Ciao Ciao,
I have been so busy lately and I totally forgot about blogging. This week was a busy week for me because I had two quizzes and I also had a paper to write for next week since I will be away this weekend. We only had a three day week which was awesome because the Italians celebrate Easter Monday more than they do Easter.
Last week wasn't too eventful, although I did go on a field trip with my class to San Marco Monastery. It was interesting because we were learning about a friar from the middle ages that lived there. It's a very very plain building so it wasn't my favorite, but it was interesting. Other than that, it was a pretty relaxed week.
This past weekend I stayed in Florence, and it was really fun. It was nice to stay and hang out in Florence and I ended up being pretty busy. On Friday, I went to the Medici tombs and they were pretty cool and unlike anything I'd seen. It was this huge room with extremely extravagant tombs. We actually ended up going our weekly history class field trip there yesterday. Then I met up with Abby and we went to check out the Medici Palace. I expected it to be more extravagant but they lived so many places in Florence, so I guess it just depended on the style of whomever lived there at the time. I enjoy learning about the Medici family and that's what I'm writing my history final paper on.
On Saturday, we were planning on going to Viareggio which is a beach close by that you can just take a train to, but it planned on raining all day and being pretty windy, so we decided to skip that. Instead, Sara, Abby, and I went to Gustapizza pretty much for breakfast. I'm going to miss Gustapizza so much when I get home and there's really nowhere in Pennsylvania at least that has pizzas anything like that. Me and my roommates always joke about how we should open a pizza place like Gustapizza at Penn State. Katie's family was visiting so I went out to dinner with them that night to this really good place nearby, and it was really fun.
On Easter Sunday, we woke up early to go to to stand right near the Duomo to get good seats for the fireworks. There's a parade throughout the city, but everyone just really focuses on the fireworks. We saw the parade come through and then the little tower they shoot fireworks off of was brought in at the end of the parade. It was supposed to be pulled by two oxen, but I couldn't really see, seeing as I'm really short. We waited there for about an hour and a half and finally the fireworks started. It started from inside the church when the priest throws a dove-like shape firework at a certain spot, which triggers the fireworks, and this huge rush of smoke comes from inside the church to this little tower and then the fireworks started going off. I was only expecting a few big fireworks, but it was about 15 minutes worth of fireworks. They launch them off right in between the Duomo and the Baptistery and these buildings are so close together. I'm surprised it doesn't damage the buildings. It must be such a fire hazard, plus there are so many people standing close to it and the little tower looked like it was wood. It was the most bizarre Easter celebration I've ever seen but it was very cool. After, my friends and I walked around the leather market and I bought another leather purse. I can't help my addiction. Later that day, I went to Easter Mass in Santa Maria Novella Church, which is the church really close to me. It was the first time I had been in there, and it's very pretty. I couldn't understand the mass at all. Most of the time I can pick out a few words from each sentence, but the fact that the microphone was echoing made me not understand anything. It was nice to be in church though. The only thing about Italian mass is that they don't sing, which I just expected they would. It's very interesting. After church, my friends and I had a potluck dinner with tons of awesome food. We had eggplant, salad, bread, mashed potatoes, baked brie, and broccoli. I made bruschetta and also an interesting lemon cake. I bought the cake mix from the Italian grocery store so it came out good but I wasn't sure what to expect. The baked brie was so delicious and so easy, and I don't know why I don't just make it all the time!
On Easter Monday, we had no class so we decided to take a day trip! We took the train for about an hour and a half to Lucca. It's this old medieval town which still have all the city walls still intact. It was a really cute, small town. When we first got there we found a place to each lunch and had some pretty good pizza. We walked around for a little bit and there was a market nearby where we got some dessert. After that, we rented bikes and biked through the town. I was nervous I was going to hit someone but I successfully didn't. I was also really skilled at taking pictures while riding my bike. After biking through the town for a little, we went to this path they have that is all around the city walls and you can bike or walk around the whole town and it was very pretty. There was so much green and it was a beautiful day. After biking, we went home. There's not too much to do in Lucca, but it was fun and relaxing.
Tonight I leave for the Amalfi Coast at 7:30 PM!!!!! I am so excited, it's going to be so beautiful. There are a lot of little towns on the coast but we're specifically going to Sorrento. Then each day we're taking a trip. We will be going to Capri which is where the famous Blue Grotto is, Pompeii, and also Positano which is another coastal city. It's going to be in the 60s and fairly sunny throughout the weekend! :) Although, I'm not sure it'll be bathing suit weather, but I'm still bringing my bathing suit. The water will probably be pretty cold.
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (April 4-7): Amalfi Coast!!! I cannot wait, I'm so excited!
Next weekend (11-14): Just hanging out and staying in Florence
April 18-21: We are looking into Springfest in Munich, Germany. I really want to go to Germany!!! So then I could use at least a little bit of German.
April 25-28: Staying in Florence for our last weekend! Then HOME the next weekend... AHH can't believe it's coming to a close!
Ciao Ragazzi,
Katie
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Hola,
I haven't blogged in a really long time, but I went to Barcelona last weekend!!!! It was really fun and pretty relaxing. They don't have a huge amount of museums to go to so it was pretty cool just to hang out in the city. We got there thursday night and the hostel we stayed in (called St. Christopher's) was really nice. I swear the bed was bigger there than my own bed in Florence. They had a bar downstairs and a really awesome menu, and the food was delicious. We ended up eating there at least three times. That night we just hung out at the bar downstairs, and then went to an Irish pub. On Friday, we walked around the Montjuic mountain and it was pretty. There was a huge palace with lots of waterfalls on the way up. After we climbed up a little bit there was the 1992 olympic stadium that you could go in. This mountain was a pretty view of Barcelona. We went to a lunch place and I ordered cheese tacos and bravas. Bravas are fried potatoes with a spicy sauce on them. The cheese tacos were literally just blocks of cheese, it was hilarious, obviously bad translations on the menu. We walked to the harbor and the beach and it was awesome. We took off our shoes and put our feet in the sand and just sat for a while, it was so beautiful. We also put our feet into the freezing Mediterranean. We ate at the hostel on Friday night and then we went out to a well-known club. At the club, there was a concert going on, so that was fun. The clubs were very very expensive in Barcelona.
On saturday, we went to the market, and they had so much seafood it was insane. Almost every other stand was seafood. I ended up getting an empanada and a smoothie, and they were both great. We then walked to Sagrada Familia which is built by the famous Gaudi. It was one of the coolest churches
I've been in. It was anything but traditional. Gaudi had a passion for nature, and he designed the church to have a lot of natural light, which is a lot of stained glass windows, and the ceilings are huge, with the pillars intended to be trees. It was very beautiful. After that, we started walking to park guell, and we got really lost. It ended up being a lot farther walk than we thought it would be. When we finally got there, it was worth it. It was an absolutely amazing view of Barcelona from the top of the mountain. This was a park made also by Gaudi. It has the famous mosaic tiled benches, and a few cool looking buildings. It's a really cool park and we spent a while just walking around and taking pictures. We started to walk back to the hostel and it ended up taking us an hour, which was rough when we had just been hiking around the mountain. We grabbed dinner at the hostel and I got a mexican salad which was so delicious. We relaxed after dinner and then we headed to port olympic which was a harbor area we hadn't been to. It was a great night life there. They have a ton of restaurants all outside and then clubs right on the beach. We went to a restaurant and I got a dessert and we had some sangria. It was relaxing, and we thought about going to a club on the beach but it was just so expensive. On Sunday, we packed up and checked out of the hostel. We walked around and went into the Barcelona Cathedral. It was pretty traditional, nothing like Sagrada Familia. It was pretty but a lot of it was blocked off because mass was going on. After, we saw a marathon in the streets, and there was this St. Patricks Day dressed band playing in the streets. It was fun. Then we did a little shopping and made our way to the airport. We got home around 5.
