BSB- Backstreet Boys Concert in Milan!

so. yeah. you can all be jealous.
i went to a backstreet boys concert in milan.

Backstreet's back- ALRIGHT!

it was basically amazing. they were amazing. milan was kind of amazing. the fact that we were probably the only americans there was amazing. and the fact that the italians could sing along to all of the songs was amazing.

plus- they kept making jokes the whole concert (obviously in english...) and my two roommates and i (whom i went to the concert with) were the only ones who ever laughed. especially the one about N'Sync. i guess N'Sync never made it to Italy...because the Italians did not catch on to the humor....at all....

it basically was a grand night.

Thanksgiving in Florence

livin la vida loca (oh wait, that's a spanish song!)

Bet you thought i wasn't going to update this again before i left....well you're wrong.

so i left off on halloween. which was forever ago.

since then i've been to Rome, seen the parents, traveled to Amsterdam, finagled myself several free t-shirts and made it to the almost 10 day mark. impressive? i think so.

Rome---
we left for rome on a thursday morning. the school gave us that thursday off from classes. so that was nice. on our way there our bus broke down. so we ended up being an hour late. but that didn't mean that our activities got delayed. oh no- we didn't get an ounce of time to rest-- immediately after getting off the bus, we had to follow Peter around Rome for our tours of all the interesting art and churches. Don't get me wrong, i love seeing that stuff- but i was tired.

i saw a bunch of things that i don't even remember. except for the spanish steps. and a few mcdonald's. i remember seeing those.

then friday morning we got up and went to the vatican and saw the sistine chapel, st. paul's, etc.

saturday morning was the colloseum and i met up with mommy, daddy, and tara who had just freshly made it off the plane. i woke them up in their hotel and we ventured around to see the world. (and for all of you who are wondering, yes, mom did almost cry when she saw me). then i left them for their own perusing, and i met back up with them for dinner.

sunday- tried to see the pope, and as you all already know that was a big fail. he wasn't there so i had to see him through a giant tv screen. i was very upset. however, he did bless those in the piazza (which is where i was), so technically i have been "blessed" by the pope.
headed back to florence this night. looong day.

i think all this traveling around has tinted my view of some places. rome was not my favorite city. it was too big, too dirty, and didn't seem to be what i was expecting from such a significant city.

Monday- i met the parents at their hotel in florence after they'd travelled from rome to there, and i took them to my favorite restaurant (il teatro-- i'm convinced its run by the mafia, but our teachers won't confirm)

tuesday- family came to peter's class with me. he was quite entertaining. him on his bike. calling us his "children". <3
then the family saw my apartment. it's so adorable. i never want to leave it.
then i took them to Goldenview- this restaurant on the Arno River that's really fancy but DELICIOUS. i gave tara one of my meal vouchers so she got tons of food, like me. we're spoiled.

wednesday- after my painting class family met me at gusta pizza (where i eat with my painting friends every wednesday). they have the best pizza! i love it. and they're so huge. i have yet to finish one. but for some reason i always get a whole one for myself.
then i gave my family my tour of the duomo ( a very lame edition...sorry family)
and then dad, tara and i climbed to the top of the dome. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. totally worth the 463 steps.
tara was scared to walk on the part inside that you can look to the bottom of the church so dad had to lead her as she closed her eyes. and then once we got to the top i was the only one to go to the edge. i guess i'm the brave on in the family. haha or not.
mom patiently awaited our return at the bottom and then we went to san lorenzo for some market shopping.
then ate dinner at a little greek place across the street- they put a really hot sauce on it and i almost died.
Tara came back to my apartment with me and spent the night. we were going to go out on the town, but it never ended up happening. too bad....

