We're not in Santa Cruz Anymore...

I'm thinking this whole once-a-week blog entry thing is just not going to cut it. I keep skimming over weekday details to get to the "exciting" stuff during the weekends, but it's the simple everyday things I will forget most easily and will miss most. Living in this amazing apartment still never ceases to amaze me and whether it be random italian old folks knocking on our door and attempting to speak with us in our mangled Italian, or walking down (and up) the 100's of stairs at least 4 times a day, or stepping out onto the street and seeing cute little bundled up italian children jabbering away in this wonderful language, or walking through a booming marketplace on my way to class every morning or even looking down 24/7 to avoid stepping in dog poop. Whatever it may be, I have grown to love every single detail of it all. It is so DIFFERENT than anything I have experienced before in my life and I am definitely already changed because of this experience. It will effect me for the rest of my life and I feel my dreams will be swimming in these memories and thoughts until I can no longer dream or remember.

I have been here for almost 2 MONTHS already!!!! Can you believe it?!?! And I can so easily map out the rest of the program as well. Time, please please pleaseeee slow down! Just this once!

Anyways! This past week was a bit stressful because I had my first quiz for this next (and much, much harder) level of Italian and I had a midterm for my Renaissance class. I also had to volunteer at the Learning Center and our program attended the Opera "La Tosca". To top everything off, I was SICK!!! The weekend before in Venice was just what my immune system needed to beat me down and finally make me like the rest of the people in our program. I had avoided the sickness for so long but finally it nabbed me. I stayed strong, though, and just wouldn't let my mind think too much of it. I got plenty of sleep, studied hard, and still had fun because the coming weekend was going to bring the best surprise of all. My bestest friend Katie was going to be visiting!!!!! There was NO way I was going to be sick for that! NO. WAY.

On Thursday I rushed through my quiz (pretty hard, but I got a good grade, phew!) and bolted over to the train station. Katie was supposed to be there in about 10 minutes and I not-so-patiently waited to see her walk through the large gold doors. After about 20 minutes I started to panic slightly and I began to walk through the station in search of a girl with a bright red bag who might have gotten lost. With each step I took, my mind went crazier and crazier. "SHOOT! I should have gotten her number, what was I thinking??" "I should have brought my phone to check her flight!" "I should have remembered her exact train number!" The list went on and on. I was very worried because I had no idea where her traveling could have gone wrong. My dear friend Katie was traveling for around 18 hours just to get to me!!!! HOW KIND! But so many little places where something could have gone wrong. After another 10 minutes, I sat back down in my original seat and just waited. As I was about to give up, I saw the red bag!!!! And attached to that bag was Katie!! I ran up to her and we were so beyond thrilled to finally be with each other. In Santa Cruz we are literally with each other 24/7 so it felt so natural to be back together. The most amazing thing was that we were together in another COUNTRY. How cool!!!!

It took a good 5 minutes for us to stop jumping up and down and grabbing each other to make sure we weren't dreaming. I led her back to my apartment, over the Arno, through the narrow streets, so she could drop off her stuff. The first thing we did after that was, of course, to get some authentic italian pizza! It was a bit spicy for my liking, but right up Katie's alley. We talked with some other traveling students and it was just so nice to be together, meeting new people already, soaking in another country. After the pizza came gelato #1! We trekked over to a place called "Vivoli", which supposedly has the best gelato in all of Florence, and were very delighted with our flavors. Dangerous is the gelato.

The rest of the day was spent touring Katie around "my" city. I showed her the Duomo (her favorite because of all of the detail), the Ponte Vecchio, San Lorenzo Market, the boar you make a wish at, and pretty much just yapped away as we passed by churches and small streets and restaurants. I felt like a tour guide but I can't begin to explain how wonderful that made me feel. I knew SO much about this city I have lived in for almost two months now and realizing how much information I held in my head really made me so proud to call this place home. It was fun hearing from Katie as well about the similarities and differences within Spain. Our experiences are completely DIFFERENT (she is in a homestay, for example) but we both love them equally. I can't wait to visit her in Spain over my spring break! My roommate Anna had a few friends visiting the same night as well, so we all ended the night by going out to dinner at a local place nearby (the 4 cheese pizza I normally loved tasted overwhelmingly of blue cheese..yuck!). We had settled back in at the apartment, when Katie and I decided we needed to really top off the night with someone sweet, gelato perhaps?? We were very fortunate because my personal favorite place was still open and we were able to share a cone on the bridge, overlooking the lights reflecting off of the Arno below. It was magical.

