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
Monday, October 17, 2011
Whilrwind Week
Monday:
Had class until 6:30PM like every Monday. The day went by pretty slow, yet fast? I know, doesn't make sense. Class went by really slowly, but the day zoomed by. Didn't do much after dinner, except homework.
Tuesday:
Again, had class until 12:45. Or was suppose to anyways. When I got to Intro to Florence at 11:45, Erin was waiting outside the classroom and talked me into skipping. Of course I said yes, and so instead of wasting an hour of our life doing nothing in class, we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. We took our laundry to the tourist laundry place we use and then headed to the market.
We entered the building at a different entrance this time. We ran into the fish market, which we didn't even know existed. It smelled like Pike Place, home sweet home. Since we had the time, we wandered up and down every aisle. In the corner was this little bakery that had all sorts of goodies. In particular, they had this mini whoopie pie/cake pops. One being a lemon poppyside with lemon frosting and the other being a strawberry and chocolate frosting one. They were delicious! We vowed there and then not to share this secret discovery with any one else. Before we left we got some dried fruit for the weekend. I had to give my bag to Erin so I wouldn't eat any of it...
After lunch I got some homework done. And Erin and I went shopping down past the duomo. We gave ourselves only an hour so we could get back and do homework. I had plans later in the evening to work on my Holocaust presentation with Carl, but as we were walking Erin reminded me we had made plans with our Italian friends for tonight as well. It didn't look like I was going to be able to make it... and the other girls weren't really feeling up to it so Erin was a little bummed that we would probably have to cancel.
After dinner I went to the library to get some work done. While there I decided that it was worth going out with the guys, and that Carl and I would work on our presentation until 10PM and then I would leave. I mean, come on, Tuesday IS the night everyone does something fun!
So, after dinner and studying, Erin and I headed out to meet the boys. We went to the Red Garter again (the karaoke bar) and had a blast. Some of the guys we live with showed up halfway through the night too. We both seemed to forget we had a tour for Intro to Florence at 8:30AM and an Italian quiz... by the time we got home at 2AM we passed out.
Wednesday:
Somehow I managed to get myself out of bed and ready for the tour by 8:30AM. Not entirely sure how, but I'm going to attribute it to my young person bounce-back abilities.
The tour wasn't as interesting as last weeks, but still nowhere near as dull as the first.
My Italian quiz went off without a hitch. After, I could only think of one question I knew I had missed... good sign.
We went and got our laundry after class, and took a nap until lunch.
After lunch I had my Holocaust history class. I don't know why, but it seemed to drag on even longer than usual.
Once class was finished I went home and packed for London. We weren't leaving until 6:30 for the train, but I had nothing else better to do. I basically did nothing from 3:30 until 6:30, which was nice.
Getting our train ticket to the Pisa airport wasn't too bad. Except that there was no train going straight to the airport. We had to get off at Pisa Centrale and take a 4 minute cab.
We were running a little late, but we got through security and our passport checks with like 10 minutes to spare. Talk about cutting it close. Erin and I sat next to each other on the plane, and both fell alseep the minute the plane took off. We landed in London close to midnight and expected it to be an easy exit out of the airport. Oh no.
We had to stand in line for almost an hour and a half at customs. It was beyond ridiculous. THEN when we did finally get up to a counter, Gabby and Audrey had to act like complete idiots almost getting us sent to the back of line.
Since we hadn't expected customs to exist, or even take as long as it did, we had missed the last train to Greenwich. Some random guy saw we were struggling and told us the best/cheapest way to get to our hostel. So we boarded a bus, took it about 30 minutes, then had to take a cab the other 20 minutes. Thank goodness there was 6 of us so nobody had to pay too much of the bill.
We finally got to our hostel at 3AM... two hours after we had said we would be getting in. Lucky for us the owner had stayed up to let us in. He politely reminded us of this fact as he checked us in. Erin, Audrey and I roomed together in the 9 person dorm, while the other 3 were in the 8 person dorm. We said goodnight and passed out the minute our head it the pillow.
Welcome to London.
Monday, October 10th - Wednesday, October 12th
Had class until 6:30PM like every Monday. The day went by pretty slow, yet fast? I know, doesn't make sense. Class went by really slowly, but the day zoomed by. Didn't do much after dinner, except homework.
Tuesday:
Again, had class until 12:45. Or was suppose to anyways. When I got to Intro to Florence at 11:45, Erin was waiting outside the classroom and talked me into skipping. Of course I said yes, and so instead of wasting an hour of our life doing nothing in class, we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. We took our laundry to the tourist laundry place we use and then headed to the market.
We entered the building at a different entrance this time. We ran into the fish market, which we didn't even know existed. It smelled like Pike Place, home sweet home. Since we had the time, we wandered up and down every aisle. In the corner was this little bakery that had all sorts of goodies. In particular, they had this mini whoopie pie/cake pops. One being a lemon poppyside with lemon frosting and the other being a strawberry and chocolate frosting one. They were delicious! We vowed there and then not to share this secret discovery with any one else. Before we left we got some dried fruit for the weekend. I had to give my bag to Erin so I wouldn't eat any of it...
After lunch I got some homework done. And Erin and I went shopping down past the duomo. We gave ourselves only an hour so we could get back and do homework. I had plans later in the evening to work on my Holocaust presentation with Carl, but as we were walking Erin reminded me we had made plans with our Italian friends for tonight as well. It didn't look like I was going to be able to make it... and the other girls weren't really feeling up to it so Erin was a little bummed that we would probably have to cancel.
After dinner I went to the library to get some work done. While there I decided that it was worth going out with the guys, and that Carl and I would work on our presentation until 10PM and then I would leave. I mean, come on, Tuesday IS the night everyone does something fun!
So, after dinner and studying, Erin and I headed out to meet the boys. We went to the Red Garter again (the karaoke bar) and had a blast. Some of the guys we live with showed up halfway through the night too. We both seemed to forget we had a tour for Intro to Florence at 8:30AM and an Italian quiz... by the time we got home at 2AM we passed out.
Wednesday:
Somehow I managed to get myself out of bed and ready for the tour by 8:30AM. Not entirely sure how, but I'm going to attribute it to my young person bounce-back abilities.
The tour wasn't as interesting as last weeks, but still nowhere near as dull as the first.
My Italian quiz went off without a hitch. After, I could only think of one question I knew I had missed... good sign.
We went and got our laundry after class, and took a nap until lunch.
After lunch I had my Holocaust history class. I don't know why, but it seemed to drag on even longer than usual.
Once class was finished I went home and packed for London. We weren't leaving until 6:30 for the train, but I had nothing else better to do. I basically did nothing from 3:30 until 6:30, which was nice.
Getting our train ticket to the Pisa airport wasn't too bad. Except that there was no train going straight to the airport. We had to get off at Pisa Centrale and take a 4 minute cab.
We were running a little late, but we got through security and our passport checks with like 10 minutes to spare. Talk about cutting it close. Erin and I sat next to each other on the plane, and both fell alseep the minute the plane took off. We landed in London close to midnight and expected it to be an easy exit out of the airport. Oh no.
We had to stand in line for almost an hour and a half at customs. It was beyond ridiculous. THEN when we did finally get up to a counter, Gabby and Audrey had to act like complete idiots almost getting us sent to the back of line.
Since we hadn't expected customs to exist, or even take as long as it did, we had missed the last train to Greenwich. Some random guy saw we were struggling and told us the best/cheapest way to get to our hostel. So we boarded a bus, took it about 30 minutes, then had to take a cab the other 20 minutes. Thank goodness there was 6 of us so nobody had to pay too much of the bill.
We finally got to our hostel at 3AM... two hours after we had said we would be getting in. Lucky for us the owner had stayed up to let us in. He politely reminded us of this fact as he checked us in. Erin, Audrey and I roomed together in the 9 person dorm, while the other 3 were in the 8 person dorm. We said goodnight and passed out the minute our head it the pillow.
Welcome to London.
Monday, October 10th - Wednesday, October 12th
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Studyin Studyin Ya!
Saturday:
Erin, Audrey, Nina and Jo had plans to go to Venice on Saturday. Since I'm going with my mom in December when she comes I decided to bail and stay in Florence.
-Side note. When they got to the train station all the tickets for the train to Venice were completely sold out. They debated on whether or not to come back and get me (they decided to go to Pisa and Sienna), but ultimately decided not to. Thanks friends.
So, since I still thought they were in Venice until late Sunday, I had a very peaceful and relaxing day to myself. I again woke up at like 11, meaning this time I missed breakfast. I watched Grey's Anatomy and got ready for the day, so when the episode was over it was time for lunch.
I walked down Cavour and grabbed Subway and took a very long and roundabout walk back home.
For the rest of the day I alternated between doing homework, sleeping, watching Grey's Anatomy and repeating. I woke up at 6:30PM and went to get some dinner before it got too dark outside to walk around by myself.
The rest of the night I basically did the same thing I had done throughout the day. It was a little lonely. I'm not used to being by myself for that long here.
Around 11PM as I was getting ready to go to bed, I saw Erin get online. She came up and we talked about their day - that's how I found out about the mornings betrayal (she said she wanted to come get me...).
Sunday:
Since my friends were back, we all decided to wake up at a decent hour and get breakfast before they put it all away.
We all still had a ton of homework to do, but it was such a nice day and we didn't want to stay cramped up in our room, Erin and I packed up our backpacks and went in search of a cafe with WiFi.
We found a cute little place with outdoor seating right up the street from the duomo. We stayed there for a good 3-4 hours, drank 2 cappuccino's each, did some homework and people watched. It was a great afternoon. We only left because we started to get hungry and needed to get Audrey.
We went to a pizza place right up the street from our pensione and after lunch Erin and I continued to do homework on the patio of our hotel. That is until 5PM when we walked to the library to continue, you guessed it, studying. We were in the library until almost 8PM before we finally finished and headed to dinner.
We decided to go back to Mostodolce, and it is there we discovered the most delicious hamburgers we have ever eaten. It was seriously the best dinner we've had in awhile. The buns were hot, freshly made. And the patty wasn't dry like most of the other meat we are served here. It was yummy end to an exhausting day.
Once we got back we took on the task of finding a hostel in London for this upcoming weekend. We should have known it was going to be ridiculous. After researching and freaking out we finally decided on one that's close to the arena where the concert is being held. It's not in downtown London, but at least we have rooms. Only problem... 3 of us are in an 8 mixed dorm and the other 3 of us are in a 9 mixed dorm. Hopefully our roommates aren't creeps. But hey, we get free breakfast. Oh, the small victories.
Saturday, October 8th - Sunday, October 9th
Erin, Audrey, Nina and Jo had plans to go to Venice on Saturday. Since I'm going with my mom in December when she comes I decided to bail and stay in Florence.
-Side note. When they got to the train station all the tickets for the train to Venice were completely sold out. They debated on whether or not to come back and get me (they decided to go to Pisa and Sienna), but ultimately decided not to. Thanks friends.
So, since I still thought they were in Venice until late Sunday, I had a very peaceful and relaxing day to myself. I again woke up at like 11, meaning this time I missed breakfast. I watched Grey's Anatomy and got ready for the day, so when the episode was over it was time for lunch.
I walked down Cavour and grabbed Subway and took a very long and roundabout walk back home.
