Amsterdam!

Last early early early Friday morning I traveled to Amsterdam. I packed my travel backpack up and left at 3:30am on a bus with one of the girls I met here, Julia. Our plane for Endihoven left at 6:30am. I obviously slept through that plane ride!

I was glad we took the early flight because we had a 2 hour train ride to get to Amsterdam from the airport. Damn RyanAir. We walked along the main river to find our 'Boatel'. We finally found it after a good 1/2 an hour. Boatel Zebra was the name. We asked a guy near the docks if he knew it and he gave us the funniest look, but who wouldn't? What an odd name!

Boatel Zebra

Julia and I walked towards the boat on the dock and after a few steps, I was on my ass. Who would have known the dock was going to be icy?!

We finally made it to the boat after I picked myself back up. The boat was very homey, the 1st floor had the breakfast area, a TV with a couch, and a small bar...a kitchen was in the back. We checked in and she led us down below deck. Our room was very tiny but actually very homey as well. I felt right at home because it reminded me of camp back home. I slept on the top bunk. Crammed into our little boat room was our own shower, bathroom, and the sink was next to the bunk beds. It was great. We got settled in and headed into the center of town. We immediately came across the red light district completely on accident, haha. There were a bunch of shops and restaurants. After grabbing a hot chocolate and relaxing for a bit we headed back to the boat to slip in a nap.

Oezer called me a few hours later and he met us at our boat. It was SO good to see him. It had been 3 years and he hasn't changed. I think we were both a little nervous because it had been so long but it was completely normal. I felt like I had just seen him last week! It made me so happy.
We walked around the city, and took the tram to the Van Gogh museum. I didn't end up going in because I deemed it too expensive. We did find a trailer selling North Pole Glacier ice though...for 25 euro. That was hilarious. We also found an adorable Christmas market. We went and ate dinner after. We found a place to sit and relax after dinner, we got to catch up a bit.

Gorgeous Amsterdam

Saturday, we slept in and it was the best ever. I love sleeping in but I only wanted to do it once because when I'm traveling I want to see and do as much as I can. Around 2pm we met up with Oezer again. It was FREEZING and snowing. We went from shop to shop, grabbing hot chocolates and relaxing. It was a very relaxing day...
The red light district is (obviously) all about sex. It's famous for that. We saw many interesting sex shops and coffee shops were mixed in there too. Friday was the first day I saw the girls in the windows. I'll never forget that experience. Oezer was like, don't laugh at them and don't stare. So i'm trying my hardest not to stare because how can you not stare? They're like puppies in the window, desperate for attention from the men, but really I guess it's like any other job. It's really interesting though, I'm glad I experienced it.

For dinner we found an amazing thai restaurant. Oezer and I got the same thing. It was literally the spiciest thing I've ever had as a meal. I was crying and Oezer couldn't believe how spicy it was either. Even though I may have been crying/tearing it was SOOOOO good. I LOVE IT!


Sunday, Julia and I packed up our stuff and hiked over to the other hostel. I wanted to try this hostel called Flying Pigs, so we decided to stay there Sunday until Monday. After we checked in, we met up with Oezer and got coffee. Oezer left around 12:30pm, that was sad but I hope I can see him again soon.

Oezer and I <3

Afterwards, Julia and I headed over to the Anne Frank House. It was really interesting. I think I didn't really realize that we were actually in the house she hid in until the very end. I knew we were in it but it didn't hit me until we were touring the different rooms and when we walked into her actual room. It was amazing. I think the holocaust was so terribly tragic but I admire how strong she was during such a terrible time. I'm sure she wasn't the only one either. For such a young girl, she really knew how to write.

After the tour, we wandered around the town on our way back to the Hostel. Earlier, we had purchased tickets for a canal boat ride. Before we left for the boat ride we stopped back to the hostel. We met 3 guys our age and they wanted to come with us. So we all headed to the boat dock and toured Amsterdam by canal boat. They ended up being very down to earth and really cool. After the ride, we hung out with them for the rest of the night. Our hostel had a really chill area to relax so we stayed there. For dinner, I had these noodles that were 'the best i eva had'. They definitely warmed me up.

Julia and I had another early flight, so we had to get up at like 4am. We took a bus to the airport and were back in Florence around 1pm. We went right to class and my teacher was making fun of my backpack. He asked me if I stayed for a week or the weekend, got the jokkeees! Haha, I thought it was pretty funny. Hey now, now...I'm a legit backpacker and the important thing is that RyanAir let me carry it on board!

All in all, it was a great, relaxing weekend! One of my favs for sure :)

<3 ,

<3

Alex

Paris, Paris, Paris!

Thursday I traveled to Paris!
It was an easy travel experience. I met a new friend, her name is Alese. She is from the states and is studying in Italy. She seems really cool. We talked to whole plane ride, so it made it pass really fast.

When we got to Paris and were walking to the Metro I looked up to the skyline and saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It was sparkling too because it does that every hour for 5 min.! It was the perfect time to come in.

We got to the hotel and I passed out. In the morning Holly, Susan, some other girls, and I went to visit Notre Dam and St. Chapelle. Two gorgeous churches...Notre Dam was very gothic and dark, while, St. Chapelle was bright and warm with all of the stained glass.

In between the two we found hot mulled wine and I got a cup of it. It was SO good. I compare it to hot apple cider...but wine. Nothing less than amazing.

We met everyone on the trip at the Louvre around 2pm and waited a while to get our tickets. The T.A.'s got them for us which made it less of a hassle. We just all hung out, waited, and took pictures of course. Once we were in they guided us around the museum. They told us that to finish the whole museum it would take upwards of 23 years. Needless to say, we only saw a small portion of it and it was pretty overwhelming.

We saw many famous works by Michelangelo and many others. I saw many paintings that I've seen on slides in class, so it was really nice to see them in person during the trip. The Mona Lisa was the highlight of this trip for me. I've always wanted to see it. The room was surrounded by large paintings and in the center was this small painting of the Mona Lisa. It was an interesting juxtaposition. I got a picture by the Mona Lisa, per usual.

MONA LISSAAA!

After we were finished with the tour, I was getting antsy to get out on the town and explore. I left with another girl and we went exploring near the expensive shops. We window shopped and found ourselves at a Christmas market. It was so adorable. All of the little shops or 'huts' were lit up with christmas lights. I tried caviar for the first time and they had me take a shot of vodka with it before I ate the actual caviar. This was so the flavor would be more substantial. I felt very ritzy!

After we walked up and down the long pathways, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. I was really tired from walking all day but I really wanted to see it up close and personal at night. I will never forget my first reaction to the Eiffel Tower. It is enormous! Larger than life. A picture does not do justice to how inferior you feel when you're standing next to it. On the hour the Eiffel Tower has sparkle lights that make it seem even better. They last for about 10 minutes. We were there at the perfect time. 

The typical street sellers were there selling metal replicas of the tower too. It's actually illegal for them to do that but there were at least 20 different guys out there doing it anyways. 

Caviar! classy classsy

I was watching them because they harass every tourist to get them to buy something from them and all of the sudden they signaled each other and started to packed up the crap they sell. They didn't do this in a slow manner. All of the sudden they started to run and I turn back to see a cop chasing after them. It was the funniest thing because the cop ran to scare them away, stopped and then jumped out again. It reminded me of when little kids (or me) chase after pigeons. HILARIOUS! 

Saturday we traveled as group to Chartres, which is an adorable french country town. They had a farmers market going on and we had some time to look around. The leaders showed us around the beautiful gothic Chartres church and explained the sculptures that the facade contained. It was really nice to get explanations behind all of it...other than it was freezing cold outside.

After getting inside the church we sat down and admired the stained glass. Stained glass is one of my favorite things about all the churches I've been to. We left Chartres to head to Versailles on the train. Versailles was enormous! Way more than I expected...for the better. The buildings and gates were gilded in gold and the estate was massive. We definitely did not get through the whole thing but we 'tasted' some of the great parts. 

We first went into the Palace which was enormous as well. We were given audio guides which explained some history, which was interesting because I had never used something like that. The guys voice was very soothing, ahaha. We saw the Hall of Mirrors which is very famous and beautiful. To get to this we walked through many beautiful rooms with intricate design. I can't even explain every room because it was all designed differently, so I will add a picture to show you.