My week was good. My classes are starting to get more difficult because they're assigning many final papers, so I need to pick some topics for those. Volunteering was so fun this week because the kids we're working with are doing plays in English that they will perform in April. The 4th grade is doing the Wizard of Oz and the 5th grade is doing Alice in Wonderland. I got to help them recite their lines and play their roles. It was so cute, and they speak English so well. With my family business class this past week we took a field trip to the Gucci factory. It was really cool because we learned that Gucci makes everything by hand for the most part. That's why it's so expensive!!!! We got to see some of the leathers which are made out of snake, crocodile, deer, etc. We then watched some of the workers cutting the leather for the bags, all by hand. To get a job in cutting leather, you have to have at least 20 years of experience; it's insane. Then, we saw them assembling some of the bags. The one guy was working on a trunk with only one other man. They said it takes them about a month just to make one. Those were in the made-to-order area though, so it's for very high profile clients. We also saw how they make the bamboo handles. It's a very intense process to pick the perfect bamboo stick because it has to be the exact measurements and the knots have to match up. They throw out so many bamboo sticks. They use fire to bend and set it. It was a really cool field trip.
This past weekend I stayed in Florence, but it was a really nice weekend. On friday, we took a bus to Fiesole, which is a town about 15 minutes outside of Florence on the hills. It is a very small and quiet residential town but it has one of the best views of Florence. We found a park, and brought food that we bought at the food store to have a picnic. The park was just a woods, and after we ate, we did a lot of hiking. We hiked to the top and it was again, an awesome view. There was a rock up there that was apparently where Leonardo da Vinci launched a flying machine. We kept hiking and found the Etruscan ruins. They were just little houses made out of stone. It was cool because I learned about the Etruscans in my history class. They were one of the first to settle near Florence in 300 BC. It was a really great time to hike around the woods and relax. It was nice being around green and it reminded me of home. When trying to take the bus back to Florence, we were told that there was a bus strike. I knew strikes happened often but it was so bizarre that it happened within the 3 hours that we had just taken the bus. We asked tourist information what we should do and they said that a taxi would be very expensive, and that it was a nice walk back to Florence and not too long. So we decided to walk. It was a nice walk and we saw the beautiful, huge, practically mansions, of Fiesole. We also got to see the sunset which was pretty. But, instead of the half hour walk we thought it was, it was about an hour and 15 minutes. We were exhausted when we finally got home. I looked up the distance and it said we walked 4 miles home.
On Saturday, we went to Mama's bakery with a bunch of our friends. I got a bagel with cream cheese!!!! I was so excited to have a bagel. I also got a cupcake that I had been craving. It was a nice change from croissants and I will absolutely be going back. After that, we went to Boboli gardens and just hung out on the grass. It was really fun, and I got to catch up on some magazines. It was a really nice day. I felt so lucky, because not many people can say they just sat in the palace gardens all day reading and overlooking an awesome view of Florence.
Next weekend is Easter weekend so we have an extra day to our weekend. I'm not really sure what I'm doing as of now. Either I'm just going to stay in Florence and hang out or I might go to Cinqueterre, which is a coastal town. It's supposed to be very pretty, and you can hike a lot around there. It won't be too warm, but it will still be nice. I think I'm going to plan that today! I'll try to keep up more on this blog haha!
Ciaaaao,
Katie
I haven't blogged in a really long time, but I went to Barcelona last weekend!!!! It was really fun and pretty relaxing. They don't have a huge amount of museums to go to so it was pretty cool just to hang out in the city. We got there thursday night and the hostel we stayed in (called St. Christopher's) was really nice. I swear the bed was bigger there than my own bed in Florence. They had a bar downstairs and a really awesome menu, and the food was delicious. We ended up eating there at least three times. That night we just hung out at the bar downstairs, and then went to an Irish pub. On Friday, we walked around the Montjuic mountain and it was pretty. There was a huge palace with lots of waterfalls on the way up. After we climbed up a little bit there was the 1992 olympic stadium that you could go in. This mountain was a pretty view of Barcelona. We went to a lunch place and I ordered cheese tacos and bravas. Bravas are fried potatoes with a spicy sauce on them. The cheese tacos were literally just blocks of cheese, it was hilarious, obviously bad translations on the menu. We walked to the harbor and the beach and it was awesome. We took off our shoes and put our feet in the sand and just sat for a while, it was so beautiful. We also put our feet into the freezing Mediterranean. We ate at the hostel on Friday night and then we went out to a well-known club. At the club, there was a concert going on, so that was fun. The clubs were very very expensive in Barcelona.
On saturday, we went to the market, and they had so much seafood it was insane. Almost every other stand was seafood. I ended up getting an empanada and a smoothie, and they were both great. We then walked to Sagrada Familia which is built by the famous Gaudi. It was one of the coolest churches
I've been in. It was anything but traditional. Gaudi had a passion for nature, and he designed the church to have a lot of natural light, which is a lot of stained glass windows, and the ceilings are huge, with the pillars intended to be trees. It was very beautiful. After that, we started walking to park guell, and we got really lost. It ended up being a lot farther walk than we thought it would be. When we finally got there, it was worth it. It was an absolutely amazing view of Barcelona from the top of the mountain. This was a park made also by Gaudi. It has the famous mosaic tiled benches, and a few cool looking buildings. It's a really cool park and we spent a while just walking around and taking pictures. We started to walk back to the hostel and it ended up taking us an hour, which was rough when we had just been hiking around the mountain. We grabbed dinner at the hostel and I got a mexican salad which was so delicious. We relaxed after dinner and then we headed to port olympic which was a harbor area we hadn't been to. It was a great night life there. They have a ton of restaurants all outside and then clubs right on the beach. We went to a restaurant and I got a dessert and we had some sangria. It was relaxing, and we thought about going to a club on the beach but it was just so expensive. On Sunday, we packed up and checked out of the hostel. We walked around and went into the Barcelona Cathedral. It was pretty traditional, nothing like Sagrada Familia. It was pretty but a lot of it was blocked off because mass was going on. After, we saw a marathon in the streets, and there was this St. Patricks Day dressed band playing in the streets. It was fun. Then we did a little shopping and made our way to the airport. We got home around 5.
My week was good. My classes are starting to get more difficult because they're assigning many final papers, so I need to pick some topics for those. Volunteering was so fun this week because the kids we're working with are doing plays in English that they will perform in April. The 4th grade is doing the Wizard of Oz and the 5th grade is doing Alice in Wonderland. I got to help them recite their lines and play their roles. It was so cute, and they speak English so well. With my family business class this past week we took a field trip to the Gucci factory. It was really cool because we learned that Gucci makes everything by hand for the most part. That's why it's so expensive!!!! We got to see some of the leathers which are made out of snake, crocodile, deer, etc. We then watched some of the workers cutting the leather for the bags, all by hand. To get a job in cutting leather, you have to have at least 20 years of experience; it's insane. Then, we saw them assembling some of the bags. The one guy was working on a trunk with only one other man. They said it takes them about a month just to make one. Those were in the made-to-order area though, so it's for very high profile clients. We also saw how they make the bamboo handles. It's a very intense process to pick the perfect bamboo stick because it has to be the exact measurements and the knots have to match up. They throw out so many bamboo sticks. They use fire to bend and set it. It was a really cool field trip.
This past weekend I stayed in Florence, but it was a really nice weekend. On friday, we took a bus to Fiesole, which is a town about 15 minutes outside of Florence on the hills. It is a very small and quiet residential town but it has one of the best views of Florence. We found a park, and brought food that we bought at the food store to have a picnic. The park was just a woods, and after we ate, we did a lot of hiking. We hiked to the top and it was again, an awesome view. There was a rock up there that was apparently where Leonardo da Vinci launched a flying machine. We kept hiking and found the Etruscan ruins. They were just little houses made out of stone. It was cool because I learned about the Etruscans in my history class. They were one of the first to settle near Florence in 300 BC. It was a really great time to hike around the woods and relax. It was nice being around green and it reminded me of home. When trying to take the bus back to Florence, we were told that there was a bus strike. I knew strikes happened often but it was so bizarre that it happened within the 3 hours that we had just taken the bus. We asked tourist information what we should do and they said that a taxi would be very expensive, and that it was a nice walk back to Florence and not too long. So we decided to walk. It was a nice walk and we saw the beautiful, huge, practically mansions, of Fiesole. We also got to see the sunset which was pretty. But, instead of the half hour walk we thought it was, it was about an hour and 15 minutes. We were exhausted when we finally got home. I looked up the distance and it said we walked 4 miles home.
