With the last few weeks of school, life has gotten even more hectic than usual. Sorry for my lack of posts; there has been so much going on that I either 1) didn't want to sit down and try and write everything and/or 2) I have been lazy. I swear, I am the laziest person anymore. We are always tired and half the time the only thing that sounds good to do is take a nap. This constant traveling and exploring has worn me out. Its this feeling that I have to always be dong something, or going somewhere, because my time left in Italy is coming quickly to the end. December 26th has already been set aside as a day of sleep, and I will rejoice when it arrives. But since that is still a few weeks away, I will continue to live my exciting and adventurous life in Firenze. Here are a few snapshots to catch you all up on what's been going on over here the last few weeks.
Week of November 22nd-27th:
We only had class Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving Week, and then we were off Wednesday for Scotland! While it was a bit cold, our week in Scotland was one of the best trips I've been on this entire semester. It was a school trip, and we stayed in luxury apartments 2 minutes away from the city center. I lived with 8 of my girl friends and we dubbed our apartment the 'Top Model' house (since it reminded of us the houses the America's Next Top Model contestants stay in). We toured Edinburgh all Thursday and then made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with James (Student Life coordinator). It was a great Thanksgiving, filled with good food and good friends. As we sat drinking wine and laughing around a table covered in food, I couldn't imagine a better place to be for the holiday.
The next day we did a day trip to the highlands. We went on a boat cruise of Loch Lomond and saw the rolling hills of the Scotland country side. It was a nice day trip, except for all of us getting sick on the bus from the constant turns and hills.
On Saturday we did another day trip, this time to the coast. We also went to St. Andrews and I had a blast walking around the city acting like I owned the place. We also had some of the most delicious fish and chips. This day was by far my favorite, and if I could live forever on the Scotland coast (North Sea) I would.
We all flew back to Florence on Sunday, and by all of us I literally mean almost everyone on our plane was Gonzaga. We had a little scare; on our flight from Edinburgh to London we had a bit of a delay because this couple got off the plan after they had boarded and put bags in the overhead cabin. Because of the security risk we had to sit on the plane as the flight attendants went through each and every bag checking to see who it belonged to on the plane. In the midst of the mini-crisis we did get a good laugh. One of the boys was asleep and when the flight attendant pulled down his bag the entire plane erupted yelling his name, Granted, everyone else on that plane probably hated us seeing as how it was 7AM, but we found it pretty funny.
Week of November 28th-December 4th:
This was our last full week of school. Classes were pretty boring as usual, and not much happened.
On Wednesday night I went to the Opera with a bunch of people from school. I saw 'La Boheme' which is loosely based off a story similar to that of 'Rent'. It was a very fun experience and even though I couldn't understand a thing they were saying, I enjoyed it.
On Friday we left for our weekend trip to Rome, with the school. It was a whirlwind trip; we saw everything! We got split into three small groups for tours, and on Saturday we had the best tour guide of the entire semester. She was funny and entertaining, and so smart! We all had such a blast with her we asked if she would come out for a drink with us after the tour was over and she did! We went to this cafe and ordered hot chocolate and beer. She told us some amazing stories and it was fun just hanging out. After we all went and got kebabs for dinner and grabbed some drinks to have while we watched the Gonzaga game in the boys' room. We lost, but it was still a good time.
Before we left on Sunday we went back to the Vatican and got blessed by the Pope!
Week of December 5th-December 8th:
This week was our last week of classes, and we only had them until Wednesday since today (Thursday) is a national holiday of the Immaculate Conception. It was a pretty dead week since classes were all winding down.
On Monday night we had our big Christmas Party at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was such a fun night! Everyone dressed up and all of the professors and staff of the school were there as well. A bunch of us girls, and some of the guys, from our pensione took cabs to the restaurant since it was pouring outside- first taxi ride in Florence.
Now that classes are officially done with, we basically have a week until Finals start because I don't have any until Wednesday and Thursday. I should be studying, which I will, but for right now I don't want to do anything. I woke up early this morning and went shopping at the markets with Jaclyn. We are doing Secret Santa in our pensione and I bought my person their present too. We also decided last night at dinner to have a pensione Christmas Party, and we figured out the details of that today at lunch so it will be happening Saturday.
One thing I am going to severely miss is living in Bonifacio with everybody. We have all become really good friends and its going to be sad not seeing/eating with everybody all the time.
We planned the party perfectly, since the pensione calcio (soccer) tournament is Saturday, and we will obviously be winning- the party will be the perfect celebration.
With only a week left of school, and until my mom comes!, life is moving at warp speed. I have no idea how I'm going to get everything done that I want/need too. It will definitely happen, but at this point I just want it to be December 15th
Tuesday, November 22nd - Thursday, December 8th
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Firenze, Homework, and a little bit of Poland
I know I know, I have been terribly at updating this lately. Life happens, school work piles up, and the next thing I know it's the weekend again and I'm off jet-setting around Europe (or Italy). With only 9 days of classes left I can't believe the semester is winding down. I am at that awkward place where I want to go home, but I don't want to leave Europe. I have classes today and tomorrow then its off to Scotland for Thanksgiving. It is going to be a different experience not celebrating (and of course, eating) with the family. In Florence, Christmas lights have already began popping up everywhere. As it gets closer to the holidays I have started missing Washington more and more. I love it here but I am definitely doing to miss all the delicious food and company on Thursday. I am extremely grateful I will be home in time for Christmas. Had I been 5,000 miles away for that I may have died.
In brief, the last 2 weeks have been crazy ridiculous.
The week of November 8th-13th was a little bit of mayhem. I was at first supposed to go to Switzerland, then Allie and I started talking about going to Amsterdam instead. We ended up staying in Florence. While I really wish I had made it to Amsterdam, it was probably the best choice to stay in town. We did a day trip with Nina and Nathan to Lucca on Friday and had a blast. It's a walled city, so we grabbed lunch and then rented bikes and rode all around the city and the wall. It was a perfect fall day with orange and yellow leaves everywhere, and a bright blue sky. The rest of the weekend was spent working on homework. I was quite the procrastinator and left my Holocaust paper until Sunday. It got done and I actually should be getting it back later today so we will see how I did on that shortly.
The week of November 14th-20th was also quite the whirlwind. There were tests and quizzes galore. Not much else happened, but it was stressful enough that we didn't go out on Tuesday and by the time Thursday rolled around we were all exhausted. I left for Poland Thursday night with Carl and boy was that an adventure.
Our flight was at 6:30AM out of Rome Friday morning, which meant we had to take the 7PM train from Florence so that we would be in the city Friday morning. It took us a 4 hour train ride and 40 minute bus ride to get to the airport around 1AM. We then spent the night in the airport with about 30 other people who had early morning flights. It was not fun. It was freezing. At one point during the night I decided that going to Poland was not worth it and all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in my nice warm bed. But I obviously didn't, and at 6:30AM we were on the plane heading towards Poland.
