2 Weeks Notice...

My official two weeks notice for you.

This week has gone by in a flash! I can't believe I will be walking through DFW International Airport in two weeks. Prepare for my arrival!

I had my midterms today. (Again, I can't believe this term is halfway over!) I think I did pretty well on my art history one. I knew all the information and it seemed pretty easy. Oh and I totally rocked the image identification. Haha. I know that I made stupid mistakes on my Italian exam, which frustrates me. But I will blame it on lack of sleep, I for some reason could not fall asleep last night and just lay in my bed starring at the ceiling for what seemed like my lifetime.

Today is cause for celebration though. Because I have finished the exams. I don't have class until Monday. And even though I made stupid mistakes on my Italian exam I still made an A. So...I'm thinking I might visit the Boboli Gardens again and just lay on the grass and read. Maybe take a little nap. That sounds lovely. Tonight, we are apparently going to do Karaoke at this Irish pub down the street from our apartment. I don't know about that. I mean unless they have Sonny and Cher I Got You Babe...I won't be singing! Just wait up for that phone call dad! :]

Back by Popular Demand.

The writer has decided to continue writing this blog.
The End.

WARNING!

Warning!
The writer feels under appreciated.
The writer is going on strike.
This blog will be shut down.
If no comments are posted.
The End.

I Swam in the Mediterranean!

This morning, bright and early we all met at the train station for some travelin!
Our destination, Monterosso one of the towns in the Cinque Terre. Plan for the day, hike a little, lay on the beach...sounds like a wonderful day to me!
We arrive in Monterosso after a two and a half our train ride, which really wasn't that bad, the seats a little uncomfortable but the company was good! I'm starving when we get there, and I tell Nikki that if I don't get food, I will most likely eat her arm. So sure enough, we find a place for food! Monterosso is a cute little town with a lot of beach and places to layout and relax. Although we had other plans. HIKE!
So off we go. And as we are walking around the town we see many prime jumping places for a little (dangerous) fun in the water. And of course we see a group of American boys taking advantage of these locations. Me and Jessica almost joined them! But alas, we had our hike ahead of us.
I really don't think I had realized the intensity of this walk between the cities. Maybe none of us had. Laura, Nikki and I were the only ones wearing tennis shoes, and I can't even imagine doing this in flip-flops. I mean I am uncoordinated enough, I mustn't add to such a disability! The first section of this hike was about 850 stairs. My legs were jello afterwards. Not only are these HUGE steps, especially for my little legs, they are really narrow too, so only one person can walk up or down them at a time. So what do you do when someone happens to meet you mid climb?....CRISIS! Well in some areas there are small (TINY) clearings of trees where you can step off to the side, and in the places where there is not a clearing...well you end up doing this weird little dance with random people you don't know who are just as sweaty as you are. It's funny. So on our hike I took about a million pictures. The view was beautiful!
And then we were in Vernazza! We had made it through the hike and now were rewarded with some beach time! It wasn't an extremely sunny day, which was very nice during our hike because it wasn't a million degrees (not to say the hike was easy for that reason). But now laying on the beach it was almost a little chilly. Windy at times, which made the water pretty choppy...but did that stop me from jumping off a huge rock into the water? The first time I went out to the pier and looked at the water it was so choppy that it was splashing a good two feet up over the pier edge. And Laura said..no amanda I think you should wait. So we went back and took a little nap on the beach. Then I was pumped, READY TO GO! And Jen said she wanted to do it with me. Yay! Now I have a buddy! So off we go to the pier to see how the waters doing now. Well we see that these three boys have already jumped in and are now trying to get out. Quite a difficult task it looked like. And because the waves were so huge the boys could get a grip on the edge of the pier before it came splashing over them and pulled them back out. So what they tried to do was swim with the wave and have it push them up over the pier. They were successful, however it did look kind of painful. I didn't want to do that. The Nancy Drew in me came out and I investigated the scene, finding a small ladder over the far edge near the rocks. Yes! Thats my escape route!

So me and Jen prepare for the jump. And we prepare...and we prepare. Okay I'm not going to lie the waves were huge and we were a little nervous. These two italian guys were standing a couple feet away and watching us and just laughing because we would count 1...2...3...NO! And then just laugh really hard. Finally we grabbed each others arms and just ran off the edge. It was insane, the waves pushed us around under the water (but don't worry, we didn't die) and then getting to the ladder I had scoped out was a task in it's self! Jen grabbed a hold of it first, so I just kind of floated behind waiting for a good wave to come so I could grab it. Well that wave came..and it was a lot stronger than I had thought and pushed me a few feet past the ladder and closer to my imminent death by rocks. After a few tries, and multiple waves crashing over me, I grabbed the ladder and climbed out as quickly as possibly. I would be lying if I said my heart wasn't pounding and I wasn't scared of those rocks and the huge waves. But the second I got out all I felt was adrenaline and was like LETS DO IT AGAIN!