On Saturday, we went to Mama's bakery with a bunch of our friends. I got a bagel with cream cheese!!!! I was so excited to have a bagel. I also got a cupcake that I had been craving. It was a nice change from croissants and I will absolutely be going back. After that, we went to Boboli gardens and just hung out on the grass. It was really fun, and I got to catch up on some magazines. It was a really nice day. I felt so lucky, because not many people can say they just sat in the palace gardens all day reading and overlooking an awesome view of Florence.
Next weekend is Easter weekend so we have an extra day to our weekend. I'm not really sure what I'm doing as of now. Either I'm just going to stay in Florence and hang out or I might go to Cinqueterre, which is a coastal town. It's supposed to be very pretty, and you can hike a lot around there. It won't be too warm, but it will still be nice. I think I'm going to plan that today! I'll try to keep up more on this blog haha!
Ciaaaao,
Katie
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Ciao ragazzi!!!!
My spring break was awesome :) It was so great to see my family and Matthew. I loved having the time off from school, and I really enjoyed Rome. I also liked being a little tour guide and showing them around Florence. I was also able to tour Matt around Rome because my family and I did tours on the previous days.
I did the basic Florence sight-seeing with my family and Matt. They came at different times, but I took them to see most of the same things. I brought them to see the david, ponte vecchio, piazzale michelangelo, palazzo pitti and the boboli gardens, gustapizza, leather market, san miniato, and I even brought them by to see my schools. We also got to see the duomo and climbed it. But, there were things that I hadn't done that I got to do with my family. On the first day while my brother and Dad were napping since they were very jet-lagged, me and my mom went to San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is a church that is attached to the Medici Tombs. It was very plain but it was pretty, and there was a nice green courtyard with an orange tree in the middle There was a bunch of restaurants that we went to that I had never been to. Also, we went to a bar called Fiddler's Elbow that I had never been to. It was very relaxing and cute. I had been to the boboli gardens before, but I saw a whole other section with my family and it was really cool. The gardens are so huge; I don't know if I'll ever actually be able to see the whole thing.
Rome was really really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. We left for Rome on Sunday, and for some reason our train was an extra 40 minutes which was weird. We got to Rome and we decided to take a cab from the train station to the hotel. It was only a 15 minute walk but we had a lot of luggage. The cab was 33€ which was a total rip-off, and I think that's when I realized that Rome is much more expensive than Florence. The first day we just mostly walked around the city. It's a very large city and you could use the metro, but I was nervous about that since I heard some of my friends were pick-pocketed on the metro. Throughout the week, we did all the important things in Rome. We saw the Spanish steps, which I didn't find that impressive, but maybe there's a cool story behind it that I don't know. We saw the Trevi fountain, which I thought was pretty and I threw a coin in over my right shoulder, which means I will be back to Rome one day. Another cool fountain was the moses fountain. I enjoyed the Pantheon, which is a church, built like a cylinder with a sphere in it. The coolest part about it was that there was an actual hole in the top and when it rains, there's a drain at the bottom of the church. We saw many, many churches, they seemed to be on every corner. Saint Maria in Trastevere was beautiful, an incredibly far walk but it was very pretty. We also saw Santa Maria degli Angeli, which on the outside looks as if it is tiny and ruined since it looks so old, but then you walk in and it's incredible. We saw many piazzas, one of my favorite being Piazza del Popolo, which was the ancient entrance to North Rome, and the doors were really cool. The church in the piazza was called Santa Maria del Popolo and it had the Chigi chapel which was painted by Raphael. There were a few things that we didn't go in but were cool to look at. One was the Borghese villa. It was pretty but we were tired of art. I wanted to go into the Medici Villa but it's used as a French school now. Also the Castel Sant'Angelo was really cool looking. It actually has a tunnel that connects to the Vatican to keep the Popes safe in case of attack. I think that was used a long time ago but it still stands.
In Rome, we had two tours. The first one was of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. I loved the Vatican. St. Peter's Basilica was beautiful, and I didn't think it was that big until I went in. It was an optical illusion because it's actual bigger than your eye thinks it is, which is crazy because I think it's huge. It's so gaudy and beautiful. The altar inside is made of solid gold and bronze and it's just crazy how awesome it is. Michelangelo built the church for about the last 15 years of his life and he stopped working on it only 3 days before he died. Bernini built the square which is actually an elliptical, which is supposed to symbolize Jesus's arms welcoming people into the church. The church has about 300 statues, 11 chapels, and it is has biggest dome. We went to see the Sistine Chapel which was in the Vatican Museum. It's interesting that they make you pay to see it, which is pretty controversial. I think it was very impressive, but I only spent about 10 minutes in there. The second tour we did was the colosseum and the roman ruins. The colosseum is cool because it used to be so much bigger and prettier than it was, but because of the fall of the Roman Empire, people came to the city and took things from buildings to put on new buildings, and that's why the colosseum has so many holes in it. We learned that the gladiators were slaves of the rich, and made their owners money, although it was quite an investment to train them. The first act of the show was exotic animals and gladiators fighting and there was lots of killing, and then a lunch break. The second act was two gladiators dueling right up until the point of death, and then the loser would ask the emperor to spare his life. Most of the time, the emperor saved him because he gave his best and it was a good show. I got a lot of great pictures at the colosseum. After, we saw the Roman ruins, which was really cool. There was an awesome church built into an old ruined church. It's funny because people back then knew that there was stuff sticking up from underground but they never excavated it. Now it's all excavated in one area and it's really cool. There was a memorial to Caesar in there. Also, there are only two metros in Rome because every time they try to dig, they find more ruins and can't build there. Matthew got into Rome on Wednesday, and we all went out to an awesome dinner. I hated saying bye to my family because I already miss them but I will see them soon and I had a great time with them.
After my parents left, me and Matt did Rome all that day. Rome wasn't built in a day, but we saw it in one (well the important parts anyway). We went to see St. Peter's Basilica, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and the ruins. It doesn't sound like much but they're all so far away from each other. We tried to see the Sistine Chapel but it ended up being closed the day after me and my family saw it. They closed it to clean up and get ready for the conclave. I was bummed for Matt, but I think the church is much more impressive. We caught our train at 4 and we were absolutely exhausted.
Like I said, me and Matthew did mostly the same stuff in Florence as my parents. We also did a few different things too though. We also went to boboli gardens and I found new things with him too, like this cool island fountain. We went and saw Santa Croce, which is a beautiful church that I had always wanted to go in. It has the star of David on the top but it's a Catholic church, and it's the huge mystery about this church. When we were in Rome, our tour guide said Michelangelo and other very famous people were buried here, and I had no idea. We saw Michelangelo's, Dante's, Machiavelli's, and Galileo's tombs. They also had some cool paintings in the church. On our way to piazzale michelangelo, we saw a garden and it's another way up to it, so that was fun to explore. I had been on ponte vecchio before, but with Matt we actually looked at all of the jewelry and I don't understand how people afford it, it's so crazy. We got a lot of pastries and cappuccinos and I think I might have gotten Matt to like the cappuccinos. We found a really great place to eat lunch across the river, and they only spoke Italian so that was pretty cool. We also put a lock on the ponte vecchio, so hopefully it doesn't get cut off! I had a great time with Matt, we relaxed and took our time to see Florence. Saying goodbye to him was also hard. I had a great time though.
It still feels like a dream. I am so lucky to have a family and boyfriend who were able to visit me. I think they really enjoyed Florence and Rome and I'm glad I got to show them around. I had an amazing time and it was incredibly hard to say bye to them. I'm glad I got a little taste of home, and it's only about 7 more weeks until I'm home!
Tomorrow night I am leaving for Barcelona!!!! I'm really excited, and it definitely snuck up on me. It's supposed to be decent weather there; I'm hoping it's warmer and less rainy than Florence right now. I can't believe I'll be in Spain in less than 24 hours, it's so unreal.
Buonanotte,
Katie
My spring break was awesome :) It was so great to see my family and Matthew. I loved having the time off from school, and I really enjoyed Rome. I also liked being a little tour guide and showing them around Florence. I was also able to tour Matt around Rome because my family and I did tours on the previous days.
