Londra

Ciao! Sorry for the lack of posts, but midterms are finally over and I am getting my first real break from work (besides a trip to London, but I was without internet.) Everything is going well. Classes are tough, but I am getting through. We are all extremely annoyed that we have to spend everyday in the library to keep up with work while learning about places/things in Rome. Wouldn't it make more sense to limit the work and actually let us have time to go see the places? Oh well! I am learning a lot so that is good I guess.

This past weekend I went to London with my friend Tyler. Friday was technically the make-up day for wednesday classes, but she convinced the art history professor to let us miss one class and we went thursday night. The weekend was fun, but not without its problems. The hostel was disgusting and an all around bad experience. Luckily we only had to be there for a few hours. We would stay up as late as we could manage and get up the next morning before 7. This did give us plenty of time for exploring, though! We arrived in London friday night after 2am (it was a 10:30pm flight) and went to our hostel, then got up at 7 friday morning and were out early so we could wander the city streets. We went to the national gallery, walked down all the major streets, went to Big Ben and walked around the London Eye (deciding to actually go on at night), and saw Love Never Dies at the Adelphi Theatre. It is the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was extremely strange. I wasn't a huge fan of the use of videos between scenes, but the overall show was great. We went to meet the actors afterwards. We had to wait until they got all of the crazy copious amounts of makeup off of the phantom's face (he is mask-less for about a half hour in the show), which took about an hour or so. By the time we left, we decided to just go back to sleep. The next day we did a tour of Oxford, Windsor, and Stonehenge. The whole thing was extremely rushed. We literally had to sprint through Windsor. Stonehenge was really neat and the area around it makes it that much cooler. Now, Oxford was the real reason we did a tour. Tyler wanted to see the place where Harry Potter's great hall was filmed. She was so excited to see the Harry Potter paraphernalia. To our dismay, Oxford closed the great hall just for this particular day because of a banquet for students going home for Easter. That pretty much put a damper on the rest of the rushed day, and it seemed like a bit of a fail. When we got back to the city, we went on the Eye, went to Piccadilly, explored some more, and went back to sleep. Sunday we got up early for Mass, got a true English Breakfast, went to Harrods, Hyde Park, and had a delicious lunch. We left for the airport in the mid-afternoon and were back in Rome by 9. Since then, I had been working on an Italian project, studying for a religion test, working on essays, and reading for mythology. I am taking this morning at my morning to relax before I jump back into it all tonight. I will post again soon! Ariivederci!

Northern Italy!

Well, get comfortable, this is going to be a long one. I am about to catch everyone up on the last week of craziness including 9 Italian cities in 5 days... I will start off with monday, my final day in Rome before the adventure began. I woke up early, went to my painful music class, and fought not to fall asleep during those long three hours like every monday morning. Near the end of class we decided to ask our professor about the midterm exam that is coming up hoping he could give us a bit of information so we could study on our long bus rides. But no. He didn't tell us a thing, then lectured us on the perils of last minute studying... Which didn't make a whole lot of sense when we were all trying to start studying two weeks in advance. Class ended, and insanity began. I had a few hours before lunch so I decided to head back and pack, which was more difficult than I had thought. Going north, I had to prepare for freezing cold and rainy weather which meant planning multiple layers. Plus I had to fit it all in a rather small bag since we couldn't really bring too much on the bus. By the time I got everything together and ready to go, it was time for lunch. I can honestly say I don't have a clue what we ate, it seems too far off now... but I am sure it was delicious as always. I do remember, though, Miss McHugh making an announcement that we would not be receiving any food all week from the program - no breakfast, no lunch, and no dinner. Plus, they weren't going to tell us of any restaurants so we were on our own for all meals... After lunch, I had art history in which we had a quick conversation about the presentations we had to complete while traveling, followed by a lecture. It was all good and interesting, but I was honestly still sore and tired from the hectic weekend that I was ready to relax. The rest of the afternoon is now a blank until it was dark and we went to grab dinner. All of us got sandwiches to go and ate in one of the hotel rooms. After we finished, I ran to the classroom building with a group of girls, got bus tickets, and went to the train station to purchase tickets to Venice for the upcoming sunday (which was actually a rather last minute decision). The bus took a little over 20 minutes, and when we arrived at the station, we ran to get in line. All five of us bought our tickets, making sure we would be sitting by each other. We were running low on time (our bus tickets were going to expire) by the time everyone got through so we once again ran back outside to get on the next bus. Upon arrival at the hotel, it was getting late so we decided to relax and have a movie night while booking flights and eating cake to celebrate one of our friend's birthdays. We were planning on going out, but that just sounded painful since we had to leave the next morning before 6am... We got to bed pretty early to prepare for the coming week.

Tuesday morning, I jumped from bed and got dressed to go. I layered and made sure I would be warm upon arrival in Ferrara. As I walked down the steps, suitcase in hand, I honestly didn't have a clue what to expect; the program always seems to take the cheapest way possible so I honestly thought we would be riding in something like a school bus. Instead, we had a wonderful bus with comfy seats and a luggage compartment (which I was excited about since I wouldn't have to sit with all of my stuff). I slept most of the way, and was woken up by Dr Prebys screaming over the microphone that we were entering Ferrara and needed to immediately prepare to 'disembark.' A half an hour later, we arrived... I was a bit upset I didn't get that extra half an hour of sleep, but oh well. The first day we went to the Jewish Cemetery and explored the city center. It became immediately apparent upon arrival in the Cemetery that the week long trip was, as we had thought, was going to be based on Bassani. Why this annoyed us all is a bit of a long story and I will be happy to share it with anyone who asks. We walked right by elaborate graves and names that seemed familiar to the very last grave in the cemetery that looked like a strange modern sculpture. This was the grave of Giorgio Bassani, an Italian author. It was interesting, but we stayed for quite a bit longer than most would have liked at the grave. After that we went to the hotel. Room picks were literally set up as a race. First one to the lobby (with the passports of everyone they wanted to room with) that got to Dr Prebys got first pick. The quint was the coveted room because Dr Prebys made it out to be the greatest thing ever, and that was what we wanted. So I was chosen to be the runner and one of my friends was going to get my suitcase. They all handed me the passports and I got ready for the bus to stop. Other groups had planned much the same sort of thing so it was very tense. I was seated right in the front so when the doors opened, I jumped from my chair and went right out to the lobby, girls running behind me trying to catch up. We won and were awarded the quint. Not only was it separate from the rest in its own private section, it had two massive floors, two televisions, a fridge, a sitting area, an eating area, and an exercise bike. The birthday girl was extremely excited and said it was the perfect birthday present. We had the time of our life all week in that room dancing, singing, watching movies, eating copious quantities of food (such as nutella sandwiches, boxed wine, yogurt, and cookies; not all at the same time of course). After an hour of relaxation, we head to our next tour. The town center was neat, we saw a castle with a mote in the center and that was fun to see. Two girls did reports on two of Bassani's books which supposedly occurred in Ferrara. At the end of the day, we went to the hotel to relax. At the end of the day, we went to a nearby restaurant for some famous ravioli and went to sleep.

Wednesday, we met at 8am and left for Mantua. We visited the Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale. We saw tons of frescoes and gorgeous art. After lunch, which consisted of Nutella sandwiches, chips, and soda, we head back to Ferrara. The rest of the afternoon was mainly spent wandering the city and trying to recover from both the weekend before (which we were all still sore from) and the walking of those past two days. It was so much fun being with my group, and I really loved everything about our quint. The night felt like a sleepover, talking for a few hours before getting to sleep pretty early. A kind of funny thing that night was the drama over the bathtub. Some of the girls thought it was disgusting and were unhappy we had no shower so one of my friends asked if we would pretend to be hair stylists and wash her hair for her. It was hilarious. We all through on tshirts and sweatpants, set up a chair leaning back into the tub, and actually washed her hair for her so she wouldn't have to touch the basin.

