This Is Going To Be A Long One... Barcelona, Canary Islands, Seville, and Italy with the Family

So two weeks ago was my spring break, and my friends and I were traveling to a few different parts of Spain. The main place that we were going was the Canary Islands, to the island of Tenerife South. We were there for 5 days and there was a group of about 40 of us from Florence all staying at the same all inclusive hotel. But first things first. My first stop was Barcelona. Heather and I went to stay with our friend Whitney in Barcelona and Rebecca ended up loving it so much the weekend before that she came back, so we got to see her again. We got to Barcelona early on Friday and met a bunch of the girls from Florence and their friends who were studying in Barcelona and Rebecca at CDLC for lunch. CDLC is on the beach and a really nice and extremely interestingly decorated restaurant. The weather was great all weekend in Barcelona, sunny and in the 70's. We sat outside and enjoyed great meals. After lunch we walked down the beach and then to Las Ramblas, which is a big street with a bunch of stores and restaurants and a market. We went to the market where they have tons of fresh fruit, candy, nuts, etc. Yet another city I was able to get my candy fix in. Afterwards Heather and I went back to Whitney's apartment and took what ended up being a 4 hour nap, typical of Barcelona. We went to a club called Shoko on the beach that night. It was a lot of fun and the club was really cool. There was an outside area and you could just walk out and be on the beach if you wanted. Saturday we woke up and met a bunch of the girls at La Sagrada Familia, a church that Guadi designed that is still being built. It was one of the most beautiful and interesting churches I have ever seen. Guadi has a lot of architecture around Barcelona and his work is very unique. After we saw the church we went back to the beach and ate at Opium which is next to CDLC. We had another amazing lunch overlooking the beach. Rebecca and I split a lobster dish which was amazing and we had sangria. It was the perfect lunch and so relaxing to just enjoy our lunch in the sunlight on the beach. After lunch we walked to a park near the beach and some people rented a paddle boat and we just sat out at the park and soaked up the sun. Our weekend in Barcelona consisted of a lot of naps. We went back to Whitney's and napped again and then we went to Wok to Walk for dinner. They had a bunch of these in Amsterdam and we were obsessed so we were excited to hear that they had them in Barcelona. Saturday night we ended up being too exhausted to go out so we caught up on sleep and woke up early Sunday to do some sight seeing. As most of you know, I pretty much hate all museums, and the sightseeing in Barcelona did not involve any museums so I was a big fan of that. Pretty much everything we saw was either a park or a cool building with a great view of the city. We went to Park Guell first which had a ton of buildings and other architecture by Guadi. This is a place that everyone who visits Barcelona takes a ton of pictures of. There is a nice view of the city and the architecture is so interesting. Our next stop was lunch at Bo De Be. This is "the place" to go in Barcelona. Usually there is a really long line so we got there way before it opened and waited. Bo De Be makes these really fresh sandwiches with vegetables, meat, cheese, and sauces. Ours were warm because we were the first people to get sandwiches that day, and they were amazing. Of course we saw 15 people we knew there. Since many of the people we know all got the same abroad guides for all of the cities, we always end up running into people we know no matter what city we are in. After lunch we went back to Whitney's apartment and changed into bathing suits and went to the beach. On the beach we got massages by an Asian lady (it sounds weird but it was cheap and not really that sketchy). We walked around another area of Barcelona and went to Happy Pills, a candy store that basically comes in a pill bottle and you pick a sticker to put on it. I don't think I've ever eat as much candy in my life as I have been this semester. Hopefully I don't get my first cavity! We had tapas for dinner that night. Basically we just got a bunch of little plates of different foods. It's a cool concept because you get to try a lot of things, but you end up eating just as much as you would if you ordered one big plate. By the time we got back Sunday it was late and we had to be up early for our flight to Tenerife. There was a group of 8 of us flying there together and when we all got to the hotel most of the other people were already there. We soon noticed that the average age at the hotel was about 70. We were definitely out of place but it was good that there were a lot of us. We spent most of the days just laying at the pool and drinking. At night we would sit at the lobby bar where old couples would be dancing to jazz music. Not exactly our scene but we made the best of it. On Wednesday someone we were with organized a booze cruise, so about 60 of us went on a catamaran that anchored in the middle of the ocean (or sea, not really sure?) near a remote island and we got to jump into the water. There was music playing and drinks and the weather was beautiful so it was a really fun day. The weather in Tenerife was amazing the entire time, no wind and extremely hot but not humid. It helped to make me look a little less ghostly. It was a fun week but I was ready to see Sevilla by the time I had to leave. I got to Sevilla on Friday morning with 4 of my friends from Florence and we were all staying with our friend Dori. The weather in Seville on Friday was in the high 80's and sunny so we spent the entire day outside. We went to Plaza de Espana and the park nearby and rented a 6 person bike. We rode around the park for half an hour and sight saw. It was a really beautiful park and such a fun thing to do. We also walked around the town and Dori showed us a bunch of the sights. We went to something called the mushrooms which is these mushroom looking tall figures that you take an elevator up to and you have a great view of all of Sevilla. We wandered around a little, and of course got some more candy and then headed back to Dori's apartment. For dinner she took us to her favorite restaurant which has tapas. We let her do the ordering for us and we got a bunch of dishes I ordinarily would not have ordered but the food was really good. On Saturday we slept late for what was probably my first time in the last couple of weeks. We went to another tapas restaurant for lunch but it had more of American food. They had the best popcorn chicken I've ever had! We had to catch a flight that night so we headed to the airport not long after lunch.