For the rest of the day I alternated between doing homework, sleeping, watching Grey's Anatomy and repeating. I woke up at 6:30PM and went to get some dinner before it got too dark outside to walk around by myself.
The rest of the night I basically did the same thing I had done throughout the day. It was a little lonely. I'm not used to being by myself for that long here.
Around 11PM as I was getting ready to go to bed, I saw Erin get online. She came up and we talked about their day - that's how I found out about the mornings betrayal (she said she wanted to come get me...).
Sunday:
Since my friends were back, we all decided to wake up at a decent hour and get breakfast before they put it all away.
We all still had a ton of homework to do, but it was such a nice day and we didn't want to stay cramped up in our room, Erin and I packed up our backpacks and went in search of a cafe with WiFi.
We found a cute little place with outdoor seating right up the street from the duomo. We stayed there for a good 3-4 hours, drank 2 cappuccino's each, did some homework and people watched. It was a great afternoon. We only left because we started to get hungry and needed to get Audrey.
We went to a pizza place right up the street from our pensione and after lunch Erin and I continued to do homework on the patio of our hotel. That is until 5PM when we walked to the library to continue, you guessed it, studying. We were in the library until almost 8PM before we finally finished and headed to dinner.
We decided to go back to Mostodolce, and it is there we discovered the most delicious hamburgers we have ever eaten. It was seriously the best dinner we've had in awhile. The buns were hot, freshly made. And the patty wasn't dry like most of the other meat we are served here. It was yummy end to an exhausting day.
Once we got back we took on the task of finding a hostel in London for this upcoming weekend. We should have known it was going to be ridiculous. After researching and freaking out we finally decided on one that's close to the arena where the concert is being held. It's not in downtown London, but at least we have rooms. Only problem... 3 of us are in an 8 mixed dorm and the other 3 of us are in a 9 mixed dorm. Hopefully our roommates aren't creeps. But hey, we get free breakfast. Oh, the small victories.
Saturday, October 8th - Sunday, October 9th
Saturday, October 8, 2011
We ownay peaksay in igpay atinlay
I'm going to do one big post for the entire week. Sorry again that it's so late..
Monday:
Well, after getting home at 1AM and not going to bed until 3AM, waking up at 7AM for class was a little difficult.
Classes were boring, nothing new. Other than taking our laundry to the guy we did absolutely nothing. It was great. I tried to go to bed early but that also failed. What's new.
Tuesday:
Had class. They were boring.
Tuesday is generally the night everyone goes out, but there was no way we were down for that. The school was playing the first two episodes of the new season of Glee so we all decided to do that instead. Great choice. Linda and Shelley even brought baked goods, whats not to love about homemade carrot cake?
Wednesday:
Went on the Intro to Florence field trip in the morning. It was by far the best one we've gone on so far; it was to Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
After the tour I had more class, more boring.
The conversation partner meeting was at 8:30, so Allie and I headed over there while everyone else headed out. Our conversation partner is extremely awesome and this is going to be a fun semester hanging out with her, practicing italian and making some italian friends.
We were supposed to meet up with everyone after the meeting got over, but Allie and I knew there was no way we would make it through that so we went home. While everyone else was partying hard, we were laughing until we cried over random things we were remembering from Oktoberfest. And trying to speak German and pig latin. We were supposed to do 8 minute abs but after all the laughing we felt our abs had gotten a good enough workout.
Thursday:
I only have two classes on Thursdays, and that was enough.
After lunch we went to mercato centrale for some dried fruit. This is seriously the most delicious dried fruit we have ever had.
Allie and Gabby had to leave for the Amalfi coast at 6 so we didn't spend too much time wandering around the market.
I tried to get some homework done while they packed, and once they headed out I got ready for the night. Erin, Audrey, Nina, Jo and I decided to have a girls night. We went to Tijuana for dinner- the only Mexican restaurant in Florence. It wasn't exactly how we do things in the States, but still tasted great. Linda, Shelley, and Victoria were there and we bought them a round of tequila boom booms. We're hoping they put in a good word for us with our professors come finals time.
After dinner we headed out to this bar that Erin and some of the other girls had gone on Wednesday night. There was said to be karaoke.
It indeed did have karaoke, and the night was by far the best night we've had out in Florence yet. We met a bunch of Australian guys who are backpacking through Europe. They were a blast to hang out with.
The back part of the bar is karaoke and the front has a DJ so we kept wandering back and forth. Around 1AM we decided to bail and try and find the secret bakery.
We followed the directions Allie had left and we know we were on the right street because we could smell it. We knocked on every single door and.. nothing. We are going to have James take us there in the day and show us which door is the right one because we KNOW we were on the right street. It's hard to miss the smell of fresh baked bread.
Friday:
I woke up at 8:30, wandered downstairs and got some breakfast, brought it back up stairs, put it in my refrigerator, and fell back asleep until 11. I haven't slept that long since before I left home.
Audrey and I somehow talked Erin into going and chopping off all her hair, so we went out in the pouring rain and found this salon that had been recommended to us.
Her hair was almost as long as mine and it is now as barely over her ears, but it looks great!
We grabbed Subway for dinner on our way home and tried to do some homework before we went out for the night.
Nina and Jo showed up around 9PM and we decided to go to the bar across the street from Nazionale that everyone raves about. They are a brewery so we obviously had to try their beer. Compared to what we drank at Oktoberfest it wasn't great, but in comparison to beers from home it was pretty good. We also got fried pizza dough with salsa and french fries... the first fried fast food we've had since coming to Europe.
We decided we wanted to go back to the karaoke bar, but one our way we ran into the fish pub and hung out there awhile. We have become friends with some of the guys who run it, so we get free drinks/shots most of the time. Once we got the DJ to start playing some good dancing music the place filled up, we had a great time. We never made it to the karaoke bar.
That has been my week...
Oh, I forgot to mention. On Monday morning I was informed that I was going to the Katy Perry concert in London next weekend. I guess the girls found super cheap tickets online while we were gone and bought us all one. I love how in Europe you can do that... its no big deal to spontaneously buy a cheap plane ticket to London to go to a concert. We are having way too much fun.
Monday, October 3rd - Friday, October 7th
Monday:
Well, after getting home at 1AM and not going to bed until 3AM, waking up at 7AM for class was a little difficult.
Classes were boring, nothing new. Other than taking our laundry to the guy we did absolutely nothing. It was great. I tried to go to bed early but that also failed. What's new.
Tuesday:
Had class. They were boring.
Tuesday is generally the night everyone goes out, but there was no way we were down for that. The school was playing the first two episodes of the new season of Glee so we all decided to do that instead. Great choice. Linda and Shelley even brought baked goods, whats not to love about homemade carrot cake?
Wednesday:
Went on the Intro to Florence field trip in the morning. It was by far the best one we've gone on so far; it was to Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
After the tour I had more class, more boring.
The conversation partner meeting was at 8:30, so Allie and I headed over there while everyone else headed out. Our conversation partner is extremely awesome and this is going to be a fun semester hanging out with her, practicing italian and making some italian friends.
We were supposed to meet up with everyone after the meeting got over, but Allie and I knew there was no way we would make it through that so we went home. While everyone else was partying hard, we were laughing until we cried over random things we were remembering from Oktoberfest. And trying to speak German and pig latin. We were supposed to do 8 minute abs but after all the laughing we felt our abs had gotten a good enough workout.
Thursday:
I only have two classes on Thursdays, and that was enough.
After lunch we went to mercato centrale for some dried fruit. This is seriously the most delicious dried fruit we have ever had.
Allie and Gabby had to leave for the Amalfi coast at 6 so we didn't spend too much time wandering around the market.
I tried to get some homework done while they packed, and once they headed out I got ready for the night. Erin, Audrey, Nina, Jo and I decided to have a girls night. We went to Tijuana for dinner- the only Mexican restaurant in Florence. It wasn't exactly how we do things in the States, but still tasted great. Linda, Shelley, and Victoria were there and we bought them a round of tequila boom booms. We're hoping they put in a good word for us with our professors come finals time.
After dinner we headed out to this bar that Erin and some of the other girls had gone on Wednesday night. There was said to be karaoke.
It indeed did have karaoke, and the night was by far the best night we've had out in Florence yet. We met a bunch of Australian guys who are backpacking through Europe. They were a blast to hang out with.
The back part of the bar is karaoke and the front has a DJ so we kept wandering back and forth. Around 1AM we decided to bail and try and find the secret bakery.
We followed the directions Allie had left and we know we were on the right street because we could smell it. We knocked on every single door and.. nothing. We are going to have James take us there in the day and show us which door is the right one because we KNOW we were on the right street. It's hard to miss the smell of fresh baked bread.
Friday:
I woke up at 8:30, wandered downstairs and got some breakfast, brought it back up stairs, put it in my refrigerator, and fell back asleep until 11. I haven't slept that long since before I left home.
Audrey and I somehow talked Erin into going and chopping off all her hair, so we went out in the pouring rain and found this salon that had been recommended to us.
Her hair was almost as long as mine and it is now as barely over her ears, but it looks great!
We grabbed Subway for dinner on our way home and tried to do some homework before we went out for the night.
Nina and Jo showed up around 9PM and we decided to go to the bar across the street from Nazionale that everyone raves about. They are a brewery so we obviously had to try their beer. Compared to what we drank at Oktoberfest it wasn't great, but in comparison to beers from home it was pretty good. We also got fried pizza dough with salsa and french fries... the first fried fast food we've had since coming to Europe.
We decided we wanted to go back to the karaoke bar, but one our way we ran into the fish pub and hung out there awhile. We have become friends with some of the guys who run it, so we get free drinks/shots most of the time. Once we got the DJ to start playing some good dancing music the place filled up, we had a great time. We never made it to the karaoke bar.
That has been my week...
Oh, I forgot to mention. On Monday morning I was informed that I was going to the Katy Perry concert in London next weekend. I guess the girls found super cheap tickets online while we were gone and bought us all one. I love how in Europe you can do that... its no big deal to spontaneously buy a cheap plane ticket to London to go to a concert. We are having way too much fun.
Monday, October 3rd - Friday, October 7th
Ein Prosit!
Sorry for the delayed posting... this past week/weekend has been crazy!
A bunch of us girls went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It was seriously the time of our lives.
Since the weekend consisted of many long hours drinking beer and partying, I am going to try and narrow the weekend down into a synopsis of sorts.
Friday:
We left Florence Thursday night around 11 and didn't get into Munich until close to 7:30AM. We basically got off the bus, changed our clothes, and headed out to the fairgrounds.
We were in line at the Schottenhamel by 9AM and got in a little before 10AM. Most of the tables inside the tents are reserved so you have to be in line early to get a seat at an open table. We managed to grab one with a couple from Germany. They were super nice, and eventually three more German guys would join us. The table right next to us had 5 German guys around our age, and by the end of the night we would be partying with them all day.
Jaclyn and I were at the tents for a good 12 hours on Friday. While everyone else left to take a nap and re-cooperate, we toughed it out and only left at 8PM to take Felicia home. We promptly returned at 9:30 and didn't leave until the tents closed at 11PM.
We made friends with the five German guys who were all from Munich. Four of them were studying at the university in Munich while one of their buddies is actually studying in Milan. I hung out with him for most of the day and we had a good time.