Thursday- only had one class really early, so family and i climbed up to this really awesome piazza (piazza michelangiolo)which overlooks the whole city. you have to climb some pretty steep stairs to get there, but once you're up top it's totally worth it. there was an asian wedding going on, and some guy playing his guitar, and of course the street vendors. all in all it was pretty fabulous.
then i convinced the familiy to buy tickets for the double decker "tour of Florence" bus. it's a hop on hop off type of dealio and we rode it for HOURS. i was very happy. i've been wanting to ride it all semester, and my dream came true.
That night for dinner i took them to takeout-- it's literally 5 feet from my house and has this adorable little old man who works there and tries to teach us italian (so far it hasn't worked...but we still love him. lindsey my roommate and i fight over him. i claim him since i met him first though)

Friday- visited Santa Croce (probably one of my favorite areas of the city), and its leather school. It was so awesome, first of all, to see where galileo and michelangelo are buried...but then to be able to go to the leather school and watch how they make things was so cool.
i had to say goodbye to the family after this. i was leaving for amsterdam with a friend in the morning- so i had to complete all my homework and get some sleep. it was a sad parting. good thing i'll be home in a few days.

Saturday- off to amsterdam! aka THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
left at 10 in the morning with my friend Kim for hour and a half train ride to pisa airport, 2 hour flight to Dusseldorf, and then our bus didn't leave for 7 hours to amsterdam. so we sat in the airport...and waited...and waited...
luckily- we're very good at entertaining ourselves. we ate food. we laughed at the people around us. we tried to figure out what we wanted to do with our lives. we even got on the computers there and read "textsfromlastnight" for hours (it's a website btw).
finally, at midnight, before we went insane, our little tiny van of a bus came to pick us and a few other couples up. (cutest little old british man as our driver--- who refused to turn on the heat so we FROZE)
the bus didn't take even half the time that it said it would to get to Amsterdam therefore we were stranded, in the middle of the night (approximately 2:30) without a hostel (because we didn't figure we'd need one...woops) and nowhere to sleep. so luckily our hostel was AWESOME and let us store our bags in the middle of the night (they're a pub too so they're open 24/7...pretty sweet right?) and then we literally hung out at mcdonalds and the train station for 8 hours. when the sun finally started to rise at approximately 7 AM kim was so happy she almost started to cry. at this point we decided that we weren't going to probably sleep any time soon (especially since hostel check in wasn't until noon), so we decided to try and find the anne frank haus. without any help from a map. because i guess we're too good for maps.
eventually we found (after walking our tired butts around for a while) that that was stupid. we found a map, and STILL couldn't find it. oh boy. however- have no fear- thanks to my amazing memory of being in Amsterdam as a 9 year old...we found it...(and no mom, that freaky statue of Anne is no longer outside of the museum...i was upset too...it's okay- we can write to them later).
after that we went for "breakfast" at our hostel. technically we weren't supposed to eat it, but kim has this thing with convincing people of things (without even trying), and the bartender told us we could eat it. so we had breakfast, and attempted to check in at noon-- but our room wasn't ready. i almost cried. i hadn't slept in forever, no one was speaking english to me, i wanted free ketchup (mcdonalds charges you 40 cents per packet), and no one would help me. so we went to a bunch of shops outside to look around until around 1:30. then we finally got our hostel room and slept until dinner.
dinner consisted of a burger and fries. and unlimited ketchup!!!! i love our hostel! it was so good to us.
then out on the town of course. aka- we went into on coffee shop at approximately 9:30, left at 9:40 and went back to the hostel. and slept. hahaha welcome to amsterdam.

did i mention that we were in amsterdam for St. Nicklas day? its apparantely this huge deal for the dutch. and i got to see santa claus and all of his freaky black men/elves. we at first thought i was some stupid carnival and were upset by all of the people- and then realized that it was santa riding his white stallion down the rode...and that the elves were handing out candy/cookies. pretty awesome i suppose.

Monday--
Van Gogh museum. SO AMAZING!
subway-- subs for 3 euro. SO AMAZING!
sex museum-- for 3 euro, cheapest museum in Amsterdam. SO AMAZING!
canal boat ride- with tour included! SO AMAZING! plus cute little old man as our captain.
then we went on a tour of the red light district. it was so educational. in a good way. apparantely the UN is making the netherlands shut it down by the year 2013, but they're having problems with "pimping" etc since they've been shutting parts of it down...soo...yeah...now you know...