I was going to Rome to meet my mom, dad, and brother. They got into Rome in the early afternoon, and by the time I got there it was 11 P.M. and they were all exhausted from the jet lag. When I got to the hotel they were all half asleep but of course excited to see me. It was weird not seeing them for over 2 months, which is probably the longest we've ever gone. I made them walk around with me and get me some dinner since I hadn't eaten yet. Our hotel was a block from the Trevi Fountain so we wandered over there and it was so pretty at night. I had obviously planned out all of our meals in both Rome and Florence, because there are some places you cannot miss, so we had a strict schedule to follow. I made my family wake up at 9 A.M. on Sunday, which anyone who knows my family, especially my mom, knows that is very unusual for us. It turns out what I thought was 9 was actually 8 because of the time change, so we were up extra early. We walked around Rome and saw an old synagogue. It was beautiful, and looked very different from any I had seen before. It resembled a church more than the temples I am used to seeing. For lunch we went to Tony's, which is the place that everyone raves about in Rome. They have chicken parmesan which is not common in Italy, so I could not wait. Mitchell and I split that and penne alla vodka and it was truly some of the best food I've ever had. After lunch we had a tour of the colosseum and ancient Rome. Not only was this tour 4 hours long, but it was in both English and Spanish, and it started to rain on us. Needless to say I did not enjoy it too much. I didn't really catch anything that the tour guide says, which is unfortunate, but the colosseum was still cool to look at. That night we went to a restaurant called Carlo Menta for dinner that was recommended by two people to me. It was not touristy at all, in fact most of the people there were Italian. The food was outstanding, and extremely cheap. It was a great find. We of course got gelato after dinner and walked around some more before going back to the hotel. On Monday we started our day by going to the Spanish Steps and then we just found a random restaurant for lunch. After lunch we finally had time to do my favorite activity, SHOP! This meant that my dad and brother separated from my mom and I and we did our own thing for the remainder of the day. Rome had some great shopping! We took a 7 P.M. train back to Florence. The hotel that my family stayed at was around the corner from my apartment so it was very convenient. That night we went to Acqua al 2 for dinner and took out some of my friends. It was a lot of fun and everyone loved the food. After dinner my friends and I took Mitchell out to show him what Florence is like at night. On Tuesday after my first class I met my family at their apartment and we went to Antico Noe for a snack before lunch (it was the only way to get in all the meals I wanted them to have). We ate our sandwiches on the way to see The David. Not being a big fan of museums, I didn't find this to be anything special. The David looks exactly like the fake David, but hey, maybe I should learn to appreciate art a little more. We had the rest of the day to walk around and shop after that so we stopped by Massimo, and I got another leather jacket, which I'm obsessed with. We walked around the leather market and then headed to the Arno River. We went to Gusta Pizza for lunch, the best pizza in Florence, and then walked around the Ponte Vecchio and Piazza Signoria. There is a carousel in Piazza Republica that I have always wanted to go on, so Mitchell and I decided to ride on it. Yes, we looked like 2 year olds, but it was fun. That night we went to Il Profeta for dinner. This place was unbelievable. John Travlota eats here when he's in Florence, and it's in Betches Love This so you know it has to be good. It is an authentic traditional Italian restaurant and the owners really take care of you. We ordered far too much food like usual, but we had to try as much as possible. The waiter let us try the John Travolta pasta because we asked about it, and it was one of the best things I've ever tasted. We got a pasta with truffle sauce in a baked cheese bowl, gnocchi with vodka sauce, eggplant parmesean, and more. It was quite difficult to breathe after dinner, so we took a walk down the river before we headed back for the night. Wednesday I had class in the morning and my family went to The Uffizi. Afterwards I met them for a quick lunch at a random place that I found. It ended up being really good and a very traditional Tuscan restaurant. I will definitely be going back there. My family took a tour of Florence while I went to class and then I met my dad and brother and we climbed to the top of the Duomo. It was MUCH more crowded than the last time I did it, but we made it to the top and the views are unbeatable. We met someone who went to U of I who was living in Ghana, and when I asked him, "is that in Italy" it set me up for being made fun of for the rest of the trip by my brother. Let it be know though that he thought Astor was a city, not a coffee shop. So we're pretty even here. That night we ate at La Giostra, arguably one of the best restaurants in Florence. It is owned by a prince and the food is to die for. They are known for their pear ravioli, so we all shared that and then got our own courses. Everyone loved their meals. Thursday morning we were off to the Italian Riviera. We rented a car, and being that this is Italy, it was a stick-shift. My dad hadn't driven one for many years so in the beginning I feared for my life, but then it ended up being fine. On the way we stopped in Pisa and Cinque Terra. In Pisa we basically saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa and left. On our way we pulled a typical Lev and stopped at McDonald's since we wouldn't be eating lunch for a while. Let me tell you, the McDonald's in Pisa was pretty good. Mitchell really enjoyed his chicken wings (ew). We parked at the first town in Cinque Terra and walked towards the water. The sights that I saw here was among some of the most beautiful I have EVER seen. We walked on the rocks near the water and just soaked up the views and then we walked to the second town. Here we ate lunch overlooking the water. We got lobster and other seafood. It was a fight to the death to eat that lobster, but it was amazing. We took a train from the second to the third town, and had to climb almost 400 steps to get to the town, and then climb down some more steps to get near the water. It was quite the workout, but worth it for the views. The last two towns were badly damaged in a flood earlier this year so we didn't make it there. The first town was definitely my favorite because I thought it was the pretty. We were all amazed with how beautiful Cinque Terra was. When we were done there, after all of the hiking up and down, we headed to Rapallo, where we were staying in the Italian Riviera. Our hotel was gorgeous and overlooked the water and the mountains. They had an infinity pool that went into the sea. Our rooms had a balcony that overlooked the most amazing view. It was a great place to stay for a few days, and I'd love to go back in the summer time. That first night we walked to the main town area and ate at a recommended area. It was a cute little town with good food. On Friday we woke up and headed to Portofino, another town on the Italian Riviera. This is a place that many celebrities live and vacation at during the summer. It was absolutely magnificent. Between the buildings, the water, the cliffs, and the views, I could have spent the rest of my life there. We hiked to a light house where we got a higher view of the town and the water. We ate overlooking the water again and just walked around for a couple of hours. On our way back to Rapallo we stopped in Santa Margherita which is betwen Rapallo and Portofino. It was yet again another beautiful town on the water. When we got back to the hotel my mom, brother, and I all had spa treatments scheduled. I got an hour and a half massage with a sea scrub called a sea holistic treatment. They put sea scrub on me, lotion, and hot rocks, and I got a full body massage. I fell asleep multiple times, so as far as I know she could have left the room after half an hour. But seriously, it was the most relaxing thing I have ever done. That night we went back into the town of Rapallo for dinner and had probably the biggest pizzas I've ever seen in my life. Saturday morning we woke up and headed back to Florence. On the way we stopped in Lucca, which looked sort of like a smaller Florence. It was a cute town with a small market and some good shops and restaurants. When we got back to Florence we sat out at the Piazza Republica for a drink. The next thing we know an ambulance is pulling up to our restaurant. Apparently someone sitting a few tables away from us passed out, and we hadn't even noticed. It was quite the scene, but luckily the guy seemed to be okay. That night we went to Il Latini for dinner. When we got there for our 7:30 reservation there was a large crowd of people waiting outside. I guess the restaurant has two sittings and that was the first one so they just start seating all of the reservations at one time. There was no menu here so the waiter told us a few dishes for each course and you can get as many of them as you want for the table. There was a lot of food and a lot of wine. It was not my favorite restaurant, but I'm glad I tried it. We had so much wine at every meal that it seemed normal. I started liking red wine from my wine tasting class, and since my dad likes it too that's what we drank all week. I have definitely acquired a taste for reds now, and my liking of white wine has decreased. It's going to be weird to go home and for it to still be legal for me to drink. Being 21 has not sunk in yet. Anyways, now that I went off on a tangent, after dinner I went back to my family's hotel because they were leaving early Sunday morning. I woke up early to say bye to them on Sunday. It was great to have them here in Florence and show them everything I do here. I love vacationing with them and being in the Italian Riviera was a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of cities with them and it was good to have them here. Now in less than 6 weeks I am going to be home. That is weird. So as you can see it's been a busy couple of week and I have barely had anytime to relax. And the next two weeks are filled with visitors so it looks like I won't be relaxing until I get home in May, but I can't complain. I'm having the time of my life and I still have many trips ahead. Budapest, Prague, Munich, Amalfi Coast, and possibly Lake Como. Now that I've wasted over an hour of time I could have been doing homework writing this blog post, I'm going to go. Ciao!