So we did! This time Laura joined us for the dangerous fun.

After all making it out in one piece, we decided that the waves were getting way too choppy for a third round and went to lay on the beach and listen to the music (Summer Lovin, Greece Lightning, the Macarena). Who do Italians think we (americans) are? Haha.

Who's a size small?!

So my dear mother, decides she is going to send me a care package! How lovely of her! And what does a care package for a girl like myself look like? Some of my favorite shirts and adorable dresses jam packed into a small box for me to open like a can of worms!
Now. Here's the theory I have. Because my box has taken much longer than we thought it would to get here. And apparently it is out of customs as of Monday I believe, yet no can-of-worms-like box-o-clothing for Amanda. So I believe that while it was in customs and going through I'm sure the millions of scanners they have there, someone saw all my cute dresses and was like HEY! Who's a size small? Dan! Isn't your girlfriend a size small? Bob! Don't you have two teenage daughters? Yup. My clothes were pilfered. Attacked! If you will.
No box-o-clothes for Amanda....
So I guess I'll just have to go nakie now.

Terrible Twos.

My little baby boy turned two today....My how they grow up fast! I'm such a bad mom for not being there too!

Winos.

Chianti wine tour, was not as winey as I thought it would be.
I mean I was looking forward to just being totally smashed by the end of the day and then getting on the tour bus and them taking me right back to the school, only to hope we could make it to our apartments in the state they left us. Haha.
But alas. I was wrong.
We met at the campus in the morning, and of course Laura, Jessica and I were running late. Have no fear we got there right on time though. Slid onto the bus without anyone knowing how late we were and off we went. We had this funny tour guide lady, who's English was great but she just said goofy things. We stopped in two little towns, and I can't even remember their names (and no Lew I hadn't been drinking :] ) but we got to walk around, there were little markets to walk through and tasty fruit stands! Then the bus took us to the top of this one hill where we had our lunch and wine tasting. And we only tasted red wines...not my favorite.
The day was pretty good. Very tiring, probably because it was SO hot outside.

I saw the BEACHES!

So after a tiring week. Haha.

Us girls decide that we need some relaxation. And where better to relax? The beach!

The train ride is only about an hour maybe an hour and a half, so off we go.

Now of course once we get there, we do not have a map or even slightly know where to go. I see these four Italian kids with towels in hand and I offer up to Missy Jessica and Hannah that we should just follow them. And thats just what we did. We were a bit creepy... stalker-ish even. But we got to the beach! Once at the beach we still had I idea where to go. A lot of it is private beach so you have to pay to sit there, but we aren't sure where to pay or where the public beach is. So we just sit on some of the chairs and get comfortable. Then of course, we knew it was coming sometime, a man comes over and asks if we have our ticket. We don't. We ask him where we could pay or how much it is. And he gives us no real answer so we just pick our stuff up and walk a little ways down the beach. At this place we see no signs saying we can not lay there, and we see other beach goers tanning out on their towels. So we come to the conclusion that this is a good spot to stop. Yet, once again, right after we get comfy some guy comes over and tells us (in Italian) that we can not sit there. Again, we grab our stuff and walk down the beach. No one is being very helpful, we aren't being rude or even bothering anyone we just want to lay out, read, take a nap maybe and swim. But you can not do those activities at this beach! Hehe. We finally find the public section of the beach. I mean no one wanted to tell us how much the chairs were on the private beach section so here we are. A tiny little postage stamp section of this huge 5.5 mile beach. But really we don't care by this point. Just let us lay our stuff down and not get kicked off. :]