Thursday was a bit more stressful for me. It was the day of my presentation. I had spent the hours on the bus the day before practicing and going over it multiple times trying to get everything just right. We left for Ravenna at 7:30 in the morning but the bus ride and morning seemed to drag longer, especially as we neared San Vitale where I would be speaking. Our first stop was San Apollinare in Classe which is a town outside Ravenna. It had a neat mosaic covered apse, and we all sat bundled in the freezing cold church as our professors told us all about the history of the church. Next was San Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. A girl did her presentation there, which was wonderful and interesting. After this church, we head to San Vitale. I shook the entire way. They tricked me at one point because we stopped and I thought I was going, but instead we were stopping at Dante's grave which is half way between the two churches. I laughed because we literally spent a quarter of the time here than we did at Bassani's grave. Finally we got to San Vitale and I got up to talk. Surprisingly, my voice came out completely clear and I was able to go on and on about all of the symbolism. Not only that, but people were actually interested! I got questions which I could answer and excited "Oh wow!!"s from the crowd. Afterwards, I was congratulated by the professors as well as my fellow classmates. It was a pretty good time. Two more presentation took place across the way at the Mausoleo of Galla Placidia, then we broke for lunch. We went to a restaurant for some amazing pasta and got back on the bus to see Mesola and Pomposa at which all we heard about was Bassani. We got back late to Ferrara so in a tired stupor, we grabbed food at the grocery store and went up to the room. The rest of the night was spent watching the Lizzie McGuire movie (which is a Disney movie about a girl going to Italy and being discovered by an Italian pop star) and dancing like idiots all around the room laughing hysterically.

Friday morning we got up early and met at 7am. We spent the morning in Padua visiting the city center, the Basilica, the markets, and the Scrovegni Chapel. The Scorvegni Chapel was the most interesting simply because of the silly sanitizing room. Everyone had to sit in a room for 20minutes to be 'sanitized' so that we didn't damage any of the frescoes with our presence. The whole thing was a huge joke. When we went through all of the space age doors into the chapel, and examined the frescoes, we noticed that on the far wall was the original entrance to the church with such huge cracks, we could see clear outside. The frescoes were stunning in the tiny room, though, so it was definitely worth visiting. We got lunch at a restaurant by the Basilica and head to the bus. The afternoon was spent in Vicenza where we visited the Teatro Olimpico and the Basilica. The day was very worthwhile and neat, but we were exhausted when we got back to Ferrara.

Saturday was the last day of the Northern Italy trip. We met at 8am, loaded up the bus with all of our luggage, returned our room keys, and went on our way to Bologna. We visited the Piazza Maggiore, Casa di Re Enzo, the Duomo, the Chiesa di San Domenico, Il Compianto, the two towers, and the university quarter. We pretty much rushed through all of the churches, which was a tad disappointing, but we got to see a lot of neat life-size terra-cotta sculptures representing the time just after the death of Christ. The towers were cool, though we didn't get to go up them since Saint Mary's was too cheap to buy us the tickets and kept us busy until they were closed. The university quarter was very cool, though. It was full of medieval structures, and we found out this was where the first woman graduated from university. At one point we passed a girl wearing a wreath around her neck, and apparently that marked she had just graduated from the university. We decided we should bring that tradition back to the US because it looked like fun (and we were verging on slap-happy at that point). The rest of the day was ours to explore Bologna so, of course, we ate and shopped. I got pasta with bolognese sauce, a few pastries, and various other snacks. That was all I bought. Some girls bought some clothes from the boutiques we looked through, but there really wasn't any 'souvenirs' (I guess since Bologna is known just for food and the university...) We left for Rome around 4 and got back to the Tiziano late at night. A bit later than expected because a few girls took over a half hour at the rest stop eating dinner... I guess they didn't realize it was only supposed to be a bathroom stop. We got some food quick at a cafe and got to sleep early since five of us were getting up early once again the next morning for Venice.

Venice was probably one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. Getting off the train, I didn't really know what to expect, but we literally stepped right out looking onto one of the canals with a bridge leading into the city. It was the official first day of Carnival so everyone around us had masks and confetti. We quickly made our way to the very first booth next to the station which had very cheap masks, bought one for each of us, and put them on right then and there. They didn't come off more than twice all day. We spent about the first hour wandering the city before making our way to the main Basilica for the official 'Flying of the Angel' ceremony and then mass. Little did we know that literally thousands of other people were doing the same. When we got to the piazza, we were forced into the middle by a crowd behind us and then were pretty much stuck motionless surrounded by hundreds of people in a small side area just to the back right of the main piazza. We couldn't see much but it was definitely the best view we were going to get. After about 20minutes of music and people dancing on a stage (which felt like miles away from us) the big screen showed us the woman who was to be flown from the top of the Basilica to the stage across the piazza. We watched in awe as she flew down, moving slowly in a massive red and purple gown, singing the entire way. As soon as she landed it was as if everyone around us was like "well, now that's over" and the entire mob started forcing its way in all directions. All we wanted to do was get to the doors of the church just a few yards from where we stood. We made a train, linking arms, and I led the group forcing myself between all of the people. Thank goodness we didn't bring any bags or anything because it would have been effortless to pickpocket us. When we got to the door, we removed our masks, and I spoke to the guard in my very best Italian requesting entrance for mass. He let us in with a smile and told us where to go. We were a few minutes late since we couldn't get through the crowd so we grabbed five seats at the back. I spent the entire mass in absolute amazement looking at the incredible architecture and golden details in the Basilica around me, which distracted me just enough to keep me from being able to understand the Italian. Mass ended and we made our way back out into the chaos. As soon as we got back through the crowd, we went to a small restaurant for lunch. The wait took forever, understandably, but the food was worth it. (Well, I thought so at least. One girl felt sick and couldn't eat her pizza, another got lasagna and was disappointed by how tiny it was, and another got just a salad. My pasta was massive and amazing!) After we finished eating, they practically through us out to get the next group in (the line was out the door). The rest of the day was literally spent trying to get through crowds, playing with confetti, taking pictures, riding in a gondola, and shopping. I found the perfect gifts for my grandparents and then got my parents a gift I think they will love. It was so much fun, but I don't think I can express how delightful it was to crawl in bed after a long shower that night. I am so very happy to have a relaxing week ahead of me (well, minus the midterm exams, but still...)

The only thing to note from today was the delicious lunch at the Tiziano (pasta with red sauce, cicken, potatoes, carrots, green beans, bread, and gelato) and the fact that I got an A on my presentation last week. Other than that, I have done nothing eventful; not even unpack or do laundry which needs to be done asap... Maybe I will go do that now. Well in any case, arrivederci!!

Firenze!!

Florence is absolutely spectacular!! I can't believe how amazing it all is. The green marble on the baptistry and the duomo is just stunning and the David was far larger and more incredible that I had thought it would be. I actually think, dare I say it, that I like Florence more than Rome. It was quiet, beautiful, and what I expect Europe to be. It had the nice city-like area and just around the corner were hills covered in homes and fun, winding paths to explore. Not to mention how much fun walking around the markets and shops was. I think I may very well have to go back and spend longer than just a day there at some point over my lifetime. For lunch, we stopped at a cute little place, and since I was starving, I got pizza and ravioli - both were splendid. It made me more excited for ravioli in Bologna! I got some good gifts for my family and added them to the fun little stack growing under my nightstand when I got back to the room. I may have to ship out a few boxes to everyone just to clear out space soon...

I am getting rather sleepy since I have been getting up so early everyday this weekend (we met at 5:15 this morning to get to the train station...) so I am going to quickly add my itinerary for next week and get to bed. I will upload bunches of pictures tomorrow afternoon when I am done with class!! Buonasera!

