Do you want to be my friend?

Ciao a tutti!

So...I am doing a mini update. Lucky for all of you loyal readers! But today was just too good to not blog about. Plus, I'm procrastinating homework.

So art history was...well, history. Then I was able to take a quick nap before Italian because the internet was of course not working. Off to Italian! But class today was very different than the usual routine. Instead of meeting in the classroom, we met at Palazzo dell Repubblica. Why? To interview randos on the streets of Florence! At first, the idea of trying to speak my maccaroni Italian to professionals was horrifying. However, it wasn't so bad after all. I was in a group with Kaila and Kayla. The three of us interview our three people right away, even though they weren't Italians (they were actually Brazilian and simply in Florence for vacation...oops). With a half hour left, Serena had us interview more individuals. The fifth man we interview was a sweetheart. His name was Unberto and he was around seventy years old. He spoke very quickly in Italian, even though we told him we only speak a little bit. He was nice enough. He was a lawyer (un avvocato, NOT an avocado, whoops).

Anyways, with Italian over, I thought it worthwhile to check my mailbox and good thing! I FINALLY GOT A PACKAGE!! I handed my slip of paper over to KMat and said "Where is it!?" She laughed and replied, "Don't worry, I already ate all of the candy out of it..." What a joker. Anways, I got back to the apartment, tore the box open (not really, but kind of) and was so incredibly happy with the contents: Fantastic Mr. Fox & a wonderfully sweet letter. I am lucky.

So after showing some roomies how wonderful my package was (hehe), Alessandro dropped by the apartment with the Internet Man - FINALLY! The Internet Man did his internetting and Alessandro asked us about our weekend in Amsterdam. A funny little exchange. Eventually the IM said everything was fixed and we had internet even in our rooms! Success!! It only took 6 weeks. At least we have it now.

Afterwards, Amanda and I went on a walk to the grocery store. Afterwards, we came back and vegged. Soon enough, it was dinnertime, so Rachel, Kristie-the-birthday-girl, and I picked up some pizza pies. Kristie's did not look appetizing at all, so the two of us made a second dinner run to La Spada, a fantastic place right around the corner. Kristie ordered her penne and while we waited, the most incredible thing happened. A man just strolled right into the restaurant, greeting everyone, slapping backs, and smiling. Then he brought back out a bottle of wine and wine glasses for the customers waiting in line. He offered it to Kristie - who politely declined - and then to myself - who also declined. Wait...what? Me? Turning down wine? After a slight impairment of my better judgement, I said yes to the nice man with wine and he poured me a glass while we waited for Kristie's food. Free wine just for waiting. BEST DAY EVER. I don't know who you are, but man in the tan coat...grazie mille!

So now after a couple skype dates and a pot of espresso later, I am finally ready to begin my homework. It's only 12:30...the night is young.

Buona notte!

Amsterdam....You Win.

Ciao!

Okay, so updating this thing is getting more and more difficult each week. Let's see. Last week, nothing much more eventful happened. Wednesday, was fun. In Italian, we had students from University come to class to chat with us. It was a lot of fun. My group talked with Giovanni, who invited us out to the clubs with him to see how real Italians play. Exciting. Later, there was no field trip for Simon's class because of the rainy weather.

It worked out well though, because Emily, Amanda, Ann, Kaila and I hung out with Simon for a medieval dinner. The dinner was extremely interesting, but well worth the money. Our first dish was a potato dish, that was supposed to mimic pasta.

Then we had another pasta dish, that was flavored with ginger. It wasn't my favorite (I don't think I like ginger..) but everyone else seemed to enjoy it.

Next, were the meat dishes. The first one was the dish that I had been waiting for: chocolate-infused wild boar. WOW! How many people can say they've eaten that!? It was my favorite dish of the entire night. The second meat dish was a peppered-beef dish. It was good, but the chocolate boar takes the crown.

For dessert, it was a type of alcoholic cake, as far as I could tell.

