I AM-sterdam... or want to be.

Welp, back from a minor hiatus for no reason! I still will blog about Paris, Siena/Bologna, and Kelsey's visit. I think these things need to be written about so I will definitely be writing about them!

Anywho, let's talk about the most recent of my European excursions to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I just learned that Amsterdam is still referred to as in the country of Holland, not many people call it Holland anymore which is weird and I assume because the Netherlands include Belgium as well.

It was a relatively short trip but we did SO much. We left at around 1:15 thursday afternoon, there were 6 girls total. The perfect sized group, and everyone worked SO well together. We split two cabs, headed to the airport and checked into our swiss flight. We got to Amsterdam around 8pm that night and managed to find our way to the train to take us to the "Centrum" of Amsterdam, also known to us Amurricans as the downtown or central part of the city.

Our hostel was called the "flying pig" it's a very well known hostel in Europe! It was definitely to go along with the name, very cool vibe and people from all over. There was a bar, a smoke room, and a house cat. You can't go wrong with any of those things can you? I was in a room with 3 other people who I didn't know because I booked later, but it was fine. The beds were nice, and honestly the only time I spent in my room was to sleep or to find something that I didn't have.

So the first night we got there, and put all of our stuff in our room. Then we ventured out to the city. It's a very cool city by night it has canals everywhere, and there are people out and about. There are smokeshops everywhere, which are referred to as "coffeeshops" in Amsterdam. It's legal to buy pot here, and they all have menus that have different kinds of weed on them. It's weird for pot to be accepted by the police, it's not a legal drug, but the police just over look it! So of course, we went to a coffee shop after getting a muffin because we were famished. The flight, Swiss, provided us with AMAZING sandwhiches with cheese (even better than Californian cheese) and chocolate but we were still hungry.

The name of the coffeeshop was "Barney's" a little out of the way, but we got to wander the city and see the canals by night and start to become aquainted with our new surroundings! We even managed to find a coffee shop called the bull dog.. which of course I took pictures of. I guess we're followed around by our mascot no matter where we go! The coffee shop was very quaint, we ordered some pot called .... something desire? I am not sure what it was called but we got a gram full. It was a lot for 6 people. We sat in the coffee shop, smoked, and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Amsterdam is all about the atmosphere, it's a very calming and chill place and everyone is on such a different level. No one is stressed, every one is very friendly, and people just take time out of their day to enjoy going out with friends even just to sit and talk. It's the European vibe, set to a scandanavian background.

After that we headed to one of the best burger places I have ever ever been to... perfect food. They had angus beef, and made everything fresh in front of you! It was SO delicious, it even came with a heaping of fries and special sause. I was in food heaven, such a nice change from pasta that I couldn't even bring words to describe it. Pasta is amazing, but burgers are definitely needed once in a while!

We headed home, and I went up to bed with my new roommates. I luckily got one of the former vikings, a large hairy hairy man who slept on the bunk above me and whose snores shook the entire building. He had really long blonde hair and grunted quite loudly. What a CHARMER! The other two were quiet girls who were feeling the same way I was about the house being rocked by our new best friend. Oh well, it was still a bed!

The next morning we really got going. We got up had breakfast at 8:30, and were out of the door by around 8:45. We had bought tickets already to the Anne Frank house and headed there. Of course we got lost, but somehow managed to find it. The Anne Frank house is where she hid for two years before the Nazi's found her. Her entire family was living in the "Secret" Anex on top of a wharehouse, only 2 or 3 people knew they were they so they could bring them food and necessities. The entrance is up these very steep stair cases and then you have to open a book shelf to get into the rooms. The bookshelf was placed there by her hiders so that they wouldn't be easily found. It was intense to be able to go through the entrance that I had read about in her journal. She was only 13 or so when she began to live in Amsterdam, she was originally from Germany but her family had to flee to Amsterdam to hide there. We then got to see the entire layout of the anex. The rooms appeared large, but when thinking that 2-3 people lived in each and all of the worldly posessions they all had and how dark and lonely it was suddenly it didn't seem so spacious.