After getting a very good nights sleep, we woke up, got ready, and headed to this huge indoor food market called "Mercato Centrale". There were rows upon rows of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, breads, olive oil, wines, meats, sweets, biscotti, you name it! We decided to get the makings for a picnic (some fruit, bread, fresh parmesan cheese, fresh salami, and a bottle of wine) and then headed over to Boboli gardens to really enjoy. The day was MAGNIFICENT!! It was so warm and sunny, the birds were chirping, and the gardens were more beautiful than ever. Katie and I found a spot settled within a field of wild flowers, overlooking the fountain of Neptune and the entire city below. We happily ate, chatted, drank wine, and enjoyed each others company. It was seriously such a wonderful, careless time that I will always remember. We got kicked out of the gardens at around 4pm, soaked up some more sun on the steps outside, and then headed back to the apartment to rest up a bit. We made dinner for ourselves that night (Ravioli, salad, and bread), and just enjoyed being with each other once again. Our original plans of heading out that night were canceled as we realized we were exhausted, AGAIN! We felt like such old ladies but sleeping was the much more appealing option at that point (we both had gotten slightly sunburnt as well which took SO much energy out of me).

It was now only Saturday as we slept in later and took our time getting ready. We walked around the city some more, visited the David statue at the Galleria di Academia, had some panini's from my favorite shop "Gusta Panini", went to the grocery store so Katie could see what they were like here, and started to get ready for our night out. My sick roommate Christine was a trooper and she joined us for the night, along with Vicky and Robin. We first went to an apperativo (you pay for a drink and get the food for free), then headed off to Santa Croce (a very local hangout) and hit up some pubs. It was really fun to show Katie the nightlife here in Florence, something that she said was much different than in her town of Cordoba. We tried many different types of fun drinks and attempted to go dancing but were overrun by 15 year olds having a family party (not really, but it seemed like it). After the little dancing it was already 1am so we decided to call it a night and trek back home. As soon as our heads hit the pillow we were out!

It was sadly Sunday now, thus Katie's last day. I was getting much too used to having her constantly by my side as it had been in Santa Cruz. Things are just so effortless with us and it's just nice to have this again, especially when so far away from home. For our last day, we went back to San Lorenzo market and got some scarves, Katie bought some souvenirs, we peeked inside the Duomo, had our last gelato together, and had Gusta Pizza one last time. It randomly started to rain for a few minutes but it luckily cleared up quickly. Phew! Just before sunset, we hiked up Michelangelo Hill and watched as the sun set behind the mountains and all of Florence was illuminated below us. Katie was extremely fascinated with the bubbles (perhaps more than the view! kidding..) and it was wonderful to be back where I had spent my very first day in Florence. I knew it so much better now and looked out with much different perspectives and thoughts. We meandered home through the streets of Florence, made ourselves some gnocchi for dinner, watched "The Help" in bed, I finished up some last minute homework, Katie packed up her stuff, and we fell asleep talking as we had done every night we were roommates.

What a WONDERFUL weekend here in Florence! I am glad it was spent staying stationary and I am even more glad I got to share my current life with someone so dear to me. I wish I could send everyone here to visit me!!! It pains me that most people won't ever truly know what I am talking about or experiencing. I know I will be coming back to this city time and time again, so maybe you'll be the next lucky one to come with! Cross your fingers.

Here's to this next week of quiz's and volunteering and discovering more about Florence!

Arrivederci!