After the palace we headed to the gardens. We took pictures and walked down to the canal that is built into versailles. It's really hard to explain how huge this place actually is. It was made to become a fully functional town.  We bought some wine on the way down at a snack stand and we celebrated by the canal. We watched people rowing in the big crew boats up and down part of the canal. It was so relaxing and we also watched the sunset. We made perfect time. 

Before we left Versailles we went to their stables to see a Dressage horse show. Something I will never forget, it was like a opera...but with horses. We walked in and the horse ring had christmas lights on the ceiling. The lights were set low. I looked up to the bleachers where the people were sitting and they were made out of beautiful adirondack looking pine along with box seating like you'd see at the opera. The show started and they wouldn't let me take pictures, which was a little sad but it let me enjoy the show. The horses were very well trained and they even had women that were fencing on the horses. My favorite section of the show is when they let them run free. The horses were bucking, farting, and playing. It was the cutest thing ever. I love when a horse can be set free and roam to do what it wants. I think its the most interesting part about the animal, I love watching it. They played for awhile and towards the end the classical music started to get louder. The girls and I started to realize that the horse were trained to run around in circles toward this part and do other little things to the beat of the music. It was amazing how smart they were because no one was whipping them or asking them to move with a human's touch. They were trained to the sound of music. At the end, the trainers danced with the horses and the horses knew exactly how to move!

After the horse show we took the train back to Paris. We decided to go to a fondue restaurant that we heard was amazing. We got directions from the hotel and started walking. It took us a good 20 minutes to find the place but my roommate Holly got us there and did a good job. 

The place was SUPER tiny. It only fit about 35 people at most and everyone was cramped. We ended up waiting 1.5 hours. We sat in a small bar with the nicest older man who owned it. It was right next door. We were pretty hungry so he gave us bar peanuts and we had a glass of wine. Once we pushed our way in the Fondue restaurant and made sure no one took our seats we were able to eat. The get to the other side of the table you had to climb over the actual table. It was hilarious.

Oh...one more thing. The kicker of this wonderful fondue restaurant: You drink wine out of baby bottles. 

....My favorite part....

Baby Baby Baby...oooohhh!

We ended up buying baby bottles as souvenirs and I can't wait to drink out of mine again! It definitely was a throwback to when I used to ask my grandma to drink out of baby bottles when I was over at her house even though I was a little too old to be doing it...like age 10ish. I would still do it today because it brings ya back!

Sunday we went to the Musee D'Orsay which is home to some of the most wonderful paintings I have seen so far. I was able to experience paintings by Monet, Manet, and many more. Also, I wrote artists down that I don't really know much about and liked so I could look them up. I felt so cultured after that visit. 

We headed the Eiffel Tower after the Musee so we could head up to the top! I ended up being the only one that wanted to go up to the top out of the three of us. So I went alone! :)

I met a couple...Dave and Tammy. They were probably around my parents age, from Cali. They are living in Amsterdam for a year because of Dave's guitar business. They took me as their own and acted like I was their daughter for the time at the Eiffel Tower. It was the sweetest thing. We traveled up to the top in a gondola type deal. The height thing was a little scary but I was so excited. I watched up go farther and farther up. Dave took pictures for me which I was so happy about. They were so easy to talk to and I really had a great experience. The view was amazing from the top of the tower. The soccer game going on below looked like little fake figurines moving around. I expressed this by saying "Look at the little soccer players!" They loved that...hahaha.

Top of the Eiffel Tower!

I split up with them after we reached the bottom. I went over to Notre Dam on the metro to quickly buy a berret and caught the metro again to head back to the hotel. I met everyone back at the hotel so we could take the train to the airport. Well...I ended up losing them when we started to walk and got lost. I was freaking out.

Luckily, I asked around and found my way. Everything turned out fine and I felt really good because I maneuvered myself around in a stressful travel situation!  I made it to the airport with plenty of time and had a great flight!

Paris was amazing and a very romantic setting. After that weekend I felt so cultured and developed an increased interest in art, specifically the historical artists. 

Love, love, love,

Alex<3

Fall Break...Brussels & Dublin.

Sorry for the delay, it has been an interesting week since I've been back in Florence.

SO...FALL BREAK!

Thursday:

We left Thursday morning and rode a bus to the Pisa Airport. We literally ran to check in to Ryanair and they almost told us it was too late but they were just being lazy.
Our flight went well, only about 2 hours. We first arrived in Brussels, Belgium. Andrea, Julia, and I walked to our hostel which was a good 30 min. but it was nice because we walked through town so we had a mini peak at it. We found waffles and shared one with Strawberries and whip cream. It was SO good. The waffle was caramelized which made it swirled with brown sugar, ahhh.

We got to the hostel and checked in. It was my first time staying in a hostel. I walk in my room and a guy around my age is in there with his two friends tuning his bagpipe. Haha I went in cracking jokes because it was so random. They ended up being students too, studying in London. The one kid which they call Axxey, plays his bagpipe on the street sometimes for money. So he left and the other guys stayed to chat.
Andrea and I had the same room so we laid down for a bit before getting ready for dinner and to go out.

The rest of our group showed up about a half an hour later; Melanie, Chloe, John, and Randy. We waited for them to get ready and headed out to find some eats. We found an amazing restaurant, very true to home cooking. We waited 20 min. for a table because it was so packed. Randy, Andrea, and I went exploring during this time and found a 1930's style jazz club. It was something straight out of a movie. We ordered a glass of wine but about 5 min. after we started sipping on it they called us telling that our table was ready. We quickly drank our wine and rushed over. We had to sit at separate table from them but no one really cared because the food was so amazing. I had rabbit which was very good and tender.

After dinner, we headed to a few bars. The main one was called Delirium. Two floored pub with live music downstairs. It seemed like a big beer place which I wasn't too keen on at first but the atmosphere was well worth it. I ended up trying a beer and actually like it, haha. The music was good and got way better after the first band. The first band was a group of 16 year old kids. They sucked but they had enthusiasm, I give them credit. The second band, I think was their house band. It seemed like some of the members of it may have owned the bar. The lead singer was dressed in jeans and an underarmor muscle tee. None of us expected much out of him but he blew us away.
His stage presence was really great too, he had the crowd going and his voice was amazing.

After a good couple hours we headed Brussels' grand market. It is a big open space with a bunch of beautiful buildings squaring it off. It was great to go at night because no one was around. After taking some pictures and Randy & John danced to an accordion players music, Chloe and I headed back to the hostel. The hostel was really clean and the beds were really comfy.

Friday:

We headed out after everyone was ready. This hostel didn't serve breakfast so we headed to a place Randy found on the map. It was amazing...omelets, crepes, waffles. A few of us shared things so we could taste everything. The waiter was a bit snarky but I think he was frustrated with the language barrier. Luckily, I remember some french and helped out with the ordering.

After breakfast, we decided to go into on the Cathedrals there. It was free to get in, which was very appealing! On our way we stopped into a chocolate shop and they let us try a little sample. YUM!
The Cathedral was very beautiful. The stained glass was gorgeous. We took some pictures outside of it with all of the girls. It was cute.

Everyone wanted to see the peeing boy so we headed in that direction. We got to go through the Grand Market during the day which was much busier but just as beautiful. The peeing boy is very small, we had thought it was going to be some huge sculpture because it's so popular but it was kind of funny.

We walked to a record store and I found a dog to love. We split up because Chloe, John, and Randy weren't coming to Dublin with us. Julia, Andrea, Melanie, and I walked back up towards the peeing boy and there was a huge crowd around it.
We randomly stumbled upon the changing of his 'outift'. We stayed and watched a ceremony to unveil this little boy in clothes. It was very bizarre but I was so happy to see that because I had read about it online before we came. I met the guy who made some of the props for it by accident. He was most likely a little older than me and is a graphic artist...(and cute, haha). Anyways, after the ceremony we walked up into the upper part of town and made our way to a beautiful park. It reminded me a lot of central park but definitely smaller. It was so nice to see leaves that were changing, reminded me of home<3.

We hopped a train to another part of Brussels to go visit The Atomium. It is a huge piece of architecture that is made to look like an Atom. You can actually go inside and that's exactly what we did. The view from the top ball was gorgeous. You could see the whole city of Brussels.

After it closed we waited because it lights up. We walked down to a fountain and randomly found a French Fry stand in the middle of a parking lot. The girls had been wanting Fries or Frites all day and we hadn't found any. It was really random but seemed like it was meant to be. I haven't had fries in a while but I tried some of these and they were the most amazing fries I've EVER had. The sauces they put on them are different too, we tried a spicy sauce which was bangin'
Oh, by the way, Brussels is famous for Waffles, Fries, Beer, Mussels, and the peeing boy.