Northern Italy:

Tuesday Feb 22 - Arriving in Ferrara and sightseeing before checking in to our hotel (Hotel Ripagrande)

Wednesday Feb 23 - Mantua day trip, return to Ferrara after lunch

Thursday Feb 24 - Ravenna day trip (where I will give my art history presentation...), return to Ferrara before dinner

Friday Feb 25 - Padua day trip, return to Ferrara for dinner

Saturday Feb 26 - Bologna day trip before returning to Rome after lunch

Sunday Feb 27 - Either Venice for a Carnivale or the Vatican Museums (yet to be decided...)

Perugia!

Well Thursday passed slowly, but I got a lot done. Once again got myself up and went to the library, finally getting out of the television coma. Classes were long but went well and lunch was the usual sandwich. I handed in my papers for Italian and Mythology, and then had a very interesting lecture in Religion. Dinner was strange; I accidentally took a bite of anchovy pizza which was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. The ham and margherita pizza slices made up for it though. Then we all got ready to go out!! It was the first time two of the girls were going out to Scholars, and it was an amazing night. Beret man was a crazy Italian guy who danced around us all night. He was insane and actually started biting a friend of mine's hair... Then three guys from South Africa joined our group in crazy jumping dancing to everything from Party in the USA to Cee Lo Green's big hit and YMCA. It was absolutely the best night out, and I am happy to say that after this first month, I have completely settled in and found an amazing group to hang out with. Thats actually the group I went to Perugia with, but we will get to that in a second.

Friday was good, slept in a little and then hit the library. Our group Northern Italy trip is next week so I will have no access to computers or books and mid-terms are right when we get back... I got all my notes typed and I am going to finish them up monday night so I can study while traveling. (I am going to upload the full itinerary for the week tonight!) Lunch at the hotel was some strange meatball dish with mashed potatoes, and a strange pasta that had fish on it that scared me (especially after the anchovy fiasco). Directly after lunch, we went on a cannoli run and then went to the train station to get tickets for Verona. Sadly though, upon arrival at the train station, we found out Verona was sold out so we got a map and Eurail passes so we could decide where to go that night. We went directly to the library again when we got back to pick a place to go and work some more. After intensive googling, we decided upon Perugia - the home of chocolate with a Nestle chocolate factory. We had a fun night of sitting in our friend's room chatting and watching movies before sleep.

I got up at 6:00 to meet everyone downstairs at 6:30. I was ready by 6:20 so I went to knock on the other girl's door to see if they were ready. It was a good thing I knocked because they had overslept! We managed to get on the bus at around 7 after getting some breakfast and got a train to Perugia that left at 7:45. The train ride was fun, we all talked and took photos off all the rolling hills along the way there. Umbria is gorgeous! It was a slow train so we didn't get to Perugia until 10:30 but it was really fun and we got some short naps on the way. As the train pulled into the station, we all looked at each other with the "where the heck are we and why did we go here??" face. It did not look good. The buildings seemed rundown, the train station seemed liked it was collapsing, and we had no clue where to go. Yay for pre-planning. We decided to go around to the train station entrance to get information and as we walked around to the front, everything started looking up! Literally. And figuratively. The town looked far better from the other side of the crummy buildings and the front of the train station was gorgeous, so we got excited. The walk to the city center took a full hour but the views along the way were breathtaking. Finally we reached a pretty statue in the center of a rotary so we decided we had to be close. Around the next turn was a sign for the centro pointing down into a strange dark tunnel but large groups of people were going in and out so we went on ahead. It lead through an area that was reminiscent of a subway entrance and dumped at us a line of escalators. After riding three consecutive escalators, we ended up in this incredible, yet strange, old building that looked like a castle. The room had a massive statue in the corner that spun and past that was a large doorway. The structure was made of stone, and they were stacked unevenly like you see in ancient buildings, with grand arches and extremely tall ceilings with windows along the top letting in sunlight. As we past through the door, two free exhibits about Perugia were to our left along with the stairs leading out and a museum on our left. We went right, checking out the exhibits before starting up to yet another escalator up. At the top, we were dumped in the middle of a stunning street with pretty old buildings and a large duomo in the distance. For the rest of the day, we explored everywhere finding strange staircases, cute restaurants, fun chocolate stores, and a very cool outdoor market at which I bought a gift for my parents and grandparents. We finally stopped in an information booth to find out what was open since every single church we passed was closed but apparently we hit it on the wrong day for indoor sightseeing (the worst part was the chocolate factory was closed). We were ok with that though, we had fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of the neat little city on a hill. I have so many stories from today that it would be hard to write them all down in such a short time so I will give you the cllif-notes version and I can tell you all the details over the phone - when we got there we were all starving so we went to find a restaurant and found a cute little place in an alley that served Hot Dog pizza with fries on it. Two girls ordered it and we all tried it. It was rather odd. I had primavera pizza which was delightful. We found a park with a tiny playground hidden away that was a bit run down, a guy was near the entrance burning a random cardboard box and then we found a hill that we climbed to find a large collection of stuff and sleeping homeless people (needless to say, we ran). Then on the way down we tried to find a shorter route back and got stuck in a car tunnel with no real sidewalk, but luckily it was a very quiet day (and it did end up being a whole lot faster). We also spent some time in a McDonald's waiting for our train, which was surprisingly similar, but delightfully different at the same time. We got happy meals and milkshakes, our third of four meals today. The train ride back took forever and we got back over an hour late which was frustrating but no big deal. We grabbed sandwiches and head back to the rooms. Now I am finishing up charging my electronics and getting ready for Florence in the morning! We may even hit up Pisa on the way back! I cannot wait! Arrivederci!

Me dispiace!!!!!

I am so sorry I haven't posted lately!!! Things picked up fast and classes have decided assigning projects/papers all at the same time is brilliant... I will have to do some catching up, so here we go!!

I believe my last post ended with last friday night so I will start with last saturday. Woke up late, sleeping in was delightful, and went shopping with a couple girls. We window shopped all along the street with the beautiful designer stores. Then we went along the road leading to Piazza del Popolo and stopped in a few shops. Three of which were Sephora, H&M and Zara, and I found this funny since all three are stores in the US, too. They look exactly the same here too! We also stopped in a leather shop because I was looking for a jacket but didn't find anything I really loved. I was told Florence is the place to go since it is big in leather goods. Two of the girls here told me they found really good deals in Florence so I am waiting until this weekend to get one. Then we got some sandwiches and food out at a cafe. Back in the Hotel, I rewrote my essay, worked on my Italian essay, looked over and started some pre-writing for my Italian project, reviewed for my art history project, etc etc. By the time I got it mostly done I was starving again so my roommate and I ran down to Pascucci's for a quick snack. When we got back to the room, it was dark out, and we thought what a brilliant idea it would be to go to the hill by Circus Maximus for a view of the city at night! So we knocked on a few doors and three of us went off on a walk. Our lack of directions and having only been there once (on a rushed tour) we got VERY lost. We always knew how to get back to the hotel, but we had no clue where anything else was in reference to where we were. The evening continued with walking along creepy dark streets huddling together, laughing and running if we ever felt nervous, but we never went anywhere bad and were extremely careful. We always made sure there were people around in the street and restaurants before we turned down a street. When we finally got to the Circus Maximus it was an absolute relief. We stood at a crosswalk, waiting for the walk sign to turn green, laughing about everything we had seen and everywhere we had been on our way there. The walk sign went green and we started strolling across the very wide street. Suddenly, when we were about halfway across the street, the light started blinking oddly (none of us had ever seen a light do that, the walking signs have red, yellow, and green lights like regular street lights) so we started speeding up but the light went red and the cars started going with us standing there! We were practically screaming and felt like we were playing frogger getting the rest of the way across. After all the excitement and the hours that had gone by, we decided it was best if we just went back to the hotel. So we avoided crossing streets the rest of the way back, and took the path we now suddenly remembered from the tour... It took about 10min to get back which just made us laugh even more at how ridiculous the whole evening had been, but it was amazingly fun and exciting. I got to sleep pretty quick.

