Currently

Seeing mountains all around me

Feeling snow under my (new) boots

Listening to this song (thanks to my employer's music tastes)

Wanting some privacy

Eating northern Italian food - polenta and beet ravioli

Enjoying my morning off

Smelling wood-burning stoves

Thankful for my casual, laid-back, American up-bringing 

Wishing my bag wasn't discolored by a close-call with a fire 

Writing out my lists and journals for this month (keeping me sane 

as the kids yell & scream all.the.time.)

*photo of Virginia, Enrico, and I after snow-mobiling out to a restaurant in the middle of the Dolomites

My Roman Life::a set of goals::

1. Really MASTER my Italian! Do this by going to class three times a week, Aperitif Italian language exchange twice a month, tours of Roman sites in Italian once a month, church in Italian every week, Italian TV at home, and finish my many Italian grammar books by actually STUDYING.

2. Save 75% of my au pair earnings. This is actually quite easy to do since I literally have no monthly bills or expenses other than my metro pass, phone credit, minor class fees, and groceries for breakfast. I'm not sure what life will look like come September, so it would be nice to have a cash cushion to sit on for a bit.

3. Go to one museum or historic site a week. Record my musings and observations of the museum as a whole in a notebook. This will keep me feeling like I'm traveling within my "home" for the next six months, along with brainstorming ideas and thoughts for that degree I want to get....

4. READ, BLOG, PHOTOGRAPH. These seem quite fun to do, I know. But for some reason I tend to get caught up in other things (i.e. watch a movie or listen to a podcast when I'm feeling lazy) that they never come up as first options when I'm in the moment. Which brings me to my last goal....

5. BE IN THE MOMENT. Don't fret about the future or what others are doing with their lives. Enjoy the here and now. I know it's cliche, but why is it so hard to accomplish!?

Museum Mornings

As part of my habitual goals for living in Rome the next six months I have been going to a museum or cultural heritage spot once a week. This past Saturday I met up with a friend for pasta in the piazza and a stroll though the Keats & Shelley Museum in Piazza di Spagna. 

It was a glorious and somewhat emotional hour reading about the lives of the poets (Byron & the Brownings included), their letters and drafts, looking at sketches and portraits, browsing the many antique books in the still active library, peering out the windows and wondering how the scene has changed in the past 200 years, glancing at objects once theirs, and remembering with others who wrote of the inspiration and influence of these great poets. 

I felt like I an English major once again. I got teary eyed reading about their tragic lives and deaths. Living in Italy never to leave, dying here only to become a monument of English influence in Italy. Oscar Wilde wrote about how he felt Keats' grave was the most holiest of sites in all of Rome. (He's buried in the Protestant graveyard in Rome, along with Shelley)

Okay, I know, too much detail.....

But don't you just love this new goal....I mean, habit!? So much inspiration flowing from these weekly visits, not to mention the excuse to practice photography and act like a tourist in a place where I live! It's a win-win. 

What inspirational habits do you have?

Currently

Smelling my olive leaf & lemon candle

Listening to these podcasts

Cooking & Eating some Italian pasta alla Norcina (recipe from my Italian friend!)

Watching this movie - So good!

Feeling the warmth of blankets, heaters, and hot tea

*Also, trying my hand at some self-portraiture, thanks to this blogging class!

Counting my Losses

This past week tried my patience with Rome and Italy in general. It seemed that every time I walked out of my flat and into the public arena I was harassed for something or something in the city or transport system failed or I realized that this place's advancements are nothing short of a miracle, because, quite frankly, no one here knows how to do anything logically! It's all chaos and everybody is okay with that! Except me, maybe. 

Well, to get to the story....in short, my I-pod was stolen out of my purse on the bus on Friday. This was the climax of my collection of mishaps for the week. I was on the bus heading towards Villa Giulia (the Etruscan museum) for a nice morning stroll among its collections before I had to work that afternoon. I want to see a museum a week while I'm living in Rome and this was the start of that habit. 

The bus is crowded. People push and shove, we bounce to and fro with the undulating bus, bags pinch my sides and block my legs, people cough sneeze laugh and talk loudly on their cell phones. Basically, it's an uncomfortable 20 minutes. I look down at my purse, which is big and heavy at the moment. My hands are full with directions to the museum and my to-go coffee cup (obviously I'm not very Italian yet). I grasp the pole so I'm not thrown into the man to my left or the woman to my right. 

