July 25 & 26, 2010

Sunday and Monday have been some of the best days of my life. I have literally done nothing, besides work on my paper, sleep a whole heck of a lot, and talk to my family. I also went to the gym both days but it is so exciting to be able to not do anything because unless im sick, I never even get this opportunity at home. Both days I slept until at least 230 in the afternoon, however I did wake up for breakfast eat and went back to sleep. Once up I went to the gym, came home talked on skype and worked on my paper. So, unfortunately this is a short blog, these two days were the greatest.

July 24, 2010

Today we woke up at 5 am and got ready to head to Florence. I got up and took a shower and so did Chelsea. I felt bad because I called Michael about 10 minutes before we left and they pretty much left without me so I had to cut Michael off and run out the door. We headed to the train station and I couldn't help to notice that both Jenifer and Chelsea were very grumpy about something. The train ride was nice. I fell asleep on the way. When we got to Florence, Pita and I decided that we needed breakfast. When we met back up with Chelsea and Jenifer we asked them if they wanted breakfast and they both snapped at us.. so, we grabbed McDonald's on the way out of the train station. Breakfast was so good. I was so excited when they had the MC muffin, hash browns and coffee! Today was going to be a great day!
After we grabbed breakfast we started off toward the Duomo. While Pita and Jenifer climbed the Duomo Chelsea and I decided to head for the Ferrari store. While we were almost to the Ferrari store we saw a Guess store and I told Chelsea we should go in since it was so big. Chelsea ended up finding a new purse, wallet, and bracelet. Go Chelsea!
We finally ended up at the Ferrari store were she bought her boyfriend cologne and on the walk back to find Jenifer and Pita, I bought a few scarves. When we met back up Pita really wanted to go shopping at this huge market so we did. I grew very quickly annoyed because there were so man people and I was really really hot. Finally we came across this church the Jenifer wanted to go into so we sat outside while she went in. After the church we decided to get lunch at this place that Chelsea had eaten at a few years ago and absolutely loved.
We got to the lunch place and found out that they had a max coca cola which of course meant that we had to order it. It was huge. Probably about 4 cans of coke in one glass with a lot of ice. They really knew how Americans liked their coke. I found that they had lasagna also so I ordered that. When it came out it tasted like chefboyarde from the can but it really wasn't. It was really good though.
After lunch everyone decided to go into another museum but I decided with my diminishing funds I didn't want to waste 4 Euro on something I would probably think was boring. So I sat outside and waited for an hour ( or did a great Italian pass time and I people watched for an hour) until they came out. After the museum they decided to stand in line at another museum ( i was starting to get angry because they wanted to see so many museums and I was going to have to wait outside) but I decided to go inside of this one. I was right I did find it extremely boring but I did get to see the birth of Venus which was really cool.
After the museum we started to head back to the train station to head home. Everyone was really tired. On the way back to the train station we found a gelato place and got some gelato then finally made it to the train station. We bought our tickets and sat for an hour until the train came. I slept on the train for about 30 minutes then stayed awake the rest. I saw the sunset and I actually really enjoyed seeing the country and how beautiful everything was. Once we got home I called my mother to tell her how much I missed her I also washed my feet because they were filthy then went to bed. It had been a great day and I really enjoyed Florence although I wished I could have seen Tuscany.

Miscellaneous pictures from my trip

July 23, 2010

Today is Friday, Holy cow the program is over in a week! Im so excited. I have had fun while Ive been here but I think I was really shocked by the culture and everything and that I really didn't prepare myself as much as I wanted to for coming here. Im not really sure why I haven't enjoyed myself but overall I am glad that I came and I have made a few wonderful friends. Today, we had to be down stairs at 8 am because we were going to another Abbey. This one was bigger than the last and in my opinion prettier. After the Abbey we came back to the dorms and I took a nap. I was also able to do laundry so that I can go away this weekend with clean cloths.

I was really sad today when I was online paying my car insurance and I made a mistake in paying bills. BIG =(. I accidentally payed the remaining amount due on my car insurance which was almost $400 and I only owed $88. It sucks because it took a majority of my spending money. However being the optimistic person I am, at least I don't have to make another car insurance payment on my car or my moms car until October.