Our flight landed around 8:30AM and we spent the morning and afternoon wandering around Krakow, seeing the sites. While I have never been to Russia, Krakow was almost exactly what I imagine Russia being like. I loved it. It is so different from every other place I've visited over here- probably because it is Eastern Europe and I've stayed mainly in the Western countries. We called it a day pretty early, 8PM, and passed out before our head had even hit the pillow.
On Saturday we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We went with a tour group and it was probably the best decision we made. I absolutely recommend everyone go visit this concentration/death camp. Even if you know almost nothing of the Holocaust, this experience is one you need to have. Looking through my pictures I realized they don't even come close to portraying what it's like there. You need to feel the air and stand on the ground that 1.5 million Jews lost their lives on. Our tour guide was amazing and it is definitely a day I will always remember.
The rest of the day we did some Christmas shopping and had an authentic Polish meal. One of the reasons I love Poland so much is because it is extremely cheap. We had a delicious dinner, complete with Polish beer, for about 7 American dollars. Fantastic. After dinner we wandered around some more and had a nice life chat before calling it a night.
We had a 9AM flight to catch so we were up early again. It took us the majority of the day to get home since we didn't want to pay for the fast train back to Florence.
Now, it's Monday. I just took a finance test and am waiting for lunch because I'm starved. Now that my test is out of the way I don't have much to do before I leave for Scotland Wednesday afternoon. Finally, a few days of peace.
Tuesday, November 8th - Monday, November 21st
In brief, the last 2 weeks have been crazy ridiculous.
The week of November 8th-13th was a little bit of mayhem. I was at first supposed to go to Switzerland, then Allie and I started talking about going to Amsterdam instead. We ended up staying in Florence. While I really wish I had made it to Amsterdam, it was probably the best choice to stay in town. We did a day trip with Nina and Nathan to Lucca on Friday and had a blast. It's a walled city, so we grabbed lunch and then rented bikes and rode all around the city and the wall. It was a perfect fall day with orange and yellow leaves everywhere, and a bright blue sky. The rest of the weekend was spent working on homework. I was quite the procrastinator and left my Holocaust paper until Sunday. It got done and I actually should be getting it back later today so we will see how I did on that shortly.
The week of November 14th-20th was also quite the whirlwind. There were tests and quizzes galore. Not much else happened, but it was stressful enough that we didn't go out on Tuesday and by the time Thursday rolled around we were all exhausted. I left for Poland Thursday night with Carl and boy was that an adventure.
Our flight was at 6:30AM out of Rome Friday morning, which meant we had to take the 7PM train from Florence so that we would be in the city Friday morning. It took us a 4 hour train ride and 40 minute bus ride to get to the airport around 1AM. We then spent the night in the airport with about 30 other people who had early morning flights. It was not fun. It was freezing. At one point during the night I decided that going to Poland was not worth it and all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in my nice warm bed. But I obviously didn't, and at 6:30AM we were on the plane heading towards Poland.
Our flight landed around 8:30AM and we spent the morning and afternoon wandering around Krakow, seeing the sites. While I have never been to Russia, Krakow was almost exactly what I imagine Russia being like. I loved it. It is so different from every other place I've visited over here- probably because it is Eastern Europe and I've stayed mainly in the Western countries. We called it a day pretty early, 8PM, and passed out before our head had even hit the pillow.
On Saturday we went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We went with a tour group and it was probably the best decision we made. I absolutely recommend everyone go visit this concentration/death camp. Even if you know almost nothing of the Holocaust, this experience is one you need to have. Looking through my pictures I realized they don't even come close to portraying what it's like there. You need to feel the air and stand on the ground that 1.5 million Jews lost their lives on. Our tour guide was amazing and it is definitely a day I will always remember.
The rest of the day we did some Christmas shopping and had an authentic Polish meal. One of the reasons I love Poland so much is because it is extremely cheap. We had a delicious dinner, complete with Polish beer, for about 7 American dollars. Fantastic. After dinner we wandered around some more and had a nice life chat before calling it a night.
We had a 9AM flight to catch so we were up early again. It took us the majority of the day to get home since we didn't want to pay for the fast train back to Florence.
Now, it's Monday. I just took a finance test and am waiting for lunch because I'm starved. Now that my test is out of the way I don't have much to do before I leave for Scotland Wednesday afternoon. Finally, a few days of peace.
Tuesday, November 8th - Monday, November 21st
Monday, November 7, 2011
Drama, Halloween, Homework, Italia
I apologize for not posting for awhile. Life's been chaotic and I haven't had time to breath let alone write an eloquent account of the past two weeks. Then again, you haven't missed much. While its been all sorts of mayhem, none of it is particularly interesting.
Halloween was a good time. They don't really celebrate it here, but the bars and clubs all had parties for the American students. The girls and I bought 2 euro masks at the market, wore all black, and were super cute [refer to Facebook pictures if you don't believe me].
We partied with the gang and stayed out until a wee hour in the morning I won't mention since my mom reads this. BUT in my defense we didn't have school the next day so no harm no foul.
We did nothing on that day off. I oddly woke up at 8AM, took a shower, and then did nothing until 11 when I met Jaclyn and we went to one of the cafe's for brunch. We ended up staying there for 3 hours. I love when I act European, staying in a restaurant for 2 1/2 hours longer than is needed. And it was some great conversation, so who cares that we missed lunch? Not us.
The rest of the day was spent rather unproductively. I studied for a few midterms I had coming up and watched some Grey's Anatomy.
The rest of the week went by rather dully. Had two midterms and that's about as exciting as it gets.
On Thursday, went to dinner with Michelle and ran into some of the boys from school. We had a great time. I love spending time with people in the program that I don't usually see. The change in company is fantastic.
I ended up going out on the town with Erin later in the evening. We hit up all the usual spots, but most places were dead. Which was weird. We spent a good portion of the night in a new bar we found next to one of our favorites. It had good music, cheap drinks, and a great guy-girl ration [not that it matters]. We stopped at Twice on the way home to see if it had picked up. It hadn't. So it was an early night... relatively speaking.
On Friday Michelle and I ventured to Pisa and Siena. We took cheesy, tourist pictures kicking over the Leaning Tower and enjoyed every second.
Siena was gorgeous. Its much quieter and quainter than Florence. We walked around looking at everything there was to see. After spending all afternoon trying to locate their duomo, we stumbled upon it during our random wanderings through side streets. It isn't nearly as big as Florence's duomo, but beautifully crafted and has such pretty, intricate art work all over it.
We ran into an American school tour group standing outside the duomo. We now know what we look like on Wednesday mornings wandering around Florence. Awesome.
The rest of the weekend was spent in my room, with Allie, working on our economics presentation that was due today. It was supposed to be an hour long presentation... that we didn't start working on until Saturday. So ya, it's safe to say I did nothing but that the entire rest of the weekend.
Today, class went by as usual. I was stressing about my presentation the entire time which was great.