We went into Anne Frank's room whom she shared with another one of the hiders. Her room still contains the cutouts on the wall that she posted when she first moved in. She said that this was to make it less dreary and seem like a home. For a 13 year old, it must have been one of the most scary and humbling experiences of her life. Her father turned the house into a museum to try and demonstrate what hate and prejudice for no reason do to people. Along all of the walls were quotes from her journal relating the rooms and the visitors to what she felt at the time. One of the most moving quotes was in the kitchen where is said "Sometimes, I just want to walk through the front door, be a kid, laugh and dance. But I cannot." Her family was contained in the walls of the annex so that she would survive and not be caught and sent to a concentration camp. The hardships that this young girl faced were some of the most movings words I've read. I think it affected me more than the concentration camp because I could relate to her in a way that I can't even explain.

On the way out, her journal is there and you can see her real handwriting. You have experienced what she did every day, the fear, the longing, the people who were everything, and finally you read that she didn't make it out. That was the hardest part all of their work, and fear to end up in something so sad. The museum offers to the viewer a place to really reflect, and think about a tradgic event from the perspective of a real person.

After we left the Anne Frank museum we were all pretty shaken. SO we went to a cafe (just a cafe) and some amazing cappucinos and apple cake. It was a nice break, and we walked a bit by the canals and continued to get a feeling for such a beautiful city. We then stopped by the Tulip Museum of Amsterdam, it's a beautiful building where they have all the tulip varities. I picked up some tulips for the Madre and friends from home (that are LEGAL to transport, SCORE!) and we just browsed. They were very friendly and very nice.

The tulip museum...

We then wandered around more and went to the Vondelpark, the largest park of Amsterdam. It's a beautiful park with lots of changing tree colors and a cafe in the middle. There are small pondish deals everywhere and bikes lining every row. It's very nice.

Playing in the park.. and the entrance.

After that we went to the Heinkeken museum for some cultural experience. It was the place Heineken started and the tour was AWESOME! You go in it's very interactive. Some parts even include becoming the beer, they take you in a room, and have chairs that move and you watch a video of you going through the process of becoming beer. It was awesome to see what you are drinking from the beginnning to the end! The most ridiculous part was our "commercial" trying to sing Dutch for the Heineken advertisement, we are definitely not going to be stars for Heineken anytime soon. We then got some free beers at the end of the tour, and got to see the inside workings of the factory! SUCCESS!

After that we were all famished and found a little expensive restaraunt. We then wandered to another coffeeshop and tried to finish our new found pleasure of smoking. After that, we decided we NEEDED to go to the red light district. This is one of the most famous, sex shops and brothel areas in Europe. The lights actually change to red on the top of the streets when you enter and there begins to be a lot of sex shops. The vibe totally changed.. it was very weird. We were expecting to see rooms as we walked down with redlights and prostitues inside, but we didn't at first. Then a man wolf-whistled, and we turned down an alley and there it WAS. The redlights. There were these rooms as you walked by with glass sliding doors and girls in bikinis or less standing inside by the beds trying to get your attention. The redlights were on top of the door meaning that they were a prostitute. There were men wandering around everywhere. We went down an alley that was solely these redlight rooms, each side had 15-20 rooms as we walked down and men wandering up them taking their pick of who they wanted for the night. Some of the doors were closed meaning that person was 'busy'. It was one of the weirdest places I have ever been, I can't even explain the feeling. It didn't feel real, but it definitely was. There were men talking to the women's whose doors were open about their price for the night or what they were willing to do. Once we left, the vibe completely changed. I can't say I will be going back there anytime soon.

basically what is looks like, without posting anything... really dirty. i got this off google you aren't suppose to take pictures there.

We then went home, exhausted from running around the city all day and FELL into our beds happily.

The next morning we got up had another APPETIZING breakfast of Coco puffs and wandered to the canal cruise. It was an hour long tour of the city by boat, pointing out the highlights. It was nice to see everything form the canal, most of the places we had already been by because we had walked a lot the previous day but it was nice. THe canals are absolutely beautiful, and the boat was very nice because it started to rain and we didn't want to get poured on. I love the city, all of buildings, the canals, the bikes EVERYWHERE, the lack of a rush and finally just the vibes.  We then went for a quick little shopping strint, got on the train headed to the airport and enjoyed some good Swiss quality food on our way back to our home, Florence.

My roommate Sarah and I and our friends went to a bar last night for our friends 21st.. and then went dancing at a club. Our friend had a friend visiting from Morroco so we found a tiny little bar/club with a bunch of Italians and spent the rest of our night there attempting to dance. It was a good time. Today was lazy sunday of cheap sandwhiches, homework, studying, naps, and some social time after church.