All throughout the day they had friends coming and going so we met quite a few people. Towards the end of the night a few of their friends decided to stick around and we had a blast with them. It was said when 11PM came since it meant the festivities were over for the day.
We headed home and crashed. Day 1 of Oktoberfest = Success
Saturday:
Today was explore Munich day. We took a bike tour of the city, and I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is. We saw everything. I love how much history can be in one city.
We rode through the English Gardens, which is 3 times bigger than Central Park. Unlike Central Park they have a nudist meadow. That was an experience. Inside the park is the largest outdoor beer garden. We stopped there for lunch, it was quite delicious. After our lunch break we went and watched the river surfers. There is a man made river that runs through the park. When it was first built they realized the water was moving too fast so they put a cement rectangle in one section of it. This created a natural wave. Two guys from California saw it and decided to surf it. River surfing didn't become legal until last year though! It was crazy.
The bike tour ended around 4PM and Allie, Jaclyn and I booked it back to the hostel. We made a quick wardrobe change and headed back out to Oktoberfest. Saturday night is famous for being the most crazy night in all of Oktoberfest. We had been told all day that there was absolutely no way we would get in so late. We tried to get into the tent Allie had been in on Friday, but that turned out to be a fail. So at 7PM we started standing in line outside of the tent Jaclyn and I had spent the previous day at and gave ourselves an hour to get in. If we couldn't get in by 8PM we were just going to call it a night.
As we tried talking the security guards into letting us in, we quickly realized that unlike Friday, they were all about business tonight. It had only been twenty minutes, but we started losing hope fast. Then all of a sudden a waiter came up and asked us how many were in our group. We told him 5 (for us 3 and our 2 American friends we had met at the first tent) and he led us under the rope. We had made it half way in. Our friends found their comrades and the waiter led us to a table with 5 guys and a woman sitting at it. Turns out they had been watching us since we had shown up and decided to share their open table with us. As they said, "no one should be left out of the fun on Saturday night."
We hung out with them for awhile. They were all from Nuremburg... two were around late twenties/early thirties while the other three were our age. They were fun and nice, but we were out at the beer garden. We wanted in the tent. Not that we weren't having fun, but its a completely different atmosphere inside compared to outside. And we wanted to dance on tables and sing at the top of our lungs. Trying not to be rude we asked them if they thought we had any chance at getting inside of the tent. They pointed us to a door and told us that it would be our best shot. We told them that if we couldn't get in we would definitely come back and hang out the rest of the night; they assured us we would get in and we said our goodbyes.
It seemed as if everyone had the exact same idea, at the exact same time right then. The door got swarmed with people and it didn't take us too long to realize we weren't getting in through that door either. As we started walking back to the table, feeling very defeated, we saw another door with no one around it except the security guard. We asked him if he could let us in and he told us that once we finished our beers he would. We stepped aside and looked down. We had just gotten the steins 30 minutes prior, which meant it was still 3/4 full. We weighed our options and decided it would be worth it just to give it away or leave it to get into the tent. As we walked up to ask him this, he quickly opened the door and told us to hurry and get in. Thank you new best friend, we were in!
After celebrating our victory we wandered around the crazy party tent looking for open spots at a table. We only had 3 criteria:
1. Cute boys
2. Cute boys with no girls and
3. Enough room to fit 3 of us
After looking around a bit we found a table of Swiss guys. They ranged in age from 22-28 and they were a blast. We spent the rest of the night dancing, singing, laughing, and having a blast. Jaclyn made friends with a German guy our age at the table over and he joined us for the evening. When the tent at 11 we headed out and tried to find a club since it was still so early in the evening. First attempt would have been great, had us girls had our IDs. Second attempt would also have worked if the bouncer had decided to let all of us in, not leaving one person out.
At that point in the evening it was 2AM and we decided we would run home and grab our IDs. It would have been a great plan had we not lost the German guy. We only had a small idea of how to get ourselves back and we didn't want to get ourselves lost in Munich at 2:30 in the morning. So our night ended. Day 2 of Oktoberfest = Success
Sunday:
We got a late breakfast and decided to spend our short afternoon wandering through the festival. We had all spent the last 2 days in the beer tents and hadn't really seen the rest of the fairgrounds.
We went on a few rides, including the ferris wheel which gave us an amazing view of the fair as well as the city.
We grabbed some food and a chocolate covered banana and finished off the afternoon with some souvenir shopping and people watching. It was a fantastic way to end a great weekend in Germany.
Around 2 we decided to head back. The bus wasn't leaving until 3:30 but we had finished everything we had wanted to do and wanted to grab our stuff. Good idea. When we got back the luggage room was PACKED almost to the ceiling with bags. Sucks for everyone who got their last. Bags were getting tossed everywhere and the room looked like a volcano had erupted.
And so at 3:30PM we departed from Munich back to Florence.
Our weekend spent at Oktoberfest will never be forgotten. It's been a week and everyone still talks about it constantly. Probably because we have never experienced something like it.
It's so hard to describe the experience... we all try and every time it ends with, "you just have to go and see."
Before this I had already decided I loved Germany more than Italy. After the bike tour of Munich I can say without any hesitancy that I have fallen in love with the country. It's modern, yet historical. It reminds me a little of Washington with how green and open it is, completely unlike Italy.
Sorry, mom.
Friday, September 30th - Sunday, October 2nd
A bunch of us girls went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It was seriously the time of our lives.
Since the weekend consisted of many long hours drinking beer and partying, I am going to try and narrow the weekend down into a synopsis of sorts.
Friday:
We left Florence Thursday night around 11 and didn't get into Munich until close to 7:30AM. We basically got off the bus, changed our clothes, and headed out to the fairgrounds.
We were in line at the Schottenhamel by 9AM and got in a little before 10AM. Most of the tables inside the tents are reserved so you have to be in line early to get a seat at an open table. We managed to grab one with a couple from Germany. They were super nice, and eventually three more German guys would join us. The table right next to us had 5 German guys around our age, and by the end of the night we would be partying with them all day.
Jaclyn and I were at the tents for a good 12 hours on Friday. While everyone else left to take a nap and re-cooperate, we toughed it out and only left at 8PM to take Felicia home. We promptly returned at 9:30 and didn't leave until the tents closed at 11PM.
We made friends with the five German guys who were all from Munich. Four of them were studying at the university in Munich while one of their buddies is actually studying in Milan. I hung out with him for most of the day and we had a good time.
All throughout the day they had friends coming and going so we met quite a few people. Towards the end of the night a few of their friends decided to stick around and we had a blast with them. It was said when 11PM came since it meant the festivities were over for the day.
We headed home and crashed. Day 1 of Oktoberfest = Success
Saturday:
Today was explore Munich day. We took a bike tour of the city, and I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is. We saw everything. I love how much history can be in one city.
We rode through the English Gardens, which is 3 times bigger than Central Park. Unlike Central Park they have a nudist meadow. That was an experience. Inside the park is the largest outdoor beer garden. We stopped there for lunch, it was quite delicious. After our lunch break we went and watched the river surfers. There is a man made river that runs through the park. When it was first built they realized the water was moving too fast so they put a cement rectangle in one section of it. This created a natural wave. Two guys from California saw it and decided to surf it. River surfing didn't become legal until last year though! It was crazy.
The bike tour ended around 4PM and Allie, Jaclyn and I booked it back to the hostel. We made a quick wardrobe change and headed back out to Oktoberfest. Saturday night is famous for being the most crazy night in all of Oktoberfest. We had been told all day that there was absolutely no way we would get in so late. We tried to get into the tent Allie had been in on Friday, but that turned out to be a fail. So at 7PM we started standing in line outside of the tent Jaclyn and I had spent the previous day at and gave ourselves an hour to get in. If we couldn't get in by 8PM we were just going to call it a night.
As we tried talking the security guards into letting us in, we quickly realized that unlike Friday, they were all about business tonight. It had only been twenty minutes, but we started losing hope fast. Then all of a sudden a waiter came up and asked us how many were in our group. We told him 5 (for us 3 and our 2 American friends we had met at the first tent) and he led us under the rope. We had made it half way in. Our friends found their comrades and the waiter led us to a table with 5 guys and a woman sitting at it. Turns out they had been watching us since we had shown up and decided to share their open table with us. As they said, "no one should be left out of the fun on Saturday night."
We hung out with them for awhile. They were all from Nuremburg... two were around late twenties/early thirties while the other three were our age. They were fun and nice, but we were out at the beer garden. We wanted in the tent. Not that we weren't having fun, but its a completely different atmosphere inside compared to outside. And we wanted to dance on tables and sing at the top of our lungs. Trying not to be rude we asked them if they thought we had any chance at getting inside of the tent. They pointed us to a door and told us that it would be our best shot. We told them that if we couldn't get in we would definitely come back and hang out the rest of the night; they assured us we would get in and we said our goodbyes.
It seemed as if everyone had the exact same idea, at the exact same time right then. The door got swarmed with people and it didn't take us too long to realize we weren't getting in through that door either. As we started walking back to the table, feeling very defeated, we saw another door with no one around it except the security guard. We asked him if he could let us in and he told us that once we finished our beers he would. We stepped aside and looked down. We had just gotten the steins 30 minutes prior, which meant it was still 3/4 full. We weighed our options and decided it would be worth it just to give it away or leave it to get into the tent. As we walked up to ask him this, he quickly opened the door and told us to hurry and get in. Thank you new best friend, we were in!
After celebrating our victory we wandered around the crazy party tent looking for open spots at a table. We only had 3 criteria:
1. Cute boys
2. Cute boys with no girls and
3. Enough room to fit 3 of us
After looking around a bit we found a table of Swiss guys. They ranged in age from 22-28 and they were a blast. We spent the rest of the night dancing, singing, laughing, and having a blast. Jaclyn made friends with a German guy our age at the table over and he joined us for the evening. When the tent at 11 we headed out and tried to find a club since it was still so early in the evening. First attempt would have been great, had us girls had our IDs. Second attempt would also have worked if the bouncer had decided to let all of us in, not leaving one person out.
At that point in the evening it was 2AM and we decided we would run home and grab our IDs. It would have been a great plan had we not lost the German guy. We only had a small idea of how to get ourselves back and we didn't want to get ourselves lost in Munich at 2:30 in the morning. So our night ended. Day 2 of Oktoberfest = Success
Sunday:
We got a late breakfast and decided to spend our short afternoon wandering through the festival. We had all spent the last 2 days in the beer tents and hadn't really seen the rest of the fairgrounds.
We went on a few rides, including the ferris wheel which gave us an amazing view of the fair as well as the city.
We grabbed some food and a chocolate covered banana and finished off the afternoon with some souvenir shopping and people watching. It was a fantastic way to end a great weekend in Germany.
Around 2 we decided to head back. The bus wasn't leaving until 3:30 but we had finished everything we had wanted to do and wanted to grab our stuff. Good idea. When we got back the luggage room was PACKED almost to the ceiling with bags. Sucks for everyone who got their last. Bags were getting tossed everywhere and the room looked like a volcano had erupted.
And so at 3:30PM we departed from Munich back to Florence.
Our weekend spent at Oktoberfest will never be forgotten. It's been a week and everyone still talks about it constantly. Probably because we have never experienced something like it.
