Ciao :)
So, leaving off from my last post, my boyfriend came to visit and while he was there I packed for 2 more trips. I packed for the beach- South Padre Island which we stay at for a week every year with my aunt and uncle- we rent a condo and it's wonderful. And then I packed for summer school. I have to take 2 classes this summer: british literature and jewelry making/ metalsmith.
We just came back from the beach, we had a wonderful time. I am now currently in waco, about to unpack my things for the 4 weeks of summer school I have here. In July, will then continue working in my store that I have been working at, and then in August I begin my final semester at baylor :) and then, who knows? Maybe an internship back in italy? :) we'll have to wait and see!
xoxo
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
This is the end....
Ciao :(
I'm so sad that study abroad is over! Gosh, I have learned so many things in my 4 months away!!!! Well first things first, I'll talk about my last few days.
-Lots of gelato was consumed, we went to our favorite little hangouts, my roommates and I took lots of pictures together, and there was some tears. But we were all excited to go home honestly, we missed simple things like hearing english spoken everywhere. So after we checked out of our apartment on the last day, Taylor left first to the airport and she made it home first. Maggie left second, she ran to the train station to catch a train to Milan to meet up with a family friend until her family met up with her. They traveled around for another week. And Ashton and I left at about the same time, her brother and her stayed with her grandparents until her parents got there, and they also travelled around for another week.
I had to transfer my bags to a hotel room for the night, because my flight was the next morning. I spent the day walking around, eating lots of my favorite food I knew I wouldn't get again, and watching ALL my friends back home graduate. I watched all 3 ceremonies. I found the rose garden by Piazzale Michelangelo and stayed there for a while- it was beautiful. Walked the beautiful streets of florence while I shopped for last minute souvenirs that wouldn't be able to fit in my suitcase but I made them fit. I had dinner alone at one of my favorite restaurants and tried not to think of how much I was going to miss that place.
I took a taxi ride early in the morning to the airport where I was put on an earlier flight to Paris. The paris airport is amazing :) I had a 5 hour layover there, then the 9 hour flight over the atlantic. I finally landed in Atlanta, and the line for customs was so long, it made me miss my connecting flight to dallas by 10 minutes. So I had to be put on the standby list for the next one. But praise God that I got the last seat on the flight by flying standby, and I made it home after about 18 hours of straight traveling. My luggage arrived before me, but my lovely parents got it before I landed. Finally was back in the states and it felt so good :)
Thats all for now
I'm so sad that study abroad is over! Gosh, I have learned so many things in my 4 months away!!!! Well first things first, I'll talk about my last few days.
-Lots of gelato was consumed, we went to our favorite little hangouts, my roommates and I took lots of pictures together, and there was some tears. But we were all excited to go home honestly, we missed simple things like hearing english spoken everywhere. So after we checked out of our apartment on the last day, Taylor left first to the airport and she made it home first. Maggie left second, she ran to the train station to catch a train to Milan to meet up with a family friend until her family met up with her. They traveled around for another week. And Ashton and I left at about the same time, her brother and her stayed with her grandparents until her parents got there, and they also travelled around for another week.
I had to transfer my bags to a hotel room for the night, because my flight was the next morning. I spent the day walking around, eating lots of my favorite food I knew I wouldn't get again, and watching ALL my friends back home graduate. I watched all 3 ceremonies. I found the rose garden by Piazzale Michelangelo and stayed there for a while- it was beautiful. Walked the beautiful streets of florence while I shopped for last minute souvenirs that wouldn't be able to fit in my suitcase but I made them fit. I had dinner alone at one of my favorite restaurants and tried not to think of how much I was going to miss that place.
