Buon Natale!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday!

Expect a final wrap up entry of my entire trip coming next week.  I haven't been able to do it yet because its so overwhelming! But I think I'll finally be able to get it done next week!

Again, Buon Natale!

L'ultimo giorno!

I'm about to actually start my last day in Rome.  I cannot believe this is ending. I've seen and done so much in the last 4 months.  I'm a different person.  I don't want to leave these people; this place. Knowing that when it's over, its over for good is such a scary thought.

But right now, I've got less than 24 hours to enjoy this city, and that is what I will do.

America, I'll see you tomorrow.

L'ultima settimana!

"The Last Week"

Trevi Fountain at night

Uh oh. It's getting scarily close to the end of this. I'm so torn about going home!

throwing my coin in...

So Tuesday night I went to Trastevere to have a real Italian dinner with Katey.  We ended up at a cute but really busy little restaurant.  I had spaghetti con pepe e cacio, and it was pretty good.  Afterwards, we walked to the Trevi Fountain so I could FINALLY throw my coins in.  I had really wanted to take pictures of the fountain at night, so I'm glad I got to do that. And thank god for tripods!

Streets in Rome, lit up for Christmas!

Wednesday I spent literally the entire day working on my paper, working on my service journals for italian, or procrastinating doing either of those things.  It was terrible.  But, I got everything done, and handed it in bright and early thursday morning.  Unfortunately, I also had my Italian final that day, and never really got a chance to study for it.  The written part was fine, but I kind of bombed my oral.  Its okay, because everyone did, but I still felt terrible about it.  Then I had theology class, which was the same as always (only one more to go though!).  Thursday night I took it easy; just hung out, recovering from all the hard work I had put in the last few days.

Awesome spiral staircase in the Vatican Museum

Friday during the day, I didn't do much. I finally got some cash, which was exciting. I did some laundry, which was also exciting. I also opened one of my suitcases and put some stuff in it... that was so totally depressing.  Friday night, I went to a club with some of the DTWs.

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Saturday morning I woke up nice and early and finally went to the Vatican museum.  I went through most of it pretty quickly, but I lingered for awhile in Raphael's rooms and stayed in the Sistine Chapel for almost an hour.  When I first walked into the Sistine Chapel, I was pretty underwhelmed.  I've become pretty used to rooms having intricately painted ceilings, so I didn't immediately see what was so special about it.  Then I sat down and took it all in.  It really is quite amazing.  Especially when you imagine Michelangelo laying there painting it all in the time period that he did it in... it makes you appreciate it much more.  And the longer you look at it, the more detail you realize.  I was certainly impressed.  Then I did a little souvenir shopping and headed back to school.  Took it easy for the rest of the day.  All this time abroad is really catching up with me!

Sandra, the cat I wanted to take home. 

Sunday I woke up early-ish and went to the Cat Sanctuary at Torre Argentina with Mandy.  We had an absolutely delightful time! The cats are so sweet. We spent quite a bit of time in the room with the senior and disabled cats.  We both found ones that we wanted to take home, but of course, we couldn't.  The one that Mandy loved was named Lucky, and he was blind in both eyes.  He was so sweet.  When we squatted down to pet him, he hopped right up onto our laps and laid down.  So cute.  The one I loved was named Sandra, and she was absolutely beautiful.  A grey cat with stripes and beautiful green eyes.  There wasn't really anything wrong with her, except that she hated other cats.  She loves people though.  So she sits in this little bed all day, away from the other cats, watching to make sure they don't come near her.  But she perked right up when I went over to pet her.  There was all sorts of other cats with all sorts of interesting stories.  Eventually we went outside and watched the able-bodied cats climb about on the ruins.  One of the volunteers there said that since ancient times, people had brought their unwanted cats there.  So interesting! But we couldn't stay there forever. :(

One of the cats outside

That afternoon I came back to my room and had a quiet afternoon to myself.  On Monday I did service at the school for the last time, and had our last floor meeting.  Then I spent the rest of the day procrastinating studying for my art final.  I guess I did end up studying a little, but right before the exam, I felt like I knew absolutely nothing, and was pretty nervous.  When I took the final this morning though, I knew everything I needed to know, and I'm confident that I did well.  After that I had my last Theology class (unless you count the dinner we're going to on Friday).

Our street after the rioters passed through

During religion, we heard some shouting outside the building.  I googled it during class and found out the italian citizens were rioting... and it had just reached our area.  After class got out, I went to my friends' room and looked out their window.  You could see the rioters, and they had lit several dumpsters on fire on our street.  It was pretty crazy.  The rioting is still going on.  Theres helicopters circling over our building and you can hear sirens, though now they've mostly moved away from us.  It's rather unfortunate though, because I was hoping to go out and do something this evening, since I have so little time left here.  It's probably not a good idea, if you look up how bad the rioting was today and all the damage they did.  So i'll be staying in tonight, maybe watching some movies or something.