I see my I-pod in its little case in my purse pocket. I notice that it's quite visible, but don't think anything of it at the time. I usually have it plugged into my ears, which, if I had at the time probably would have saved it, since who would be mad enough to steal an I-pod as it's playing into someone's ears? Five minutes later I'm getting off the bus and walking to the tram. I grab my I-pod to check the time and as I hold the case I realize it's empty! At first I wonder, can this be real? I just saw it! Why didn't they just take the case too? Then I get ridiculously furious and start (inwardly) cursing this whole country and people and humanity in general. Why why why? 

Since then I've regained my faith in humanity and counted my blessings (minus an I-pod). I realize in hindsight that I should have closed up my purse and been more aware of my surroundings. Though everyone around me seemed decent, hard-working people, some even elderly. I've never liked pointing fingers, but someone on that bus took it. But that's their problem, they will eventually reap what they sow. I do now and again get a giggle in when I remember that it's locked and all in English, so the thief will hopefully have a hard time with it. Maybe. 

My losses over the years: a silver heart necklace that my uncle gave me / a bike at college / my car radio system / my laptop out of my flat in Prague / cash out of a locked locker / an I-pod off of a bus in Rome

Here's to a better week! Happy Monday!

My 2nd Roman Saturday

There are a lot of pictures, I know.

But this was my Saturday (my only full day off at the moment) and I enjoyed it immensely.

Italian class in the morning,

wandering the tiny streets,

enjoying a cappuccino and panino with a new friend,

browsing a locally-made arts & crafts market,

resting our feet over a Spritz (a before-dinner drink)

and reconnecting with other au pairs for a dinner out (eight of us!)

I can't wait for this Saturday to come around! 

What does 'Pursuing a Smile' mean anyway?

In the past I've been solely a blog-on-occasion-for-a-purpose-kind-of-girl.

I had a blog in college when I studied abroad in Florence, Italy--that lasted about four months, five at the most. I did the blogging for a volunteer group that I was involved with, when we departed for Thailand for two months. I was in charge of group updates. And finally, I had a blog when I moved my life from Florida to Prague to teach English and accomplish my dream of living in Europe (at least for part of my life). That endeavor lasted two years, but by the end I had stopped blogging regularly as life abroad can fill up one's schedule quite quickly.

Now, almost eight months since I left Prague, I am beginning up again. This time it is my sincere hope to make this home for a long time. I'm tired of creating blogs to match what I'm doing at that particular moment. I may change countries or cities or flats a million more times, but I need some permanence in my life. Even if it is only online. I clearly have some commitment issues, with four blog start-ups in the past six years. And countless physical moves since I began college back in 2006.

So, here it is, my 5th blog and hopefully, my last. Pursuing a Smile is about my journey. I've combined Pursuing (from my Prague blog) with Smile (from my previous Italian blog) to create a home that will follow my wandering ways. In spirit, in emotion, in wonderment and adoration, in gratitude, in physical adventures, and in small moments of my life. I have always been know to be a smiling person, nicknamed 'Happy Hannah' or the-girl-constantly-smiling, so I only find it appropriate that I share my smile here too.

Come, reflect with me. Voyage with me. Pursue a smile everyday.

Reflections + Recollections

My life slows to an easy pace. The days are short and wet in winter in Rome. I watch the two children every weekday from 1-7:30pm, so my mornings are long and lazy. I don't rush out of bed, instead I linger and piddle around on my laptop reading blogs. I should get more into a routine. But I am LOVING having the mornings to myself, to stay in my pajamas until I have to work. I don't even feel guilty about not going out early to see bits of Rome before the tourists swarm the city. The rain keeps me captive in my little cozy flat. And I've been a willing prisoner too! 

1) my typical breakfast-in-bed served on a silver platter by me, for me. ;)

2) shelves and the trinkets I've lugged around in my baggage from one destination to the next.

3) my 'headboard'='Bon Voyage' bunting, an old map calendar I've made into a collage of Bible verses about the WORLD, and my Baltic-Sea-driftwood-souvenir that's had heads turning every time I carry it around wrapped like a bow. You should have seen me at the airport! Ha!

4-5) my newly acquired handmade genuine Italian leather shoes. January is the month to shop in Italy. Sales galore! 

6) view from my lazy winter mornings in bed

Welcome to my new home online!

Hello world!

I'm so excited to be blogging again, mostly because a lot has happened since my last posting phase (found here) but also because I've missed recording my thoughts, inspirations, memories, and life.  

So, here's a quick hello! See you all again soon!