I took a taxi ride early in the morning to the airport where I was put on an earlier flight to Paris. The paris airport is amazing :) I had a 5 hour layover there, then the 9 hour flight over the atlantic. I finally landed in Atlanta, and the line for customs was so long, it made me miss my connecting flight to dallas by 10 minutes. So I had to be put on the standby list for the next one. But praise God that I got the last seat on the flight by flying standby, and I made it home after about 18 hours of straight traveling. My luggage arrived before me, but my lovely parents got it before I landed. Finally was back in the states and it felt so good :)
Thats all for now
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Day trip to Lucca | Aperitivo | Day trip to Pisa
Ciao :)
-This has been the time of the day trips lately. Because we don't want to pay for hostels or B&B's, we just have been traveling around seeing little cities nearby for the day. Luckily we all figured out how to navigate the train system and we just take a train.
-May 6 Lucca
I went with a classmate from my architecture class to this city for making up the field trip we had missed the weekend before (I was in london and she and been somewhere else also and we had booked those before we knew the date of the class field trip). So we just went there, saw some churches and other architectural sites that the class saw. Got some food, and just walked around! It was a nice little trip, a beautiful city very small but cute. They call the architecture Pisian, which means derived from the architecture found in Pisa, which was good because the next weekend i went to pisa and got to see the similarities.
-May 7 Aperitivo
Our school has a cooking school in it also, which they put on an aperitivo every week. Basically appetizers and drinks made by the kids in the cooking school. It's all really good stuff, authentic Italian food and things Italians would eat at aperitivo. This is a very commonplace thing, done before dinner frequently. We later went out to dinner, and went to a place to dance. It was all very fun, and I had never done any of it before, so that was a fun thing to do with all my roommates and their friends right before finals were going to start.
-May 9 Pisa
We went for the leaning tower pictures of course :) small little city but so fun! Lots of adorable little shops, and actually some high end stuff. The leaning tower is beautiful, so gorgeous. As is the cathedral and the baptistry which are all right by it. and it really was similar to the architecture in Lucca, must have been by the same architect or a pupil. Last day trip we were able to do :/ bittersweet it all came to an end so fast! The next week was finals week.
Ciao
-This has been the time of the day trips lately. Because we don't want to pay for hostels or B&B's, we just have been traveling around seeing little cities nearby for the day. Luckily we all figured out how to navigate the train system and we just take a train.
-May 6 Lucca
I went with a classmate from my architecture class to this city for making up the field trip we had missed the weekend before (I was in london and she and been somewhere else also and we had booked those before we knew the date of the class field trip). So we just went there, saw some churches and other architectural sites that the class saw. Got some food, and just walked around! It was a nice little trip, a beautiful city very small but cute. They call the architecture Pisian, which means derived from the architecture found in Pisa, which was good because the next weekend i went to pisa and got to see the similarities.
-May 7 Aperitivo
Our school has a cooking school in it also, which they put on an aperitivo every week. Basically appetizers and drinks made by the kids in the cooking school. It's all really good stuff, authentic Italian food and things Italians would eat at aperitivo. This is a very commonplace thing, done before dinner frequently. We later went out to dinner, and went to a place to dance. It was all very fun, and I had never done any of it before, so that was a fun thing to do with all my roommates and their friends right before finals were going to start.
-May 9 Pisa
We went for the leaning tower pictures of course :) small little city but so fun! Lots of adorable little shops, and actually some high end stuff. The leaning tower is beautiful, so gorgeous. As is the cathedral and the baptistry which are all right by it. and it really was similar to the architecture in Lucca, must have been by the same architect or a pupil. Last day trip we were able to do :/ bittersweet it all came to an end so fast! The next week was finals week.
Ciao
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
London calling!!!!!
May 1-3
-Sorry this is late! Busy busy.
-This was our last roomie trip together so we wanted to do something big. We tried to do Budapest and Prague but it was hard to get there from italy. So next choice was London, because none of us had been there. We took an early bus to Pisa where we flew on an airline called Ryanair- because they are so cheap they don't fly into many large airports but hey, we were going to London so we didn't care :) Finally got to London in a few hours to Stansted airport, where we had to take another hour bus ride to the city center, where we took a double decker bus to a stop near our hostel (finally! It was basically a whole day of traveling).