Sunday morning was slow, but once I got myself up I started on my work again. The library is closed on weekends which makes everything more difficult, but I continued what I could and got a lot done. In the late afternoon, the same two girls we have been hanging out with a lot lately knocked on our door wondering if we wanted to go get some food and walk around a bit. We quickly grabbed our coats and off we went. We spent the whole afternoon out and about trying to find a place to eat. We walked all the way to the Jewish Ghetto but couldn't find a restaurant that we wanted to stop in so we went back to the area around us and found a nice place to eat by the Pantheon (I got penne with a spicy tomato sauce, but it wasn't spicy at all). Lunch ended up taking forever because the service was really slow but it was fun to just sit and talk. When we finished, they walked with me to the post office to find out about my package but they were not helpful. One girl decided she had to show us all her favorite bakery so we decided to go get cannoli's! My first real Italian cannoli and it was amazing!! I think I may be obsessed since I have been craving them now every night. So after we ate the delicousness, we head back to the hotel to get some work done before dinner and mass. I got working right away and when I finally got something done it was time to head to Delfino's for a quick dinner. I got a tomato, mozzarella, and prosciutto thing that was reminiscent of a hot pocket, but far better tasting. Mass was delightful, I read the first reading. After mass, we head back to the hotel and relaxed. A few girls went for a walk but I was far too tired. I guess it was a good thing I didn't go because when they got near the vatican they were swarmed by seagulls who proceeded to poop all around while the girls ran screaming... I talked to some friends and got to sleep.

Monday morning, I woke up very early for music class. We spent most of the class watching an opera that was very good, but nearly impossible to follow since we skipped half of it and kept going out of time order. He didn't want us to watch the whole thing for some reason so he had picked out specific scenes but if we just watching it all probably would have taken less time. He took forever to find what he was looking for. Class ended and I went back to the library to begin my intensive research for my Art History project. I have to give a 10 minute presentation about the Presbytery section of the San Vitale church in Ravenna on our northern Italy trip next week. I managed to get all of my initial information down, including an introduction about the history of Ravenna / where in time the building of the church fits in and the basic layout of the church. I did a little bit of research on my mosaics but stopped working on it after two or so hours to get back working on my Italian paper due tomorrow (thursday). I surprisingly got it done and was very happy about that. After the library, we had lunch at the Tiziano. We had some weird meat stuff with sauce on it and gelato. Art history came up next. Nothing too exciting, just a long hour and a half of intensive note taking. After class, I head back to the library once again. I worked until around 7, then went to Pascucci's with a group of girls for dinner. I was proud of my surprising productive day. When I got back to my room, I relaxed for a bit, talked to people online, and finished up some homework. A few friends asked me to look over their Italian projects for the intro Italian class. I was happy to help! Then one of them agreed to look over my myth paper since she had myth last semester. She had me fix one sentence and said that she thought he will really like it. It was a nice boost of confidence. The rest of the night was spent on the computer.

Tuesday I got up around 10, stripped my bed and cleaned up the room a little to prepare for the maids, and head back to the library. I read my reading assignment for Italian with the help of handy dandy google translate. I did another quick review of my Italian paper since I had the time, and finally went to submit my myth paper online. At first, the librarian gave me the wrong password to turnitin.com so that didn't work, then she found the right one and I got on, but my professor hadn't posted the assignment yet so I couldn't submit it anyway. I got a bit worried but decided I would just print it off if he never set it up. Then I was off to Italian class. We discussed our most recent reading assignment and got another assignment to do along with the essay, which made me even more thankful I had it done. Class was fine, and interesting enough, but I was beginning to feel fried. After that, I sat around on the couches in the school building reviewing the reading for myth before class. That class also went well, but my professor sort of lost it on a girl who made a comment about studying to be a lawyer - and it was not nice stuff. She came pretty close to tears, and tried to stand up for herself, but he kept on going, cutting her off with rapid fire lawyer jokes. Let's just say it wasn't the best class I have had yet this semester. I got my religion test back first thing when that class started. I did well, but not as well as I had hoped. I got everything perfectly right except that one question I said I thought I had missed something on. Apparently that one thing I forgot lost me 3 points out of 25. Oh well, I will do better next time! We started our next topic - social ethics - and began with a lecture on how theological ethics transitions into social ethics so well. It was all very interesting. Class ended precisely at 7 so we all sprinted to dinner as fast as we could. We had lasagna, which I found to be delightfully delicious (others said it was terrible, and some girls got sick from it... I guess I got a the best piece). After I finished eating, I head back to my room. To reward all of my this week, and since I had practically everything done already, I watched all my favorite tv shows and a movie before sleep. Apparently that wasn't my best idea. Instead of refreshing my mind and helping me continue working hard, it made me feel far more lazy and instead of getting up to go to the library in the morning like I had planned, I slept in and watched a few more tv shows.

Once noon rolled around, I started getting up and getting ready for the day. I finished my last Glee episode, and went for lunch with a few girls before our two lectures of the day. They were long, in a row, and boring. One of them was technically my art history course, so I would have needed to go anyway. I decided it was like killing two birds with one stone! When they were over, I returned to my room with the intention to study. Nope, the ora of laziness has taken over. I looked online for trips and am booking Ireland, Paris and this weekends excursions to Verona and Florence. Oh well, I will be productive again tomorrow, I swear. Time passed fast and the next thing I knew it was 7:05 so I sprinted down the stairs to get in line for dinner. Luckily, I was just late enough that there was barely a line and most everyone was already eating. Getting food was a breeze, no hitting trays with anyone. I ate my tomato soup and fried chicken/meat patty thing with potatoes slowly, and head back to the room to get ready for mass. The four of us girls head down to mass, the only four there (which is a tiny part of the reason we go...) It was short, and I read part again. Afterwards we made a quick grocery run. I am now sitting here writing this and attempting to motivate myself to do something. I guess I should get going and see what I can get done tonight. Arrivederci!!

I disturbi della vita in Italia...

Hmm.... In order to accept a present shipped from home, I have to pay a tax over double the cost of the original gift, fill out three forms completely in Italian, and go to the post office to discuss with them what the purpose of the package is. Not to mention I won't even get the box for another couple days since it cant be moved from Milan until it has finished being processed.... Thank you Italian government. As a general request, while I love them dearly and hate to say it, please do not send me anything over the rest of the semester. Apparently there is a possible 5 euro charge and paperwork for cards, too. So emails are just perfect! Grazie!

Me piace pizza e gelato!