tuesday--
finally got to come back to florence. i missed it so much!
left at 8 in the morning and didn't get home till 10. who knew it would take so long to travel from amsterdam. so frustrating (not to mention our plane was delayed an hour and half..while we were sitting on it....grrrrr)

the rest of this week was pretty boring with my usual routine and such.
friday our internet got cut off (that would be last friday, to put this into context for you people).
and saturday i had some guy give me his fully punched out ticket (that you have to buy 20 pints of beer to complete...that's a lot) to get myself a sweet awesome t-shirt. yeah, that's right- i got a free t-shirt.
and now it's monday. good ol' monday. tomorrow will mark 10 days for me coming home. mixed feelings on that one. i'm going to miss this city like nothing else before. however- being home for christmas will be so amazing. plus i miss free water, and my shower. and did i mention the ketchup thing yet? i think i did. haha

well, this week will be me finishing up my classes, backstreet boys concert in milan, and spending my last weekend in Florence. sniff sniff.
then next week is finals and packing.

caio caio tutti!

where's the pope...?

so the parents are here this week. so i'll update in a week or so. gotta clean the apartment now. :-D haha

p.s. the pope was not in town when i was in rome. i'm alittle upset. once in a lifetime- and he disappointed me. epic fail. oh well- i still got blessed. so i am now a blessed person. :-D

it's november already? how did that happen?

I'm sorry that it's been so long since i've updated. but that's a good sign right? that means i'm having a good time! if i updated this everyday then you'd know i had too much time on my hands and that i wasn't enjoying myself. :-D

I guess i left off with the week of Venice-- which was October 16th.

Friday October 16th all the students (who wanted to come) from our program took a fun-loving bus to Venice. Our school set up the trip for us, provided transportation, the hotel, and breakfast for us. We also got tours friday and saturday by our professors to all the major museums and cathedrals. I was lucky and got put in Peter's group. He made it well worth the hours of walking around. However, he does tend to tell the same story a million times. good ol' Peter.
so at 8:30am we headed off on our roughly 4 hour bus ride. We got there and took a boat to our section of town. Then we walked to our Hotel. Hotel Messner. It was a very cute little place with a little garden, pink chandelier in our room, and bunk beds in some rooms (i lucked out with just a double and my own bathroom...i was living the high life). we were also within a short walk from everything. then around 2:30 we met up with Peter for a walk around town. he showed us all the highlights and i took my first gondola ride. we then headed to dinner. by this point we were all sooo tired, so we headed in pretty early for the night (i'm pretty sure i was in bed by 9:30...- and by in bed i mean asleep)

Saturday- 17th
This day we had the option of meeting up with our professors again and seeing the highlights, but i was so tired that my roommate sage and i slept in. she actually went down to breakfast in the hotel lobby and brought me breakfast in bed. it was a great start to the morning. then we went to the supermarket to buy food since we're poor college students and can't afford to actually go to restaurants. and i must say that Venice has great white wine...that we can't afford unless bought at the supermarket. smart? yes, we are. so we started our morning with breakfast in bed, and sipping on wine in the hotel garden. so glorious.
then we started out walking around to take pictures. we met some really cute venice boys who were on their way to work. we chatted for a bit (used our poor italian as best we could), and then carried on our way. Sage almost fell into one of the canals, had a security guy come to her rescue but laugh at her a lot, and we found a sign for a McDonalds which totally made our day. so yes- we ate at that wretched place for dinner because yet again- we are poor. i saved myself 15 euro. smart? yes, we are.
i also bought myself a sweet awesome mask with the money i saved. no guilt attached.
that night we went to one of the main squares and talked to the carabinieri (the policeman) who were on duty. and by talk, i mean voluntarily, not by any means did we get in trouble. i've found that the police are the less creepy of the italians and they're usually able to tell you where nice places to go are. so that was fun, and then we went back to the hotel and watched MTV (in ENGLISH...so nice...)