It's so hard to describe the experience... we all try and every time it ends with, "you just have to go and see."
Before this I had already decided I loved Germany more than Italy. After the bike tour of Munich I can say without any hesitancy that I have fallen in love with the country. It's modern, yet historical. It reminds me a little of Washington with how green and open it is, completely unlike Italy.
Sorry, mom.
Friday, September 30th - Sunday, October 2nd
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Lots of walking, and lots of tourists
Today, again, was extremely dull.
Had to wake up early to go on the Intro to Florence field trip. We wandered quite a ways, looking at churches and the places where the city walls used to stand. We had to walk past the Academia twice (where the David currently is) and each time it seemed like the amount of tourists was multiplying. I have got to see the David before I leave Florence, but I refuse to stand in line with a billion tourists for hours upon end to do so. I'm hoping tourist season is ending here soon because it would be a terrible shame not to see the David when I live less than 5 minutes away from where its on display.
Anyways, after the tour we headed back to school and I went to Italian. Then Erin and I went and got our laundry. After that was lunch and my Holocaust history class. After class I went home and studied/watched Greys Anatomy until dinner.
Dinner was weird again tonight. Yesterday we had scrambled eggs and salad, tonight we had hot dogs and salad. I don't like hot dogs. I also don't like their salad. Thank goodness they also give us huge bowls of pasta with every meal.
After dinner I continued studying until we had a late night girl fest with Allie's jar of nutella in Erin and Audrey's room.
We leave tomorrow night for Oktoberfest. I am very glad I am feeling better because this would be a terrible weekend if I wasn't.
Wednesday, September 28th
Had to wake up early to go on the Intro to Florence field trip. We wandered quite a ways, looking at churches and the places where the city walls used to stand. We had to walk past the Academia twice (where the David currently is) and each time it seemed like the amount of tourists was multiplying. I have got to see the David before I leave Florence, but I refuse to stand in line with a billion tourists for hours upon end to do so. I'm hoping tourist season is ending here soon because it would be a terrible shame not to see the David when I live less than 5 minutes away from where its on display.
Anyways, after the tour we headed back to school and I went to Italian. Then Erin and I went and got our laundry. After that was lunch and my Holocaust history class. After class I went home and studied/watched Greys Anatomy until dinner.
Dinner was weird again tonight. Yesterday we had scrambled eggs and salad, tonight we had hot dogs and salad. I don't like hot dogs. I also don't like their salad. Thank goodness they also give us huge bowls of pasta with every meal.
After dinner I continued studying until we had a late night girl fest with Allie's jar of nutella in Erin and Audrey's room.
We leave tomorrow night for Oktoberfest. I am very glad I am feeling better because this would be a terrible weekend if I wasn't.
Wednesday, September 28th
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
I'm a terrible student... oh, and a meeting with some Italian.. boys?
Well, today did not go the way I intended.
I woke up feeling not so great, still, but I decided to get ready and try and go to class anyways. I got my teeth brushed, make up on, and dressed when I just couldn't stand it anymore and went back to bed. My plan was to sleep until Italian, walk to the school and go to class, then bail on Intro to Florence and go home early to sleep more. INSTEAD I got woken up at 11AM by the cleaning ladies throwing our door open and barging in to clean. Once they realized I was still home they gave me this weird look and said, "Clean?". Totally out of it and not comprehending anything I replied with (in English.. what was I thinking), "Can you come back later?" Of course they had no idea what I was saying, gave me some more weird looks and said, "No." At that point I was done with the situation so I mumbled something along the lines of, "Okay, fine, whatever" and fell back into bed. Thank goodness they got the hint and turned the lights back off and shut the door.
Needless to say, I didn't make it to Italian. After my run in with the cleaning ladies I realized I was still not feeling well so I stayed in bed. I didn't even try to move until Allie and Gabby came home and told me I needed to come to lunch to eat something.
After lunch I did some homework and took another nap. Woke up in time for dinner. Again, just as at lunch, I ate like half of the food placed in front of me, and I'm pretty sure the cook kept giving me mean looks because I wasn't eating. Oh well.
After dinner I was told we were going out for gelato and meeting Erin's distant Italian cousin (and his friends). I was feeling a little better at this point and wanted fresh air and gelato, so I decided to go. We were "supposed" to meet them outside the duomo. We were there for like 10 minutes and it was almost to the point where Audrey and I almost left to get gelato ourselves and walk home when Erin finally saw them. Her cousin, Fabio, and his brother and friend showed up. None of them were good looking, and none of them were tall, so after 30 seconds I was no longer interested. Oh and they didn't speak English, except for one of them, so that made it even more fun. We went and got gelato, and at that point I started feeling sick. We tried talking to them but it just kept getting less fun and more awkward. I finally said I was heading home (because I honestly wasn't feeling good) and Audrey came back with me. We discussed how neither of us was having that much fun and it was pointless to go to the bar with them that the rest of the group was heading to.
So I came home, watched some Grey's Anatomy, and fell asleep by midnight.
I want to become friends with Italians... but it would help if I knew more Italian, or they knew some English. Oh and if they were good looking and tall. It may have been me being pessimistic because of being sick, but I kinda feel like I should have just gotten gelato myself and gone home. That sounds much more enjoyable.
Tuesday, September 27th
I woke up feeling not so great, still, but I decided to get ready and try and go to class anyways. I got my teeth brushed, make up on, and dressed when I just couldn't stand it anymore and went back to bed. My plan was to sleep until Italian, walk to the school and go to class, then bail on Intro to Florence and go home early to sleep more. INSTEAD I got woken up at 11AM by the cleaning ladies throwing our door open and barging in to clean. Once they realized I was still home they gave me this weird look and said, "Clean?". Totally out of it and not comprehending anything I replied with (in English.. what was I thinking), "Can you come back later?" Of course they had no idea what I was saying, gave me some more weird looks and said, "No." At that point I was done with the situation so I mumbled something along the lines of, "Okay, fine, whatever" and fell back into bed. Thank goodness they got the hint and turned the lights back off and shut the door.
Needless to say, I didn't make it to Italian. After my run in with the cleaning ladies I realized I was still not feeling well so I stayed in bed. I didn't even try to move until Allie and Gabby came home and told me I needed to come to lunch to eat something.
After lunch I did some homework and took another nap. Woke up in time for dinner. Again, just as at lunch, I ate like half of the food placed in front of me, and I'm pretty sure the cook kept giving me mean looks because I wasn't eating. Oh well.
After dinner I was told we were going out for gelato and meeting Erin's distant Italian cousin (and his friends). I was feeling a little better at this point and wanted fresh air and gelato, so I decided to go. We were "supposed" to meet them outside the duomo. We were there for like 10 minutes and it was almost to the point where Audrey and I almost left to get gelato ourselves and walk home when Erin finally saw them. Her cousin, Fabio, and his brother and friend showed up. None of them were good looking, and none of them were tall, so after 30 seconds I was no longer interested. Oh and they didn't speak English, except for one of them, so that made it even more fun. We went and got gelato, and at that point I started feeling sick. We tried talking to them but it just kept getting less fun and more awkward. I finally said I was heading home (because I honestly wasn't feeling good) and Audrey came back with me. We discussed how neither of us was having that much fun and it was pointless to go to the bar with them that the rest of the group was heading to.
So I came home, watched some Grey's Anatomy, and fell asleep by midnight.
I want to become friends with Italians... but it would help if I knew more Italian, or they knew some English. Oh and if they were good looking and tall. It may have been me being pessimistic because of being sick, but I kinda feel like I should have just gotten gelato myself and gone home. That sounds much more enjoyable.
Tuesday, September 27th
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
I have no idea what happened today
Today was pretty boring.
Woke up. Got ready. Went to class. Class was boring. Went home for lunch. Lunch was good. Started feeling a little sick. Went to class. Started feeling really sick. I have absolutely no idea how I made it through an hour and a half long class without puking, or running out. Went home. Slept until dinner. Went to dinner. Didn't eat much. Fell asleep again.
Ya, today was pretty boring.
Monday, September 26th
Monday, September 26th
Monday, September 26, 2011
Naked people, Ferrari's, and a few glasses of champagne
Seeing as how this weekend was just too great, I've decided I'm going to do one massive post for Thursday-Sunday rather than write one for each day. I'm tired, so I hope this works.
THURSDAY
Went to class from 8:30-11:40. It was fantastic. Didn't do much of anything.
After lunch we went walking around the city to pass time until we left for Nice. I should have been packing at this time, but instead I fell asleep after lunch right up until everyone decided we were going to go for a walk. It was super hot and since we were walking anyways we decided to head across the Ponte Vecchio for some $1 gelato. We were basically at the bridge when some people decided they didn't want to go any farther and instead wanted to just grab some gelato at a place right next to us. Trusting that they read the sign correctly, we all got our normal small cup of gelato. Being told that it was £2.50, Erin and I walk up to pay for it. Both of our cups were sitting next to one another, so when the woman said $6 Erin and I quickly corrected her saying we weren't paying together. She gave us this look, and then repeated $6. Somehow, the girls that read the sign didn't read well enough and we payed WAY too much for gelato. From now on, no matter how lazy or tired any one of us is, we are walking across the bridge for gelato. The only part that made it even a little bit better was that they had massively over filled our cups. While it was in no way worth as much as we payed for, at least it wasn't some wimpy little serving.
After our fiasco with the gelateria we walked back. It was almost 5:30 and we were leaving at 6 to go to the train station. I quickly threw some clothes and swimsuits into my backpack and off we went.
We easily found the bus, and began the long 4 hour drive to Nice, we arrived sometime after midnight.
FRIDAY
We woke up around 9 and walked down the street towards the beach in search of some breakfast. Since we had driven into the city when it was dark, we couldn't stop looking around at how gorgeous Nice was. After we had eaten, we walked back towards the hotel to meet the group to go to Monaco for the day.
The Yacht Show was going on this weekend, so when we got to Monaco not only did we have an absolutely gorgeous day with an amazing view, we also got to admire the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of personal yachts sitting in the harbor. We went on a relaxed tour of the the smallest country in the world. Saw the palace, saw Grace Kelly's grave, saw the Ferrari garage (home to one Ferrari Enzo, only 349 were made), went to Casino de Monte Carlo (tried to go into the slot room but it was closed for the day. No gambling for us.), and walked almost everywhere you can in the country. After getting a small lunch, we decided to head back to Nice to spend what little sunlight as left at the beach.
The majority of beaches that make up the French Riviera are all big, rocky ones. Including the one in Nice. It didn't really bother us since we spent most of the time in the water. As you all know, I am quite a big fan of water, so I am very excited to say I got to swim in the Mediterranean! It wasn't as warm as I had imagined it to be, but still very clear and clean. I could have stayed in that water for hours if it hadn't turned nighttime.
The entire French Riviera is a very expensive area. The travel agency we booked the trip through hosted a champagne party for all of us because the clubs and bars were just so expensive. We had a good night with everyone, and did walk down to one of the bars. They had a good local band playing American songs so we hung out there awhile. It was a good night.
Oh. I had the best seafood risotto of my life for dinner. Yes mom, I ate seafood risotto and liked it. It even had the mini squids in it, and I ate every one.