Thursday was a delightful day - slept in late, got lunch at Pascucci, went to Italian in which we watched a rather bizarre film, then mythology (got a perfect score on my project and first quiz), then religion. It went along like normal, and dinner was pizza and soup as is the case with every thursday evening. I spent the rest of the night studying religion for my exam and preparing to lead the discussion in mythology. Got to sleep pretty early, and got up pretty early the next morning. At 4:30 I was woken up by my cell phone - I guess my parents accidentally called the wrong number - oh well! I found it funny, and fell back to sleep without a problem. My alarm went off at 9 and I got up to continue studying and get ready before lunch and my meeting with my myth professor about my first paper. For lunch we had bow-tie pasta with pesto and fish with mashed potatoes and green beans. Delicious! My meeting with my professor went well, he enjoyed my essay, he just wanted me to strengthen my thesis to be more argumentative. We talked about it and turns out I came up with a far better idea in the end, so I may very well just rewrite the whole thing for next week. I am writing about how Achilles is the most relatable character in the Iliad according to today's standards because he is the only character who shows his own perspective loud and clear. He fights authority but still does the 'right thing' (according to his times). I am excited about it. Myth class went really well. I lead the conversation (each member of the class has to once over the semester) and it seemed to go well. I am excited, I think I am going to do really well in that class. The religion test came next and it was crazy easy! I had everything memorized and actually felt like I studied too hard. I couldn't remember one part of one question, but I really think I did well. After class, I went to dinner with a group of girls to a small pizza place. I got a pizza with egg on it and we shared white wine. It was fabulous! Then we went for gelato at Giolitti's and ate in sitting on the steps of the fountain outside the pantheon. While sitting, we actually ran into a girl from my high school! What are the odds? I am now enjoying a relaxing evening watching movies in my comfy room, my first non-stressful or busy or work filled night in a week or so. It is rather delightful. Well I should be getting to sleep soon as it is nearing 1am, so goodnight! Arrivederci!

Martedi e Mercoledi

These past couple days have been fun but not really post worthy so I decided to wait and just write about the two together to make the posts look a little less depressingly short. =)

Monday night was relaxing, worked on my mythology project on Hera and started thinking about my myth essay. For dinner, a bunch of us met at Pascucci for sandwiches and such. I got my favorite - a pizzeta with pomodoro e mozzarella - and a glass of fresh orange juice. Both were delicious. I head back to the room and worked on my Italian homework before bed. I had to do another reading but this story was far easier for me to understand... I guess I am getting better at this after all.

Tuesday I got to sleep in a bit, then got up and prepared the room to be cleaned. I left for the library shortly after 10:30 to get out of the way of the maids. In the library I managed to do all of my research, finish my myth project and essay, go over my Italian work, and start studying for my religion test all before 1 when I left to grab a sandwich. Italian started at 1:30. The class went well, and I was really excited because I could fully understand everything for the first time as well as communicate my points rather well. Maybe I will be able to speak legitimately by the end of this semester. After Italian, I head back to the library to start looking over my paper and reread the reading assignment for myth. My project isn't due until my tomorrow, and my paper isn't due until next thursday, so I was really getting ahead on my work. Mythology went well, it was a very interesting class with lots of conversations and debates over the Iliad. We had our first pop-quiz, which I had expected since we hadn't had one yet and we just finished the text, so I was completely ready for it. Everything went well. Next up was religion; interesting as always yet he managed to seriously scare us all... He has given us at least 5line definitions to each overall concept. When we asked about the test, he said it was an open-response test that he hadn't written yet, but there would be no essay. At that point we were all feeling pretty good. Then he said that if he asked for a definition, we had to give him the exact memorized definition he had given us originally. The 5 line ones. I am really worried about this test. My roommate and I have been studying and are going to study together tonight and tomorrow night to prepare, so I should be alright. After religion ended, we head back to the hotel for dinner. It was the most bizarre meal yet and no one could figure out what it was. I ate most of the strange meatloaf like patty that was burnt crisp on all the edges before deciding to skip to the delicious cake we had for dessert. Back in the room, I continues work on my project, talked to friends and my mom, and got to sleep.

This morning, both of my roommates were up at the crack of dawn; one for class and one for work. I slept in nice and late. When they got back to the room, I still wasn't up and the two of them changed into running clothes and went on individual runs. When they got back from their runs, I still wasn't up. It felt like a crime just sleeping til 12 while in Rome, but like one of my roommates said, how many times do you get to sleep in a luxurious hotel room? We have to enjoy that too! I got up and got ready for our tour that afternoon. My roommate and I got lunch and head up to the classroom building. The tour was neat, I got to see the Trevi and Spanish Steps in daylight for the first time. When we got back to 'campus' afterwards, we went up for a required lecture. Lucky for me, the lecture was my art history course so it was like killing two birds with one stone! I had to be there anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Some of the other girls were not too happy. When it ended, I once again made my to the library to once and for all complete my Hera project, and to make edits to my essay. Tomorrow is technically the pre-write hand in date for the essay (Mythology gives everyone two options when handing in a paper - handing it in a week early as a prewrite, then getting corrections to hand it in as a final or hand it in on the due date and get a week to make changes after that. The only real benefit of handing it in early is getting your grade sooner.) I will present my project first thing in class too. I ended up staying in the library working from 4 til 6:15, then went back to my room to get ready for dinner and mass. For dinner, we had absolutely delicious food. Potatoes, soup with pasta, cauliflower, and what I believe was chicken smothered in mozzarella and tomatoes. Topped it all off with gelato and I was a very happy girl. We then left for Wednesday night mass. It was quick, there were only about 6 of us, and now I am back in the room about to begin my Italian worksheet before sleep. I will post again tomorrow about how my project and everything goes! Buonasera!!

Home sweet Rome!

Well, I certainly never thought hearing Italian again would make me feel at home. While Prague was spectacular, beautiful, and amazingly fun, I was relieved to get back to a language I can actually begin to understand. Czech may very well be the most complicated thing I have ever seen or heard.

Anywho, yesterday was the perfect final day in Prague. We got up early, packed our stuff, and checked out of the hostel before 10. The hostel is nice enough to have lockers in a locked room in the basement for people after they check out so we locked up our bags and jumped on the first available tram to the city center. Four of us went to an old church in the heart of the city for mass. The church was probably 30 degrees colder than it was outside. We were shivering the entire time! (Later, we found out it was so cold to protect the art that literally filled the entire church. I would upload pictures of it if I had any, but no cameras were allowed inside. They are really doing everything they can to preserve the frescoes, gold-leaf covered statues, and ornate architecture.) I couldn't follow anything anyone said the entire time because I don't even know a single word in Czech, but we followed best we could. After mass we ran out of the church to warm up in the 45 degree weather. Next up on the list for the day was going back to the second bakery we found. The cookies were to die for! I got a bunch of them and a croissant for breakfast. After a short walk, we returned to the old town square and sat for a bit waiting for my roommates cousin who is studying there. When we found her, she led us to a few sites and then asked if we wanted to see her apartment. She tried explaining that it was in like "Praha 7" and we were in "Praha 1" so it wasn't too far...? We just nodded and smiled. So off we went following close behind. As the walk continued, and continued, and still continued, we started falling just ever so slightly further behind. She noticed and laughed. "You guys are going to kill me!" she told us. Apparently the NYU students live in the furthest part of the city from where we were. It was really cool to see though. Once we got to her building, we climbed the nine stories worth of stairs, legs beginning to feel like jelly, before reaching her room. The view was absolutely spectacular! We could see the TV Tower from her window which really does fit with its title; the second ugliest building in Europe. (I don't think I want to see the ugliest building at this point...) It is a strange modern looking thing with large statues of babies crawling up it. Yes, I did say babies. I'd recommend googling it for pictures. We only stayed inside for a minute or two before walking back down. My roommate's cousin said she wanted to show us the parks she runs in. They were not in the best shape since it is winter, but the views of the city were breathtaking. The dog walking park was set on a perfect hill overlooking everything. We could really get a feel for the mix of architecture from there. The walk back to the city center was less painful than I had thought it would be and when we returned we stopped at another bakery, grabbed a bench in the sun, and enjoyed the live music in the square. Soon the rest of the group met up with us after a day full of shopping for them. We stopped at a few more souvenir shops and head back to the hostel with bags of groceries for dinner. We used the kitchen in the basement of the hostel to make sandwiches and get our meals together, ate, and grabbed our stuff to head to the airport. Traveling was not a problem at all, easy as can be. It seriously was a stressless weekend full of amazing sites and fun.