What an amazing trip to Amsterdam and weekend! I am so so so lucky. (Thank you parents, so much.)

Cheers from Italy! :]

When it rains...

LAUGH!

So honestly.. one of the best nights I've had in Florence was tonight. To some it may appear a disaster, to me it was stomach pains because I laughed so hard. I had the brilliant idea of going out at 1am after we returned from Bologna. We all agreed.. well me Katie and Aloo. It wasn't wet, and Italians go out late so it seemed like a good idea. We all headed out to the shot cafe. Then we went to red Garter... which was no fun without any GU people there. I didn't realize how essential and crucial the people I see every day are to my happiness. But it was weird! The large group makes things less awkward, people respect you more even when we are loud, and just leave you alone.

Anyways after that we headed to Twenty one which is a club here. It's the spot where all of the local-more sketch people know to go. Normally we are with a larger group of Americans so its more fun and we just dance stupidly and have a good time... but it was just us. I found some kids from the university of Florence in a corner who were diggin life and just enjoying everything so we danced in a circle with them for a bit. They were a lot of fun, and our dance moves were actually accepted by them! WHO KNEW?

After, we left and found a random group of kids from minesota studying in London. They were visiting Italy... we talked to them for a while and then our group decided to lead them to the club. By this point it was pouring rain and we began to get soaked. After we got halfway there they gave up on us and we were drenched, in the middle of florence without anything but ourselves and our clothes which were soaked with all the rain water. SO I laughed.

There will never be a night again where it downpours so hard you can't see in fornt of you and nothing matters but dancing and laughing. We began to walk home and met a random homeless man on a bicycle who said "IT'S A RAINY DAY!" and he was wearing a trash bag. We laughed and began to dance in the street. Who cares if you're soaked? Who cares if you don't look good? Open up your eyes, see you are in ITaly, it's downpouring and you are laughing! So that's what I did. We were unrecognizable when a group of kids from London/New Zealand began to talk to us they are working at a winery here or so they claimed and have a "castle." Of course, they invited us and we had to decline because that's weird, and also we were too wet to do anything but to walk home and laugh the whole way over nothing but our situation and our lives.

When I got back to the pensione.. i talked to the student who works here during the nights about how we got wet and he laughed. It's just a night to laugh, and I love it. GOODNIGHT GUYS :]

PS. We went to Bologna and Siena this weekend... I will post an entry about the two cities soon with pictures!

You can look all over...

'But you'll never find hot shit like mine, oh it blows your mind.'

Kid Cudi's song while sounding mildly vulgar kind of embodies how I feel about Italy right now. It's maybe a more modern approach but I do agree. This city is blowing my mind every direction I turn, every word I speak, every new person I encounter. I'm trying to open my mind to new ways of thinking and new life. It's hard to sometimes want to go out into the city and explore, especially when we are tired on weekends but we do it anyways. We push ourselves into territories which are new, unfamiliar and sometimes a little scary. But the benefits are beyond reason, we grow as people and we see new cultures that change our perspectives.

SO all this leads me to quickly summarizing my weekend. We went to the museum yesterday called the Uffici. The Uffici includes the painting entitled "The birth of Venus" by Botacelli. This painting is just sitting in one of the galleries, I turned around.. and opened my eyes. It was insane, to see one of the most famous works in person and be abel to appreciate it. We bought a pass that allows us to go into most of the museums in Florence for free now, we can go whenever we want, whenever our heart desires and stare at beautiful paintings and skills.

The galleries did take a while to go through but they were worth it. Luckily my friend knows a ton about art and is taking art classes so she could educate us on a lot of the details of the paintings that was nice so that we got to understand deeper what we were looking at. Sometimes I get tired of staring at religious images, painted in gold that to me have no significance. I know they are pretty and outstanding, but why is Jesus imaged as an older man in a baby's body? I know now, it's because he was wise and they did not have perspective of how to make a man into a young image! I learned so much already.

Well, today we are doing homework and going to the Boboli gardens. It's a pretty calm day in Florence, we are all pretty tired for the first five day week last week. As much of a joke as that sounds it's not, we travel a lot, do a lot and try to enjoy our time here. We all get super exhausted because we are going all the time, it's nice to take a step back and be able to see everything from a calm perspective.

