c'e il fine ..

hi. it's me again. i know it's been quite a while. i wanted to blog while i was still in rome but the last two weeks there were out of control and i had no internet access whatsoever. boo roma for having terrible wireless.

so yes, anna is back in the states. not happy about it, but she's here. i've been back for almost two weeks now and i still feel like i just left rome yesterday. but, this blog is for the update of the last two weeks i spent in rome, so let's get on with it shall we?

let's see. last i updated lisey and rach came to visit for the weekend. uber fun, as expected. the next week was horrendously stressful. between studying for finals and attempting to see everything on my list i never got to see the whole semester i was a huge stressball. it was crazy. wrote my nasty philo paper on whether God has being or is contained in being. what bullshit that was. chucked out my theo final, which actually wasn't that bad at all. then of course to celebrate the end of classes we went to sloppy sam's, anima, and scholar's and all that jazz. first we had our last aperitivo with dawson in the vatican, then walked over the bridge past castel saint'angelo to piazza navona and then to eat dinner at the pantheon yumm! lots of things went down that night that i won't go into detail about. but it was interesting. lol. anyways, that sunday i finally made it to pisa! teresa came with me, even though she missed our train and had to take a later one. we climbed the tower (a bajillion steps mind you, i was so winded). the view was gorgeous! and the weird thing was when you were standing on the top you could feel the lean! mindboggling i know. haha. afterwards we went to the duomo and took the obligatory pictures with the tower - holding it up, kicking it, leaning against it, licking it? all in all it was a great time, and i really needed a day off from schoolwork.

monday was back to the grind. crammed all day for the history final. if i ever have to read another word about a roman emperor i might kill someone. seriously. the test wound up not being so bad, but maybe that was because i studied like a madman for it. we'll see what kind of grade she gives me. then wednesday was the as roma soccer game!!! they played cagliari and won 2-0. it was sooo much fun! we met these cute young guys who were sitting next to us and they were insane about soccer. one of them asked laura to marry him! lol. we heard lots of our favorite roman curse words, which made us laugh every 5 seconds. it was so much fun. and even though it was legit the night before our theo final we didnt even care. screw the popes. i'm enjoying my last week in rome.

thursday then was the second part of our theo final. 80 popes to memorize. fuck that's about? i did not enjoy studying that after the game til like 4am. he gave us 25 on the test and we had to write about 16. woohoo. found out later i got an A. go me. so glad that was over. once that final was over i was free!! no more exams or studying or anything! it was party time until sunday. and boy did we party. we had our last family dinner together on thursday because diego was going to a concert the next day during our final cena with the whole program so he couldn't come. but it was so much fun. she gave us wine and made us the most delicious food! it made us feel special again. we talked for a really long time. diego gave us his email address (magicodiego lmao. because anything with soccer "non e' professionale"). he showed us some things in his room - a dart board with lazio in the middle, his posters, videos of ligabue at a concert etc. it was a sad goodbye, but we're gonna keep in touch. i think j9 was sadder than me that day bc "diegino" is her fave.

next day was tour time! j9 and i got up early and hit up the janicolo (thanks to niccolo's shit directions it took us forever). it was really pretty! we walked around a bit, then rode the 44 to venezia, went in the museum and took pictures near the monument. then after lunch we hit up piazza farnese bc i was dying to see what pope paul iii took from the baths of caracalla. there were two bins from the frigidarium that were outside, so that was so cool to see! the palazzo had al of the sculptures like the hercules and whatnot, but we didn't go in. afterwards we headed back home to pack. what an adventure. thank god i sent so much stuff home because there was no way everything was gonna make it over. then we got ready and nunzia took us to the final dinner near the gesu'. it was a yummy dinner, and ale was there! he kept pouring me wine and refilling me when i wasnt looking. i think he was trying to get me drunk that sneak. lol. the boys all dressed up in their new italian suits and they looked so handsome and sexxy. love a guy in a tie. lol. we took lots of pictures and said some tearful goodbyes (to aurora, silvia, mario, and ale!) i was tearing up a bit, but had to keep my composure in front of everyone. i promised myself i could lose it when i was alone. anyways, then afterwards we all decided to go out in trastevere to this class bar called izzo. nice choice manny! we all crowded the 8 tram from argentina and took it near trilussa. we stormed the bar and took over downstairs. there was a bearskin rug on the floor- we knew they meant business. so all like 30 of us, decked out in suits and cocktail dresses and skirts ordered the classiest drinks and danced the night away. it was such a great time, and it made me realize how much i was going to miss everyone i met in rome. we really are an amazing group, and we got along so well together. it was like we really fit together. we got home late, as usual, then it was little sleep time before our last day in rome.

our last day in rome, saturday, was a great one. we met at the spanish steps and had lunch, then headed out to villa borghese for a game of sardines. i know, we're so cool. villa borghese is beautiful! we played for a little while, then stood by this "magical tree" and passed around a bottle of wine, sharing stories like we were around a campfire. lol. it was awesome. j9 even took a swig- i was so proud! her transformation was complete lol. afterwards we went back to the steps to see if we could find the pope crowning mary on top of the column, but the place was insane! i never realized how popular the feast of the immaculate conception is. anyways, we wound up walked to piazza del popolo (which i hadnt seen since la notte bianca) and took the metro home. we waited forever for the 31 (no shock there) and got home to finish packing and get ready for dinner. then we met the girls at the trevi and walked to l'archetto for our final dinner in rome. so sad! the food was amazing, as always. afterwards we walked past the pantheon for one last time and headed over to piazza navona for the christmas mercato! i bought lots of ornaments for everyone, and jessie and i rode the carousel in the middle of piazza navona like 5 yr olds. so if anyone ever asked how i spent my last day in rome, i'll tell them i played sardines in villa borghese and rode a carousel in piazza navona lol. anyways, afterwards we met up with the crew on the spanish steps and drank wine, just like we did on our first night. love that we started and ended the same way. then we went to old bell near via barberini and ddv came to meet us at the bar. i had absinthe- an alcohol that's apparently illegal in the us. awesome! hey, i was gonna go out with a bang right? the waitress brought my drink to the table and there was a black spoon with a sugar cube on top of the shot. she lit the sugar on fire and it crystallized and dripped down to the absinthe. then she lit the absinthe on fire and added a little water. holy crap it was so strong! all i needed was that shot and i would have been so set for the night lol. all in all it was a great night and a perfect ending to the most amazing 4 months of my life.

we wound up sleeping like 2 hours that night only to get up mad early to get to the airport on sunday. nunzia and niccolo woke up early just to have breakfast with us how sweet is that! nunzia was crying a bit when she said goodbye to us. it was so sad! it was quite an adventure to get the beast and the collosal down 4 floors to the taxi but i managed. we made it to the airport, and of course the beast handles broke on me. awesome. i only went over on one bag, i think it was 32kg. the other was totally fine, which i was surprised about. go me! lol. it was basically all the loyola kids at the airport who were flying home on the 9th bc the depaul and catholic kids were staying extra time to travel. lucky. we left at 9:55am roma time and landed about 2:15ish newark time. i had no problems with customs thank god, and was legit bombarded by the rentals as soon as i walked out of baggage claim. they even bought me flowers. how redic. they took me straight to grandma's to see the fam and they were all so happy to see me. it was good to be home.

that feeling, however, lasted for maybe like the first three days. now i'm bored as hell and i hate americans. lol. all i want to do is go back to rome. not even like i want to. i NEED to. rome became such a part of me. it's my home. i tried explaining this to my mother but she just doesn't understand. i waited for this semester for so long. i wanted to study in rome since the 6th grade. i had the most amazing and perfect 4 months of my life, and now it's over. what do i have to look forward to now? mcats? labs? graduation? yipee.

i am so glad i studied abroad. i had to work my ass off to get there, and had to work around my schedule to fit it, but i'm so glad i did. studying in rome was the best decision i have ever made. i would have regretted it and hated myself if i didn't go because of orgo or physics or that crap. rome changed me. i feel like i'm a completely different person. i don't know if that's a good or bad thing. we'll have to see what happens. but i will always remember the people i met, the places i visited, the things i saw while abroad. i love italy. i love europe. so much. i could definitely see myself living there. i wish i could live there. it's so different from here, and i think that's why i love it so much. i miss roma already, and i want to go back so badly. i technically do have an excuse to go back to italy though - my family in bari, first of all. plus kat is studying in firenze next semester and hannah is studying in roma. i'm so jealous of them, specifically hannah bc she's going to be doing everything i just did. lucky girl. she's going to have an amazing time.

well i guess this is the end to my little travel blog. it's been a great ride, and i wouldn't trade these last 4 months for anything in the world.

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

ciao bella roma. mi manchi molto. tutto insieme per sempre. ♥

don't mess with my swiss guard ..

its monday booooo.

lisey and rach visited us this weekend and it was soooo much fun. it was great to have them here and i think they had a good time, even though it rained like a bitch. we did sooooo much it was like redic. i cant believe how much touring we did in 3 days.

friday afternoon lise and rach arrived in ciampino and we met them at termini, took them to tony's gelateria and then to dinner at il caminetto. we showed them around our hood and what not which was pretty fun, and i think they really enjoyed the gelato lol. then afterwards we took them to trastevere and piazza trilussa for some italian nightlife. it may not compare to newcastle insanity, but i like that its so chill and you can drink outside. we took them to the chocolate shop for some chocolate shots (yummm) and then walked around for a little bit before heading back because we had an early day the next day.