After our train back to the city center we went back to the hostel so we could relax for a few hours. This was the night we were going to stay up all night because our flight to Dublin was at 6:45am. This meant we would have to leave Brussels at 3am by bus to get to the airport a couple hours early.

At 11pm the Hostel lobby closed. So we stayed there from 8-11pm. I sat down and this little boy was showing off for me. It was break dancing and everything, it was so adorable.
The little boy was speaking French to me which melted my heart. When it was his bedtime, in this tiny voice, he said Au revior! So friggen' cute!

I fell asleep for an hour and a half. At 11pm we left and went to a restaurant for a late dinner. We hung out there until they kicked us out which was 1 am. At 1 am we headed to a bar that we thought was a Porno themed bar. One of the girls I was with saw it recommend on the NY Times must see list. We went into this shop, which looked like an antique shop from the outside. Shit was everywhere. Once we went inside it was more like a sit down bar. There was an upstairs and a downstairs with tables. Upstairs had random couches in each room with art scattered along the walls. Their old jukebox played old french music. It felt like we were sitting back in time. Shit was scattered everywhere but in a flowing way. It was one of the best places I've ever been to in my life. We had a sangria type wine and chilled until 330am. It was so relaxing.

We took a taxi from this place to the train station, where we got a bus to the airport. We got through check in and Melanie's bag was over the weight limit. That was a little hectic but ended up distributing the weight between our bags pretty well...damn RyanAir.

We got into Dublin around 8:30am but it was 7:30am there. We got a taxi to our hostel which wouldn't let us check in until 3pm. Andrea and I found leather couches to pass out on which was sooo great. Melanie and Julia didn't sleep, so they slept once we got our rooms. Andrea and I headed out around 3:30pm to explore Dublin. We decided to go to Howth, which is a small town in Ireland...only 50 min. away from Dublin. It was dark by the time we got there. I had a great time. We went to one pub...had a drink and fresh clam chowder. It was awesome. Then went up the street to the oldest tavern. We met a couple of locals and had a few drinks. It was a great experience because we were literally the only tourists in the bar. It was something straight out of a movie. We headed back later and jogged a mile to catch the train.

I was getting sick so I headed back to the hostel. It had been a crazy day. Sunday we headed around the city and covered a lot of ground. We went to mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral...something I think everyone should do once. We headed the the Guinness Storehouse afterwards. I learned how to pour my Guinness the correct way and can make the shamrock!!  The top of the Storehouse holds a panoramic view of Dublin which was worth the ticket just for that.
I walked with Andrea to the historic jail but wanted to go to the Jameson Factory so I left. I ended up walking for 40 minutes because I was way out of my way. On the bright side, I was able to see the other side of Dublin, haha.
Julia and I went to Jameson later. We learned how it was made--->Triple Distillation.
We also were able to have a mixed drink with Jameson...which was bangin'. We were picked to be official whisky tasters. After that 'marketing scheme' for Jameson, no lie, you can really taste the difference between Jameson and Jack. Jameson = way better...not as much perfume taste.

We had dinner at the oldest pub in Dublin. It was very authentic and the food was amazing. I had bangers and mash which was sausage and fresh mashed potatoes. One of the best meals I've had.
I was still feeling sick so I passed out. The whole sick thing was bad timing but I fortunately still did a lot.

Monday, I was on my own. Andrea and Julia were staying an extra night so they went on a day trip. Melanie was in bed because she was real real sick. I headed out and joined a free walking tour. I tagged along for a half an hour to learn a little bit about the Dublin castle but then went and did my own thing. I went over in Temple Bar which is a bunch of streets where its basically all of the touristy bars. There were some cool vintage shops, so I popped in. I found a jewelry shop and bought the perfect souvenir...a Claddagh  ring. I was so happy!
I went across the river to see the Dublin spike and also the Post Office. The Post Office still has bullet holes from the war in it. While on that side I ran upon a chocolate shop where I just tried a few pieces of their chocolate and I fell in love. Now, my favorite chocolate.

I headed back towards the hostel and stopped in a tattoo shop to check out their work. I wish I could've stayed longer...they looked like a legit place. For lunch, I got SUBWAY! I was so happy with my southwest sauce.
Around 2, I rounded up Melanie and we headed to the airport. I was so happy to be home. It was a great vacation but the differences in travel personalities with the other girls was overwhelming at times. Regardless, I kept my cool and had an amazing time.




--->this post is wayyyyy overdue but I had to get it finished in order to write another one!

<3 you all

MIDTERMS

Midterms were....intense.
I felt like I was literally studying for 7 days straight...squeezed in time for the gym and some computer time but that's it, oh...and dinner.

That's pretty much all I have to say about it because it was so ridiculous.

For a study break a bunch of us went to EuroChocolate in Perugia, Italy. It was pretty cool but I was disappointed Kinder wasn't there. Perugia was a really cute place in Italy, it was well worth it. My friend Kelly and I waited in line at Lindt Chocolate and participated in a game. We were blind folded and had to figure out the secret ingredients in the chocolate we tasted. WE WON! A lot of fun...

Thursday, my friends and I left for our fall break. We went to Brussels from Thursday until Saturday morning, then Dublin from Saturday until Monday. It was awesome, but I'll write a separate entry explaining everything we did because we packed a lot into 5 days. The personalities on the trip were really interesting and caused for an interesting break. That doesn't phase me though, because I had a blast.

Now we're back in school and I'm ready to go into the next part of the semester with a clear head...or try too. It was hard in the first part dealing with my grandpa passing away and being away from the family during that. I had a lot to deal with all at once. Although I will still think about him everyday, I just want to do my very best in Italian and learn as much as I can. My goal is to be fluent in Italian by next year. Hopefully, Rosetta Stone for XMAS! haha

I miss my girls, my family, my Indie, and my animals<3

Next blog: Brussels & Dublino

a little delayedddd...

Bruises are doing really well and disappearing. Last Monday (so two mondays ago now...) I went back to working out...I gave it 9 days, I thought that was enough, ha. I did fine, though.

Last week was pretty calm and quiet. One of the best things each week is having dinner with my host family. It's one of my favorite parts of the day. We are usually always all there together...we enjoy the amazing food and talk a lot. Laura and Baldo both have really great senses of humor, so it makes for interesting conversation when we all get going, haha.

Thursday, my friend Kelly and I left for Verona on a train. I actually had butterflies in my stomach before we left because it was the first time I was traveling without an organized group. It definitely was an interesting trip.

We got on the train and ended up sitting in a train room with two guys, around the same age as us. They were Italian and from Rome...traveling to Munich for the week. We spoke Italian with them, Kelly did a lot better with that thought...haha. I was so nervous. They even offered us to stay with them when we visit Rome again, haha. YEAH RIGHT. Maybe we could meet up at a bar but no chance of me staying with them. It was nice of them to offer though...ha.

We arrived in Verona around 12am and got a ride to the little B&B we were staying at. It was so adorable and really clean, Buddha themed which was very cool.

In the morning we got ready and out the door so we could explore Verona. Verona is so beautiful...very italian. We found one of their beautiful churches and paid a small student fee so we could go into all four of the major churches in Verona. They were all gorgeous. For some reason, the first one was my favorite.

We found Juliette's Casa, complete with the Romeo & Juliette Balcony. It was very pretty but the movie, "Letters to Juliet" made the courtyard seem much cleaner.

In the afternoon we got a taxi ride to the train station and hopped over to Venice...which should have it's own blog post about because it was so ridiculous...hahahah!

So Venice...

We get to the train station around 7:30pm. I realize I forgot to write the address down to the hotel, but I remember on the website it said it was really close to the station. We decide to call Kelly's roommate Lauren and ask her to look the hotel's address up. She gives us an address and we head to it. Well...little did we know we were heading to Venice...which is the island. Once we make it to the bus stop at Venice we ask a boat driver how to get to the hotel. He says it'll take one hour by boat to San Marco. We laugh and think he's joking with us. Well we were wrong...he was right. We ended up walking to Piazza San Marco with our bags and everything, which took us 30 min. on foot.

We finally find Piazza San Marco and an orchestra is playing outside. It was so beautiful, it made that walk worth it...plus being able to see Venice at night. We finally find what supposedly was our hotel after a nice Italian man helped us out. He came with us to the hotel and we found out our hotel was back where we started, mainland Venice Mestre.