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

This past week has brought with it many more adventures and happy times. I would gander that the presence of actual sun and warmth made these adventures at least 80 times better. On Thursday of last week, my housemates and I even took a random walk in search of a tower we can see from one of our windows in the distance. We had just finished our first oral midterm (the written one was the day before) and I am happy to report that I did wonderfully! Italian level 1 is now officially under my belt and I still can't believe I just did an entire quarter's worth of a language in under one month! So anyways, we went off galavanting in the sun and I didn't even have to wear a coat!! It was magical and just feeling the sun beat down on our faces and actually raise our temperature a degree or two (something that I took SO far granted back home) felt unbelievably wonderful. What a difference something like the sun can make in life!

This last week was filled with many new things as well. On Wednesday I volunteered in an after school program which teachers children english. I got placed with the preschooler's and they are beyond adorable! There are only 6 of them total, but they sure are spunky! It is wonderful to be able to actually understand what they tell me in Italian! I have also noticed that I am quite good with getting them to repeat after me and learn english more (this having to do, I am sure, with the fact that I did that the entire summer!). The hour I was there flew by and afterwards I grabbed a coffee with Megan, the teacher of the class who is only 23. It was so nice to talk with her and I am excited to be volunteering every week! On Thursday night I had a coffee with my exchange partner Martina and we had a great conversation. I need to start using my Italian more, though! I can understand it quite well, but I just flub all over the place and end up using spanish more than Italian when I try to speak it!

Now for the fun part of the weekend! Thursday night some girls from our program threw a large "finals are over" party in their apartment. I had such a blast and it was great to see everyone in a different setting, rather that slaving over their desks and speaking in mangled italian to one another. I felt very comfortable and talked to so many people I hadn't had the chance to speak with yet. We ended up all going to two different dicoteca's that were filled with gross, old Italian men but we just all danced together and had one of my favorite nights so far. Friday was spent getting some homework done, cleaning, doing laundry, getting our masks for Carnival, finally eating at the Jersey Shore pizza place, visiting the chocolate festival for the last time, and resting up for the next day.

VENICE CARNIVALE HERE WE COME!!!!! I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning and happily got ready and had some breakfast. My apartment started off for our 35 minute walk to the bus meeting place at around 8:30am. By the time we got to the station, got checked in (they had my name as "Michela Ria"), and boarded the bus, it was almost 10am! We were stuck on the bus for almost an hour just waiting for everyone to arrive and do things I don't even know of. The buses finally departed and the 3 hour ride was spent with me trying to force my heavy eyes open and onto the amazing scenery we were passing by. I am sad to say that for at least 30 minutes of the ride my eyes failed me, but I still have lasting memories of the areas of intense snow, the small villages in the background, the wide open spaces, etc. Oh, by the way, we went to Venice with this travel program that we booked separately so many from our program did go but there were also a lot of people from just Florence in general. It was nice to see new faces.

We arrived in the actual city of Venice, after taking a disgustingly muggy train ride into the city, at around 2pm. I was ASTONISHED when I finally walked out onto the area right outside the train station. The first thing I noticed, of course, was the large canal (just like in the movies!!!). The second thing was the weather (it was sunny and warm!!!), the third thing was the amount of people (it was PACKED), and lastly was what the people were actually wearing. There were costumes galore! Halloween will never be the same for me. We started off as a rather large group but within minutes separated into smaller groups that were easier to control. It is so difficult traveling with a lot of people in such a crowded area especially because everyone wants to take pictures here and there and most people just move to the beat of their own drum. It became taxing constantly counting heads and wondering where so and so could be. We continued to just walk through random streets and over random bridges of the numerous canals. We were constantly passing by crowds of people decked out from head to toe in costumes, or at least in sparkly, colorful masks. Italians in general are very stylish and I thought it was awesome to see them so composed and still so stylish while dressed in these ridiculous outfits and masks. Anyone would feel comfortable here!