saturday was nuts. we all met up at ottaviano at 8am, lise and rach went to the vatican museums to see the sistine chapel and lau, j9 and i hit up st. peter's to watch the special ceremony pope b had for the naming of 23 new cardinals. we were right after the last people to be allowed to sit in the actual basilica, so we had to sit outside and watch it on the big screens. but it was still gorgeous. the whole thing was basically in latin so i didnt understand much but it was amazing to be there for it. one cardinal was from philadelphia and drew actually knows him so that was cool. after the ceremony we all went for lunch (pizza bianca at cipro yumm) and then did the forum and colloseo. then we walked past the imperial palace of augustus and hit up santa maria in cosmedin. we saw the bocca della verita!! i was dying to see it so i was really excited. i stuck my hand in it and told a lie but i didnt get my hand stuck in it. oh well. guess i'm a bad liar lol. we saw the spanish steps and then afterwards we headed back to st. peters for the greeting of the cardinals. we got special access to the apostolic palace and we got to meet cardinal foley of philly and a whole bunch of other cardinals. the palace was soo gorgeous!! and it was so cool that we got to meet all the new cardinals. we took lots of pictures with them and took some with the swiss guard bc theyre pretty awesome. we were so lucky to have the opportunity to go there and meet them all. after we went back to termini so lise and rach chould change hostels, then we went to l'archetto for dinner yummmm. everyone was really happy with their spaghetti choices which was awesome. then we took the girls to the trevi fountain which you know is one of my favorite places in the city. god its just so gorgeous at night. le sigh. i threw coins in again (its like my 4th time lol). the venders were really annoying there too which pissed me off bc theyre usually not bad, but whatevs. afterwards we walked to campo dei fiori, hit up drunken ship and the bar with the hypnotic shots that i always forget the name of. i double fisted the hypnotic bc jessie was gonna get a shot but decided not to after we ordered. i didnt mind - its so yummyyy. afterwards we hit up blue ice for gelato, as always, then headed home.

sunday was not too much of an early rise. we went to the circus maximus and then i played tour guide at the baths of caracalla for the gruppo. it was raining a lot which was annoying, but i felt kind of special because i knew so much about the baths that i could tell them. afterwards we went to lunch for more yummy pizza near spagna and a little bit of touristy shopping for the girlies. we saw the pantheon which laura was the expert on, so she did her thing there. then we went to st peters again and climbed up the cupola. an elevator and 320 steps later, we were so winded but were on top of the world. we had the most amazing views of rome. st peters square was beautiful and the sun was setting over the whole city, so it was such a perfect time, especially for pictures. it was so worth it going up all those steps. i love it up there. then we climbed down and gave lise and rach the tour of the basilica. its just so beautiful, and its def going to be one of the big things im gonna miss when i leave. im gonna try to go to mass there next sunday. after the tour we tried to go to dinner at tre pupazzi but it was closed! i was so disappointed - i was really looking forward to their wine yummmm. oh well. maybe we can go again this weekend after ddv's aperitivo. so we picked another random restaurant nearby to eat and then walked past castel sant'angelo and finally made it to piazza navona!! i finally made it there - i was so happy. it was really pretty at night, but the vendors pissed me off again. elise and i got wine and drank outside for alittle there, then we hit up campo again because we just cant get enough. after lots more gelato and people watching we made our way home.

this week is going to be lots of work but hopefully lots of seeing things in the city that are on my list, because i only have 13 days left. that number makes me cry. so much to do and so little time. i hope i can make it to pisa with laura on wednesday. i cant believe finals are next week holy shit. thats gonna suck sooo badly. guess i better enjoy myself now while i can.

already i think im gonna go home and finish up some more work so i can go out this week. pace fuori lovers.

tanti baci ♥

je voudrais acheter ses chausurres ..

oh my god i am in love with paris.

i can't even tell you how amazing a weekend i had in paris visiting two of the loves of my life. j9 and i got to paris late thursday night and just crashed on mary's floor. the next morning mary had class but clarice took us to our first boulangerie where we got the largest baguettes of life and this amazing tartelette aux fruit (orgasmic). then she took us to the musee d'orsay, where we saw lots of pre-impressionist art. the top floor was closed, which was poop bc that was where all the impressionist monets and all that were, but it was all good. we saw some cool paintings and sculptures. then clarice went to class and mary met us for lunch where i had my first paris crepe!! it was so yummy and full of chocolate. then she took us to notre dame, which was absolutely GORGEOUS. i love gothic architecture. we went in and it was just amazing. then we climbed up to the top top (it was like 250 steps or something - i was dead by the time i got there). we had the most awesome view of paris - we could even see the eiffel tower from the top! we hung out with the gargoyles up there, then climbed up the bell tower where quasimodo would ring the bell! the bell was so huge. but it was pretty cool being up there. afterwards we did a little souvenir shopping (got parisian scarves!) and walked over to musee de cluny, but it was closing so we didnt go in. we did a little shopping around that area, saw there was a riot going on (lots of french po-po with big helmets and large guns) so we just headed out of there. we walked to the louvre and met clarice there, because mary had her first talk for her art history class that night. while mc prepped, j9, clarice and i walked around the louvre. it is the most gorgeous and breathtaking museum i have ever been in. the walls were lined with so many paintings and the rooms filled with ancient greek and roman sculpture. we were there for over 2 hours and we barely covered one wing. it was redic. we got to see the mona lisa though!! it was pretty, but they have it roped off so far away from it so i couldnt really sudy the details because i couldnt get close. but it was still cool. then we heard mary give her talk on "st michael trampling the devil" by rafaele. it was pretty awesome, and its so cool she got to talk about a painting IN THE LOUVRE. i was so excited for her. im so excited i know someone who could even do that. its such an amazing opportunity. thats why study abroad is the shit lol. afterwards we got dinner at "mary and clarice's place" and i tried escargot for the first time! at first i was like ew its chewy but its actually really good! i love it! and then i had duck with peaches which was to die for, and this amazing apple tart yummmmm. all in all it was an excellent meal.

the next morning we headed out to montmartre so we could go to the museum of eroticism and get fondue but because of the metro strike we didnt make it to the museum and the fondue place (with wine in baby bottles!) was closed. we were mad disappointed, but found another place with fondue which was pretty good. i had creme brulee for dessert and it was sooo yummy! i love french food lol. then it was riverdance time!! the show was sheer perfection and trading taps was soo sick!! i think it was even better the second time aroundd - im so glad j9 found out it was going to be in paris when we were there! after riverdance we headed back and went to visit the most amazing and gorgeous part of paris - the eiffel tower! we climbed all the way up to the top!! and it was sparkling when we were up there! it was so beautiful! and someone got engaged up there - that basically made my entire life it was so adorable! i wanted to eat them. i so want to get proposed up there now ahhhh. i love the eiffel tower so much. clarice conquered her fear of heights and came up with us - i was so proud of her! 2 hours later, after freezing our asses off, we walked back to the apartment, got amazing nutella and banana crepes and j9 cooked us chicken cordon bleu for dinner yummm. then we passed out because we were mad tired.

the next morning it was time to hit up the champs elysees!! we started off at the place de la concorde, then walked all the way down to the arc de triomphe. i got the backstreet boys cd (finally!) which i am currently listening to right now lol. then i got a little makeover in the biggest sephora of LIFE. it was soo hugeee and they had EVERYTHING. i was in heaven. then we got starbucks!! i had forgotten how much i missed their coffee. i got a creme brulee latte which was tres delish. we stopped in the louis vuitton and the bag that i saw that i wanted was prices at 1,150 euros. yea no thanks. but it was pretty to look at lol. all the big brand names werent even on the champs but on a street right off it, and since it was sunday they weren't open poo. so luck for my parents i couldnt get into chanel and buy the black bag ive been dying for since i was 16. no worries though. then we walked back to the apartamento and tried to defrost for a while bc it was sooooo cold! we watched youtube for a bit because we're cool like that, then i dragged the girls out again to the eiffel tower for more pictures (because i didnt get to take any at the champs de mars before). it started raining but we got good pictures, then we headed to dinner at mary and clarice's place again, and i got more escargot. obvi. i cant get over how good it is lol. clarice and i got some bordeaux, which i had never drank before, but it was very good and im a fan. i got more creme brulee (because i'm obsessed with french food) and then we went back to the apartment and fell asleep early because j9 and i had a 4am wake up call. gross.

we flew back to rome monday morning and the rest of the week has been all papers and readings and lots of work and its yuckie. i'm not a fan. wednesday i spent the day in firenze and met up with gracie for lunch. it was great seeing her! i got so much done there - the accademia (the david is the most AMAZING thing i have ever seen. i spent a half hour just staring at him), the duomo, under the duomo, piazza san lorenzo, piazza della signoria and the basilica there, basilica di santa croce, the uffizi, museo della storia di scienza and the ponte vecchio. the duomo was pretty cool and awesome looking inside. i loved the accademia, basically because of the david. shopping in san lorenzo = to die for. the outside market was great - got lots of souvenirs for fam and for me. piazza della signoria had lots of copies of michelangelo's sculptures which were cool to see. the basilica was being restored so i didnt get to see much of it. the basilica di santa croce was also under resoration which was poop. but michelangelo, dante, machiavelli and galileo are all buried there, so it was totally awesome to be there. the uffizi is huge - i saw lots of sculptures of roman emperors and military men which was cool because i was like hey i know this guy! lol. my favorite part though was the museum of the history of science!! i know im a dork and i dont care. they had galileo's first telescope and ocular lenses and all of his instruments it was so cool! and i got to see surgical instruments from the 16th and 17th centuries and chemistry beakers from the 18th century. it was soooo awesomeee! and they had globes used for mapping and the countries on them were so weird and not even close to what it known now. it was really interesting to see how far we've come in science and technology but also cool to see where everything started. the ponte vecchio was pretty and filled with lots of jewelry stores that made me happy lol. then i went shopping a little and got really cute clothes. then i took the train home. all in all it was a good day, and im really glad i got to see gracie. it was fun reminiscing about mary louis and gossipping about stuff. =)

now it's friday and im so unproductive. j9's been churning out papers like whoa this week and i feel so stupid because its taking me forever to do everything lol. im slacking i know. i dont even care anymore. i have only two weeks left (which makes me cry i dont even want to think about it) and i cant be worried about work. im gonna go out and stay up all night and drink wine and eat gelato and pastries and pasta until i throw up because i'm never going to be able to do this ever again. this is the most amazing semester of my life and i just dont want it to end yet. it went by way too fast.

elise and rachel should be in rome right this second and me, j9 and laura are meeting up with them and we're going to tony's gelateria (its been TOO long) and then il caminetto. then we're going out in trastevere tonight. then tomorrow we're going to see the 23 new cardinals in the ceremony led by the pope and then we can go into the pope's palace to congratulate them!! im so excited for that! i hope we can knock out things i havent seen in rome this weekend so i can check them off my list and not feel completely useless. lol. cant wait to have lisey and rach here this weekend!!

pace fuori. <3

i left my heart in palo.