The presentation surprisingly went by much faster than I expected. We somehow stood in front of the class for 2 1/2 hours [even though we were done an hour earlier...]. Thankfully, everyone in the class came up to us and told us that they had enjoyed it and we did a good job. Praise the Lord.
Now that that's done with, you would think I was done with projects. Oh no. I have a Holocaust paper I need to write before Monday... and since I'm going to either Amsterdam or Switzerland this weekend I need to get started on it like now.
Friday, October 28th - Monday, November 7th
Halloween was a good time. They don't really celebrate it here, but the bars and clubs all had parties for the American students. The girls and I bought 2 euro masks at the market, wore all black, and were super cute [refer to Facebook pictures if you don't believe me].
We partied with the gang and stayed out until a wee hour in the morning I won't mention since my mom reads this. BUT in my defense we didn't have school the next day so no harm no foul.
We did nothing on that day off. I oddly woke up at 8AM, took a shower, and then did nothing until 11 when I met Jaclyn and we went to one of the cafe's for brunch. We ended up staying there for 3 hours. I love when I act European, staying in a restaurant for 2 1/2 hours longer than is needed. And it was some great conversation, so who cares that we missed lunch? Not us.
The rest of the day was spent rather unproductively. I studied for a few midterms I had coming up and watched some Grey's Anatomy.
The rest of the week went by rather dully. Had two midterms and that's about as exciting as it gets.
On Thursday, went to dinner with Michelle and ran into some of the boys from school. We had a great time. I love spending time with people in the program that I don't usually see. The change in company is fantastic.
I ended up going out on the town with Erin later in the evening. We hit up all the usual spots, but most places were dead. Which was weird. We spent a good portion of the night in a new bar we found next to one of our favorites. It had good music, cheap drinks, and a great guy-girl ration [not that it matters]. We stopped at Twice on the way home to see if it had picked up. It hadn't. So it was an early night... relatively speaking.
On Friday Michelle and I ventured to Pisa and Siena. We took cheesy, tourist pictures kicking over the Leaning Tower and enjoyed every second.
Siena was gorgeous. Its much quieter and quainter than Florence. We walked around looking at everything there was to see. After spending all afternoon trying to locate their duomo, we stumbled upon it during our random wanderings through side streets. It isn't nearly as big as Florence's duomo, but beautifully crafted and has such pretty, intricate art work all over it.
We ran into an American school tour group standing outside the duomo. We now know what we look like on Wednesday mornings wandering around Florence. Awesome.
The rest of the weekend was spent in my room, with Allie, working on our economics presentation that was due today. It was supposed to be an hour long presentation... that we didn't start working on until Saturday. So ya, it's safe to say I did nothing but that the entire rest of the weekend.
Today, class went by as usual. I was stressing about my presentation the entire time which was great.
The presentation surprisingly went by much faster than I expected. We somehow stood in front of the class for 2 1/2 hours [even though we were done an hour earlier...]. Thankfully, everyone in the class came up to us and told us that they had enjoyed it and we did a good job. Praise the Lord.
Now that that's done with, you would think I was done with projects. Oh no. I have a Holocaust paper I need to write before Monday... and since I'm going to either Amsterdam or Switzerland this weekend I need to get started on it like now.
Friday, October 28th - Monday, November 7th
Friday, October 28, 2011
Beginning of the End
Monday:
What a great way to start of the week.
Classes were relatively normal. Erin and I had a 2 minute presentation in Intro to Florence that turned into about a 1 minute presentation because she cut us of and moved on to the next person. Oh well, we got an A.
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. After dinner I spent the rest of the evening studying for my Intro to Florence test that's tomorrow.
Tuesday:
After watching everyone else freak out and worry about the Intro to Florence test, I feel a little bad when I say that I didn't find it that difficult.
After the test, Italian went well and then it was lunch. Day over? Oh, I wish.
After lunch I started studying for my Finance test that's on Thursday. People are already freaking out about that one too. Is there something wrong with me? I don't have anywhere near the anxiety or stress that half of my friends do about these tests..
After dinner I went to the school and studied with Jaclyn, Gmo, and Conner for Finance. Surprisingly we actually got work done! But of course we did have the occasional YouTube video study breaks. And before we all went home we did make a gelato stop. Hey, we deserved it.
Wednesday:
Carl and I have been scheduled to give our Holocaust presentation since last Wednesday, but we finally got it out of the way today. I feel like it went really well, and Professor Baranova seemed to like it. Praise the Lord.
Other than that presentation, class was pretty boring.
Once again, after History was over I spent the rest of my afternoon studying for Finance. I again met up with Jaclyn and Conner to study. Erin and Gabby took it today and they came back both pretty crazy. They kept telling me how hard it was and everything... they almost got me a little panicked. But when we were studying, Jaclyn and Conner both told me that everyone they had talked to said it wasn't too bad. I don't know if Erin and Gabby are trying to psych me out, or if they legitimately thought it was hard. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
Thursday:
Woke up and had Finance right off the bat. I actually think it went really well. I felt bad though because after I ran into Gabby and she asked how it went. I made the mistake of saying I thought I did well because she decided to be snappy with me for the rest of the day. Oh well, whatever.
Italian kind of dragged on, and when I got home I started talking to Nina about the test. Turns out I had messed up a little. On the first page was 2 long answer questions. I answered both, but only really felt confident in the first one. I didn't read directions and it just so happens that we were only supposed to answer one. I quickly emailed Professor Screti and explained what happened, and asked very nicely if she could grade the first one. I got a nice reply saying that it was totally okay and to have a great weekend. Love her.
And so the weekend began...
A bunch of us girls decided to go to Gusta Pizza for dinner. I had the most amazing pesto pizza OF MY LIFE. I am honestly never eating pizza in America again, even New York pizza. Nothing will ever compare to the pizza I've had in Italy.
We went home, changed, and headed out to the Fish Pub to meet the boys. We had another great night, returning home close to 3AM. If we had been in the right state of mind we probably would have realized the time was perfect to go to the Secret Bakery, but we didn't. Next time.
Week 1 of Midterms has commenced. And we made it out alive. Only 3 more to go next week. I can't believe we only have a month left in this wonderful place.
Monday, October 24th - Thursday, October 27th
What a great way to start of the week.
Classes were relatively normal. Erin and I had a 2 minute presentation in Intro to Florence that turned into about a 1 minute presentation because she cut us of and moved on to the next person. Oh well, we got an A.
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. After dinner I spent the rest of the evening studying for my Intro to Florence test that's tomorrow.
Tuesday:
After watching everyone else freak out and worry about the Intro to Florence test, I feel a little bad when I say that I didn't find it that difficult.
After the test, Italian went well and then it was lunch. Day over? Oh, I wish.
After lunch I started studying for my Finance test that's on Thursday. People are already freaking out about that one too. Is there something wrong with me? I don't have anywhere near the anxiety or stress that half of my friends do about these tests..
After dinner I went to the school and studied with Jaclyn, Gmo, and Conner for Finance. Surprisingly we actually got work done! But of course we did have the occasional YouTube video study breaks. And before we all went home we did make a gelato stop. Hey, we deserved it.