With that, we drank a little of Holy wine, which was actually pretty decent. The dinner was a lot of fun, simply hanging out with peers from the Institute and our hilarious teacher. At made it very clear to us that at 9:30pm he would have to leave to tuck his daughters into bed, which he does every night. So at 9:27pm he jumped up from the table and departed, leaving us with bottles of wine.

Direct quote: "No, no, no, you all should stay and finish up the wine." Well, you don't have to tell a bunch of college kids twice. So we did. To drink and be merry!

Afterwards, we all went to Naima's (duh) and then to a club, Full Up, to get our dancing on. It was an eventful night and I am positive that Amanda had a terrific twenty-first. Good! Happy Birthday!

THURSDAY: I woke up with vampire eyes - legitimately the newest addition to the Cullen Family - and wore glasses all day. That was the highlight (or low-light?) so there's no further explanation of this day.

FRIDAY: So we all woke up earlier than we would have liked. I packed, mailed some postcards, and we went to the school to print out all of our reservations. A short taxi ride later and we were at the Florence airport...way too early. I honestly don't understand European airports, or at least my lovely Firenze's. They didn't check our passports AT ALL the entire time. I could have been anyone. It didn't make sense and I still am trying to figure out how that is safe. Well, I'm here so that's good.

So Friday, Amanda, Jess, Emily and I flew to Florence to Munich, Munich to Amsterdam. The layover in Munich was short and sweet - literally. We got gummies and chocolates to carry us until we arrived in Dam. Fantastic. We arrived in Dam and the first thing we noticed - it's cold. We didn't plan that out too well, even though it is much more north than Florence. Oh well. Also, I am still upset because I never got my passport stamped. This is because we didn't need our passports at all to travel. Extremely disappointed in you, Europe.

So a train ride, a friend (C.Moore Glascocks, his actual name), and a confusing tram ride later, the four of us arrived at Hotel Pulitzer...our home for the weekend. The hotel was gorgeous. It was a couple dozen old canal houses all together, so finding our room was a maze. We all settled in, freshened up, and ventured into the infamous Amsterdam, the wild city.

We walked to the center, peeked around some menus, and finally settled into a quaint restaurant that promised us Dutch food galore. Amanda and I both ordered a mini-schmorgasbord of delicious Dutch cuisine. I'm not entirely sure what I ate, but this was it:

After dinner, we had some dessert.

Chocolate cake that is honestly out of this world. YUM! Then we walked into the Red Light District and I still can't believe what I saw. Amsterdam is truly wild, simply based on the fact that the RLD is legal. The girls in the windows were somewhat sad and disheartening to watch. I never figured out if they were in their windows by choice or because they were forced into the business. We walked the canals and, at one point, actually saw a girl open her door and pull a man into her "office," for lack of a better word. Unreal.

After the District, the four of us went into Amsterdam's infamous "Sex Museum." We honestly didn't understand what we were getting into when we paid the 4 euros. The Museum, if you can even call it that, was basically just a bunch of disturbing pictures that we honestly couldn't handle. After a small incident regarding the bathroom and whether it was a trap for Emily, we left the museum and found ourselves back at Hotel Pulitzer. Only after Amanda & I -NOT- getting our fries, no one reading a map, walking in circles, and Emily & I getting rained on. What a wonderful night. We all dove into the heavenly bed, ate gummies (or fell asleep with them...EM), and slept on clouds.

SATURDAY: We woke up after a fantastic slumber and grabbed breakfast at the bagel shop. I love bagels and traveling allows me to eat them (since only one or two places in Florence sells them). I ordered the lox bagel and a large coffee - both of which were absolutely amazing.

After breakfast, we went to the Heineken Brewery for our tour. The Heineken Experience was well worth it. We toured the factory, saw the history and the process of the beer. We even got 4 free beers. YUM! I love Amsterdam. We even ran into a bunch of people from the Institute. So random.

After the Brewery, the four of us went to the IAMAMSTERDAM sign to take cliche tourist pictures. Unfortunately, the sign was swamped with people thinking just like us so we made the most of it.

