June 2026 Recap

This Or That

In my experience…

Latte or Cappuccino

Everyone knows the rules: cappuccino + pastry (or in our case 4) = vacation

Roman Forum or Colosseum

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and celebrate Italy’s Independence Day! After enjoying the parade and seeing the President, we got free access to all of the monuments. It turns out it only takes three trips to Rome to appreciate the rich history of the Forum.

Pastry or Gelato

Before my trip, I was dreaming of egg-flavored gelato (yes, it did take leaving 3 gelaterias before I found it), and while it was as good as I remembered, I would pick a morning pastry over it.

Bicerin or Affogato

Bicerin is a Torino staple, and a word I will never be able to pronounce. While I love immersing myself in the culture, it came at a cost: a stomach ache. If you are looking for something you can finish, I would go with the Affogato.

Apple Pay or Euros

As someone who somehow tried to pay with pounds in Italy, I think tap to pay would have saved us all in the situation from confusion and embarrassment.

Agnolotti de plin or Vitello tonnato

Do you know what Vitello tonnato is? Veal in a creamy tuna and caper sauce. And if that didn’t gross you out like it should have, look up a picture of how they serve it. We’ll stick to Plin!

Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great

Alexander was down with his men, and I respect that. Julius Caesar married off his young daughter to an old guy to land a power deal. I’m not down with that.

Book a driver or Take a train

We found out the hard way that when a chauffeur company messages “we found a guy to take you to Naples”, do not assume it’s one of their professional drivers, because for us, they found a random guy off the street.

My Obligatory Thought Piece

My thoughts are fuller than my suitcase.

We seek convenience and sacrifice the art. It seems like a modern dilemma; as a child of the millennium, it’s hard not to think it started with something like the popularization of plastic plants for those who do not want to wait for flowers to grow, heightened with the invention of microwave meals for quicker dinners, and exacerbated with the reliance on AI for those who do not want to think through their own thoughts. In reality, it goes so much further back than that. Take Egyptian mummification practices; they used to be so careful in their process, then they learned to do it quickly, and it went from an admirable process to something demeaning. It all proves the point that when we rush the process, we take the beauty out of it.

I was raised in a house with parents whose response was “no rush” when I said things like I am going to the bathroom real quick or will be back in a second. They were onto something (as usual). We all feel like our time is so limited, so we rush through the day to get it all done, but living like this will take the beauty out of our days.

I said at the start of SS I was doing this to be present in my own life, to take time to slow down and reflect on the moments that made a month. I encourage all of you to slow down and appreciate the parts of your month that paint your life; do not sacrifice the things that make you YOU in a rush to do ALL the things, because if you are having to rush to get it all done, maybe you were not meant to do so much.

My Experience At The Vatican

It took me 2 months to tell my story.

It started with me pulling, pulling, and pulling on the door to the confessional booth (?). Turns out, I was on his side – he probably was looking for a secret panic button to call security. Not that he would be able to find it though, CONSIDERING HE WAS ON MY SIDE. So while I can be blamed for not seeing the fully open door on the other side, I will not take all the fault.  

Once I got settled on my side of the booth, the booth that is supposed to be a blind confessional, I saw his eyes peering straight at me (yes, this is me questioning if the priests can actually see us from their side because I was seeing him).

I started with the classic Catholic script, but the problem was, I couldn’t quite remember my lines. I thought maybe we’d have some pleasantries before getting right into the confessions, and I thought wrong. After an awkward two minutes of silence, my man said: “Are you ever going to start?” Sir, I was waiting for you! 

After a few minutes, I thought we were starting to hit it off and finally have that small talk I was waiting for when he asked,  “Do you go to church”, me thinking this was my moment to win him over, “yes of course I do”, “every week?” he asked, “well I try to most weeks” and that was game over, I fell right into his trap. From there, another question: why do I not regularly go to confession, and in that moment I forgot who I was talking to and where I was. I then proceeded to tell him all about my fear of driving, how I’ve gotten more comfortable behind the wheel lately, and my realization that I could probably drive myself now. It was a beautiful moment of self-discovery, but maybe it should not have been THAT moment.

So my lessons from an international confession: the priests are not there for small talk. Save yourself from embarrassment and go straight into the sins.