We were pretty frustrated but at the same time had a sense of humor about it. The Italian guy walked us over to the water taxi for us to get back to where we were supposed to be. He gave us his number and invited us for drinks. We were very appreciative of his help cause otherwise we had been shit out of luck, for real.

We finally got to out actual Hotel and grabbed a late dinner around the corner. We went to this restaurant, sit down, and we re the only ones there except for two sets of couples. We order and are waiting for our food. Kelly tells me to turn around and one of the couples is in the middle of an intense make out sesh...I turn to my other side and the second couple is in an intense make out sesh as well. It was one of the funniest things I've seen...it was like right out of a movie. When we got back to our room, we got ready for bed...and if the night couldn't have gotten any better, a couple next door was having some LOUD sex...we joked around that it was one of the couple from the restaurant. We eventually passed out. It was so nice to sleep after that run around. In the morning we go to breakfast and who do we see? One of the make out couples from dinner...we still think they were the loud ones at the Hotel ;)

We headed to the island of Venice after breakfast, it was a beautiful day. We basically didn't have a plan and explored the whole city. It was a lot of fun this way because we came across cute shops and a bunch of other cool spots. For lunch, we found this whole in the wall pizza place with huge slices for super cheap. We ate the pizza by one of the canals and gondolas rode by us. It was gorgeous. The pigeons tried to invade but I shooed them away. Then, I fed them from my hand with some crust...haha so I defeated the purpose.

We headed to meet this tour guide so we could get a discounted gondola ride. They just organized it and there were 3 other people with us. While we were waiting to go we grabbed a coffee. Kelly had the idea of putting Bailey's in it...which was so worth it. YUM

When we got in the gondola we made friends with an older lady that is here visiting from America by herself. It was really peaceful on the gondola...at a couple spots the canal really smelled but it wasn't bad most of the way. I wish our gondola driver would have sang too but it was still amazing.

After the ride, we wandered around into different shops. We decided to wait to go to Doge's Palace until Sunday because it was going to close soon when we checked. Kelly found a sweet mask and I found some cool things also. Once it got dark, it started to rain pretty hard. I had an umbrella but it didn't help much. We found a cute restaurant to eat at. We started to speak Italian to our waiter and he said "Can you speak English? I'm not great at Italian." We laughed and said sure. We shared some gnocchi which was amazing. Kelly asked me if I minded if we added red pepper flakes to it, then she pulled a little jar out of her purse. It made it spicy good. The waiter then comes over and starts laughing at us, he couldn't figure out where we had gotten them!
We got our main courses and had a good amount of wine. After a bit of wine, the waiter comes to me and says, "You look tired" I started laughing and was like well I have been walking all day...and also the wine doesn't help, ha! Kelly and I thought it was so random, but just added to the crazy weekend.

We decided to take the water bus home because we were feelin' the wine. We had a lot of fun on the way and the land bus was SO packed. We passed out instantly when we got to the hotel.

Sunday...

We had breakfast in the morning, yummmm. It was raining, cold, and windy. I was really not looking forward to doing anything that day. We were going to go to the Island of Murano where they produce all of the Murano glass but it was too expensive to get there on such a miserable day.
We went to Doge's Palace because it was inside and everything. What a gorgeous place! We went back to our secret pizza place for lunch...soooo good. On the way back we stopped in shops and mosied along. I bought a pretty glass ring.
We caught the bus early and went to the train station to try to switch to the earlier train home. Well...that train was sold out. I was in such a bad mood, cold, tired, and annoyed. We ended up sitting in the hotel lobby (not big AT all) and I fell asleep in a chair. I felt a lot better afterwards.

No one was home when I got back because Holly's grandma took my host parents out to dinner. My host momma left me a homemade dinner to warm up. It was the perfect end to the weekend.

My week started off well while Monday I caught up on Grey's Anatomy. I'm lovin it, so thankful I'm able to watch it.
I wore my leather jacket for the first time this week too. I could fall asleep in it it's so comfy and the smell...SO good.

Tuesday I went to this hair salon I've been to before and got three strands of pink hair extensions, very subtle but I love them. I even made her redo one because it didn't match the color of the other two. I knew it would bother me otherwise.

I will update more about the end of the week and this past weekend in a little while. I've been studying for midterms up the wazzzooooo! It's going to be totally worth it though because I'm going to Belgium and Ireland for FALL BREAK!

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD!

<3Alex

Can't think of a witty title

Today I was able to exercise again! Doctors orders not to work out for a week to rest my bruises so I followed...didn't want them getting any worse. I went to my second Italian pilates class today too. It was harder to understand but I tried my best and if I couldn't understand I looked over at the person next to me, haha. Nothing wrong with following a little example.

This past weekend was awesome...pretty much like everything has been since I've been here...but I was able to horseback ride.

Four hours of horseback riding...through the beautiful Chianti country side. After 2 hours we took a break to have a picnic lunch in the woods. We tied the horses up, and the owners gave them hay and water. Lunch was amazing...so plentiful with a wonderful food and wine. After lunch, I layed down on the blankets and fell asleep for about an hour. It was so relaxing. A little while after I awoke we got back on the horses and rode for another two hours. During this time I was able to canter a few times. My horse had a real smooth canter. At one point during the first two hours, I was so relaxed and happy I felt like I was going to cry. With all the stress of Poppa passing away and not being there, this is exactly what I needed to let go for a little bit.

Palo, the owner of his ranch and his wife, were so nice and made us feel like we were they're friends. Palo gave us a ride back to the train station and we caught the 6ishpm train.

My host parents were gone for the weekend and so was my roommate, Holly. So I went to the grocery store...bought some fresh parmesan, fresh bread, and peanut butter (for the morning, haha). I had a little european dinner. Dipped my bread in olive oil and balsamic vinegar while eating some fresh parmesan. It was wonderful, oh so wonderful.

Sunday, I slept in and was surprisingly really sore...actually for the rest of the week I was really sore.

<3 Alex

Do not follow the yellow brick road...

I had the best weekend ever. Chloe and I traveled to the Almafi Coast Thursday night. It was an 8 hour bus ride which was interesting but they played 3 movies in English. It helped pass the time, also, so does girl talk, haha. We met some other kids from Gonzaga which is in Washington state...I'd never heard of it but they're D1. We stopped once at an AutoGrill which is glorified, nicer gas station store...nice stuff though. We got to Sorrento at 2am...somehow we got lucky and were put in the hotel apartments. So five of us girls had our own apartment. It was so sweeet! So we basically just passed out for the night right when we got unpacked and everything because we had to be up pretty early if we wanted to go to the island of Capri.

Friday we got up and got ready to get ourselves to the Ferry by 9:15am. We rode the ferry over and a half an hour later we got to Capri. Capri was very cute once you got off the ferry. The whole city is basically built into the mountain. Our guides told us about this market near where we got off with the best Caprese sandwiches, I can't even explain how amazing they were. It was fresh mozzarella, tomatoes soaked in balsamic vinegar and basil, and also basil leaves. I had them add a little turkey on mine. The flavor was so amazing. Our guides also told us that if we wanted to see the Blue Grotto, guaranteed, it was probably a good idea to do it right away because sometimes the tide can get too high.

We had to make a decision because we originally wanted to do the intense hike up the the top of the island but I couldn't pass up the Blue Grotto. We debated on renting a private boat but we only had 6 girls and it would've been semi expensive. Instead, we took a smaller boat with other tourists and it was a lot cheaper. All of us girls took over the bow of the boat and chilled up there. Chloe and I tanned in between the sights. We boated around the whole island and the boat drove into different grottos. The way the light hits the water in a grotto is amazing. We went through the tunnel of love and before we hit that we drove by this huge boulder rock with a statue of a person waving at us. Our tour guide told us the story goes...to say "Ciao" and you'll make love tonight. I think he just made it up and he really wanted to get laid by one of the six of us. (All the other people on the boat were older...he could be into that though...ha)

As we got closer to the Blue grotto we came across a cave that had two outlets, I immediately asked if we could swim in it. He said "shhhh" and then let us jump in! It was SO amazing. The water was still warm on October 1st and so blue/ green. All 6 of us jumped in and were making a lot of noise, everyone was so excited.
After we climbed back in we headed to the Blue Grotto. We split up and got into small row boats...there were four of us in my boat.  It's funny because they have a boat near the small cave entrance  that housed 3 men. These men had a table on the boat and were there to charge you 11 euro each to go into the Blue Grotto for about 5 minutes...haha. I didn't care though, I had to see it. My mom and dad have been telling me about how they saw it on their honeymoon.