After the sign, we went to purchase the final touches to our rave outfits and then off to the Pancake Bakery for lunch! Wow, the Pancake Bakery is this wonderful magical place where you can order pancakes (aka crepes) with anything on them. So, kudos to you, Carol - I ordered a pancake with apples and chocolate, just like you used to make! It was delicious! Then after the Pancake Bakery, we took a little napski.

Next on our agenda (because we actually had printed out agendas...so prepared!), was Anne Frank's house. We went through the house in awe. It's incredible to think about the history behind the house. I can't even imagine it and I know that the videos, pictures, and descriptions don't do it justice. Amazing.

After Anne's House, we walked home, seeing as we were staying on her street, Prinsengracht. Time to get ready for Trance Energy, a huge techno concert in Ultrecht. Some other girls from the Institute came to our hotel to get ready and do makeup. We all got dressed in our highlighter outfits and took the train from Amsterdam to Ultrecht. We met up with even more people from Florence, including the boys. I even ran into Cameron from PSU! I also saw John from my THON committee, who is studying in England. It was a fantastic reunion.

Okay, so off the train and we followed a huge crowd to the venue. As soon as we exited the station, we could hear the techno music pulsing through the air. We checked in, got our locker, and entered what was the craziest thing I've ever been to. Literally, thousands of people, multiple stages, and the most insane dancing. When I say dancing, I mean feeling-the-music-punching-the-air-sweating-til-you-drop-kind of dancing. It was amazing. As soon as we got in, we immediately pushed through the crowd - thanks for Jess - and made our way to the very front row of the main stage. The light shows are incredible. I've really never seen anything like it. I'm now obsessed with Avicii, a sick Swedish DJ. SO GOOD. Then after Avicii, Tiesto finally came on (about 2am). I LOVE HIM. My favorite song, Escape Me, was one of the first songs and I melted. Incredible.

My very first rave. Was it a success? Yes. Would I do it again? I am. Sensation White. AAAAAH! CANT WAIT.

SUNDAY: We actually made it to the airport in time for our flight. We flew to Munich again for a layover which lasted for eternity (really, it was only 2 hours). I had cafe mochas and Magnum bars (these delicious ice cream bars) so I was a happy traveler. Eventually, we flew home to Florence, although I wouldn't call the aircraft we flew on exactly a plane. However, we made it home all in one piece and without our passports ever being checked. I still don't understand.

So, I walked into my apartment and thank goodness the internet was being so nice because I was able to catch the last FIVE hours of THON. I knew I would be sad to miss THON but I never realized how difficult it would be to simply just watch THON on a computer screen. Don't get me wrong, I am so incredibly happy that THON has a livestream but it was almost unbearable to watch updates for five hours without being there. However, all of the PSU roomies (and even a UCONN or two) were all huddled around our laptops in the kitchen for the entire rest of THON cheering at tweets or whoever they showed on the feed. Family Hour got me like it always did, but the stories are so incredible it's hard not to be emotional. Then GoGo came on to pump up the crowd for the final minutes of THON and we were all jumping and singing right along with the entire BJC. I am obsessed with the line dance so all of my morale friends, get ready to teach me the entire thing in May. Thanks!

So THON. 9,563,016.09 reasons why we THON. I am so incredibly proud to be a Penn Stater and even prouder of what my peers and community has accomplished - yet again. We literally just jumped over the 8millions like it was nbd. To everyone involved in THON2K11: YOU ARE AMAZING. I can't wait to be a part of THON2K12. AH! Only 364 days til the best weekend ever!

TODAY: Classes and more classes. Afterwards, I met with Serena (our librarian) who walked me to one of elementary schools. Every week, I'll be working with 6-year-olds at the school. I met the teacher, Marta, as well as twenty of the students. They are precious. Serena told me, "They're staring at the alien in here...that's you." So that was comforting, but expected. They speak little English and I speak little Italian so it'll be interesting. Today, I made a friend with Steffano, a student who was born in NY so he speaks English and Italian. He came up to me and said "Hey baby!" What a character. He's my translator. So for the majority of th e 2.5hours that I was at school, I had no idea what anyone was saying. I could understand bits and pieces, but that's about it. Eventually, Marta had me choose a story (in English) to read to them. They enjoyed it, but only because I was making a lot of sounds to help them understand the English plot. When school was over, a bunch of the kids hugged me goodbye and said "See you on Monday. BYEEEE." A good sign, I think. I can't wait to see them again next week. I even get to make a lesson plan to help them with their colors and numbers. Any suggestions?

