update from the road...

I magically have internet access and ended up on the computer, so I figured I should post a quick update on Prague... (no pictures, as I'm on a public computer... I'll put a lot up when I return to Roma!)

Okay, so Friday, I went to the airport via the Leonardo Express, which went much better than last time (Madrid... travel=disaster).  I got there in plenty of time, and the only problem I had was that they made me check my carry-on bag, because they said it was too big... unfortunate.  So I arrived in Prague around 6:20 pm, and then waited for my traveling companion to arrive.  Her plane had been delayed, so she was a little later than expected.  Then we took a taxi to our hostel, which is located just a little outside of the city centre, and is actually really nice.  We had booked beds in an all girl dorm, and ended up in a mixed dorm, which ended up working out okay.  We're both stuck on top-bunks, which kind of sucks, but what can you do?  The guy thats on the bottom bunk of my bed is the loudest snorer I've ever heard, which is interesting... I also met 4 girls from UNH who know some people that I went to elementary/middle school with... it's a SMALL world. 

Friday night we went out to eat at a traditional Czech restaurant (Most of the restaurants here are Italian, which is REALLY weird, but I'm not complaining!).  I ordered "chicken pockets" which was like chicken wrapped around salami topped with mozzarella cheese in some sort of sauce, and it was REALLY good.  We also had good desserts; Katey had icecream with raspberries, whipped cream and vodka, and I had some sort of pancakes with raspberries, chocolate and whipped cream.  Delicious.  I was afraid coming in that I wouldn't like any food here, but I haven't had any trouble yet. 

Saturday, we woke up around 10 am and set out to the Old Town area.  We didn't have any ultimate goal, we just wanted to explore a little.  We ended up in Wenceslas Square, which is the big, important, really famous square in the center of old town.  We saw the astronomical clock, and a bunch of churches.  One of the churches had a tower that you could climb, and after how beautiful the sights at the top of the tower in Siena were, I couldn't pass up that opportunity.  So we climbed the tower.  It didn't have stairs, but rather a series of ramps, which was kind of strange, but made walking up much easier.  At the top, you can see all of Prague.  It was beautiful.  We spent a while up there so I could take pictures from every angle of every sight.  They came out great, and I can't wait to share them with the world!! After that we just did a lot of walking.  We walked to the museum of Communism, which was much more interesting than it sounds.  I actually learned a lot, and Communism in the Czech republic is really interesting because they were constantly on the verge of revolting and just never pulled together to do it until Communism actually fell.  So I learned a lot, and it was interesting to see so many artifacts from that time.  Afterwards, we started walking towards the Charles Bridge, but on the way we were distracted by an outdoor market.  I've already decided which souvenirs I'm going to get for who, but I haven't actually purchased anything except for a scarf for myself (it's so cold here!!).  The souvenirs are so much cooler here than anywhere else I've traveled.  After our brief stop, we headed to Charles Bridge, just in time for sunset.  We crossed the bridge slowly, taking in the sights and watching the sun set.  It was beautiful! Once on the other side of the bridge, we went to see John Lennon's wall.  It's a wall that is covered in graffiti, dedicated to John Lennon, the Beatles, and world peace.  I actually found it to be really cool, because its constantly changing.  People are always adding to it and covering up old parts with new things.  Lots of people just sign it and right quick little messages, so it's interesting to get right up close so you can read all the handwriting you wouldn't have seen otherwise.

After that we went to eat dinner.  I really really really wanted a burger, because it's been awhile, and why wouldn't I want one? So that's what we were looking for, but instead we found this place called Bohemia Bagels, which was recommended by our hostel, so we tried it.  I got a philly cheesesteak (as close as I could get to a burger) and frankly, it sucked.  Cross Bohemia Bagels off of your list of places to eat, because they might have good bagels, but the rest of the food is nothing to write home about.  After dinner, we made the trek back to our hostel, so we could rest and recover before going out for the night.  When we got here, the hostel just so happened to be having a free pancake dinner, so we ate some pancakes, which almost made up for how bad my dinner had been. 

That night we decided we wanted to go to a bar or pub or something of that sort.  So we set out with no ultimate destination in mind.  We ended up wandering around Old Town until we found somewhere suitable.  We ended up at a Music Bar, which was actually a lot of fun.  We ended up dancing the night away... literally.  By the time we finally got back to the hostel, it was about 7 am (although for some reason, Europe decided to change the clocks back last night, so it was really only 6 am).  Exhausted, we slept. 