alrighty. post number three. after fall break we had class on tuesday booo. but then all of us headed out to napoli on thursday. we made it there at 11am and did a speed tour of the city. we saw churches and went shopping a bit and then we went to the archaeological museum with dr flusche. we saw lots of artifacts and remains preserved from the pompeii disaster in 74AD, and then we had special access to the “gabinetto secreto” which is basically the sex room. it had paintings and sculptures with really erotic themes and enlarged genitalia. it was actually quite interesting to see how free and comfortable the romans were with their bodies and the human anatomy. that was def the fave room of everyone lol. then we headed back to the hotel bristol in sorrento and had a yummy dinner there. we sat with guiseppe our bus driver and had such amazing conversations solely in italian. it was great. then we went out with ddv! we tried to go to a kareoke bar but it wasnt open, so then we all went to this irish pub called chaplin’s bar. ddv was crazy and the boys kept trying to get him drunk lol. the bartenders were playing awesome songs and they gave us all jager bombs. i had my first one!! it was actually really good, even though i don’t like red bull. i love when everyone in the program goes out together on these trips bc its always so fun.

the next day was friday and we took a tour of pompeii with flusche. it was absolutely amazing. i can’t even imagine how everything was preserved after the massive explosion of vesuvio in 74AD. some things are still just as they were before the eruption. it’s really interesting. we saw the gladiator training grounds, theatres, the market, the forum, the roman baths and temples. then we saw the house of the fauno, which was the biggest and most lavish house in all of pompeii. it had a grand entrance with two gardens and two courtyards. it was really cool to see. then we left pompeii and had the afternoon in sorrento to walk around and explore. we did a little shopping and just roamed around. we found some cool churches and the place where they do woodwork near st. francis which was really awesome to see. then we headed back to the hotel and dressed up for dinner. after dinner we headed over to the fauno notte night club for a tarantella show! we got free prosecco and watched the show for an hour or so. it was pretty cool, i didnt understand some words they were singing because of the neapolitan accent but it was fun. then afterwards the club became a discoteca and we totally took it over. we danced until they kicked us out and then we all migrated back towards chaplin’s irish pub. the bartender was so excited to see us again! lol. i had my first orgasm drink and my first irish car bomb with marissa which were both really yummy!! the boys were taking “bro shots” which basically destroyed drew lol. all in all it was a totally awesome night. we worshipped bacchus like whoa, and it was fabulous lol.

we woke up the next morning, half of us hungover, and drove 3 hours outside the city to a little mozzarella farm. we got a tour of the farm, saw the bufala where the milk is from, and had a huge lunch with the most amazing ricotta of life. the mozzarella was good but a bit too fresh for me, if you know what i mean. but the talk of the day was about a somewhat scarring experience. while we were talking a tour of the farm animals we were at the pigpen when these two pigs began having sex. needless to say the boys ran closer and were taking pictures and laughing about it, but then out of nowhere the female started moaning and screaming sooo loudly. we dont know whether it was out of pleasure or of pain, but it was so incredibly disturbing, and it lasted for sooooo long. alex and dan took videos of it, and the whole entire day that sound was played so much. it was redic. after our interesting experience with the animals and our lunch we returned to rome for a very short period of time until j9, laura and i headed to the motherland!

sunday morning we got up mad early to go to fiumicino and hop on a flight to bari to meet my family for the first time. i was really nervous and afraid that they would have all these expectations and i wasnt going to live up to them but it all went away as soon as i walked out of the airport and saw 14 people greeting me there! i had thought only rosa, vito, and felicia were going to pick me up, but half the family was at the airport, and they all attacked me as soon as they saw me. it was redic. i met rosa, zio angelo, zio collino, zia maria and a whole bunch of their kids. i cant keep people’s names with faces straight, especially because half of them are named vincenzo and the other half rosa. sheesh. anyway, we got into felicia’s car and drove to bitonto so i could see the statues of sts cosimo and damiano. it was absolutely gorgeous. the church was beautiful and i was speechless as i was standing in front of the statue. i prayed for a while and gave a donation, and then we drove to palo to visit some houses. we saw rosa’s house (daughter of zio angelo) and i think vincenzo’s house right down the block. then we drove to rosa’s house and prepared for pranzo! she let us help out in the kitchen which was cool for me and i felt special. we ate SO MUCH FOOD. we had antipasto (mozzarella, provolone, prosciutto, manzo, olives, salsiccia, salami, bread, finocchio), then pasta (orrechiette with ragu!!), meat (polpetti, pezzo di carne, brasciola), insalata, nucelli, castagne, limoncello and the most amazing dolci of life. rosa let me taste zio angelo’s wine, which was amazing!! i wish i could bring some home because it was delicious!! then after pranzo since we basically couldn’t move we went for a walk around palo with felicia and then took an amazing nap. we woke up and then a whole bunch of family members came over the house to meet me. i need to make a list of everyone i met so i can keep it organized. lol. then felicia, pietro, and savino took us out the city of bari for some late night touring. we had the most amazing crepes ever (i had the scandalosa - nutella, bananas, white chocolate chunks and whipped cream). then we saw the city wall, the castel, the basilica and cathedral of bari and some gorgeous piazzas. then we came home, went to sleep and woke up early to head back to the airport. i wish i could have stayed longer but we needed to be back in rome for class. but i had the most amazing time and i need to go back so badly. i love my family so much. they are so sweet and welcoming and beautiful and loud and obnoxious and its just so amazing. being in bari made me so happy.

and now we’re back in rome. i had two classes today and none tomorrow, but i have to go to the baths of caracalla to write my history paper so that will be fun. then thursday afternoon janine and i leave for paris until monday!! i am sooo incredibly excited i cant even tell you. we’re going to see riverdance on saturday!! and we’re going on the champs elysee!! and we’re climbing up the eiffel tower!! and we’re going to be with mary and claricee i’m sooo exciteddd! =)

i’ll try and keep this updated as much as i can i promise. things are just getting so hectic now with like three weeks left (oh my god).

can’t i just please stay in italy forever?

cheers to a proper good break ..

okay new post. this one’s a recap of fall break. wow what a week. let’s start with tuesday afternoon. we landed in newcastle (after flying from rome to milan and then milan to newcastle) via ryan air after 8pm and elise was there (cardigan and all) waiting for us at the airport. we took the metro back to the university and parked ourselves in her flat (which has the biggest kitchen/common room of life bee tee dubs). she cooked us amazing pasta with sugar snap peas (her specialty!) and then of course we went out. we pregamed with strongbo (new yummy obsession - its cider!) and then hit up a dance bar called blubambu. the dj was totally rockin and i had such an amazing time. newcastle nightlife is the shit, and i totally should have studied abroad there. the end. the next morning (wednesday - halloween!!) we did the touristy thing. we woke up a little late, had breakfast, saw the newcastle u campus (which is gorgeous and to die for), walked around grainger street, hit up grainger market, and went to the coast! we went to tynemouth, ate fish and chips for lunchie (yum!) and toured the priory and castle there in the afternoon. the coast was beautiful!!! and the castle was so kickass! it was really cold and windy there but it was all good. then we walked out to a lighthouse jetting out into the water and had the most awesome view of the sun setting over tynemouth. then we got back to newcastle, grabbed starbucks (finally!!) and we hit up marks and spencers for some cibo. its a department store with a supermarket built in it!! go figure!! haha anyway, we had dinner and then it was time to get ready for halloween festivities!! j9, laura and i dressed up as greek goddesses (from rome? idk man) and lisey was a dark sexy fairy. lise’s flatmates and friends were scooby doo and his crew, which was so cute! we went to a whole bunch of parties in flats around elise’s and we saw a whole bunch of loyola peeps chillin in their costumes so that was cool. then we headed back to louise’s flat (she’s my fave brit and im obsessed with her a little bit) and had some flaming sambuca shots with merlin and pete. mark and matt were enjoying their pixie sticks in interesting ways and we all just hung out for a little while before going out. we tried to get into blubambu but the line was redic so we hit up sam jacks instead. we got bracelets as we went in saying we got free shots for our first mixed drink we bought. sweet deal let me tell you. i had this yummy girly blue vodka drink a lot that night. we danced like crazy there for a while (they played backstreet boys!!) and then we headed over to popworld - a 90s themed dance bar - totally up my alley! they played amazingly awesome 90’s music which made me soooo happy, and there was this little pole that mark was enjoying for some time, which was quite entertaining lol. i had this other girly apple and vodka thing there which was sooo good. i kinda wish they would have those in america bc they were so cheap and sooo good! anyways, so we had an amazing halloween, newcastle style, but still incredibly awesome.

thursday morning (the morning after) j9 and i woke up early and headed on the train for edinburgh (pronounces edinbruh, apparently) in scotland to see clarice who was visiting her friend datta there for her fall break. after an hour train ride we arrived, and datta took us to the national museum (saw some van gogh and degas!), some monuments in a gorgeous park, the castle (though we didnt go in bc it was 11 pounds admission - i really wanted to go poo), and then we walked down the royal mile, stopping in shops along the way. we saw adam smith’s grave which doesnt mean much to me bc i dont like economics but clarice was happy lol. we had lunch at the elephant house which is where jk rowling used to write and think about harry potter when she had kids and was on welfare - before she hit it big and was famous. we also saw the hotel where she finished the final book in the harry potter series, which was sooo cool. then we hit up some regular shopping at h&m and lush etc and had dinner at tgi fridays. i wound up getting food poisoning from the burger i ate there, so my train ride home/evening was not pretty. elise, rachel, natalie, and laura met us at the train station and we toured the awesome bridges of newcastle at night. they were gorgeous. then we went for dessert (when i really started to not feel well) and heading back to elise’s flat. we retired quite early bc we had to get up at the ass crack of dawn for our flight to dublin, but i was sick all night long. it was not fun. i was a mess and felt like shit. it was the first time i got food poisoning and i felt just awful.