Wednesday:
Carl and I have been scheduled to give our Holocaust presentation since last Wednesday, but we finally got it out of the way today. I feel like it went really well, and Professor Baranova seemed to like it. Praise the Lord.
Other than that presentation, class was pretty boring.
Once again, after History was over I spent the rest of my afternoon studying for Finance. I again met up with Jaclyn and Conner to study. Erin and Gabby took it today and they came back both pretty crazy. They kept telling me how hard it was and everything... they almost got me a little panicked. But when we were studying, Jaclyn and Conner both told me that everyone they had talked to said it wasn't too bad. I don't know if Erin and Gabby are trying to psych me out, or if they legitimately thought it was hard. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
Thursday:
Woke up and had Finance right off the bat. I actually think it went really well. I felt bad though because after I ran into Gabby and she asked how it went. I made the mistake of saying I thought I did well because she decided to be snappy with me for the rest of the day. Oh well, whatever.
Italian kind of dragged on, and when I got home I started talking to Nina about the test. Turns out I had messed up a little. On the first page was 2 long answer questions. I answered both, but only really felt confident in the first one. I didn't read directions and it just so happens that we were only supposed to answer one. I quickly emailed Professor Screti and explained what happened, and asked very nicely if she could grade the first one. I got a nice reply saying that it was totally okay and to have a great weekend. Love her.
And so the weekend began...
A bunch of us girls decided to go to Gusta Pizza for dinner. I had the most amazing pesto pizza OF MY LIFE. I am honestly never eating pizza in America again, even New York pizza. Nothing will ever compare to the pizza I've had in Italy.
We went home, changed, and headed out to the Fish Pub to meet the boys. We had another great night, returning home close to 3AM. If we had been in the right state of mind we probably would have realized the time was perfect to go to the Secret Bakery, but we didn't. Next time.
Week 1 of Midterms has commenced. And we made it out alive. Only 3 more to go next week. I can't believe we only have a month left in this wonderful place.
Monday, October 24th - Thursday, October 27th
Monday, October 24, 2011
The Gang is Back Together
Friday:
After staying out quite late on Thursday, we allowed ourselves to sleep in until about 11 Friday morning. A bunch of us were going on the wine tour offered by the school at 2:30PM so we decided to get dressed and head out to a nice brunch at The Diner for some good old American breakfast foods.
My pancakes and omelette (split between Audrey and I) were absolutely delicious. After breakfast we headed back home to get a few things done before we left.
The wine tour was a fun thing to do. It was perfect weather for wandering around vineyards and learning about the wine and olive oil making processes. We got to see the entire behind the scenes action of a successful winery.
At the end of the tour we had the chance to sit down and taste the 3 wines they make, and the 2 olive oils. I am not a wine fan, which probably explains why I was the only one at our able to leave wine in all 3 glasses. I took a few sips, admired the differences, and was done. The olive oils were very good- so much better than the ones we have at home. Or atleast they tasted that way... probably had something to do with the freshness... who knows. After that was over with we headed back home.
I ended up going to dinner with Jaclyn, Felicia, Fallon, Nicole, Amanda, and some guys from my pensione. We went to Dante's and Jaclyn and I got to experience our first time together. It is a great restaurant across the Ponte Vecchio that gives students free wine. And limoncello. It was great company, great food, and a great time. Even though we all got tiramisu at the restaurant, on the way home we passed the 1 euro gelato place and had to get some. It was basically a night of indulgences.
After dinner Jaclyn, Fallon and I decided to hit the town once again. It was Elise's 21 run and we had been told where it was starting, so even though we didn't head out until an hour later we expected to find them somewhere. When we got to Shots they weren't there. There is only so many places they could be so we started going from one to another looking for them. When we realized 21 had a 13 euro covercharge we knew they were going to have to end up at Twice sometime during the night, so we headed there. We stayed for close to an hour and never once saw any Gonzaga kids. It was 1:30AM at this point and we were tired, so we bailed.
Not too bad for a Friday.
Saturday:
The original plan for Saturday was to wake up at 6:30AM and meet Jaclyn, Felicia, Fallon and some other girls and catch the 8AM train to Perugia for the Chocolate Festival. I must have turned my alarm off in the morning because at 7:30AM Jaclyn showed up wondering what was going on. So basically, I didn't make it to Perugia. Oh well.
Instead, Allie and I slept in and got a very late brunch with Audrey and Erin. We meant to walk home right after but instead wandered through the outdoor market and mercato centrale for awhile. I've been looking for an infinity scarf for months and finally found one I like at the outdoor market, so I bought my first official Italian made garment. We finally headed home, 3 hours later, and tried to be productive. Allie and I did work on homework for awhile, but if you looked at how much we finished you would think we did nothing all day.
The gang had made plans to get together once the boys made it back from the soccer game. Us girls went to a place close on Nazionale for dinner and caught up with some of them that we haven't seen in awhile.
As we were getting ready back at our pensione, Gmo showed up. We were meeting the rest of the guys at 10PM at Red Garter so we headed out.
They ended up being an hour and a half late,but it was okay since we were having a pretty good time anyways. Once they did show up we left for Twice. After being there a half hour Jaclyn and I were bored and had Nathan walk us home. After we dropped Jaclyn off we sat outside Bonifacio and talked for like an hour. Good old Nathan, what a trooper.
Sunday:
Even though they didn't get home till quite early in the morning (they had tried to find the Secret Bakery, again without success), Allie's alarm went off at 8:30AM and we headed downstairs for breakfast.
The rest of the day was spent, and I am not kidding, in our room doing homework. The only two times we left were to get lunch and dinner. And we only got food, no wandering about.
Other than the homework and the stress of upcoming tests, it was a pretty relaxing and quite day. Definitely needed after this weekend.
It was so nice to have everybody in town. Its been a month since we all have been together and I had almost forgot how much fun it is with everyone. It was one of those weekends that is going to make Monday be interesting. Breakfast was already funny, so I'm curious as to what the rest of the day is going to hold.
Friday, October 21st - Sunday, October 23rd
After staying out quite late on Thursday, we allowed ourselves to sleep in until about 11 Friday morning. A bunch of us were going on the wine tour offered by the school at 2:30PM so we decided to get dressed and head out to a nice brunch at The Diner for some good old American breakfast foods.
My pancakes and omelette (split between Audrey and I) were absolutely delicious. After breakfast we headed back home to get a few things done before we left.
The wine tour was a fun thing to do. It was perfect weather for wandering around vineyards and learning about the wine and olive oil making processes. We got to see the entire behind the scenes action of a successful winery.
At the end of the tour we had the chance to sit down and taste the 3 wines they make, and the 2 olive oils. I am not a wine fan, which probably explains why I was the only one at our able to leave wine in all 3 glasses. I took a few sips, admired the differences, and was done. The olive oils were very good- so much better than the ones we have at home. Or atleast they tasted that way... probably had something to do with the freshness... who knows. After that was over with we headed back home.