-We walked around, and saw we were right by king's cross station which happens to be a tube stop, so we bought oyster cards (reloadable cards you put money on to ride the tube) and we went to see some stuff straight off! Saw Big ben, the London eye at night, thames river, telephone booths, we went to starbucks, randomly saw a spanish culture festival where there was live music, food, and other cool stuff. We got dinner in a place recommended to me by some friends that had gone a few weekends prior to us- I had curry which was delicious! We later went to a pub for a drink (!!!) And then crashed in our beds. Our hostel wasn't bad, 4 to a room (so luckily we didn't have strangers) and we shared a bathroom with the hall- so basically freshman year of college communal bathrooms. They were a little strange, because in one stall there was a sink, shower and toilet in that order, separated by curtains haha. But hey, they made the small space work, and it was fine for two nights.
-Next day we got up super early to get our picture at the Harry Potter platform 9 3/4 setup inside King's cross station-- we were first in line, actually there was no line up yet heh heh we beat everybody by getting up at 6 am :) then we ran around all day long! saw the harry potter gift shop, parliament, shakespeare globe theatre, a cool vintage bookmarket underneath the waterloo bridge, an ethnic food festival was going on by shakespeare's theatre so we had lunch there (I had a moo pie which was essentially a meat pie), and kept going and occasionally taking the tube to get us around. The tube is wonderful and very easy to navigate. It was wonderful. we saw tower bridge, london bridge, took cute pictures by the phone booths, st paul's cathedral, westminster, buckingham palace (actually we went there the DAY the princess Charlotte was born :) how cool are we???) Trafalgar square, and we actually found Abbey Road out in westminster and we did the picture in the crosswalk :) we also had afternoon tea in a little teahouse, because that's what you have to do.
-We had dinner in a pub (I got fish and chips of course, what else) and almost everything was going so well, until at dinner my roommate had her purse stolen. So unfortunate and soooo scary- luckily she had her passport, our plane tickets and cellphone back at the hostel. She cancelled her cards and lost some money, but it could have been way worse.
-We had to leave at 3 am, which sucked, because we had to taxi to the bus station, then bus to the airport, go through customs, and then board our flight to a city called Perugia in italy. Then we took a train from Perugia to Florence where we all happily arrived. We were excited with the fun weekend, the things we saw and with our souvenirs we got, but still freaked out from the purse-stealing situation and drained from all the traveling... and yet we all had homework due next day haha. So homework sucked but hey, we spent the weekend in London :) it wasn't perfect, but I was able to do it with my friends and it was awesome.
Ciao for now
-Sorry this is late! Busy busy.
-This was our last roomie trip together so we wanted to do something big. We tried to do Budapest and Prague but it was hard to get there from italy. So next choice was London, because none of us had been there. We took an early bus to Pisa where we flew on an airline called Ryanair- because they are so cheap they don't fly into many large airports but hey, we were going to London so we didn't care :) Finally got to London in a few hours to Stansted airport, where we had to take another hour bus ride to the city center, where we took a double decker bus to a stop near our hostel (finally! It was basically a whole day of traveling).
-We walked around, and saw we were right by king's cross station which happens to be a tube stop, so we bought oyster cards (reloadable cards you put money on to ride the tube) and we went to see some stuff straight off! Saw Big ben, the London eye at night, thames river, telephone booths, we went to starbucks, randomly saw a spanish culture festival where there was live music, food, and other cool stuff. We got dinner in a place recommended to me by some friends that had gone a few weekends prior to us- I had curry which was delicious! We later went to a pub for a drink (!!!) And then crashed in our beds. Our hostel wasn't bad, 4 to a room (so luckily we didn't have strangers) and we shared a bathroom with the hall- so basically freshman year of college communal bathrooms. They were a little strange, because in one stall there was a sink, shower and toilet in that order, separated by curtains haha. But hey, they made the small space work, and it was fine for two nights.