London and Venice

So yet again another 2 weeks have passed and I have neglected to write. This time I think I actually have a legitimate excuse though; midterms. I'll save that topic for later on in the post though. So two weeks ago I went to London to visit Rebecca and Hannah. Having gone to London only a few months ago with my family, I knew what to expect but liked it so much that I couldn't wait to go back. I went with Allie and Heather and we decided that there was a lot to do and see in London so we mine as well go for as long as we can. We got there Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. Our flight there was at 7 P.M. so by the time we had our connecting flight and got to Heathrow it was after 11 P.M. We had to take a tube to get to Rebecca and Hannah's apartment, and luckily we met a nice American girl from our flight who helped us. We weren't getting off the tube until about 15 stops in, and after 10 stops the conductor came on the radio and said that we were stopped because there was a "trespasser". We weren't exactly sure what that meant, but after the conductor came running through our car to tell us that someone was under the tube in front of us, we were aware. We had to sit there for a long time until the tube was finally able to move again, aka after they moved the dead body. It was already 2 A.M. at this point so we had to get off at the next stop and just cab it the rest of the way. When we woke up Thursday morning we went to Westminster Abbey and took a tour and saw Big Ben. For lunch we made our way to the only Chipotle in Europe. It was a little different than the one's from home, and obviously much more expensive. We walked over to Covent Garden's after and walked around and what else would we do but eat more? I got my first frozen yogurt since I've been abroad, and it was amazing. Heather and Gilbert went to change before our next activity and Allie and I decided to stay and walk around Covent Gardens. For those of you who don't know, one of my only talents is having an extremely good memory, like creepily good. I remember things about people that they don't even remember about themselves, and if I go somewhere once I know my way around. With that being said, I led Allie and I around and was able to find the nearest Top Shop. We spent an hour drooling over all the clothes there, and then we went to go meet the rest of the group at Ice Bar. Ice Bar is exactly what it sounds like, a bar made out of ice. You put on these huge parkas and gloves and go into a room filled with ice and you are given one drink that is in an ice cup and you have 45 minutes to basically stand around and drink. It was fun and something I'm glad I can say I did, but it's definitely one of those touristy rip off types of things. After Ice Bar we ventured to M&M world and then into China Town for dinner. I'm not really a fan of Chinese food, and I still couldn't breathe from Chipotle so I refrained from dinner, which ended up working against me in the end. We were about to go out when we realized we missed the last bus to where we wanted to go so instead we decided to go to Burger King (100 percent my idea). This is so typical of my friends to choose food over going out. Let's just say I got an obscene amount of food, so I most likely won't be eating Burger King ever again in my life. After waking up with a food hangover, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, but were surprised to see that it was canceled for whatever reason. I've seen it before so I wasn't disappointed. Our next stop was Burrough Market. This place is basically any food lovers dream. There are stands after stands of different foods, and you can sample almost anything. We made a first round and tried every food that we passed. There were so many cheeses, olive oils, salami, and spreads. The most talked about food there is their grilled cheese, and it did not disappoint. The bread was so buttered and it was fresh shredded cheese with a little bit of onions in it. Just writing about it is making my mouth water. The market is near tower bridge so after we ate we started to walk that way. On our way we saw what looked like a movie being filmed. We decided to sit down and watch for a few minutes. The next thing we knew someone came up to us and asked if we would be willing to be in the movie. The movie is called "Luck" and they basically asked us what we think luck is and if we believe in it, and the movie is going to be at Cannes Film Festival. Basically, I'm now a movie star. We went to an American restaurant for dinner and it was refreshing to have a salad for dinner that had dressing other than balsamic. We went out Friday night and ended up at a jazz club with some live music and it was a nice chill night. Saturday we went to high tea at a hotel. Lucky for me, the only part of high tea that I actually liked was the tea and the scones. It came with all these finger sandwiches that either had cream cheese or fish, so I was not into that. It was a cool experience and I felt very proper and London-esque. We decided we wanted to see a musical that night so we checked out what was playing and decided on Shrek. We bought tickets and then headed to Abbey Road. It's amazing how many people go there to literally just take a picture. They are cool pictures to have, but it's one of those places you only need to go once. The area where Abbey Road is was really nice and different than the rest of London. On the walk back to the tube we saw a temple and went to take a picture of it but some security guard yelled at us. Rebecca though it would make a difference that we were Jewish, so we screamed, "but we're Jewish!". Yeah, didn't help... Next stop was Harrods. This place is basically any girls dream. I could absolutely live inside of Harrods. They have a huge food area, endless amount of purses, shoes, clothes, they even have a doggie area. One day I hope to have unlimited money so I can buy everything in the store. Before Shrek we got dinner at a restaurant that I had eaten at with my family. We all got tomato soup, and it was probably the best that I've ever had. We went to Shrek afterwards, and it was extremely cute. I have a problem staying awake during movies, plays, or basically anywhere that I am sitting down. I slept through parts of the musicals Rent, Love Never Dies, Hairspray, the movies Inception, The Help, on the top of a double decker bus through London, on the top of Masada... you get it. So I fell asleep for part of the first half of the play, but I really enjoyed the parts I was awake for. Sunday we had until about 2 P.M. before we had to leave so we went to Brick Lane, which is another type of market. I was expecting something completely different from what it was. It was basically all Asian and middle eastern food. I was hoping it would be more like Borrough Market, but it was still good. It was pouring rain on us so we ended up looking like wet dogs for the rest of the day. It was a fun weekend in London and good to be with Rebecca and Hannah for the 3rd weekend practically in a row.

Last weekend we went to Venice for two days through our program in Florence. I figured it was a free trip and I eventually wanted to see Venice anyways so it would be stupid not to go. I thought since it was a free trip (and by free I mean our parents paid a large amount for our tuition that most definitely went towards this trip) that we would be staying in some gross hostel. Surprisingly, I was wrong. We stayed at a five-star hotel, a Hilton, and had a three course meal at the hotel. Milva and Luca, our advisors, were the ones who went on the trip with us. They are two of the nicest and cutest people that I know, and they happen to be married. Milva told us her and Luca almost got fired for having us stay at this hotel that was far too nice for us, but that they only wanted the best for us. This was my kind of trip. It's crazy that you can't get around by car in Venice. Our bus had to take us to a port where we got on a boat that took us into Venice. We started the day by seeing a church and a palace. At this point in the semester, each church looks exactly the same and I would be happy if I never had to step foot in one again. We had a tour guide that took us through both places and I could barely understand her so I really couldn't tell you anything about the church or the palace. We were given some time after to have lunch and walk around. Afterwards we went to a glass factory and saw someone doing glass blowing. It was so cool to see him make a vase in front of us in less than 5 minutes and add his own designs just using a pair of pliers. We went on a gondola ride after the glass factory, and it was the highlight of my trip. The views were unbelievable and it was so relaxing. Venice is such a pretty city and the whole concept is very cool. That night we just had dinner and went to bed early. On Sunday we went to San Marco, another part of Venice, and took a walking tour and saw the Jewish Ghetto. We had the same tour guide as the day before, which was not ideal. We ended up walking for almost 3 hours, and by the middle of the tour not one person was listening to her. It was crazy to see the Jewish ghetto and hear about how the Jews had to stay in there every night past a certain time. Seeing things like this and the Anne Frank House make me realize how lucky I am to have so much freedom. I can't even imagine what life was like back then. It was a short weekend in Venice, but more than enough time to see everything.

We had midterms this week, so I have spent the last week studying non stop. Those of you who know how I am with school know that I never spend much time studying, so it was a change for me. I guess when your teachers barely speak English and you never have any homework or do the readings, studying is necessary. I think I made an indent on my couch over the last week because I could sit there for at least 12 hours each day while I studied. Three of my four tests went really well. My food and culture midterm was pretty much a nightmare. It was four essay questions and you had to answer all of them with about 2 pages of writing. I have never felt that unprepared for a test before. It's sad that I think school is harder here than at U of I, but it's also because we don't spend much time on school here so no one is prepared when it comes to the midterms. Now that my midterms are over I finally feel relaxed for the first time in a week. Tomorrow (at 4:45 A.M.) I am off the Barcelona. It is my spring break and I am traveling to multiple places. I am going to Barcelona, Canary Islands, Seville, and then meeting my parents and my brother in Rome. I can't wait for the next week! I've heard amazing things about Barcelona, I can't wait to get in my beach vacation in Canary Islands, Seville is supposed to be awesome and I get to see some of my friends, and I will finally get to actually see Rome when it is not a blizzard. My family will be here for 8 days and we are going to Rome, Florence, and the Italian Riviera. This means that it will probably be another two weeks or so before I update again, but I'll be sure to write all about all of my travels. Ciao for now!