After we paid, our paddle guy told us the quickly lay down and we slinked are way into the grotto. It seemed like a roomy cave at first but as we road our way in the magic happened. The water was ELECTRIC blue...nothing I've ever seen before. Pictures that I'd seen before made it look cool, but actually being there was unexplainably glorifying. Our guy had a beautiful singing voice and sang us a beautiful italian song. It was perfect. I wanted to swim but there were a lot of those damn pink jellyfish that day. We got back to our big boat and climbed back in...I was all smiles. Everything was perfect. After we got back to the shore, Chloe, Olivia, Emily and I hiked up to the shopping center of Capri. We looked around for an afternoon snack since we ate a huge sandwich at 10am. We found a cute caffe with homemade goodies. We also found a limoncello store that gave out free samples, that was fun. At the caffe I had my first cannoli since I've been abroad. It was very yummy. Chloe and I bought some postcards and the four of us window shopped. We headed back down the island to take the ferry back to Sorrento. We hung out with the little time we had left and bought some touristy t-shirts that said Capri on them. The ferry was relaxing and gave us time to rest our legs. We found an amazing seafood restaurant that our guides recommended and went to dinner there. I had 'fish soup' which was actually a bunch of steamed seafood with seasoning and olive oil...the freshest seafood. I even was able to have squid! I loved it, and the prices weren't terrible. Dinner with the girls was a lot of fun. Olivia ordered crawfish which she didn't know how to eat (they were shelled).

Later on, we met everyone at the Old English Pub down the street which the tour company got us drink specials at. The bar was in a rooftop garden. Drinks were good and hanging with friends was fun but the DJ sucked. Seriously sucked. Other than that it was a good time. The four of us took a taxi home and our taxi drived played Lady Gaga's Alejandro for us...when we were singing he told us "No, no, no...we're in Italy...Alessandro!" So we were all singing that, it was hilarious. Then 'we no speak americano' came on and that beat pumped us up, ahhhh good memories. We all came back to Chloe and my apartment. We sat on the step with some wine and nutella (random but good). It was a good night.

Saturday, we got up a little later and took a taxi to the bus station. The taxi rolls up to pick us up and it's a Mercedes van. We get to the bus station and he tells us he'll give us a deal to take us privately to Positano, that was an obvious yes. The drive was super windy but really pretty.  When we got there we had sandwiches for breakfast again and I had my favorite cannoli so far. By far, much better than the day before. The taxi had to drop us off at the top of the island which meant we literally walked down hill for about 30 minutes just to get to the beach. It gave us a chance to see a lot of Positano I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, so in all it wasn't a bad thing.

Once we finally got down there we met my friend Kelly and joined a group of people from the SUF program. We rented a private boat, 17 of us. We went out on the water and pretty much immediately went cliff diving (that's a story in itself). When we got to the cliff jumping spot, I hopped off the boat right away... I was so pumped. I went right up the the 40 ft cliff. They told me to make sure I did a pencil dive. I had that in my head but got to the edge and realized there was a ledge about 10 feet below me that if I didn't make sure my jump was far enough out, I could hit it. So now my mind was all on the ledge and making sure I jumped out far enough instead of the damn pencil dive. A guy behind me said, "Sometimes in life you just have to jump" and I just jumped. I remember feeling this rush of free falling which was amazing and at the same time trying to catch myself because it was my natural instinct. As I fell towards the water, my butt and legs slammed against the water. Hitting water from 40 feet up is basically like hitting concrete. I couldn't move my legs and used my arms to pull me towards shore. A couple of my girlfriends pulled me the rest of the way. I got on the boat and my legs were bright red. I was pissed. I wasn't pissed that I did it, I was just pissed at how much pain I was in. I sat there for about 15 minutes and then every one got back on the boat. We drove over to a beautiful grotto and I jumped back into the water. I wasn't going to let the cliff jumping scare me away. I swam through the grotto and then broke off from the group with 3 other girls and explored a grotto around the corner. We got "Gino" our cute boat driver to come in the water with us and he took us into an even smaller cave, it was amazing. To be in that tiny cave and look out at the huge sea rushing in, I will never forget.

The four of us and Gino got back into the boat. We hung out and talked for a bit before we picked up the rest of our friends while yelling 'Ciao' to them as we drove by like we were gonna leave them. We went to the next grotto which I quickly took my cover up off to jump in the water. I was the only one in the water and I was yelling to everyone to get in the water!! They finally got in and we same into this small cave that was FREEZING cold. I told myself to just deal with it because it was probably beautiful inside and it really was. Everyone was screaming in excitement of the cold water and the water was this gem colored blue green. It was really unique once inside because warm water was mixed with the freezing cold water. We stayed in there for a good few minutes. Everyone loaded the boat but I went to go check out this little opening I saw. I found a secret cave and swam in it for a minute. It was one of the coolest experiences ever because I didn't know what I was going to find inside.

When I got back on the boat Gino, the boat driver wanted me to drive the boat. Once I dried off I came over and sat next to him. I drove his boat ;)   He told me, "You are a great captain, and you're very beautiful." I blushed, haha. We talked for a little bit while I drove us back to the shore. When we got to the dock, I was the last one off and he took my hand, said "Ciao Alex" and kissed both my cheeks. It was adorable, a perfect ending to a perfect day :-)

Once we got back on shore, I broke off from the group and bought a bathing suit. I also got some yummy gelato and went back to lay on the beach with Kelly. She left with her tour group at 5...Olivia, Emily, Chloe, and I left on the Ferry around 5:30. It felt so good to sit down...my legs were starting to bruise at this point. We stopped for dinner once we were back in Sorrento and had fresh pizza. A tourist was taking a picture of the Italian waiters and then randomly took a picture of the four of us girls. It was pretty weird but we all laughed...he was older and there with his wife, lol.

We bought a couple bottles of wine after dinner and were planning on playing cards back at the bungalows. Chloe and I went back to the apartment to take a 'nap'....that nap ended up not ending until 7am the next morning. I slept so well and was so rested for Pompeii....which ended up being a good thing because we had an adventure there as well, omg.

We got up pretty early to spend the day in the ancient city of Pompeii. We had to be back at the hotel by 4pm so we could hit the road and get back to Firenze. We got off the very rough and uncomfy train to Pompeii. I popped four advil because my legs and butt were killing me.
The tour company we traveled with told us the day before that we should grab a sandwich and fresh squeezed orange juice right outside the gates of the ancient city. We did that and I was obsessed with the orange juice. I want orange juice like that everrrrrry day!

Pompeii was SO vast and spread out. I've never really seen any type of ancient ruin so I was pretty overwhelmed by the beauty. After a couple hours, we found a fresco of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodites. I was really happy we found it because
                 1. I didn't know it's home was Pompeii
                 2. We had just talked about that Goddess and that fresco in my Classical Mythology Class

Later on we tried the find the brothels and horror houses. We had no idea where they were so I went up and asked a tour guide. He told me the directions. Afterwards, I realized how crazy of a question that must of seemed to him, hahaha. We ended up somehow follow a legit yellow brick road and left the ancient city. We still don't know how...

Anyways, we got lost in the residential side of Pompeii and the 'young' city.  We had to slink our way down tiny streets and the locals kept beeping at us...scaring me many times. At first I didn't mind the detour but after a half an hour of walking my legs were starting to hurt from the bruising. I was not happy. I was determined to get back to the train station so we stopped people to help us with directions. Probably another 45 min. later we finally found the train station.
First thing was first, we needed water. After we got hydrated we stopped again for another fresh orange juice and amazing sandwich.  We caught the train back to Sorrento with plenty of time to spare. When we got back to Sorrento we found a taxi to take us back to the hotel. We get in, he starts driving and I'm thinking "where the hell is he going?"
I let him drive for a few minutes and then I ask him where he thinks we're going, our hotel is the other way. He goes "Oh, Mama Mia. I see the pretty girls, and I go the wrong way." I just said, "You're not charging us for this." Hilarious now but he was an idiot.

We got back around 11:30pm, safe and sound. I uploaded the pictures right away because I loved the weekend so much.

Tonight I'm going to a play with Holly and my host mama...I'll write more later, need to get dressed!!

<3<3

Dolce Far Niente.

