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| I’m HOME!!!! And I have the blisters to prove it. It was a longggggggg hard trip that lasted two days, but as I sit here writing this in my bed (the most comfortable bed in the world), I know it’s worth it. This past week was a hard one. A week of lasts. The entire week was filled with finals that I didn’t really study for. Tuesday, I got to present my final photography project, and I think it went really well. I spent all day Wednesday in the darkroom developing photos from Greece and Egypt. We went out to dinner every night as a final goodbye to all our favorite restaurants. Wednesday was our last “gelato Wednesday,” though it wasn’t our last gelato ever.
Thursday was the last day of school, and it was our final exhibition. It went really well! All of the art classes lined the halls of my school with the work we all achieved during the whole semester. Everyone really really liked my photos, and that made me happy and proud.
 (me in front of my photos) (Gigi presenting her design)  (all the girls!)
We were all planning on going to see Alessia sing for one last time, but Dani started having these weird knee spasms. She had always had knee problems the entire time, but she would these spasms and was screaming from the pain. I have to say that Dani is also somewhat of a rough and tough tomboy and I’ve never even seen her complain about pain at all. So it was really scary. She started having a horrible panic attack so we decided to take her (against her wishes) to the hospital. Third time to the ER the whole semester… yeah haha. Anyway, she was fine (they gave her some drugs) and we took her home where she passed out.
Friday was our last day. We woke up and started to clean and pack our stuff up. It was so depressing. This was also when I realized how much crap I had accumulated during my stay. A LOT. My bag was GIGANTIC and I also had to pack a smaller (well it wasn’t too small…) duffle bag. Gah. Anyway, I met Ashlee and Ori for lunch at the central market. I got to see my bread and meat woman, and fruit lady, and my butcher for one last time. It was so sad. We took our lunch and ate it in front of the Duomo.
 (ori and me in front of the Duomo!)
After a bit more packing, Ashlee and I climbed to the top of the campanile for the most amazing view of the city. What a perfect way to say goodbye to the city.
  (goodbye!)
For our last dinner we all went to our favorite pizza restaurant- Pizzauolo. Soooo good. They all came back to our apartment and we just hung out all night. It was so sad when they left and we had to say goodbye. Gigi and Brandi left at four in the morning so after about two hours of sleep I got up to say goodbye to them. It was just so sad.
 (pizza!)
I woke up early to catch my train to Pisa. I lugged my 70 lb. bag down the never-ending staircase, locked up my apartment for the last time, and said goodbye to the place I had come home to for the last four months. Somehow I made it Pisa alive despite almost being crushed by my bag trying to get it out of the train. I landed in London, and Jess was there to meet me! What a surprise!! We ended up leaving my bags in the luggage hold at Victoria train station and headed to Ella’s apartment. Jess and I just chatted all night long. It was great.
 (my girls!)
I woke up early to get to Heathrow (craziest place I’ve ever been to EVER) I can’t even describe how hard it was to get there… let’s just say that when I finally got to sit down, I felt like I was going to pass out!! Well, anyway, after 19 hours, I made it home. It’s such a weird feeling to be here. It’s weird feeling to happy to be back, while I miss Florence so much.
Mi Mancherai is one of the hundreds sayings in Italian that I learned the last four months. It means I will miss you. I’m going to miss Italy, Florence, the place I called my home the last four months so much. I’ll miss how romantic the city becomes after sunset. I’m going to miss the sweet melody of the accordion players as their music drifts into my window. I’ll miss awkward encounters with my neighbors from across the street. I’ll even miss the creepy guys that hung out downstairs outside my front door. I’m going to miss the friends that I made, and the wonderful Italian teachers that became my friends. I’ll miss being called bella every day, because sometimes it’s nice to be reminded. I’ll miss morning coffee and banana yogurt with Gigi. I’ll miss the panini brothers who make the best sandwiches in Florence. I’ll miss kissing on both cheeks when you say hello and goodbye. I’ll miss gelato Wednesdays with my girls. I’ll miss the Central Market. I’ll miss being able to travel every weekend. I’ll miss speaking Italian. I’ll miss drinking the best damn coffee, food, and wine in the world. I’ll miss the culture, the history, the art. There are too many things that I’ll miss, but there’s nothing that I’ll forget. That time in my life, those experiences, everything about that place, is unforgettable.