I did the basic Florence sight-seeing with my family and Matt. They came at different times, but I took them to see most of the same things. I brought them to see the david, ponte vecchio, piazzale michelangelo, palazzo pitti and the boboli gardens, gustapizza, leather market, san miniato, and I even brought them by to see my schools. We also got to see the duomo and climbed it. But, there were things that I hadn't done that I got to do with my family. On the first day while my brother and Dad were napping since they were very jet-lagged, me and my mom went to San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is a church that is attached to the Medici Tombs. It was very plain but it was pretty, and there was a nice green courtyard with an orange tree in the middle There was a bunch of restaurants that we went to that I had never been to. Also, we went to a bar called Fiddler's Elbow that I had never been to. It was very relaxing and cute. I had been to the boboli gardens before, but I saw a whole other section with my family and it was really cool. The gardens are so huge; I don't know if I'll ever actually be able to see the whole thing.
Rome was really really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. We left for Rome on Sunday, and for some reason our train was an extra 40 minutes which was weird. We got to Rome and we decided to take a cab from the train station to the hotel. It was only a 15 minute walk but we had a lot of luggage. The cab was 33€ which was a total rip-off, and I think that's when I realized that Rome is much more expensive than Florence. The first day we just mostly walked around the city. It's a very large city and you could use the metro, but I was nervous about that since I heard some of my friends were pick-pocketed on the metro. Throughout the week, we did all the important things in Rome. We saw the Spanish steps, which I didn't find that impressive, but maybe there's a cool story behind it that I don't know. We saw the Trevi fountain, which I thought was pretty and I threw a coin in over my right shoulder, which means I will be back to Rome one day. Another cool fountain was the moses fountain. I enjoyed the Pantheon, which is a church, built like a cylinder with a sphere in it. The coolest part about it was that there was an actual hole in the top and when it rains, there's a drain at the bottom of the church. We saw many, many churches, they seemed to be on every corner. Saint Maria in Trastevere was beautiful, an incredibly far walk but it was very pretty. We also saw Santa Maria degli Angeli, which on the outside looks as if it is tiny and ruined since it looks so old, but then you walk in and it's incredible. We saw many piazzas, one of my favorite being Piazza del Popolo, which was the ancient entrance to North Rome, and the doors were really cool. The church in the piazza was called Santa Maria del Popolo and it had the Chigi chapel which was painted by Raphael. There were a few things that we didn't go in but were cool to look at. One was the Borghese villa. It was pretty but we were tired of art. I wanted to go into the Medici Villa but it's used as a French school now. Also the Castel Sant'Angelo was really cool looking. It actually has a tunnel that connects to the Vatican to keep the Popes safe in case of attack. I think that was used a long time ago but it still stands.
In Rome, we had two tours. The first one was of the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. I loved the Vatican. St. Peter's Basilica was beautiful, and I didn't think it was that big until I went in. It was an optical illusion because it's actual bigger than your eye thinks it is, which is crazy because I think it's huge. It's so gaudy and beautiful. The altar inside is made of solid gold and bronze and it's just crazy how awesome it is. Michelangelo built the church for about the last 15 years of his life and he stopped working on it only 3 days before he died. Bernini built the square which is actually an elliptical, which is supposed to symbolize Jesus's arms welcoming people into the church. The church has about 300 statues, 11 chapels, and it is has biggest dome. We went to see the Sistine Chapel which was in the Vatican Museum. It's interesting that they make you pay to see it, which is pretty controversial. I think it was very impressive, but I only spent about 10 minutes in there. The second tour we did was the colosseum and the roman ruins. The colosseum is cool because it used to be so much bigger and prettier than it was, but because of the fall of the Roman Empire, people came to the city and took things from buildings to put on new buildings, and that's why the colosseum has so many holes in it. We learned that the gladiators were slaves of the rich, and made their owners money, although it was quite an investment to train them. The first act of the show was exotic animals and gladiators fighting and there was lots of killing, and then a lunch break. The second act was two gladiators dueling right up until the point of death, and then the loser would ask the emperor to spare his life. Most of the time, the emperor saved him because he gave his best and it was a good show. I got a lot of great pictures at the colosseum. After, we saw the Roman ruins, which was really cool. There was an awesome church built into an old ruined church. It's funny because people back then knew that there was stuff sticking up from underground but they never excavated it. Now it's all excavated in one area and it's really cool. There was a memorial to Caesar in there. Also, there are only two metros in Rome because every time they try to dig, they find more ruins and can't build there. Matthew got into Rome on Wednesday, and we all went out to an awesome dinner. I hated saying bye to my family because I already miss them but I will see them soon and I had a great time with them.
After my parents left, me and Matt did Rome all that day. Rome wasn't built in a day, but we saw it in one (well the important parts anyway). We went to see St. Peter's Basilica, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, and the ruins. It doesn't sound like much but they're all so far away from each other. We tried to see the Sistine Chapel but it ended up being closed the day after me and my family saw it. They closed it to clean up and get ready for the conclave. I was bummed for Matt, but I think the church is much more impressive. We caught our train at 4 and we were absolutely exhausted.
Like I said, me and Matthew did mostly the same stuff in Florence as my parents. We also did a few different things too though. We also went to boboli gardens and I found new things with him too, like this cool island fountain. We went and saw Santa Croce, which is a beautiful church that I had always wanted to go in. It has the star of David on the top but it's a Catholic church, and it's the huge mystery about this church. When we were in Rome, our tour guide said Michelangelo and other very famous people were buried here, and I had no idea. We saw Michelangelo's, Dante's, Machiavelli's, and Galileo's tombs. They also had some cool paintings in the church. On our way to piazzale michelangelo, we saw a garden and it's another way up to it, so that was fun to explore. I had been on ponte vecchio before, but with Matt we actually looked at all of the jewelry and I don't understand how people afford it, it's so crazy. We got a lot of pastries and cappuccinos and I think I might have gotten Matt to like the cappuccinos. We found a really great place to eat lunch across the river, and they only spoke Italian so that was pretty cool. We also put a lock on the ponte vecchio, so hopefully it doesn't get cut off! I had a great time with Matt, we relaxed and took our time to see Florence. Saying goodbye to him was also hard. I had a great time though.
It still feels like a dream. I am so lucky to have a family and boyfriend who were able to visit me. I think they really enjoyed Florence and Rome and I'm glad I got to show them around. I had an amazing time and it was incredibly hard to say bye to them. I'm glad I got a little taste of home, and it's only about 7 more weeks until I'm home!
Tomorrow night I am leaving for Barcelona!!!! I'm really excited, and it definitely snuck up on me. It's supposed to be decent weather there; I'm hoping it's warmer and less rainy than Florence right now. I can't believe I'll be in Spain in less than 24 hours, it's so unreal.
Buonanotte,
Katie
Friday, February 22, 2013
Ciao!!
I should be doing homework and studying for my midterms but I really don't feel like it. So instead I decided to blog about being in Florence in general. I haven't had time to blog about Florence too much, I've just been focused on blogging about traveling. These are the things that I like and I don't like!
LIKES:
1) Beauty: Florence is the most beautiful city I've ever been in. Everywhere I walk is so pretty and I often have to remind myself that not all cities look like this. The buildings are all so cute and I love how small the city is that I can walk everywhere.
2) Markets: I like all the little markets with fresh food. They're so easy to stop by on the way home and just grab some ingredients for whatever you're making for dinner that night. The grocery stores here aren't very big because most Italians only buy their necessities and shop multiple times per week. It's a much different lifestyle.
3) Cheap wine: Wine is so cheap here compared to the United States. It's only 3€ for a bottle which is really awesome. They also have a wine filling store where you can bring an empty bottle and fill a liter of wine for only 1.50€. America is much more expensive.
4) Slow pace: The Italians definitely have a slower pace. When they say a certain time, they will take their time getting places, they're never in a huge rush. Even just walking around town, they walk so much slower than I do. I also think that none of them work and all they do is shop and buy food, but I doubt that's completely true. It's nice having a change of pace. I find myself to be less stressed out here, but that could also be because of my next like...