we woke up at 430am friday to head to the airport for our flight and i got sick again. i honestly didnt know how i was going to make it to the airport. but we made it there (barely for me, i felt so gross and so awful) and i napped while we waited for our flight and while we were flying. when i woke up we were in dublin, and i was feeling a bit better than the morning but still not great at all. we took a bus to our hostel and checked in but couldnt go into our rooms until much later. all i wanted to do was sleep for the afternoon and the room wasnt even ready. boo. so we got breakfast/lunch whatever you want to call it, and we planned out what we wanted to do while in dublin. finally our room was ready so we went in and napped for a while. i woke up before everyone else bc i wanted to shower bc i felt so nasty, so i went down to the communal shower (ew). it was such a yuck experience. the water had no temp control, so at first it was freezing and then it got so scalding i was burning myself. and you had to push for the water to flow and keep your hand on the bottom otherwise no water would come out. it was not what i was expecting at all. but hey, thats all part of the europe experience right? i promised myself i would be less neurotic and less high maintenance so i just went with it and was okay. we were sharing a room with 2 other people so that was a new experience for us too, considering we’ve had private rooms at all the places we’ve gone so far and have had private bathrooms as well. the room was cold and the pillows might have not as well existed, but it was fine. i was okay with it. i was going with the flow and just relaxing about it, which was a nice change for me. i felt bad for booking us just a poopie hostel, but the girls reassured me that it was totally fine and we joked around about it, so that made me feel better.

after my fun shower, we went out to dinner at a true irish pub in temple bar. we had great food, and i had my first irish coffee!! it was soo yummy! and as we were walking out the bar dj played “breaking free” from hsm which makes me so incredibly happy lol. its taking over the world!! haha. anyways, we met felicia, daniela, emma, and kevin while walking in temple bar which was cool. then afterwards we just walked around and toured the city at night, then crashed because we were so tired.

the next morning we were up bright and early, had breakfast, stopped at the earl, which had the most amazing chocolate chip muffins of LIFE, and then began our day of touristy things. first we stopped at the molly malone statue, where a cute little old man who reminded me of a leprechaun took pictures with us. he was adorable! then we saw trinity college, which has such a gorgeous campus! we walked around a bit and saw the building where the book of kells resides, but didnt go in. then we went to st. stephen’s greene which was a beautiful park full with lots of grass and a pretty lake and bridge. i loved itt! we saw the gardens and walked through for a bit, then j9 went to mass at christ church while laura, lisey and i ate amazing bagels for lunch and hit up the guinness storehouse! there was a long line outside so we were afraid we wouldnt make it in but it moved quickly which was good. we got in for 9.50 euro at student discount which was pretty kickass considering admission was 14 euro. anyway, we walked through and we learned about how they brew guinness and what they use to make it and it was sooo cool. we got to taste a rare draught of guinness from october 2004 which was so yummy. then we made our way up to the gravity bar on the 7th floor and had our free pint of guinness. it was my first pint ever and it was soo yummy! i loved it. then afterwards we ran to meet janine at st. patrick’s cathedral, and then we headed over to dublin castle for a guided tour. we saw the areas that are still in use today in the castle for the leaders of ireland, and then the tourguide brought us underground so we could see the remains of the actual first castle that was built back in the day. it was really interesting and so pretty! then we finally made it to dinner at another pub and just sat and listened to irish music. it was cool.

the next morning we took a tour of the irish countryside!! we went to wicklow and glendalough and saw lots of lakes and grass and pretty trees and scenery and it was just absolutely gorgeous!! it was definitely the ireland i wanted to experience. we saw an old bell tower and a monastery and it was so amazing. we had a great time. we got back in the evening, had dinner and then hit up temple bar for a couple of pints. temple bar was so fun and such a cool place to just chill and people-watch. i loved just being able to sit down and watch irish football with my favorite girls in the middle of ireland. it was so awesome. then we left dublin to go back to rome poo.

okay end of post number two. let’s move on to the third now oh gesu.

efharisto! kalispera!

so its been quite a while since ive updated this thing. my sincerest apologies. life here has just been insane crazy and so busy. whenever i’ve actually had a minute to myself i’ve either been writing a stupid paper or sleeping. its been fun, let me tell you. anyways, this will probably be the longest post of life, but i’ll try to keep is as brief as possibly while making sure i don’t miss anything important. hopefully i’ll remember everything that happened. thats what i get for doing my papers before blogging after trips. poor choice.

anywhoot, let’s see where i left off. wow. birthday weekend. longgg time ago. so we went to venice for my birthday weekend and it was pretty awesome, not gonna lie. friday night we all went out with silvia to irish village in ostiense which was such a crazy awesome good time. i def want to go back soon. we woke up mad early saturday morning (like 4am early - i might as well have not gone to bed). four hours later, on a train, we arrived in bella venezia. one girl megan was supposed to come with us but never made it to the train so she decided to stay home. her loss. anyway, we got a bit lost in venice and couldnt find our hostel but eventually we did and it was a cool little apartment thing with a kitchen and all these beds and a common area. it was so cool! so we settled in a bit, got lunch, then took a water taxi over to the island of murano where they make glass. the island was really pretty, and we bought soooo much glass stuff. its so gorgeous there. i cant even explain it. one place even let us play dress up and try on a whole bunch of jewelry. good times! it was quite cold near the water, which made me sad, but whatevs. we took the taxi back to the main island and then the girls cooked me dinner in our apartment (gnocchi, chicken, salad, cheese, wine, the works!) and it was soooo yummy. then it was time to ring in my birthday!! we went to a discopub near our hostel called dogado and danced and drank in my birthday. i wound up getting free drinks from this older business man from holland, which was a bit sketch at first but it was fine bc then i didnt have to pay on my bday! lol. i got a dogado which was an amazing little concoction of rum and all these fruit juices. yummm. i was wearing a tiara that laura had let me borrow for the day which was fun but also weird bc everyone kept asking me if i was getting married. i should have said yes - maybe i would have gotten free food too! lol.

sunday was my actual birthday (yay 20!!) so we got up, had breakfast, went shopping a bit and such. i took a tiny nap bc i wasnt feeling well at first, but then i was better so it was all good. we saw the ponte rialto which is redic gorg and then we shopped at the rialto market, which was the death of our bank accounts. i got lots of presents for people, and lots for me too! haha. then we got some lunch and hit up piazza san marco. i fed the infamous pigeons there. that was an experience to say the least. i freaked out when they all attacked me and they were all up on my arms and shoulders but it was so fun. thank god they didnt shit on my coat. anyways. then we found a really nice gondolier named franco and took a 45 min gondola ride around venice!! it was absolutely beautiful!! it was such a great way to spend my birthdayy! it was a bit on the expensive side but it was def what i expected it to be. after that we walked around a bit more, went out to dinner, then went back to the square at night. gorgeous. we hit up the famous harry’s bar, which is where they invented the bellini!! i had one there and it was by far the best bellini i’ve ever had! sooo yummy! then we went to sleep bc we had to get up mad early again monday morning to head back to school for philosophy class. funn. all in all it was a great weekend. venice is beautiful, and one of my favorite places i’ve been in italy so far. i got a bit homesick bc i really missed being able to celebrate with my whole family and all of my friends, but i honestly cant complain because i mean, come on - who gets to say they spent their 20th birthday riding a gondola in venezia?

the next week was a blur. mainly the usual - get up, eat, go to school, class, eat, italian, home, eat, homework, sleep, repeat. we finished our italian class on thursday and friday which made me very sad. no more italiano with mario! =( i miss him already. i kind of just want to sneak into one of his other classes just to hear him say “coraggio!” or “oh gesu!”. i got an A in the class (i found out yesterday) so that’s two for two woop woop. we left italian early on friday after our oral exams and me, laura, jess, teresa, erica, and liz headed over to athens greece for the weekend!!

greece was one of the most gorgeous places i’ve ever been, and it was the most amazing weekend of life. we got in to athens after midnight and it was about 2am or so when we finally checked into our hostels, after viewing some transvestites and a possible whorehouse on the way. we got a free upgrade to the studio apartments = amazing room with kitchen and tv and common room. we make our way up to the third floor and encounter an unconscious man lying outside our door. laura screamed like a banshee while jess laughed hysterically for a good 15 mins. obvi he was drunk and sleeping half on the stairs and half in front of our door. awesome. then we get into the apartment and cant figure out how to put the lights on. 20 mins later laura and teresa go back to the main building to ask how to put the lights on/ if theyre even working and erica figures out that our card key needs to be in so we can put the lights on. honors kids man. needless to say our first experiences in greece were pretty comical.

we wake up early the next morning, have breakfast, meet our unconscious friend for real, then head out for some touring. we walked up and around the acropolis (we got in for free!! yay student visas!) we saw the parthenon (it was being renovated so there was scaffolding booo), the temple of athena nike, whole bunch of other ancient worship buildings and temples. we climbed up on top of rocks and took top of the world pictures. that was a good time. we toured the agora ancient market and walked throughout the ancient ruins there. it was soooo cool! i love that stuff, and it reminded me of the forum in rome. then we hit up lunch - had lamb and potatoes! - and then we walked over to plato’s academy. we read symposium, meno, and republic on the steps of his institution, which was pretty nerdy/awesome of us. it was so weird and surreal to be reading the words of the man who created this school and where his philosophy was taught to others a bajillion years before us. interesting feeling. then we headed back to the hostel, showered up, and headed out to the recommended god’s restaurant. holy shit what an amazing dinner. i had moussaka for the first time, and it is my new obsession. it’s eggplant lasagna with lamb potatoes and cheese in it. it is AMAZING. i also tried baklava for the first time, which i also really liked. the waiters liked us so much that they gave us free bottles of wine (which was so good btw) and a free round of tsiporo shots, a typical greek liquor thats sweet and licorice tasting. im a big fan. god was very good to us that night lol. then we bought more wine and baklava and had our own symposium. we climbed up to the top of the acropolis and had the most amazingly gorgeous view of the city of athens before us. i cant even put into words how amazing it was. i had never seen anything like it. it felt like the world was at my tiny fingertips, allowing me to do with it whatever i pleased. i was speechless just sitting there on the rocks staring at how beautiful athens was. we continued to drink more wine, talking about life, love, study abroad, family, everything. it was one of the best nights of my life. hands down. it made me feel so grateful for everything and everyone i have, and really made me realize how incredibly lucky i am to be here. the view of athens made me feel so insignificant and small. it was very grounding. and the view was just breathtaking. i wish i could have taken pictures, but they just wouldnt have been able to capture even a smidgen of the beauty i saw. we just sat there for over an hour just talking and looking over to the temples on the hill all lit up, and the lights of the city still alive and awake. it was just so .. ahh i cant even explain it. it’s just one of those things i will treasure in my heart forever, and only those girls sitting on top of those rocks with me that night will understand.