So as I sit here in my bed (the most comfortable bed in the world), it’s like I’m waking up from a dream. Did the last four months really happen? I can’t believe it’s over. I can’t believe how lucky I am.
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| Hello all! Sorry that’s it’s been sooooo long since I last wrote. I’ve just been so busy! It’s hard to remember all of the amazing things that I’ve been up to that last few weeks, but I’ll do my best… The day after Gigi and I got home from our fall break we both got haircuts! A really attractive Italian man named Matteo chopped off a TON of my hair, and I love it ? it was so great because everyone kept complementing me at school.
A few days later it was Halloween. It’s not really a highly celebrated holiday over here, but I did my best to keep the spirit high. I went to the central market and bought three tiny pumpkins and had Ori and Dani come over to decorate them. They turned out to be some sort of weird squash that was way to think to carve so we just drew on them… haha. Ori’s is supposed to be one of the creepy Albanian guys that hang out downstairs by our front door. The five of us girls decided to be the “spice” girls for the school’s Halloween party- BUT were REAL spices. I was salt. It was AMAZ.
 (pumpkis!)  (we're the "spice girls")
Unfortunately for us we didn’t get to enjoy the free box wine (which is actually not bad- I mean you really can’t go wrong with Italian wine right?) for too long. Gigi had a HUGE allergic reaction to something. Ash, Ori and I took her to the ER where she was taken back and given a cortisone drip. About two and a half hours later she came out completely drugged and we went home where she passed out. Let me just tell you how much of a hassle this stupid allergy has been. I mean I don’t even have it and I’m sick of it. The problem is that we have no clue what it is. Her medicine makes her REALLY tired. So basically she gets to choose between being uncomfortable itchy or tired. Gahhhh.
 (waiting at the ER)
As far as school goes, I got to do some really awesome things. In Italian Family we’ve been talking to all the old Italian people a bunch. On time for class they came in and told us all their romantic love stories. Most of them had to keep their relationships a secret, and hide their love for each other. In Photo, we got to learn how to do Polaroid emulsion transfers. It’s basically a really long process, but the end result is a photo on watercolor paper. It looks soo awesome! I’m seriously thinking about buying an old Polaroid camera and doing this when I get home.
Anyway, my friend Ella (the one that I stayed with in London) came to visit me. It was great because I basically got to do all of the really fun things that I love to do in Florence. We went to my two favorite restaurants- Pizzauolo and ZaZa’s. Sooooo good. We went to the Uffizi museum, which was cool because I actually knew about a lot of the art from my Art History class. I also finally got to do some very much needed shopping.
  (while ella was here)
The morning that she left, We all went on the school trip to Venice. Everyone that I hang out with came but Ori. The trip was awesome! Once every two years Venice hosts the world famous contemporary art festival, The Biennale. It was so amazing!! At UCSD a lot of what we learn about it post-modern and contemporary art, so I got to see a few pieces that I actually learned about last quarter.
   (at the Bienalle)
We spent most of our time at the festival, but since I had already been there with my parents I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. Dani and Gigi wanted to play with the NASTY pigeons, and I refused. Actually, it was really nice because the second day that we were there, I got to separate myself from the group. It was nice to have a little bit of alone time. I just love Venice and all of its beauty. I know that it’s really really touristy, but I just love it there.
 (Venice sunset)
Gigi was really sad the last few weeks because her boyfriend (who she had met here) was going back to Mexico. It was so sad, but I just had no idea what to say to her to make her feel better. So, instead I tried to make her have the most fun possible. One night we all went out to the club called YAB. It was so cool because it was basically just free dinner when you buy drinks. Sooo good. Yumyum. Our receptionist Alessia is actually an amazing singer, and she’s in a soul band. We’ve gone to see her three times all around Florence, and she’s awesome. It’s so fun to go see her because almost everyone from school comes out and it’s just a big SRISA party ?
 (Gigi and her boyfriend)   (at one of alessia's concerts)
So the weeks of school rolled by, and then suddenly, it was Thanksgiving! I couldn’t believe how time just flew away. I was really scared that I was going to have a really sad thanksgiving, but my school organized a potluck dinner. The teachers made all the big things like the turkeys and the pies (they actually had pumpkin pie despite the serious lack of canned pumpkin), and all the students brought small dishes like green beans, potatoes, etc. After consulting Marcie, I decided to make the really good salad with homemade dressing. It was a big hit. YUMYUM.