5) Not a lot of homework: My classes are all interesting and I like most of them. I never find myself having a lot of homework. Italian is the only class I have homework for each night. It's a lot more writing essays and such, but it's a nice change. I haven't written essays since probably high school.
6) Food: The food here is awesome!!!! I don't think there's something that I've had that I didn't like. Everything is amazing. I'm going to miss the mozzarella here the most. It's so much better than at home. It's always so fresh. It actually comes in water so it stays fresh.
7) Small school and staff: Coming from a huge school and campus, it's nice to experience the small school atmosphere. I know so many people from my school because our classes are so small. I like having 17 person classes, it's a good change. The staff at the school is wonderful. They are all so incredibly nice, and are so helpful with anything you ask of them. They also have so many events that the students can attend for free or for low cost and they're all so fun.
8) City life: It's cool being in the city and being able to experience the night life. It's nice having a semester of school in the city after being in a small town before.
9) Restaurants: All the restaurants here are so unique and cozy. The restaurants are all very small. I haven't seen a restaurant bigger than about 20 tables. There aren't chain restaurants here like there are in the U.S.
10) No classes on Fridays: After having classes 5 days a week, it's awesome to have a long weekend every single weekend!!
11) History: I really enjoy learning about the history of Florence. I've already seen a lot of the museums but there's more I want to experience as well. I find all the stories so interesting. My one class is called "Story of the City"and one class we have a lesson and the other class we take a field trip to somewhere historical around Florence. It's so cool to learn the stories behind everything with the ancient and medieval worlds.
DISLIKES:
1) Dog poop: There's no grass here so the dogs just poop on the sidewalks (which are very skinny). It's annoying because a lot of people don't pick it up, they just leave it there.
2) Little weird dogs: The dogs here are all weird mixed breeds, and they're kindof ugly. Also, they're are little tiny dogs. I get really excited every time I see a dog that's normal looking and a bigger size.
3) No living room: Our kitchen is nice, but we don't have a family room where we can all hang out in so the kitchen becomes our hangout spot. It's annoying because we can't have many people over since our kitchen really isn't that big.
4) Mosquitoes: Apparently the mosquitoes here are really bad in the summer. Most of that cause is probably because the windows don't have screens. But, we have had mosquitoes in the house, and it's annoying to wake up with bites on your arms.
5) Bread: I expected the bread here to be great, but it's been so incredibly disappointing. It's usually too hard and difficult to eat. The best bread I've had here has been from the supermarket.
6) Rain: I didn't expect it to rain that much in Florence. In January, it seemed like it rained every single day. It doesn't snow, but I would rather it have snowed than rain everyday. It's been raining a bit less, so I'm hoping it will rain less and less.
7) Weird hours for restaurants: The restaurants here don't usually open til 7 PM, and I'm usually starving by 5 PM so it's really inconvenient. I still haven't adjusted to their schedule. Also, a lot of markets and stores close from 2:30-4:30 during the day. It's such a random time.
8) Long classes: Although tuesday/thursday classes at Penn State are an hour and 15 minutes, for some reason, my hour and a half classes seem incredibly long.
9) Tourists: There have been more and more tourists arriving and I find it somewhat annoying. They all travel in huge packs and slow me down on my walk to school. They're usually pretty obnoxious as well.
Despite all my dislikes, I'm loving it here and I can't wait to show Florence off to my family and Matt!
Now I better go get some work done,
Katie
I should be doing homework and studying for my midterms but I really don't feel like it. So instead I decided to blog about being in Florence in general. I haven't had time to blog about Florence too much, I've just been focused on blogging about traveling. These are the things that I like and I don't like!
LIKES:
1) Beauty: Florence is the most beautiful city I've ever been in. Everywhere I walk is so pretty and I often have to remind myself that not all cities look like this. The buildings are all so cute and I love how small the city is that I can walk everywhere.
2) Markets: I like all the little markets with fresh food. They're so easy to stop by on the way home and just grab some ingredients for whatever you're making for dinner that night. The grocery stores here aren't very big because most Italians only buy their necessities and shop multiple times per week. It's a much different lifestyle.
3) Cheap wine: Wine is so cheap here compared to the United States. It's only 3€ for a bottle which is really awesome. They also have a wine filling store where you can bring an empty bottle and fill a liter of wine for only 1.50€. America is much more expensive.
4) Slow pace: The Italians definitely have a slower pace. When they say a certain time, they will take their time getting places, they're never in a huge rush. Even just walking around town, they walk so much slower than I do. I also think that none of them work and all they do is shop and buy food, but I doubt that's completely true. It's nice having a change of pace. I find myself to be less stressed out here, but that could also be because of my next like...
5) Not a lot of homework: My classes are all interesting and I like most of them. I never find myself having a lot of homework. Italian is the only class I have homework for each night. It's a lot more writing essays and such, but it's a nice change. I haven't written essays since probably high school.
6) Food: The food here is awesome!!!! I don't think there's something that I've had that I didn't like. Everything is amazing. I'm going to miss the mozzarella here the most. It's so much better than at home. It's always so fresh. It actually comes in water so it stays fresh.
7) Small school and staff: Coming from a huge school and campus, it's nice to experience the small school atmosphere. I know so many people from my school because our classes are so small. I like having 17 person classes, it's a good change. The staff at the school is wonderful. They are all so incredibly nice, and are so helpful with anything you ask of them. They also have so many events that the students can attend for free or for low cost and they're all so fun.
8) City life: It's cool being in the city and being able to experience the night life. It's nice having a semester of school in the city after being in a small town before.
9) Restaurants: All the restaurants here are so unique and cozy. The restaurants are all very small. I haven't seen a restaurant bigger than about 20 tables. There aren't chain restaurants here like there are in the U.S.
10) No classes on Fridays: After having classes 5 days a week, it's awesome to have a long weekend every single weekend!!
11) History: I really enjoy learning about the history of Florence. I've already seen a lot of the museums but there's more I want to experience as well. I find all the stories so interesting. My one class is called "Story of the City"and one class we have a lesson and the other class we take a field trip to somewhere historical around Florence. It's so cool to learn the stories behind everything with the ancient and medieval worlds.
DISLIKES:
1) Dog poop: There's no grass here so the dogs just poop on the sidewalks (which are very skinny). It's annoying because a lot of people don't pick it up, they just leave it there.
2) Little weird dogs: The dogs here are all weird mixed breeds, and they're kindof ugly. Also, they're are little tiny dogs. I get really excited every time I see a dog that's normal looking and a bigger size.
3) No living room: Our kitchen is nice, but we don't have a family room where we can all hang out in so the kitchen becomes our hangout spot. It's annoying because we can't have many people over since our kitchen really isn't that big.
4) Mosquitoes: Apparently the mosquitoes here are really bad in the summer. Most of that cause is probably because the windows don't have screens. But, we have had mosquitoes in the house, and it's annoying to wake up with bites on your arms.
5) Bread: I expected the bread here to be great, but it's been so incredibly disappointing. It's usually too hard and difficult to eat. The best bread I've had here has been from the supermarket.
6) Rain: I didn't expect it to rain that much in Florence. In January, it seemed like it rained every single day. It doesn't snow, but I would rather it have snowed than rain everyday. It's been raining a bit less, so I'm hoping it will rain less and less.
7) Weird hours for restaurants: The restaurants here don't usually open til 7 PM, and I'm usually starving by 5 PM so it's really inconvenient. I still haven't adjusted to their schedule. Also, a lot of markets and stores close from 2:30-4:30 during the day. It's such a random time.
8) Long classes: Although tuesday/thursday classes at Penn State are an hour and 15 minutes, for some reason, my hour and a half classes seem incredibly long.
9) Tourists: There have been more and more tourists arriving and I find it somewhat annoying. They all travel in huge packs and slow me down on my walk to school. They're usually pretty obnoxious as well.
Despite all my dislikes, I'm loving it here and I can't wait to show Florence off to my family and Matt!
Now I better go get some work done,
Katie
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Bonjour!
