"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not."

Applicable to my life in so many ways right now.

I don't know how some people live with being okay with being rude to other people.

I am GOING to make this for my apartment. So precious!

Post-Italia

I just found this as a saved draft on my blog! I guess I realized it never posted.

So here's a little bit of a post-Italy reflection.

America, be grateful that we have sidewalks and that drives abide by the rule that "pedestrians have the right of way." In Europe, this is truly not the case, not only are not able to cross the street when and where you'd like to, but cars will not stop for you if you do. Proof:

And I still have a knot there.

More reflecting...

Stereotypes fulfilled during my stay in the Eternal City:

1. Definitely saw a few nuns on mopeds.

2. Men are sketchy and vulgar, not romantic.

3. Saw a woman slap a man in the middle of the street.

Turns out the Italian women don't put up with the vulgar things the men tell them either?

4. On the otherhand, I also saw all-but sexual intercourse between passionate Italian lovers in public... multiple times. This may have happened in the UK as well.

5. A person parking a car by a forward bump, reverse bump, forward and back, back and forth, back and forth... Into other people's surrounding vehicles. Those little volkswagens and fiestas and whatever other smart cars just think they can squeeze wherever the H they want to go... And maybe, or obviously, they can with a few bumps and scrapes along the way.

6. I legitimately ate pasta everyday.

Pasta, pizza, panini was my rotation of available food options.

And contrary to popular belief about the 'amazing Italian food' I was to experience... The food was unfortunately underwhelming. Momma still has the best lasagna I've ever tasted. :]

7. Italian women DO NOT dress well. Shoes are mediocre as well.

8. The mafia is alive and real. I may or may not have made friends within it?

My panini shop guy friends "took care of" a fake 20 euro bill that I received, just sayin.

9. People smoke, everywhere, all day, everday.

In fact, Europeans will actually offer you a cigarette,

whereas in the US you'd have to traditionally bum one.

10. You really do have to hold on to your stuff while traveling...

The damn gypsies, young and old, will come up to you on the street, the bus and god knows where else. I had my purse broken one night while we were out. NOT OKAY, ITALY.

11. Family is really such a tight-knit thing in Italy. Eddie and Alessandro, the guys who owned the panini shop, are brothers in their mid-to-late 20's are best friends.

They still live with their dad in a village outside of Rome and this is 100% normal in their culture. Mom, I'm comin' in hot and free-loading until I'm about 28... Cool?

12. Life is seriously SOOO much simpler. Not only do all of the shops/restaurants/etc. shut down in the middle of the day for a nap, but they also will just randomly choose to not open if they find something more fun to do with their day. While this would straight piss off your average American, Italians are completely okay with it. In fact, Alessandro and Eddie took turns working the panini shop every other day and on their day off, they were at the beach all day. Sometimes they'd both just skip work to go to the beach together. What a life.

Oh, and I often miss that afternoon siesta. :p

city museum day!

On Halloween weekend, Taylor and I planned a "Little Sibs Weekend."

Taylor and her little sister Chancie, along with Takoma and Trevor and I, had a slumber party on Friday October 28th and then spent all day Saturday at the City Museum in St. Louis.

For those of my out of state family readers who may not know what the City Museum is, let me explain its magnificence. The museum was built in an abandoned shoe warehouse in downtown St. Louis and everything in the museum is made from recycled parts from the city.

As a 20something year old, I've frequented the City Museum, living only 20 minutes from downtown St. Louis... And you'd be amazed at the ratio of older "kids" to younger ones... it's truly something fun for all ages. It has a 10 story slide from the roof to below ground. And boy is it a bitch to climb to its entrance. (Not so much endurance-wise, but the fact that it is a straight 10 story spiral staircase. Dizziness / 10 story staircases wasn't such a great idea. :p )

The museum has caves upon caves that you can get lost in for hours. This is where Takoma and Trevor found most interest. There are free crafts and even a circus that plays every couple of hours with performers from a circus company from St. Louis.

After we left the museum, I had to get gas before heading across the river. I tend to try and get gas in St. Louis anyway, because gas in Missouri is usually about 20 cents cheaper than in Illinois, even in the city. When we stopped at a station... I locked my keys in my car.

Luckily, there was a "Beauty Supply" store attached to the gas station,

so we went in and they so kindly gave us a wire hanger to take.

Let's just say that I was in an area where this man said

that he had experience breaking into cars and could help me. Only my life, I swear.

Despite our mysterious ending to the day, our little sibs had a BLAST and were sad we had to take them back home... But they had trick or treating to do and likewise, we had halloweekend activities to fulfill. Halloween post soon. :]

xoxo Paige

my very favorite trend right now

socks sticking out of boots.
<3

inspiration.

This summer, I found this store walking down Via Del Corso, the main shopping road in Rome. It's a store that I had frequently stumbled upon on the internet,

but it doesn't have an online store... Only a blog and pictures and whatnot.

Basically, it's beautiful and a total inspiration for my future store. <3

it's mixer seasonnn.

The first full weekend our new babies were in the sorority, we had a weekend full of mixers. Friday, September 23rd we had a mixer with Sigma Phi Epsilon... We played sand volleyball and slip n' slided at Prairie Hall... Here are some of the boys playing slip n slide "bowling":

Our after party theme was "Revenge of the Nerds"

On Saturday, the 24th we had a "Royal Wedding" themed mixer with the men of Phi Kappa Psi. A cute theme considering I'm obsessed with London/the royal family, however it was a little difficult to dress for. I was elected to be a "bridesmaid" for the elected bride and my friend, Kara:

andddd, I didn't have many pictures from that night. :/

the 3rd mixer we've had this semester was with AKL.

we took a bus ride to a haunted cornmaze somewhere in Missouri during October.

Side note, alcohol and bus rides do not mix. :]

More soon! <3