Dumpster on fire, right outside of school

Alright, well thats all for now.  Time is running out so quickly, I don't know what to think or feel!! Ciao!

Ciao Bella!

I'm in a cheery mood. Which is suspicious because I'm leaving Italy in 11 days, and I don't want to.

Ostia Ampitheatre

Friday, the school was supposed to take us on a trip to Tivoli to see the famous Villa D'Este.  Unfortunately, we've had non-stop rain here for more than 2 weeks, and so the Villas were all closed.  Instead, we went to Ostia.  I had been to Ostia before, but this was with a big group, and it sounded like fun, so I went anyways.  We took the bus to the train, and it was actually fun.  I think I'm finally at the point where I'm comfortable with all of my fellow semester students, so I never feel like I'm lacking someone to talk to.  It's a nice feeling to be included. Plus, I have Katey and Mandy, which opens up the DTWs to me, even though none of the other semester students really interact with them.  So we got to Ostia and walked through the ruins.  We spent awhile in the Ampitheatre and then headed to the river.  On the way, I found a stray dog. And fell in love. It's not hard for me to fall in love with a dog... I fall in love with every single one I meet. I'm one of those kids that started asking for a dog at the ripe old age of 3 and still hasn't gotten one. So I really liked this stray dog.

Me and my new friend. Photo credit: Kate

He was white. Kind of like a lab build.  He was dirty and his fur was matted, but he just wanted some love! Everyone was afraid to pet him, but he walked right up to me and rubbed against me. I couldn't resist.  A bunch of us petted him, but when it was time for us to go, he followed us. And kept following for a really long time. When we would stop for one reason or another, he would wait for us.  It was really cute, but bad because we weren't sure if he was supposed to stay within the Ostia gates or if he would be able to find his way back.  When we reached the gate, we told him to stay, and he did, but he whined as we left and looked so sad!

There he is. I'm pretty sure everyone on the trip had a different name for him. I didn't name him because then I would have had to take him home!! 

Then we walked over to the castle and the little residential area behind the castle.  It's one of the most adorable little areas I've come across here in Italy.  The houses are exactly how I imagined all of Italy would be.  There were cats there. Lots of them.  Apparently people abandon their cats there and this one British woman takes care of them and tries to find them new homes.  She told us all about them and their names and such.  It was fun! But then our dog friend found us. Which means he crossed the street by himself and probably followed us by scent, since he wasn't behind us and he showed up like 20 minutes later.  We sent him back, but it was sad. When we left there, we got on the train back to school.

One of the cats, Kelly. 

That evening, I didn't do much.  I cooked myself some pasta and broccoli for dinner and hung around the kitchen for awhile.  Then I ended up studying for my Italian final with Lorraine for a few hours.  Saturday I didn't really do anything productive.  I was feeling especially tired when I woke up that morning.  Most of the day was spent either working on homework or procrastinating working on homework.  I had pizza for dinner, and realized just how much I'm going to miss Pizza Colonna when I go home (SOOO much).  That night, me and Lorraine watched Love Actually in the lounge, and it was quite enjoyable.  Definitely got me in the Christmas spirit.  Sunday I split my time between doing my paper for Italian and doing my presentation for Art.  That night, I emailed my paper to my teacher to read, so now I have to fix her corrections and write the last 2 pages.  Sunday was the day of both the first meet for my fencing team, and my family's big reunion/Christmas party, so I kind of wish I could have been home for those. But I spent a while on skype with my family after, and my fencing team went undefeated, so I guess everything worked out.

Him sleeping before he met us. 

Monday morning I had service, as usual.  The kids spent the first half hour practicing for their big Christmas show that's coming up.  They've been working really hard, but the nun still gets so angry at them when they mess up.  Poor kids.  Then, we stayed down in their multipurpose room and let the kids run around with hula hoops.  We played a couple of different games and it was actually really fun.  At one point, they were in pairs, and one was the horse (inside the hoop) and the other was the rider (outside the hoop) and they were galloping around in circles.  One of the little boys, Francesco, would give me the dirtiest looks every time he ran by my.  The first time he growled at me, and then it just kept going from there.  It was hilarious, but I'm not sure, maybe he really doesn't like me? hahah.  We had our semester meeting that afternoon, and they started talking about re-entry and how we go about adjusting to life back in the states. It was SO depressing. Apparently if we talk about study abroad too much it will make people hate us... hm.  That night I cooked dinner for myself and Katey and hung around the kitchen talking with some of the girls.  Then I slaved over my project for Art and Architecture for many hours until about 2 am.

Him laying in a field of daisies waiting for us. 