Sunday
GUGGENHEIM! i loved it. Peggy guggenheim is my hero. she has such a great collection of artwork. if you ever go to venice do not miss the opportunity to go see it! it's right on the canal, beautiful house, with great works of art. amazing.
then we wandered around some more, went to a few more art galleries and ate pizza. my one friend found this one gallery the day before that she showed us- they make art out of dirt and bugs. portraits of people- huge- made out of vines, etc. so amazing. i was quite impressed.
then i chatted up some old man on the street who was doing some paintings. he showed me his techniques and told me i was supposed to come home and teach my mother :-D so mom, be prepared. i'm supposed to teach you this. and then he sold me one of his paintings for practically nothing. he loved me....
that afternoon we unfortunately had to come back to Florence- not that i don't love good ol' Firenze...but Venice proved to be soooo beautiful. and so unique! i hope it doesn't sink. i want it to be around forever and ever.

Monday Tuesday into Wednesday
wrote papers. lived a pretty boring life.

Wednesday
flew to Praha!
Prague is way different than Florence, but i loved it. it's such a beautiful city. a lot bigger than i had pictured it to be, but it's so unique.
i stayed with a friend of mine from Grove City who's studying abroad there this semester so i saved some money. that was nice.
he also was able to show me around the town a little better and tell me where things were.

Thursday
Saw the castle, Charles Bridge, and a few of the other highlights that Prague has to offer. and i saw a peacock! how amazing is that? it was just wandering around....i was in heaven. i love them so much.

Friday
this is the day i got sick. poor me. i'm always sick here. so i slept a lot of this day hoping to get better. epic fail.
that night we hung out with some friends of my friend.

Saturday
attempted to find where my friend Cassie had lived when she studied abroad in prague the year before. got a little lost, but that's ok. that's what you're supposed to do in a foreign place right? half the fun. i also saw these adorable street performers dressed up in their traditional stuff. so cute!
then my friend took me on the Pub Crawl. there's a company based there that puts one on every night. it was really fun. i got to see one of Prague's famous clubs with 4 stories, and another one of its clubs that has a bar on top and goes underground 2 stories. so different from back home.

Sunday- my last day in Prague!
my friend's computer broke this day. so we tried to fix it most of the morning and then went over to his friend's house to use his computer.
then i said my goodbyes to the city.

Monday- came home to Florence. it felt good to be back. i missed it.

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
nothing too exciting. wandered around Florence a bit. went to class a bit. ate some italian food a bit. attempted to clean my apartment a bit. you know- that kind of stuff.

Friday
my roommate lindsey's friend that is studying in Barcelona came with some of her friends to visit. they stayed in our apartment with us since our other roommates are traveling this weekend. They were really fun. We got to show them around the city and take them to our favorite restaurants.

Saturday
Happy halloween
i was surprised at how many people actually dressed up and celebrated halloween here. i guess it's a new thing for Italians to participate in the celebrations but everyone was really decked out. i wasn't feeling good again- i know, i'm always sick here, so i slept most of the day (waste of life) and then attempted to go out with lindsey and her friends, but that failed. i just stayed in and hung out with one of my friends.

that brings me to today. the first of november. i have no idea where october went. its going by so fast. i only have 34 more days left. and half of those aren't even going to be spent in Florence. i'm so sad. i hope they're good ones.

I'll try to keep updating the blog, but these next few weeks are craziness. this weekend is rome ( i leave on thursday)- and then my parents and tara come to visit for a week! and immediately after that i go to amsterdam for a few days. then 2 days after that i'm in Switzerland. so my life goes in quite a whirlwind starting this week. so be patient with my updates.

hope all is well over yonder. Mi manchi molto!
ciao

Venice

Ravenna--- (Mosaics)

Un giorno nella vita di me

questa settimana-

i feel like my weeks are getting less and less interesting. but that doesn't mean i shouldn't share, right? :-D

I'm pretty sure i left off with last monday (a week ago from yesterday). I went to class as usual. We had painting at the ponte vecchio (because that's what we're painting), and then i went to lunch at gustapanino. afterwards i went back to apartment to study for my italian quiz and do my homework. so much fun. and then i went to italian and took my quiz (i got a 24/25). afterwards my friends and i went to dinner earlier than usual (before 7...that's so early right? haha) i ate tortellini and salad. it was really good. but i'm really sad to say that i haven't had gellato in 2 weeks. i'm too broke. how depressing :-(