Interlaken and Amsterdam

I keep finding it harder and harder to update this blog. I do want to keep everyone updated and have this as a reminder for myself of the amazing experience I am having, but that may mean posting less frequently than I had hoped. Since you last heard from me two weeks have gone by and I have been to two more countries. Two weekends ago I went to Interlaken, Switzerland through this program called Bus2Alps. We left Thursday night around 8 P.M. and filled up a coach bus and headed on our way to Switzerland. There is some type of law that the bus has to stop every 3-4 hours so we watched some movies for the first 3.5 hours and then stopped at this gas station/cafe. We stocked up on snacks and stood around for 45 minutes and then we got back on the bus to make the rest of our trip. I pretty much slept the entire time and when we got there it was about 3 A.M. so we just got off the bus and went up to our room at the hostel and passed out. We were staying in a 10 person room at Balmers, a well known hostel. There were 8 of us that came together and 2 random girls were put in our room. They both turned out to be really nice and normal so that worked out well. The room was pretty small for 10 people but it was manageable. I'd say the worst part about the hostel was the bathrooms. They were coed and so were the showers. Also, we were lucky enough to have the sinks right outside of our room so each morning I got to wake up at the crack of dawn when people were getting ready to go skiing. I barely slept the three nights I was there, so needless to say I'm not jumping the gun to stay at another hostel anytime soon. I had booked paragliding for Friday morning, so when I woke up I got ready and went to wait in the lobby area to be picked up. The rest of the people that I came with were all going canyon jumping, and I decided that I would probably chicken out right before I was about to jump, so I mine as well do something else. After waiting for a few minutes I was picked up and found out I was the only one on this paragliding trip. A little freaky, but it turned out fine. Me and my pilot got dropped off on a mountain and we hiked up a few minutes. We then started to make a path in the snow and he set up the parachute. When everything was ready we both put on harnesses and he stood behind me and we ran down the mountain until the wind picked us up. It was an amazing experience. I basically was flying over Interlaken for 15 minutes and could see all of the lakes, rivers, buildings, mountains and trees from such a different view. There was a point when I was on the top of the mountain alone with this pilot that I thought he was going to murder me and no one would ever find me or know what happened, but luckily that didn't happen. The rest of the day I spent walking around with Amanda and exploring the town. We went to this Thai restaurant right next to the hostel for dinner that was recommended by many people. It measured up to its expectations, the pad thai was amazing. That night we went to this club called Metro Bar which was actually located in the basement of our hostel. It was fun, but there were a lot of creepy Swiss guys lurking the club. It seems to be a recurring pattern, creepy Europeans... Saturday Allie, Alexa, and I went on a day trip to Zurich since we were the only ones of our friends not skiing. One of the perks was that we had a two hour bus ride so I got to take two naps to catch up on the sleep I did not get the night before. Right when we got to Zurich we saw Starbucks on every corner and went running for it right away. It was probably the most expensive drink I will ever get at a Starbucks, but it was worth it. We really had no idea what we should do in Zurich but luckily some other people on our bus had an itinerary and told us we could follow them. We took this tram up to a high point in Zurich that gave you a great view of the city. It was a gorgeous sight and we stayed up there for a few minutes taking it in and snapping pictures. Afterwards we just started walking around, and these people told us part of their plan was to visit these two churches. We decided we had seen enough churches since we have been in Europe and were going to separate from them. We found our way to a main area with shopping and restaurants and wandered for a couple of hours until it was time to head back to Interlaken. Zurich was definitely the highlight of my weekend. It was a beautiful place with a lot to do. Since I don't ski, for me I found Interlaken a little boring. It was very pretty but there was not much for me to do there. That night we all went to Hooters for dinner, taking the recommendation of people who had been to Interlaken previously. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever had a grosser meal in my life. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was pretty vile. I ordered breaded chicken strips, and they looked like dead baby chickens and tasted like dog food, or at least what I think dog food would taste like. Definitely won't be going back to Hooters anytime soon, or at least until I start my summer job there (just kidding, I'm not actually working at Hooters). Sunday it was raining and we weren't leaving until 4 P.M. so we had a lot of time to kill. We ended up eating lunch at a pub next to our hostel and just sitting there for a few hours. Once we couldn't occupy the table any long we went back to the hostel and sat around the lobby until it was time to leave. The bus ride home was not bad either, and we arrived back in Florence around 11:30 P.M.

Last weekend I went to Amsterdam with Heather and we met Rebecca and Gilbert and their London friends there, and Sydnee was there too. Me and Heather were staying at the Marriott with some girls from Florence that she was friends with from high school. The beds lived up to their standards, and it was so nice to stay in a clean room with a clean shower. The hotel was also in a great location, only a 2 minute walk from the best food places there. We got into Amsterdam on Thursday night around 5:30 and headed to our hotel to meet the other girls. We were given a list of places to make sure we went while we were there for the weekend so we decided we would start off with dinner at one of those places. There is this place called Wok to Walk which is basically like Stir Crazy or Big Bowl, except so much better. We got that for dinner and then headed to Jamin, the best candy store in Amsterdam and got our first bag of candy. We hung out at one of the famous cafes called Bulldog and then got Chipsy King. Let me preface this by saying that I probably ate more than I ever have in my life this weekend, and that's saying a lot for me. Chipsy King is this place that has cones of french fries and you pick different sauces for them to put on the fries. We got fries with frite sauce, which I don't know exactly what it is but it was delicious. We sat in the main sqaure and listened to some music before we went back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep. Rebecca and Hannah weren't getting in until Friday morning so we had made plans to meet there for lunch. Hannah had a plane ticket for the wrong day so she ended up not getting in till late afternoon, so we met Rebecca and her two friends Andie and Jessica from London. We ate lunch, walked around, went to the Amsterdam sign, and explored the city. It was extremely easy to get our bearings in Amsterdam. I knew my way around after the first time I walked through the streets, and that made things a lot easier. Of course Rebecca, Heather, and I continued to eat throughout the day, getting Wok to Walk as a snack and trying a stroopwaffle, which is two thin waffles with a caramel-like syrup in the middle. Our friends that went to Amsterdam a few weeks ago told us to go to this all you can eat sushi place for dinner called Sumo so we made a reservation for that night. The way this place works it that you pay a fixed price of 26 euros and you have 6 rounds of food. Each round you can order up to 5 things, which means technically you could have a total of 30 entrees. The catch is that you have to finish all the food you order or you have to pay extra, so you really need to make sure your eyes and your stomach are on the same page, which is a hard thing for me to do. We started off by all ordering 5 appetizers for the first round. I got crab salad, wontons, spring rolls, beef teriyaki, and shrimp tempura, all of which were really good. I was already full but knew I still had a few rounds in me. Next we all did a sushi round, so I got 5 different rolls. I got shrimp tempura, salmon, eel, and tuna. I had never tried tuna, eel or salmon before, and it was a mistake for me to order them when I had to finish them. It was a struggle forcing the food in my mouth and was a pretty nauseating experience since I did not like any of those fishes. There were still a few things that I wanted to order so I went on to my third round and got udon noodles and and fried rice, both of which were great. All in all I had about 13 entrees, so that was an eating experience you don't get every day. I hate to say it but we weren't even that full afterwards so we went to McDonald's and got stroopwaffle McFlurries, which were even better than the stroopwaffle we had earlier. That night we saw a sex show in the Red Light District. Enough said. As we were leaving we ran into some our guy friends from school and home. It was quite an interesting place to see people you know. It was pretty light by the time this was over and we were going to the Anne Frank House early in the morning. We made it to Anne Frank's House at 9 A.M. because we didn't want to have to wait in a long line. This museum was the most touching most interesting museum that I have never been to. I have been known to say that I HATE museums, but I absolutely loved this one. Being Jewish, and having learned so much about Anne Frank and the Holocaust throughout my life, this one really hit close to home. I read every description and watched every video and took my time going throughout the museum. It felt so personal to be reading excerpts from her diary and seeing videos of her friends and her father speaking about her. I would say this was the best thing we did in Amsterdam and it is a must see in everyone's lifetime. We were told to go to the famous Pancake Bakery afterwards, but we had a few hours to kill before it opened so we walked around and then we camped outside so that we could be the first ones seated. Typical. The pancakes are all very large and thin, like swedish pancakes. I ordered an apple cinnamon pancake that had warm apples and cinnamon ice cream on it. For the table we ordered a caprese pancake which had tomatoes, mozzarella, onions, and pesto, and a bacon and cheese omelet. Everything was so good, I could have eaten there every day of my life. I'm usually not a big breakfast fan, but this place really had me enjoying it. We knew that we wanted to make our way over to the Heineken museum so we just started walking. We ended up walking for about an hour, but it was a nice way to see some new views. On our way there we stopped at this cheese store and tasted pretty much every cheese that they had. I tried aged cheeses, flavored cheeses, and more. It was all so good, and best of all, free! We already had tickets for Heineken so we made our way there and waited for Sydnee and her friends to get there and then began our tour. It was really cool to see how beer is made. At the end of the tour there are all these high-tech lounges with TV screens where you can watch commercials, take pictures, etc., and then there is a bar area. You could even get your own personalized Heineken bottle. It was a nice day out so when we were done there we went to go sit outside at a cafe and relax for a little bit. Sydnee came with us, and it was nice to get to see her, especially while traveling Europe! We all hung out and then decided that we wanted Wok to Walk again for dinner. As you can see it was pretty amazing because we kept coming back for more. We proceeded to yet again get Chipsy King afterwards and then stroopwaffle McFlurries. Hence why I said I ate more than I ever have before in a weekend. It was pretty early by the time we were done with the night but we were all tired and Heather and I had to wake up early for our flight back to Florence. Rebecca, Hannah, Jessica, and Andie came back to our hotel with us and we just relaxed for a little until I fell asleep, at about 9 P.M. I got a lot of sleep in the comfortable Marriott beds, which added to the success of the weekend. Amsterdam was definitely one of the prettiest and coolest cities I have ever been to. I absolutely loved it and would love to go back at some point in my life.