I think I'm growing up in this country.

Ciao :]

Little bit delayed...! The voyage down South!

Hellllllllooo!

SO this entry I guess will be about Sorrento, Capri, and Positano! We went there last weekend (now four days ago) through Euro Adventures! This is on the South West Coast of Italy... one of the most beautiful places I have been honestly.

This was the port of Sorrento, where we took the ferry to the island of Capri. So I'm getting ahead of myself. We left from Florence at around 7pm at night, drove all night in a bus with great movies (including couples retreat, a real treat) and finally arrived at about 1:30am in the morning. The bus ride, while a little long was faster than i thought due to being extremely tired and sleeping.

So we got there early in the morning and headed to our bungalow. Italy has VERY VERY strange names for 'Cabins.' This place was honestly, just a glorified cabin. The location was pretty nice very close to downtown Sorrento we had to head down to the downtown which was a little bit of a hike down a hill but gave us a better feeling of the town. Our bungalow literally looked like it was in the middle of the jungle, it came complete with vines and grapes growing from the 'ceiling' or canopy. It was awesome! I was in a cabin with 5 girls, one being my roomie normally Sarah. It was nice, but we were all kinda sniffly so at night we sounded pretty great.

The next morning we woke up, and got on a ferry at around 8:30. We went to the island of Capri, the ferry ride was about a half an hour. But it was worth it for the view! The pictures above are pictures from the ferry ride over there.

When we got to Capri, our guide suggested we get Caprese sandwhiches before doing the death hike. So of course, we can't say no to food so we got them. It was one of the best decisions of the weekend. They were phenominal. They were made with bread, mozarella, tomatoes and some sauce that I'm not sure what kind it was.

This is a picture of us reveling in the glory of our sandwhiches. We were all very happy, ate them all, and then decided to scale a mountain. In that order.

So we hiked up to the main part of the island of Capri. It was beautiful a nice panoramic view of the city. We then continued up from that point and started on our mountaining climbing experience. They warned us that the hike might be a little difficult, but I don't think they ever stressed the point that it was UP A MOUNTAIN. Most of it involved climibing rocks at weird angles, and hiking up dirt clumps that didn't look climbable. 

This was about the difficulty of the hike, in so many words. 

Although when we got to the top it was all worth it. The view was one of the most amazing sights I've seen, an hour hike for an entire view of the island as well as the main land of Italy. I was definitely digging it. PLUS! They gave us champange at the end to celebrate, and I think to calm our nerves. 

This picture is taken at the top of the mountain. Not too shabby of a view huh?

So after the hike, we ventured back down. The walk was very easy on the way back, we took a completely different road. We then walked around for a bit and had some food and tried to recover! We then went on a boat cruise. The boat cruise with our guide "Fabio." Not really sure what his real name was, but man was he a baller. He drank from the bottle, smoked his cigarettes and drove our boat while blaring music at the top of the speakers ability.

Let's say... the boat cruise was very needed and amazing after our hike! 

This is a picture of some of us on the boat, while we were enjoying the sites of the Medeterranian and the sunshine. The weather that weekend was beyond perfect. We crusised around, went and swam through a few of the caves, got to see the blue grotto. The blue grotto now was ridiculous, we had to go in this small little boat pay 10euros, and lie down on our way into the cave. Although it was completely worth it. The colors inside were indescribale, and our guide sang so it was pretty worth it.

 

This was our little private boat into the grotto BEFORE we had to lie down. Our guide had to lie on top of us to get in because the roof of the cave was so low and the tide so high.

After we finished the boat cruise we chilled, had dinner and headed back to the main island. We spent a quiet night at our bungalow, cooked some pasta from the market, and relaxed.

The next day we went to Positano! This is SUCH a beautiful city. It's right on the cliff, and the busride to it was all on the cliff. A slightly freaky ride, but totally worth it to get to the city. We spent the entire day on the beach going into the water, enjoying the sunshine and soaking up some South Italy vibes. There were definitely a fair share of those people wearing speedos, but it's Europe, right?

This is Positano.

We also went on another boat ride which was great. We went swimming, cliff jumping, and again just enjoyed the fact that we were in the South of Italy.

That night we headed back to Sorrento and had some dinner downtown. The view leaving Positano was incredible, and completed a wonderful day.