Tuesday i went to class in the morning and my professor bored me once more with stuff that i've already learned, and then i got to go to my favorite class afterwards. Peter- my early renaissance art professor- is so much fun! we went to the Santa Maria Novella church and talked about who designed the facade. and then we wandered around the city while he rode his bike around. it was fun.

wednesday- painting at the ponte vecchio again. i attempted to be done with it, but my professor never thinks anything is good enough and told me i wasn't. so i guess i'm not done yet. oh well. then i had my first day of tourguiding- which i've already told you about because i couldn't wait to share :-D it was fun. i'm excited to go back again this week despite the fact that i have exams and papers to write.
that night my friend Sage and I went to the duomo for drinks and people watched. the tourists are dying down this time of year so the square isn't as crowded at night as it was when we first got here, but there are still a lot of interesting people out at night. not like dalton, ohio. or grove city. a little more eclectic.

thursday- class again. Peter didn't take us anywhere fun but he invited us to come with him and his canadian class from another university to Ravenna on saturday so some of my friends and i signed up to go. then i went back to my apartment and worked on my papers until my eyeballs felt like they were going to fall out of my head. i'm sick of staring at this computer screen. i wish i was looking at architecture or paintings instead- but our professors are mean and don't care. except peter who told us that he wouldn't give us a paper if it wasn't required of him because he'd much rather us go to a museum and be out exploring the city and learning that way than sitting inside writing about things we don't care about.

friday- i slept. yup. that's what i did. i get so much sleep here. it's really rather amazing. i'm going to die going back to grove city.
then i did more studying and papers--- disclaimer: it may seem like i talk about doing papers and studying a lot, but compared to the good ol' gcc this is nothing. so don't worry- i'm still giving Florence a good run for its money :-D
oh yeah- and it rained friday. a lot. and got cold. i've been really happy since it's still been in the 70s here while its getting cold back home (not to be mean or anything), but this week its going to be in the 60s!!!! how horrible. i wore long sleeves today. :-( i was sad.

Saturday- had to get up at 5:45AM to meet peter and his canadians to go to Ravenna. Which is beautiful. They have amazing mosaics. but the canadians weren't very sociable or nice. so my friends from my school and i basically hung around each other and ventured about the town and listened to peter tell us about every little thing. he knows everything. no joke.
that night i met my friend Michelle's parents. they took me out to dinner at the Goldenview- it's this restaurant right on the Arno that's on our meal plan (we get meal tickets to use at restaurants....it's really convenient).

Sunday- this day was a waste of day. it was the last sunny day i've seen and i spent it inside working on stuff. and i feel like i got nothing done. so stupid.

monday (aka yesterday)- class- painted at a piazza and got a lesson in art restoration by some italian couple who are in the business. they showed us how to put gold on frames. super cool. then i went back to my apartment and wrote a paper that was due today. end of story.

that leads me to today. i took a midterm today for Peter's class. it was super easy- i hope i did good. i dont want Peter to think he failed me if i did bad....

this weekend i go to Venice with my school (they set up the trip for all of us along with a trip to Rome in november). we'll be there friday night and saturday night. sidenote awesomeness: Peter's coming! hahaha i'm excited.

then next wednesday i head to Prague to see my friends that are staying there from Grove City. so free place to stay! yay! I'm super excited because a girl from my sorority studied there last fall and it'll be really nice to see where she was all that time.

va bene. é fine. arrivederci!
bacio!

first tour

gave my first tour yesterday at the Duomo.
i was very nervous. but i had very nice people.
and i got tips :-D

so i would also like to add that i've not spent any money this week- but MADE money. aren't i just the little entrepreneur?

midterms are next week. so this weekend will be nothing but studying. these classes are getting frustrating- not grove city hard, but they dont teach anything in class and then expect us to know all this information for the tests. i'm not used to this. oh well...

well- that's all. i'll update again soon. ciao ciao

on a scale of 1 to fun- i'm having fun

Positanoferry boat ride to Capri

Capriwe climbed that to get to the top.....basically a whole mountain.

after chair lift to the top.- view of the whole island!

7 hostel

pompei

i just had to get sick this week didn't I?