I ended up going to dinner with Jaclyn, Felicia, Fallon, Nicole, Amanda, and some guys from my pensione. We went to Dante's and Jaclyn and I got to experience our first time together. It is a great restaurant across the Ponte Vecchio that gives students free wine. And limoncello. It was great company, great food, and a great time. Even though we all got tiramisu at the restaurant, on the way home we passed the 1 euro gelato place and had to get some. It was basically a night of indulgences.
After dinner Jaclyn, Fallon and I decided to hit the town once again. It was Elise's 21 run and we had been told where it was starting, so even though we didn't head out until an hour later we expected to find them somewhere. When we got to Shots they weren't there. There is only so many places they could be so we started going from one to another looking for them. When we realized 21 had a 13 euro covercharge we knew they were going to have to end up at Twice sometime during the night, so we headed there. We stayed for close to an hour and never once saw any Gonzaga kids. It was 1:30AM at this point and we were tired, so we bailed.
Not too bad for a Friday.
Saturday:
The original plan for Saturday was to wake up at 6:30AM and meet Jaclyn, Felicia, Fallon and some other girls and catch the 8AM train to Perugia for the Chocolate Festival. I must have turned my alarm off in the morning because at 7:30AM Jaclyn showed up wondering what was going on. So basically, I didn't make it to Perugia. Oh well.
Instead, Allie and I slept in and got a very late brunch with Audrey and Erin. We meant to walk home right after but instead wandered through the outdoor market and mercato centrale for awhile. I've been looking for an infinity scarf for months and finally found one I like at the outdoor market, so I bought my first official Italian made garment. We finally headed home, 3 hours later, and tried to be productive. Allie and I did work on homework for awhile, but if you looked at how much we finished you would think we did nothing all day.
The gang had made plans to get together once the boys made it back from the soccer game. Us girls went to a place close on Nazionale for dinner and caught up with some of them that we haven't seen in awhile.
As we were getting ready back at our pensione, Gmo showed up. We were meeting the rest of the guys at 10PM at Red Garter so we headed out.
They ended up being an hour and a half late,but it was okay since we were having a pretty good time anyways. Once they did show up we left for Twice. After being there a half hour Jaclyn and I were bored and had Nathan walk us home. After we dropped Jaclyn off we sat outside Bonifacio and talked for like an hour. Good old Nathan, what a trooper.
Sunday:
Even though they didn't get home till quite early in the morning (they had tried to find the Secret Bakery, again without success), Allie's alarm went off at 8:30AM and we headed downstairs for breakfast.
The rest of the day was spent, and I am not kidding, in our room doing homework. The only two times we left were to get lunch and dinner. And we only got food, no wandering about.
Other than the homework and the stress of upcoming tests, it was a pretty relaxing and quite day. Definitely needed after this weekend.
It was so nice to have everybody in town. Its been a month since we all have been together and I had almost forgot how much fun it is with everyone. It was one of those weekends that is going to make Monday be interesting. Breakfast was already funny, so I'm curious as to what the rest of the day is going to hold.
Friday, October 21st - Sunday, October 23rd
Saturday, October 22, 2011
The Best Week Ever
Monday:
I was in a good mood Monday, not entirely sure why.
Woke up, went to class, and by the time my 3 hour econ class rolled around I decided I was done with classes for the day and instead went to the library to be productive [sorry, mom]. I actually was productive and went home just in time for dinner. After dinner I again worked on homework and hung out with some friends. Good day.
Tuesday:
Again, was in a great mood all day.
Classes were nothing special. After lunch did some homework and random stuff. Walked to the gigantic grocery store with Allie where we FINALLY found peanut butter. By the time we got back it was close to dinner time.
It was Glee night, so we hung out with some girls, ate baked goods, and watched a very odd episode of Glee.
See, nothing special, but still a very good day.
Wednesday:
For the third day in a row, I was in a great mood. Today actually had a reason though..
The tour for Intro to Florence wasn't bad today. We went to the museum behind the duomo and it was pretty interesting.
For Italian we also went on a field trip. We all met outside Piazza San Lorenzo and went to mercato centrale. It was a scavenger hunt in groups of 3, trying to find different meats, cheeses, vegetables and fruits. It was really fun and actually quite educational.
Because we had been at the market, class lasted a little longer than usual, so by the time I got home it was lunch time.
After lunch, had class again. Didn't have to do my presentation because she moved them to Monday, so that was awesome.
Once class was finished I tried to get homework done before dinner because the night was shaping up to be a good one.
I did a little bit of homework after dinner, skyped Hayley which was great, and then skyped Matt. It was so good to talk to both of them and actually see/hear them! Email just isn't the same... While I was talking to Matt the girls decided to go out. I wasn't really in the mood, and wanted to keep talking to him, so I bailed. I would later find out the night was pretty boring and I didn't miss out on much.
Quite a good day
Thursday:
A good way to end the week.
It decided to rain, all day. Classes flew by, and with the weather the way it was I felt like it would be an ideal time to curl up in my bed and watch Grey's Anatomy.
After lunch we didn't do much of anything, just hung out. When dinner time rolled around we wandered over to Mostodolce for burgers. I love that place.
Thursday night=Florence students Friday night. And with that the gang had been planning a reunion (since this was the first weekend in almost a month we were all here for the weekend) to the fish pub. We went home and changed and met everybody at the pub for a night of epicness.
Details are unnecessary, all that is important is that we had a great time. I love my friends. It was by far the best night out in Florence to date.
And so we welcomed in the weekend the best way we know how. Cheers, to the best week ever.
Monday, October 17th - Thursday, October 20th
I was in a good mood Monday, not entirely sure why.
Woke up, went to class, and by the time my 3 hour econ class rolled around I decided I was done with classes for the day and instead went to the library to be productive [sorry, mom]. I actually was productive and went home just in time for dinner. After dinner I again worked on homework and hung out with some friends. Good day.
Tuesday:
Again, was in a great mood all day.
Classes were nothing special. After lunch did some homework and random stuff. Walked to the gigantic grocery store with Allie where we FINALLY found peanut butter. By the time we got back it was close to dinner time.
It was Glee night, so we hung out with some girls, ate baked goods, and watched a very odd episode of Glee.
See, nothing special, but still a very good day.
Wednesday:
For the third day in a row, I was in a great mood. Today actually had a reason though..
The tour for Intro to Florence wasn't bad today. We went to the museum behind the duomo and it was pretty interesting.
For Italian we also went on a field trip. We all met outside Piazza San Lorenzo and went to mercato centrale. It was a scavenger hunt in groups of 3, trying to find different meats, cheeses, vegetables and fruits. It was really fun and actually quite educational.
Because we had been at the market, class lasted a little longer than usual, so by the time I got home it was lunch time.
After lunch, had class again. Didn't have to do my presentation because she moved them to Monday, so that was awesome.
Once class was finished I tried to get homework done before dinner because the night was shaping up to be a good one.