the next day, we found out while eating at god’s, happened to be a public holiday - oxi day! it’s the day when the leader of greece told mussolini no (oxi) to his request to invade neutral greece during world war two. i’m not exactly sure why there is such a big holiday to celebrate this one particular word, especially considering that mussolini invaded shortly after anyway, but whatevs. me, teresa, liz and erica went to the parade in the center of athens in the morning which was really cool because there were marching bands and men of the armed forces and all of the school kids in the city marched in the parade as well. then afterwards we went shopping at the montisraki (spelling?) flea market, which took forever to find bc we didnt have a map and no one seemed to know what we were talking about. then we had lunch, did more shopping, and headed back to the hostel for happy hour at the backpackers bar. our bartender friend nick from australia had laura make me a “suicide bomb” and even though i still have no idea what was in it it was absolutely yummy! two of those and i was feeling perfecto. afterwards we headed out for dinner near the center of athens and i had amazing moussaka once again (im telling you i’m obsessed). our waiter spoke italian which was really cool. then we did some touring after dinner. we saw the arch of hadrian and the temple of zeus. we happened to stumble upon fashion week in greece as well (i honestly dont know how these things happen to us) and we snuck in to a fashion show near a greek temple. it was soooo awesome!! i took lots of pictures, obvi. the models were just so surreal-looking and the dresses were absolutely gorgeous. im going to need to get me one lol. after our little vogue sesh we went to the old olympic stadium. i wont go into detail about what exactly went down but lets just say i got some amazingly awesome pictures out of it and a good cardio workout lol. after a little more touring we went back to the hostel bc we were really tired. we ran into nick again at the studio apartments as he was closing up the bar and told him we still hadnt had ouzo (the alcohol greece is known for) and so he opened up the bar just for us and gave us free shots of ouzo!! it was just the six of us and nick in the bar listening to the rolling stones and drinking ouzo. it was soooo awesome. then nick took us up to his terrace apartment and we had the most amazing view of athens lit up at night. we could see the acropolis and all of the temples and hills and everything. then nick took out his guitar and he played while we sang and danced under the athenian stars on this amazing terrace. it was one of the greatest nights of my life. i cant even describe to you how amazing it was. honestly. all i can write is this one particular quote said by nick to us that night on the terrace, “now you’ve done the roof, you’ve done Athens. Now all that’s left is the rest of the world.”
we woke up the next morning and were really sad about leaving greece. we said yasu and efharisto for the last time and left athens in the afternoon monday. we arrived back in rome, we gave our history presentations in class on tuesday morning and then we were off to newcastle that afternoon!!

alright i’m breaking this up into multiple posts otherwise this will just be ridiculous and no one will read anything.

"alright i'm going to despar. wish me luck - i might not have exact change .."

yo yo yo.

alrighty here's the update i know y'all have been waiting for. so last wednesday we saw the pope!! we were there at 8am for the papal audience and he came out around 10:30am and said some prayers and did some readings. we got a shout out and he acknowledged us in the audience which was so cool. and i got some awesome pictures of him passing us in the popemobile. we had great seats for that. and he waved at us! it was def pretty badass.

thursday i handed in my final midterm and finished my italian midterm and so we all decided to go out all night to celebrate the end of the week from hell. we hit up trinity college, then the drunken ship, then some other random little bar in campo dei fiori and i can't remember the name of it, and finally we ended up at scholars. basically everyone in the program was out with us so it was totally awesome and so much fun. friday was a chill day because we had to prepare for our visitors!

so saturday morning we woke up at the ass crack of dawn and met mc and c unit on via ottaviano and went into st peters. i was the little tour guide for that part bc i was the only one that had been there before. we took a tour of the church then hit up a pasticceria near there and got on the metro for more touristy things. we visited the pantheon, the trevi fountain, the spanish steps, our school, and then we had lunch at l'archetto spaghetteria. yummyyyy! then ater lunch we went to piazza campidolgio and gave them a tour of the roman forum. it was really cool bc we know a lot about it and we could tell them so much about each part. then we saw the colloseo and sat around there for a while. we walked around via nazionale and then took the metro back to ottaviano and did a little shopping there. we went to the pizza place dawson took us once and we had some yummy pizza. then we headed back to mc and c unit's little hostel (lmao. i still laugh everytime i think about that) and got ready for going out. we couldnt find where silvia told us to go, so we just hit up a random pub down the block from the hostel. clarice and i had our first blowjob shots which were really yummy. we were content. then we went home and met up sunday morning for breakfast and chiaccherare. it was fun catching up and gossiping. then we took them to the train station and they went to the airport to fly back to paris.

all in all it was an awesome weekend, but i wish they could have stayed longer. but now im even more excited about paris bc we'll be there for a long time and itll be great to see them again!! and im practicing my phrase - je voudrais acheter ces chausurres!!

this week has been uneventful. class as usual, then a little shopping. i bought myself a dress to wear on my birthday, and today i bought a pair of boots to go with. i'm very excited. last night i started the birthday celebration off after we had a ridiculous birthday dinner for alessandro. he was thirty yesterday so we had lasagna, eggplant parmigiania, mozzarella di bufala, insalata, and tiramisu, on top of vino and champagna. yumminess!! nunzia's tiramisu was PHENOMENAL. im obsessed with it. anyway, after dinner i met up with some people in trastevere and we went to the chocolate bar for some chocolate shots. they were so delicious. if i had stayed there whew forget it. afterwards we found arandom bar on via moro and sat down and just chatted and hung out. it was really chill but totally fun. then we met up with some other people and ended up at scholars. all great nights end there. lol. it was def a fun night, and a great way to start off my birthday weekend!

tonight we're all going out with sylvia in ostiense to a kareoke bar and then for dancing on tables!! i'm so excited!!! and then tomorrow morning we head out to venice!! this is going to be an amazing birthday and i cant wait!!

next time i update i won't be a teenager anymore!! woop woop!

god i love my birthday. ♥

tanti baci lovers.

whoops.

okay i know i said i would update like almost everyday but ive been mad busy and have had simply no time for anything. i promiseee either tomorrow or friday i will write about last weekend and this past week. i wish i had more time to write, or to sleep, or to do anything really, but it's just been crazy here.

life is pretty awesome right now though. i can say that.

okay i'm on my pausa and mario is going to grida at me if i'm late. so i'm gonna go.

pace fuori. parola.

♥baci.

sprechen sie ingles?

oh my word.

that was the most amazing weekend of my life.

so let's recap.

friday j9 and i skipped italian and hopped on lufthansa to head over to munich. we left the house at 9am for our 1pm flight just to make sure we had time bc you know how roman transportation is. well, we got there by like 10:30 10:45, and we waited online to check in for almost 2 hours. it was terrible. we were all freaking out like crazy bc we thought we were gonna miss our flight, but then finally someone had some sense and made all the munich people skip the line so we could board the plane. italians are so inefficient sometimes. the flight was like only an hour long, and we got to the munich airport mad early. so we chilled for a while, ate lunch, and took a lovely tour trying to find out where the girls were landing. we finally met up with elise and cait and then soon after we met clarice. we all piled into a cab and headed to our hostel in allershausen. 40 euro later, we got to the hostel and the rooms are amazingly awesome. we wound up moving one of the beds into the other room so we could have a massive sleepover! yay! lol. anyways, of course the five of us are sitting there thinking of what to do and what immediately comes to mind? food. so we trek through our little suburbia and walk to this restaurant on a main street. they didnt speak english. awesome. thank god lisey has her european travel language book otherwise we'd be lost. we ordered cibo and i had my first german sausage which was actually pretty good. then afterwards we hit up a random gas station bc we were really craving chocolate. we got accosted by two guys in dresses (?) and then walked back to the hostel. early bedtime for us because we needed to be primed and ready to go for the big day on saturday!

6am wake up call. had breakfast at 7 (so yummy) then hopped on a 30 euro cab ride to freising (wtf man) to catch a train into the center of the city. there were dudes pregaming oktoberfest on the train it was crazy ridiculous. we get off the train at about 8:15ish and have no idea where we're going. so what do we decide to do? just follow the massive amounts of lederhosen migrating in front of us. i had never seen such a mass exodus of people in my life. and wouldnt you know they led us straight to the biggest beerfest of life. it looked just like a carnival! there were rides and food stands and cookies and pretzels, brotwurst and souvenir shops and everything. it was sooo coool! we walked around a little trying to find a good tent, and we found tent number three - the hofbrau festzelt. a huge moshpit was gathering outside it, so we made our way into the pit and waited for the doors to open. once they opened people ran into the tent, but we didnt get in until 9:30 because there were so many people. we were sandwiched in between so many people and attempted to hold on to each other so we wouldnt get lost. lisey called it a "massive international spooning session". lol. we wound up not even entering the front but we ran around the side and went in the back. good times. we walked it and there were sooooo many people! everyone sat on wooden tables cafeteria style and all you saw was lederhosen and beer. it was glorious. we found a small area where we could sit and bought our liters. we met these italians from milan sitting next to us and they kept wanting to take pictures of us and with us. "i want you!!" CLUNK. "posso fare una fotografia con te?" "puoi baciarmi?" ahh crazy italians. every five seconds we would "prost!!" with whoever was next to us, and there was lots of chanting and singing. at one point we were dancing on the table with the italians and singing "heyy baby!!". it was soooo amazing. dancing on tables = check. we met some other random austrians who wound up doing coke lines on the table. it was at that point that we got up and left. we ran into alex hollis and lea flaminiano which was crazy and totally awesome. we walked around a bit and got round two. i asked for a half beer half lemonade but they gave me a full beer. oh well. we clanked glasses with everyone we passed by and saluted the beer about 50 times. we took pictures with lots of lederhosen too. once we finished liter number 2 we went outside bc we needed food like whoa. we got some souvenirs (3 beer steins, a shot glass, three shirts) and then chocolate covered fruit. i had the most amazing pineapples of life. then c unit cait and elise got brotwurst and i got a "cheeseburger" which was really nasty. oh well. no matter. we walked around a little more and then hit up tent number 2 - the pschorr brauros. we hit up round three but we were allowed to drink outside so we took our beers out and kept walking around. we met some more italians, and one that thought he could speak french. good times. we finished our beer and decided we needed to get dinner and retire because we were dead. we wound up walking out with our pschorr steins which was ridiculous but totally awesome. we got dinner at a random place near the train station and we got more beer. then we took the train to freising and hit up a cab back. once we got back to hotelpension ZUM gockl we basically passed out.