The weather this week in Florence has been gorgeous so far. It's been sunny and in the 60's, so I have been trying to take advantage of that. Today in my wine tasting class we got to class and my teacher told us we were going on a walking tour to taste some wine. We walked past Grom, a famous gelato place, and he told us we were actually stopping in there to see how good gelato is made. We got to taste the gelato as it came out of the machine and then we got our own to eat as we walked to the next place. Next we stopped at a small wine store where we sat in the basement at tables and tasted a dessert wine with biscotti. The owner of the store also owns a panini place called Pino's, which I have already been to, so we stopped there and he showed us all of their good food as well. By the time we got back to class we only had an hour left, so we tasted two wines and then I was done for the day. Now that is what I call my perfect idea of a class. After class I decided I wanted to go on a run outside to take in some of the views of Florence. I ran down the river and across to the other side and explored a little. It was the perfect weather for a run, and I got to see some more of Florence, so it was a great combination.

I am leaving for London tomorrow night for the weekend. It's hard to believe my next trip is here already, but I am so excited. We are staying with Rebecca and Hannah and they have a lot planned for us. I was just in London with my family this summer and absolutely loved it, so I am excited to get back there. We are going to Buckingham Palace (which I've already been to and loved), Westminster Abbey, Ice Bar, possibly a Broadway show, high tea, and going to wander around different areas to eat and shop. Sounds like the perfect weekend to me!

21st celebrations and visitors

Sorry for the large gap between posts, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. Even though I'm busy, I actually do have a ton of free time, which I generally use to watch my TV shows from the week or take a nap. I guess I've just been procrastinating writing this next post because I'm lazy. Last you heard from me I was just arriving back from my wonderful (not) trip to Rome. Last Sunday night was the Super Bowl, obviously, and we went to Space to watch it. It was nice to finally see the club without raging music and lights. It was a chill night. We watched the first half of the game and the half time show and food and drinks were brought to us. I personally loved Madonna. I keep seeing people make fun of her on Twitter, but I thought it was an amazing performance, minus MIA's slip up. Monday I ran a few errands and relaxed all day. It was my roommate, Michele's 21st birthday so we went to Acqua al 2 for dinner. This place was suggested by many people to us, including our advisor here, Milva. This place definitely did not disappoint. We got salad and pasta samplers for the table as our starters. This food was amazing and it just kept coming. It consisted of greek salad, caprese, and some noodle salad, and for the pasta we got 5 different types; a blue cheese pasta, rigatoni with eggplant and red sauce, corkscrew pasta with mushrooms, a meat sauce pasta, and one more I can't remember. All I know is that I enjoyed every last bite and was extremely full, but we had all also ordered steaks for our main course. I got blueberry steak, which was recommended to us by just about everyone who has eaten there. I can't really explain the taste, because it didn't seem much like blueberry to me, but it was a great contrast with the steak. We decided to change the pace up from the usual Monday night Yab and go to Lion's Fountain. This is a bar that is filled with college students and the ceiling is covered with t-shirts from different universities. It was nice to be able to go out dressed a little more casual and be able to have actual conversations at the bar for once. I had my second week of classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I grew to like them even more the second time around. My Public Relations class has definitely become my favorite. Not only am I interested in the subject, but the teacher is awesome. He's crazy, funny, and speaks great English. I had gotten a cold, so I decided to take off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night so that I could be ready for my visitors over the weekend. It was a great idea and I felt almost 100 percent by Friday. Rebecca, Hannah, and Sara came for the weekend from London to visit Heather and I and celebrate my 21st birthday. All of our friends from Florence went to Amsterdam for the weekend, so it was good to have them, and I'm really glad they came on a quieter weekend because it gave us a lot of time to do the things we wanted and see each other. On Thursday Heather and I made a list of the things we wanted to do with them so that we would have everything planned for the weekend. They arrived Friday around 2 and we immediately took them to Antico Noe for the best sandwiches in Florence. We ate our sandwiches while we walked to the Ponte Vecchio. We walked around, shopped, and got gelato. We had a reservation for dinner at El Gato y La Volpe for 9, and we still had a couple hours to relax. We decided to go to the grocery store and pick up a few bottles of wine for the weekend. We came back to our apartment and drank wine and just hung out. It was amazing to be with our school friends and just have fun doing nothing. That is the one thing that's different here that I miss, a house full of girls with something entertaining always going on. We got to dinner and our table wasn't ready so they gave us all champagne until we were seated. We ordered family style, which was cheap and delicious, the perfect spot to go with groups of people. We got a large appetizer platter with meats, vegetables, and caprese. The bread at this restaurant is also the best I have had in Florence so far, so we obviously got a refill of that. They have this homemade balsamic that is thick, so we indulged in that too. Our main course consisted of 3 different pastas; four cheese gnocchi, tortellini with truffle sauce, and penne with broccoli and chicken. We ate until we were in food comas and just sat around at dinner until almost midnight. We then headed to a bar called Naima to get another drink. While we were there we decided not to go to the clubs and save the rest of our energy for Saturday, since it was my 21st birthday Saturday at midnight. We woke up Saturday feeling refreshed and headed towards the Duomo. One of the coolest things to do in Florence is to climb to the top of the Duomo and look out over the entire city of Florence. We stopped at Astor and got some coffee before the big climb. The climb took about 20 minutes, and involved a lot of winding and steep stairs. There were a few points that I got a little nauseous/freaked out because of how high we were, but it was worth it. Once we got up there the view was unbeatable. You could literally see the entire city of Florence. We stayed up there just looking out and taking pictures for about 45 minutes, and then began the journey down. This was the hardest workout I've had since coming to Florence. Everyone says they are going to work out abroad, but I just don't see how people do it. Between all the traveling and your messed up sleeping schedule, I can't find the energy to go to a gym. Oh well, I guess when it gets nicer out I can run around the Arno River, shouldn't be too hard to get myself to do that. Anyways, after the Duomo we headed to Gusta Pizza, which was on our list of can't miss restaurants. It was across the river so it took us a little to find it, but once we did we could see why everyone raves about this place. The pizzas were literally to do for. I got a pizza with spicy salami and mozzarella. Every pizza on the menu looked amazing, and I will definitely be going back there soon. After lunch we were going to see The David, but we didn't know where it was and all decided we didn't care that much about seeing it. Instead we walked all the way to this store called Brandy Melville. It was a little bit of a trek but the clothes were so cute and pretty cheap, so we all enjoyed that. Our next stop was the leather market to get scarves, hats, and of course stop by Massimo's leather. Every person who heard I was going to Florence told me to make sure to get a leather jacket from Massimo and I can see why. They are so cute and he gives students pretty reasonable prices for real leather. Rebecca, Sara, and I all got our leather jackets. It was a great purchase. In fact, Rebecca practically slept in hers because she was so obsessed with it. For dinner we had wanted to go to this mexican restaurant called Tijuana but they didn't have any reservations so we found another mexican place online and made our way there. We had the address and knew where it was, but when we arrived the restaurant was no where to be found. It turns out it was actually this place called The Club House, which was in fact not Mexican, and they must have put up fake advertising online or something. We ate there anyways, and the food was pretty good. They gave us free shots before dinner that I'm pretty sure were actually just juice. When we left they also gave me a free bottle of wine for my birthday. We came back to my apartment and got ready to head to Space. We decided to buy a table so that we could be in VIP and have bottle service. It worked out really well. Let's just say my first night of being 21 was a success. The next morning was a huge struggle for me to get out of bed, but what else would one expect after their 21st birthday. The next morning was kind of like a scene from The Hangover. I took my camera out expecting there to be no pictures, but to my surprise, the front was dented, the screen was cracked, and I took about 30 pictures, some even with people I don't know. We were all dying, and just to add to that, it turns out Rebecca stole someone's coat, and we ran into her after lunch and she asked if someone accidentally took her jacket, which was when Rebecca put all the pieces together and told her. I'm still not sure how exactly it happened, but it was hilarious. The visitors left in the afternoon and then Brittny, Bari, and one of their roommates came over for a little to hang out and then we went to Zaza's with them. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. The rest of the night was spent just relaxing because I was exhausted from the weekend and everyone was just getting home from Amsterdam. On Monday we went to dinner for my birthday with my Florence friends, and were able to get a reservation at Tijuana this time. The meal was filled with sangria, frozen margaritas, nachos, and fajitas galore. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Monday night a lot of people were going out and we went to Yab. I always have fun there, and it was another good night. It was round two of my birthday celebrations, so waking up for my 9 A.M. on Tuesday was brutal. We went on a field trip to the San Miniato Church. We had to take a 45 minute bus ride there, and once we got off you could see all of Florence in the distance. It was absolutely beautiful. It was quite an entertaining class seeing as Me, Heather, Dave, Ross, and Daniel all went out the night before. The guys were all in their clothes from the night before, and we were all definitely riding the struggle bus. We all walked back to Florence downhill. It was about a 30 minute walk, but nice to get some fresh air. I ended up skipping wine tasting for the day, because I could not fathom smelling or tasting wine. Today after class I stopped by the chocolate fair that has been in Piazza del Republica all week. I was literally in heaven. I split chocolate covered strawberrys with milk and white chocolate and sprinkles and a chocolate covered waffle. My mouth has never been so happy before. We walked around and scoped out the rest of the chocolate and decided we wanted pretty much everything there. Calories don't count in Florence do they? I got another fruit stick of chocolate covered strawberries and bananas before we left, and I am planning on going back there tomorrow for some more goodies. Now I am done with my classes for the week and tomorrow I am going to Interlaken, Switzerland. While I'm there I am going to paraglide, go night sledding, eat lots of chocolate and fondue, and take a day trip to Zurich. I will update more after the weekend!