I did a little bit of homework after dinner, skyped Hayley which was great, and then skyped Matt. It was so good to talk to both of them and actually see/hear them! Email just isn't the same... While I was talking to Matt the girls decided to go out. I wasn't really in the mood, and wanted to keep talking to him, so I bailed. I would later find out the night was pretty boring and I didn't miss out on much.
Quite a good day
Thursday:
A good way to end the week.
It decided to rain, all day. Classes flew by, and with the weather the way it was I felt like it would be an ideal time to curl up in my bed and watch Grey's Anatomy.
After lunch we didn't do much of anything, just hung out. When dinner time rolled around we wandered over to Mostodolce for burgers. I love that place.
Thursday night=Florence students Friday night. And with that the gang had been planning a reunion (since this was the first weekend in almost a month we were all here for the weekend) to the fish pub. We went home and changed and met everybody at the pub for a night of epicness.
Details are unnecessary, all that is important is that we had a great time. I love my friends. It was by far the best night out in Florence to date.
And so we welcomed in the weekend the best way we know how. Cheers, to the best week ever.
Monday, October 17th - Thursday, October 20th
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Tally Hoes Take On London
And so the adventure begins...
Thursday:
Even though we didn't get to bed until close to 3AM, we were up and out the door by 10AM.
After grabbing a quick breakfast we headed to the subway station to get our day going. We bought an all day subway pass and headed towards the center of the city.
We found our first Starbucks in almost 2 months and about had a field day. The only disappointing thing was Starbuck's in Europe don't do the Fall Menu, so no Pumpkin Spice Latte's for us.
We began the day, coffee in hand, at the London Eye. You know, the really big ferris wheel. We would have gone on it but it cost 12 pounds which is close to 30 dollars so we said no to that.
After that we wandered around Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and random places all throughout the city. It wasn't the greatest of days, it kept sprinkling on us, but we had a blast. And what's more London than some fog and mist?
We grabbed lunch at this little caffe that advertised crumpets. I did in fact have a crumpet and it wasn't too bad.
After lunch we found an empty, and clean, telephone booth and took the super cheesy tourist pictures with it.
We also wanted to find platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross so that's where we headed to next. We knew that there was a Harry Potter 9 3/4 Platform but, silly us, we thought it was legitimately between the main Platforms 9 and 10. We wandered all around the station trying to find it. It wasn't until a station worker noticed we looked confused and came over to us that we found out it was right outside of the station. We did eventually find it and took our fan-girl pictures.
At that point in the afternoon it was close to 5PM. None of us were hungry, but half of us were exhausted. Three of the girls decided to keep exploring and the other of us headed back. The plan was to take a quick nap so that we would have energy the rest of the night, but that didn't really happen.
We got back to the hostel an hour and a half later and layed on our bed for like 20 minutes. No nap. The other girls weren't far behind us, so we all changed and headed out to find some authentic fish and chips.
We came across this pub that advertised fish and chips and since we had already walked a good 20 minutes decided to just go for it. Best. Decision. Ever.
These were the most delicious fish and chips I have ever had. And yes, as most of you know, I absolutely hate fish. And I ate them. AND LOVED THEM.
We got to sit in the super cool VIP room because there wasn't a big enough table for all of us anywhere else. After dinner we headed back. We were exhausted from all the traveling and exploring, so at 11PM we said goodnight.
Friday:
CONCERT DAY!
We woke up, had a quick breakfast again, and went out to the shopping district.
Not that any of us really needed anything, but why not go window shopping in London? We split up and Erin and I wandered around, looking at expensive clothes, bought fake eyelashes for the concert, and eventually found a Starbucks. It was a really gorgeous day so we took our muffins and coffee and went and sat in a nearby park to people watch and it.
Everyone was laying on the grass in the sun doing the same thing. It felt much like one of the small parks you find all over New York. There were a bunch of squirrels running around too so it made it feel a little bit like Spokane.
When it was time to meet the girls again we headed back to the station. Nina and Jo met us, without the other two, and said that they had talked to the people at The Body Shop and they had said they would do our makeup for the concert! When we got back to The Body Shop Gabby and Audrey were gone. They are the last two people you want wandering by themselves in a big city because neither of them know how to read a map or suwbay schedule... but we didn't really worry about it because we assumed they would show up eventually.
We all got our eye makeup done by one of the salesgirls and had a good time. I managed to score a super awesome deal... I really liked the eyeshadow she had used on me, and I've been looking for a red lipstick/gloss so when I saw they were advertising a buy 10 pounds worth of makeup and get the 10 pound lipgloss for free I decided to do it. Now, the eyeshadow was 8 pounds and the lipstick was 10 pounds so I was expecting to spend 18 pounds for the three items. When the salesgirl rang them up she looked at me confused and said it would be 10 pounds. I asked her to repeat it since it was way cheaper than I had expected. She didn't really question what had happened, just said I must have gotten lucky. Somehow the eyeshadow only rang up as 1 pound. I spent 10 pounds all together for eyeshadow, lipstick and lipgloss. Not bad for London.
In the middle of us getting our makeup done, Gabby and Audrey showed up. They had left to find us... even though Nina and Jo had told them to stay at the shop and we would all be back. Figures.
While the rest of the girls were getting made up, we went and looked in some of the boutiques close by. If only I had all the money in the world... we found some of the cutest clothes!
3 hours after we had planned to be back to our hostel, we finally left the shopping district. We raced home and got ready for the concert and headed out again.
We had tickets in the standing area of the floor so we wanted to get there early to make sure we got good spots. But, we were running a bit late... We got to the O2 about an hour and a half later than what we had planned. The line was pretty long, but not too terrible. We took a lot of pictures standing in line. The doors were supposed to open at 6:30PM but they didn't even let us in until 7:30PM.
The first opener started at 8PM and she wasn't terrible. She was a local up and coming artist so whatever. I won't be running out to buy her album anytime soon. The other opener was a DJ from California. He was good but it seemed like we were the only ones who liked the songs he was playing. Apparantly kids in London only like Adele and Katy Perry.
Then came Katy.
She was absolutely amazing! I much prefer her in person than on recordings. Her voice isn't made over with all the technology gadgets when she's singing on tour. It's just her voice, and if you didn't go to one of her concerts you would never know how good of a voice she actually as.
As expected, it was high energy, many costume changes, and all around extremely entertaining. We danced and sang until our feet and throats hurt. It ended all too soon....
It took us forever to get out of the stadium. We got on the subway we needed to take to catch the other subway we had to take to get home. We got off at the station where we needed to transfer only to find out that the last train to the station we needed to get to was at midnight. It was a little past 1AM at this point. Our options at that point where to either 1: take a different train to a station close by and walk the rest of the way or 2. catch a bus/taxi. We didn't want to pay more money to get home so we just took the other train. We didn't know which way to go out of the station towards home so we asked some people. After walking 20 minutes we came to the conclusion they had told us the wrong way.
We eventually made it home. Almost an hour later.