Today, I just woke up, and now I'm waiting for Katey to get ready.  It's Halloween, so in honor of that, we're intending to go to the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora so see the bone chapel.  I thought that fit the theme of the day pretty nicely.  It's about an hour by train. 

Alright, well that has been my journey thus far.  It's been amazing, and can only get better from here! I'll try to update a few more times if I have computer access (I'm afraid I'll forget some details of my trip!!).  Feel free to comment!

avanti io vado alla settimana vacanza!

Ciao a tutti!

I'm about to leave for break! Today I'm going to Prague! and then about halfway through the week, I'll be going to Dublin! I'm beyond excited. I finished packing last night and was ready to go right then.  Waiting around has been killing me!!

Needless to say, I won't be updating here until I return, so don't expect anything until after the 7th.  And when I get back here on the 7th, I'll try to update right away, since I'll be leaving for London just 2 days later! What a crazy life I lead.

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Semester Excursion Numero Due

Long time, no update.  Sorry. It's a hectic life I lead over here in Europe. I promised in my last post that I would be go go go go going starting last week, and that's what has happened.

Il Duomo

I'll start with Thursday.  The days lost between my last post and then have been lost forever.  Too  bad. So Thursday. My Italian class was cancelled, and so I got to sleep in really really late. Yipeee.  Then I had theology, which was as terrible as it always is.  Thursday night, we went out with basically everyone to Scholars, and stayed pretty late.  Which was pretty unfortunate, because we left early Friday morning for our semester excursion.

"fake" David

At 7:45 we met at the front desk to leave for our trip to Florence! There was 7 of us this time, because my roommate joined us (she was sick last time).  We took the metro to Termini, and then a fast train to Florence.  It took a little over an hour and wasn't too bad, but we were all basically zombies from the night before.  Oops. When we got to Florence, we checked into the hotel, and had a little while to ourselves.  A couple of us went out to get some food (we chose McDonalds... how Italian of us...) and then we went back to rest and get settled.  We had a walking tour that afternoon, which lasted many many hours but showed us just about everything Florence has to offer.  We started by walking through an outdoor marketplace, which I found really cool.   Then we saw some churches that were made for/by the Medici's.  Next stop was the Duomo, which is absolutely beautiful.  We went inside, and its beautiful in there too. Very impressive.  We also saw the "fake" David, which is actually the mold used to make the real one, so I don't really get why its the "fake" one, but whatever.  We saw the House of Dante, which was cool, although I would have liked to go inside.  We also got to see the Ponte Vecchio, which is really amazing, but I didn't get the pictures I was hoping to get.  That was a little depressing.  The pictures I did get came out okay, but I could have done so much better! We ended up in some big square with a really big church, but I don't recall its name.  The tour took a couple of hours, and so afterwards, we went back to the hotel and had some time to ourselves before our group dinner.

Ponte Vecchio

During that time, the sun decided to set, and since we had a balcony in our hotel room, I went out and took some beautiful pictures.  Tuscany really is beautiful.  For dinner, our guides (Domenico and Maurizio) took us to a traditional Florentine restaurant, and instead of each ordering individually, Domenico ordered for us all so we could try different things. We started with a pasta dish that was like spaghetti with meat sauce.  We found out later that the meat in the sauce was wild boar... interesting.  It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad either.  Next we had gnocchi in tomato sauce, which was delicious.  For the next course, Domenico ordered us about a million different kinds of meats.  There was chicken and beef and lamb and pork and who knows what else.  I ate some chicken and beef, and it was all very good.  For dessert, I had tiramisu, which was absolutely delicious.  We were all so full after the meal.  We were walking back together and ended up seeing an outdoor concert of sorts going on, so we stopped for a minute to listen.  Three people from the group decided to go out that night, but the rest of us were so completely wiped out from the long day and long night before that we just went back and went to sleep.