Ciao from Firenze,

My weekend was relaxing. I went to Assisi on Friday with some girlfriends, as I explained in my last post. Saturday I slept in, which was so needed. I went to the gym and had one of the best stress release workouts I've had in a while. I rode my bike around town a little bit. My bike makes me feel more like a local, haha.  When I got back I skyped with my family for a while as they got ready to go to my Nana's house for the events preceding that day. I had a nice long chat with my dad and updated him on my adventures. I even told him the story about the crazy guy asking to buy me a drink then informing me he didn't expect sex. That was pretty funny, I reassured him my friends were literally right there because I could hear the worry stirring in his brain...haha.

     After taking a shower I went on the rooftop terrace and hung out. I figured out I have full service internet connection up there so I immediately skyped my family one time before they left for Nana's. I had to show them the view I get to enjoy everyday. They loved it. I stayed up there and took a few pictures. Hence the picture of me touching the Duomo, haha!
    I made an incense holder out of a glass cup with soil in it and burnt some incense while hanging out up there. It's probably my favorite spot in Florence. It's private, safe, and gives you a birds eye view of the whole city. Plus, the sun is right there so I plan to sunbath very soon too! When my roomie, Holly, got back from the library we got ready and headed to meet others for dinner. We didn't find a restaurant until an hour later. My mood was very short tempered the whole day yesterday but I just am masked in mourning right now. Things that wouldn't usually bother me, or would usually be funny to me just aren't. Although, I insist I enjoy everyday here and really take it in because time is going to fly. The restaurant we found was amazing, so it was well worth the wait. The restaurant was all home cooking. I had roasted chicken and rabbit accompanied by roasted potatoes. It was one of the best meals I've had here. The season of the meats were to die for. After dinner I took a taxi home so I could be apart of Poppa's funeral services. While I waited to call my mom for the services, I watched the Life Aquatic. Which I actually need to finish tonight because I got probably 3/4 of the way through. It's pretty unique but hilarious, my roommate gave it to me ( She's awesome).

     At 1 am my time, (7pm their time) I was put (by phone) near the podium of Uncle Bill (Poppa's brother) and was able to hear the whole service. Uncle Bill is a priest which made the whole thing very personal and so much better. Uncle Bill was able to tell us actual stories from when they were young and growing up. He mentioned me and how his voice was being heard all the way in Italy. This made me cry, wishing I could be there but SO happy technology allowed this. I couldn't see Poppa but I was told that Nana baked him an apple pie to put in his casket. I think that is so perfect. I was also told he was wearing one of his favorite red suit jackets. I imagined him looking very dapper all dressed up.
    The services were an hour long, my sister and my cousin Nick spoke...it was really beautiful. During it I could hear laughter as everyone remembered good memories they've had with Poppa. I could hear Aunt Katie, my dad, Gobbie, and a little bit of Nana. It made me feel more connected, but also made me wish I could see them, hug them.

    Uncle Bill read a poem called The Dash, it was perfect. It spoke about the year you were born and then there is the year you pass on. The most important thing though is the dash, the dash in between those years. That's what really matters. It questioned, What will you do with that dash? I plan the answer that and make what some people may call a bucket list. Spontaneity is my main way of living with trying new things and putting myself out there in challenging situations but I would like to compile things that I really want to make sure I do before it's my time to pass on. Even though I may have a while before that happens, life is fragile and you have to enjoy everyday. A lot of people, including myself forget that sometimes. I don't care if that sounds cheesy, it's really true.
    Before the service started, I was afraid I might fall asleep because it was so late here but I stayed awake for the whole thing. After it was over I wanted more than anything to be with the family...I guess I was still there in spirit. I always will be there in spirit.

I slept in again today (lovin' it). After I woke up I went to the rooftop again. It gave me time alone to think, do homework, burn incense, and enjoy the beauties of Florence. I left the house around 2pm and headed to Piazza Signoria, where I went to look at sculptures. My art history class homework was to look at one specific statue and they asked a bunch of questions on it. They even made us draw it which was a disaster but I did my best, lol. I rode my bike around after and enjoyed the weather. I found a cute little restaurant for lunch and had a spinach/cheese fritta (Omelet) with some rosso vino ;-) It was soooo good to have eggs, and these eggs were 'bitchin' as my friend Chloe would say. I had some chocolate gelato afterwards from a chocolate shop...I will only get chocolate gelato from there now. Grom is my main gelato place but I usually get raspberry and hazelnut there. So it's all a balance, ahah.
On my way home I had this one guy drive past me on a moped, check me out as he drove past, and then adjust his mirror to look behind him, ahhaha. I couldn't help but literally laugh out loud!

I took the best nap when I got back. Holly went to dinner with her grandma who is visiting so I had dinner with Laura & Baldo & Laura's sister by myself. It was great as usual, haven't had a bad meal yet here. Rice for the first course, Thin slices of beef with fresh cheese and basil along with cooked cabbage for second course, and this traditional Florentine dessert which was like a sponge cake on the outside with soft mousse ice cream inside and soaked in rum, sooooo yummy. They spoke more Italian tonight and I am figuring out words. I'm able to figure out their questions and answer them. I can't go into much detail in my answers but I can speak some basic things. Kind of exciting!

Another week of classes begin tomorrow and Thursday I leave for the Almafi Coast with two of my girlfriends! I CAN'T WAIT!

Also, a brief service announcement...lol

Alexandra Leigh Waterbury 
c/o Syracuse University in Florence 
Piazza Savonarola, 15 
50132 Firenze 
Italia

Send me a letter! :-)




<3 Alex

P.S. I miss Indie so so so much...<3

September 23, 2010.

Yesterday (September 23, 2010) my grandfather passed away. He was 90 years old and lived a great, long life. I'm just so sad I couldn't be there when everything was happening. I love him so much, as well as my whole family. I love and miss them all so much. It was really rough when I found out because I'm so far from reach. I know for sure Poppa is in a better place now and looking down on us. I want to be there for my Nana. Sunday would have been their 51st wedding anniversary...

I admire the long life he had and the wonderful long marriage Nana & Poppa had as well. I really hope I can say the same for myself in my lifetime. I am so happy I was able to talk to them last week over Google Talk...it was free so I had a really nice, long conversation with them. He kept telling me that they loved me.  Oh god, I miss him so much already...

Today, I went on a field study trip to Assisi, Italy. My mom kept telling me Poppa would want me to go. I thought about him a lot while we were there but it helped to keep me busy too. We were guided through the main church. I lit a candle for Poppa and also, Mr. Crisafulli. I prayed for them, to keep them safe and for my/their family to get us through this unbearable time.

My roommate and I hiked up to the Fortress in the town, which was great because it helped to relieve some stress. The view was breathtaking and well worth the hike.

There is no great segway into this but I keep having thoughts on death. I've never had someone so close to me die before. I cried a lot but I still feel as though I'm in shock, with both deaths. I've had classmates, my other grandfather and my great-grandfather pass away but the family members didn't live very close. The classmates I knew but either hadn't talked to in a few years or it was when were very young. When I was younger I used to go over to Nana & Poppa's house every Friday night. We would watch TGIF on ABC and usually make snacks. Nana & Poppa's house was/ will always be a safe haven...a comfortable place to be. I can't even imagine coming back to the states and dealing with going to their house. I will do it because I love them and I love Nana but it will be so hard. Pasta dinners at Nana's house will always be amazing but it really won't be the same without Poppa sitting right next to me...A piece of the puzzle will be forever missing. :-(

The services are tomorrow and I am depressed I can't be there. I'm not a train ride away, I'm not even in the same time zone. I'm 6 hours ahead of when the services will be.
I feel so lucky to have this opportunity to be living in Italy and really enjoy it but I can't help but feel sadness and remorse. Family is family and grandparents are grandparents. They are so important, they link you to who you are and where you came from. My heart will be there tomorrow and I know they know that.

I love you Poppa, you are forever in my heart. <3

Peanut Butter is only in the 'Ethnic Food' Store.

I like how I get a lot done in a day here. It seems like I won't be able to fit it all in but it all works out.

Tuesdays and Thursday are my early days. Art history at 9am. With the espresso I've been consuming at home every morning, I've been able to get through it and actually, it's pretty interesting. Old school slides aren't usually my thing, but the art is interesting. I think it's even more interesting to me because I'm in the core of the art we're studying. Most of the things are either a walk away, or a plane ride away to visiting them which makes it all that more realistic.