After the elementary school, I did a quick run to the grocery store and had some Philly cream cheese & crackers. It's the little things that make me happy. I had a wonderful day and a very unproductive night, seeing as a bunch of us just jammed out hardcore to 90s music. I love it. I'm healthy, happy, and now exhausted.

Goodnight, goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the -mosquitoes- bite!

Sunny Days

Apologies to my readers, but it's been a very eventful weekend. I don't think any of great importance happened last week, but Wednesday proved to be eventful.

On Wednesday, Emily and I had our field trip for Story of the City with our fantastic teacher, Simon Young. We took an external field trip to the Duomo and Campanile (the Tower at the Duomo). We went into the basement of the Duomo, which I honestly didn't know existed. Here, we were able to the see the original structure of the cathedral, as well the the foundation and floorplan. It was actually pretty interesting.

After that, the real field trip began. We left the Duomo to go next door to the Campanile. For those of you that don't know, the Tower has 414 steps. And yes, Emily and I tried desperately to be the caboose so we wouldn't feel rushed (and to avoid passing out). However, Simon wouldn't budge and put us in the middle of our class to climb this huge steep tower. Well, after the first 30 stairs, I honestly thought I was going to need an inhaler. The steps were extremely steep and didn't leave room for error. Good thing Emily and Ann were behind to catch me...or so I'd hope!

Anyway, it took us around twenty minutes to fully climb all 414 steps. Worth it? Definitely. Would I do it again? Definitely, but after a month of recovery. The view from the tip-top of Campanile was absolutely amazing.

We were able to see for miles, though through a haze that hovered above the city. It was the perfect time of day to go too, just around 4:00pm so that the sun was beginning to set. Honestly, this was definitely my favorite part of this class to date.

I also realized that I AM learning something from this class, as I was able to distinguish many important landmarks and iconic buildings throughout our home of Florence. I can't believe we live here. Five weeks into our program, and it's still surreal.

Anyways, so we wandered around the top of Campanile for a bit, took a few pictures here and there (one of course, with the wonderful Simon), and made the journey back to Piazza del Duomo.

Later that evening, another class field trip. This one...Apertivos, which is the Italian snacks & drinks. It's a wonderful idea that I plan on participating in while here and in the States. So Annie, Amanda, Allie, Emily, and I went to meet our class at the bar. This would never happen in America... I love it! The night was extremely fun and entertaining. We had two Italian students from University come to chat with us about their culture and ours. Each student ordered one drink...I tried a Daiquiri, which turned out to be ridiculously strong and nothing that my tastebuds could recognize. Fail. The appetizer-like snacks were delicious, though. We nibbled on crustini, french fries, potatoes, and veggies. All-in-all, a very pleasant time.

THURSDAY: Classes in the morning, exam in Italian. It went well, I hope (we're still waiting for them to be returned). Then I packed up for London and was off to the Pisa airport with Ari, Allie, Annie, and Amanda (who sadly left us for Paris).

Check-in went smoothly and we even made friends with a nice British couple while waiting in the horrendously unorganized RyanAir boarding line. I'll be honest, I was slightly nervous to fly RyanAir after all of the rumors that spread around. Granted, after our flight, I'm still nervous. The four of us sat in the very last row, which apparently is the most susceptible to turbulence. We felt it. We questioned our pilot's capabilities. We laughed and cried. (Kinda joking, kinda serious). Two hours later, we arrived in England! A passport stamp later and we were on the bus to London.