SATURDAY
Again, we woke up and went in search of breakfast. We then met up with the group again, this time to go on a day trip to Cannes. It just so happens that Cannes is one of the only sandy beaches in the French Riviera. It was a bit farther train ride, but totally worth it. The day didn't turn out to be nearly as nice as Friday had been, yet we tried not to let that hinder our day, so we still swam and layed out on the beach for the majority of the day. We hadn't seen any naked people on the beach in Nice, and in all honesty there weren't many in Cannes, however there was a group of older people who had no problem changing out of their swimsuits right there on the beach. And taking their sweet time putting clothes back on. Not exactly what I needed to see.
Around 6 we decided to head back to Nice. After riding the train already 3 times we thought we had the process down. We lucked out and got to the platform right as the train was arriving. Not paying attention we got onto the first car we came too. As we were walking around, we realized it was a 1st class car. There wasn't enough time to get off and run down the train so we decided to wait it out and change at the next stop. When the train got to the next stop, we got off and run down the train. Turns out the conductor got on the 1st class train to check tickets right as we were getting off. Talk about lucky. We found the 2nd class cars and Erin, Connor and I got on. The entry way was super packed to everyone decieded to run down to teh next car. Connor and Erin weren't as far in as I was and were able to get off. I on the other hand couldn't get the people between me and the door to move so I was stuck. We had made plans to get off at some stop to check out the shopping, but seeing as how all I had on me was my train ticket (Allie had my backpack) and had no idea what the shopping stop was, I decided it would just be smarter to take the train all the way back to Nice. Only like two minutes after the train started again, Conner shows up. I guess we had already missed the stop for shopping so we all headed back to Nice.
Erin and Conner went out for a date night, so the rest of us girls found the "best Italian restaurant in France" for dinner. We had been told by numerous people that this place did Italian food better than the Italians. They were right. Rachel and I split seafood linguine and a salad nicoise. We could have ordered just one and been full. Even so, at the end of the meal none of our plates had a speck of food on them. It was all delicious. We also talked to the people sitting next to us. The restaurant was very crowded outside, so when the people next to us sat down and started speaking English, we had to talk to them. They were a young couple from Canada there on vacation. They were really nice. Turns out they were heading to Monaco that night, and are coming to Florence in a few days. They shared some of their travel experiences with us and we told them what we know about Florence (they've never been).
We again had a champagne party. It was a night of 10 fingers, truth or dare, and lots of laughs.
SUNDAY
Again, we woke up and dragged ourselves down to the beach for breakfast. On Saturdays and Sundays there is this massive outdoor market down the center of the main road by the beach, so after breakfast we decided to check it out. Somewhere during the first 5 minutes, Allie and I got separated from everyone else. We kept looking around and knew we would wander into the others sooner or later. Conner and Erin found us not too long after, but we could find the other three girls for the life of us. After looking for a bit we gave up and assumed they were all together (we would find out later they were). We went up and down the market a few times, and I found this local artist who had some amazing watercolor paintings. I had no idea how I would get it back to Florence untouched, lucky me he has a website that I can order from.
We wandered around some more and came across this kids festival where there were this teenage kids LAIR-ing. That was entertaining. From there we went back onto the boardwalk and sat on the bulk head awhile just looking out on the Mediterannean and people watching.
After a few more hours we decided to take our time walking back up the pedestrian street. Its full of shopping and food, and we went into every store. If only we had money. Conner did find a shirt, he's such a trooper. He went into every store with us and never complained once, so Erin bought him a shirt. After making a quick stop for a hamburger, the only stop Conner actually asked to do, we headed back to the hotel.
We left Nice around 3:30 and stopped in Eze for about an hour. We climbed up this palace/tower/monument thing and had an amazing view. Apparently Bon Jovi has one of the houses this palace things looks out onto; the tour guide was telling us every once in awhile you can see him having coffee out on the terrace. We weren't so lucky.
The traffic coming home was awful. It took us another 5 hours to get home. It didn't help that I was not feeling good and thought I was going to be car sick the entire way. We got back to Florence around 11PM and didn't fall asleep until around 1:30AM due to having to take a shower and unpack, not to mention the little bit of homework that I forgot to do before I left.
It was a fantastic weekend. Traveling with some of the best people, in one of the most beautiful places.
The only thing about France that we discovered is that we get a lot more cat-calling there than in Italy. At one point Allie, Rachel and I were walking home and a guy at one of the cafe's said as we were walking by, "You speak English? Sex. (when we didn't answer, and looked confused) Guess not."
Oh those French men. I'm glad to be back in Italy where I semi blend in.
Thursday, September 22nd - Sunday, September 25th
THURSDAY
Went to class from 8:30-11:40. It was fantastic. Didn't do much of anything.
After lunch we went walking around the city to pass time until we left for Nice. I should have been packing at this time, but instead I fell asleep after lunch right up until everyone decided we were going to go for a walk. It was super hot and since we were walking anyways we decided to head across the Ponte Vecchio for some $1 gelato. We were basically at the bridge when some people decided they didn't want to go any farther and instead wanted to just grab some gelato at a place right next to us. Trusting that they read the sign correctly, we all got our normal small cup of gelato. Being told that it was £2.50, Erin and I walk up to pay for it. Both of our cups were sitting next to one another, so when the woman said $6 Erin and I quickly corrected her saying we weren't paying together. She gave us this look, and then repeated $6. Somehow, the girls that read the sign didn't read well enough and we payed WAY too much for gelato. From now on, no matter how lazy or tired any one of us is, we are walking across the bridge for gelato. The only part that made it even a little bit better was that they had massively over filled our cups. While it was in no way worth as much as we payed for, at least it wasn't some wimpy little serving.
After our fiasco with the gelateria we walked back. It was almost 5:30 and we were leaving at 6 to go to the train station. I quickly threw some clothes and swimsuits into my backpack and off we went.
We easily found the bus, and began the long 4 hour drive to Nice, we arrived sometime after midnight.
FRIDAY
We woke up around 9 and walked down the street towards the beach in search of some breakfast. Since we had driven into the city when it was dark, we couldn't stop looking around at how gorgeous Nice was. After we had eaten, we walked back towards the hotel to meet the group to go to Monaco for the day.
The Yacht Show was going on this weekend, so when we got to Monaco not only did we have an absolutely gorgeous day with an amazing view, we also got to admire the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of personal yachts sitting in the harbor. We went on a relaxed tour of the the smallest country in the world. Saw the palace, saw Grace Kelly's grave, saw the Ferrari garage (home to one Ferrari Enzo, only 349 were made), went to Casino de Monte Carlo (tried to go into the slot room but it was closed for the day. No gambling for us.), and walked almost everywhere you can in the country. After getting a small lunch, we decided to head back to Nice to spend what little sunlight as left at the beach.
The majority of beaches that make up the French Riviera are all big, rocky ones. Including the one in Nice. It didn't really bother us since we spent most of the time in the water. As you all know, I am quite a big fan of water, so I am very excited to say I got to swim in the Mediterranean! It wasn't as warm as I had imagined it to be, but still very clear and clean. I could have stayed in that water for hours if it hadn't turned nighttime.
The entire French Riviera is a very expensive area. The travel agency we booked the trip through hosted a champagne party for all of us because the clubs and bars were just so expensive. We had a good night with everyone, and did walk down to one of the bars. They had a good local band playing American songs so we hung out there awhile. It was a good night.
Oh. I had the best seafood risotto of my life for dinner. Yes mom, I ate seafood risotto and liked it. It even had the mini squids in it, and I ate every one.
SATURDAY
Again, we woke up and went in search of breakfast. We then met up with the group again, this time to go on a day trip to Cannes. It just so happens that Cannes is one of the only sandy beaches in the French Riviera. It was a bit farther train ride, but totally worth it. The day didn't turn out to be nearly as nice as Friday had been, yet we tried not to let that hinder our day, so we still swam and layed out on the beach for the majority of the day. We hadn't seen any naked people on the beach in Nice, and in all honesty there weren't many in Cannes, however there was a group of older people who had no problem changing out of their swimsuits right there on the beach. And taking their sweet time putting clothes back on. Not exactly what I needed to see.
Around 6 we decided to head back to Nice. After riding the train already 3 times we thought we had the process down. We lucked out and got to the platform right as the train was arriving. Not paying attention we got onto the first car we came too. As we were walking around, we realized it was a 1st class car. There wasn't enough time to get off and run down the train so we decided to wait it out and change at the next stop. When the train got to the next stop, we got off and run down the train. Turns out the conductor got on the 1st class train to check tickets right as we were getting off. Talk about lucky. We found the 2nd class cars and Erin, Connor and I got on. The entry way was super packed to everyone decieded to run down to teh next car. Connor and Erin weren't as far in as I was and were able to get off. I on the other hand couldn't get the people between me and the door to move so I was stuck. We had made plans to get off at some stop to check out the shopping, but seeing as how all I had on me was my train ticket (Allie had my backpack) and had no idea what the shopping stop was, I decided it would just be smarter to take the train all the way back to Nice. Only like two minutes after the train started again, Conner shows up. I guess we had already missed the stop for shopping so we all headed back to Nice.
Erin and Conner went out for a date night, so the rest of us girls found the "best Italian restaurant in France" for dinner. We had been told by numerous people that this place did Italian food better than the Italians. They were right. Rachel and I split seafood linguine and a salad nicoise. We could have ordered just one and been full. Even so, at the end of the meal none of our plates had a speck of food on them. It was all delicious. We also talked to the people sitting next to us. The restaurant was very crowded outside, so when the people next to us sat down and started speaking English, we had to talk to them. They were a young couple from Canada there on vacation. They were really nice. Turns out they were heading to Monaco that night, and are coming to Florence in a few days. They shared some of their travel experiences with us and we told them what we know about Florence (they've never been).
We again had a champagne party. It was a night of 10 fingers, truth or dare, and lots of laughs.
SUNDAY
Again, we woke up and dragged ourselves down to the beach for breakfast. On Saturdays and Sundays there is this massive outdoor market down the center of the main road by the beach, so after breakfast we decided to check it out. Somewhere during the first 5 minutes, Allie and I got separated from everyone else. We kept looking around and knew we would wander into the others sooner or later. Conner and Erin found us not too long after, but we could find the other three girls for the life of us. After looking for a bit we gave up and assumed they were all together (we would find out later they were). We went up and down the market a few times, and I found this local artist who had some amazing watercolor paintings. I had no idea how I would get it back to Florence untouched, lucky me he has a website that I can order from.
We wandered around some more and came across this kids festival where there were this teenage kids LAIR-ing. That was entertaining. From there we went back onto the boardwalk and sat on the bulk head awhile just looking out on the Mediterannean and people watching.
After a few more hours we decided to take our time walking back up the pedestrian street. Its full of shopping and food, and we went into every store. If only we had money. Conner did find a shirt, he's such a trooper. He went into every store with us and never complained once, so Erin bought him a shirt. After making a quick stop for a hamburger, the only stop Conner actually asked to do, we headed back to the hotel.
We left Nice around 3:30 and stopped in Eze for about an hour. We climbed up this palace/tower/monument thing and had an amazing view. Apparently Bon Jovi has one of the houses this palace things looks out onto; the tour guide was telling us every once in awhile you can see him having coffee out on the terrace. We weren't so lucky.