After aimlessly exploring and taking hundreds of pictures and oohing and aahing at the gondolas and adorable streets, we decided to follow the signs on many of the buildings leading us to "San Marco". We took very random side streets and most of the signs seemed to be haphazardly written on the corners of buildings, but we eventually made it to a small piazza we thought was San Marco. Here, there was a carousel, ice skating rink, balloons, food, literally a carnival! We were all in Heaven as we ate up our yummy treats and soon realized we hadn't even made it to San Marco! We continued our scavenger hunt and within minutes, knew why so many signs had been leading us this way. San Marco was PACKED!!!!!! We could barely move around and there were costumed people every which way you turned. I tried snapping my camera for a while but pretty soon I just gave up and enjoyed my surroundings. It was absolute chaos! But such wonderful chaos! We zig zagged through the crowd towards the sea ahead of us. It took a good half an hour to make it there (some girls insisted of getting pictures with every single costume they saw), but I was speechless when we finally reached our destination. A large sea (oh how I miss the ocean!!!) was spread out in front of us as the sun glimmered off the calm waters and the gondolas were made into silhouettes against the water. As I found my breathe again, we talked to the cuttle little men in striped shirts and hats who were giving the gondola tour. Their prices for a ride were much too expensive so my friends and I separated from the rest of the group in search of some smaller canals offering much cheaper rides. We eventually found just what we were looking for and we jumped into our gondola (super scary) with huge smiles plastered onto our faces.

The ride lasted around 30 minutes and it was just gorgeous. The sun was setting as we came out to the open sea and slithered through the smaller canals. My friend Meaghan had told me that she greatly regretted never riding a gondola, and I can sure see why! This was the highlight of my trip and a major item I can now check off of my bucketlist.

Side note: This city is EXTREMELY romantic! So I strongly suggest going with the person who holds your heart :)

Now that the sun was setting, the cold was taking its rightful place next to it. We put on our extra layer of clothing (we come prepared for the weather now) and found a place to eat some food and drink some wine. With the sun gone, the streets grew even more crowded and crazy. We meandered for a while in the streets, not having the slightest clue as to where we actually were, and suddenly my friend Christine started going ballistic and hugging a random stranger on the street! Turns out, it was her friend studying in Rome!!! What a small world! She had already been there for a day with her friends so she grabbed us by the hand and led us to a dance party she knew about. I followed the bright red, blue, pink, and yellow feathers and held on tightly to the hands of my friends as we made our way through the ever thickening crowds. We started to hear the thumping of music and before you know it, we were smack dab in the center of the largest outside dance party I had ever seen! The music was awesome (they always listen to American music here) and we danced for a good hour. Costumes upon costumes passed us by and we were constantly laughing, smiling, screaming, singing, and having the time of our life.

We sadly only had 2 hours left of our night so we decided to make our way back to San Marco and see what it was like at night there. We were disappointed when all we found was a surprisingly thin crowd listening to rather dull music. It was nice to be able to see our actual surroundings with less people around, but we soon sprinted back to t dance he party to move the night away. We had a little problem actually finding the place (the streets in Venice all look the same and each canal seems to lead somewhere entirely different) but we made it with 30 minutes to spare! We boogied away to the less great music (it was all techno, which the Italians seemed to LOVE but we hated) and very sadly exited the dance area. Before this, I had vin brule' (hot wine) for the first time and it tasted AMAZING!!! Just like apple cider :)

30 minutes and three wrong turns later, we made it back to the train station and finally saw some familiar faces. We followed the director of the program to the train and boarded with hundreds of other masked people. Here came the major downfall of the day. We were stuck on trains that were packed like sardines, hot and stuffy like summertime in New York, loud, obnoxious, and just horrendous. The train waited in this state for at least 30 minutes as people kept trying to cram on. When we finally left I couldn't thank anyone enough and by the time we arrived back to the bus, I was EXHAUSTED!

Another downfall: One girl in our program never got on the bus. We waited for an hour and no one had seen her or heard from her. We are treated like adults, though, so she did have the option of staying there if she wished. We finally left and I slept like a baby. When we arrived in Florence at 4am it was pouring so we all just got a cab back to our apartment.