Following art history, I have Italian class. I mean, Italian is everyday but it's pretty damn challenging. I keep wanting to say stuff in French. I have to say it definitely helps that I've studied French in the past...I have something to relate Italian to. Specifically the italian class is hard because of the way my professor teaches it. We're basically thrown in to everything...so I ask a lot of questions. In a sense, I guess it's helping me learn. I wish we would review what we learned more though. After Italian was Classical Mythology. A lot of incest occurred in the mythological era, that's what we learned today, haha.

Holly (my roommate) and I biked around town after. We grocery shopped a little bit, found peanut butter in an ethnic food store which was hilarious...we bought some. I got my bangs cut...the hairstylist didn't understand or speak English. I was so nervous he was gonna screw me up. Luckily, the girl at the desk translated for me. What an adventure.

We got home around 5 and I checked my email. The guy that owns the marketing firm I want to intern for emailed me back and could meet at 5:30pm. I called a taxi, changed quick, and ran out the door. I actually got there early and we sat at an outdoor cafe. We had a great meeting, I think I can learn a lot from the projects he told me about. I walked home and figured out it's real close to where I live. Everything seemed to work out kind of perfectly. I am really excited, I'm starting to get settled in here.

I just found out, while I was writing this, that there is a club here in Florence called "Be Bop". A Beatles cover band is playing tonight!!! HELL YES!

8pm dinner soon, peace out lovies<3

No title, just words.

So, no Ravenna this past weekend. A bunch of us girlies went out on Friday to an Appretivo. Definition of Appretivo: A restaurant/bar where you pay anywhere between 6-10 euro for a drink. With that you get as much appetizer type food as you want.

This was pretty good but I like real food. So I much rather would have paid a little bit more for an entree.
We met a couple of guys that spoke English, they were from South Africa. Justin, was flamboyantly gay and Alexander was straight but hilarious. Their personalities fit perfectly together which made our evening even better! I headed out early because I thought I was going to Ravenna. My roomie got a little too drunk. I had to take care of her when she got back...

So Saturday I ended up meeting Julia & Rachel to go to the Ponte Vecchio...a bridge with buildings on it. All the buildings have expensive jewelry stores in them, so beautiful to look at. We ate lunch at a little restaurant and I had my first pizza in Italy. It was hella good.

Sunday, a bunch of us went and visited the Uffizi Museum  in Florence.  It was really great to see a lot of really old works of art...it was just a little overwhelming. We didn't even get through half it before we were ready to leave. The good thing is that being a student, we receive a museum pass to get in free. SO, I will finish it before I leave.  We went out for lunch and I had the best pasta I've had here yet. It had eggplant, zucchni, cheese, and mint mixed in it. Oh my gosh....SO good. Later on, I broke off and explored a bit on my bike.

The weekend was quiet but good. Gave me a chance to get around Florence a little bit more. The next few weekends I plan to travel! I was a little homesick this weekend but was able to deal with it.  It's all different here too because the people I love the most and have known for longer are in the states. So if I have a dream about past shit or whatever, I'm on my own. I'm meeting a lot of amazing people and growing a lot as an individual but it's not as easy to shoot a text in times of bad dreams or homesickness. All in all though, the homesickness hasn't been frequent. I keep myself busy and explore my surroundings. Although, this all seems natural and it seems to be the point of me being here. I've found a good gym which helps to relieve any stress that overcomes me.

We had classes again today. I rode my bike and it got very frustrating. Well...not as much as the weekend (tourists are idiots, ha) but it was still frustrating today. I think of my little bell as the "Get the hell out my way" bell because people are always in the friggen' way. Some places around the city have bike lanes and people walk in them. I want to run them over.
Although, Haha...that is probably how the cars feel about me while I'm on the bike.

Also, one complaint. Seeded grapes. I love grapes...hate the seeds. I may be growing a grape vine out of my insides by the time I return to the states from all of the seeds I've ingested.

You were forewarned...


Love&Peace,

Alex

My new furry slippers & My delicious sandwich!

The rest of the post...

Hollaa,

To start off. The mosquitos in Florence are vicious. I'm getting eaten alive even in my room. My host mother gave us this little zapper but they seem to like me more.

So...Tuesday we went out and went to a place called the Red Garder. The dancing was fun but it was very americanized. Which is whatever but I'm not looking for that experience. Afterwards, we went to a dance club called Twice. The dancing was definitely better there, haha. My friends and I danced for awhile. One of the guys we were with got a drink so we were all near the bar. We were getting ready to leave but I sat down on the barstool for a few minutes while we rounded up the troops. All of the sudden I hear someone say in an English accent "Is someone sitting there?" (pointing to where I was sitting) I look up and its this large man that was old enough to be my father. I said "I am." He starts to chat me up, I was friendly because my friends were right there. Didn't sense it being very harmful. He then asks me if he could buy me a drink. I decline because we were gonna leave soon and it was semi creepy. The next thing I know he says, "Just so you know, I'm not expecting sex." I laughed! hahahaha, I couldn't help myself. I was thinking "What the eph?!, hahaha!" I just laughed and said "Well that's good!" He goes on to tell me I'm not ugly, he thinks I'm beautiful...he just isn't expecting anything. After that I excused myself and high tailed it out of there with my friends. It made it even more hilarious because he had an english accent.

Yesterday, (Wednesday) I had classes till 2:45pm then I signed up for the gym I found. I had one of the best workouts I've had in awhile. I was sweating like crazy. It so comforting to exercise, something somewhat normal in this Italian speaking country. I'm not complaining by any means about the language. I am having so much fun learning Italian and actually using it when I'm riding around town, but it's just a huge change. Finding a little comfort in a workout felt nice.

Today, I had class from 9am-6pm with minimal breaks. It wasn't too bad, but I was so tired. My first class is an art history class. I've never taken one before, so it's introductory. Each Thursday we meet at a site out in Florence and visit famous works of art or buildings. It was so beautiful. When you're all together in a group and you're looking at these huge statues. I was overwhelmed (in a good way) with all of the beauty that encircled me. I couldn't stop thinking of how much labor went into the intricate detail of these works of art in such a non technological day in age. Michelangelo's David was made out of a huge block of marble which was first carved out of mountains nearby Florence. To transport this today they have machines but in the days when this was made it seems impossible that they were able to transport this! We learned today that they used logs to carry it along the river but when the river was low they would have to drag it on land. It had to have taken forever!

After the art class, I had Italian and then Classical Mythology. My last class was my business class which I am SO excited for. The length of it I'm not so stoked for (3 hours) but my professor is amazing. He is a very forward Italian man. He has high expectations and is extremely knowledgable in the world of business. He actually is a businessman himself so his class is more about real life application, rather than the theory. I already respect him greatly and this was my first class with him today. He said something interesting that I wrote down, "If something is a waste, change it." He was telling us how Italian business is much different than American business. There aren't many ethics here and being 'professional' is not really taken seriously in the sense that American business is taken. For example, Execs. working at Prada have thrown things when something has went wrong in the past. With that, Italians in general think about themselves much more when driving. Defensive driving is minimal, haha. He told us a story of his wife walking with his 2 year old son. The son walked a little bit out into the road, and a car almost hit the little boy but squealed his breaks to stop. Professors wife grabbed the child very quickly to get him. When the car halted, the man driving the car looked at the mother and said "Fuck off Bitch!"
I was in shock and laughing at the same time. He was generalizing mostly because I've met some very nice Italians but it was so fun to hear what my Professor had to say.
I'm rambling but he is very motivating.

None of us have Friday classes so tomorrow I'm going to get to sleep in! After the gym, I plan to explore more of Florence, it really helps having a bike.
My roommate, some friends and I are going to a rave tomorrow night  right by our house. I've never been to one, this shit is gonna be sick!
Saturday, I'm going on a day trip to Ravenna, Italy! Real excited to travel...

Bye for now!
<3 Alex

I better learn Italian...fast

Hello, Hello.
I am sitting in the computer lab after rushing to the Villa Rossa (S.U. campus) on my new ride thinking I had class at 9:55am. My new ride is a bicycle, its pretty sweet...even has a bell & a basket. After arriving here (after getting lost down one ways and side streets) I see my Italian teacher. She reminds me our class doesn't begin until 10:55am. MAMA MIA!