The traffic coming home was awful. It took us another 5 hours to get home. It didn't help that I was not feeling good and thought I was going to be car sick the entire way. We got back to Florence around 11PM and didn't fall asleep until around 1:30AM due to having to take a shower and unpack, not to mention the little bit of homework that I forgot to do before I left.
It was a fantastic weekend. Traveling with some of the best people, in one of the most beautiful places.
The only thing about France that we discovered is that we get a lot more cat-calling there than in Italy. At one point Allie, Rachel and I were walking home and a guy at one of the cafe's said as we were walking by, "You speak English? Sex. (when we didn't answer, and looked confused) Guess not."
Oh those French men. I'm glad to be back in Italy where I semi blend in.
Thursday, September 22nd - Sunday, September 25th
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Finally, a down night
My lovely morning began with an exciting tour of the Archaeological Museum with Intro to Florence.
It was neither lovely, nor exciting. The only cool part was that we got to see the tunnel that was built back in the 1600's for the Princess Maria Maddalena. She was a part of the Medici family and was handicapped. A tunnel was built connecting the palace to the church so that she could attend church without going outside or being seen. This is usually closed to the public, but because we went with the school we were able to go through the tunnel and see her sitting room complete with the original furniture that looks out into the church. It was quite impressive.
As long as I get to see things like that, I guess I'll stay in the class.
The rest of the day was boring, just class and homework. I started getting a runny nose in the afternoon, and by 8PM was absolutely miserable. I would have just gone to bed then but I had a skype date with Andrea and I didn't want to bail on that.
I finally crashed around 11:30PM. I didn't even wake up at midnight when Allie got home from the soccer game. I sure hope this cold medicine works wonders because we leave for the French Riveria tomorrow and there is no way I am going to be sick on vacation.
Wednesday, September 21st
It was neither lovely, nor exciting. The only cool part was that we got to see the tunnel that was built back in the 1600's for the Princess Maria Maddalena. She was a part of the Medici family and was handicapped. A tunnel was built connecting the palace to the church so that she could attend church without going outside or being seen. This is usually closed to the public, but because we went with the school we were able to go through the tunnel and see her sitting room complete with the original furniture that looks out into the church. It was quite impressive.
As long as I get to see things like that, I guess I'll stay in the class.
The rest of the day was boring, just class and homework. I started getting a runny nose in the afternoon, and by 8PM was absolutely miserable. I would have just gone to bed then but I had a skype date with Andrea and I didn't want to bail on that.
I finally crashed around 11:30PM. I didn't even wake up at midnight when Allie got home from the soccer game. I sure hope this cold medicine works wonders because we leave for the French Riveria tomorrow and there is no way I am going to be sick on vacation.
Wednesday, September 21st
Happy Birthday Allie! 20 at last
My lovely friend Allie FINALLY turned 20 today. About time. It was hard to concentrate during classes knowing tonight was going to be a celebration.
Before I get to the night's festivities, I should mention- I went to Intro to Florence today. Go me.
That class is going to be terrible. If it wasn't for the field trips every Wednesday I would drop it here and now. Its the biggest class in Florence, yet she only talks to the first 2 rows. So the rest of us in the back just sit, talk, and cruise Facebook since she hands us her powerpoints and just reads off the projector. I love old ladies who still teach, they make learning SO fun. Not.
When class finally finished, we had lunch and spent the rest of the day doing homework and applying to internships so that after dinner we could go out and have some birthday fun.
All afternoon the only thing we spoke of was wanting crepes. We had made the birthday plans to be: take Allie to $1 gelato and then go to the Shot Bar. However, we haven't had crepes since Berlin and it has been sounding more and more delicious every day.
After dinner, we met the guys and walked to the Ponte Vecchio to get some delicious gelato. While we were there Gemo bought the cheesecake Allie has been eyeing for like a week. Hello bar snack. As we were walking back, we kept checking the cafes in hopes of finding one that also sold crepes. Right as our hopes began to waver, Erin spotted a sign inside of a gelato place advertising hot nutella crepes. We all split two, and it was even more delicious than the ones we had in Germany. Because we had taken so long to get to gelato, and the detour to get crepes, we were almost an hour late getting to the bar (where we had people waiting for us).
As we were passing the duomo, almost to the bar, we see Felicia running towards us from up the street. When she got to us we realized she was crying, and when we looked up Fallon was also running to us, tears streaming down her face. Between their shaken cries we deciphered that they had been walking back from the Ponte Vecchio when two guys started following them. They even followed them into a gelato place. Good for the girls though for running in the direction of the duomo. Even at night it is the most populated area of the city. I wonder what would have happened had we not shown up...
Erin, Audrey and Gabby took them home. They live on Cavour so it was literally a 2 minute walk. Allie, Gemo, Conner and I went to rest of the way to the bar, a solid 2 blocks from where we were. When we showed up everyone else was already there. And so the birthday celebration began. If gelato and crepes weren't enough sugar for one night, our group of 20 people split the cheesecake. Lesson learned: when an Italian cafe/gelateria advertises cheesecake, it is not what we Americans think of as cheesecake. It was still really good, but just not what we expected.
The other girls showed up 10 minutes later, and the party finally began. Erin and I bailed around midnight, only because we have to wake up tomorrow for an 8:30AM museum tour.
Happy Birthday Allie!
Tuesday, September 20th
Before I get to the night's festivities, I should mention- I went to Intro to Florence today. Go me.
That class is going to be terrible. If it wasn't for the field trips every Wednesday I would drop it here and now. Its the biggest class in Florence, yet she only talks to the first 2 rows. So the rest of us in the back just sit, talk, and cruise Facebook since she hands us her powerpoints and just reads off the projector. I love old ladies who still teach, they make learning SO fun. Not.
When class finally finished, we had lunch and spent the rest of the day doing homework and applying to internships so that after dinner we could go out and have some birthday fun.
All afternoon the only thing we spoke of was wanting crepes. We had made the birthday plans to be: take Allie to $1 gelato and then go to the Shot Bar. However, we haven't had crepes since Berlin and it has been sounding more and more delicious every day.
After dinner, we met the guys and walked to the Ponte Vecchio to get some delicious gelato. While we were there Gemo bought the cheesecake Allie has been eyeing for like a week. Hello bar snack. As we were walking back, we kept checking the cafes in hopes of finding one that also sold crepes. Right as our hopes began to waver, Erin spotted a sign inside of a gelato place advertising hot nutella crepes. We all split two, and it was even more delicious than the ones we had in Germany. Because we had taken so long to get to gelato, and the detour to get crepes, we were almost an hour late getting to the bar (where we had people waiting for us).
As we were passing the duomo, almost to the bar, we see Felicia running towards us from up the street. When she got to us we realized she was crying, and when we looked up Fallon was also running to us, tears streaming down her face. Between their shaken cries we deciphered that they had been walking back from the Ponte Vecchio when two guys started following them. They even followed them into a gelato place. Good for the girls though for running in the direction of the duomo. Even at night it is the most populated area of the city. I wonder what would have happened had we not shown up...
Erin, Audrey and Gabby took them home. They live on Cavour so it was literally a 2 minute walk. Allie, Gemo, Conner and I went to rest of the way to the bar, a solid 2 blocks from where we were. When we showed up everyone else was already there. And so the birthday celebration began. If gelato and crepes weren't enough sugar for one night, our group of 20 people split the cheesecake. Lesson learned: when an Italian cafe/gelateria advertises cheesecake, it is not what we Americans think of as cheesecake. It was still really good, but just not what we expected.
The other girls showed up 10 minutes later, and the party finally began. Erin and I bailed around midnight, only because we have to wake up tomorrow for an 8:30AM museum tour.
Happy Birthday Allie!
Tuesday, September 20th
And then there was school...
Well, the time has come. The time to stop having fun and to get down to business. Joy.
Today was the beginning of the first week of classes. My Monday's look like they are going to be absolutely enthralling, beginning with Finance at 8:30AM and not ending until Economics gets out at 6:30PM. All in all, classes weren't too terrible.
Finance- I will fall asleep in this class. It is the most boring class, and being at 8:30AM does not help. She prints out her powerpoint for us, and then basically reads off of the projector. If attendance wasn't mandatory I doubt I would be going.
Italian- Obviously this class is going to be useful. And the professor seems nice enough. We'll see if I have an easier time with Italian than I had with French.
Intro to Florence- Okay, funny story. I KNEW I had this class today. I complained all last night, and this morning, for the mere fact that I have 5 classes today. However, I was a little mixed up on the exact time of this class. After Italian got out at 11:40, I went home. It's what I did on Thursday so I assumed its what I did today as well. It wasn't until I was sitting on my bed at 12:15 going over the rest of the day that I realized I only had 2 classes after lunch, not 3. At least Allie has this class later and got me the syllabus. What a great friend.
Holocaust History- Oh my gosh. The professor seems super nice, but my god is she boring. All she did today was put her syllabus in powerpoint format and then read over it. Every. Single. Word. I do hope once the class gets going, it gets better, because I was really looking forward to this class.
Global Economics- If this class wasn't 3 hours long, I could see me liking it. But it is 3 hours and so this seems like its going to be the longest night of my semester. The professor is bat shit crazy and enjoys repeating himself 7 times, thank goodness Allie, Gemo and Jaclyn are also in this class or I would go insane.
After class finally finished, I spent the rest of the night doing homework and crashing early. Trying to juggle this and travelling/having fun is going to be a challenge. I'm pretty sure I'm up for it.
Monday, September 19th
Today was the beginning of the first week of classes. My Monday's look like they are going to be absolutely enthralling, beginning with Finance at 8:30AM and not ending until Economics gets out at 6:30PM. All in all, classes weren't too terrible.
Finance- I will fall asleep in this class. It is the most boring class, and being at 8:30AM does not help. She prints out her powerpoint for us, and then basically reads off of the projector. If attendance wasn't mandatory I doubt I would be going.
Italian- Obviously this class is going to be useful. And the professor seems nice enough. We'll see if I have an easier time with Italian than I had with French.
Intro to Florence- Okay, funny story. I KNEW I had this class today. I complained all last night, and this morning, for the mere fact that I have 5 classes today. However, I was a little mixed up on the exact time of this class. After Italian got out at 11:40, I went home. It's what I did on Thursday so I assumed its what I did today as well. It wasn't until I was sitting on my bed at 12:15 going over the rest of the day that I realized I only had 2 classes after lunch, not 3. At least Allie has this class later and got me the syllabus. What a great friend.
Holocaust History- Oh my gosh. The professor seems super nice, but my god is she boring. All she did today was put her syllabus in powerpoint format and then read over it. Every. Single. Word. I do hope once the class gets going, it gets better, because I was really looking forward to this class.
Global Economics- If this class wasn't 3 hours long, I could see me liking it. But it is 3 hours and so this seems like its going to be the longest night of my semester. The professor is bat shit crazy and enjoys repeating himself 7 times, thank goodness Allie, Gemo and Jaclyn are also in this class or I would go insane.
After class finally finished, I spent the rest of the night doing homework and crashing early. Trying to juggle this and travelling/having fun is going to be a challenge. I'm pretty sure I'm up for it.