Getting back to the hotel was also easy and we walked in the doors just after 10:30pm. I went straight upstairs to charge my phone and get online just like the rest of the group. I wanted to make sure my family knew I was still alive. I talked to them for a bit before taking a shower and getting ready for bed.

This morning I had my 8am class which went well. There were some technical difficulties but i think overall it was a good time. Then I went to the library to work on my myth project on Hera the goddess of marriage due thursday. I have to do a quick 5min presentation on her. I got a few books and gathered my information. Doesn't seem like this is going to be difficult. I ran back to my room to change before lunch at 1. We had the most delicious pasta I have had yet, some chicken, and strange vegetables that tasted rather terrible (plus they were cold, but I really don't think they were supposed to be.) For dessert I got two flavors of gelato. During dinner, I also planned Florence for this weekend with a few girls from the Prague trip - I can't wait! Then I grabbed my books and head to art history. Class was good, a tad boring but I was interested enough. We learned a lot about Florence which made me all the more excited. Class ended just before 4 and I have been in my room since working on my project and Italian reading. Everything is going really well! I will post again tomorrow. Arrivederci!

Prague - Day 2

Today was a lot of fun! We started later than expected even though we set an alarm for 9am. We got up and ready really quickly but took forever to eat breakfast and leave the hostel. A group of girls went to the post office to send post cards and grab breakfast at the supermarket instead so those of us eating at the hostel finished and sat for close to a half hour waiting for them to return. We left around 11, took the tram to the city center and started our day out, once again, at Starbucks. We split into two groups - one group that explored the mall and shopped, and my group that went out into the city to see the sites we missed the day before. At 1 we watched the infamous Prague clock do its thing (it moves and such, quite fancy; I will add pictures as soon as I can but if you google it you will probably find a video of it.) After some more exploring we head to the Charles Bridge to meet the other group. It took probably around a half hour just to cross the rather short bridge simply because we stopped every two feet to take pictures of the gorgeous views. The town on the other side was adorable. We walked all through it on our way up to the castle. While surrounded with stunning views, the castle was a tad disappointing. I almost expected something similar to the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina but instead it was smaller, and unfurnished. Well, there were more buildings and the churches were gorgeous, but the actual castle part was tiny and unexciting (for me at least.) It was still amazingly fun. On our way down we stopped at a caffe and as the sun went down we searched for the John Lennon wall. It was amazing! We stood there taking pictures of and with it for close to an hour before heading to the supermarket. I got a sandwich, fruit, and water for dinner and others did the same, but a few girls got stuff to cook back at the hostel. I just finished eating and ran up really quick to write this but I will be running down to rejoin the group momentarily. I am really having an amazing time! It is hard to believe how much I have done and seen in two short weeks. I will post again when we get back late tomorrow night. Buonasera tutti!!

Prague!

Well I made it to Prague today! Yesterday was a good day, lots of class then a good pizza and soup dinner. Got to sleep pretty early (the internet was down in the hotel.) This morning we got up at 4:45 to meet a car that was picking us up to take us to the airport at 5:45. The flight was quick and easy, absolutely no troubles at all, and security was ridiculously relaxed which I found interesting. I left my shoes on AND left my liquids in my bag. When we landed, a car met us to take us to the hostel. Sir Toby's is amazing. Very quaint, cheap, and extremely friendly staff. Plus it feels extremely safe. We are in a good area with a secure main door which you need a code to get in. Our room is cute and only our group if 9 are in it whichis very nice. We have a locked door into our room and bag locks so I am definitely not concerned about my stuff (not like I brought anything important anyways.) When we got everything settled and took our first group pictures here, we bought tram tickets and head to the old city center. Prague is beautiful! The mix of art and architecture on every street is just amazing. We did a long free walking tour before stopping in a few stores and grabbing dinner. All we really had to eat was starbucks in the morning when we arrived and some bread from a bakery so we were pretty hungry. The restaurant was cute and had delicious traditional Czech style food. I think everyone really enjoyed it. Everyone is dead after waking up so early and walking so much so we are calling it a night early tonight. Tomorrow will be the night out on the town. I will try to post again tomorrow but I am using the free computers in the hostel which are extremely difficult to get a hold of so no guarentees. If not, I will be sure to add pictures and all the rest of the adventures when I return to Roma (where it is going to be 60 and sunny for the next 10 days unlike the freezing, snowy place I am now.) Buonasera!

Time speeding by...

This week has flown by without me really noticing it seems. One minute it was Monday morning and I was rushing to class, and the next I am packing for Prague before my line of three classes in a row this afternoon. I am starting to worry that is how the rest of the trip is going to go. So I have decided I can't let myself get drawn into a daily routine, I have to do something different everyday to make the very best of these three months without letting a single day slip by unnoticed. I think that will also keep me posting on here more often. Tuesday and Wednesday felt like completely normal days, nothing special, so I didn't feel the need to write about them. I am now realizing how much we actually did. So here we go:

Monday night I still wasn't feeling well so I got my Pascucci's sandwich, caught up with some friends, and got to sleep by a ridiculous hour. (Something like 8:30 I believe.) The next morning, I slept in til about 11, then got up to get ready and eat before Italian at 1:30. Class was good, we discussed the first Italian book we read that weekend before going over some simple grammar. Then I had about 50min until my next class so I went back to my room to read some mythology before class. Big mistake. I was feeling pretty bad at that point, headache and everything, so I sat down on my bed to read and passed out. I slept for an hour (yes, an hour, which made me about 20min late for class) so when I woke up I sprinted out of my room. My professor absolutely didn't care. After class I apologized profusely for being so late, and he said when I walked in his first thought was "Man, I hate it when students die during class." My fellow students also told me I looked awful, apparently how sick I was feeling showed. He laughed it off and said not to worry. Of course I did worry, but it seems like it wasn't a problem. Directly after that I had religion. It was another very interesting class. I think I am really going to enjoy it. For the first time, religion actually ran the full time ending directly at 7 (we usually end about 10-15min early.) As soon as he let us go, all of us ran to get into the dinner line. We had massive pieces of lasagna, salad, and cake. During dinner, we were all reminded of the three hour movie we were required to watch starting at 8. As soon as we were done with dinner we got changed into comfy clothes and walked to the school building. The movie was pretty terrible. Well, I am not sure if it was or not but with a column directly in my line of view, I couldn't read a single subtitle. Everyone else seemed to dislike it too. No professors stayed for longer than a few seconds so instead of watching, the room was filled with talking, whispering, and sounds of ipod games. I guess we really didn't give the film a shot at being good, but how can you expect a group of tired and frustrated college students to sit and watch a three hour movie on the unification of Italy after a very long day of classes? As soon as it ended we went back to the hotel. I went to sleep right away.

The next day I woke up at around 10 feeling amazingly better. I still had a sore throat and a cough, but that was it. I was excited. We had a tour at 1:15 of the Jewish Ghetto, Tiber Island, and the Circo Massimo. All very interesting, and rushed. I will have to go back and really see it all sometime soon. I had art history right after the tour, and then went back to the room to nap, talk to my mother, and relax. I got my homework done and felt tons better, so I decided I would go on the pub crawl. But only for a little while. I went to the first pub with the group, stayed for the two hours they were there, and then another girl said she wanted to leave so I joined her. I got to sleep before midnight and slept in this morning.

Today, I got some laundry done and packed for Prague, and now I must run because I have just enough time to grab lunch before Italian (sorry for the rushed end of the post, I will try to add more details soon!) Arrivederci!!

Solo un altro giorno medio...