We went to a little lemon jello shop where they sell all things lemoney, which Sorrento is famous for. We got to meet the guy who made our products and even take a picture with him. I felt so honored, except when they said he was single. I'm not too tempted to have a life making lemon jello.. as great as that would be.

Although i mean, c'mon, it is piteresque right? NOPE!

Okay, so the next day we headed to Pompeii. This is the ancient city that was covered in ash and was found more recently. The remains of the city are still pretty intact and you can see the buildings, frescos, and get a general jist of life there. We took the train, spent the morning exploring the city after paying 11 euros and got to see a city we've all heard so much about and now finally got to see.

The city was amazing to see. You can Mt. Vesuvius in the background, and the sidewalks and main road are still intact. It's incredible to be able to still see the marks on the road where the carridges, and wheels passed by 1500 years ago. There are still mummies within the city, that were petrified when the ash and lava came down. They are still preserved and in the last position they made before they died. It was insane to see.

We then headed back that night, and got home late around 11pm. School started monday and we are now in our first FULL week of school including school on friday. It's off to Cinque Terra for the day on Saturday and staying in Florence on Sunday, can't wait!

CIAO! Erin

Backkk again!

Hello World,

So it's tuesday at 9:38pm. Which to everyone not in Europe means about 12pm amurican time. We went to Venice this weekend, left Friday morning and came back on Sunday evening.

Now Venice.. there's a city to rant about. So we got on a bus at 7:55am in the morning and headed straight to Venice. We were all obviously very awake and very put together and nobody slept on the bus. It was a scintallating four hour bus ride in which we got to look at the Italian country side. very very pretty. Success Italy.

We arrived at our CAMP ground... no I am not kidding, we stayed at a camp ground near Venice. It looked liked this:

Now normally I wouldn't think you would go camping near Venice, but hey, they were nice little mobile campers near one of the most beautiful islands ever. Totally made sense. It even came complete with a beer garten and happy hour. Not what I would have pictured but oh well.

That afternoon we headed by ferry to the island of Venice. I found out that Venice is actually 117 islands all connected by bridges, the moment you step off one and go to another is when you are entering a new island! So, we went island hoping one could say. The boat ride was not too shabby a nice 30 minutes on the water, with wind in our faces and our excitement about Venice growing. The view nearing Venice was absolutely outstanding. All of the buildings are very historic, and you can begin to see some of the cannals very far away.

This was the first view I saw of Venice. I was incredibly excited not going to lie. So when we got to Venice we got a tour of the city by a guide. I felt very much like a tourist wearing the headset and having to listen to her voice, but it was incredible to get to hear all about the culture of the city. The other picture is of some friends of mine and I in the main square of Venice. This was taken when we first arrived, before the tour and everything was new and fantastic!

Next we got a few hours to walk around the city by ourselves. A group of us got together and walked around got some food, and just browsed the city. It's a very toursity city, but there are a lot of little hidden streets with cool stores that you can browse and people watching is a must. I got really into all of the types of buildings of Venice and so managed to take a ton of pictures. I really liked the style of windows and the different colors that appeared archaic on some of them. 

Anyways, we also got to see a ton of gondolas strolling down the canals. Lucky for us, we even GOT to go on a gondola ride. Ironically it started to rain the moment we got on the gondola, which was pure luck. However, it was still an incredible experience to be able to stroll down the canals in VENICE on a gondola with some awesome people. We got to see everything from a different perspective and go under the bridges instead of over them. 30 minutes later, wet, but incredibly happy we emerged from the gondolas and went back onto land.

This is a picture I took of the grand canal, with two gondolas just sitting in their dock. An image that to me signifies Venice. The other picture shows the bridges that connect every island to the next. There is no actual land it was all man-created!

So after that we had dinner at a nice little place in Venice. Me and my friend Maddie shared a date table and a bottle of red wine. It was awesome food, I had pesto and spaghetti. Italian meals are longer and more enjoyable than those in the states. I get to spend more time talking with friends, enjoying the food, yet dont feel rushed or pressured.