I spent this past weekend in Paris! It was awesome, I really enjoyed it. This past week before Paris was pretty uneventful, I was just catching up on sleep from my Interlaken trip. I volunteered officially for the first time with the elementary school. It was fun to meet all the kids, and the ones that I worked with were very advanced english speakers. One little girl even gave me a postcard that she had gotten from a museum. It felt great to volunteer. Also last week, my field trip was to a church called San Miniato and it's up on the hills with a beautiful view of Florence. The church was from the medieval times and it was very dark and almost creepy. There weren't many windows, and the church was split-level, which is very unordinary for churches. It was a cool field trip, I really like that class.
My weekend was so awesome!! I traveled with my friends this weekend, and my roommates did a mix of staying home, and some went to London. I was excited to travel with a different group! There were seven of us but we accomplished so much in just two and a half days and it worked out that we all pretty much wanted to do the same things. Our flight to Paris was at 7:20 AM, so we were pretty exhausted all weekend after not getting much sleep before the weekend either.
We got to Paris at 9:20 AM on Friday and took a shuttle to our hotel to check in and meet up with the other girls who had come in on Thursday night. After meeting up, we started planning out our day. First we went to grab some breakfast. We each got a pastry and split a baguette. The bread is AMAZING in Paris, I don't understand why Italy's bread sucks. Also, the pastries were all so good no matter what you ordered. The metro was just about 20 feet away from our hotel, right across the street. We figured out the metro pretty quickly. The metro is so efficient and convenient, I'm surprised it isn't like this in the U.S. After we planned out our route, we decided to go to the Louvre first. We saw the Mona Lisa, which in my opinion wasn't all that impressive. There was a really cool egyptian exhibit in the Louvre which was my favorite part there. There was a real live mummy! The Louvre was unbelievable huge. I couldn't believe how long it stretched around. After the Louvre, we headed to the Orsay Museum and it was also cool. I liked the Louvre better but Orsay was cool. Orsay was mostly paintings and sculptures. We saw a lot of Van Gogh, which was a lot cooler in paintings than in books when we just learned about them. I definitely have a lot more respect for the artists we've learned about now that I can see the real paintings. We also saw Monet, and Degas. After the Orsay, we headed to Notre Dame!!! It was a really pretty church. On the way there, we saw love-lock bridge and there were so many locks on there, it was adorable. We got to Notre Dame, and when we went in, mass was going on. It was actually pretty cool, but there must be pretty annoying for the people actually trying to listen with all those tourists around. After Notre Dame, we tried to head to a fondue place but it was way too busy, so we just grabbed dinner somewhere else. The meals in France were so cheap, they were 15 Euros for a 3 course meal with an appetizer, entree, and dessert. It was nice because we don't have that in Florence. After dinner, we walked around a bit and saw the Moulin Rouge area. We were so exhausted we just went home and went to bed because we were getting up early the next day.
On Saturday, we woke up early to go to Versailles! It took us so long to get there because Versailles is on the outside of the city. We thought we knew how to get there but we had to switch so many trains because they kept ending. Finally, we realized that the one train we needed wasn't going to Versailles that day and we had to take another that would take us in walking distance. It was probably a good hour or so of travel time, but it was completely worth it. Versailles was my favorite part. I loved seeing the palace. The palace was where Louis the 14th, 15th, and 16th stayed, as well as Marie Antoinette, and another Marie. I loved all the rooms. They were incredibly gaudy and overwhelming, but it was awesome to picture living back in that time. Even the dauphin's apartments were nice. We thought we were done looking around until we walked outside and realized the gardens extended very far, and there was Marie Antoinette's estate down there. My friend and I walked down there and wanted to see the estate. Unfortunately, we had gotten separated from our friends earlier and they had our tickets, so we had to pay just to see the estate. The estate was much more home-y and quaint than the palace, but it was still very nice. The one funny thing is how small their beds were, because they were much shorter back then. After Versailles, we headed to grab some lunch. We all got grilled cheeses and fries. Their fries are pretty good -- I mean they are FRENCH fries after all. The grilled cheeses were cool because they put cheese in the middle AND on top, and I love cheese. After that we headed to the Eiffel Tower!!! Honestly, the Eiffel Tower is cool but it's brown and somewhat ugly. It's really pretty when it's lit up at night though. Apparently the guy who built it ate lunch everyday under the tower because that's the only place he couldn't see it. We waited in line and we were planning on taking an elevator to the top. Me and my friend Abby were freaking out because we don't like heights that much. The top ended up getting closed while we were in line so we could only go to the second floor which is about halfway up. That was a little easier to handle than going all the way to the top. We still got great views, and it was cool. After the Tour Eiffel, we went to see the Arc de Triumph. It was big, and to get to it you have to walk down stairs underground and then back up, since the intersection is so crazy. Under the Arc de Triumph, they had their tomb of the unknown soldier, which was very pretty. They don't have a guard that watches it like the U.S. though. We then headed to another great dinner, where they gave us free white wine with raspberry. It was delicious. After that, we headed home and slept.
Sunday morning, we just took our time getting to the airport. When we got there, our one friend found out that for some reason she was on the later flight. I think Expedia messed it up. The flight home was okay, we hit a lot of turbulence which really freaked me out. I was glad to be home after a busy two weeks of travel.
Paris was awesome, but I'm so glad I'm studying in Florence. Paris is way too big of a city for me, and even though the metro was convenient, it still took a good amount of time to get places, and you can't really walk anywhere. The metro is quick, but you have to switch trains a lot to get specifically where you want. I always like having the option to walk places. The other thing about Florence, is that I feel a lot safer here. In Paris, there were a few sketchy incidents that occurred. My one friend was getting money out of an ATM machine and there were some young, about 13 years old, boys near by. I thought it was kindof weird that the boys were so close, but then I felt bad for judging them so I just ignored it. Apparently, when my friend got to the screen where you pick the amount you would like to withdrawal, the boys covered the screen with a paper, pressed the maximum amount button, and were trying to grab her money before she could. Luckily, a french man from across the street ran over and yelled and them, and they ran away. My friend got out 250 more Euros than she planned but at least she was holding them and not the boys. There was another incident where we were getting off the metro and some man was getting on and all of a sudden, four policemen ran and pulled the man off the metro. That was scary because we hadn't even seen policemen or security on the metro until then. And then in the airport on the way home, there was almost two women fighting. Some cashier came out from behind the counter and pushed the customer and I thought for sure there would be a fight. It was quite an interesting weekend.
This week I've just been relaxing and getting ready for midterms next week. Next week, I'm supposed to start playing soccer, which I'm very excited about, but I have 4 midterms next week and I'm supposed to play in 4 soccer games. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to go to them, so we'll see how my studying goes. I have a lot of studying to do. Most of my midterms are essays, which makes me a little nervous seeing as I haven't had essay exams probably since high school. I have a lot of studying to do!!
Cannot believe my family will be here in 8 days!!!!! And Matthew will be here in 2 weeks!!! I am so excited to show them around Florence and I'm also excited to see Rome!!
Ciao ragazzi,
Katie
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Ciao ragazzi!
It's been an awesome week and an even better weekend. Last week was good. I had two quizzes that I did well on, and I played in a practice soccer game. I think we start the real games against other schools next week. It was so great to play again. I also went to the elementary school that I will be volunteering at. It was a really nice school and I was surprised at how early they start teaching english. These little 6 year olds were already learning english phrases. I'm excited to start volunteering this week, it will be very fun. I went to Interlaken this past weekend, and it was possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been. Florence is a very pretty city but Interlaken is this beautiful snowy place with amazing mountains. It's so serene and amazing.
We left for Interlaken on thursday at 8 PM and didn't get there until 4 AM. I woke up as we were on the side of the mountain in the snow and driving so slowly up the hill. It was probably the most terrifying ride I have ever been on but we made it! When you enter Switzerland, it's just tons of mountains so there was a lot of tiny roads up and down the mountains. I was just glad that I didn't have to drive on those roads. We got to our hostel and immediately slept for about 2 hours. The hostel was so nice, super clean, and they were very helpful. I feel like I was a little spoiled for my first hostel experience. We all got to stay in the same room so that was nice. We went with a company called Bus2Alps and they were so helpful and nice compared to the last company we booked a trip with. After we slept, we got up to have breakfast and get going to start skiing!! My friend Colleen and I had booked a full beginner's day and we were really excited. We got there and found out that we couldn't have a lesson because not enough people had signed up. So our choices were to pay more and have a private lesson, or to just do a half day skiing and have our lesson in the afternoon. We decided to do that and it was so perfect. The lesson was sweet, our instructor was really friendly, and the mountains were beautiful. I was so glad I took the opportunity to ski. I wore so many layers that I was actually so hot on the mountain, and I never once was cold. We went down the bunny hill the whole time, with little kids flying past me, but I didn't care, I had a blast. After we got home, we went out with a big group to grab dinner. All food in Switzerland is crazy expensive. It was hard to find a meal that was under 15 swiss francs (swiss francs are basically the same amount as dollars). We all went out and had swiss cheese fondue for dinner. It was very filling, but I wish we had gotten chocolate fondue instead! We were all so exhausted Friday night that we went to bed early.