Saturday:
We slept in a little and grabbed a quick breakfast at the diner across the street. Again, we went in search of a Starbucks to waken up our senses.
We continued to do the touristy stuff. We took a ferry from Greenwich to the London Tower. This included going under the London Bridge.
Our initial plan was to check out the London Tower, however, we had no idea it was going to be so expensive to get in. None of us had the money to pay the entrance fee, so instead we just walked around the outside and read the signs we could.
We then went over, and onto, the London Bridge and took a few pictures there.
At this point we were bored with the city and wanted to get out and see the countryside. We went into a tourist information place to ask if there was a train or something we could take for cheap to get outside the city. After a half hour of looking at maps, subway schedules, and talking to a British tour guide we came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be able to happen. Instead, we got on a train to Camden to check out the markets.
Camden was pretty. It was packed full of people and vendors, but still nice. Again, we had no money so it wasn't like we could buy anything, but looking was fun.
Some of the girls were hungry so we stopped into a bar for some food. We made friends with the owner and had a good time. A lot of the clubs in England won't let you in unless your 21, so he told us if we wanted to go out later in the evening to come back and he would let us in. He was such a nice guy we felt bad having to pay in all coins. Probably why we spelled out 'sorry' and then ran out before he could see/say anything.
It was close to 5PM and we were all exhausted. It took us an hour and a half to get back to Greenwich and at that point we were starving, on top of being tired. We found a bar that served what looked to be good food. It was. We stayed there for quite awhile drinking our tea and having girl talk.
We crashed once we got back to the hostel. I would say a good last day in London, for sure.
Sunday:
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:20AM, so we thought we would be good leaving the hostel at 8AM. We would have been fine if the trains ran on the same schedule as every other day. But no, on Sundays they have a different schedule we didn't know about. Instead of getting on a train at 8:10AM like we thought we could do, the first train we could take didn't leave until 8:54AM. When we got to Whitechapel station we ran to the bus ticket center. The next bus was leaving in 10 minutes so we ran outside to catch it.
The bus takes an hour to get to the airport. We were leaving the station at 9:25. Not good.
We got to the airport close to 10:30AM. All the signs in the airport were saying that our gate was closing at 10:50AM. We ran through the airport to the check in desk, but someone thought we didn't need to be there so we ran to security (they're very close to one another). When we got up to the podium they said we needed to get our tickets tamped at the check in desk. So back we went running to the desk. A nice Ryanair employee took us to the front of the line and stamped all of our tickets super quickly, and off we went back to security. We hastily pulled off our shoes and took out our liquids. Erin and Gabby were in front of Nina and I and we were on the other side waiting for our bags when we saw Erin's first bag appear. Instead of coming straight down it was shifted to a middle lane where we couldn't get to it. Gabby's stuff did the same thing. We started panicking, but Nina, Jo and my stuff all came down where we could grab it. Audrey's bags also got shifted to the middle lane. While they were freaking out, the three of us put our clothes back on and decided we needed to leave them and try and catch our flight.
Our gate was literally as far from security as you could possibly get. We had 5 minutes to get there too. I am not kidding when I saw we outright sprinted through that airport. I have never ran so fast in my life, not to mention wearing boots and wearing a hiking backpack.
When we got in sight of our gate there were still people in line. We didn't even end up being the last people in line. We kept a look out for the other girls but they were nowhere in site. As the plane was taking off we sat there wondering what was going to happen to them...
We landed safely in Pisa 2 hours later and caught a bus back to Florence. When I got home Allie told me that the other girls had been on Facebook. They had had to buy a new plane ticket, spending 200 euro. I am so glad I didn't miss our flight.
For the rest of the night I didn't do much. Close to 8PM I met up with Felicia, Jaclyn and Fallon and we went to Astor for burgers. It was nice to sit and eat a chicken burger while watching some American football. It almost felt like home.
We stopped for gelato on the way home and for the rest of the night I worked on homework.
All in all, the trip to London was a success. A whirlwind, but a fun one. However, I'm not sure how soon I will be going back...
Thursday, October 13th - Sunday, October 16th
Thursday, October 13th - Sunday, October 16th
Thursday:
Even though we didn't get to bed until close to 3AM, we were up and out the door by 10AM.
After grabbing a quick breakfast we headed to the subway station to get our day going. We bought an all day subway pass and headed towards the center of the city.
We found our first Starbucks in almost 2 months and about had a field day. The only disappointing thing was Starbuck's in Europe don't do the Fall Menu, so no Pumpkin Spice Latte's for us.
We began the day, coffee in hand, at the London Eye. You know, the really big ferris wheel. We would have gone on it but it cost 12 pounds which is close to 30 dollars so we said no to that.
After that we wandered around Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and random places all throughout the city. It wasn't the greatest of days, it kept sprinkling on us, but we had a blast. And what's more London than some fog and mist?
We grabbed lunch at this little caffe that advertised crumpets. I did in fact have a crumpet and it wasn't too bad.
After lunch we found an empty, and clean, telephone booth and took the super cheesy tourist pictures with it.
We also wanted to find platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross so that's where we headed to next. We knew that there was a Harry Potter 9 3/4 Platform but, silly us, we thought it was legitimately between the main Platforms 9 and 10. We wandered all around the station trying to find it. It wasn't until a station worker noticed we looked confused and came over to us that we found out it was right outside of the station. We did eventually find it and took our fan-girl pictures.
At that point in the afternoon it was close to 5PM. None of us were hungry, but half of us were exhausted. Three of the girls decided to keep exploring and the other of us headed back. The plan was to take a quick nap so that we would have energy the rest of the night, but that didn't really happen.
We got back to the hostel an hour and a half later and layed on our bed for like 20 minutes. No nap. The other girls weren't far behind us, so we all changed and headed out to find some authentic fish and chips.
We came across this pub that advertised fish and chips and since we had already walked a good 20 minutes decided to just go for it. Best. Decision. Ever.
These were the most delicious fish and chips I have ever had. And yes, as most of you know, I absolutely hate fish. And I ate them. AND LOVED THEM.
We got to sit in the super cool VIP room because there wasn't a big enough table for all of us anywhere else. After dinner we headed back. We were exhausted from all the traveling and exploring, so at 11PM we said goodnight.
Friday:
CONCERT DAY!
We woke up, had a quick breakfast again, and went out to the shopping district.
Not that any of us really needed anything, but why not go window shopping in London? We split up and Erin and I wandered around, looking at expensive clothes, bought fake eyelashes for the concert, and eventually found a Starbucks. It was a really gorgeous day so we took our muffins and coffee and went and sat in a nearby park to people watch and it.
Everyone was laying on the grass in the sun doing the same thing. It felt much like one of the small parks you find all over New York. There were a bunch of squirrels running around too so it made it feel a little bit like Spokane.
When it was time to meet the girls again we headed back to the station. Nina and Jo met us, without the other two, and said that they had talked to the people at The Body Shop and they had said they would do our makeup for the concert! When we got back to The Body Shop Gabby and Audrey were gone. They are the last two people you want wandering by themselves in a big city because neither of them know how to read a map or suwbay schedule... but we didn't really worry about it because we assumed they would show up eventually.