I have never slept so well. I woke up at 1:30pm!! (something that very rarely happens to me)

Long, long story short: It turns out that girl that was "missing" was had decided to stay with a random guy, didnt have a phone, decided not to find a phone/internet to let anyone know, and came home this morning. She has a WONDERFUL time as everyone her was insanely worried and the police were even called.

Okay time to study. Another midterm this week!!! AH CRAZY BUSY LIFE!

But.......KATIE VISITS ME THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!! I am soooooooooooooo insanely excited and thrilled :D

Ciao!

"Home"

Quick recap of this week: oral presentation (in Italian) went much better than expected, went to an apperativo with my language partner Martina and her friends (it was SO fun and I feel like I am getting more and more immersed), had my first meeting for volunteering teaching children english, and spent two hours learning Italian hand gestures in my Italian class!

What was almost a blog entry about my amazing time in Rome, will now be a blog entry about good ol' Florence! This weekend I had decided last minute to go with my housemates to Rome! Unfortunately, after we had already booked a hostel and bought our train tickets (of course), we were warned by our teacher's and program directors that the coming weekend was going to bring a LOT of snow and dangerous travel conditions. I discussed it with my roommate, Anna, and we decided to opt out of this trip and pay $15 for canceling our hostel instead of possibly getting stuck in Rome and most likely not being able to see things like the colosseum and the forum. New plan: spend the weekend in our city of Florence!

I was honestly quite happy with this decision because after going to Paris last weekend, I was pooped! I needed time to just take it easy and rest. And that's pretty much exactly what I did! Anna and I were the only one's in our house this weekend (our roommate Tinn actually left the program and went back home, we were all shocked to hear this!) but it was such a nice time! On Thursday after class we came home and wrote out an entire grocery list for our long night ahead of finally cooking! Menu for the evening (I sort of cheated and made the exact same things Alessandro had made when he visited): Ragu alla Bolognese, Bread with marscapone cheese and salmon, and tiramisu for dessert! We bundled up and went to the largest grocery store I have seen thus far! It blew my mind, I honestly didn't think they existed in Italy! Everything was so much cheaper and better quality, just like at home! Hallelujah! We stocked up on all the necessary ingredients and lugged our heavy bags on our 15 minute walk back to our apartment. The rest of the night we stayed in cooking (the tiramisu gave us the most grief when we had to manually beat the egg whites) and had a jolly time talking with Tinn before she was to leave. What an interesting girl.

Friday Anna and I pretty much stayed in our nice, warm apartment while snow was lightly falling outside. We watched a few movies I had never seen before, got a few more groceries for the week, and just relaxed and talked. Some maintenance guys FINALLY came and fixed our heating in the house and finally the heating for our water. Three days with no hot water has made us so much more thankful for little things you constantly take for granted. Our original plan of climbing to the top of the Duomo was quickly put on hold just be taking one look out the window.

Saturday was a bit more exciting than the previous day. We got up a decent time and finally visited the Uffizi Museum! There are such famous paintings here, The Birth of Venus by Botticelli for example, and it was amazing to walk through these grand rooms and be so close to works of art I constantly see on stationary or in textbooks. Museum make me immediately tired, though. How on earth did I ever step foot into one when I was a child?? On our way back to warmth, we came upon a rather large CHOCOLATE festival!!! We went a bit crazy as the smells of everything chocolate filled our nostrils and made our mouths water in anticipation. I finally decided to spend my money on a fruit kebab dipped in milk chocolate. SO. YUMMY. I was in absolute heaven while I munched on this piece of paradise. Not even the cold could steal my thoughts! Anna, the healthy one, got a little piece of dried fruit dapped in white chocolate. We made it home to our now warm apartment and I put on a few more layers and walked over to my favorite cafe, La Cite. This place is to die for! Almost all locals go here and the atmosphere is so welcoming. There are two stories and there are people of all ages doing anything from studying, to dancing, to just talking and drinking coffee. I feel so Italian in here! I met up with a girl I had met earlier in the week who is Italian and, luckily, has pretty good english. I helped her out with a school project and had to sadly scidaddle to get ready for the Opera, "Carmen"!