The Trip From Hell

Where to begin... let's just say our first travel experience was one I hope to NEVER have again. A big group of us, and by a big group I mean pretty much the entire Wells Program went to Rome this weekend. My friends and I took the high speed train there at 9 A.M. on Friday, so we arrived within an hour and a half. I slept the entire train ride and that part seemed to be a success. Once we arrived Jenna and I needed to check into our hotel and meet Alexa and Lauren there. Allie was coming with us to the hotel and then we were going to her friends apartment and going to meet up with some other people. The hotel I booked was a Best Western, so I thought it would be cleaner than a hostel, and that we would not be spending much time there so the location wouldn't matter. That would have been the case had we not been stuck in the first snow since 1985. When Jenna, Allie, and I left the train station we realized we had no idea how to get to the hotel. We asked a few people we thought may be helpful, like a police officer, but no one apparently speaks English in Rome so that was not much help. We finally figured out we had to take a bus and then walk a few minutes. We got on the bus and noticed everyone was scanning their tickets, which we did not have. Thanks for the free bus ride! Allie made an Italian friend on the train and we communicated with her with a mixture of speaking Spanish (which is similar to Italian) and using the translator app on Jenna's phone. This lady was very nice and helped us get off on the right stop. At this point it was raining, and we started walking to try to find help with directions. We stopped in a Hertz car rental because I thought maybe someone there would speak English. Nope, it turns out every person we encountered during the day did not speak any. The ladies at Hertz had us write down our address and they looked it up on a map. One of them proceeded to walk us to our hotel, which was about a 15 minute walk. She was on the top of our good list for the day. Once we arrived at the hotel and got in our room we noticed that the bathroom smelled like a combination of mildew and dead animal. The actual room wasn't bad, but the smell sure was. We dropped off our bags and were headed to the friend's apartment. By this point the snow was coming down hard, with some of the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen. The area Allie's friend lived in is apparently where most of the students live, but it seemed to be in the middle of no where. With the snow, our cab ride took over an hour, and cost us 33 euro. Her friend said there was a great restaurant across the street so we went to go grab lunch there. Turns out it was closed and the only thing open was a cafeteria like place. This reminded me more of a gas station or a soup kitchen than anything else, but it was our only option. Me, Allie, and Jenna all got sandwiches, which they took directly off the display and heated up (gross), and Allie also got soup and caprese which came the same way. After taking a bite of my sandwich I was disgusted and opted for an ice cream bar, chips, a coca cola light, and mentos for my meal. Yes, very nutritious I know. The snow had only gotten worse and it was getting pretty hard to meet up with the rest of our friends. We heard that the Colosseum was closed, and that the city of Rome was pretty much shutting down due to the snow. We decided it would be smart to just head back to our hotel and either wait it out until dinner or try to head back to Florence. This is where the day headed south. None of the taxi numbers were answering so we just started walking to try and find one ourselves. In Europe, you cannot just hail a taxi; you either need to call one or go to a taxi stop. We were trying to wave down every taxi that drove by because we were desperate. We stepped into a real estate office and they tried calling one for us, but the street our hotel was off of was in their words "impossible", because they were icy. We finally saw a cab stop and someone get out so we jumped in and told the driver our address. He said he could not drive there and we said please we need to get back so he drove away. After another hour cab ride the driver stopped and said, "this is as far as I go, you walk from here". We were over 2 miles away and had no idea how to get to the hotel, so basically we were stranded in the middle of Rome and could not find anyone who spoke English to help us. After walking in the freezing snow we finally found a taxi stop, but there were no taxis there. We sat in a cafe across the street and warmed up a little, and then decided to look for a taxi again. At this point my dad told us to just find a hotel nearby and wait it out there, but we were determined to just get back to Florence, because we had had enough of Rome. We spotted a cab pulling into the taxi station so we sprinted across a busy intersection to grab it. I almost got hit by about 7 cars, but it was worth it. Jenna jumped in the cab while it was still moving and we begged him to take us. Luckily, this guy was literally an angel and said no problem he would get us to our hotel. Allie started to have conversations with him via my translator on my phone, and told him we loved him and this was the worst day. He was very nice and even agreed to wait for us outside the hotel while we got our bags and take us to the train station. This ended up being our cheapest cab, even though it took another hour. At the hotel I checked out and told them we were extremely unsatisfied between the stench in our room and the fact that when we called the hotel for help to get back, they told us it was impossible and they could not help us. They still made us pay for one night, but it was worth it just to get the hell out of there. We arrived at the train station with about five minutes to spare before the train left for Florence. Thank the lord for this cab driver, he literally saved our day. We luckily ran into a bunch of other people from our program all trying to get back to Florence too, so we hopped on the train together. This was the longer train back which was supposed to take about 3 hours, but ended up taking almost 5. I slept the majority of the time, and when we got there could not have been happier to be back. It made us all extremely appreciative that we are spending the semester in Florence, and not Rome or any other huge city. We have been taking for granted how close everything is here, and now we know how lucky we are. We got back around midnight so naturally the only place open for food was McDonald's. So to add to my great meals of the day was a cheeseburger and fries. Although we missed out on eating Tony's in Rome, which everyone raves about, we were just so happy to be back in our beds that it was worth it. I am going back to Rome with my parents for a day or two, and I am going to try to make it there again in April when the weather is better, but I was just not having it this weekend. It was actually relaxing to just spend all of Saturday in Florence walking around and hanging at our apartments. I will keep my fingers crossed that this was our one bad travel experience, and the rest will all go over smoothly.