We got dropped off at the Liverpool St. station and easily figured out the Tube (London's subway system) to get to our hostel, near London Bridge. We checked in around midnight and met some of Allie's friends for a quick bite. Got a beautiful view of the Tower Bridge (which is actually commonly mistaken for London Bridge). Then bedtime for us sleepy-heads.

FRIDAY: We were up bright and early. What to do first in London? Of course, buy tickets to a show in the West End (similar to NYC Broadway). After finding out that Billy Elliot isn't discounted on Friday's (just our luck!), we rashly decided on Dirty Dancing. We liked the movie, the show must be decent. Right? Hmm. After that, we hustled over to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards.

I was slightly disappointed with the Palace, as it wasn't impressive from the outside. Perhaps, the inside is more beautifully decorated? We stayed and watched the ceremony, which was alright in my opinion. I suppose it's a "must-see" for London.

Afterwards, we saw Big Ben and the House of Parliament and the London Eye. We ended up purchasing tickets for those double-decker bus tours. We rode around looking at iconic British buildings and monuments for an hour or two. Eventually, we got off of the bus to find some fish & chips. We stumbled onto Sherlock Holmes and feasted! I love fish & chips!

Afterwards, we wandered around some more, eventually landing at the British Museum. It was actually very interesting inside. The building itself is magnificent, simply just the entranceway. Also, this museum houses the Rosetta Stone, which is impressive in itself. We walked through the North Americas and eventually though Egypt and Africa. Mummies never cease to amaze me. My favorite part of the museum, however, was an exhibit about drug-use and coping, differences between a man and woman prescription use. There were personal family photos bordering the surreal pill display. It was powerful.

After the Museum, tried to visit Hyde Park to see the Peter Pan statue and the Princess Di Memorial. Unfortunately, it was after dark and the park was closed. Somehow we were able to get in to take a few pictures. We realized it was useless - it was too dark and we had no clue where we were going. We left Hyde Park to visit Harrod's and Top Shop.

Wow. Harrod's is absolutely ridiculous. There were way too many levels and rooms with expensive goodies to see everything. I did see the Princess Diana tribute and the candy shops! Then we all went to grab a quick bite before Dirty Dancing.

We met up with Allie's friend, Kevin, and the five of us went to find our seats. For less than 30 GBP, we had great seats. We were front row center of the second level, granted it was a small theatre. So, the show was entertaining to say the least. It wasn't what I expected at all. I thought we were seeing a musical but it literally was just a live movie, identical to the Dirty Dancing movie that I love. It was bizarre that only three characters sang, none of which were main characters. The dancing was fantastic however. A nice girls' night out in London (plus Kevin, of course).

SATURDAY: After a few hostel scares, for reasons that aren't necessary to post online, the four of us booked it out as quickly as possible. We took the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral to try their infamous scones.

I decided, try as I might, that I don't like scones. Sorry, England...not your best. The jam was delicious though! After St. Paul's, we made our way across the "Wobbly Bridge" to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

After a quick photo op, we stumbled across the Tate Museum of Modern Art. We ventured inside and were confused with what we found. I'm not sure how I feel about modern art, because it doesn't seem very skilled to me. We went through a couple exhibits - some more disturbing than others - and left.

A Tube stop later and we were near Big Ben again ready for our river boat tour. While waiting in line, a little girl decided it would be fun to feed all of the seagull's her lunch that mum had packed. She kept feeding them and they kept swarming. Some things I just don't understand. Good thing our boat came and we avoided any unfortunate "accidents."

The boat tour was a lot of fun, even though Allie slept through most of it. We went past the London Eye, London Bridge, Women's Bridge, and finally got off at London Tower.

We walked near the Tower, but didn't have time to go inside, so I'll save that for my next trip to London.

We grabbed lunch with some of my roommates' friends in London. I wanted to try something very typical of the culture so I decided on "bangers and mash."