On Saturday, me and some of my friends went to Zurich. It was so cool! Zurich is a really pretty city and it was only about a two hour drive away from Interlaken. It's pretty small but it reminded me a little of Boston. It was very clean and people friendly. It was snowing and it was so beautiful. First, everyone made a stop at Starbucks, since there are none in Florence. It was nice seeing some familiar American stores there. We walked around the city, saw a beautiful church, and then we got to climb the Grossmunster church and see the views of the city from the top. It was awesome, and Lake Zurich is beautiful. We got lunch and shopped. For lunch, we all got rostis. A rosti is Swiss food, and it's basically a hashbrown with toppings. Mine was the rosti on bottom, then cheese, bacon, and egg on top. It was delicious; it pretty much just tasted like breakfast. After we got back to Interlaken, we grabbed dinner and then spent the night with all of our friends at the other hostel's bar. It was a great time, and so fun because we knew so many people from our program on the trip this weekend.
On Sunday, we walked to the beautiful lake in Interlaken. It was about a 20 minute walk and we got to see a lot of the local houses. They all look like little toy cabins, they are so cute. The lake was so clear and blue, it was like we were in the caribbean. I was in awe of how beautiful this place is and I hope to go back someday and bring my friends and family. After, I bought lots of chocolate, and it was unbelievably delicious. Chocolate, unfortunately, is also very expensive. We grabbed some burgers for lunch - which were weird and tasted more like sausage - and then got on the bus home! We were all exhausted by that point.
I feel like this trip was probably different that the others I will be doing. Most of seeing other places is just walking around and going to museums and such. But this trip, we got to do really fun activities while seeing the country. They had a ton of stuff you could do: skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, skydiving, night sledding, etc. It was very expensive but 100% worth it. It was also really awesome, because in Switzerland they speak Swiss-German, so I could read and understand things! It was a nice change from being in Florence where I can only understand a little.
There's a chocolate festival going on in Florence this week, literally 2 minutes from my apartment. We signed up early and tonight we get to go to a free wine and chocolate tasting! I'm really excited :) Other than that, this week is pretty relaxed since I will be getting ready to go to Paris friday morning! We still need to figure out everything we want to see but it will be fun regardless. I want to definitely see the eiffel tower and the louvre. I'd also like to see Versailles because I've heard it's beautiful. I'm so excited!
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Feb 15-17): PARIS! I am so excited!
Next weekend (Feb 22-24): The weekend before midterms, so I will probably be studying and just relaxing after all of my traveling!
THEN IT'S SPRING BREAK!!!!
I miss you all! Ciaoooooo,
Katie
It's been an awesome week and an even better weekend. Last week was good. I had two quizzes that I did well on, and I played in a practice soccer game. I think we start the real games against other schools next week. It was so great to play again. I also went to the elementary school that I will be volunteering at. It was a really nice school and I was surprised at how early they start teaching english. These little 6 year olds were already learning english phrases. I'm excited to start volunteering this week, it will be very fun. I went to Interlaken this past weekend, and it was possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been. Florence is a very pretty city but Interlaken is this beautiful snowy place with amazing mountains. It's so serene and amazing.
We left for Interlaken on thursday at 8 PM and didn't get there until 4 AM. I woke up as we were on the side of the mountain in the snow and driving so slowly up the hill. It was probably the most terrifying ride I have ever been on but we made it! When you enter Switzerland, it's just tons of mountains so there was a lot of tiny roads up and down the mountains. I was just glad that I didn't have to drive on those roads. We got to our hostel and immediately slept for about 2 hours. The hostel was so nice, super clean, and they were very helpful. I feel like I was a little spoiled for my first hostel experience. We all got to stay in the same room so that was nice. We went with a company called Bus2Alps and they were so helpful and nice compared to the last company we booked a trip with. After we slept, we got up to have breakfast and get going to start skiing!! My friend Colleen and I had booked a full beginner's day and we were really excited. We got there and found out that we couldn't have a lesson because not enough people had signed up. So our choices were to pay more and have a private lesson, or to just do a half day skiing and have our lesson in the afternoon. We decided to do that and it was so perfect. The lesson was sweet, our instructor was really friendly, and the mountains were beautiful. I was so glad I took the opportunity to ski. I wore so many layers that I was actually so hot on the mountain, and I never once was cold. We went down the bunny hill the whole time, with little kids flying past me, but I didn't care, I had a blast. After we got home, we went out with a big group to grab dinner. All food in Switzerland is crazy expensive. It was hard to find a meal that was under 15 swiss francs (swiss francs are basically the same amount as dollars). We all went out and had swiss cheese fondue for dinner. It was very filling, but I wish we had gotten chocolate fondue instead! We were all so exhausted Friday night that we went to bed early.
On Saturday, me and some of my friends went to Zurich. It was so cool! Zurich is a really pretty city and it was only about a two hour drive away from Interlaken. It's pretty small but it reminded me a little of Boston. It was very clean and people friendly. It was snowing and it was so beautiful. First, everyone made a stop at Starbucks, since there are none in Florence. It was nice seeing some familiar American stores there. We walked around the city, saw a beautiful church, and then we got to climb the Grossmunster church and see the views of the city from the top. It was awesome, and Lake Zurich is beautiful. We got lunch and shopped. For lunch, we all got rostis. A rosti is Swiss food, and it's basically a hashbrown with toppings. Mine was the rosti on bottom, then cheese, bacon, and egg on top. It was delicious; it pretty much just tasted like breakfast. After we got back to Interlaken, we grabbed dinner and then spent the night with all of our friends at the other hostel's bar. It was a great time, and so fun because we knew so many people from our program on the trip this weekend.
On Sunday, we walked to the beautiful lake in Interlaken. It was about a 20 minute walk and we got to see a lot of the local houses. They all look like little toy cabins, they are so cute. The lake was so clear and blue, it was like we were in the caribbean. I was in awe of how beautiful this place is and I hope to go back someday and bring my friends and family. After, I bought lots of chocolate, and it was unbelievably delicious. Chocolate, unfortunately, is also very expensive. We grabbed some burgers for lunch - which were weird and tasted more like sausage - and then got on the bus home! We were all exhausted by that point.
I feel like this trip was probably different that the others I will be doing. Most of seeing other places is just walking around and going to museums and such. But this trip, we got to do really fun activities while seeing the country. They had a ton of stuff you could do: skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, skydiving, night sledding, etc. It was very expensive but 100% worth it. It was also really awesome, because in Switzerland they speak Swiss-German, so I could read and understand things! It was a nice change from being in Florence where I can only understand a little.
There's a chocolate festival going on in Florence this week, literally 2 minutes from my apartment. We signed up early and tonight we get to go to a free wine and chocolate tasting! I'm really excited :) Other than that, this week is pretty relaxed since I will be getting ready to go to Paris friday morning! We still need to figure out everything we want to see but it will be fun regardless. I want to definitely see the eiffel tower and the louvre. I'd also like to see Versailles because I've heard it's beautiful. I'm so excited!
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Feb 15-17): PARIS! I am so excited!
Next weekend (Feb 22-24): The weekend before midterms, so I will probably be studying and just relaxing after all of my traveling!
THEN IT'S SPRING BREAK!!!!