My friend Maddie and I at dinner. We had a pretty nice romantic dinner, complete with a bottle of wine. :)

After that we headed back the campground to enjoy a night at the bar. We hung out with some friends from Gonzaga and later that night tried to go back to the cabins. They weren't kidding when they said it was going to RAIN. Oh it did. It downpoured. The walk, or rather really really fast run back to our "cabins" got us all drenched. We were completely soaked and our 'cabins' were also drenched. It was absolutely insane. Luckily, the next day our cabins were still wet and smelled like wet dog. But it's near Venice, water is a big thing!

Our gondola and our escape from the flood in the cabin... kidding. But really our gondola ride! "Cesar's Crew" rather.

The next day we headed for the Island of Murano. This island is FAMOUS for it's glass blowing artwork. We spent the day touring around the city and literally going into every glass shop we could find. We had a nice meal one of the local restaurants then spent the rest of the day looking at glass. The artwork of glass is incredible and one of the ladies even explained to us how they make them. There was a man blowing the glass in the back of the gallery that we got to see, it was very fast but absolutely incredible. After spending most of the day, we had an incredible meal which required that we buy drinks as well in a restraunt back in Venice. We all ate pizza because we were starving, big enough for about 3 people yet we managed them. We then headed back to camp and went to bed. Early, of course.

Murano, and below the man blowing glass in the back of one of the galleries.

Sunday we went to Ferraro. It was a little random town known as "the city of cyclists" it was very pretty but we were only there for 2 hours. We went to the castle and enjoyed seeing as much of the city as possible. Afterwards we came back and got back into the swing of things. Now it's Tuesday and my two most difficult days of school from 8:30am till 6:30pm are over for the week. I am exhausted but food coma happy and am in my triple enjoying the pure feeling of being well fed and in Italy.

Picture of the weekend: 

pure venice bliss with the madster. This is on the ferry on the way to Venice, we were pretty happy about it. The rain parka of course came out the day after the flood, wish it had been soon. Until next time, ciao belle! Buona notte!

When in Florence....

Do NOT eat Gelatto every few minutes. As tempting as it is, don't do it. The last four days have been filled with so much gelatto that honestly I think I may have gained the freshmen 15 within the course of the weekend..not really, but it feels like it.

Speaking of food I have to mention the MOST amazing place on earth that we went to last night. So we were hungry, as per usual, in Hotel Colorado. We didn't know where to go eat so we deicded to ask their 'pensione daddy.' He's a native of the area, knows the local places pretty well such as what to avoid and what to see. He pointed us towards this little more locally known restraunt. Our waitress was RIDICULOUS, super super funny. She asked one of the girls who ordered her steak 'not purple'.. if she wanted it SEMI-dead, or to still be mooing. I found this hilarious for some reason. However, the food in general was phenominal. We sat there for 2 hours just soaking in all the flavors. I got fettucini with porchinio mushrooms which I found out were in season. You could watch the food being made in the back over the fire, and see the chefs hard at work after they made the pasta and were satueeing the mushrooms fresh from somewhere nearby in Italy. OUTSTANDING!! It felt like my first real Italian meal.. enjoying it with a bunch of friends, and spending too much time doing nothing important. Man, I like Italian culture.

Our pensione so far so good... it feels like everytime I come back there is a new person working here. It's so bizarre to have people clean your room all the time, not that it's a problem it's just kind of strange when you are used to doing everything yourself and then you come back and your bed is ALREADY made for you! That's alright though, now we can spend more time travelling and eating rather than focusing on our room...

Today was the first day of all of my classes oficially. It started at 830 am and went until 630pm at night. I have a break in the morning but it still feels like an atrosiously long day, which it is. Classes should be interesting, they are just long and tedious as of now. From going from a 5 month summer to 4 classes... it's time to pick up the pace!

I am headed tomorrow to the cafe across the street to have a Cappucino with the locals before heading to class. It helps Italian get better, and quite honestly it's a wake up call better than any alarm or shower will ever do for you. It's like a fog horn running through your body, they know how to make coffee here.

Well, ciao! I will write more later, headed to Venice this weekend and then we'll see what other European adventures are in store!

Day 3 in Firenzi...

So today... today was a good day. Last night we went to the club called 21.. we got lost heading down town to the Duomo. But the city is so beautiful at night that it wasn't an issue. It's crazy that when you get lost everything you see is so magnificent. It's full of art and life and culture, however this city is also full of Americans and tourists. It's a way more touristic city than I thoguht it would be.