-Next day we got up super early to get our picture at the Harry Potter platform 9 3/4 setup inside King's cross station-- we were first in line, actually there was no line up yet heh heh we beat everybody by getting up at 6 am :) then we ran around all day long! saw the harry potter gift shop, parliament, shakespeare globe theatre, a cool vintage bookmarket underneath the waterloo bridge, an ethnic food festival was going on by shakespeare's theatre so we had lunch there (I had a moo pie which was essentially a meat pie), and kept going and occasionally taking the tube to get us around. The tube is wonderful and very easy to navigate. It was wonderful. we saw tower bridge, london bridge, took cute pictures by the phone booths, st paul's cathedral, westminster, buckingham palace (actually we went there the DAY the princess Charlotte was born :) how cool are we???) Trafalgar square, and we actually found Abbey Road out in westminster and we did the picture in the crosswalk :) we also had afternoon tea in a little teahouse, because that's what you have to do.
-We had dinner in a pub (I got fish and chips of course, what else) and almost everything was going so well, until at dinner my roommate had her purse stolen. So unfortunate and soooo scary- luckily she had her passport, our plane tickets and cellphone back at the hostel. She cancelled her cards and lost some money, but it could have been way worse.
-We had to leave at 3 am, which sucked, because we had to taxi to the bus station, then bus to the airport, go through customs, and then board our flight to a city called Perugia in italy. Then we took a train from Perugia to Florence where we all happily arrived. We were excited with the fun weekend, the things we saw and with our souvenirs we got, but still freaked out from the purse-stealing situation and drained from all the traveling... and yet we all had homework due next day haha. So homework sucked but hey, we spent the weekend in London :) it wasn't perfect, but I was able to do it with my friends and it was awesome.
Ciao for now
Monday, May 4, 2015
Florence cultural events
Buona giornata ragazzi! Sorry this is so late.
I can't even express to you how cultural of a city florence is. I just love it! I can walk down the street and see a painter, or a sidewalk artist drawing a Botticelli with pastels, or a violin player playing excerpts from Vivaldi or from famous operas. They embrace culture here, and they live it. They implement it in daily life, and they let it thrive out in the open for everyone to enjoy. It's not confined in just a museum or just a historical building. They put on events all the time, not just once a year. For example, I did three really cool city events in one day! Thursday April 30th. Things like this go on all the time, and since three somehow lined up all on the same day, I decided to do them all. I LOVE FLORENCE.
-The first cool thing I did was an annual artisan Festival at a place away from the city center called Fortezza da Basso. Literally translated means fort, and when you see it you can tell this is a really old fortification used for war and probably all sorts of other things, but now it is used for large conventions like this. A huge area of building after building, all filled with stuff. Some are food places, one huge area is dedicated to clothing makers and jewelry makers, another is all beauty products, another is all horticulture and plants, another is ceramic pieces, and one huge building in the center was like the world craft fair or something like that. I kid you not, this building is massive. Three floors that spans for ever and ever. I got lost on every single floor! The ground floor was all local italian artisans that produced everything you could possibly want ranging from knickknacks to flowers, to garments to food. The bottom level was the world artisan area- artisans from all over the world, and each section of this floor was separated by country!!!! Crazy! India, lots of countries in Africa indonesia, china, south america, spain, japan, korea, germany, just country after country with clothes, pottery, art, jewelry, just amazing beautiful things. And finally the top floor-- all food. Nothing but food. From any country you could think of! Again segmented by the specific country. So you had crepe makers near france, meats near germany, kebaps near Turkey, meats and cheeses I'd never even heard of, just everywhere. It was literally amazing. I would go back next year for that event.
-The second thing I did was go to a gelato festival up at piazzale michelangiolo. How cool is that??? I went with my roommates and it was awesome! Multiple gelato trucks! And for 7 euro you could get a ticket that got you 6 different kinds of gelato. Kind of large cups too! I think I only ate 5 heh heh. But there was all kinds of delicious flavors, I unfortunately don't remember specifically what kinds besides nutella which was delicious of course.