I miss you all! Ciaoooooo,
Katie
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Buongiorno,
It's been another great week and also a busy one. I should really try to blog more in between so I don't have to type out these huge blogs, but I always forget. My week was good, my classes are starting to get more serious and I have an italian test next week which I'm pretty nervous about since we learned so much in just a few weeks. I'm going to have a busy upcoming week. I officially signed up for soccer and we have our first practice game this wednesday. I also have signed up to volunteer helping at an elementary school and we meet with the principal on Wednesday. It should only be a few hours a week so I'm looking forward to it. This past week I officially booked my flight to Barcelona! I should be booking my hostel soon. My friend Colleen and I are going March 14-17.
This week was fun! Tuesday my friends and I went out to Tijuana, which is a mexican place. They're pretty rare here in Italy but it was so awesome. We got nachos, toastadas, and margaritas. Tacos is my favorite meal so I was really happy. We will definitely be going back. Also on Tuesday, we went to the Uffizi Museum, which was cool. There were a ton of busts and paintings. On Wednesday, my story of the city class went on a really cool historic tour of the city. We saw exactly where the city of Florence was during the Roman Empire. It is so small to what the city is now. We saw the rounded walls of where the coliseum once stood, which is now houses. We saw where the center of town used to be. We were able to see the 1966 flood marks on the buildings, and they were way over one story high. I really enjoy that class. On thursday, we tried to go to Cappelle di Medici, which is the Medici's tombs, but it was closed. We ended up just walking around and shopping.
On Friday, we just hung out around during the day. We went to the diner and it was awesome. It's an American diner so they had pancakes and breakfast sandwiches and burgers. I got chocolate chip pancakes and I was so happy. Later around 6:30, we got all dressed up and went out to the restaurant literally across the street. It was really nice and delicious. We had a really great dinner. I got spicy spaghetti and it was way spicier than I imagined it. We then went to the opera around 8!!! It was so fun to get dressed up and go out to something so formal. The only problem was that we all bought new heels and they were very cute, but it was awful walking in them on cobblestones. The opera was good, the singers were so talented. It was just hard to pay attention to a 4 and a half hour opera when it's all in Italian. They had the subtitles projected on top of the stage, so I could look at it and identify about one word in each line, but that wasn't very helpful. The opera was called Don Giovani, and I looked at the wikipedia summary during intermission to get to know more about the storyline. It was truly exhausting and we came back and immediately went to sleep.
On Saturday, we went to Venice. I was so excited to see Venice. We booked our transportation with this one company since it was cheaper than doing it on our own. It took about three hours to get there and when we got there the group leaders weren't very helpful. We took a water taxi to San Marco, which was where carnivale was happening. Although, mostly everything was cancelled since it rained the entire day, was freezing, and incredibly windy. We all knew it was going to be miserable so we decided to make the best out of it. When we got there we got lunch with a big group of us, which was fun. We warmed up and then shopped around for a while, and it was cool because they have so much Murano glass there. Murano is another island and it's famous for the glass making there. We then went in and got "dinner" somewhere. And by dinner, I just mean we got bruschetta and I got hot chocolate, which was literally just melted chocolate. It was so thick, but it was good. We were told that the leaders would be back by 7 and they made it sound that whoever got on the first bus would leave first once it filled. Instead, that didn't happen and we sat on the bus for an hour waiting for everyone to get back. The ride back took about 4 hours because it rained, and snowed pretty hard. The bus was blowing air conditioning, so it was freezing, and at some point the ceiling was leaking. It was not the best trip, and we won't be booking with that company again.
Today, we are going to the diner again! I have a lot of work to do and then we are going to watch the superbowl tonight! We had to reserve tickets since so many people like to go see it. It makes sense because there are so many students here.
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Feb 7-10): INTERLAKEN! I'm so excited, but I need to figure out if I can rent everything I need there.
Next weekend (Feb 15-17): Paris!!! I can't believe it's so soon. We need to start looking up the places we want to go!
Feb 22-24: This is the weekend before midterms!! I will most likely be studying but we were also thinking about taking a day trip to Pisa and/or Lucca.
I can't believe the weekend after my parents will be here!!! I'm so excited! I've started writing out places to take them and everything. Time is flying by here.
Ciao Ciao Ciaoooo,
Katie
It's been another great week and also a busy one. I should really try to blog more in between so I don't have to type out these huge blogs, but I always forget. My week was good, my classes are starting to get more serious and I have an italian test next week which I'm pretty nervous about since we learned so much in just a few weeks. I'm going to have a busy upcoming week. I officially signed up for soccer and we have our first practice game this wednesday. I also have signed up to volunteer helping at an elementary school and we meet with the principal on Wednesday. It should only be a few hours a week so I'm looking forward to it. This past week I officially booked my flight to Barcelona! I should be booking my hostel soon. My friend Colleen and I are going March 14-17.
This week was fun! Tuesday my friends and I went out to Tijuana, which is a mexican place. They're pretty rare here in Italy but it was so awesome. We got nachos, toastadas, and margaritas. Tacos is my favorite meal so I was really happy. We will definitely be going back. Also on Tuesday, we went to the Uffizi Museum, which was cool. There were a ton of busts and paintings. On Wednesday, my story of the city class went on a really cool historic tour of the city. We saw exactly where the city of Florence was during the Roman Empire. It is so small to what the city is now. We saw the rounded walls of where the coliseum once stood, which is now houses. We saw where the center of town used to be. We were able to see the 1966 flood marks on the buildings, and they were way over one story high. I really enjoy that class. On thursday, we tried to go to Cappelle di Medici, which is the Medici's tombs, but it was closed. We ended up just walking around and shopping.
On Friday, we just hung out around during the day. We went to the diner and it was awesome. It's an American diner so they had pancakes and breakfast sandwiches and burgers. I got chocolate chip pancakes and I was so happy. Later around 6:30, we got all dressed up and went out to the restaurant literally across the street. It was really nice and delicious. We had a really great dinner. I got spicy spaghetti and it was way spicier than I imagined it. We then went to the opera around 8!!! It was so fun to get dressed up and go out to something so formal. The only problem was that we all bought new heels and they were very cute, but it was awful walking in them on cobblestones. The opera was good, the singers were so talented. It was just hard to pay attention to a 4 and a half hour opera when it's all in Italian. They had the subtitles projected on top of the stage, so I could look at it and identify about one word in each line, but that wasn't very helpful. The opera was called Don Giovani, and I looked at the wikipedia summary during intermission to get to know more about the storyline. It was truly exhausting and we came back and immediately went to sleep.
On Saturday, we went to Venice. I was so excited to see Venice. We booked our transportation with this one company since it was cheaper than doing it on our own. It took about three hours to get there and when we got there the group leaders weren't very helpful. We took a water taxi to San Marco, which was where carnivale was happening. Although, mostly everything was cancelled since it rained the entire day, was freezing, and incredibly windy. We all knew it was going to be miserable so we decided to make the best out of it. When we got there we got lunch with a big group of us, which was fun. We warmed up and then shopped around for a while, and it was cool because they have so much Murano glass there. Murano is another island and it's famous for the glass making there. We then went in and got "dinner" somewhere. And by dinner, I just mean we got bruschetta and I got hot chocolate, which was literally just melted chocolate. It was so thick, but it was good. We were told that the leaders would be back by 7 and they made it sound that whoever got on the first bus would leave first once it filled. Instead, that didn't happen and we sat on the bus for an hour waiting for everyone to get back. The ride back took about 4 hours because it rained, and snowed pretty hard. The bus was blowing air conditioning, so it was freezing, and at some point the ceiling was leaking. It was not the best trip, and we won't be booking with that company again.
Today, we are going to the diner again! I have a lot of work to do and then we are going to watch the superbowl tonight! We had to reserve tickets since so many people like to go see it. It makes sense because there are so many students here.
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Feb 7-10): INTERLAKEN! I'm so excited, but I need to figure out if I can rent everything I need there.
Next weekend (Feb 15-17): Paris!!! I can't believe it's so soon. We need to start looking up the places we want to go!
Feb 22-24: This is the weekend before midterms!! I will most likely be studying but we were also thinking about taking a day trip to Pisa and/or Lucca.
I can't believe the weekend after my parents will be here!!! I'm so excited! I've started writing out places to take them and everything. Time is flying by here.
Ciao Ciao Ciaoooo,
Katie
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