So quick debrief of yesterday... the morning we went for coffee at the nextdoor Bar. It's going to be my favorite place I bet. We are trying to get involved in the culture and to try and learn the language better.. my  Italian is already getting better with every day. The women who work there are very sweet and very helpful with practicing Italian, so that is great news. We sat outside and sipped our cappucinos, feeling very European of course.

Afterwards we walked around the city. I'm becoming very well aquainted with stores that sell pens and stationary.. I bought my first journal. I am not much of a journal person but i am slowly becoming it. I bought a handmade journal that a man made, his family has been in the business for years. He made the paper in front of us and they also bind their notebooks there. It was fantastic, he let us learn how to dye the paper and make different patterns. We have some pictures from it. So now, I have my 20 euro journal, but it's epic and beautiful. I also may have bought a quillish thing. Sounds nerdy, but it's really cool with ink.

We also got kabobs which were great. I'm already burning out on kebabs and everything. Also bread, I normally like bread but I am already getting desperate for veggies and everything. Hope we can fix this! but oh wait, today we did.

After that yesterday, we went to grab some food looking for a Kebab place our friends Lindy and Chris suggested but it was closed. We ended up getting gelatto and some panini's.. very typical for our days around here. Then we went to the club. I wasn't that impressed, it was a lot of strange people looking for tourists to dance with and hopefully take home. I was in my own world of dancing, which is typical.

Today we got up later, and walked around the city again. We found a market which sells vegetables about 15 minutes away and bought a ton of carrots, apples, bananas. It was one of my happier food moments honestly... I've been so deprived for such good fruit for 2 weeks. I am just spoiled in California, i know, but it's such amazing food. Tonight we just hung out played some music and went to a bar/cafe with some friends. I am loving the culture of eating and talking for hours, perfect imbetween homework and responsibility. It makes me feel that life is easier and more enjoyable..

Tomorrow hopefully we can explore more, I want to go up into the Duomo see across the river, go to the gardens and learn more about this place that I now call "home."

Ciao!

First day in Firenzi....

So we had opening tour for the last nine days... fastest days of my life.. we hit Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Vienna. I'm positive we didn't sleep more than 5 hours a day, drink less than anyone else, or see more than I could imagine. I will write a blog post about that only... because it needs to be written but right now I'll show you guys some shots and then finish later..

OPENING TOUR!: The Berlin Wall... a piece of it left.

A castle in Berlin...

Vienna...

More to come later. ;)

So! Today was the first official day in Florence. The day started out with some good old fashioned classes... which we were all SO eager to go to. We got into Florence at 1am this morning, after venturing from Vienna by airplane to Rome where we then got a bus and went all the way to Florence. Let's just say we were TIRED this morning....

HOWEVER!! It was sooo fantasticly exciting to be greeted by our pensione leader "pesione dada" in my words. His name is Giuseppe, and me as well as around 20 other students are living under his roof called "85 couvaire." I spelled it wrong, I'm pretty sure. It's a pensione, family run hotel kind of deal. I am in a triple with two other girls which is working out so far! I love this city already...

Today we had the best lunch imaginable, it was pasta, and chicken. We all thought that the pasta was the only thing we would be eating but then they said "no!" you still have another course coming. Let's just say, that my tummy wasn't down with stuffing more food into it, yet i did. Do as the Italians do, eat, mangia, mangia, mangia!

Tonight my roomie Sarah and our friend Julian wandered the streets of Florence. We got some gellato, which was the first official time and some pizza. We ate by ponte vecchio which is this amazing little spot by the river. I love cafes and all the pizzeria's. I feel right at home... eating, talking, laughing.. it's just nice to not be in a rush. We even have to ASK for the bill, bizarre!

Our night concluded after food by seeing some orchestra's play near the water, there was a large gathering of people. We also got to see a lot of the city by foot, mostly because we got lost trying to find the cellphone store. I got a ghetto old phone, that resemble sthe late 90's style and has a screen that I'm pretty sure is pixalated. But whatever.. it's a phone.

Italy is so different than the states, all the buildings are taller and there is less grass. It's also weird for me to be adapting to the language. I had my first italian conversation class today and all we did was learn how to order drinks but that is essential in this culture seeing as how much time people actually spend at the cafe's with their friends or family.. Well I'm off to bed it's 1:14am in Italy and to be honest, I am fricking exhausted.

Hope everyone is well in the US!! :)