For those who aren't English, that mean's "sausages and mashed potatoes." DELICIOUS.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes, hopped on a bus, and made the 1+ hour trek back to Stansted Airport. Check-in and security a breeze, we had an hour to spare. What else to do? Use all of our pounds and pence buying...chocolate! The plane ride home was less stressful, probably because we got our pick of seats seeing as Allie was the first one in the boarding line (after throwing an old woman down the escalator and tripping the elderly, I'm sure). Either way, we sat near each other and, some of us, *cough, cough, Annie* even made a BFF. We arrived home in Italy around 11pm. Unfortunately, the trains to Florence weren't running for a few hours so we paid the extra money and took a bus back to Florence.

The four of us finally settled into our apartment around 1:30am, exhausted but happy. London was wonderful, although I wouldn't wish to study abroad there. It's too comfortable and similar to NYC. I like the challenge of completely immersing myself in a foreign city. Although, for London being notorious for it's rainy weather, we ended up with lots of sunshine. Lucky us :)

SUNDAY: I thought I would sleep in because I didn't set an alarm but I woke up at 11am. It was a lazy day, but some-what productive filling out applications for various things. Didn't so much else besides lay around and go to the grocery store for some juice. I definitely need to get to the Central Market soon, very soon.

MONDAY: Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday was just filled with classes until 1:30. I tried a new sandwich from my favorite panino ladies: salmone, rocket, e limone/olio. It was delicious. A skype date and a nap later, I was having a terrific day. The roommates and I decided to go out and treat ourselves for Valentine's Dinner, so we ended up trying a Mexican restaurant, Tijuana. We all had sangria and tortilla chips, and for my dinner, a burrito. Yum!

After dinner, we tried for gelato but the one near our apartment was closed. The shops close randomly and without warning so you'll never know when something is open or not. That I will never get used to. Some more Skype dating and some homework later, my Valentine's Day was over. It was the best one yet, surprisngly, although I'm so far from so many friends and family. However, it didn't matter and I fell asleep extremely happy because I'm so lucky to have such wonderful people in my lives.

TODAY! (Finally): After falsely waking up at 7:30am to Emily going to sleep (crazy girl), I woke up again at 8:30 for art history. With that class over, Diana and I came back here for a quick napskis in between classes. Italian up next and still no exams back, I was disappointed. I had a lunch just like yesterday, except added in some mozzarella. Even better.

I'm not entirely sure how it's already 7:30pm here but time flies over here. One good thing: the cleaning ladies came to our apartment today and our apartment feels a lot better! We'll have cleaning ladies come once a month while living here. How nice! They motivated me to clean, so I even did a load of laundry. With homework done and my stomach beginning to rumble, it's time to decide on dinner.

I will try my best to keep updating but the busier I get, the more difficult it is. Fun fact: I have all of my trips booked for the semester! Coming up: Amsterdam this weekend, Interlaken the next!

Ciao a tutti!

Spontaneous Success

Hello all!

So it has certainly been an adventurous weekend, to say the least. Rewind:

FRIDAY: Emily and I had a field trip out to Santa Brigida, the Tuscan countryside. It was a gorgeous day out and we were excited that our field trip would be hiking to a monastery. Unfortunately, the weather is unpredictable and we dressed for chilly, winter weather (sweaters, scarves, jackets) when in reality, it was summer for a day.

After yet another bus ride through Chianti (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining), we arrived in Santa Brigida. We stopped briefly at our teacher's house and met his wife and baby - precious. Then we were off! We walked to a small church first. Here, we found a kitty friend. Always. Always can find a cat on our field trips. Then we wandered down the road to a path that led into the fields. At this point, I was seriously regretting wearing a sweater and jeans. At least I wore appropriate shoes for hiking...kinda. We passed an elderly man on the road, who we later found out was 93-years-old. I honestly thought he was 60. He had survived WWII and the Germans. His life sounded incredible, I wanted to go back and talk to him.

Simon took us past his father-in-laws house ("We don't speak. I mean....we say hi and talk about weather") and then we looked at another house. Absolutely gorgeous. I am considering real estate here. Is that a bad thing?