This morning, I had to actually give my presentation.  It was pretty bad.  I was nervous, so I just read straight from my notecards and talked really fast.  I don't know how long I was standing up there, but it wasn't a long time.  There wasn't actually too much information in my presentation, so I have no idea what kind of grade I will get.  Then I took a nap, and it was one of those really wonderful naps that you don't ever want to get up from.  I was having a really pleasant dream, until my alarm went off and ruined it.  Then I went to Theology and had to listen to a lecture on Christianity.  Then I came here and wrote this! hah!

Part of the castle

We have no classes tomorrow, so I was going to go to Pisa, but now I think I should spend the day working on my paper and writing up journal entries for my service.  I hate realizing how much work I actually have to do in the next week or so.  ugh.  Ciao a tutti!

Some houses in the little area behind the castle in Ostia. 

the end is near....

St. Peter's from the bridge

I only have less than three weeks left in Europe! It's a very bittersweet thought-- I want to go home and see everyone and everything that I've been missing, but at the same time, I know that when I leave, it'll be a very long time until I get back here, and I may never see most of these people again.  But, while I'm here, I'm living it up.  I have to see everything I came here to see and I'm running out of time!!!

Vittorio Emanuele II

So Thanksgiving weekend came and went. I didn't do much, just started writing my wonderful paper for my wonderful independent study.  It is far more work than I ever anticipated.  I was going to just write about the birth of the italian language, but I couldn't find enough information, so I decided to write about Dante's legacy instead.  The paper isn't finished yet, but I've been spending multiple hours a day working on it.  I hope it gets a good grade... especially since its my only grade for my independent study. 

Ruins in the Roman Forum

So on Monday I decided to go for a walk.  I looked in my tourist book thing and picked somewhere random to go.  I wanted to take pictures of the Vittorio Emanuele II monument, and go to Capitoline Hill, so thats where I went.  I started by walking down Via del Corso, and arrived at the monument.  I took approximately a million pictures, and read the plaques so I would actually learn something.  Then I walked around behind the monument, and climbed the stairs to Piazza del Campidoglio.  I looked at the statue in the middle, admired the buildings, and  then noticed a bunch of people taking pictures of something, so I went to check it out.  It turns out that theres this small road leading out the back of the buildings that leads to a beautiful view of the Roman Forum.  I had been there before, but couldn't take pictures because I was with my class, so I followed the path and checked it out.  I also stumbled upon the prison where St. Peter was kept and where he flooded his cell and used the water to baptize his captors.  So I took pictures and then decided that I might as well go to the Colosseum while I was there. So I walked around it and took pictures.  It was really awesome.  I've been around it before, but hadn't taken any pictures, so I was pretty excited.  I spent a few hours out on my own, and it was quite enjoyable.  That night I worked on my paper some more... as usual, and walked to Old Bridge Gelato with some of the DTWs.  I had lemon and strawberry and it was delicious.   

Colosseum

Tuesday morning I went to Art class and listened to a bunch of boring presentations.  After Art, I decided to go on the school trip to the Colosseum, even though it meant I might miss Theology class (I hadn't been inside yet). So we left right after my class, and took the bus.  Unfortunately, this was at the same time as a strike on the metro, and a huge protest by the college students in Italy.  So there was approximately a million people trying to take the bus at the same time, and traffic was moving about 5 inches a minute, so it took quite awhile to get there.  Most of the people that were going had to go to class, so they gave up after about 45 minutes on the bus (we hadn't even crossed the bridge yet).  Then we gave up on the bus and walked about a half hour.  We got to the Colosseum about 2 hours after we left. By that time, it was just me and Katey.  We went into the Colosseum and spent quite awhile walking around and chatting about Gladiators.  It was a lot of fun, even though it was raining (its been raining for 2 weeks straight).  Walking back, we found our way blocked by a ton of police and carabinieri.  They were blocking off all the streets and had riot gear and there were sirens everywhere.  No one really knew what was going on, so there was a lot of confusion.  We made it through and back to the school.  That night, I cooked dinner for myself and Katey, and then we watched Gladiator with Mandy.  The movie was quite enjoyable, as usual, but by the time we were done, it was very late, so I worked on my paper for a bit and then I went to sleep.  

Colosseum

Wednesday morning, I woke up early and went to the Galleria Borghese with Katey.  We got there around 8:30, and were allowed in at 9:00.  It was pretty wonderful.  Theres a bunch of Bernini sculptures, and I really liked them.  My favorite was Apollo and Daphne.  It's really beautiful, probably my favorite piece of art ever. I loved the other Bernini sculptures, too, but that one was just amazing.  There was some Caravaggio pieces that I also enjoyed, but the Bernini sculptures just blew me away.  We saw everything in about an hour and a half.  Then we walked back through Piazza del Popolo and stopped into the church with the Caravaggio paintings and admired it for a while.  Then we came back here and I crashed for awhile before I started to work on my paper.  I worked on it for like 6 hours.  

Me in the Colosseum

Today, I had classes all day.  It was boring. Alas, only a week and a half more of classes, then we have finals! yikes! 

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