Wine, wine, and more wine

Saturday night was a Space night. Most of the clubs are pretty similar here. Lots of strobe lights, sweaty Italians, and VIP areas full of Americans. Space fits into this description, except it is about twice the size of any other club we've been to. There are three floors; the first floor with a bar and a big open area that is more for mingling than dancing, the second floor which consists of a large dance floor and the VIP area where you can go if you don't want to be creeped on by some Italian men, and the upper level where there are a few "balcony" like areas where there always tend to be girls dancing who resemble pole dancers/strippers. Space is very close to our apartment, which is a huge pro because walking for 15-20 minutes in the cold is not really on my agenda. Our apartments location is awesome, except we're far from  a street where a bunch of the clubs and bars are. I guess it's a trade off because we are close to Space and Yab, two clubs we have frequented, and the school. A bunch of the guys studying in Rome were visiting for the weekend, and somehow we ended up hosting a pregame of about 30 people. Most people's apartments here are in the same building as Italian families, so after 10:30 P.M. they have to be silent or they will get complaints from their landlord. We got lucky, and our building has 3 apartments, all of which are occupied by people on our program. The pregames have either been at our apartment or the guys above us lately, and thats fine with me; less places we have to go before we go out. Back to Space. It was a typical night filled with champagne bottles spraying all over the place, to woman in ball gowns dancing to songs from Disney movies. Hence, this is nothing close to a typical night. As I was wondering around the club I start to see a girl in a large ball gown dancing to Beauty and the Beast. This performance continued with a few more "princesses". I'm still not sure why. It was quite bizarre, but hey, we're in Europe. 

Sunday was the first day that we had nothing planned, since orientation week was coming to an end. Heather, Jenna, and I decided to take advantage of the free time and walk around, shop, and get a better feel for getting around Florence. Since we've been here there have been signs in every store that read 'saldi', which means sale. In Florence the big sales are in January and August (I think?) so we wanted to do a little shopping before those end. After walking around for a few hours we went back to Jenna's apartment and watched a movie and relaxed for a couple hours. Some of us decided that we wanted sushi for dinner, so Alexa, Lauren, Heather, and I went to a place between our apartments to try it out. On the walk over we were just hoping that the restaurant would be open since it was late Saturday night, and we were happy to see it was. While the sushi was good, the service was even slower than usual (if that is possible). Three of us got our meal 20 minutes before Lauren got hers. So far, most restaurants we have gone to have given us bottled water when we ask for water, and it's getting pretty pricey. I'm pretty sure you can get tap water anywhere, but they're just trying to make a few extra euros off of the Americans. From now on, I'm asking for tap water. After dinner Heather and I went back to our apartment and hung around with our roommates. I was excited to catch up on all of my TV shows from the week, but I was surprised to see that the majority of them weren't on last week. 

Monday was the first day of classes, but seeing as I only have class on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was still the weekend for me. By the time I woke up Heather was done with class, and we decided to visit the market and the grocery store. The market had a lot of meats, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables, but after comparing prices between there and the grocery store, I think I am going to stick with the grocery store. The rest of the day was spent napping and just hanging out until it was time to get ready for the night. We had a welcome dinner for LDM, which was basically a huge buffet of mediocre food. Not really worth the far walk, but I'm over it. Onto the later part of the night. Monday nights are pretty big here, and it was Daniel's birthday, so it was a crazy night. We all pregamed at the guys' apartment upstairs and then went to Yab. This club has definitely been one of my favorites, reasons beings it is very close to our apartment and not nearly as crowded as other clubs so there is actually room to breathe. 

I had my first class at 9 A.M. the next morning, so you can imagine how much fun that must have been. Heather, Daniel, Dave, and Ross are all in my class, and we were all riding the struggle bus. This first class is called The Built Environment of Florence, and part of each class is designated to a lecture, and the other to a field trip. Throughout the semester we will be visiting multiple museums and landmarks around Florence. It seems like it's going to be a great class. The classes I am taking all meet once a week for 2.5 hours, so I was nervous I would have a hard time sitting through classes that long. When you are learning about the things I am here, it shouldn't be hard to keep myself interested. After our first class Heather, Dave, and I had a 30 minute break before our Wine Tasting class. We stopped and got a slice of pizza near the Duomo, and then made our way to our next class. Wine Tasting is by far going to be my favorite class. Our teacher is absolutely nuts, which makes it that much better. During our first class we tasted four different wines; a white, two reds, and a dessert red. I already learned there is so much more to drinking wine than the act of putting it in your mouth. You need to observe and smell the wine before you taste it, and from doing this you can tell a lot from a wine. It was difficult to drink some of this wine on a hangover, so I ended up giving a lot of mine to Dave. The last wine we tried, the dessert wine, was definitely my favorite. It was a fruity, sparkling wine, and I loved it. I titled this post wine, win, and more wine, because I feel like they treat wine like water here. We have drank it with a majority of our meals, and now after a night of drinking wine and I am going to wake up to drink some more for class. Wine overload. After class I came back to my apartment and took a nap, cooked dinner which consisted of linguine with ricotta sauce and caprese salad, and got ready to go out. I'm not sure what possessed me to want to go out again before I had another 9 A.M., but I did it. We went to a bar called Red Garter where they had beer pong games going on. This was an actual bar, not a club for a once, which I am definitely a fan of. As fun as the clubs are, sometimes its nice to actually be able to hear yourself talk and not see flashing lights all night. I called it a night around 2 and came back to get a couple hours of sleep before class. 

My 9 A.M. class on Wednesday is Food and Culture, and I again have it with Dave, Ross, and Daniel. This class was not as interesting as the others, but I still think it is going to be great. We got let out a little early and I came back to take a quick nap. It may sound like I'm napping a lot, but trust me, I've napped less here than I did last semester at school! Not sure if that's such a good thing, but oh well. After my nap I met a few of my friends at the train station so we could buy our tickets to Rome for this weekend. It's so cool that all we have to do is hop on a train for 1.5 hours and we will be in another amazing city. After we bought the tickets Jenna, Colleen, and I decided to grab lunch quickly before we all had class together. Yet again, I got a slice of pizza. All of these slices have honestly been some of the worst pizza I've ever eaten, but it's all you can get when you need something quick. We made our way to our Public Relations class to find it full of people that we know from our program. The teacher was really funny and seemed like a very cool guy. I can already tell that I am going to be learning a lot that will help me, especially because I will be doing some PR at my internship this summer. It is nice to finally take a class that relates to what I want to do when I graduate, since they don't offer classes like this at U of I. By the time class was over it was 5:30 so I met Heather at the apartment and we went to the grocery store to get food for dinner. I had decided it would be fun to make chicken parmigiana, so we bought the necessary ingredients, and some spinach as a side. After having some doubts about how good this food would actually taste, we were pleasantly surprised. I think I did a great job with the dinner, and am looking forward to cooking some more. Homemade chicken parmigiana is much better when you actually use good tomato sauce, not pizza sauce (sorry mom!) (shout out to Mitchell). After dinner Amanda and I wanted to watch Gossip Girl because we heard it was a great episode. The internet was not working in our favor, so it kept pausing every few seconds. It took us over two hours to watch one 45 minute episode. Not fun. I got sucked into going out again (so unlike me). I'm pretty sure I've gone out more in the last week and a half than I did all of last semester. I guess Red Lion just wasn't cutting it for me anymore. It was a very small group of us last night and we ended up coming back pretty early (1:30 A.M.). For school, that's not that early, but here we go out even later. We were all dying for some late night food, which does not exist here, so we scrounged up what was around our apartment. It was a productive late night, because I even did my laundry. I watched One Tree Hill in my bed, and it was an amazing episode. For all your haters, I don't care, it still is my favorite show. Once again I was up until 5 A.M. I need to fix this sleeping schedule of mine, but between going out and napping, I don't foresee that happening. 