Sunset over Tuscany <3

Saturday morning, we went to Siena.  We took the bus so that we could get a glimpse of the Tuscan countryside, but I ended up sleeping most of the way there.  Siena is really beautiful though.  When we got there, we walked to the church of San Domenico, which houses the head and finger of Saint Catherine.  That was interesting, yet kind of disgusting.  After that, we walked to the big piazza, Piazza del Campo.  There, we decided to climb the Torre del Mangia.  It's a really tall tower, so we walked up about a million steps in really close quarters... Even me, being as short as I am, had to duck at times.  There was actually somewhere around 400 stairs.  It was exhausting, but the views from the top were absolutely amazing.  You could see for a long ways, all across the Tuscan countryside.  We climbed back down, and then had a group lunch in a nearby restaurant.  Like the day before, Domenico ordered for all of us.  First, we had bruschetta, cold cuts (proscuitto, salami, and another kind of pork) and some sort of cheese.  Then, we had an absolutely delicious spinach and cheese ravioli, with a creamy cheesy sauce that was one of the best things I've eaten in Italy.  Then we had a local dish of Siena, which is thick spaghetti-like pasta with meat sauce (the meat in this is some sort of special tuscan cow...). It was good.  We were so full after that.  We walked to the Duomo of Siena, which looks a lot like the Duomo in Florence, and then we had some time to ourselves.  Our group walked around the small streets of Siena and into some of the shops before we ended up back at Piazza del Campo where we sat, relaxed and did some people-watching while two of the guys played catch.  It was really pleasant, actually.  Eventually, it was time to meet up with the group again, and then we took the bus back to Florence.

Torre del Mangia

Back in Florence, we had the night to ourselves.  I ate a quick panini for dinner, and then just hung out for awhile.  We decided to go out that night, so we all hung out in our hotel room for awhile, and then went out.  We ended up going to two different bars.  It was a good time.  I don't know what time we got back, but it was pretty late, so we went right to sleep.

One view from the Torre del Mangia

The next morning, we met up at 9 am, so we could go to the Uffizi museum.  Theres some pretty amazing artwork there, but it wasn't as entertaining as it could have been, because we had a tourguide, which meant that I didn't get to decide on my own what I wanted to look at and what I wanted to skip, or how long I wanted to spend on each piece, which I find very frustrating.  I might go back to Florence just so I can go back to the museum and take pictures of the Ponte Vecchio. haha. After the museum, it was basically time to go.  We went to the hotel to pick up our stuff, and then headed to the train station.  We were taking the slow train back, which took more than 4 hours.  It was a little ridiculous.  But I was so happy to be back in Rome! I slept really well Sunday night after such an eventful weekend.

More from the Torre del Mangia

Monday morning I had service to do.  It was fun, as usual.  We did the hokey pokey, and sang "O Christmas Tree" with the english teacher which was interesting.  Then the nun read to the kids and had her repeat everything she said, which was boring for me, so I can't imagine how the kids felt.  Apparently, she wants me to bring stuff for the kids to do... So I guess I'm going to try that.  Yesterday afternoon, I had my permesso di soggiorno appointment.  It was kind of ridiculous, since they won't be finished processing it before I leave the country, so we basically went there and waited for a couple of hours to have them stamp a paper saying we had been there.  It took up most of the afternoon.

Duomo in Siena

Today, I had my wonderful art midterm. ick.  It wasn't that bad though. Then was theology. ugh.  Then I've been hanging around waiting to be able to register for classes for next semester.  I'm now completely registered, and actually really excited about the classes I'll be taking.  Now if only I had somewhere to live... hmmm.

cute little street in Siena

Well, that's all for now, I'll try to update at least once more before I leave for Prague on Friday!! I'm so excited!

Vai! Vai! Vai!

So the problem with studying abroad is that you go go go go go go go constantly, until suddenly you hit a wall and stop.  Well, I hit that wall pretty hard this weekend, leading to me sleeping through basically the entire thing.

On Friday, Zoe (friend from high school) was in Rome for the day, so we met up in the afternoon in Piazza Navona and wandered around the city for hours and hours.  Eventually we stopped and ate dinner at a restaurant.  We sat outside, and I had spaghetti carbonara.  It actually wasn't very good.  But we were sitting next to a couple from Ohio, and we talked to them for awhile, which was pleasant.  Me and Zoe practiced our Italian together all day, which was amazing, because not a single Italian ever wants to speak Italian with me.  After dinner we ate gelato, which was delicious, as always.  Around 11, I escorted her to the train, and resumed my sleeping.

I did nothing else notable this weekend.  Lots of rest, lots of tv watched, lots of reading.  But it was oh so necessary.  It's actually really good that I hit the wall this weekend, because starting tomorrow, I'm going to be go go go go go going for awhile without any chance for a breather.  For the next (at least) 4 weekends, I'll be traveling.  That's including my weeklong break.  It's going to be exhausting, but absolutely amazing.