Monday, September 19th
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Marching bands and American breakfast
We discovered our new favorite spot in Florence this morning. Or more so, I did. Either way... we all woke up too late for breakfast so at 12 we decided we wanted pancakes and we were going to get them. There is this American diner past the doumo that caters to the tourists and American students. They serve breakfast all day, and have hamburgers, fries, etc. It was the most delicious meal I have eaten in the past 3 weeks.
On our way home we heard music coming from somewhere, and wandered around until we found this full marching band playing while walking down the street. Because we had nothing else better to do, we followed them. This was a good idea until we realized we had absolutely no idea where we were. We spent at least a half hour wandering in different directions until we ran into Via Cavour. Good thing none of us had plans right after brunch.
The rest of the day was spent in the pensione. It was raining, lightly, outside, and we all had homework so we hung out in the study room off the lobby. I even took a small nap. It was quite the lovely Sunday.
Around 7PM, after we finished the Bachelor Pad, we went in search of dinner. We got ourselves lost this time too. But we came across this cute cafe and had some good gnocchi and pizza. Since we haven't had gelato in two days we went in search of that afterwards. It being Sunday night, a lot of the usual places were closed. We walked up Cavour and stopped at the first place we found open. We knew we were going to pay more since this place was so close to the doumo, but it was raining and we wanted to head home. Of course, we were ripped off. Mental note: don't get gelato anywhere near the doumo.
The rest of the night is being spent in our room. I just applied for a Boeing summer internship and the leadership program in Zambia this summer. Tomorrow starts the first full week of class. Play time is over; the last three weeks have been fun but its time to get down to business.
Sunday, September 18th
On our way home we heard music coming from somewhere, and wandered around until we found this full marching band playing while walking down the street. Because we had nothing else better to do, we followed them. This was a good idea until we realized we had absolutely no idea where we were. We spent at least a half hour wandering in different directions until we ran into Via Cavour. Good thing none of us had plans right after brunch.
The rest of the day was spent in the pensione. It was raining, lightly, outside, and we all had homework so we hung out in the study room off the lobby. I even took a small nap. It was quite the lovely Sunday.
Around 7PM, after we finished the Bachelor Pad, we went in search of dinner. We got ourselves lost this time too. But we came across this cute cafe and had some good gnocchi and pizza. Since we haven't had gelato in two days we went in search of that afterwards. It being Sunday night, a lot of the usual places were closed. We walked up Cavour and stopped at the first place we found open. We knew we were going to pay more since this place was so close to the doumo, but it was raining and we wanted to head home. Of course, we were ripped off. Mental note: don't get gelato anywhere near the doumo.
The rest of the night is being spent in our room. I just applied for a Boeing summer internship and the leadership program in Zambia this summer. Tomorrow starts the first full week of class. Play time is over; the last three weeks have been fun but its time to get down to business.
Sunday, September 18th
You ask, you ask
Well, it started out like any normal Saturday. I missed breakfast because I woke up and took a shower instead of going downstairs. Who only has breakfast open until 9:30AM? Really? It didn't matter because Allie brought me yogurt and an apple.
Erin, Allie and I decided to go get our laundry, and thank goodness he didn't charge extra for keeping them an extra day. We will be giving him all of our laundry from now on; they smell so clean!
When we got back we got ahold of Connor and Gunnar and made plans to go to the market for lunch and some shopping around. They said they'd be here in a half hour. They lied. We finally left an hour later and went to the fresh market. We got apples, peaches, grapes, carrots and cantaloupe. This place is amazing. They have every fruit and vegetable imaginable, and its picked fresh daily. And super, super cheap. Off the side of the produce is what we have dubbed Italy's Pike Place Market. We got a few small baguette's and some cheese and went out to the park to have our lunch. Somehow we talked the boys into going shopping for the rest of the afternoon. We went through all the street vendors and made our way past the doumo to some swimsuit stores and H&M. They bailed on us at H&M, but they were troopers so we let them go. We made one last stop at another swim suit store and it was kind of set up like Victoria's Secret. All they had out were models of the swimsuits they have, and then below that were drawers were all the sizes were. While Allie and Erin were looking through the models, I got curious as to what was in the drawers, and so I opened one and looked in then closed it. This happened in a manner of 10 seconds. The salesgirl walked away from Erin and Allie to come to me and say 'you ask, you ask' and pointing at the drawer. I'm not entirely sure how much English she knew, but my 'I'm sorry, I was just looking' got her to walk away. I guess that's my 'rude American' act of the day. That's the only thing I'm finding annoying here. They are really stuck up and finicky about stupid things. And, while I'm on my little rant, why is nothing free? Not water, not bread, not refill's (don't even get me started on the fact that they don't have ice)... In America if a restaurant (this goes for McDonalds here too!) doesn't do free water, refills, or bread we get mad and leave. Or complain. Here it's the norm. You have to pay for everything. And they're cover charge is also stupid. We just began realizing that anytime we sit down at a place that also does stuff to-go we are getting charge like $1.50 more just because we're eating there. Ridiculous Italians.
Okay, sorry, I'm done.
We walked home and chilled for an hour or two until we met up with the group to go out to dinner. We wanted to stay close to the pensionne so we decided to go to this place we have walked past everyday that looked good, and moderately priced. It was good, but not moderately priced. Half of the group left, the other half of us decided to pair up and split things. But we aren't going back there again. The same liter bottle of water I got last night for $2.50 was $5 here. Not happening.
And this is when the night began to take a turn. We all came back to the pensionne, and since most people had bought wine or what not, we decided it would be cheaper to drink our stuff then pay for overpriced drinks at a bar or club. Other than our room getting extremely hot, it was fine. Billy said he had heard of a good bar, so we let him lead. It was a nice bar, too nice. It wasn't a young kids place, so after they had already put together tables and everything, we left. They were expensive and not exactly the place we wanted to be. So we decided to head back to the Fish Pub we were at Thursday night.
There was a good number of people there when we showed up. Somehow Allie, Mariah, all the guys, and I were the only ones not a little tipsy at this point. When we walked in this low 20's, high 30's guy comes up to us wearing this ridiculous hat. He was already drunk and loud and that didn't seem to help our girls we were close to being there. For the next 15 minutes all they did was scream America. It went downhill from there fast. We decided we needed to either take them out of there and go home, or find a club. We had made plans to go to the secret bakery at 1AM but Allie had left the directions in our room, so instead Allie, Billy and I left to go back to Bonifacio and left Mariah and the rest of the boys to watch the girls and to bring them back in an hour.
The rest of the night was not what we intended. We never made it to the secret bakery. Allie and Billy helped our neighbors with a few things, and when Gabby got back it was obvious everyone had gone home and going back out was out of the question.
At least the secret bakery is every night, not just weekends. And tomorrow is Sunday, which means doing nothing and sleeping in. Good night.
Saturday, September 17th
Erin, Allie and I decided to go get our laundry, and thank goodness he didn't charge extra for keeping them an extra day. We will be giving him all of our laundry from now on; they smell so clean!
When we got back we got ahold of Connor and Gunnar and made plans to go to the market for lunch and some shopping around. They said they'd be here in a half hour. They lied. We finally left an hour later and went to the fresh market. We got apples, peaches, grapes, carrots and cantaloupe. This place is amazing. They have every fruit and vegetable imaginable, and its picked fresh daily. And super, super cheap. Off the side of the produce is what we have dubbed Italy's Pike Place Market. We got a few small baguette's and some cheese and went out to the park to have our lunch. Somehow we talked the boys into going shopping for the rest of the afternoon. We went through all the street vendors and made our way past the doumo to some swimsuit stores and H&M. They bailed on us at H&M, but they were troopers so we let them go. We made one last stop at another swim suit store and it was kind of set up like Victoria's Secret. All they had out were models of the swimsuits they have, and then below that were drawers were all the sizes were. While Allie and Erin were looking through the models, I got curious as to what was in the drawers, and so I opened one and looked in then closed it. This happened in a manner of 10 seconds. The salesgirl walked away from Erin and Allie to come to me and say 'you ask, you ask' and pointing at the drawer. I'm not entirely sure how much English she knew, but my 'I'm sorry, I was just looking' got her to walk away. I guess that's my 'rude American' act of the day. That's the only thing I'm finding annoying here. They are really stuck up and finicky about stupid things. And, while I'm on my little rant, why is nothing free? Not water, not bread, not refill's (don't even get me started on the fact that they don't have ice)... In America if a restaurant (this goes for McDonalds here too!) doesn't do free water, refills, or bread we get mad and leave. Or complain. Here it's the norm. You have to pay for everything. And they're cover charge is also stupid. We just began realizing that anytime we sit down at a place that also does stuff to-go we are getting charge like $1.50 more just because we're eating there. Ridiculous Italians.
Okay, sorry, I'm done.
We walked home and chilled for an hour or two until we met up with the group to go out to dinner. We wanted to stay close to the pensionne so we decided to go to this place we have walked past everyday that looked good, and moderately priced. It was good, but not moderately priced. Half of the group left, the other half of us decided to pair up and split things. But we aren't going back there again. The same liter bottle of water I got last night for $2.50 was $5 here. Not happening.
And this is when the night began to take a turn. We all came back to the pensionne, and since most people had bought wine or what not, we decided it would be cheaper to drink our stuff then pay for overpriced drinks at a bar or club. Other than our room getting extremely hot, it was fine. Billy said he had heard of a good bar, so we let him lead. It was a nice bar, too nice. It wasn't a young kids place, so after they had already put together tables and everything, we left. They were expensive and not exactly the place we wanted to be. So we decided to head back to the Fish Pub we were at Thursday night.
There was a good number of people there when we showed up. Somehow Allie, Mariah, all the guys, and I were the only ones not a little tipsy at this point. When we walked in this low 20's, high 30's guy comes up to us wearing this ridiculous hat. He was already drunk and loud and that didn't seem to help our girls we were close to being there. For the next 15 minutes all they did was scream America. It went downhill from there fast. We decided we needed to either take them out of there and go home, or find a club. We had made plans to go to the secret bakery at 1AM but Allie had left the directions in our room, so instead Allie, Billy and I left to go back to Bonifacio and left Mariah and the rest of the boys to watch the girls and to bring them back in an hour.
The rest of the night was not what we intended. We never made it to the secret bakery. Allie and Billy helped our neighbors with a few things, and when Gabby got back it was obvious everyone had gone home and going back out was out of the question.
At least the secret bakery is every night, not just weekends. And tomorrow is Sunday, which means doing nothing and sleeping in. Good night.
Saturday, September 17th
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Ponte Vecchio and gelato
The nice thing about Florence is, we don't have school on Fridays. We still had to get up though because there was orientation at 9:30AM. We had a map and an address, yet our group from Hotel Bonifacio was still the last group to arrive.
Our morning was pointless. We had to listen to, not even all, the professors talk about their classes. Like in depth. It took almost 3 hours and the only reason they didn't continue with the rest of the introductions was because they had only booked the room until 12 so we had to leave. Praise the lord.
Once we got out of there, our lovely group decided to wander back to the place us girls had limoncello the previous night, to get some lunch. Allie's boyfriend Alam wasn't there (bummer), but lunch was good. We made plans with the boys to meet us in front of our pensionne at 6PM because they wanted us to show them were the laundry place is. So from around 12:30PM until close to 6 we wandered around and explored Florence. Around 5PM we realized we were super close to the laundry place and considered just getting our laundry then. But we remembered we had promised the boys we would take them there, so instead we walked home. As we were walking up to our building Connor came out of nowhere. He proceeded to tell us that Gunnar and him had already taken their laundry to the place so we didn't have to show them anymore. We about strangled him right then and there. At that point it was 6PM and we had already walked into town and back 3 times so we decided to just get our laundry tomorrow.