That night Lindsay from back home flew in to spend the weekend with me. She’s studying in France right now. I made her a little plate of thanksgiving food and met her at the train station. We had a really great weekend because I got to go to two places that I surprisingly hadn’t been to. Friday, we took the train to Siena. I love it there. It’s so tiny, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. The one thing that I wanted to see was the head of Saint Catherine in one of the churches. Many catholic churches have relics, which are the remains (usually bones) of Saints. It looked so cool! We spent her second day in Florence (seeing the David and shopping…). That day I was actually able to meet up with my really good friend Shannon (she’s the one that’s studying in Arezzo) and her friends. They were in Florence just for the day. We all ended up having dinner together which was so nice. I love being around people that know me from home. I actually had never been to Pisa and since Lindsay was flying out of there, I went with her and we went to see the leaning tower. I basically had to force Lindsay into taking pictures haha. But I mean, how could we not?
 (in Siena)
  (Pisa Pics!)
The following week was actually really fun, but it was slightly stressful with the amount of schoolwork that was piling on. I had to write a paper on how Anatomy is depicted in Renaissance paintings, and of course I waited until the very last minute. No surprise there. Monday, The girls’ fourth roommate, Lauren, turned 21 so she they had a party at their house. I really wasn’t looking forward to going, but when we arrived about 2 hours late, the party really began. I didn’t want to drink, but we brought my hookah. I proceeded to spend the next three hours trying to perfect smoke ring blowing. By the end of the night I was actually pretty good. Haha. The party actually ended up being a lot more fun than expected. That Thursday for Italian Family we went over to my Teacher Martina’s house to cook dinner. We made home made pasta, sauce, squash risotto, and the best part of all… homemade Biscotti. Oh my god, they were soooooo amazing. It was the best dinner ever. After we finished, we all went over to a pub to watch Alessia sing.
  (my Italian Family class)
Wow, I’m so proud of those of you who are still reading! Haha. Ok. Last weekend was out last school-sponsored trip, and we went to Rome. We were only there for two days, and Rome is a HUGE city. Actually we came at a horrible time because there was a public transportation strike, so we had to walk EVERYWHERE. It sucked, but I didn’t mind too much because Rome is so cool. We basically had a whirlwind tour of the city led by a teacher at my school. I don’t have her class, but I really wish I did. She has this amazing ability to make Art History really exciting and interesting. Everything she saw, she had so much passion for, and that rubbed off on all of us. We saw all the really cool sites in the City- the Pantheon, the Borghese museum (day 1), the Vatican museums, the Roman forum, and the Coliseum (day 2). We were so tired when we got to the hotel that we seriously crashed. The hotel was cool though; it was like an actual apartment with a balcony and a kitchen. We headed home that Saturday.
   
Sunday night another one of my English friends, Rosie, came to visit me. We had discovered this really awesome Christmas festival going on by Santa Croce church, so we checked that out. The whole city is so romantic now. Every street is lined with gorgeous Christmas lights.
 (christmas lights!)
Anyway, even though I had to go to school while she was here we were still able to do a bunch of fun stuff. She came with my class when we went to the Academia to see the David. I felt kinda bad for Rosie, because she came right at the end of our time here. I was soooo stressed with essays, my final photography project, and Gigi’s fashion show. I think she understood though. She helped me with my photography project, which was great.
 (Rosie)
I can’t remember if I wrote this already, but Gigi is in a Fashion Construction class, and I was her model for their final fashion show! Friday night we had the big show, and it was soooo awesome. We had the dress rehearsal that morning (it took MUCH longer than necessary).
 (ori and I and the rehearsal pretending to be Barbies)
Then we rushed over to Allegri salon to get haircuts from Matteo. He is a genius. I decided that since it was my last week I’d go all out. It may have also been because he’s so handsome. I mean how could you say no to a gorgeous man who tells you you’re beautiful? Anyway, we were there for a really long time because Gigi got a bunch of things done. But we made it to the fashion show on time to do our thing. It was soooo much fun.
 (matteo the most beautiful italian man in the world)
 (at the fashion show)
Last night Gigi and I finally went to the restaurant right by our house. I’ve had a crush on the guy that works there the entire semester, and we finally were able to get in.