We all got our eye makeup done by one of the salesgirls and had a good time. I managed to score a super awesome deal... I really liked the eyeshadow she had used on me, and I've been looking for a red lipstick/gloss so when I saw they were advertising a buy 10 pounds worth of makeup and get the 10 pound lipgloss for free I decided to do it. Now, the eyeshadow was 8 pounds and the lipstick was 10 pounds so I was expecting to spend 18 pounds for the three items. When the salesgirl rang them up she looked at me confused and said it would be 10 pounds. I asked her to repeat it since it was way cheaper than I had expected. She didn't really question what had happened, just said I must have gotten lucky. Somehow the eyeshadow only rang up as 1 pound. I spent 10 pounds all together for eyeshadow, lipstick and lipgloss. Not bad for London.
In the middle of us getting our makeup done, Gabby and Audrey showed up. They had left to find us... even though Nina and Jo had told them to stay at the shop and we would all be back. Figures.
While the rest of the girls were getting made up, we went and looked in some of the boutiques close by. If only I had all the money in the world... we found some of the cutest clothes!
3 hours after we had planned to be back to our hostel, we finally left the shopping district. We raced home and got ready for the concert and headed out again.
We had tickets in the standing area of the floor so we wanted to get there early to make sure we got good spots. But, we were running a bit late... We got to the O2 about an hour and a half later than what we had planned. The line was pretty long, but not too terrible. We took a lot of pictures standing in line. The doors were supposed to open at 6:30PM but they didn't even let us in until 7:30PM.
The first opener started at 8PM and she wasn't terrible. She was a local up and coming artist so whatever. I won't be running out to buy her album anytime soon. The other opener was a DJ from California. He was good but it seemed like we were the only ones who liked the songs he was playing. Apparantly kids in London only like Adele and Katy Perry.
Then came Katy.
She was absolutely amazing! I much prefer her in person than on recordings. Her voice isn't made over with all the technology gadgets when she's singing on tour. It's just her voice, and if you didn't go to one of her concerts you would never know how good of a voice she actually as.
As expected, it was high energy, many costume changes, and all around extremely entertaining. We danced and sang until our feet and throats hurt. It ended all too soon....
It took us forever to get out of the stadium. We got on the subway we needed to take to catch the other subway we had to take to get home. We got off at the station where we needed to transfer only to find out that the last train to the station we needed to get to was at midnight. It was a little past 1AM at this point. Our options at that point where to either 1: take a different train to a station close by and walk the rest of the way or 2. catch a bus/taxi. We didn't want to pay more money to get home so we just took the other train. We didn't know which way to go out of the station towards home so we asked some people. After walking 20 minutes we came to the conclusion they had told us the wrong way.
We eventually made it home. Almost an hour later.
Saturday:
We slept in a little and grabbed a quick breakfast at the diner across the street. Again, we went in search of a Starbucks to waken up our senses.
We continued to do the touristy stuff. We took a ferry from Greenwich to the London Tower. This included going under the London Bridge.
Our initial plan was to check out the London Tower, however, we had no idea it was going to be so expensive to get in. None of us had the money to pay the entrance fee, so instead we just walked around the outside and read the signs we could.
We then went over, and onto, the London Bridge and took a few pictures there.
At this point we were bored with the city and wanted to get out and see the countryside. We went into a tourist information place to ask if there was a train or something we could take for cheap to get outside the city. After a half hour of looking at maps, subway schedules, and talking to a British tour guide we came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be able to happen. Instead, we got on a train to Camden to check out the markets.
Camden was pretty. It was packed full of people and vendors, but still nice. Again, we had no money so it wasn't like we could buy anything, but looking was fun.
Some of the girls were hungry so we stopped into a bar for some food. We made friends with the owner and had a good time. A lot of the clubs in England won't let you in unless your 21, so he told us if we wanted to go out later in the evening to come back and he would let us in. He was such a nice guy we felt bad having to pay in all coins. Probably why we spelled out 'sorry' and then ran out before he could see/say anything.
It was close to 5PM and we were all exhausted. It took us an hour and a half to get back to Greenwich and at that point we were starving, on top of being tired. We found a bar that served what looked to be good food. It was. We stayed there for quite awhile drinking our tea and having girl talk.
We crashed once we got back to the hostel. I would say a good last day in London, for sure.
Sunday:
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:20AM, so we thought we would be good leaving the hostel at 8AM. We would have been fine if the trains ran on the same schedule as every other day. But no, on Sundays they have a different schedule we didn't know about. Instead of getting on a train at 8:10AM like we thought we could do, the first train we could take didn't leave until 8:54AM. When we got to Whitechapel station we ran to the bus ticket center. The next bus was leaving in 10 minutes so we ran outside to catch it.
The bus takes an hour to get to the airport. We were leaving the station at 9:25. Not good.
We got to the airport close to 10:30AM. All the signs in the airport were saying that our gate was closing at 10:50AM. We ran through the airport to the check in desk, but someone thought we didn't need to be there so we ran to security (they're very close to one another). When we got up to the podium they said we needed to get our tickets tamped at the check in desk. So back we went running to the desk. A nice Ryanair employee took us to the front of the line and stamped all of our tickets super quickly, and off we went back to security. We hastily pulled off our shoes and took out our liquids. Erin and Gabby were in front of Nina and I and we were on the other side waiting for our bags when we saw Erin's first bag appear. Instead of coming straight down it was shifted to a middle lane where we couldn't get to it. Gabby's stuff did the same thing. We started panicking, but Nina, Jo and my stuff all came down where we could grab it. Audrey's bags also got shifted to the middle lane. While they were freaking out, the three of us put our clothes back on and decided we needed to leave them and try and catch our flight.
Our gate was literally as far from security as you could possibly get. We had 5 minutes to get there too. I am not kidding when I saw we outright sprinted through that airport. I have never ran so fast in my life, not to mention wearing boots and wearing a hiking backpack.
When we got in sight of our gate there were still people in line. We didn't even end up being the last people in line. We kept a look out for the other girls but they were nowhere in site. As the plane was taking off we sat there wondering what was going to happen to them...
We landed safely in Pisa 2 hours later and caught a bus back to Florence. When I got home Allie told me that the other girls had been on Facebook. They had had to buy a new plane ticket, spending 200 euro. I am so glad I didn't miss our flight.
For the rest of the night I didn't do much. Close to 8PM I met up with Felicia, Jaclyn and Fallon and we went to Astor for burgers. It was nice to sit and eat a chicken burger while watching some American football. It almost felt like home.
We stopped for gelato on the way home and for the rest of the night I worked on homework.
All in all, the trip to London was a success. A whirlwind, but a fun one. However, I'm not sure how soon I will be going back...
Thursday, October 13th - Sunday, October 16th
Thursday, October 13th - Sunday, October 16th
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