sunday we attempted to get up at six but got up at 7:30 instead. we had breakfast, checked out, then headed back into the center of the city for some tourist things. the cab ride to freising was free (go figure) and the woman who was driving it had no clue how to handle a stick bc her car is automatic. the whole time we all held on for our dear lives as she kept saying "gosh stick shift is so hard!". then we see a random hitchiker on the side of the road and she pulls over and picks him up! we all looked at each other and started freakin out bc this guy is sitting in the front seat and you know how horror movies go. we finally make it there and we got out of the cab and then took the train (which we didnt pay for) to the center of the city. we saw city hall and the glockenspiel, although we didnt get to climb up it because it was being renovated. poo. we saw some pretty churches and walked around a little. there was a german band playing folk music and we heard the celebration of the last day at oktoberfest. we got lunch at a german pub, we got more beer (can't get enough) and i had my first weiner schnitzel which was sooo yummy!! then we went to the aiport and departed ways. =( j9 and i checked in fine this time but at security the dumb german took all of my toiletries because apparently im only allowed one very tiny bag of stuff, which is bs bc i didnt have a problem in fiumicino. he took stuff that wasnt even liquid, like my toothbrush and advil and vitamins and stuff. i was soo pissed. whatever. we got on the plane and landed in rome around 6:30ish. we didnt get home til almost nine because the train to trastevere was ridiculous and no one would let us off then the tram was mad slow. once i got home i passed out by 10pm and got an amazing amount of sleep.

so let's get a summary:

-number of people: five college girls
-event: biggest beerfest of life
-amount of beer i drank: 3.3 liters
-starting time: 9:30am
-number of tents visited: two
-amount of time spent drinking: 10 hours straight
-total amount of beer consumed by 5 girls: 10 liters +
-number of italians we met: a bajillion
-returning next year: HELL YES!

alright, i best be off to write my theo midterm. i'm missing my ocho girlies and german beer like whoa. but mary and clarice are coming to visit this weekend yayyy! hopefully i'll update again soon. catch ya on the flipside ..

peace, weinerschnitzel, and beer.
♥

sotto il sole di toscana ..

okay. so these next two weeks are going to be uber stressful and busy, so i don't know how much time i'm going to have to update this. but i promise i'll try as much as i can.

first off. the tuscany trip was absolutely amazing. tuscany is so beautiful and i am officially obsessed with it. i want to go back sooooo bad.

so let's update from saturday. i was up until 3:30am preparing my presentation on st catherine of siena which was a good time, especially because i got up at 5:30 to get to termini to meet the bus. i was not happy. we all met at termini and loaded up the bus and i slept almost the whole ride to siena. we got to siena around 11ish and we saw the church of st dominic where the head and arm of catherine of siena reside. it was a little weird to see her head but whatever. it was a pretty church. siena was kind of cold, which i was not prepared for. and it rained a little bit, so it wasnt fun in the morning. we took a walk around the city and it was soo hilly! we hiked up lots of cliffs and coasted down steep slopes. it was crazy. we saw the oldest bank in the world, a really pretty piazza i cant remember the name of right now, and we went to palazzo publico to see frescoes. they were pretty, but since i dont know much about art i dont think i could appreciate them as much. mary would have loved them most def. anyway, then we went to lunch where we had the biggest pizza pie of life and then typical sienese dolci - paneforte and cantucci. paneforte is kinda moist and mushy and i didnt like it, but the cantucci were yummyyy! then after lunch we met in the center of the city and went to go see the duomo, which was ridiculously huge and extravagant. its striped inside, which is weird, and there are lots of decorations going on. very typical gothic architecture. then we hit up the house of catherine of siena where i gave my presentation for 15 mins. i think it went okay but we'll see how ddv thought. we got to see where she used to sleep on a rock when she was in st dominics and all of the portaits of her when she was growing up, which was cool to see because i knew all about what was in the paintings. then we got on the bus and were on our way to arezzo.

we made it to hotel minerva in arezzo a little before dinner, so we all changed and got dressed up for cena. it was really yummy and the wine was so phenomenal. afterwards we decided to go out, so we had some more wine at the hotel bar and walked into downtown arezzo to explore. ddv and the boys stopped at an enoteca for some grappe. ddv let me taste his and it was absolutely disgusting. i have no idea how they drank it. it burned sooo bad! anyway, we all got wine instead. we stayed there for a while then kept walking around. ddv was def sloshed which was really funny and totally awesome lol. we stopped at a gelateria called cremi where he kept saying there was the best gelato in all of italy. so some of us got gelato (which was really amazing, bee tee dubs) and then ddv kept telling us to walk further to go look at some wall, and then we all wanted to find a discoteca. we wound up ditching that idea and ddv went home, but the rest of us stayed out. by now its maybe about 11 oclock, and we're all feeling really good. we go to some pub and stay there for a while. emma and i turn upstairs into a dance floor, but then the party ended and we decided to go home around 1oclock. we left our mark in arezzo and went to sleep as soon as we got back to the hotel.

sunday morning we took a walking tour of arezzo and saw some pretty churches, but we actually walked in on a huge celebration in one part of town. apparently they had won the annual joust the week before so they had this medieval procession with horses and people dressed up into the church we were going to visit. so we decided to stay for mass and watch the celebration where they welcomed the little bambini into the winning section of town. it was totally awesome. i have amazing pictures, and i took a video of the procession. afterwards, we went to see frescoes at piazza san francesco which were actually really pretty, even though i know nothing about them lol. we had lunch and then went back to the hotel to prep for our next trip - castello del trebbio.

we rode the bus for about an hour and a half to rufina between siena and firenze and visited the castle of the pazzi family, a once very wealthy ruling family during the renaissance. we got a tour of the castle and learned about how to make extra virgin olive oil and the process by which they make wine. then after walking all throughout the cellar we went upstairs and had a wine tasting of four different wines. we learned the proper way to taste wine. first, you look at the color of the wine and observe it in the glass. then you smell the wine, then swish the wine around the glass and smell again to really get the aroma. finally you take a sip of the wine but keep it in your mouth, moving it around and letting it sit on your tongue so you can taste it. and then you swallow. the first wine we tastes was white wine (i dnt remember the name) but it was sooo yummy. i dont even like white wine and it was good. then we tried a sangiovese chianti from 2006, a young red which was very sweet. then we compared it to the next wine, a 2001 sangiovese chianti. the 2001 was so much stronger and much drier, but i liked it a lot. then we had a dessert wine, vino santo, which looked brown. i wasnt a fan. it didnt smell good so i didnt like. but the other three were good. we then went outside and hit up the store, where i bough five bottles of wine and one bottle of their extra virgin olive oil. yummyyy! then we took lotssss of pictures outside the castello because the view was just gorgeous. i'm going to make my husband buy me that castle so i can live there, just like the current owners did. =)

then we took the bus back to arezzo and had dinner. people went out again after dinner but i decided not to because i was exhausted and i figured it would probably be a good idea to do some work considering this week and next week are going to suck. story of my life. anyway, so i wound up falling asleep at like 11:30 and getting such a good night's sleep. yayy. then we woke up and headed out to umbria for assisi. we went to go see the basilica di san francesco which was gorgeous and ginormous! we walked inside where giotto's frescoes of francis' life were all over the walls. they were really awesomee. then we walked downstairs to the tomb of saint francis and explored around there. afterwards we had lunch and walked around looking at more architecture and churches. then we wet shopping where i got some ridiculously awesome gifts for some family members, and then finally at 4pm we got on the bus and headed home.

okay i actually have to go to italiano class now fun fun. mario will kill me if i'm late. ugh. that's all for now. expect an update again after this weekend because i'm going to munich for oktoberfest!!!! woop woop!! you know you wish you were coming with. ;)

peace, love, and vino. ♥

mi dispiace ma ..

so sorry my b i havent updated this in quite a while, but i dont have time unfort. i'm on my pausa and today it was raining/there was a sciopero for the buses and trams. i've been here since 9:30 and i've been writing my theo paper all day i want to kill myself. my presentation is due tomorrow fun fun.

and i'm leaving for tuscany this weekend with the crew so i'm totally excitedddd.

we're going to be under the tuscan sun ahhhh.

and we're going to a castle built near vineyards for some wine tasting.

be jealous.

i promise i'll update when i get back. ;)

ciao ciao bellas. ♥

il fine settimana.

so here's a rundown of one of the few weekends i will have here in rome.

friday night mario let us out 15 min early from italiano which was sooo nice, because we had our trip to testaccio that night. so we got home early and i got ready to go to the discoteca with the girls. j9 decided not to go because she's a poop, but it's all good. anyway, we met up at pyramide and then walked to testaccio with silvia and like 20 italiaidea people. we were a loud and massive group of americans lol. the club was called l'alibi, and it was totally awesome! it was an outdoor discoteca, so you walk up these stairs and you look and it's all open. there are various little canopies on each side of the walkway where you can sit and just watch or lounge around and whatever, and then in the center is this disco-style dance floor in the shape of a square with the dj right at the edge. if you keep walking the bar is all the way in the back corner.

anyway, we got there "fairly early" for italians - about 11:30. it was a bit empty then except for us, so while we waited for the party to start we hit up the bar for a while. drinks were a bit expensive, so we all got either one or two. at first the dj was playing weird music and we weren't into it, but then he started playing american music and we went crazy. we ran to the dance floor and danced like mad (well, at least i did lol). they played sexy back, black eyed peas, pcd, and all this awesome house music. it was soooo great! i got hit on by about 6 italians in a matter of a half hour, no joke, and i danced with a few cuties at first but then got bored with them lol. guess nobody can keep up. dan, manny, and alex were pimpin it like whoa, it was hysterical. we basically made lots of loyola sandwiches haha. natalia and i were the apparent choices for these sandwiches lol. it was also alex's 21st birthday so we celebrated a little there. some people left at like 2:30, which was still really early, according to italians, especially because we really didn't start dancing until 12:30 1oclock. however, the rest of us stayed much later, and i didnt get home until 5:30am. lol. i know i'm such a badass. i wasnt even tired by then - i wanted to keep going. but a whole bunch of the crew were leaving for firenze the next morning at like 7 so they needed to go home, even if they weren't going to sleep beforehand. i walked in on colli and i really had to go to the bagno, which is in j9's room, and apparently she was awake bc she was gonna get up at 6 to do homework, so it was really funny that i was getting home just as she was waking up. lol.

