Buon Ringraziamento!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home.  This year, I'm thankful for the opportunity to study abroad and everyone who has helped me get here and do as much as I have done over here.

This isn't the first Thanksgiving that I've spent in Italy.  Eight years ago, when I was 13, I came to Italy for fencing.  I was only here for 5 days then, and I was in Torino, staying with an Italian family.  That night for dinner, the family made us omelets with American cheese and spaghetti with sauce from the jar, because the family thought we would be feeling homesick and that feeding us "American" food would help.  Instead, it was incredibly disappointing, since we were looking forward to eating authentic Italian food.  This year, I've just spent the last 2 hours scouring the grocery store looking for any food that would be Thanksgiving-esque so that I could make my own Thanksgiving feast.  I found some turkey, potatoes, green beans and a cherry pie (sort of), but I can't mash the potatoes for lack of the proper equipment, and I have no cranberry sauce or stuffing.  But it's the best I can do.  We'll see how it turns out, but the point is, I wish I was home just for today so I could spend time with my family an indulge in a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

In other news, I've somehow managed to lose everything important.  We're talking cell phone, cash, credit card, drivers license, student ID and the key to my dorm room.  When I say that I lost them, I mean for good.  It's now been almost 2 full days and they haven't showed up or been turned in by anyone.  They're gone.  I had to cancel my phone and credit card today, and I'm basically without money for a few days.  I couldn't even leave  my room for awhile until I got a replacement key this afternoon.  It's been pretty miserable, but I'm hoping that it can only get better from here.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I miss you all!

Dublin, Rome, London, Rome (AKA longest update ever)

Dublin Castle- the church

I apologize profusely for the lack of updates. It's due to a mixture of laziness and busyness and not wanting to sit in one place long enough to write this. So we'll go back in time to November 3rd....

The Ha'Penny Bridge, right outside our hotel

Okay, so when I left off, we had gone to the airport in Prague to get on our flight to Dublin (in case you've forgotten, I was traveling with my good friend Katey).  Our flight left in the early evening, so we watched the sunset from the plane.  It was dark when we got to Dublin, so we didn't get to see much that first night.  When the flight landed, we had to find our way to the hostel, which involved taking a bus and somehow knowing when to get off magically.  The hostel was in a really good location, next to the River Liffey and across the river from the Temple Bar area.  The hostel itself was okay.  The set-up was less convenient than the one in Prague, and the people weren't as interesting or friendly.  One advantage was that I got to have the bottom bunk, but other than that, I definitely liked the one in Prague better.  So that evening, it was already pretty late by the time we got in and got settled, so we went to a burger place to grab a quick bite to eat.  My burger was delicious, and I think Katey enjoyed whatever it was that she had; and the food was cheap-- always a plus.  After dinner we sat down and planned out our entire time in Dublin.  As much fun as we had in Prague, it was very disorganized and we kind of just did everything on a whim instead of planning anything at all.  So in hopes of not missing out on anything at all, we planned out every second of our trip.

Christ Church Cathedral

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hostel, and then headed out to take a free walking tour of the city.  There ended up being a really big group for the walking tour, and we had to split into two groups.  We ended up with the better of the two tour guides.  His name was Cillian (Killian spelled with a C; i found it strange, but apparently its completely normal in Ireland). The tour started at City Hall, an important landmark for the easter uprising, and then brought us to Dublin Castle.  We also got to see Christ Church Cathedral, the Ha'Penny bridge (which is actually right outside our hostel), Trinity College, the library and museum of Dublin, St. Stephen's Green and some more stuff.  Randomly, in the middle of the tour, we had a 10 minute break, and during that break, we ran into 4 of my fellow Rome Semester students.  I knew that they would be in Dublin, but I had no idea that we would be on the same walking tour!! We agreed to meet up that night to experience nightlife in Dublin.  After the tour, we grabbed lunch in a little cafe (I don't remember what I ate, but I think it was good).  After that, we went to the Leprechaun museum.  It's a new museum, having opened this year, and it was more interactive than one normally thinks museums would be.  We had a really funny/informative guide in the museum, and I think I actually learned a lot about Irish folklore.  The museum starts in a giant's room, complete with giant chairs, door knobs, lamps and tea cups.  We were encouraged to climb around and take lots of ridiculous pictures.  Then we went through the rainbow, and ended up at a map of Ireland telling us some history of folklore in Ireland.  Next we went to the pot of gold, where our guide met up with us again, to tell us about leprechauns, then the fairies house, followed by the wishing well.  It was definitely geared towards young kids, but we had a blast.