Onward. We began the treacherous hike up to the monastery. It was certainly not a simple Friday morning hike. It was an oops-i should have worn my sneakers-brought the biggest water bottle-and my inhaler-kind of hike. At least Simon brought everyone 2 sandwiches each from a fantastic sandwich shop in Florence, I Fratellini. Delicious! After one sandwich, we continued our hike up the mountain and over Hell's Valley.

I'll have to admit. Simon, you were right. The hike, despite the sweats, tears and blood, was worth it. We got amazing views of Tuscany. This place is gorgeous and I feel as though no amount of words can truly describe the feeling at the top.

We went into the monastery (which monks still reside in) and we wandered around.

We went into the basement to view artifacts.

Afterwards, I lit a candle and said a prayer.

Then we got to eat our second sammich. Nom nom nom.

Walking down from the monastery, I was going to be artsy-fartsy and take a picture under a ledge...until I stepped under and a bunch of lizards started crawling all around me. So maybe I'm not so outdoorsy...I liked the hike.

Walking down the mountain, Emily decided to confront Simon with the hypothesis that he dislikes us both very much. He always just looks at us and laughs whenever we're - you know - us. As it turns out, he said (and I quote) "Whenever I'm at home and think about the two of you, the biggest smile comes across my face." Of course, we don't know how to take this, either as insult as a compliment so he continued, "It's the greatest compliment. Your enthusiasm and strange sense of humor is the greatest compliment." So that settles that. We're his faves. Kidding, but only half.

So Emily and I returned from Santa Brigida and decided it was the perfect time to check out the Chocolate Festival that happens to be in Florence for the next ten days. I LOVE MY LIFE. What gets better than 1. being in Italy 2. Living 5 minutes from a Chocolate Festival and 3. Eating chocolate everyday for a week? Exactly. So the festival was actually extremely cool. I'd never been to any type of food festival like this. There was so many vendors of all different types of chocolate yummies. We settled on taste testing all of the free samples (hey, we are college kids after all). We got some chocolate covered strawberries & later a chunk of PB/choc fudge that literally melted in my mouth. The greatest thing ever.

So now it's already 5pm and Jess has finally returned home after her very own field trip Friday. So what to do now? Oh right, it's time to be spontaneous!! We decided we could catch the next train to Venice for the night. Perfect. So we booked a room in Venezia, met up with our long-lost-brother Joe, and simply left. We successfully caught 2 trains necessary to get there. However, we didn't validate our ticket which is the most important thing to remember to do when riding on Euro trains. A conductor came to check our ticket and I was sweating from nerves. However, he didn't mentioned anything (if you're found with an un-validated ticket they can charge you up to 100E in fines, as well as the full price of a ticket) so we were a very lucky bunch.

We made it to Venice around 9:30 at night.

I knew Venice had a bunch of canals and such but seeing them in real life is absolutely ridiculous. There are no cars, well, because there are no roads.

So we hopped on a water bus (literally, a boat with bus seats on it) and took it to the Rialto Bridge, after first heading down the Grand Canal in the wrong direction. We thought we had an idea of where our hostel was but after an hour of being lost in the canals of Venice, we knew we were doomed. All we had to do was find 1699 San Polo. It was literally nowhere to be found. Four different groups of people tried to help us without success. Finally, Emily called Tim (her daddyo) and thankfully Tim Google-mapped us directions for the next hour. Turns out, where we got off of the bus was actually ridiculously close to our hostel. The funny thing about Venice is that the building numbers don't go in numerical order, which was half the problem. We had found 1900 San Polo and then it jumped to 1400. We were stuck in the 1900s for the longest time. I have nightmares now.

So thanks for Em's dad, we found our hostel. We found 1699 and we almost started crying. It was boarded up! Are you kidding me!? Well, turns out they were. We tried to open the little wooden door that proclaims "I'm B&B Rota" and it was locked.

I honestly thought we had booked a false hostel. Anyways, soon enough we got settled into our cozy little room. We had a midnight dinner of Chinese food right next to the hostel because we didn't want to stray too far away.

SATURDAY: We woke up relatively early and checked out of the hostel to explore Venice. Where to go? Well, thanks to Tour Guide Emily we realized that we were living right next to the fish market.