anyway, i attempted to sleep a little on sunday because i was so dead but i pushed myself to get up at noon so i could at least get some stuff done. i ate lots of gelato and an amazing cornetto and capuccino at innocente lol. i did a litle of my philo paper, but then i randomly got an internet connection from someone's wireless, so j9 and i skyped mary and clarice for an hour, then skyped amahnd, hannah, and finally dani. it was great talking to them - i miss them so much!! and it was so nice to actually hear their voices, especially because its so hard to call with the time difference and the expensiveness of the dumb phone companies. clarice and mary booked their flights and what not so theyre officially visiting rome the second weekend of october!! im so exciteddd! =)

j9 and i then went to dinner down the block at il caminetto and i had amazing spinach and ricotta ravioli, and even more amazing red wine. i wound up getting myself a small little bottle of it to go, and i drank the chianti at home while writing my philo paper. it was a glorious endeavor. i actually made sense and came up with some excellent ideas. thank you chianti! haha. anyway, then sunday came around and i did lots more paper writing and reading and fun stuff like that. woohoo. j9 and i went to caminetto again for dinner, except this time i had stuffed zucchini and meatballs and it was pretty good too. j9 and i split another half bottle of wine (she actually likes it!) and then i finished up some more at home so i could finish my philo paper. when i woke up this morning and read my paper i was actually a bit impressed with what i wrote after the chianti lol. guess this will become a fave practice of mine if i still have problems with philosophy paper writing haha.

okay that's basically it. even though i did work all weekend it wasnt so bad. i enjoyed myself while doing it lol. more updates to come this week.
ciao ciao loves ♥

smack that, all on the floor ..

a little update on my life this week ..

wednesday i had philosophy and i still don't understand a word of aristotle. we have a huge paper due next wednesday on our own philosophy of God and whether aristotle or plato supports our argument. say wha? i have to come up with my own philosophy of God? mmhm yea sure. okay. and its 3 pages single spaced size 10. hahahaha he must be out of his flippin mind.

thursday was a really long day. we had theo in the morning and we went to the basilica di san paolo which was gorgeous. then we went to santa cecilia and then santa maria in trastevere. lot of church action going on. theology def is the class i don't enjoy as much as the others, partly because we never get out on time and we always get left somewhere so by the time we get back to spagna its like 2 oclock. gross. plus he throws so much info at us throughout the class and i have no idea what is important and what he wants us to know so i write so much and i dont understand any of my notes. they go from the bible to architecture to martyrs to letters to i dont even know what. its a mess. ick.

anyways, so i started my new italian class this week and its sooo much better than the last one. mario is the shit. i love him. he's so much fun and he's so cute! he's always saying "oh jesu!" and "coraggio!" lol. the class is definitely starting to get difficult, but i'd rather have it that way then not learn anything new. i don't mind it so much. i just hope my finals arent too hard.

ohh fun stuff happened today. randomly as i was reading plotinus this morning in my room janine comes running in and she goes "anna! come in my room for a sec!" so i was like um okay sure. i walk into her room and she asks me to listen out the window. and wouldn't you know it there was a car down on the street near the garage that was blasting "smack that"! we were laughing for a good 15 mins after that because we didnt think anybody here knew that song, let along actually listened to american rap. it was totally awesome. then, at 11am, because we're ridiculous, we went over to tony's for gelato. we wound up meeting the two brothers that own the place - marco and walter - and now we're bff's with them lol. i knew they would wind up being friends with us bc we're always in there. walter told us to come back tonight before we go out and then again tomorrow, and i wouldnt be surprised if we actually do. hahaha. i tried a new flavor too today, meringa, and it might be my new favorite flavor!! i'm not exactly sure what's in it (looked like marshmellows, chocolate, and caramel) but its soooo yummy!! =)

this weekend isnt going to be much fun for me. i have my huge theo paper due next week as well as my presentation for that class and my philo paper on plato and aristotle. fun times. tonight though we're all going out to a discoteca in testaccio (finally!) so that should be a good time. if only i could figure out what to wear ..

okay i better go do some work. later ciao!!

il paradiso.

wow. what an amazing weekend.

so laura, jessie, j9 and i travelled to amalfi and then to capri last weekend. and i had such a great time. it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. i want to go back sooooo badly. i can't even begin to describe what i saw because i can just never explain it. you just have to be there to see it, because my words and my pictures definitely don't do it justice. but i'll try to recount everything as best as i can ..

so saturday morning we woke up at 5am and headed to termini to meet jess and laura for the train. the train left at 7:45am. we met other rome program peeps at the station (cristina, alex, drew, rachel, amy, christina and abbey) who were going to amalfi also and actualy staying in the same hostel as us. so we all took the train to salerno. the girls all fell asleep for most of the ride while i stayed up and watched the landscape pass by. we went through lots of countryside and farm areas which was kind of cool. i saw some sheep and buffalo lol. anywhoot, we finally make it to salerno at around 10:30 where all of us meet up with daniela, emma, and felicia. we all wait for the SITA bus that will take us to amalfi. we all get on and head for the coast. salerno was really pretty - def a typical italian town. everyone hung their clothes out on the front to dry which is funny, and the buildings were really bright and lively looking. it was cool. the roads on the cliffs were mad curvy and windy, and the bus definitely did not handle them very well, so i got nauseous on the ride there. it was the longest bus ride of my life. i felt awful. and i missed a lot of the good views because i didn't want to move for fear of getting really sick. finally we make it to atrani, and i had never been so happy to be not moving. it was glorious. atrani was the town we were staying in, and it's like a 5 min walk away from the town of amalfi. we go to our hostel and the staff is really nice. we walk to our room and we had to climb all these stairs and through these really narrow random alleyways and streets. it was so cute. the room was actually really nice for 30 euro a night. our bathroom had the shower right next to the toilet, which was a fun adventure that night.

after settling in we went to lunch in piazza umberto. i had such yummy gnocchi! and then we got limoncello shots for free after lunch. amalfi is known for its limoncello and other lemon products, so we all took the shot. j9, jess and laura all didnt like it. i loved it. it was sooo good! it was really strong though, so i didnt finish it, but it was definitely yummy. then after lunch we went to the beach and just sat there all afternoon. we took lots of pictures of the cliffs and the mountains and the view of the ocean. it was gorgeous. the beach was interesting because apparently the coast doesnt do sand so well. the "sand" was kinda blackish with some rocks and terracotta. it was hard to walk on sometimes but it was stil gorgeous. the water was so clear and warm and i loved swimming in it.

then we all went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the night. laura and jess went to the chapel for a small church mass and j9 and i got ready for dinner. we went back to the piazza to see if we could find out how we could get to amalfi for dinner and we saw the other crew chilling where we had lunch. apparently it was happy hour so they were having drinks before they were going to dinner. all cocktails were 3 euro, so we stayed for one round of champagne and wine and whatnot so we could figure out how to get to amalfi. j9 had a rossini, again lol. laura had champagne with some kind of juice i forgot which, and jess had champagne with pineapple juice, which i tried and it was really good. i, however, had the BEST DRINK EVER. i ordered a nutella daquiri, which has milk, nutella, and rum. oh my god it was the best thing i have ever tasted. it was just like a chocolate milkshake!! it was so sweet and so chocolately and now i really need to find myself another one or a place up here that makes it bc its so goooood! ahhh i miss it already lol.

after we finished our drinks we went up to the main road and walked to amalfi, which literally took like two minutes. we made our way around this one bend and all of a sudden we all gasped at the same time. the view was so beautiful. the lights of amalfi were shining so bright and glittering off the water. it was amazing. i wish my camera could have really captured everything but the stupid flash kept messing up the lights. anyway, we walked down the road and every five minutes i heard "oh my gosh!" "gorgeous!" "this is soo amazing!". we make it to the actual town and it is just so adorable. the roads are so tiny and the cafes and bars are all open. people and families and children are all walking around. it was so cute. we found a fancy place to have dinner where we sat outside with a view of the ocean. it was so perfect. we ordered some red wine with dinner and had amazing seafood. i has spaghetti alla tarantina, which is spaghetti with mussels. they were so incredibly delicious!! jess had the same thing, and laura and j9 had gamberoni with pasta. all in all it was a successful dining experience. for dessert we hit up a gelateria and got some gelato and a bottle of wine. i got straciatella, as always, and we went to the dock and sat down and just stared out at the ocean for a while. we shared the wine and finished our gelato and just enjoyed the view for the night. it was such an amazing experience.

the next morning (sunday) we woke up really early and got breakfast from a scalinatella because it was included in our price. and it was sooo yummy! my cappucino had a smiley face in it lol. it was really cute. then we checked out and made our way back to amalfi while the sun was rising over the water. it was so pretty! we get to the dock and buy tickets for the boat to capri because we wanted to spend the day there. the boat ride was an hour long, and we got to see positano on the way there which was really cool. the city was very bright colored and built up. i would like to go visit there sometime in the future because it looks fun. anyway, we get to capri around 9:45 and it was soooo gorgeous! the water was sooo bluee and sparkly!! we then took another boat (i know, we love the navi around here) to get to la grotta azzurra. it was kind of expensive, but we knew it was going to be. once we got to the cave we had to jump onto these little tiny rowboats to get inside. mind you, i had my huge ass kipley duffel i just bought and it was heavy. i dont know how on earth the four of us fit in the boat but we did. we had to lean back and basically lay down in the boat in order to get in the cave because the opening was so tiny. but when we got in there it was just so amazing. the water is so breathtakingly blue, apparently because of the way the sunlight reflects off the rocks and hits the water. but it was gorgeous. we unfortunately thought the cave was bigger and sooner than we knew it we were back outside in the mediterranean. i wish the tour was longer than like a minute, but i'm really glad i got to see it because its so beautiful.

we took the boat back to capri and hung out and the beach basically for the rest of the afternoon. the beach at capri was obviously not really a beach but more of a huge collection of baseball sized rocks. it was really hard to lay on but we got used to it. it was definitely more difficult to walk on without shoes, especially when you tried to go into the ocean, but once you got past a certain point the floor was smooth so it was all good. laura and i swam to a rock jetty and climbed up on some rocks to check out the view, which was naturally awesome and gorgeous. i sat up there for a while just taking it all in and thinking about stuff. it was really nice, and really relaxing.