Hanging out in the Giants room at the Leprechaun Museum

That night, we went on a pub crawl (with the 4 other St John's students) that is organized through the same company that organized the walking tour.  We went to 4 bars and ended up at a "club" which was more of a bar with a crappy band playing live music.  I drank my first ever Guinness, and also drank the world's most disgusting beer ever (two separate incidents).

a pint of Guinness

The next morning, we went to the Dublinia Museum, which was about the history of Dublin from the Vikings until the Middle Ages.  This, too, was a very interactive museum, with buttons for us to push to hear different things, games for us to play, quizzes for us to take, all sorts of stuff, so it was pretty interesting.  Next, we visited Christ Church cathedral.  It's a really big cathedral with tons of stuff to see.  They have the heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, which is interesting, and lots of other interesting stuff to see. We probably spent over and hour in there, because I wanted to see and learn about everything they had on the map of the church (you know theres a lot to see when the church has a map...).

inside of Christ Church Cathedral

 Next, we went to the National Library, because our tour guide the day before had told us that there were people there who would help you look into your geneology.  Since both me and Katey have Irish roots, we wanted to see if we could learn anything.  Unfortunately, when we got there, we learned that we didn't have enough information about our families to properly do research.  Disappointed, we decided to go to the National Museum to see the bog men, but not before I called home to ask my dad about his ancestors.  He wasn't sure, so we went to the museum.  The bog men were noblemen who all met mysterious deaths and were placed in bogs by their murderers so they would not have afterlives.  The bodies are just about perfectly preserved.  They are a little shriveled, and one had been beheaded, but on the rest, you could see their facial expressions, and one of them even still had a tuft of red hair on his head! I found it pretty cool, but others thought it was disturbing. hmph.  Well, when we left the museum, my phone rang.  My dad had called my grandfather and got the information I needed to look into my genealogy, so we went back to the library, so I could do some research.  I found out that my family, The Mullarkeys, are from Sligo, and I got to read the marriage certificate of my great great grandparents.  I got their birthdates, and then from there I looked up each of their parents, so I was able to go back 5 generations, which was really cool.  I found out a lot of stuff I didn't know, and it was so cool to be in Ireland, looking up my Irish heritage! We did a little souvenir shopping, ate dinner, and then called it a night.

Cell block in Kilmainham Gaol

The next morning, we woke up early and went to Kilmainham Gaol, which was the main jail for Dublin from the 1800s until the mid-20th century. The leaders of the Easter Uprising who were caught and jailed were all kept there, and most of them were killed there. During the potato famine, people were intentionally committing crimes so they could go to jail and get fed. The museum in the jail had the book where they wrote down all the information about the prisoners, the crimes they committed, and their sentence. Some of them were pretty ridiculous, including "About to commit a felony,” “Maliciously breaking 26 panes of glass,” “In possession of three dead geese,” and “Common prostitute annoying the public.” They were pretty fantastic.