 (yumyum)
I can’t believe that I’m going to be coming home in less than a week. I can’t believe that this is almost over. I feel like there’s so much more that I want to do. I’m spending my last weekend (sadly) studying and finishing my photography project. I’ve got a few finals to study for and a couple of last minute errands to run. I’ve got my final art show this Thursday, which will be so much fun. On Friday, our last day, we’re going to go do all our favorite things. I’m so sad to be leaving, but honestly I’m really happy to be going home. I can’t wait to be around all my family and friends. I’m flying into LAX the afternoon of Sunday Dec. 16th and then I fly into Sacramento that night at 8:30 ish. I can’t wait to see you all again!!
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| So basically my fall break was the most amazing week of my life. There’s no way that I can even describe in words the amazing experiences that I had. But I’ll try.
Day 1: Greece- Syros???
After staying up until almost 2:00 AM last night gigi and I woke up at 5:45 to begin one of the most eventful days of my life. We took the train to Rome, and then another train to the airport. Our fight was pretty short, but Greece is actually an hour ahead. Ashlee, Ori, and Dani came to Greece at the same time as us, which was totally great, but they had a really hard time getting there. They missed their flight and had to pay for another that was three hours later. Well, because Gigi and I weren’t going to wait for the girls to arrive before catching the ferry to Mykonos, we stopped in downtown Athens to look around a bit. We had a couple of really delicious gyros. YUM. Yeah that turned out to be sort of a bad idea because when we got to the port we found out that the last ferry to Mykonos left @ 5:00! Oh god- and we had been having such good luck up until that point… The man who was selling the ferry tickets told us that if we take a ferry to another Island called Syros we’d probably be able to find a boat that could take us to Mykonos, and because we had already made reservations at a place in Mykonos we decided to go for it.
 (her face explains it all)
On the ferry, we made friends with an older Greek guy that talked too much but taught us some common Greek words including Thank-you (ef-gari-sto). When we landed in Syros, we realized that there was no way that we were getting a ride to Mykonos, but we didn’t have any place to stay! Lucky for us there was a little old Greek woman who gave us a room for €40. She didn’t speak ANY any English and was CRAZY but we loved it. She kept explaining everything in Greek and saying “looooook look ship ship!” I can’t even explain this story in writing- it’s just to freaking funny.
 (our crazy hotel woman!)
Day 2: Greece- Mykonos
This day was so incredibly AMAZING. Gigi and I woke up and began exploring Syros. It’s a pretty small and junky town, but it’s beautiful. We walked to the top of the endless staircase to find a gorgeous Greek orthodox church; inside we found a really grumpy Greek orthodox priest. We wandered around the town (meeting these old men in a barber shop). It was great!
 (the church)
Our ferry to Mykonos arrived at 1:00 and Christina, the owner of our pension “mama’s pension” was already waiting for us with Ash, Dani and Ori. Mama’s pension is AMAZING and gorgeous. Christina was sooo nice and helpful too. We walked to town and rented 3 quads! We had so much fun riding around the island for the rest of the day. We stopped in town to eat €2 gyros and explore a bit, but basically for the entire day we rode on the quads. I got some really great photos too. That night it started to rain horribly, but we ere lucky because it only rained at night while we where there.
  (on the quads!)
 (Mykonos!!)
Day 3: Greece- Mykonos and Athens
Today we woke up in paradise. Christina made us a really lovely breakfast. We rode the quads around for a bit, did a little shopping, and stopped by a beach to feel the water. I really wanted to go swimming, but we just didn’t have enough time. We caught the ferry back to Athens- it was really long, but it was nice sitting on the deck of the boat admiring the wonderful view of the surrounding islands and also the gorgeous team of Greek football players at the table next to us. What a view eh? Haha!
 (emo pic...)
We got to our hostel (Athens Backpacker), which is totally amazing. We went to a restaurant called “God’s” and ate really delicious typical Greek food. Musaka, Baklava, and Ouzo :) Yumyum.
 (OUZO!)