Today was not the most exciting of days, but was still enjoyable. I think I am getting sick so I have been doing everything I can all day to get myself better quick. I woke up feeling terrible at 7:30 but had to run around my room to get down in time for music at 8. The class was interesting, but painful as can be. I had a sore throat and could barely talk, but he would ask us to speak (since it's part of our grade) and then would tell me to speak up. It was a long three hours. I think the entire class fell asleep during the first opera. After a weekend of late nights, early mornings, and a ridiculous amount of walking, we were dead. He got frustrated when he was talking because people's heads kept falling as they drifted. Once the class was over, we dragged ourselves out of our chairs to the caffe to stock up on caffeine. I went back to my room for a short nap before lunch. We had a pasta with a oil sauce and some strange roll of meat with broccoli and potatoes... It was delicious, but I really couldn't tell you what most of it was. I got my usual fruit flavored gelatos before heading to art history. Luckily, it was a far better class than music. I felt a bit better after downing cough drops and vitamins, and I was no longer dead tired. I took four pages of notes in an hour and a half on some amazing mosaics we are going to be seeing on the Northern Italy trip in a couple weeks. Some other things that happened today - we signed up for a pub crawl wednesday night for one of the girl's birthday parties (we get a special deal for her birthday and already got our shirts), talked to a few friends I haven't heard from in a while, and cleaned my part of the room. I think I may attempt laundry after dinner, but I want to get to sleep as early as possible so we'll see about that one.

As for now, I am debating between a quick Passcucci's dinner or a nicer one. I think I may just grab a sandwich and fruit quick tonight. I am not feeling really up for much else. Hopefully I will have much better things to write tomorrow, sorry for the less exciting post today... Buonasera tutti!

Molto foto!!!!

Random assortment of pictures! I will have to find somewhere better to post all of these soon...

Colosseum;

St Peter's;
Vatican;
Again;
Tiber River;

Roman Forum;

Room of intellectuals, Capitoline Museum;
Sunset over Piazza del Popolo;
Sunset continued;
Beautiful sunset scene;
Roman Forum;
Roman Forum continued;
Collapsed column;
View from the top of the Spanish Steps;
Climbing the Spanish Steps;
Fountain at the base of the steps;
Trevi;
Again;
Pantheon;
Again;

Tours, tours, and more tours

Sorry for not posting yesterday! It was crazy hectic with all of the tours. Friday night was fun! We went across the Tiber to the small town and stopped at a few bars. The first couple weren't that great and the prices were too high for us. It took a while to find somewhere, so a girl texted our RA, Miss McHugh, where she would recommend. We found the bar but were disappointed to see it was not only a tiny room, but it was empty. We walked in anyway to check it out and sat down for a minute. It didn't take long though before we got up to leave. A few girls were getting very frustrated not finding anywhere to go so the next bar we found we stopped at and tried to get a table inside. The place was packed, the prices were good, and it seemed like a great place to hang out. But, of course, they didn't have room for all 10 of us so we ended up paying to sit outside in the cold and drizzling rain... I got a ciocolatta calda con la crema di whiskey and I loved it. We just sat and talked. A few of us were getting kind of hungry so we ordered nutella crepes and they were amazing!! I may have found my new favorite sweet food, next to gelato of course. The rain completely cleared and we sat for about an hour before deciding to head back. Most of us had the 9am tour the next morning so staying out too late wasn't a great idea. A couple girls did stay out, though, and apparently they had an even better time. I personally loved the sleep.

The next morning it was almost impossible to get up but we managed to drag ourselves out of bed, and into the cold. At precisely 9am, the entire group of new students sat anxiously, with coffee in hand, to go to the Roman Forum. Twenty minutes later, when all coffee was finished, and girls were getting a bit unhappy, the two professors arrived. Without an apology for their tardiness, we began our weekend of unending walking. In about 5 or so minutes, we reached the strip of street reaching from the "Wedding Cake building" (giant white building that looks like a cake, but the nickname actually came from the fact it was dedicated to the man who united Italy) to the Colosseum. The whole length of road is lined with ruins dating back to ancient and imperial Rome. We all couldn't wait to get to the Colosseum and when we went to the gate of the Roman Forum to go for a walk around it, we felt taunted by the gigantic building. I really wasn't too excited for the Forum because tons of the ruins are visible from the street we had just walked along. I felt we had seen enough and I wanted to go see the Colosseum. But to my surprise, the Forum was a major highlight of my trip so far. We got to explore the house of Augustus and the complex of the Vestal Virgins, which apparently both are newly opened. The museums inside were also extremely interesting. Our tour guide was my art history professor, and she told us all about the history of just about every important structure. This tour ended around 12:20, and lunch wasn't until 1, so we explored the Forum on our own for a bit before heading back to the Tiz. For lunch we got a meat and cheese platter, pasta with pesto sauce, and fruit salad for desert. Directly after lunch ended, we went for tour number 2 of the day. We all thought it was silly to walk all the way to the forum in the morning and back to the hotel just to walk back to the Colosseum an hour later, but it worked out fine. The Colosseum was amazing. There were displays of bones found when excavating and we heard tons of history. Apparently there were enough pulley's for animals and trap doors to bring out 60 lions at the same time. We walked up and down stairs for two hours exploring every nook and cranny, but sadly our program didn't feel like buying us the tickets that also get you into the newly opened this winer bottom portion of the building, which honestly was what I was most excited for. That takes you down to where the cages and rooms were for the animals and gladiators. It is supposed to be amazing. I think I will have to go back. Once again, though, when the tour ended, we stuck around to take more pictures. Tyler and I decided that we would walk to the Piazza del Popolo afterwards. Miss McHugh said that one of the most amazing things she has seen in Rome is the sunset from the top of the hill at this piazza. We got to the main road leading there to realize it was packed with people protesting slaughter houses... To avoid them, we went to a different street and cut in a different way. By the time we got to the hill we were dead with throbbing feet. The longest we had sat all day was our 45min lunch. Still, we made our way up the extremely steep walkways to the top. It was so worth it!! After the sun went down the view was spectacular. We rested on a bench to watch the whole thing for an hour and when we felt rested enough we made our way back to the hotel. For dinner, we went to a small restaurant across from Pantheon (which is literally around the corner from the hotel). I had a bruschetta, pizza, and white wine. After that we head back to the room thinking we were going to crash and put up our sore feet. Instead a few girls convinced me to go out. I got showered, dressed, and head out. We started at Abbey Theatre, which is a very cute small bar, but was far too crowded. Instead of repeating friday night's adventures, we went to a bar we now know well, Scholar's. It was a blast! We all hung out and talked, and eventually joined another group of American students. We stayed out til about 3 and then head back to the hotel to get some sleep before our next tour.

Sunday morning my alarm went off far too early and we dragged ourselves out of bed once again to head out on another tour. We got to the Vatican around 10:15, and mass was at 10:30. We spent a little time outside in the main piazza area, then head into St Peter's at 10:20. Mass didn't look like it was going to be too crowded so we explored the basilica before heading up to the very front section for mass. We all sat in a pew just a few minutes before it began. While completely in Italian, I followed along decently well, and I think it may be one of my favorite Masses I have ever been to. It was gorgeous. Afterwards, Miss McHugh said we were going to get to see the Papal Audience, when the Pope goes to his window and speaks to the crowd, but turns out we didn't. Our tour started right away because we didn't have enough time to do everything before we needed to get onto the next tour. So while still in pain from the day before, we toughed it out for two hours. By the time they finished it was 1:20. We had to be back at the school building for the next tour at 2 and the walk is at least 20 minutes. Plus all we had eaten all day so far was a croissant and hot chocolate or coffee at 9am. We got back as quickly as possible, ran into the hotel to quick change into more comfortable touring shoes and clothes, and ran to the small cafe to get lunch. We got panini to go, and I got a powerade (which is surprisingly much tastier here in Italy.) While a few minutes late, the professors didn't mind. They let us have a minute to sit and eat, but as soon as we took our last bites we were herded out the door and to the Capitoline Museum. Now, after spending all day Saturday on our feet and all morning running around to meet our ridiculous schedules, we were all in throbbing pain and seriously craving some time to nap. We walked to the museum, climbed the massive hill to the top, and walked for 2 hours looking at some absolutely amazing art (which was the only thing keeping me going at that point.) We heard incredible stories about each piece we stopped at, and I got some neat photos. As soon as it was done, we hobbled back to the hotel and crashed. At 6:20, we got a knock on our door and our neighbors stopped by to tell us that they heard from some of the other American students from the night before. Apparently we were meeting them for dinner. My roommate and I once again pried ourselves away from our delightful beds and went out with them. Dinner was delicious (spaghetti with tomato sauce, nothing fancy), and the gelato after was even better. I came back to the room right after to relax since I have an 8am class, but some girls continued on with them to Scholars.