Me at the Guinness Storehouse

After that we went to the Guinness Storehouse. We learned all about how to make beer, and the history of the Guinness company.  We learned that back when Arthur Guinness first opened his brewery, he signed a 1000 year lease!! It was all very interesting, but the best part was the bar on the top floor.  It had a full 360 degree view of Dublin, which was absolutely fantastic. And we got a free Guinness (although I still find it to be quite icky).  The next stop on our day was the Old Jameson Distillery.  When we got there, we got the last two spots on the tour, and then when the tour guide asked for volunteers, me and Katey volunteered even though we didn't know what we were volunteering for.  So we learned all about Whiskey and how its made, and then when we got to the end, they told us what we had volunteered for-- a whiskey tasting.  So we got to taste three kinds of whiskey and see which we liked best; Jameson won, hands down.  Then they gave us a certificate which says we are certified whiskey tasters! It was pretty exciting.

Whiskey Tasting at the Jameson Distillery

That night, we decided to go on a ghost bus tour of Dublin, which isn't really something I would normally want to do, but for some reason, I really wanted to this time.  And it ended up being really fun.  Dublin has some interesting ghostly residents, and it was funny to watch the tour guide freak people out with his stories.  We learned about the Green Lady, and visited Hell, and also visited a graveyard.  All in all, worth every penny.  

View from the top floor bar at the Guinness Storehouse

The next morning, I woke up bright and early (read: 4 am) to go to the airport.  The lady at our hostel said I would be able to take a bus to the airport from a stop down the street, and that the bus came every hour on the half starting at 4:30, so I was waiting at 4:30 for it.  Somehow, my guardian angel showed up in the form of a taxi driver, who offered to drive me to the airport for the same amount that the bus would have cost.  I happily got in, and when we got there, he informed me that on Sundays, the buses don't start running until 7 am, and so I would have been waiting out in the cold for very many hours and would have missed my flight if he hadn't come along.  Thanks a lot hostel-lady. ugh.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie premiere in Leicester Square

I got back to Rome early in the afternoon and slept for a good long while.  I don't remember much from Monday or Tuesday except freaking out about packing and figuring out if my cousin Pearl would be joining me and my sister in London.

Rupert Grint (AKA Ron Weasley)

Wednesday morning, I woke up bright and early and headed back to Fiumicino airport (my home away from home? I seem to be spending an awful lot of time there lately).  I got to London and went through Customs and then found my sister.  It was so weird seeing her, since it's been so long.  We found out that Pearl had missed her plane, but would be joining us later that night.  So we headed to the hotel to check in and make a game plan.  We took the train to the underground and then got completely lost trying to walk the rest of the way to our hotel.  They don't like street signs in London, so it was pretty easy to get lost.  We ended up eating lunch at a Subway, and then finally finding the hotel and napping.  The hotel was pretty comfortable.  We woke up and ate dinner at some point, at the train station, then returning to the hotel to take it easy for awhile.  Pearl showed up pretty late, and we went to bed pretty soon thereafter.

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger)

The next morning was the day of the HARRY POTTER PREMIERE!!! We woke up super early and went to Leicester Square to stake out a good spot on the red carpet.  When we got there, no one seemed to know what was going on, since the set up had only just begun.  We walked around trying to figure it out, and then noticed people getting into a line.  Not knowing what the line was for, we jumped in it, and waited.  As it turns out, the line was to get into the actual square, up where all the action was.  There was only one person between me and the red carpet!!! So we got in there around 9:30 am, and the premiere didn't start until 7:30 pm, so we stood there in the cold rainy weather for very many hours.  We played Harry Potter hangman, complained about the weather, discussed ways to create an umbrella roof, got angry at the stupid girls in front of us, and basically got excited.

James Phelps (Fred Weasley... or is it George?)

When the stars started arriving, it became quite apparent that we were the luckiest people in the world.  We quickly ended up basically in the front row; I was able to take tons of pictures, and we got Kayla TONS of autographs! Including JK Rowling's autograph on Kayla's copy of Tales of Beetle the Bard.  It was fantastic!!! But, we had been standing for something like 13 hours straight, so we were EXHAUSTED.  We went to KFC to sit (not to eat) because we simply could not stand up any longer.  And, ironically, ran into a bunch of my classmates (the same ones from Dublin.... such a coincidence!!).  Next we had to find Pearl, and get dinner.  Finding Pearl was more difficult than anticipated, but we found her, and found a cute little delicious burger place to eat at.  Then, we went back to the hotel and PASSED OUT. We're talking comatose status here. We were so exhausted.

Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)

The next morning, we woke up and had our wonderful complimentary full english breakfast, including scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and orange juice! So delicious! Then, we headed for Buckingham palace, in hopes that we could see the changing of the guard.  Unfortunately, we were 5 minutes late, so we just admired the palace from the outside, and then wandered through the Queen's gardens.  We found all sorts of strange birds that we had never seen before.  Then, we found squirrels! Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely LOVE squirrels, and I haven't seen one in awhile, so I was really excited. And these were friendly squirrels that we could pet and play with! I'm not even joking. We spent quite awhile playing with the squirrels and the pigeons.  I got a pigeon to land on my finger which was pretty epic (although not quite as epic as the guy who got 10 pigeons to land all over him).  Then we walked to the parliament buildings and Big Ben.  We also saw Westminster Abbey, but we didn't go inside because it was so expensive.

Squirrel!! 

 Next, we went on the London Eye.  It was really cool.  I had heard of it before, but I didn't really know anything about it.  It was definitely worth the trip, since you could see literally everything.  It was pouring rain when we went, and you could still see for miles! We ate a quick lunch at McDonalds (I know, fast food, ew.) and went back to the hotel for a little bit.  That evening, we decided to check out Hamley's toy store, which is huge and amazing, and much like FAO Schwartz in NYC.  We spent a very long time there, and then wandered around the area nearby, which is one of the main shopping districts.  They had their Christmas lights up, which was lovely.

Big Ben!

The next day was a whirlwind.  We had a lot to do and very little time to do it.  We started by taking the Undergroud to the Millenium bridge (bridge destroyed by death eaters in Harry Potter).  We crossed the Millenium bridge and saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  We stopped at Starbucks for 1.5 minutes to get coffee for Kayla and a peppermint mocha for me.  Then we walked to the Tower Bridge.  On the way, we got very distracted with this wall that was a timeline of everything that has ever happened in the world.  It was very interesting, but we wasted far too much time on it.

View from the London Eye

Then, we crossed the Tower Bridge and went to the Tower of London.  We spent quite a bit of time there, because it was something we were both very interested in.  We learned about different Kings and their wives and their beheadings, and also about torture and jail back in the day.  We also learned about crows, living in castles, and Yeoman Warders.

Tower Bridge

Next, we went to the British library, where we saw lots and lots of old books, including some of Leonardo Davinci's journals, some original copies of old religious texts, the Magna Carta, and lots of other cool stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head (I've been writing this one entry for over 2 hours now...).  After the library, we visited Kings Cross station and platform 9 3/4.  We took the obligatory photos of ourselves pushing our carts through the wall to get on the Hogwarts Express.  The next stop was the Wellcome Collection, which is a museum of medicine, in a way.  They have a vast collection of old surgical and other medicinal tools, and just lots of stuff that relates to medicine in different ways.  I really enjoyed it quite a bit, but we've already established that I'm into that sort of thing.

Kayla pushing her cart through

Next stop was the Dickens Museum (AKA his house, exactly as they imagine it would have looked when he lived there). We spent a long time there, reading every piece of paper in the entire house.  It was pretty interesting, and me and Kayla both like good ol' Charlie, so we both enjoyed it.  By then, we were exhausted, and all the museums and such closed for the day.  So we rested for a few minutes, and then tried to find the Burlington Arcade.  We went through Picadilly Square, where the entire city of London decided to go to hang out... there were thousands of people, so much so that we got trapped in the subway station!! Once we got away from the people, we ate a quick (yet disgusting) dinner at a cafe, and then found the arcade. Unfortunately, it was closed. Oh well.  We did some souvenir shopping on the way back and then called it a night.

phone booth!