Day 4: Greece- Athens
We woke up really early this morning because the other girls had to catch their flight to Parris pretty early. I feel bad for them because they didn’t get to be here for long, but honestly it was just poor planning on their part. We walked to the Acropolis, which was really cool, but they were restoring all of the old ruins. Everything was covered in ugly scaffolding. Boo. Oh well, we walked around for a really long time looking at the Parthenon, the Temple of Nike, and also headed to see some of the other monuments like the Temple of Zeus and Ancient Angora. We happened upon this flea market type thing where we ate cheap but delicious gyros, and shopped around for a bit. That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant in the Plaka area that hand live music. It was a lot of fun!
   (In Athens!)
Day 5: Cairo!
Wow, what a day. Gigi and I woke up in our hostel and headed to the airport to fly to Cairo. We were both pretty nervous because we didn’t know what to expect being to young girls. Also we need to get entry Visas, and we didn’t really know how to do that. Well, we landed and were greeted by a nicely dressed and overly smiley Egyptian man with slicked back hair who helped us with our visas. I felt a lot less nervous… right up until he asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with him the next night. Gahhhh it’s my damn blue eyes.
Anyway the first thing that I have to say is that I REALLY wouldn’t suggest going to Cairo without a tour. Even though usually I’m really anti tour groups, we would have been completely lost in this city without our guide. We were actually really lucky because we weren’t a big group just four of us. It was really nice despite how annoying the other couple that was with us. Our tour guide was this nice timid Egyptian guy named John. He was really sweet, and he really liked us. We got to our hotel that was in Giza. It sort of had a view of the pyramids, but it was completely in the ghetto. When we asked John if it was safe for us to go out at night. His look said it all… NO WAY. Eek. So he walked with us to a grocery store, dodging cars the whole way, to buy some pita bread and cheese (we weren’t really hungry). We stayed in our hotel room the rest of the night watching early 90’s movies all night. Haha. It was hilarious.
 (just to give you an idea of what we slept in :P)
Day 6: Cairo!!
We met our guide in the morning and he took us to… DRUM ROLL! The PYRAMIDS!! It was completely unreal. It literally took my breath away. We went up to the great pyramid first. It was amazing! You can climb on it and touch it. The stones are enormous- like as big as a person. And, the entire thing was created with out using any cement, just very precise mathematical calculations, grooves and such. We drove to a high looking place so we could take some pictures, and we got to ride a camel!! That was seriously like one of the only things that I needed to do. Lame I know, haha but it was soooo much fun. We went to see the sphinx after we were done there. It was all just like a dream; I still can’t believe where I was.
    
When we finished at the pyramids, John took us to this perfume factory. In Egypt they produce the essence of the flower, which can be found in all top brand perfumes. The catch is that in the designer perfumes, they’re almost 80% alcohol. They were showing us the pure essence. It was totally amazing, and we spent way to long there. J The other couple hated us I think, but we didn’t care because they were annoying.
Lucky for us, when we got back to the hotel, we got our room switched. Our new room was SOOO much better- actually from this century :) (i.e. the phone was a touch dial and not something from the 1800’s… haha) Anyway, that night our guide and driver picked us up to take us out to dinner at a place called Andrea. We had some typical Egyptian food that I’m not even going to attempt to write the names of. Then we all shared a hookah! It was totally great!
 (our hookah)  (this was our guide)
Day 7: Cairo!!!
Today was an absolutely amazing day yet again. John picked us up at 8, and we drove across town in the CRAZY traffic. It’s weird, but it’s like organized chaos- I have no idea how it works, but it does. Our first stop was this absolutely amazing place called Old Cairo. In this area there are three major holy areas belonging to three different religions. There is the first Mosque in all of Cairo is right next a synagogue where it’s believed the Moses was put into the basket and floated down the Nile river as a baby. He later becomes a prince of Egypt and later frees the Jews from slavery. Both of these important places are within walking distance from a cave where it’s believed that the Holy family (Mary, Joseph, and Jesus) stayed while escaping the king. It really is amazing how all these religions are able to be in the same area peacefully.
After Old Cairo, we went to a papyrus factory where they showed us the entire process of making the ancient paper. The word paper actually comes from the word Papyrus. It was really cool. After that we then went to the royal fortress called the Citadel, where we saw the Mohamed Ali Mosque (the royal mosque). It was so huge and it was gorgeous. We stopped at the bazaar to buy some cheap presents, but we didn’t really find much L but we did buy ourselves hookahs! Yay! we had lunch on the Nile river, which was so exciting!