After cooking some dinner (correction after Adrian cooked us some dinner), we got ready in our semi-fancy attire and walked the quick 5 minutes to an old church, St. Marks. The venue was very small, but so intimate and you got to be extremely close to the singers. It was magical!!! I absolutely loved the experience and it still baffles me that people can make their voices do such things!

Today, Sunday, Anna and I got up early to head up the mountain (on a bus) to Fiesole! There was to be another chocolate festival up there, so we braced the cold temperatures and snow to get some more yummy goodness! After the walking and the bus ride, we sadly realized there was no longer a festival because of the snow. We were crushed as we waited in the windy snow for the bus to come back and take us to safety. To make up for our loss, we went back to the chocolate festival in Florence and got some more chocolate :) Our roommates are now back and our house feels whole again!

I love it SO much in Italy. Every day I spend here is another day I want to live here longer and longer. I honestly could see myself living here one day. The people are just so genuine and they aren't scared to show emotion. I love that they don't hold back and immediately form close friendships. It's honestly such a simpler way of living and it has gotten hold of me.

Ciao!

A little extra

Here is a video from my italian class about 2 weeks ago!

Enjoy!

And here is the blog of my class: http://ucflorencel1francescaspring2012.blogspot.com/ (it's all in Italian, so good luck!)

Parigi

Deep breath before I dig into this blog entry. Okay, here we go! This past weekend I was in the amazing, wonderful, breath-taking, rather large, and freezing Paris! It was a trip we booked a few weeks ago and I can't believe it has now already come and went. Time goes so fast here. I feel as if I barely have time to pause and think or take anything in. My worry is I am going to come home and feel as if I never left. As if I am still waiting for the trip to happen.

Thursday I had class until 12:30 and then rushed home, packed my super tiny backpack to the brim with the warmest clothes possible, and headed to the train station. I met up with most of our group and we boarded an hour long bus to Pisa. We got there a little too early (3 hours to be exact) but we passed the time playing silly games (animal game, anyone?). We boarded our Ryanair flight and my flying jitters boarded the plane with me. These girls are so sweet, though, and I had two hands to hold as we took off, were in the air for only 1 hour and 15 minutes, and then landed at the Paris Beauvais airport. I got a kick out of Ryanair. They give you absolutely nothing for free and are constantly airing commercials, selling things like smokeless cigarettes, and pretty much trying to squeeze any extra bit of change out of you. From this airport we had to take ANOTHER hour long bus to the actual city of Paris. And after this we took the metro for 40 minutes to our stop, then had to walk another 20 minutes to the actual hotel. In the end, we had been traveling for about 10 hours!!!! TOO MUCH. We all marveled at our amazing and FREE hotel and then cuddled up in bed and conked out.

We woke up about 2 hours later than originally planned, what do you expect from a group college students sleeping in down comforters, and then had our first free breakfast of the trip. It was divine!!! Croissants (chocolate, plain, with jam, nutella, peanut butter, you name it), baguettes, cheeses, meats, fruits, yogurts, cereals, juices, pancakes, crepes, eggs, etc etc. We were all in absolute Heaven as we devoured plates and plates of this food. We waddled back to the room, grabbed our stuff for the day, and did our usual metro ride to the city. We saw the Eiffel Tower first and it was even more mind-blowing than I had prepared myself for. The color was different than I expected, it was more brown, and there was intricate detail on the metal which I had never thought of. The size was.....no words. We took hundreds of pictures of this beautiful thing every 5 steps and could literally not get enough of it. Another world-famous monument to check off my list!