Today I worked at the nursery school again.  I really love working there.  It reminds me of the volunteer work I did at the hospital when I was in high school.  The kids are about the same age (or a little older) and very similar (except in Italian and French instead of English...).  Today I arrived during their english lesson again.  That's always interesting.  We sang some songs, which they absolutely love, and worked on the names for some different foods.  The English teacher always gives up before the alloted time because its so difficult.  He just hasn't figured out an effective method yet.  I'm sure there is one.  But after that we returned to the classroom, and basically a free-for-all ensued.  The children were all wired today. I'm not sure why.  But the teacher/nun decided that that would be a good time to practice reciting prayers.  The older kids were fine, but the younger ones were terrible!! And I didn't know the proper words to say to get them to stop, and if I did, they didn't listen to me anyways.  Once she gave up on the prayers, the children got to color, which is the best part of the day.  The teacher asked me to color in some pictures she had photocopied so they could put them on their bulletin board, so I did, but I ended up staying 40 extra minutes!! I totally didn't mind though.  It was worth it.  I also realized today that the children cannot say my name.  The letter "J" is basically nonexistent in the Italian language, and the sound it makes in my name, they substitute with a "z" or "s" sound.  It's pretty funny.  For others, my name becomes basically "gianna" which would be the italian equal.  Thats much better than calling me by the other st. john's volunteer's name. haha

Since then I've done nothing productive except getting a migraine.  That was very helpful towards me being productive today.  It's not a bad one, just a nagging one. So I won't be doing much of anything for the rest of the night.  But starting tomorrow I'm off and running.

L'espana e la settimana scorsa

Oops. I've been totally neglecting all of my loyal readers. I'm so sorry for that!

Okay, last week, during the week itself, nothing noteworthy happened, except for me taking the pictures in the last post.  I probably ate some pizza and did some homework and slept.  Honestly, I have no idea what else I did, except for planning a spur of the moment trip to Spain.... yea.

Puerta del Sol

So my friend Katey is doing the DTW program, and she's in Salamanca, Spain right now.  I wanted to travel over the weekend, but had no plans to do so, and no one here to go anywhere with.  So, I asked Katey what her plans were and if she would be interested in going to Madrid with me! She said yes, and we booked it! I had a lot of hurdles to jump over before I could get my plane ticket all set though, and had to take full advantage of the study abroad staff here.  Thankfully, they helped me sort it all out and everything was fine.

Beautiful Spanish Sunset!

I left for Spain on Friday, in the afternoon.  My plane left at 2:30.  I woke up early and packed and got money (my atm card doesn't work in Spain... thats literally the only country in all of europe it doesn't work in... wtf?) and got ready.  I was planning on leaving around noon, but I ended up talking with my roommate about the fun night out we had had the night before, and ended up leaving late.  I took the metro to termini station to get on the Leonardo Express which takes you to the airport.  When I got to termini, I had no idea where the stupid train platform was, because it is literally hidden, and all the signs made me run in circles before I could find it.  When I did finally find it, the train was pulling out of the platform.  So I bought a ticket on the next one and waited a half an hour.  I got on the 1:30 train and it took a half an hour.... yes, that's right, I got to the airport at 2:00 for a 2:30 flight..... ooops. So I wandered around looking for where to check in.  The terminal I was in was 95% Alitalia, which was good, since I was flying Alitalia, but bad because they had different lines for different things, and I ended up getting yelled at for being in the wrong line... oops. When I found the right line, I actually had to wait, even though my flight was boarding, because no one would let me go up front.  When I got to the front, it was 2:15. I gave my itinerary to the guy, and told him that I understood that he probably wouldn't be able to check me in, and I asked if he could get me on the next flight.... he told me to wait, and was chatting with one of his co-workers.  Then, suddenly, he threw a boarding pass at me, told me how to cut the security line, and told me to run as fast as I could. So, I obviously did. I got to the special security point for VIPs that he told me to use, and the woman tried to tell me to go wait in line with everyone else.  I literally begged, and she let me through. Then I sprinted to the gate.  I made it just in time.

