Pumpkin Festival in Cordenons

Sunday, October 25

Every year around Halloween there are many pumpkin or holiday related festivals around where I live in Northern Italy. This year I decided I wanted to go to one since I was not able to go last year. I saw that Cordenons was having one a weekend I didn't have anything going on so I asked my friend Mary if she would come explore the festival with me, she said she would.

Festivals here are different than what you think of in the states where there are different scary looking carnival rides and games to play. Here it is more of different booths selling different food items, toys, crafts or fresh food and drinks. Plus they close down a lot of the streets in town just to set up for these events, which sometimes makes it very hard to get anywhere.

Of course when we walked through the starting section of the festival we saw a cart who was selling different drinks. We had to try the pumpkin beer, which actually turned out to not be as bad as I was thinking it would be. You can't go to a pumpkin festival and not try the pumpkin beer ;)

(Cheers!)

Once we had our beers we were set to explore the rest of the festival.

We had also come to try and find some pumpkins, since Halloween was just a few days away. Unfortunately we did not find any that we liked or felt like carrying back to the car.

There was however a lot of really delicious looking foods! We did sample some of the stuff, like different breads and olive oils, as you would expect. We also got to taste some of the vendors local honey. I'm obsessed with honey! I have tried so many different kinds of honey from our travels and no one has tasted the same, but they all have been delicious!

After walking around and seeing all the different things this pumpkin festival had to offer, we decided to start heading back to the car. These festivals end up being a lot bigger than you would expect. They take over at least a dozen or more different streets in town. On the way back we got offered a bag full of fresh apples. Which you would think would be a little weird, but all the other Italians that walked by were accepting them as well. That is another nice thing about being over here, usually they are not trying to scam you in buying something you don't want.

I would love to go to more festivals, since there are different ones to go to almost every weekend. Definitely a good way to interact and learn more about the Italian culture. 

WOD for Awareness

Saturday, October 24

As most people know, I am huge into fitness and started doing Crossfit while we have been stationed over here. So when our Crossfit group decided to do a WOD for Awareness, of course I wanted to be apart of it!

Even though the WOD was nothing to be happy about, it was idea of what we were doing it for. The WOD was "GRACE," which is 30 clean & jerks. For women the weight was 95lbs, which does not sound bad, but once you start you will definitely feel it!

I had previously done this WOD once before and was not a fan, and this time I still wasn't. I did however improve my time from last time, which is always a plus! :)

After everyone had completed the WOD our coach, Tiffany had made gift baskets for the best female and male time and then did a raffle for the "big bag" prize. On top of that, she always made everyone a little protein snack they could take. It was really delicious for being a healthy snack.

I cannot remember who won for the fastest male time but I will say I did win for the fastest female :) In the gift bag I received, it had a shaker bottle, chalk and a 2 protein bars. It was perfect because I was about to buy a new shaker bottle.

One thing I love about doing weekend group workouts is that we all go somewhere after to eat! We went to Bobe's, which is a local restaurant that actually serves American breakfast. Yes, having an American breakfast every once in a while is a special treat over here in Italy.

Wyvern Mud Run

Saturday, October 17

CE decided to host the first ever Wyvern Mud Run on base. I was so excited when I heard and saw the flyer for this event, I knew I had to sign up! I had wanted to sign up for the Tough Mudder in Germany but ended up not being able to go, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to do one. The Mud Run consisted of approximately 6.5 miles of running with different obstacles along the way. I was very interested in how they were going to set this up throughout the base.

You could either sign up as an individual or with a team of 4. I was a part of a team, it was Preston, our crossfit coach Tiffany and her husband, Wes, on our team.

Of course the day of I was a little nervous and excited since I had never done anything like this before. I'm glad though I got to do it with friends, that makes it so much better.

When we got there we had to sign in and get our bib numbers and since we signed up early enough, we also all got a towel.

We were in the last group of people to go. First were the squadrons who were competing, then the individuals and then us, the groups. To start the race you had to run through a huge sectioned off pool of mud. If you didn't have your shoes tied super tight, you definitely were going to lose them. Which happened to multiple people and it was really funny to watch them try and find their shoes while basically being trampled over by the rest of the people running by.

After we started the first obstacle was a large board and rope you had to climb up then jump down. At first I was a little disappointed because you had to run a ways to even get to the first obstacle. But after the first two obstacles there were more back-to-back you had to go through or over.

There were so many obstacles you had to go through, some of there obstacles were climbing up huge wood boards, running through tires, crawling in the mud under barbed wire while being hose with a fire truck, team-working your way over a 15 ft cement wall, running through wires with electricity running through them, monkey bars (so hard, as it was at the end after being covered in mud and soaked with water), and tire flips.

There was a section of the course where they told you to remember a certain set of numbers and letters depending on the last number on your bib. But they did not tell you for what or when you would need them again. Plus, if you weren't paying attention to a random sign in between 2 courses you would have missed it.

I was so excited when I knew the finish line was coming up, but to stop that momentum, we got stopped and asked what our number and letters were that coincided with the last number on our bib. Of course I thought I remembered mine but then when it was my turn to say mine I realized I had one too many numbers. But thankfully I chose the right number. Preston though, unfortunately was the only one who got a number wrong and had to do burpees as the penalty.

After that it was a race to the finish line. Again, before fully finishing the race you had to run back through the huge pool of mud.

We made it!!

I might look a little goofy, but I was happy one of Tiffany's friends took these pictures at the finish line :)

So happy there was food and drinks after the race because I was starving! Since it was the first event and still learning the ropes, there was only hot dogs, chips and water or soda. But at least there was something.

All-in-all I would say the race was a success! We all finished and nobody got hurt! I would love to do another one of these types of races in the future!

LiveSore Ambassador

Sunday, October 4

In my previous post about my photoshoot I had stated I wanted to try and represent a company or brand that dealt with health and fitness. Perfect timing for me, as I randomly stumbled upon an athletic clothing line that was looking for new ambassadors to represent their new and upcoming company and also the company has a pretty good cause it represents with it. If you buy one of their "stand up to cancer shirts" they will donate $5 directly back to the Stand up for Cancer cause. So why not try and become apart of a new and upcoming company.

I applied Sunday night, which was the last day you could apply to become a part of their program. But then had to wait for a response...

Tuesday, October 6

It was not until Tuesday night that I received the email saying "Welcome to the LiveSore Ambassador Program." I was so excited when I opened up that email as I am now slowly getting my foot in the door of the athletic marketing world, as this is what my dream job would be and what I am currently getting my first Master's degree in.

The next step was then to wait for my "ambassador starter kit" to arrive, and who knows how long that would take with how slow the mail is sometimes over here.