 (the mosque)  (The bazaar)  (lunch on the Nile)
Our last stop before our trip was over was the Egyptian museum. We saw the entire collection of King Tut’s tomb which was sooooo amazing. We saw his solid gold sarcophagus, his old clothes, statues- everything was over 3000 years old. I could believe it. It’s like your mind can’t even comprehend that there were people that lived that long ago, and not only that, they used these objects that you looking at. Ahhh it’s so crazy. We weren't allowed to tak any pictures inside which was really sad. But, I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw there.
We headed back to the hotel and packed. And the next day we started our long travel day home (traffic, airplanes, three trains… yuck)
 (we didn't want to go :(...)
This week was literally the most amazing week of my entire life. It was an experience that I’ll never forget in my entire life. :):):)
My time here is winding down sadly, only about a month and a half left. I’ll see you at Christmas! I also wrote another blog for my Copenhagen and Napoli/pompeii trips so continue reading if you're interested :) Love you all and miss you all!
Ciao ciao. xoxoxo
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| I woke up on Thursday morning and headed to the Airport for COPENHAGEN!! Elizabeth met me at the airport and we headed back to where she lives. Many young students live in these things called koolegiums. They’re basically like big dorm halls but older people live in them, and the university does not run them. We met up with her friend Akiva for dinner. He took us to his synagogue for dinner! Free food is always good. It started to DOWNPOUR. Yuck. I actually liked the change in the weather. I’ve decided that as much as I love the hot summer weather, I love when it’s cold outside. When it’s cold and sunny… but I hate when it rains I hate it. The next day I woke up and went to the city center with Elizabeth. She had class so I just wandered around aimlessly. I love Copenhagen! It’s really cool and a nice change from Florence. I went to Nyhavn (the place with all the differently colored houses in all the pictures that you see of Copenhagen) it was beautiful.
 (Nyhavn)
For lunch I met Elizabeth and we had pulsar hot dogs. (spelling?) Oh my god! I don’t usually like hotdogs, but these are addictive. That night we met up with her friend’s Debbie and Jason went out to a bar called the happy pig. It was so much fun drinking and dancing with her and her friends.
 (yummm hot dogs)  (random photo with a random german guy)
The next day we woke up early(ish) and met up with Johan! Johan is a friend from back at UCSD. He studied abroad in San Diego all last year, and sang with me in my choir. It was so nice to see him. He gave us a whole tour of his city- including a trip to this really famous candy shop and a teashop. The day that we met up was a really special day because there was a huge demonstration going on. Basically, thousands of young people were rebelling against the government by attempting to take back a house. It’s reallllly complicated for me to explain so here’s an article that I found about it. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3038405.ece Basically it was really cool to watch. He next took us to this small fishing town called DRAGØR (I couldn’t figure out how to write a lowercase o with a line through it…) I can’t pronounce any words in Danish at all! It’s the hardest language to speak ever. Elizabeth and I pronounce it DRRAAAAAGGGOOOORRRRR (like a scary dragon! haha). Anyway, we had this really good and typical Danish meal- something translated to “not hare” haha. It was good! That night we met up with her incredibly awkward and strange floormates for a drink and then went out to this club called Vega. It was fun but it didn’t really live up to our expectations.
 (johan!)  (dragor!)
The next day we slept in and went to the Carlsberg brewery. It was only 25 Danish kroners (about 5 dollars) for a self guided tour, and we got two free beers at the end!
 (our beers)
It was a pretty lazy day other than that. We went and got pizza from across the street and watched a movie with her friend Debbie. Monday afternoon I went home. That morning we did a little shopping J, but everything is SOOOO expensive. She had class so I decided to venture off to this place called Christiania before I headed to the airport. I met this guy named Charlie from Florida who was backpacking. Let’s just say that I was sooo thankful to have met him because Christiania was kinda a scary place to go to by myself…
I got back to Florence for a short week at school. I booked all of our hostels and double-checked everything for our trip. That Friday, we left for the school sponsored trip to Napoli and Pompeii. It was such a great trip! The teacher that took us was Lorenzo (my George Clooney-esque Italian teacher). He’s gorgeous. We stayed in this town called Sorrento (the birthplace of lemoncello). It was adorable. We all went out to dinner by the sea and had great sew food.