Top of a church

I got off the plane in Madrid, and was on my own. Katey wasn't arriving until the next day at noon, so I had some time to kill.  I took a taxi to my hostel, which was located pretty much downtown.  It's called Way Hostel, and it was really nice.  The people were nice, and the rooms were really nice.  The beds were even relatively comfortable, compared to most I've experienced.  So I got settled there, and then set out to explore on my own a little.  Armed with a miniature mapped provided by the hostel, I headed towards Puerta del Sol, the geographic center of Spain.  It was only like 10 minutes away by foot.  I brought my camera, and took pictures as I went.  The weather was nice, so I got some good shots. Madrid is a pretty photogenic place.  On my way, I found a Dunkin Donuts!! I had never been so excited to see one in my entire life.  I immediately ordered a large iced coffee and didn't specify milks or sugars or anything, and ended up with a perfectly regular iced coffee!! It was incredible.  Puerta del Sol is literally a big empty square, so it got old pretty quick. After that I headed for Plaza Mayor.  I stopped on the way to eat Burger King, because I wasn't quite courageous enough to order real Spanish food (its scary) and really really really wanted a burger.  As much as I'm not a fan of fast food, it was goooooood.  Plaza Mayor was much more interesting than Puerta del Sol, and so I spent more time there.  I visited some other Plazas near the hostel on the way back and took some great pictures.  I got back to the hostel around 8:30 or so and wanted nothing more than to pass out, but there was too much going on, so I just read and hung out for awhile.  I "went to bed" at 11ish, but didn't fall asleep until after 2, because of all the people coming in and out. 

Plaza Mayor

The next morning, I woke up around 9 and ate breakfast at the hostel.  Then I checked out and headed out for the day.  Katey wouldn't be in until around noon, so I just wandered for awhile.  I started by going back to Dunks for some much-needed coffee.  Then, I set out to explore some more.  I walked around the area surrounding the opera house, and ended up at the royal palace.  It was pouring rain, so not really picture-taking weather, so I just have mental snapshots of those places.  Finally, Katey called and said she had arrived and that she was going to check into our hotel and would meet me in Plaza Mayor after. So I headed towards Plaza Mayor to wait.  Little did I know, our hotel was a ways away, and I ended up standing in the rain at Plaza Mayor for hours.  The plus side is that I'm probably in about a thousand different tourists' pictures because of where I was standing. haha. Katey and three of her friends arrived, and we ate lunch.  I ignored the traditional spanish dishes and ate spaghetti. Still wasn't brave enough. But for desert, we had churros con chocolate, which is totally spanish and totally delicious! 

More Spanish Sunset

After lunch, we walked along Gran Via, the Broadway of Spain.  The weather was abysmal at that point, so there weren't many people around, and a lot of the shops at least looked closed because of the lack of people.  We got bored there pretty quickly, and headed over to the Prado Art Museum.  It was wonderful! We spent a couple of hours in there, and Katey knows a lot about art, so she shared her knowledge with me as we walked through the rooms looking at all sorts of different paintings.  We saw lots of Goya's and lots of Velasquez's.  A Caravaggio, some El Greco, a Rembrandt. It was very interesting.  When we were finished there, me and Katey went to check out a church while the other girls went to check out Puerta del Sol.  We met up and headed over to Plaza Mayor's tourist office to see if we could get to a Flamenco Show.  That didn't work out, so we went to dinner instead.  I had chicken and potatoes.  Nothing exciting. After dinner we returned to the hotel and slept.  We were so exhausted.  

Gran Via

The next morning me and Katey headed back downtown.  We got some brunch, and then headed over to the Reina Sofia museum of modern art.  Neither of us is really that into modern art, but the museum was pretty cool.  It had a lot of pretty famous pieces, like Picasso's Guernica, and some Dali's, etc.  We spent two hours there, and got to see just about everything we wanted to see.  When we were done there, we wanted to go souvenir shopping, so we walked around to some different shopping areas in Madrid.  I think we both ended up with everything we wanted, and I got some presents for my siblings.  

church behind the Prado

We ate dinner in one of the plazas whose name escapes me.  The first place we went was outside, and we wanted to do tapas, which we really knew nothing about.  The waiter thought we were crazy.  But we ordered a spanish omelet, patates bravas (which ended up being fried chunks of potato smothered in american hot sauce.... wtf) and peppers with some fancy name (which ended up being peppers with salt on them...). Needless to say, it sucked. The Spanish omelet was good, but the rest was completely anticlimactic. Not what we were looking for.  The waiter was also really rude to us, and pretended like he didn't speak english and then spoke english perfectly at the end when we were leaving. jerk. So we left there and ended up stopping at another restaurant.  We intended to get something for dessert, but instead, we ordered more dinner.  The service was worse at this place, and we didn't get a waiter at all for a half an hour.  We ordered another spanish omelet and croquettes.  When they were served, they were actually really good.  But then the waitress ignored us and we had to beg for the check.  It was ridiculously frustrating.   We left there and headed back to the hotel. 