I must now depart to finish some reading for tomorrow and sleep. I will post again soon! Arrivederci!

Mia Eccitazione!

Today was a generally unexciting day consisting of class, studying, and more class with a bit of eating thrown in just for fun. I woke up at 7:30 this morning to get to my 8 o'clock music lecture which just about made us all fall asleep. It ran for 3 hours. It was really interesting, and I enjoy the class, but listening to opera music in a warm, dark classroom with a soft voice talking in the background makes it nearly impossible to stay awake. After that ended I read for art history, took a quick nap and went down for lunch. We had alfredo pasta, green beans, potatoes, quiche, and gelato. After lunch we went to art history. It is definitely my favorite class. My professor designed it for non-art majors (and basically anyone who knows very little about art) so I am finding it very easy even after three lectures. The readings are always interesting. I am excited to show off my knowledge when I act as a tour guide for my parents in April. The night continued with a bit of craziness booking our trip for next weekend, and I decided I am going to Prague with a group of girls who had the whole thing planned instead of waiting around for the girls who wanted to go to Ireland or London. I am all set to go with my flight and hostel booked! There are 8 of us leaving next friday morning at 7:45, and we are staying at Sir Toby's hostel in a 'dorm room for 8-10 people.' Hopefully it will be just us in a room for 8. I am excited to see Prague, but for now my excitement is more over seeing the inside of the Colosseum (including the newly opened basement corridors) and going to mass at the Vatican before taking a tour through it. A few museums are going to be thrown into the mix making this a fun history filled weekend in Roma. The adventures begin at 9 tomorrow morning.

As for tonight, a group of us are planning on going out around 10ish to a few bars. We are going to try to get the feel of the night life in Rome from some of the veterans of the program. They said they would show us all of the best places to go. Should be fun! I will post pictures soon =)

Una Esplorazione!

Dinner tonight was delicious again. We had a bean soup with some sweet bread and salad for our first course, then pizza with prosciutto and mozzarella, and finally fruit for desert. After dinner we went back to the room. I heard a knock on the door, and my neighbors had stopped by to ask if we wanted to go for a walk. We jumped up and grabbed our coats! Not really knowing what to do, we started walking in the normal direction towards the street with our class buildings. Finally, we decided to go to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. I definitely disagree with anyone who said the Trevi was disappointing! I turned the corner and was in awe. The way the water and statues were lit in the darkness was beautiful. And I could definitely get far enough back to take it all in. I loved it! I think it will be a new studying destination for me. The Spanish Steps were pretty amazing too at night. The fountain at the front was glowing and the steps looked almost ominous at a distance with the spotlights. We walked up to the obelisk at the top and took in the view of the city at night for a few minutes before heading down. The whole walk down we were practically attacked by men trying to sell roses. They left me alone for the most part but chased down the four other girls. (I decided to walk down the other side of the stairs to avoid them.) We took the scenic route through the old cobblestone streets back to the hotel where we are now attempting to plan our trip for next weekend. We are going to Dublin (and if that absolutely won't work, then we will join another group going to Prague.) I cannot wait! Back to skyping mom and sleeping soon. Arrivederci!

Io Esploro Roma

Well, I managed to roll out of bed this morning at about 9, which was later than I had hoped since we were all going walking at 9:30, but it all worked out really well anyway. I got dressed and went to knock on Tyler's door so the two of us could get breakfast at Pascucci's and meet everyone. I got a cheese pastry and juice, Tyler got hot chocolate and a chocolate pastry (she said "I feel like I am eating diabetes." Apparently hot chocolate here is literally a melted bar of chocolate in a cup, with whipped cream.) We ate for a while and waited but no one showed up. Thinking they must have forgotten we head up to the hotel to look for them, and of course, they were all dropping off their books and were about to head down.

I fell asleep shortly after writing that last night, so I will continue it now. A group of us walked from the hotel to the Campo di Fiori market where they sell fresh fruit, vegetables, and many other food items as well as souvenirs. We wandered around the collection of items for sale for about a half hour and left for the Colosseum. The walk was much shorter than expected - we didn't really realize how close everything really is. It was spectacular just turning the corner and seeing the massive Colosseum in the distance. We explored the ruins all along the road leading up to it, and when we finally reached it we realized we only had a little under an hour to get back for our group tour. So we did a spin around the outside, looking at all of the things around it before deciding to head back. (We get free entrance to the Colosseum saturday anyway, and we decided we could wait.) On our way back we stopped in a church and then grabbed sandwiches at Pascucci's before meeting the rest of the group for the tour. Once again, the tour wasn't the best. This one was far more painful than the one before. We practically ran for about a mile, stopped at Augustus' family altar and tomb before once again running to the Piazza del Popolo. Though it was a rather quick stop, we learned a lot. The massive arch way at the far side of the piazza was designed to be the grand entrance to Rome. When ever anyone traveled from the north, this would be the first they saw of Rome. At the opposite side are Bernini's sister churches, designed nearly identically and splitting the three roads that all lead to the piazza. The middle road, back in ancient times, led directly to the Roman Forum. Now, many buildings stand in the way. After that, we ran back to the pantheon to make sure we could get to art history on time. Class was interesting, we discussed catacombs and early Christian art. That was my only class of the day. With all of the running around, everyone pretty much crashed after class, and dinner was at 7. For dinner we had minestrone/pea soup and peas with meatballs and potatoes for dinner. For desert I got orange and strawberry gelato. Delicious! I spent the rest of the night studying while a good majority of the group went out. I managed to finish all my work, talked to my mom, and tried to write a post, but I was far too tired and just went to sleep.

The twin churches (Bernini)

Piazza del Popolo
Augustas' Tomb
The Colosseum (of course...)
Roman Forum Ruins

This morning (thursday) I got up around 10, showered, and read before my Italian class at 1:30. While I would like to explore in the morning with people, there are only 3 girls in my Italian class, and everyone else has Italian at 10 so it isn't really possible. Class went well, and I am far less nervous about it. My professor seems to be pretty easy going. After Italian, I went to Mythology, and right after Mythology was Religion. Both were very good and I am enjoying them! Dinner was directly after religion, and now here I am at 8 o'clock. My homework is all complete for tomorrow so I am relaxing and trying to figure out the plan for tonight. There is talk of booking tickets to Prague for next weekend. Another group is discussing Munich. I'm torn between the two so I guess whichever is booked first is the one I am going to go with.

Tomorrow is the 'monday make-up day.' We don't have friday classes, but because the semester is so short, they added another week by taking four fridays and putting each day's classes on one. So monday's classes are tomorrow and in two weeks we will have tuesday's classes on friday. Should be a relatively easy day. Buonasera!

Le Fotografie!

Piazza Navona

La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

Palace at the Piazza Navona

Top of the center obelisk of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

La Fontana

Campo di Fiori

Packing up the daily market in the Campo di Fiori

Flowers for sale in the Campo di Fiori

Fountain outside the Palazzo Farnese

For the rest, go to my facebook page and check out my Rome album!