Next stop: the Arc de Triomph! We decided to walk everywhere this day (I think small Florence deceived us to believe we could walk any city in one day....) and eventually we made it to the long street of fancy shops leading to the Arc. We strolled along and had world-famous macaroons from Laduree (worlds can't describe how tasty they were. My personal favorite flavor was flower petal), came upon grand buildings that we still don't know what they were, passed fancy car dealerships, a castle aka Abercrombie and Fitch, and many more shops. The Arc greeted us at the end of this long and exciting road and again, I felt like I was in a movie. We had to take a tunnel underground to get to the center of the Arc, but seeing it so up close was mind blowing. The details!! This is something pictures can never do justice.

Side note: the architecture in this city was my favorite. The perfect word for it is: classy. Elegant. Beautiful. Grand. Delicate.

Anyways, after the Arc we headed back along the same road towards a huge, lit up carousel. Ever so slowly, the temperature started to drop as the sun lowered in the sky. By the time we reached the carousal and the amazingly gorgeous park next to it, the sunset was in full bloom. The Eiffel was in the distance sparkling and the colors were magnificent. What a site! This view had part of my attention, but about 98% of my brain and body was thinking of the cold at this point. IT WAS FREEZING!!!!!! Nothing could prepare me for these temperatures. And then the wind came. And we still had to walk through the once gorgeous park to the Louvre. And we were starving. And we had to wait for 2 girls to meet up with us. Let's just say people were showing their true colors. I look back and laugh at it now, but during this moment we were all beyond miserable. When the friends finally met us, we had a very expensive dinner and FINALLY headed to the Louvre where it was free admission for students under 26.

I am not an art person. Honestly, I still don't quite understand what makes certain paintings or sculptures so amazing and famous compared to all the others I see next to them. But every single thing I was looking at in this museum was famous, had a crazy history, and it just blew my mind. The museum was MUCH too big and we had way too little time there, but we saw the important things (ie the Mona Lisa) and even saw an AWESOME mummy exhibit. I wish I could have someone next to me at all times that could explain to me the history and stories of everything I was looking at. After the Louvre we made the long trek back to the hotel and, once again, passed out cold.

Day 2: ah I am writing so much, yet again! Today's morning was a repeat of the previous. We started at the jardin du luxembourg where the vast trees, fountains, and castles captured our attention. The cold snuck in, too. These places are just so open that there is no protection from the gusty wind. After meandering in the garden for a while, we headed to the highest point in Paris, a church called Saint Pierre de Montmartre. This was perhaps my favorite part of the trip because we had to climb through the narrow, and very local and cute, streets of Paris to get to the final destination. We passed by so many adorable, classic French stores and areas with painters and just French people! I loved the authenticity of it all. At the church, the views were breathtaking and the church itself was larger than life. The Pope even visited it once!

Highlight of this part: Our friend Jazmine getting "pick-pocketed". If you know my aunt Jojo, think of her in a smaller and a little less scary form. Anyways, we were leaving the church and getting onto this tram thing. I passed through the entrance thing right before Jazmine but when I turned around there was a lady shoving a clipboard in her face. Within seconds 5 more were around her, grabbing her, and yelling. Jazmine pushed through them with a look of disgust on her face but our friend who was living in Paris told her to check her bags. Lo and behold, her wallet was gone! Upon seeing it was gone, Jazmine YELLED, "OH F*** NO!!!" She crawled back under the entrance and was about to chase the gypsies but luckily they dropped the wallet! Not many people can scare gypsies. Jazmine sure can :)

After this we walked along the Seine to our next destination: Notre Dame. The walk wasn't as cold as we had feared and we passed by street vendors, and bridges adorned with "love locks". Such a romantic city this is! The Notre Dame was also AMAZING and soooooooo grand. I could definitely see quazimoto living there. We took our time in this warm haven and once we exited we headed to a more local place to eat. The girls we had met up with took us to their favorite, and cheap, place to eat where we had 3 courses for only 9 euro! It was so nice to relax and enjoy the food, wine, and company. After vintage shopping for a bit, we took the metro back to the hotel as complete zombies.