 (where we had dinner)
The next day we all went to Pompeii! It was AMAZING. I didn’t realize how much scientists learned from the ruins at Pompeii. It’s an entire preserved roman city with bathes, gyms, and people!
 (best picture ever!)  (the whole group)  (the people... wow)
That night we went back down to the water to find a different restaurant for dinner, and you’ll never guess what we came across. It was a huge festival being put on to raise money for the church. They had lots of different sew food stands and best of all CAKE. We ate sooooo much, and it was all really good. The next day we had to leave Sorrento and head out to Napoli. Lugging our luggage the whole time, we took a really boring tour of the city. Lorenzo took us to the restaurant that invented the margarita pizza. It was really good!
 (fishy festival)  (Pizza!!)
The week before leaving on Fall break was pretty stressful because it was Mid-term week. Monday, I actually had a really great experience. We’ve been learning all about Italian culture and family/ gender roles in my Italian family class. We were supposed to interview an Italian stranger that our teacher set us up with. My stranger was this really sweet Italian man that barely spoke English. It was so interesting to talk to him because he told me all about how it is being a homosexual in a primarily catholic society. He said that the Vatican still dictates the laws in Italian society. For example, a gay couple or single women are not able to adopt children; it must be a heterosexual couple with a lot of money. When I asked him if his parents know and what they think, he said, “loro sono contenti perche Io sono contento.” They are happy because I’m happy. That made me happy to hear.
Basically the entire week I was anticipating my fall break trip. I think I did pretty well on all my tests, but all I could think about was Greece and Egypt!!
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| Well it’s been about three weeks since my last post. Sorry for the delay! It’s been quite a long time, and LOTS has happened. I’ve been keeping a daily journal as to not forget all the things that happen, so that’s good.
Matt and Sara came to Florence three weeks ago for about four days. It was seriously such a blast. It was such a nice change to hang with them without it being a family function. We didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary, but it was so much fun to just have goofy fun times with them; creating inside jokes and everything. One night they taught me how to make one of their famous pasta recipes which was soooooo good. Gigi made them her really good Mexican rice one night, yumyum. The Friday that they were here, Matt’s brother Michael was able to come to Florence, which was amazing because I finally met him! Can you believe that I’ve never actually met him before? Crazy. He studied in Florence during college so he gave me some good tips.
 (sara and I in my kitchen)
The Thursday that Matt and Sara were, one of my best friends from UCSD Sarah (who’s studying in Barcelona) came! She was staying with Alex on the other side of the river. We all went out on Friday, which was fun. I was sad though because I wasn't going to get to see her for the rest of the weekend.
 (sarah sarah sarah sarah ZELAZNY!!!)
On Saturday Matt, Sara, and I went to Arezzo to meet up with our parents. They rented the most amazingly beautiful house in the Tuscan countryside. I was actually able to meet up with my really good friend Shannon who’s studying outside of Arezzo for lunch. Matt and Sara had their giant backpacks so we couldn’t really do much exploring of the city, but it was nice to sit in a little park and just catch up with Shannon. I hadn’t really seen her since school ended.
 (the three of us in Arezzo!)  (Shannon my love)
Marcie and Dad met us at the train station and we headed up to our house. It was just outside of a pretty small but adorable town called Lucignano. We had a great time just the five of us, playing rummikub and eating really great food. On Sunday we went into the town, but there wasn’t much to do except drink cappuccino and watch soccer. Monday morning I had to take the really early morning train back to Florence to catch my morning class.
 (our Villa)  (at dinner with the fam in Lucignano)
For that whole week, Gigi’s friend from Mexico, Regina, was staying with us. She was sooo nice and totally sweet, and you could tell she really cared for Gigi. Nothing super interesting happened that week at school. The girls (Ori, Ashlee, and Dani) came over and we gorged out on nutella and watched Under the Tuscan Sun. very appropriate don’t you think?  (regina!) I also got a really bad cold L it didn’t last long, but it was pretty bad while I had it. I went to the farmacia and the man very seetly said “ciao bella what’s wrong,” to me as I walked in. He must be really good at his job because all he had to do is hear my symptoms and feel my head before giving me some medicine.