Monday was a pretty typical day. classes, then out to eat with friends. we went to a pretty awesome restaurant called il teatro. then to the old stove.

Tuesday i was sick as a dog. sitting through class was painful. I didn't even see it coming. no symptoms or anything. just boom- SICK! aches, couch, you know- all that gross stuff. but i went to class nonetheless because i'm saving up my skips for other such things (like when mommy and daddy come...cause they're actually coming now...bought tickets and everything! i'm so proud!) went out to a mexican restaurant for dinner- got a burrito. wasn't as good as mexican back home.

wednesday i went to class and was supposed to do my tourguiding for the first time, but i was too sick. i called the school and they told me it was no big deal and that they didn't want me to infect innocent tourists. so i stayed in and slept. then i went to the esselunga (our supermarket) because i was out of cough drops and food. but i took the bus back so i didn't die. and then i ate greek food with my friends. this greek restaurant is fabulous. they have all the best food! i'm going to have to take mom and dad there. they'll freak out at the dessert menu. :-D

then even though i was sick i trudged through a walk around town. i've gotten to that point where i'm afraid i'm going to miss something or regret not doing something. i only have two months left! time is going by so quickly!

thursday i went to class and packed for my weekend trip to the amalfi coast. then we left that night and drove alllllll night. we arrived at our hostel around 2:30 in the morning. but our hostel was the nicest hostel on this planet. i didn't know they even existed like that. it was so clean, had a bar and restaurant, rooftop lounge, flatscreen tv's, free internet...you name it- 7 hostel had it!

then we left bright and early friday morning for positano. it was raining so that was a bummer. we weren't able to go out on the boats and go into any caves or go cliff-jumping like we'd planned because the water was too rough. so we just wandered around the town. and no offense to positano, but there isn't much to do there. and since i wasn';t feeling good we decided to grab a bus to amalfi. so we bought our tickets and sat at the bus stop. and waited. and waited. and waited. for 4 hours!!!!!! not even kidding. 1 hour we waited for our tourguide who was late. and then another 2 hours we waited for the bus. it finally came but was too full for us to get on. so we waited another hour! we finally got on, but we ran out of time! so we literallly rode the bus there, and had to ride it straight back. we didn't even get off. so technically i've been to amalfi, and seen amalfi (which is sooo beautiful) but i haven't set foot in amalfi. i was a little ticked off. that night we all went to bed really early after eating dinner at the hostel. we were really tired.

friday we got up and got on the bus to head to capri. then we took a private ferry around the island. they showed us where the blue grotto is (even though it was closed for the day and we couldn't go in....story of our lives). then we climbed up this HUGE...HUGE....HUGE....incline up to a garden that overlooked the island. it was worth the climb but i felt so sick after that. then we were free for lunch, etc. i got a pair of sandals made- capri is famous for their custom made leather sandals, so i splurged a bit and bought myself a souveneir...wearable souveneir. haha. then we got pizza that was soooo delicious! after that we didn't have much more time, but my roommate tiffany and i went up this chair lift to the top of the mountain. the ride was about 15 minutes and the view from the top was fantastic! after that we wandered back down to the ferry- sat in the sun for a few minutes- put our feet in the water (yes- even though it was october the water was warm and the sun was hot!!!!)- and then we got back on the ferry for about an hour ride back to sorrento. then we had to climb another huge incline back up to our bus. basically the story of my life- lots of walking, stairs, and inclines. that night the hostel was having a live band, etc and people from the town were strolling in. so we hung out on the roof. but i was pooped so i went to bed before midnight.

sunday- pompei

pompei is so awesome! we got a tourguide who explained to us the history of the ruins and what each of the buildings used to be. it was so interesting. they even had a brothel! who knew. then we hopped back on the bus for our 6 hour ride back. end of trip.

today- monday- just got back from class. cooked myself some spaghetti and ate some nutella on cookies. that leads me to now.

ciao

<3>

Brava

Ponte vecchio - seen from my bridge....just down the road from where i live...

dome of duomo....

Via Maggio- the street where I live.

My Bridge! :-D

street artists.

Brunelleschi's dome.