-My roommates and I also did a bookmaking workshop through school. That was so fun too! The class was taught by a local bookbinder, and they supplied everything for us. The paper, the awls, covers and thread. We got to design our own pattern we wanted on the spine, and then you punch all the holes in the pages, and thread! It was surprisingly simple. And fun :) we all got a really cool souvenir to take home.
-The last one was finally that night. Called Notte Bianca, which means white night. The city basically stays up until 4 am with live music everywhere, artists, restaurants open, shops open, and all sorts of stuff going on. They hand out program guides that are connected to a map, so that you can see what is going on where, at what time, and how to get there. There was about 50 events total! So many, it was nuts. My friend and I just walked around and happened to run into some random music groups (italian heavy metal?), jazz, rock, string violin quartet, and other cool things. We also found some cool street artists doing stuff. Very cool! We didn't want to stay out too late with just the two of us, or else we would have stayed later to see more events. But this was a really cool event :)
Ciao!
I can't even express to you how cultural of a city florence is. I just love it! I can walk down the street and see a painter, or a sidewalk artist drawing a Botticelli with pastels, or a violin player playing excerpts from Vivaldi or from famous operas. They embrace culture here, and they live it. They implement it in daily life, and they let it thrive out in the open for everyone to enjoy. It's not confined in just a museum or just a historical building. They put on events all the time, not just once a year. For example, I did three really cool city events in one day! Thursday April 30th. Things like this go on all the time, and since three somehow lined up all on the same day, I decided to do them all. I LOVE FLORENCE.
-The first cool thing I did was an annual artisan Festival at a place away from the city center called Fortezza da Basso. Literally translated means fort, and when you see it you can tell this is a really old fortification used for war and probably all sorts of other things, but now it is used for large conventions like this. A huge area of building after building, all filled with stuff. Some are food places, one huge area is dedicated to clothing makers and jewelry makers, another is all beauty products, another is all horticulture and plants, another is ceramic pieces, and one huge building in the center was like the world craft fair or something like that. I kid you not, this building is massive. Three floors that spans for ever and ever. I got lost on every single floor! The ground floor was all local italian artisans that produced everything you could possibly want ranging from knickknacks to flowers, to garments to food. The bottom level was the world artisan area- artisans from all over the world, and each section of this floor was separated by country!!!! Crazy! India, lots of countries in Africa indonesia, china, south america, spain, japan, korea, germany, just country after country with clothes, pottery, art, jewelry, just amazing beautiful things. And finally the top floor-- all food. Nothing but food. From any country you could think of! Again segmented by the specific country. So you had crepe makers near france, meats near germany, kebaps near Turkey, meats and cheeses I'd never even heard of, just everywhere. It was literally amazing. I would go back next year for that event.
-The second thing I did was go to a gelato festival up at piazzale michelangiolo. How cool is that??? I went with my roommates and it was awesome! Multiple gelato trucks! And for 7 euro you could get a ticket that got you 6 different kinds of gelato. Kind of large cups too! I think I only ate 5 heh heh. But there was all kinds of delicious flavors, I unfortunately don't remember specifically what kinds besides nutella which was delicious of course.
-My roommates and I also did a bookmaking workshop through school. That was so fun too! The class was taught by a local bookbinder, and they supplied everything for us. The paper, the awls, covers and thread. We got to design our own pattern we wanted on the spine, and then you punch all the holes in the pages, and thread! It was surprisingly simple. And fun :) we all got a really cool souvenir to take home.
-The last one was finally that night. Called Notte Bianca, which means white night. The city basically stays up until 4 am with live music everywhere, artists, restaurants open, shops open, and all sorts of stuff going on. They hand out program guides that are connected to a map, so that you can see what is going on where, at what time, and how to get there. There was about 50 events total! So many, it was nuts. My friend and I just walked around and happened to run into some random music groups (italian heavy metal?), jazz, rock, string violin quartet, and other cool things. We also found some cool street artists doing stuff. Very cool! We didn't want to stay out too late with just the two of us, or else we would have stayed later to see more events. But this was a really cool event :)
Ciao!