So we took a little look at the fish market, bought some blood oranges and clementines for breakfast, and made our way to Piazza San Marco. San Marco was a very pretty place and we saw the Tower, Church, and Palace. Then we took a water bus to Murano, the glass-blowing island.

Murano is the main reason why I wanted to go to Venice. It was well worth a trip. Murano is an island north of the main island of Venice.

We were able to attend a free glass blowing demonstration. The man first made a vase. Easy. Then he made a glass horse, which was absolutely incredible to witness. He literally made this beautiful glass horse in 3 minutes. Afterwards, of course we shopped around and found the most amazing Murano glass items. Ah! They're beautiful.

After Murano, we decided we should maybe try to figure out when trains were leaving Venice for Florence. Good idea. So we took another water bus to the train station. However, this time we opted not to buy tickets because they hadn't checked any of the previous times. Unfortunately, this time was the one time we got checked. Just our luck! We gave the officers our old tickets which we previously had validated and they certainly looked confused. We could tell that they knew we didn't have the correct tickets but they let it slide anyways. Foof! Lucky us, really.

So we had some time to spare after checking train times and a nice man showed us to a fantastic restaurant for lunch. Pizza and bread+oil, delicious. Then we ventured to find gelato and wine. TG Em educated us about a fantastic wine find, where you bring in an empty plastic bottle and you can get it filled with your choice of wine for 2 Euro. This gem happened to be right around the corner from our lunch place so we found it easily. What a find it was! I was the happiest girl in Venice on Saturday. We had our 1.5 Liter water bottles to fill so of course I chose blush. There were about a dozen "kegs" of wine in the shoppe. The man was so helpful and loved our enthusiasm for wine, I'm sure. We're thinking of bringing this idea back to America. It'll be a hit. Who's in?

After wine, we stopped for gelato. For our grand finale in Venezia, we bought masks. I love our masks and cannot wait to wear it.

We made it to our train on time and returned home to Florence, after switching seats three times (due to unhappy commuters). All-in-all, I absolutely loved Venice. It's my favorite place that I've visited thus far, after Florence of course. I wish we had more time, but perhaps we'll make another visit back later in the semester. It's definitely a must-see, as simply the idea of a "floating city" is too amazing. I recommend it.

Saturday we got back home around dinner time. We had planned on going to Tijuana (Florence's Mexican restaurant) for dinner, but there was too long of a wait. Fortunately, there is the best kebab place right around the corner. Afterwards, we ended up at....NAIMA. Surprise, surprise. A great weekend.

SUNDAY: Sunday we all woke up relatively early. We had planned on a walking tour of the other side of the Arno, but the weather - once again - had lied. It was cold and cloudy. Tour cancelled, the roomies and I headed to the Diner for brunch. Delicious! Afterwards, we visited a day-cafe/night-bar called Astor's to get SuperBowl tix. Success. We spent the rest of the day lounging and eventually, Emily, Jess, and I made our way to Astor's for the big game. It was my first SuperBowl Monday! I don't follow NFL, but I did care about the commercials. Our night was fun and we came back and hung out with the rest of the roomies.

The weekend was very fun, with our spontaneous Venice trip and SuperBowl fun. TODAY: I woke up and did my very first load of laundry in the apartment. The washer fits about a quarter of a normal load in the States. I was proud to have done laundry though. Then I had classes until 1:30. I love Mondays. Afterwards, Jess and I had a productive afternoon. We put more minutes on our phones ( I love pre-paid phones...not), introduced Florence to THON!, and went grocery shopping. We even took the trash out. We're growing up so fast, I know.

So now it's dinner time here and we're all cooking up some pasta. "If I eat any more pasta I'm going to turn into a carbohydrate!!" - Jess. I think I'm okay with that. Not sure what's up for tonight, perhaps I'll continue with my productivity streak and fill out some apps. Or maybe I'll go to the Art Bar. Decisions, decisions...life is so complicated here.

Until next time!