An Afternoon in Firenze!

Today I had my Italian midterm. It was cumulative, so it was a lot of info to know for the test, but I actually think I did well on it! It is such a relief to finally have that one along with Sociology out of the way!

After that, I went to lunch with my mom and we had great food, which included cheese from sheep's milk, or pecorino. Then we went to the open air markets where my roommate Laura met up with us. We got great gifts for people, sorry I can't list them!!!! Then we went to this little store that had the most gorgeous handmade pastas. Some were striped and these incredible shapes. Then there were the more.....inappropriate kind. There are over 300 different types of pasta!!! Laura and i both got these purple Firenze shirts on them with the fleur de leil (spelling???) on them.

We ended up just wandering around and had a blast! Then Laura and I walked back. We stopped at McDonald's to see if she had left her jacket there the other night and then decided to go ahead and get fries and cokes. Now I'm watching Mean Girls in my room!

I'm going to talk about my favorite trip so far! We went to Sorrento, Amalfi, Capri and Pompeii one weekend. In Sorrento we stayed on a campsite in these cabins. My bed was in the kitchen! Then we went to Amalfi for the day, which was beautiful! I went on a hike through some lemon groves. Did you know that most of the world's lemon supply comes from this region? They have tons of limoncello there, which I ended up not liking very much. Too syrupy for me. But the hike consisted of a section call the Trail of a Thousand Steps. Someone counted and apparently it was more than one thousand steps. We were going down hill at that point, but after hours of going up hill and up steps, I was exhausted! It was so nice though! We do tons of walking in Florence and in Europe in general, but I enjoyed the change of pace. 

The next day we went to my favorite city of the trip: Capri! We took a ferry to get there, since it's an island. The ferry had airplane seats on it, which I thought was strange. We got there and took this tram-like thing up to one town. It was an incredible view, but the day just kept getting better! We then took a bus up to another town where there was a store than made custom sandals! You could chose whichever strap style you wanted and then choose the color of leather you wanted! With mine, there is a strap that goes over my big toe, and he measured exactly where the strap should go, so it is a perfect fit! Then we took a single person chair lift up to the top of the

highest mountain on the island. This was one of the coolest things I've ever done! The view was amazing. After coming back down, we went to the famous Blue Grotto. We squished into this little boat (about the size of a canoe) and then had to duck down so our heads were in the boat in order to go into the small opening that led into the Grotto. Inside, the water was incredible! The sun lit it up so it was this breath-taking blue! I bribed my boat guy to let me swim in the FREEZING water, but I loved it! From there we went and jumped off these large rocks or cliffs or whatever. I don't always do daredevil stuff, but it was a blast! Capri was my favorite city of the entire weekend!

Pompeii was gorgeous, but depressing. It's fascinating how well preserved everything is due to being covered for hundreds of years. The casts of the bodies were disturbing, but interesting. I got to see the Pompeian style of wall paintings, which i study in my art history classes!

OK, again, sorry for the long entry! I'm trying to catch everyone up!!! The first picture is from one of the highest points of our hike in Amalfi. We hiked all the way from that shoreline below up to the point from which the picture is being taken. The second photo is of the inside of the Blue Grotto. GORGEOUS!! The third is of the Capri coastline as seen from my chair lift up the mountain. The last photo is me in front of the Capri coastline once we reached the top of the mountain!

Ciao!!

Trial and Error

I sit here, sipping my Spumante (sparkling wine), having just finished my Sociology midterm. I decided that instead of sending out mass emails to family members (which I have yet to do) and my sorority sisters (I know it clogs their inboxes!) I would try a blog! My roommate in Italy, Laura, writes in her blog almost daily and so I thought I'd give it a go!

My mom is in town right now, which is so muc

h fun! I didn't realize how much I missed home until I saw her big smile as she waited for me in the Rome hotel. I was 2 hours late because I got on the wrong train. We had a blast in Rome for the weekend, but it's such a huge city that we were both exhausted! I'm so happy to be able to use my Italian to show off for my mom! I'm pretty good at Italian because languages are something I've always had a knack for. She and I have been spending a lot of time together, mostly shopping and eating, both of which are accompanied by good conversation. She is really bringing some things to light that I never knew or never realized. We have a very strong relationship, for which I am thankful.

I came to Italy having saved up money for the following 5 things: 1. a p

air of leather boots 2. nice gold jewelry from the Ponte Vecchio 3. a leather biker jacket 4. a leather purse and 5. weekend travel. So far, that money has covered 4 of those 5 and I have been very good about getting my moneys worth and finding a bargain without sacrificing quality. The only thing left is an Italian leather purse, which I can find cheap in the markets of San Lorenzo. 

So far I have travelled to the following places since I left in September: Berlin, Krakow, Prague, Rome, Southern Tuscany, and The Amalfi coast (Amalfi, Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii

). In my last 7.5 weeks abroad I have the following trips planned: Rome (with my art history class), Spain (to visit Lindsay from my sorority!), Denmark (to visit Rachel from my sorority!), Amsterdam (with my history class and most of the program) and maybe some day trips when my dad visits for Thanksgiving. I am so lucky and fortunate to have been given such amazing opportunities. For some people, my roommate included, this is their first time to Europe. This is my fourth time to Europe and I am loving every minute of it!

I do get homesick, especially when I think about missing my usual Thanksgiving routine with my family and missing out of most of Rush with my sorority and missing Barnett, but overall, I made a conscious decision not to waste my time missing home too much because I am only here for a limited amount of time. The rest of my life (more or less) I w

ill be near or in a similar time zone to the people I miss currently. This is a great growing experience for me. I am a very independent women (sometimes too independent) but I have learned a new sense of the word with my travelling alone and coming into a program only knowing one person and not even very well. Some people enjoy being around people most of the time, but anyone who knows me well can tell you that I cherish every ounce of alone time I can manage. I sometimes just leave my pensione (budget hotel where

 I live) for hours just to do whatever. I love it!

Ok, I promise no other entries will be quite this long, but I felt the need to update on various aspects of my experience so that my future posts can be more centralized on one topic. Above left is the Duomo, for which Florence is known. I see this pretty much every day. Below is a picture from Krakow. It's random, I know, but gorgeous!

Ciao!