adventures as a way to personally document my time there but I'm just not sure on the route to take.  Would you all like me to do it here or would you prefer a separate blog dedicated just to my time in Florence?  I'll definitely be blogging about the food since I will be in a culinary capitol of amazingness but there will also be posts on everyday lifestyle/life-event type things.  Let me know what you think and what you would prefer.

Ciao!

Kiyana

Photos courtesy of images.google.com

Check-in: Spring Breakers and JAPAN!

It's almost here! The elusive Spring Break can finally be seen just around the corner.  

Alyssa is off to Japan today so prepare yourselves for some amazing pictures of everything and anything you can imagine.  She'll be eating great up there!  My good friend Matt is also heading to Japan for spring break today for two weeks.  SUPER Jealousssss.   I'm thinking I probably missed the memo that Japan is the place to be this break.  Whatevs aha.  I'll be cruising back home in Hawaii.  My plans include parking myself at a primo spot at a beautiful beach down (or is it up) at the North Shore and not leaving until I lose this sad, pale color.  As long as I don't have to think about school or studying I'm sure it'll be a relaxing break.  So I raise a can of Izze Sparkling Apple juice from The Curb to you all who have busted butt this past mid-term/finals week.  May your spring break be joyous, even though we totally got jipped two holidays off.  Yeah I'm salty about that, can you tell?   

良い春休みを持っている！

Have a good spring break!

Laters, 

Kiyana

P.S. Do you folks like the new banner? Big shout out to our friend Tracy for making this for us. Lord knows we would NOT have been able to do it ourselves.  

Photos taken with a Canon PowerShot G11 by Alyssa

Check-in:11:30pm, cure to insomnia, and pasta-basta baby

Like usual, I'm up and unproductive.  I'd say it's the standard college student problem.  We spend so much of the day with a "go go go!" mentality that when we finally want to settle down and chill we don't really know how to turn our brains off.  I think insomnia is also a big problem for us college folk as well.  I recently read this good article that my friend Lindsey passed on from her friend (author of said article) with tips and tricks to beat insomnia and take back our sleep.  I say read it, try it, and report back.  I'll personally make a conscious effort to try out the tip and not use my phone in bed.  I'll let you folks know how that works out.  

In other news I've FINALLY figured out how to link up the blog's Pinterest as well as our BlogLovin'.    I know websites practically do the work for you by pre-coding the buttons and blah blah but damn.  No judging, aha.  Pin away my friends, pin away!  Links should be to your right but if they don't work, please let me know and I'll (attempt to) figure out how to fix them.

I'm feeling my eyes go in and out of focus as I type this out so I'll bit you goodnight and leave you with a picture of Alyssa and my lunch at Auntie Pasto's this week.  We left having to unbutton our jeans but so worth it.  Have a great rest of the week!

Laters,
Kiyana

Check-in: Mid-terms Week and Technology-savvy person wanted

Before you read any further, please take a moment to stare at the wonder and beauty that exists in the photograph.

Done? Good.

I've been drowning in recipes all night long, browsing through food blogs and watching videos on YouTube, only to find things that gnaw at my weakness: bread and cheese.  This was by far the money shot, a combination of grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese, not to mention garnishing it with my favorite fruit.  I immediately had the desire to make myself a grilled cheese only to find that I lack all necessary ingredients for it.  So I am left here, blogging about it.  

I hope this post finds you all as rested as you can be during mid-terms week and nourished with something other than caffeine and take-out.  If you have the chance go out and make yourself a damn good grilled cheese sandwich, you deserve it.  

Alyssa got to house sit for a co-worker this past week and was stoked to be able to use a full kitchen.  Not to mention said c-worker is a professional chef and has a cat.  How lucky right?  In our Latin class she equated it to a free stay-cation complete with temporary pet.  I could definitely use a stay-cation myself.    

Also, if anyone is technologically savvy and can make a banner/header/whatever it's called, I would like to ask to borrow your services.  I can't pay because hello, I'm a broke college student, but I can definitely buy you a meal.  Fair trade?  I think so.  Nothing too fancy and complicated, just something better than what I threw together on Pages.  I would love to make my own but let's face it, technology isn't my strongest point.  Contact info is to your right somewhere ---------->

That's it for now friends, eat well and I'll see you in the next post.  

Laters,

Kiyana

Photograph courtesy of http://verticalfood.tumblr.com/post/38022287912