Probably one of my favorite memories of Italy so far happened on Wednesday of that week. We got tickets to the Florence vs. Rome Soccer match. Oh my god. There’s no way to describe how much fun I had at the game. Even though it was pouring down rain the entire time, it was sooo much fun. Some how, we paid for seats that were about 5 rows away from the front… AMAZING. (Unfortunately that meant we weren’t covered from the rain, but oh well). Seeing the game with the all really passionate Italian fan beats any football, baseball, or basketball game that I’ve EVER been to. They kept saying “Vai, vai, vai” which just means “go, go, go” but somehow has so much more oomph!
 
Friday, Ashlee and I went on the School sponsored trip to Bologna. The school organized a tour, and it was actually really fun. Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe. It’s also very famous for it’s food. Yumyum. After the tour, Ashlee and I (along with some others from my school) decided to climb to the top of one of the giant towers in Bologna. There were almost 500 steps!
 (the group!)  (amazing view from the tower)
Since I was going to Venice the next day, Ashlee and I decided to stay in a hostel in bologna that night. That was an experience… haha. The hostel turned out to be about a 25 min bus ride outside of the city. I literally hate busses more than anything in the world. Even though it took us about 45 min to find the bus stop, and the last bus was at midnight, We had a really good time with it. It was her first time in a hostel, so she loved it. We did quite a bit of shopping there. My one goal was to find some boot and I did! Hurray!
 (at the Hostel)  (me and my boots)
Saturday afternoon I took the train to Venice to meet up with my family. Marcie’s friend Kathy was with them at this point as well. There’s no way to describe Venice in words. It’s literally one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’ve seen pictures and movies, but they don’t do the city justice. It’s so gorgeous. I walked through the winding streets to the apartment that my parents had rented which was right on the edge of the Grand Canal. AMAZING. I feel so lucky that they were able to come and that I was able to be with them.
 (all of us)
After a really good sea food dinner, my dad, Matt, Sara, and I went out to a pub to catch the Barcelona soccer game. It was such a fun time. My dad was so funny though; he couldn’t believe that I was drinking beer. poor daddy :P
 (hahahaha)
I woke up really early for some reason and went to get some breakfast with Kathy. After we got back from getting slightly lost, my parents, Kathy and I went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. The entire thing was her collection of modern art. It was so weird to see Jackson Pollack piece’s up close after learning all about him in my Art History class last winter quarter. It was great though. That night, my parents took us to the Opera. It was held in this old Palazzo, so it was very small and intimate. I loved it. The woman even touched Marcie’s face at one point! Haha. how many people can say that they got to see an opera in an old palace in Venice. Crazy.
 (at the opera)
I had to take the early train home again to make my early class, but this time I had to leave at 6:30. Bleh. It was a really short week at school because I left on Thursday morning for Copenhagen. My parents and Kathy ended their trip in Florence on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. On Wednesday I met Marcie and Kathy for some shopping at the San Lorenzo market, and we all went to the Academia to see the David. It was sooo gorgeous. We went to this amazing restaurant called Il Latini. There were no menus; our waiter just listed off the things that we were able to have. I literally don’t think I’ve had so much food in my entire life, and it was all the best food ever (including the HUGE Florentine steak). We didn’t stay out too late because we all were leaving the next day, but they walked me home. I said goodnight and goodbye. I won’t see them again until Christmas!
I’ve been a bit stressed out because I was trying to book my tickets for my Fall break trip. I spent a few hours last Wednesday at a travel agency book our plane tickets. But, after A LOT of money and stress, it’s all booked now!! Gigi and I are going to EGYPT!!!!! Can you believe it??? I’m so excited. We’re actually going to spend the first half of the week in Greece with Ashlee, Ori, and Dani, and the second half in Egypt on a tour. The hostels that we’re staying at in Greece seem REALLY nice. The hotel in Cairo seems pretty shitty according to the reviews on trip advisor… but it’s ok I’m fine with that.
Anyway, I’ve seriously been a traveling fool the past couple of weeks, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve having the time of my life and I’m making so many unforgettable memories. I feel like I’ve gotten really close with Gigi, Ashlee, and Ori, which is nice. I’m writing a separate blog for my trip to Copenhagen. It was sooo amazing by the way. I miss you all soooooo much, and I really appreciate you reading this. Sending you all my lovelovelove and infinite X’s and O’s.
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