July 22, 2010

Today was a sort of slow day. I woke up and found at from the activities from the previous night someone went home and left the program. Even though I didn't really talk to her I was really sad that she left. I think that we have all been in that position but I think that some how you have to pull through. Also because everyone was still half drunk and hungover we did not have to be to class until noon and it wasn't even class it was the media room in the dorms. We watched a movie in Italian that was like old school horror. It was pretty funny. We ordered lunch half way through the movie and paused halfway through to eat. I got a calzone and it was so good! After the movie we all went back to our rooms and took about a 4 hour nap. It was such a difficult day haha. When I woke up I decided to go to the gym. Not realizing that mini golf was at 7:25 I stayed at the gym and missed going to mini golf however everyone told me I didn't miss anything because everyone got eaten by mosquitoes. Although staying home ended up working in my favor because I was able to interview Francesca about the Italian school system which was very cool and when everyone came home, Dr. Wright gave me a new idea about my project which I am again very excited about and in a teacher way ready to work on. After the events of the day I went to sleep. It was a really easy day, not to mention I don't think I changed from my sweat pants all day long. What a great day.

July 21, 2010

Holy piggies the week is going be so quickly! I woke up and felt much better than the past two days. We went to lecture this morning and I was so much happier than yesterday. I even put makeup on today. Lecture was a little more interesting than yesterday because he wasn't so scattered with his lecture. I was able to listen and everything reminded me of how I took that art history class at NOVA and I actually really enjoyed learning about art history and that Sarah was blown away with all the work I had done when she took the course the following semester and struggled with it. After lecture we went to the local Italian version of Starbucks. It was a bit of a hike but I was so excited when I got there. After ordering and trying my drink I was so disappointed at the drink and the food. I decided that the food wasn't worth it but that if anybody ever asked, they had great service and that I would recommend it. After the coffee place we headed back to the dorms and took a nap. Tonight was going to be an exciting night because we were going to see Da Vinci's Last Supper. I was actually really excited on the inside but didn't want to seem too dorky about it all... We left for the Church and rode the metro to where we needed to go. I absolutely hate the metro. It is so dirty, hot and packed all the time.
We made it to church and only had a short wait before we were able to go inside the church. Once inside and finally seeing the painting It was sort of emotional for me. It was so beautiful and It had a sort of feeling to it that was indescribable. We were only allowed in the room for 15 minutes and we hurried out once our time was up. After the church we came home and everybody decided that they were going out for Karaoke. I genuinely did not want to go because I found out that something had happened with my financial aid account so I was completely annoyed with life that night. I'm sort of glad I didn't go because I hear there was a lot of drama that went on and I really hate drama, and not to mention it makes me sick.

July 20, 2010

Today was a pretty bad day too.. I still dint feel well and if fact I felt worse when I woke up. My ears hurts so bad, my throat was really sore, and I was exhausted just from waking up. Dr. Wright came in and asked if I wanted to go to the pharmacy and I said absolutely. Our group left to dorms after breakfast and made it to campus. After getting the lecture started she took me to the pharmacy where they gave me the Italian version of muccinex and theraflu. Both are nasty but I took them on the way back to class. When I got back into class I was suddenly so exhausted from walking all that way to the pharmacy that I didn't know how I was going to stay awake. I decided that rather than falling asleep I was going to play on the computer. I knew that playing on the computer meant that I would get in trouble, especially considering that I sit directly in front of her, but I didn't want to fall asleep either. After lecture I went back to the dorms and went to sleep. Again I slept for a while however today we went to take a tour of the old Opera house. Unfortunately I really don't remember anything that the tour guide said because I felt so lightheaded for some reason but I made it through the tour.
After the tour everyone decided it was a family dinner kind of night so they mingled around for a while debated on what to cook and who was going shopping, then we headed back to the dorms. We even stopped for granitas on the way home which felt indescribably good on my throat.
Finally back at the dorms I went to sleep. After a while Chelsea came in and checked on me and asked if I wanted dinner from upstairs. I said no because I was tired but she suggested that a full meal would make me feel better. I agreed so she was so nice and brought me dinner in bed. They had made grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and fruit. It was so good. After I ate, I layed in my bed and watched a ton of family guy from my laptop and finally went to sleep for the night.