Last day: I opened the window to let the sun in and....was met but a winter wonderland!! I literally screamed and everyone followed suit. We had not expected it to snow, at all!!! We went through a minor freak out over our flight possibly being cancelled but soon we were reassured and we packed up our stuff, filled up our bodies with the yummy food (we even took some to go for later), checked out, and ventured out into the white world. Surprisingly, the snow seemed to make the outside air seem WARMER. I was borderline frolicking in it before we reached the metro. In the city the snow had left a thin layer of white along every surface, painting Paris in a much different picture from the rest of the weekend. It was magical.

We saw the Eiffel Tower again (we unfortunately couldn't climb up it like we had planned because the stairs were too icy) from two vantage points and then re-boarded our bus to the airport. The entire traveling plan was repeated and 6 hours later we were back in Firenze. Home sweet home!!!

I honestly missed Florence, and Italy in general, throughout this trip. Italy was definitely the right decision for my choice of living. Who knows, maybe I'll live here one day....

Sorry this was such a long entry! There is just much too much to say! And I even skimmed over some things!

Ciao!

Let's go play! I mean...work

This post won't be too long (sigh of relief) because I am currently in the computer room at my school, after finishing my first Italian test! I think I did alright...some things in this language are just so freaking tricky!

This past week was wonderful, as expected. The week started off with a class meeting at a bus stop. My tiny little class consisting of only 12 people total met at a crazy piazza, with buses zooming all around us and fast-paced Italians giving us nasty looks as we stopped traffic trying to find our teacher. We finally spotter her bright red hat and rushed over to her safety. She handed us all our bus passes and we waited for #10! As it rounded the corner, I got so excited because this would be my first bus trip within the city. This sounds like NOTHING to get excited about, I know, but everything here is just so new and different. We validated our tickets upon entering the bus from the MIDDLE (if you don't validate your ticket you can be fined up to 200 euros, and if you don't enter in the middle, you are pummeled by exiting Italians) and held onto the handles for dear life. I say dear life because these bus drivers are just like all the other drivers of vehicles in the city, INSANE! I felt like I was on "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" as I catapulted from one side of the bus to the other. The driver would zoom through these very narrow streets and then leave 2 seconds to stop, almost always stopping just inches away from the car/bus/vespa in front of him.

After a 20 minute ride outside of the city, we arrived in the town of Fiesole! We were just on the outskirts of the town, so there wasn't much to see, but it was still vastly different from the city of Florence. There were rolling hills and trees and castles in the background and vineyards and just nature. I felt I could breathe easier. Our teacher led us to the nearby field and we all plopped down on our towels and began to share stories from Boccaccio's "Decameron".

Side note: I am getting much better at participating in class! Maybe because there are so few people, or maybe because I am finally just getting over it, but I am not so scared to talk and share with other students!

Anyways, our class few by in the blink of an eye and after we took a slight detour along a very narrow, tree-lined road to see the "House of Bo", we re-boarded the buses and made our way back into the city. I have never in my life had a class like that, and it is something I will always remember. I feel soooooooooooo privileged! Story of my life.

Next big thing that happened this week: IT SNOWED!!!!!!!!! I am from California. I have never lived in the snow. Let me be excited :)

I was anticipating the snow all day, and when the flakes finally started to make their way down, I was ecstatic. My housemates didn't quite understand my enthusiasm, but I nonetheless dragged them downstairs and into the flurry. We had a mini adventure and found some gelato after walking around our neighborhood for a while. After we got gelato it was REALLY coming down and I couldn't help but smile. I didn't feel the cold or the wet, all I felt was the light snow coming down all around me. It enveloped me in happiness and I went to bed extremely content.

I woke up the next morning to a winter wonderland and as I skipped to school, I thanked my lucky stars over and over again. By the time school ended, though, the snow had melted :( At least I got one good day of it!

Okay time to go back to class, but as I speak it is snowing again! I'll go run downstairs and play in it for a while!

Ciao!

Oh, by the way, I go to Paris in like 6 hours!!!! I AM SO EXCITED! Please pray and cross your fingers that it doesn't snow too much, or else our flight will be cancelled and I might be stuck there (but would that really be the worst thing?)