We got down to the Ponte Vecchio right as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful view. There was a ton of tourists around, but we managed to get a pretty cool picture on the bridge. Our group of 16 decided to head to the other side of the river, towards the local side. We knew we were going to have a hard time finding a place that would let all of us in. We wandered awhile and asked a few places if they could hold us, but got turned down each time. It was already dark by the time we found this other place. It looked like a good size, but again we got told no. As we were standing in the middle of the street deciding how we were going to split when a guy from the restaurant came out and told us if we could eat in an hour (we had to be out at 9 because the tables were reserved for then) we could eat there. We got split into 3 different groups, but hey we were getting dinner. I ended up with Connor, Billy, Nathan and Pat. Connor spent the first five minutes apologizing about the laundry mix up, after that dinner was good. I had spaghetti al pesto and it was delicious. It was the only thing on the menu that I knew what it was. The entire menu was in Italian, thankfully our waiter knew some English so he told us what some of the words were. Still, I stuck with the spaghetti. Billy got tortellini with rabbit sauce and surprisingly, it was amazing. We all decided we have to go back, in smaller groups of course, because it was amazing food for a good price. As we walked around, we came to realize everything is cheaper on the local side of the river. Note taken.
Gemo had heard of this $1 gelato spot up a few blocks, and even though we had just had dinner, of course we jumped on that. This place had at least 20 flavors, and for $1 they gave you a ton. We sat on the Ponte Vecchio, eating our gelato, feeling Italian. We were in the heart of the city having a blast.
Even though it was only 10PM, Erin, Allie, Connor, Gunnar and I decided we wanted to head back and watch a movie. Last night was just too much and we needed a night in. So we left everyone else and came back to Bonifacio to watch Just Friends. For the first time we managed to find our way home without a map. We are becoming locals. Slowly. Our clothes and speech make us stand out, but at least we aren't carrying a map anymore.
Friday, September 16th
Our morning was pointless. We had to listen to, not even all, the professors talk about their classes. Like in depth. It took almost 3 hours and the only reason they didn't continue with the rest of the introductions was because they had only booked the room until 12 so we had to leave. Praise the lord.
Once we got out of there, our lovely group decided to wander back to the place us girls had limoncello the previous night, to get some lunch. Allie's boyfriend Alam wasn't there (bummer), but lunch was good. We made plans with the boys to meet us in front of our pensionne at 6PM because they wanted us to show them were the laundry place is. So from around 12:30PM until close to 6 we wandered around and explored Florence. Around 5PM we realized we were super close to the laundry place and considered just getting our laundry then. But we remembered we had promised the boys we would take them there, so instead we walked home. As we were walking up to our building Connor came out of nowhere. He proceeded to tell us that Gunnar and him had already taken their laundry to the place so we didn't have to show them anymore. We about strangled him right then and there. At that point it was 6PM and we had already walked into town and back 3 times so we decided to just get our laundry tomorrow.
We got down to the Ponte Vecchio right as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful view. There was a ton of tourists around, but we managed to get a pretty cool picture on the bridge. Our group of 16 decided to head to the other side of the river, towards the local side. We knew we were going to have a hard time finding a place that would let all of us in. We wandered awhile and asked a few places if they could hold us, but got turned down each time. It was already dark by the time we found this other place. It looked like a good size, but again we got told no. As we were standing in the middle of the street deciding how we were going to split when a guy from the restaurant came out and told us if we could eat in an hour (we had to be out at 9 because the tables were reserved for then) we could eat there. We got split into 3 different groups, but hey we were getting dinner. I ended up with Connor, Billy, Nathan and Pat. Connor spent the first five minutes apologizing about the laundry mix up, after that dinner was good. I had spaghetti al pesto and it was delicious. It was the only thing on the menu that I knew what it was. The entire menu was in Italian, thankfully our waiter knew some English so he told us what some of the words were. Still, I stuck with the spaghetti. Billy got tortellini with rabbit sauce and surprisingly, it was amazing. We all decided we have to go back, in smaller groups of course, because it was amazing food for a good price. As we walked around, we came to realize everything is cheaper on the local side of the river. Note taken.
Gemo had heard of this $1 gelato spot up a few blocks, and even though we had just had dinner, of course we jumped on that. This place had at least 20 flavors, and for $1 they gave you a ton. We sat on the Ponte Vecchio, eating our gelato, feeling Italian. We were in the heart of the city having a blast.
Even though it was only 10PM, Erin, Allie, Connor, Gunnar and I decided we wanted to head back and watch a movie. Last night was just too much and we needed a night in. So we left everyone else and came back to Bonifacio to watch Just Friends. For the first time we managed to find our way home without a map. We are becoming locals. Slowly. Our clothes and speech make us stand out, but at least we aren't carrying a map anymore.
Friday, September 16th
Friday, September 16, 2011
Welcome to Florence
The first day of school, oh how lovely it is. Especially when you’re wearing clothes you’ve been wearing for the past 10 days.
I got up and had breakfast with Carl and Joe before we walked to school for our 8:30AM classes. Carl and I had finance, and to my surprise there are actually quite a few people I’m friends with in it. I thought everyone else was in the later one, so I was pleasantly surprised. Finance sounds like it’s not going to be too terrible. Professor Screti is nice so far, and finance in general doesn’t appear to be too difficult. Ask me in a month if I’ve changed my mind.
Between finance and Italian I have an hour break. I decided to hit up the library and get the rest of my books. I didn’t think I was that late, but when I got there at 9:40 the librarian had already run out of Italian 101 books. Oh well. After that I went to the computer lab and enjoyed the nice air conditioning for a bit.
I really have no one in my Italian class. There’s only like 15 of us in the class, and Professor Baltrini is also very nice, so I don’t think it will be terrible. I just wish I had a few people I know in it. I guess I’ll have to make friends, yay.
After Italian got out I was done with classes. We went back to the pensionne for lunch and then ran back to the school an hour later to go to our resident permit meeting. That was crazy. We all had to get our passports copied because the study abroad office in Spokane forgot to send them over. Then we crammed 75 of us into this very hot room at the top of the school to fill out 6 pages of paperwork. Exactly what I wanted to do during the hottest part of the day. Audrey and I were in the first group, so we hung out in the library until the other girls were finished with there’s. I had my interview with the librarian for the library assistant job during this time, and I think it went well. She is only hiring 3 people so my chances are slim, but keep your fingers crossed.
We had made plans with the boys to go to dinner at 8PM. So when it came to be 8PM and none of them had showed up, we decided to walk to Connor’s pensionne to figure out what the plan was. When we got there we found out they had already gone to dinner. Boys. We told them we were going to dinner and if they wanted to come out with us after, they had to find us. Everyone wanted pizza, so we began walking to the doumo. We came across this little place and got 4 pizzas to split. As we were sitting in the square/park eating, the boys showed up. We aren’t entirely sure how they found us, but at least they came. Of we went in search of a bar, but in Italy a lot of the cafés are called bars so we kept thinking we had found one when it was actually just a sandwich shop. Eventually we came across this restaurant that looked like it had alcohol, so us girls decided to stay there and have a shot of limoncella while the boys went in search of a real bar. It was my first and last time having limoncella. It is an Italian natural lemon liquor and you have to sip it. It is the strongest tasting lemon stuff I’ve ever had. The boys actually listened, and came back. However, they came back early because they couldn’t find a place. We stayed at the restaurant awhile longer though just because of our waiter. His name was Alam and he is IN LOVE with Allie. We’re pretty sure he was either drunk or on acid, but he made us laugh the entire time that’s for sure. Connor, Gunnar and Gemo got his email address and told him that we would come back tomorrow night with Allie for dinner. He got super excited. It was creepy. Oh, and the table across from us was full of 12 year old Italian boys who kept staring and trying to talk to us. Its nice Erin speaks some Italian, she told them we were too old for them. If only all of you could have seen their faces.
After we left the restaurant, much to Alam’s dismay, we decided it was just going to be one of those nights and it would be smart to just go home. On our way this guy came up to us and said something. Audrey, hearing he had a British accent, started talking back to him (with her fake English accent). I’m not entirely sure of the thought process, but he told someone there was a bar up the street that has free shots. As we were following this guy, Connor came up to Erin and I and made sure that we knew not to ever do this if we weren’t with all of the guys. Uhh, well duh. We aren’t that dumb. We showed up at this bar, and we instantly realized it was a black bar. Or at least being run by only black people. And we were the only ones there. Apparently only the first shot is free, but they brought it to our table. That sketched us out a bit since we hadn’t seen it made or anything, so no one drank it. After about ten minutes other students started pouring in, and we saw that they were all being handed the same shot we had been given, at the bar. So at that point we made decided it was probably safe and we were just making it way more sketch than it was. After that, the night was a blast. Somehow I came out of the night only paying for one shot… thanks Gemo. We probably would have stayed out later but we had orientation the next morning and thought it best to head home around midnight. The boys walked us back and we walked upstairs and crashed. An excellent first night out in Italy.
Let me rephrase that: an excellent first day in Italy.
Thursday, September 15th
Finally: Florence, Italy
What an uneventful day. We left Bad Kohlgrub around 8:30AM for our long and boring drive to Italy.
Basically, this is how today went:
8:30AM-11:45AM: Driving/sleeping/talking/listening to music
11:45AM-12:20PM: Stop to get food and walk around. Eat sandwich and frozen mocha
12:20PM-3:30PM: Driving/sleeping/talking/listening to music
3:30PM-3:45PM: Stop and walk around
3:45PM-5:30PM: Driving/talking/getting excited
5:30PM: Arrive outside of Gonzaga in Florence campus
After that Erin, Gabby, Allie, Audrey, myself, and a few other girls are handed a map and told to go find our new home- Hotel Bonifacio. We, surprisingly, managed to navigate our way through the streets of Florence without any hiccups in direction. However, we would have walked right past it if it wasn’t for Carl hanging out of his window waving at us.
Now, there are three of us in one room. At Gonzaga, this usually means a good sized room with 3 of everything. This is apparently not what the Italians think. Our room is quite big, but the only 3 of anything is the beds. We have one closet and one desk. None of us know exactly where we are going to put our clothes when we get our suitcases tomorrow. We’ll figure out, right? We have too?
Dinner was at 7PM so we spent an hour exploring. We found a few bars and café’s right down the street, and a market. We also found a laundry place, but it is so expensive we are hoping the tourist place is better priced. I am so tired of wearing the same dirty clothes every day; it’s gross.
Dinner was good; pasta, broccoli and chicken. The three women who we met tonight seem really nice, so far it seems like this won’t be too bad of a living situation. The only thing is we need to figure out laundry and internet. The internet only works in certain places in the hotel, one of them not being our room.
I wish I had some funny, sassy, or inappropriate few words or sentence to describe today… but as you can see it was pretty boring. Tomorrow starts the first day of classes. I have finance and Italian, and since all of my notebooks and pencils are in my suitcases, it should be a productive morning.
Wednesday, September 14th
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