then before we knew it it was 4 oclock and so we headed back to the harbor to catch our boat ride home. it was a little longer than the first one, but we got back to amalfi at around a quarter to 6. we caught the SITA bus at 6 so we figured we were safe. our train was leaving at 7:20, so we'd have 20 minutes to spare. it was timed so perfectly. however, things went downhill from there. i didnt get sick this time, thank god, because i OD'ed on dramamine beforehand. but the bus was terrible. he kept stopping at random curves on the edges of cliffs and he took FOREVER to get to the station. it wound up taking us an hour and a half to get to salerno. so we got to the train station at 7:30, a mere 10 MINUTES after our train left. we were so pissed. so we tried to go up to the teller to ask if we could just change our tickets and he was really mean and said absolutely not bc we bought them online. so he told us to call this number to change oru reservation so we could get home. we call up the number, and besides the fact that the woman was as dumb as a doorknob it took her like 20 mins to write down and comprehend our confirmation number. after another 10 mins on the phone she tells us she can't help us and that we have to go to someone in person to change our train. what the hell. by now its almost 8 oclock and we're all freaking out because we don't know how we're gonna get home. we decide to just buy a whole new set of tickets for the direct train to termini at 8:42, but we find out the train is completely sold out. freak out number 2. the next train to termini? at 2:58am, putting us as getting in at 6:17am. freak out number 3. by now i'm basically hyperventilating internally because i most definitely did not want to wait until 3am, four girls alone, for our train in a town we don't know. we called ddv and he told us to relax and take it easy bc everything would be okay. he told us to go up to the conductor of the full train to see if he could let us on. so at 8:42 we head up to the platform, plead our case and basically beg the conductor to let us on the train. he says we can go on, but we have to pay 212 euro for changing fees and the fee to get on a crowded eurostar (the most expensive train you can take here). the girls didnt want to pay, especially because the 3am train was 16 euro each, but i said absolutely not and bought the tickets on my card. we made it on the train in the silent car, where there were actually 4 seats free which was nice so we didnt have to stand the whole time. our freak out was basically over and i slept the whole ride home. j9 and laura wrote the conductor a thank you note in italian on a postcard and gave it to him which was pretty hilarious. "thank you for letting us on your train. it was nice of you. we really like this train. you are our favorite man of the train. grazie. ciao." lmao. we wound up getting into termini only a half hour later than we were supposed to, which wasnt bad at all. dawson told us which bus we had to take home, the ma2, which was fine. we took it with laura to ville aurelia and then just took a cab to colli. i was so glad to be home.

so that was my amazing and intense weekend. it was definitely an adventure i'll never forget. and it really made me realize how lucky i am to be here for a semester. i get to do all of these things and see all these places. no one has it better than me. i'm so grateful that my parents let me come here and i'm so glad i made time in my schedule to study here, because i really feel like it was the best decision of my life. i may have only been here for two weeks, but everything has just been so amazing. i'm learning so much about history and the city but most importantly about myself. i'm gaining more confidence in my speaking italian and i'm learning to relax and not be so uptight about everything. because things don't always turn out exactly how you want them and how you plan them, and that's okay. you'll recover. it's not the end of the world if you miss a train. and it's okay to get lost, because that's how you learn to make your way around. its part of the experience. and i'm loving every single minute of it.

okay, dan is basically telling me that i've been writing on this for forever and it looks like a term paper, so i'm going to shut up now. i'll enjoy my little nutella to go and start writing my theo paper.

ciao a tutti! tanti baci <3

tony's gelateria = amazing.

so i lied. i didnt update yesterday. my b. i didnt bring massimo because i had theology in the morning and i didnt want to walk around with him. plus during the break i had to study for my italian midterm so i didnt really think it was necessary to cart mass here and back for that.

anywhoot, so yesterday morning for theology we went to the catacombs of san sebastian. it was sooooo cooool! they took us down under the ground in this barely lit cave looking thing. it was really cold and kind of creepy, but way cool to see all of the graves and inscriptions in the rock. there was a graffiti wall to peter and paul where people would carve in the wall prayers to the apostles during a time of crisis. i couldnt read what any of them said because they were in latin, obvi, but i recognized the names of peter and paul which was really cool to see. the church built over the catacombs had the body of st sebastian there and also the head of pope fabian, which is a little gross but whatever. apparently it was mad popular to decapitate the popes back in the day as a sign of respect. weird italians man.

i had my italian midterm yesterday afternoon and it wasn't too bad. i definitely think that it was challenging for the people in my class based on the level theyre at, but it was fine for me. i'm moving up to the next class on monday so hopefully we'll move a bit faster than this class. i mean, my teacher nadia is nice, but i mean come on now. how long can i possibly do the past tense? give me a break. but according to j9 we're basically learning the same thing but her class moves a bit faster and the people in the class have all taken italian before. so maybe i won't become as fluent as i want to be in italian, but hey at least i'll get an A in the class. guess that works.

this morning i woke up early to do some work because i didnt have class. i finally did my laundry (i know. its gross bc ive been here 2 weeks and didnt do it. whoops.) but boy was that an interesting affair. first off we're only allowed one load a week, which totally isnt happening. im def going to ask to pay for another because there's no way i can only do one a week. andd the washer machine is sooo tiny! i basically stuffed all my clothes in there.

okay i gotta head to italian class now. woohoo. learning the imperfetto. again. partayy.

butttttttttttt i'm going to amalfi tomorowwwww! yayyyyy!! and then capri on sundayyy!!

alright i'm outtie. i'll be back for an update after the weekend. ciao!!

ti e piacuta?

i'm chilling here at italiaidea during my break in my class. its only 20 mins so this is probably going to be short. although, i never seem to write a little bit whenever i update this blog. my posts are always like a bajillion words long, which is totally unnecessary but you know i can never shut up. anyway, i'll update more fully again tomorrow.

so today i had philosophy with ddv and we went to a cafe in the vatican city right down the block from the piazza di san pietro. we sat there for an hour and half (when my class is normally scheduled for 3 hours woop woop) and over cappuccino and these really awesome kiwi and custard pastries we discussed meno, republic, and symposium by plato. oh my god. it was such an amazing class! and normally i don't like philosophy/never really learn anything from it because it never makes sense to me and i dont understand the logic, but everything just clicked today. it was totally awesome. ddv explained everything so well, and j9 and i were really into the discussion and questioning. it was so great. if every class is like this one philosophy is def going to be my favorite class this semester. its hard because its only j9 and i and we most def have to read everything he gives us because he'll know if we don't, and the papers are going to be challenging, but i really feel like i'm going to learn so much. and i love that. i sound like a total dork but i don't even care. for once i'll actually understand philosophy, and then i can fully better myself through the process of seeing truth and good and beauty through the shadow and illusion of truth in material things and thereby reaching the divine and the immortal. lmao. look at me i'm a philo woman now. hahaha.

okay i think the break is over. poo. now for more italiano yayyy - not. i'm tired. i cant wait to sleep tonight.

ciao laterr.

buon giorno, scusi, lei e di catania?

so look at me updating two days in a row. haha. i've come to the realization that i can't live without the internet for very long anymore, so i'm manning up and carrying around massimo so that during this break i can use the italiaidea wireless and actually have contact with american civilization. it's becoming a pain carrying him thought bc hes a bit heavy, and i also carry around my books too. but whatever. its the small price i pay for the internet.

anyway, not much going on here. just doing lots of reading and prepping for the three massive papers i have due the end of the month. ick. humanties classes suck man. i have a philo paper on plato and aristotle due the 26th (the feast day of sts cosmos e damiano, so i'm def going to their church for mass) and two theo papers/ presentation on catherine of siena and pope gregory XI on the 29th during the tuscany trip. fun fun. just what i want to be doing when i'm traveling right? the only good thing about that is once those theo papers are done i only have to worry about the midterm and the final for that class and i'm good to go. nice right? philo, however, is most definitely going to kick my gluteus this semester, because we have four papers and then a big paper at the end of the semester about everything we read in relation to this other dude's theory about god. gross. philosophy is so circular and way more confusing than it should be. they make it so hard to understand it on purpose so that it seems like theyre creating all these elaborate ideas. but in reality, theyre just really dumb ideas. take zeno for example. this retard thinks that there's no such thing as movement ... wtf? why would anyone spend their whole life contemplating whether or not humans can move? weirdo.

whatevs. so let's see what else can i talk about? ohhh my new fave foods that i've eaten like whoa since i've been here: straciatella gelato, gnocchi, and pizza bianca. yummy!!! those are definitely going to be the things i'll probably miss the most when i go back to the states. i have the gelato basically every single day during our break bc there's a gelateria called blue ice right down the block from school so i mean come on how can i not? and whenever we go to a pizzeria i almost always get pizza bianca. it's basically pizza without sauce and cheese - only garlic and oil. but it tastes soooo goood! and i had my irst dish of gnocchi last weekend and it is so good! i cant believe nonna doesnt make it for me. i'm going to ask her to when i get home because its delicious!

i've noticed a lot about italian teenagers our age just by sitting and doing lots of people watching in the various piazzas around the city. theyre really big on pda. like no joke. its a little uncomfortable, esp bc theyll just stand there right in the middle of the piazza and make out hXc and everything. j9 and i have named it piazza pornography. lol. but italians are really known for their expression of all their feelings, so i guess that's why. but seriously now. we dont need to see everything. get a room. holding hands is expression enough, really. lol.

transportation to and from school has gotten a bit better since the weekend. j9 and i took the 31 to giancolense this morning and then took the 8 tram to lago argentina and we cut down so much travel time. it was great! and it wasnt crowded at all! i def think that's how we're going to go back and forth from now on, because going home at night on the 31 is just so ridiculous. we can never fit on the first bus that comes to our stop; we always have to wait for another one, and by the time we get home its after 8:30. hells no man. tram all the way! plus its good because the tram runs at night, so now we def know how to get home when we go out during the week or on the weekend. woop woop!

okay that's all i feel like writing about. i think i'm going to try to be a good student and start brainstorming my theo papers. fun time.

ciao lovers.