Heather and I woke up to someone vacuuming our apartment and talking extremely loudly. Our landlord and a cleaning lady were in our main room cleaning the floors and doing our dishes. Not sure why or how they did that, considering we didn't ask for it and didn't pay, but it was quite annoying. The only good thing is that our apartment is spotless now. It's about 1 P.M. now and I have nothing planned for the day, so I think I am going to get a few books and school supplies and relax before I am off to Rome tomorrow. 

As the first week comes to an end

As you can see, it has been quite a few days since I could find the time to post on here. Since the last time I wrote an entry, I have seen and done a ton of things. On Wednesday we had a day trip to Sienna with our program. We had a tour of the town and were then given time for lunch before we had to go back to Florence. Things move a lot slower in Italy than in the U.S. And by a lot slower, I mean A LOT. We were given two hours for lunch, and we used every minute of it. We ordered a few different pizzas at a restaurant overlooking a square and enjoyed our leisurely meal. At the end of the meal, we were given these lemon liquor shots. As most of you know, I cannot take a full shot ever, but somehow I managed to do it. I was expecting a sweet shot that tasted like lemon juice, but whatever this was burned my entire body. Needless to say I won't be taking one of those again. When we got back home (can't believe I'm lucky enough to call Florence my home for now) I took a much needed siesta. After being here for almost a week, my sleeping schedule is still messed up. My roommates and I woke up and went over to our other friends apartments in an attempt to book some of our trips. Most people are going to Amsterdam in 2 weeks so they got that one done first, but Heather and I are staying here this weekend because we have visitors. Rebecca, Hannah, and Sara are visiting us for my birthday, which will be a great time. Seems like Florence is going to empty out that weekend, but that won't stop us from enjoying the weekend. We had made a reservation at this restaurant called La Giostra that Allie's sister had suggested. When I say this was the best food I have ever eaten, I'm not kidding, and that's a lot coming from me. There were 12 of us at dinner, but the restaurant wasn't big enough for us to all sit together so we sat 7 and 5. The 7 of us at my table all ordered different entrees so that we could get a taste of everything. The waiter brought us a complimentary appetizer platter with bruschetta, priscuito, eggplant, and some more things that I've never seen before. That was good, but it didn't compare to the main dishes. Some of the entrees included mushroom risotto, gnocchi with ricotta, ravioli with pear and cheese, ravioli with brie cheese and artichoke, rigatoni with pine nuts and fresh mozzarella... need I say more. Our friends decided not to go out that night, and Heather's home friend was at the same restaurant as us so we stayed with her and her friends and went back to their apartment in attempts to go out with them. By the time we left their apartment it was already 2 A.M. and and we had to be up at 8:45 the next day for orientation, so we just went home.

Orientation began at 8:45 A.M. at a hotel a few blocks from our apartment. We basically sat in a theater as different people told us about safety, classes, clubs, etc. I think the highlight of this presentation was when the Dean of Students, who went to LDM and apparently loved it so much she decided to move here and be Dean of the school, went up to give her speech. You'd think someone with a doctorates degree would be able to talk to a group of students and give a well presented speech. Well, that was not the case. She typed out her entire speech and read it off the page the entire time. It sounded much more like a bat mitzvah speech than a welcoming speech for a school. This was my entertainment of the morning. When that was finally over we had a few hours before we had to be at the school for another orientation meeting. We stopped at a coffee shop and talked and had a drink while we were waiting. This next meeting seemed to drag on way too long. We got a print out of our schedules and I have friends in all of my classes, so I was happy about that. When that finally ended a few of our ventured to find this sandwich place called The Oil Shop. After asking a handful of people for directions, we ran into this American promoter who walked us there, only to find it was closed. Apparently they close when they run out of bread for the day. So he gave us directions to another place called Pino's. Once we eventually found our way there, I ordered a turkey panini with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce, and pesto. It was delicious, as expected. We sat at lunch for a few hours, which seems to be part of the culture in Florence. Meals are always long, and I find this relaxing. The only problem is it takes forever to get the check, but us Americans are just going to need to learn some patience. We walked back to our friends apartment after lunch so that we could book some more trips. Booking trips is a big pain. I know, if this is my only problem here I'm one lucky girl. We all sat around looking up different flights and hotels and comparing prices. I sat on the computer doing this for almost four hours, and after all that time all I got booked was my London flight and my Rome hotel. At least we accomplished something. By the time it got to be about 9 P.M. Jenna and I were the only ones awake (everyone else was napping) and we wanted a quick dinner before we went out. When we arrived in Florence each apartment was given a welcome basket with pasta and red sauce, so we decided on that. Our dilemma was we wanted parmesan  cheese to complete the meal. We ended up in a restaurant right across the street from their apartment, and we decided to ask if we could buy the cheese from them. The woman looked at us like we were crazy, but we didn't care. She ended up giving us the cheese for free. The best part was that we saw her take the cheese off of a table and put it into a container before bringing it to us. Sanitary, maybe not, but it tasted good. The club to go to that night was called Full Up. Heather and I walked there and got lost so it ended up taking us about 40 minutes. Not ideal, but we're still learning. There was a VIP room in back where everyone was, and it was the size of a box. There were strobe lights flashing and not even enough room to breathe. Not my idea of a great night. It felt like you were having a seizure every time you stepped in there. We got home around 3, but for some reason I wasn't tired so I thought it would be a good idea to stay up until 5:30 when we had to be up at 8 for our day trip to Pisa.

We thought these trips were optional, and when we woke up in the morning there was no way we were going to make it. We ended up sleeping until after 2 P.M., which was much needed. We later got an email from our advisor Milva that many people were missing and the busses waited for us for a long time. I felt bad, but we all needed to catch up on sleep, and we will be back to Pisa throughout the semester. When we woke up a lot of us booked flights to Munich for Spring Fest aka Beer Fest. I've heard this is a must go weekend, so I can't wait. We are going on a Thursday to Sunday but the festival doesn't start until Friday so we are going to visit a concentration camp on Thursday. Should be a great trip. By the time Heather and I left our apartment it was already dark. We got a few grocceries and then met some of our friends for dinner at this place called Cyro & Sons. It was a few blocks from our apartment and right on the way to our school. I ordered a caprese salad and pasta with pesto sauce. Both were great. After dinner we made our way to Grom for gelato. This was my first gelato experience! I've been here for almost a week and it was my first one, which I couldn't believe. It was amazing. I'm sure I'll be having much more in the months to come. We got back to our apartment and got ready to go out for the night. All of the Iowa girls had friends visiting so we met them at a bar called Kikuya to get these drinks called Dragoons. It is a beer, but much much stronger than a beer. We hung around the bar at a table for a few hours before leaving for the club. The nights destination was a place called Space. We got there and it was crazy. I think last night was the most fun night we've had so far. By the time I went to bed I only got 4 hours of sleep. We had to wake up at 9 to go to the Verazzano Castle for wine tasting. What a rough life I have.

Todays day trip was definitely the best. We got to the wine castle and took a quick tour of the property. They then brought us into a dining room and we all sat down at tables as waiters poured different wines into our glasses. They told us that these wines went well with pasta, so a large bowl of penne with a special red sauce was brought to our table. They gave us parmesan cheese and spices to mix in and the pasta was really good. I could not bear to actually drink the wine after last night, so I, along with a couple others, gave all of our wine to Daniel and Alec who were sitting at our table. I thought the pasta was our entire meal, but I was very wrong. They continued to bring out garlic bread, salami, sausage, an egg dish, and dessert. I tried some things I would usually never eat, and actually liked them. Our lunch lasted for about 3 hours, and then we headed back to Florence, and now here I am writing this blog post. Tonight we are going back to Space, but before I can think about going out I'm going to need to take a nap. Ciao for now!