Anyways, my weekend was amazing. The school calls it "Full Imersion Weekend". Your host family is supposed to spend time with you and acclimate you to Florence. My roommate's grandma was in town and insisted on taking her to Rome that weekend. So it was just Laura (host mom) and I. Baldo (host dad) went to visit family somewhere else. Laura and I had a great time though.
She took me to their beach house which is on the Medditeranean sea. They have a private beach, which I posted pictures of on Facebook. We went down Saturday morning, only took an hour to get there. After arriving we jumped into our bikinis and headed for the beach! It's a flat rock area which was great to get a tan. Right away, we went for a swim in the open sea. It was amazing, the water is so blue. We found sea urchins, fish and little crabs. She headed back to the house a little earlier than I. Around 7pm I went back to the house, where Laura was cleaning and getting ready for dinner. In Italy the people generally eat around 8pm for dinner and that's the way it's been at my home stay. Dinner. 8pm. Sharp. (usually)

Dinner was amazing, per usual. I really was able to get to know Laura and it was easy to talk to her. When I found out my roommate was leaving for the weekend, I was a little nervous to be alone with my host mom but it turned out to be really great.
After dinner, Laura had things to do to close up the house for the Winter. I went for a walk around the small little town. Most of the shops were closed (they usually close all around 7:30pm here...which sucks) but it was nice to get out. A lot of people were around still getting dinner and just relaxing. After about an hour of  walking around I found an outdoor cafe/restaurant in a small garden. I grabbed a glass of wine and relaxed there (& people watched, which was fun in itself.) You may find this corny, but it was very peaceful. What's better than being in Italy and relaxing with a glass of wine.

The next day while Laura finished up closing the house, I headed to the beach again. The Italian sun was good to me and I got a nice tan. I decided to go swimming by myself while I waited for Laura to come down. I went out, (not touching the bottom because she told me you never know if you might step on a sea urchin) and when I finally reached the deeper part, I find a pink jelly fish. Well, I freaked out and swam back to the flat rock, haha!

A little while later, I got the courage up to use the snorkeling goggles she let me use. (this is my favorite part)
I swam around the shallow area for a little bit and saw many fishies hiding around the rocks/coral. As I swam farther out I noticed another jelly fish. I wasn't scared, I just swam around it. THEN, I found 4 more spread apart. I was able to swim around them and somehow (THANK GOD) not get stung. It was the most amazing thing to see pink jellyfish swimming around me while also regular fishies swam underneath me. All of this combined with the beautiful blue water was amazing.

A little while later Laura came down and was surprised to hear I saw jelly fish. She said they don't usually come around that beach. We were in the water ready to go for a swim when someone screamed. A girl had been stung right in front of us. The girl ended up being fine, just really red on the arm but that was enough for Laura and I. We swam in the area around the flat rock.
As the day went on, the jelly fish swam into shore near us. We ended up catching 6 of them and put them in the sun to melt. I kind of felt bad about this but I didn't want to get stung, haha!
I also caught a sea urchin so I could touch it. The spikes aren't sharp unless there is force applied, so it was pretty sweet to experience that. I put him back afterwards though.

Around 4pm Sunday we headed back. It was good to be home but I would've lived at the beach too...(a little far from school though)

Monday, classes started. Since then it's been pretty stressful. My classes seem very interesting. It is just stressful trying to acclimate to the new culture. A LOT of things are done differently here. Classes are classes, but learning Italian is one big stress in itself. I really want to learn as much Italian as I can. It's been really frustrating when I can't pronounce words or I try to use what I've learned in a store and forget what exactly to say. I am very happy I am immersed in this culture because I think learning Italian will be a smidge easier. I will be practicing basically all day and night.

Figuring out a bus route to get to school, being surrounded by a new language, trying to find a 'good' gym, keeping organized with classes, learning that new language, finding a place to get a cheap used bike---> these are some of the things that are stressful. Luckily, within the last couple days I've figured some of this out though. I found a bus route, I found a good gym, I found a bike. Buying a bike may have been one of the most stressful lanuage barrier situations I've experienced yet. They spoke basically no english and another customer ended up helping translate. Craziness I tell you, Craziness.

I have to get my bum to Italian now. I will write more later today. We went out last night and there were some bizarre experiences all in one night. Funny but bizarre!

I get to sleep in tomorrow!

Buona sera tutti!
(Good Evening Everyone!)

It has been a busy last few days. Let's start back to Wednesday. Wednesday was the start of orientation which was the day after we had arrived. I felt like a freshman again and by the end of the day I was sick of it. Sure, there was some good information and things to take care of but I was hanging on by a thread trying to stay awake! Some how I was able to get through the day though. I also purchased a tiny, basic phone...I'll have to show you that one. Its so cute but texting sucks, haha. Wednesday night we managed to stay awake enough to go out in Italy. Some friends found a bar with real good deals (euros, of course). Very laid back and chill. We stayed there for a bit, we 'should' have went back to the hotel but instead we went to get our dance on or 'party down' as the American Consulate told us today, haha, at a club called '21'. It was so sweet, packed full of people but the dancing was great.

Thursday, (yesterday), we finally met our host families. The anticipation was killing me. I wanted to stop living in a hotel and actually get settled into my home. My host mother picked myself and my roommate up, she was driving a Mercedes Mini van. My roommate, Holly, is great. We seem to get a long really well and have a lot in common. We share a bedroom and off our bedroom is a beautiful terrace over looking all the beautiful buildings nearby. It gets better though. You climb a ladder which takes you to the rooftop terrace. From the rooftop you can see the whole city. It is absolutely breathtaking and has successfully exceeded my expectations. Dinner was served at 8pm, so Holly and I unpacked in between, also took a nap (thank god). Dinner was fantastic...fresh pasta with red sauce, salad, fresh green beans, chicken with spices, a splash of wine, and fresh bread. Dessert was a bit of italian ice cream and italian cookies, with a shot of espresso to wash it down.

My host parents are adorable. They are most likely in their 60's, have four kids which three of them live in NYC. Baldo, the husband, is the sweetest italian man with a great sense of humor. He wears a bib at dinner, baby yellow in color. Laura, the wife, is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She also has a great sense of humor and you can really tell that Baldo & Laura truly love each other. They've been married 40 years. They are both very caring and easy to talk to.

Today, we had to get up early...which sucked. Holly & I walked to the train station and hopped a bus to get to school. If we walked, it is probably about a 20 min. walk but we decided to take the bus for now. Once we got there she registered for classes while I sat in the garden and waited for my specific time. I got all the classes I wanted so I was happy about that.

After a few meetings I went exploring with a few friends but found out stores are closed from 1pm-3pm. This is when they take their 'siestas'. So we hung around until then. Later on, my friend Julia & I went to actually explore. We bought some spectacular gelato and got our nails/toes done. Everything got done around 7pm, we split and I wandered around the streets (using my map of course) and explored the streets while heading home. Laura made me dinner. It was just her and I because my roommate's, Holly, grandmother came to take her to Rome for the weekend. Baldo went to visit family. Dinner was better than last night! (Which I didn't think was possible) We had bowtie pasta with Laura's homemade pesto sauce, thin beef slices with cheese and fresh basil leaves, and spinach. I'll probably say this about every meal I have here with them, but it was seriously amazing. Laura and I talked for about an hour and a half. I also found out that tomorrow she is taking me to their beach house on the Mediterranean. I am SO excited to lay on the beach and swim there in the beautiful blue water.
It felt so good to start getting to know her...I feel more settled this way.

The men are so forward/aggressive here. Not in a mean way or even bad way...as I have experienced so far anyways, but they are very aware of the women here. They are not afraid to look you up and down, and really let you know they are interested. I mean, some of them are obviously creepers, I'm not being naive, but even the good ones that don't creep seem more in tuned to women.

We have been warned though,"Ciao Bella"(Hello Beautiful) is a classic creepy line unless you're saying it to someone you know well. Another one housing staff told us--"Oh, you dropped something" the girl will say "oh, did I?" and the guy says "my heart" (I think that's hilarious) They tell us--"You're not going to find the love of your life on the street" Which I agree, haha.

Some of the girls I've become friends with and I were saying that the guys in the U.S. need to learn a little more charm because you almost have to hit an American guy over the head to let them know you like them. It's real funny.

All in all, I'm really enjoying it here. I've been meeting some great people and am trying to make friends with people in the community as well. Also, I will be doing an internship here so I will really get to be involved into the business district of some sort. On the side, I plan to volunteer in the elementary schools here and help teach younger children English!

I do miss home though, of course. I'd really like to skype with you all. So let's make a date and get on it!

Love you and miss you all!
<3Alex