Friday, May 1, 2015
Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Oh my!
Ciao!
I'll try to do this as quick as possible :) Another travel weekend, woohoo! April 24-26
I'll try to do this as quick as possible :) Another travel weekend, woohoo! April 24-26
-We took a high speed train to Naples, and we spent the night there. They took us to dinner, and then we went to sleep. Naples it turned out I didn't really like, it was rather on the sketchy side, more dingy, more impoverished, smelled kind of weird and it wasn't as pretty as other cities I visited. I also didn't feel as safe there. I had heard the south of italy is a little more sketchy, *so if you ever go*, just be very aware of pickpockets and people trying to sell you stuff. Don't stay out too late at night either.
-The next day we did Capri, in which we took a boat out there since it is an island. And then we had free time in which we went to the Blue Grotto, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. So cool! The sand is so white and the water is so clear that when sunlight comes into the little opening into the grotto, reflects it, and illuminates the water from underneath. We took a funicular to the top of the island- incredible view! Capri is GORGEOUS with beautiful shops (most were expensive but so pretty to look at), cute restaurants (food was amazing), and we passed by people's private little villas which looked heavenly. I'd definitely go back.
-Later in the day was Sorrento, which is home to tons of lemon groves, from which they make the famous limoncello (which is gross, I did not like it and trust me, even getting it in the place where it's supposedly the best didn't help). It always looks pretty but it's waaaaay too strong. and grody. We walked around, and it was a very cute little town with adorable little shops. Lemon themed everything and it was so cute. I had limoncello and tiramisu gelato (I know I just said I hate limoncello) but when its inside gelato you can't taste the alcohol. This combo was probably some of the best gelato I ever tasted! Tasted like chocolate and lemon cake kissed by angels.
-We did a walking tour of Naples the last day and although we went to the nicer section, it was still slightly sketchy. We took a funicular to the top of the city and visited some monasteries and churches. Stopped for lunch at a local pizza place- I have to say, some of the best pizza I've ever had. In naples they invented the margherita pizza so we ordered that-- so tasty.
All in all, a good weekend :) I never thought I would go to Capri! That's where rich and famous people go! Definitely one to check off the bucket list.
Ciao xoxo
-The next day we did Capri, in which we took a boat out there since it is an island. And then we had free time in which we went to the Blue Grotto, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. So cool! The sand is so white and the water is so clear that when sunlight comes into the little opening into the grotto, reflects it, and illuminates the water from underneath. We took a funicular to the top of the island- incredible view! Capri is GORGEOUS with beautiful shops (most were expensive but so pretty to look at), cute restaurants (food was amazing), and we passed by people's private little villas which looked heavenly. I'd definitely go back.
-Later in the day was Sorrento, which is home to tons of lemon groves, from which they make the famous limoncello (which is gross, I did not like it and trust me, even getting it in the place where it's supposedly the best didn't help). It always looks pretty but it's waaaaay too strong. and grody. We walked around, and it was a very cute little town with adorable little shops. Lemon themed everything and it was so cute. I had limoncello and tiramisu gelato (I know I just said I hate limoncello) but when its inside gelato you can't taste the alcohol. This combo was probably some of the best gelato I ever tasted! Tasted like chocolate and lemon cake kissed by angels.
-We did a walking tour of Naples the last day and although we went to the nicer section, it was still slightly sketchy. We took a funicular to the top of the city and visited some monasteries and churches. Stopped for lunch at a local pizza place- I have to say, some of the best pizza I've ever had. In naples they invented the margherita pizza so we ordered that-- so tasty.
All in all, a good weekend :) I never thought I would go to Capri! That's where rich and famous people go! Definitely one to check off the bucket list.
Ciao xoxo
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