Spanish street

We decided to check out Kapitol Night Club, which is a huge 7-story club in Madrid. Everyone I know that has gone has loved in and recommended going. So we got ready and left the hotel around midnight.  It was around 1 by the time we got there, and we got right inside.  It was big. It was definitely big.  When we first got there, there was hardly any people. Spaniards go out LATE. really late. But it filled up pretty quickly and it was okay.  It definitely wasn't as good as everyone said it was.  I didn't have a great time. But we stayed until 3:30, and then took a cab back to the hotel.  Once at the hotel, I got my stuff together, and headed to the lobby of the hotel to catch the free shuttle to the airport.  Yea, that's right. I didn't sleep. ouch. I got to the airport plenty early and didn't have any of the excitement of my first flight.  Got back to school a little before noon on Monday.  

The plaza in which we ate the first of our dinners

Monday I slept most of the day.  Tuesday I went to class.  In art, we went to Palazzo Farnese, and Gianicolo Hill.  It was boring. Theology was more boring than usual and I couldn't keep my eyes open.  Wednesday I did service at the nursery school, which was the same as always.  I spoke more French than Italian and the kids colored in pictures of houses.  They also had their english lesson, but all they really learned was "yes" and "no" and we danced to Bingo and some other songs in English.  Today I had midterms. My oral midterm in Italian didn't go so well, but the written part was fine.  I also turned in my takehome test for theology, which was okay. Not my best work, but I don't care about that class at all. 

Me and Katey before we went to the club

Now I'm absolutely exhausted, and have no plans for the weekend.  It's possible that I might be getting sick, because why else would I be so tired? So I think I'm going to take it easy this weekend and maybe do some exploring around Rome.  There's always more to see! Anyways, that's all for now. I'll probably fall asleep real soon. Buona Notte!

 

as promised...

Since I've been lacking on the pictures lately, I'm about to make up for that, ten-fold.

Today I was having a not-good, but not-bad day.  I didn't do very well on a test this morning, was bored to death in a lecture directly following that, was incapable of napping due to several different factors, and then was forced to work on my theology paper.  So as I was returning to my room to quit being productive, a thought crossed my mind.... It had been cloudy all day, but the clouds were breaking... It was 6:35 pm... hmm... I though, "I wonder what time the sun is supposed to set?" So i raced to my computer, googled it, and found that it was setting at 6:47. hmmm.. "I wonder where I could go to get a really good view, since It'll probably be one of the most beautiful sunsets ever (don't ask how I knew that.. i'm psychic, duh)?" I asked myself. One thing entered my mind, Villa Borghese. But could I get there in time? I grabbed my camera (double checked for the memory card, thank god) and literally RAN all the way there, dodging cars and vespas trying to navigate the rush hour traffic.  Luckily for me, and the rest of the world, I got there in plenty of time, and I was plenty pushy enough to get right up to the front for a perfect view. Literally. Perfection. So here you go!

First sight walking up

The best picture I've ever taken. 

Vatican

Piazza del Popolo

So that's that! There's more on my facebook, and even more on my photobucket (link up top). Check them out! I feel so good about these pictures! When I get home, I think I'll print some of them out and frame them so I always have something to remember Rome by. I've never felt so much like a photographer as I do right now. On that note, I'm going to go eat dinner and think of other ways I can spontaneously take amazing pictures... next stop might be the Trevi fountain late at night.... hmmmm

Le notte in italia sono tutte interessante!

Buongiorno! Mi dispiace (I'm sorry), I've been meaning to update this, but time just got away from me this weekend! This will be another update without pictures, because I haven't taken any in days (I've got to fix that, it's getting ridiculous at this point!!). 