The next morning, we went to the airport.  Our weekend was over, and it was time for Kayla to go back to the states and me to go home to Rome.  Kayla's flight left before mine, so we got her checked in, then begged for them to let me check in.  Then we went through security, ate a delicious McDonalds breakfast, and did some shopping before Kayla boarded her flight.  Then I had two hours to kill, so I read a magazine in an abandoned hallway before it was time for me to board my flight.  I got back to Rome late in the evening and basically crashed and slept all week.

some Yeoman Warders, just chilling

Except not really because I had to go to class and see my friends (the third DTW rotation is here now; that means my friends are here!!). So in summary, I paid a $173 phone bill, did service at the nursery school with demon children, saw sunset from Villa Borghese (again), accompanied Katey on a boot-buying expedition, slept a LOT, visited a synagogue for my religion class, celebrated my friend Zoe's 21st birthday at an Australian pub, and bought boots at a flea market (not in that order though, sorry).

another beautiful sunset from Villa Borghese! 

Okay, now that I've been working on this for more than THREE hours, i'm stopping. I'll add the pictures in tomorrow... it's 2 am now... ciao!

uh oh

hello blog-world... i've been neglecting you. I absolutely promise I will update tomorrow with the rest of my break (dublin), last weekend in London, and the roman stuff that's been going on. so sorry.

Semester Break

So. I'm back in Rome.... for the next 15 hours or so.

sunset on the plane

Okay. last update was on Halloween, so I'll start from there. Assuming I can remember everything.

Powder Gate

That day, we were planning on going to Kutna Hora to see the bone chapel.  When we got to the train station, we asked a man at an information desk which train it was, and he told us it was at the other train station.... we didn't even know there WAS another train station, and that it was leaving in 7 minutes. So we literally ran to the other station, but didn't make it in time.

Astronomical Clock

Instead, we found out how to go about taking the train the next day.  Instead, we decided to go to the Botanical Garden.  The weather wasn't great, but it was good enough.  We got down there and walked through the garden area, where they had a bunch of rocks on display, which was kind of interesting, and then we accidentally went in through the entrance of the garden, and thus got in without paying. oops. We looked at the flowers for awhile, and admired the changing of the leaves, and then we headed out.

Fall Leaves!!

On the way back, we stopped to look at the Emauzy Monastery, and then ultimately ended up at the Dancing House.  I wasn't really sure why it was called that, or why it existed at all, but the house really does look like its dancing.  It was definitely interesting architecturally, and the sun was setting at that point, so the lighting was really pretty.

Dancing House!

We sat on some stairs and watched the sunset over the castle, which was really beautiful.  Then, we decided that since it was Halloween, we should go hang out in a cemetery (AKA go to the Old Jewish Cemetery which is a really famous tourist destination) but by the time we got there, it was all locked up for the day.  Too bad.  So instead, we decided to go to a Blacklight Theatre show.  If you don't know what it is, definitely look it up.  Prague is famous for it, and it was REALLY cool. The show we saw was about a horror film writer who was having some trouble with his cast.  It was hilarious, and really entertaining, and I'm very glad that we went.  It also fit the Halloween theme pretty nicely.  Before the show, we ate at an Italian restaurant (they're everywhere in europe, it's ridiculous) and I ate the best ravioli that I've ever had.  It was spinach ravioli with ricotta cheese in a simple butter sauce. Absolutely delicious.  And whatever Katey had was really good too. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the restaurant.  That evening, we ended up not going out, since it was a sunday night, and we were exhausted, so we went right to bed.

Coat of Arms in the Bone Church

The next morning, we actually woke up early enough to make it to the train station for our train to Kutna Hora! It took an extra 45 minutes on the train due to various delays, but we got there eventually, and headed straight for the bone chapel.  It was so cool.  I know it sounds creepy and whatnot, but its more artistic than anything.  It's hard to think of it as anything else.  I personally, am fascinated by that kind of stuff, so we spent a really long time there looking at how they used the different bones.  There is a chandelier in the middle of the room that has at least one of every kind of bone, so I was looking for the little bones from the hands and feet and those little tiny bones in your ears, but I couldn't find them.  I found some other interesting ones though.  After that, we walked around the cemetery outside, which was interesting, because some of the graves were rather new, and some people had been cremated and had the urns with their ashes in the cemetery with the rest of the family in the family plots. I also thought it was interesting that some of the graves from more than 100 years ago are still tended to almost daily by friends and family.  They almost all have fresh flowers and glowing candles.  I did my good deed of the day by going around and fixing flower arrangements that had been blown over in the wind.

Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Then we went to the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary that was down the street.  Its a beautiful gothic style church that was full of natural light from the big windows.  It's one of my favorites that I've seen in all of Europe.  It was really quiet and the air flowed through it.  It wasn't stuffy like most churches.  And there was a lot to see all around the church.  So we spent awhile there too, before heading back into Prague.   When we got back, we went back to the hostel to eat dinner and hang out for while before heading out for a pub crawl! The pub crawl left from a bar near Old Town Square.  The first hour or so there is an open bar with unlimited beer and shots.  We started off drinking beer, but then we decided to do a shot of absinthe... I was a little nervous, since I've heard such crazy tales about experiences with absinthe, but it really wasn't that bad at all.  There was less than 15 people on our pub crawl, so we got to meet basically everyone, which was nice.  We met two girls that are studying in Brussels for the semester (the only other girls on the crawl) and they were really nice.  I also met a guy thats studying abroad in Rome, and frequents the same bar that we go to all the time! It is slightly ridiculous how small the world is.  One the pub crawl, we went to two other bars, and then ended up at a 5 story club.  We stayed at the club until about 3 am, and made it back to the hostel around 4 am.  It was a good night.

Tyn Church

The next morning, we slept in a little, and when we did wake up, we headed into Old Town Square for some Starbucks and a free walking tour.  The walking tour guide was really awesome.  He's an american ex-pat, and he had tons of historical information to tell us.  We went all around the city and finally learned about all the sights we had been visiting over the last few days.  I really enjoyed it, but I wished we had done it on the first day, so we would have had all the information going in. After the tour, we went back to the hostel so Katey could do some work for her online class. We hung out at the hostel for awhile, and then went out for dinner.  I had chicken in some sort of Roquefort sauce, which was surprisingly delicious.  That night, we decided to stay in and go to the pub in the hostel to drink a Pilsner beer, which is the main beer of the Czech Republic.  It tasted like beer- surprise, surprise. I'm not a big fan of beer, but I liked it better than a lot of other beers I've tried.  We went to bed rather early so that we could get up early the next morning.

St. Vitus' Cathedral

The next morning we woke up really early and headed to Prague Castle.  When we got there, the woman selling tickets basically forced us to pay for an audio-guide, even though we wouldn't need it.  We spent a LOT of time at St. Vitus' Cathedral, which I found really interesting, and I used the audio-guide to learn more useless facts than most people would ever dream about knowing.  But I thought it was interesting, so I didn't mind.  Here's one for you: The architect of the cathedral was Peter Parler. He took over the project after the original architect died.  Also, when the facade was finished/redone in the early 20th century, the architects wanted to leave their mark, so they included themselves in business suits amongst the religious figures/symbolism.  You have to look pretty closely to find them, but once you do, its pretty funny.  We also visited the old palace thing, and saw the story of the castle exhibit.  I learned a ridiculous amount about Catholic Saints, and some information about the castles inhabitants.  We walked around a little more, but didn't really have enough time to see everything.  When we were done there, we headed back to the hostel to grab our bags and head to the airport for our flight to DUBLIN!

Prague Castle

All in all, i absolutely adored Prague. It's by far my favorite city that I've visited.  I did NOT want to leave, and now I want nothing more than to go back!! I'm going to stop there for now. I'll probably end up coming back later tonight and writing about Dublin, but that took a really long time to write, and I'm going to London tomorrow, so I got stuff to do...

sunset in Prague <3

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!