So I last updated after my 21st birthday, but without any details, so I'll start there.  That night, we started off as a really big group, going to Campo dei Fiori (the tourist hub of nightlife in Rome).  It wasn't the people I expected to be going out with, except for a few, but I still anticipated a fun night.  When we got to Campo, me and my roommate had to pee, so we told the group we were going into one of the bars, and then we went.... when we got back, everyone was gone.  Clearly there was a miscommunication there somewhere.  But we walked around  Campo to see if they were still in the area, and instead we found some of the other semester students! We hung out with them and I completed my goal there.  It probably ended up being more fun that way anyways.  Regardless, it was an okay night made great by the sense of accomplishment I felt by the end.  

Friday I woke up by 10 am, and caught up on American tv (Grey's anatomy!!!). I went to the store to get a birthday card for a certain grandparent who will be celebrating his birthday this week, and it was far more difficult than I anticipated.  They didn't have any that just said "buon compleanno" So I had to translate like 5 million of them before I found an acceptable one.  I probably spent at least a half hour there, staring at the cards.  And the one I ended up with didn't even say what I thought it said.  oh well.  I also went to the grocery store to buy food for my roommate to make us for dinner.  She made pasta with chicken, peppers and string beans and tomato sauce.  It was really good. That night, most of the semester kids were taking most of the DTW kids out to Testaccio to a club.  We left around 11:30 and had to take the metro.  For most of us, it was our first time to Testaccio, so it was definitely interesting.  The first club we went to was called "Coyote" and it was packed.  We stayed for a few hours, and the DTW kids all left early because they still had more orientation stuff to do in the morning.  After that, most of the semester kids left too, but me and 3 other girls went to another club to check it out.  It turned out to be a reggae club, and we had so much fun! We stayed and danced until like 4 am, and then took a cab back to school.  It was definitely a good night.  

Saturday I mostly did nothing productive.  I did purchase stamps and finally put some postcards in the mail.  I suppose I thought a little about my homework, but didn't actually do any of it.  Saturday night, me and my roommate decided to go out with the new DTWs.  They didn't know where anything was really, so we got to be tourguides.  We were planning to go to Campo, but we didn't leave school until 1:30 am, so by the time we got there, the bars were closing (the carabineiri were parked outside...), so instead we went to a club.  The club, Anima, was really small and really packed, but we made room for ourselves to dance, and we stayed until almost 4 am.  On the walk back I got to know the DTWs better, and I'm not missing the old DTWs as much anymore.  It's going to be an interesting 5 weeks with this group.  

Sunday I did homework.  I actually started my theology paper thats due thursday.  I don't think I did much else.  I slept really late, so much of the day was wasted in that capacity.  But it was a much-needed day of rest.  All in all it was a great weekend!! 

Today I did service at the nursery school again.  Today, when I got there, there was a guy there to teach the kids English.... They're 3 or 4 years old, so that was an almost impossible task.  He was trying to teach them colors, and they were able to repeat the colors after him, but they didn't retain anything. at all. He gave up after only 10 or so minutes and went to work with the older children in the other classrooms.  The kids got to play on the playground instead, which they enjoyed much more! (I enjoyed that more, too!) So we played outside.  Curious to see if they had retained anything, I asked one of the oldest/smartest boys about the color blue, and how to say it in English.  He said he had no idea (blue=blu...) So clearly the teaching is ineffectual. Too bad. And the poor French children, they were completely lost!! But it was fun to play with them, and my italian with the kids has come a long way. My italian with the adults.... not so much. But it's not bad. 

Soon, we have our weekly meeting, and then I might go out and explore a little.  I need to take pictures of something.  It's like an itch that I need to scratch.  So if that happens, I'll write another post with lots and lots of pictures for all of your viewing pleasure.  Ciao! 

Il Festeggiamento

So, as everyone knows, yesterday was my 21st birthday!!

Me and my roommate!

I started the day off by saying goodbye to all of the DTW kids, because they left early in the morning.  Then, I had to go to Italian class.  We ended up taking an open-book quiz, which was kind of a bummer, but I know I did okay.  After class, me and a friend went to the grocery store to get supplies to start celebrating.  

So happy to be celebrating my birthday!

So, my goal for some time now has to been to take 21 shots on my 21st birthday.  I know, it sounds crazy.  Most people thought I was going to die... Without going into details... I SUCCEEDED. Thats really all I can say on a blog that could be seen by anyone in the world.  

Regardless, I am really proud of myself, and you should be too.