After a while, we all decide it's far to hot to lay there any longer and run out into the water. We're swimming around for a while and all then Missy comes up to me with a panicked look on her face. She looks like she's seen a ghost, or maybe a jelly fish? Yeah apparently one was right next to her when she looked down and she said that she got out of the water as quick as she could. After she calmed down a little we started joking about who would have had to pee on her, had she gotten stung. (Friends anyone?) But with that we decide to go walk along the pier. The view is gorgeous. I can't believe you can see the mountains while standing on the beach. It's just amazing. So we stop at the end of the pier and are just hanging out and talking and then we see these two little Italian boys jumping off the side into the water. So we walk closer to them (like a stalker I'm taking pictures, the were just SO cute!) they couldn't have been older than ten or eleven. And we see them lock arms and then count down from three before running and leaping off the pier. Missy and I are both cracking up and then look at each other like if you do I will! So we kick off our flip-flops and hand my camera to one of the boys and jump off into the water. Of course I didn't hold my nose and saltwater goes rushing into my brain. Along with my top being a little disoriented. But it was so much fun! And the boy got a picture of us jumping off the edge! We climb out and doing it twice more. Talk with the boys and their older brother (i think) for a few minutes and then head off down the pier to where are towels are laid out to tell Jessica and Hannah all about our random adventure!

Final Tally: Taxi=8 Nuns=7

Today actually started out...one could say with last night.

I went to dinner with Nikki and Marco. After getting stuck on their street with no way to call them or find out their number (of course I forgot it already). My phone has decided that it no longer wishes to actually work. It will not connect for phone calls unless it is plugged into a wall. What kind of crappy phone did PicCell give me?? I'm calling them today for a new phone!
So last night at dinner Nikki and Marco are telling me the times of arrivals for the new girls for the July session. P.S. there are 11 new girls coming (so there will be 14 of us for this session). And all eleven of the girls are coming on Tuesday. the schedule was insane. One person could not possible do it. Because girls were coming into the train station and the airport at times far too close to each other. So Marco was telling me how he is picking up the girls from the airport. Well I decided that I would go with him, because two of the girls are goign to be my new roommates. So why not just help him out and meet them at the airport. And that is when I decided my fate for today. Haha :]
Today started off bright and shiny at 7:00 for me, which came far too early after a phone conversation with John after he got off work (6:00pm for him, 1:00am for me). (Don't worry parents, he called me...not another phone call on my already killer, I'm sure, phone bill). So anyways, 7:00am, right. I woke up and got ready then met Marco to find a taxi to take to the airport. While waiting for the taxi we read the newspaper. And by we I mean I stumbled through it and asked him what certain words meant before being able to understand the whole article. But I think I did pretty well actually and Marco said he was impressed with my comprehension. So we get a taxi and make our way to the airport where we pick up the first girl Jen, and took her back to the San Gallo Campus to get her housing assignment and keys. After showing her to her apartment, Marco and I head back to the airport to pick up another girl. this one's name is Dawn and her plane was an hour late. Which really wasn't a problem for us, we mostly just felt bad for her. But when she finally got off her plane we took her to the campus for all the information. By this time we hear the news that three of the girls who were supposed to come into the train station at 13:00 never showed up (and the two girls who's train got in at 13:45 have already gotten their keys and made it to the apartment), so up to the train station we go to check things out. Sure enough two trains coming from Roma Termini come and go and no sight of three semi-lost American girls. Marco and I leave Lealle at the station because if not we are going to be late picking up the third girl from the airport, Adriana. As we wait for her plane to land we get a call from Jessica saying that she found three girls sitting outside of the apartment building looking exhausted, semi-lost and saying they were with Abroadco. Crazy... Marco tells Jessica to take the girls up to the San Gallo Campus and we will meet them there when we get Adriana. So now we feel a little better, the girls were found, they did make it into the station. But how/why did they leave the station without finding someone with Abroadco and how did they find the apartment? Interesting. Marco, Adriana and I make it back to the campus (and by this time Marco and I have taken six cabs today, but only see four nuns), back at the campus we find Jessica sitting with Hannah, Amanda, and Elizabeth. and everything gets taken care of. now that we know where all the girls that should be in Florence are we head off to our apartments and I lead the way for the girls who are in my apartment with Marco helping out with the bags. Finally we get the four girls in my building settled into their rooms and I flop down on my bed exhausted. But wait there are still three more girls to pick up, did I mention that part?
I pick my tired butt up off the bed and start walking to Nikki and Marco's apartment. I'm going to eat dinner with them and then go to the train station to pick up the girls (two of which are in my apartment). Dinner was excellent. Marco made this rice that I could have eaten forever. Haha. then off we went to the train station. Marco and I's taxi count is now up to seven and oh! Did I mention that we had seen two more nuns? Taxi=7 Nuns=6 Almost even now!
At the train station we find the girls really easily thank goodness. They are all really nice and I can't wait to get to know them better. Once they got their stuff set in the apartment all 13 of us girls (Missy is out of town) met up for some gelato. (Nora would be so happy).
Fourteen is going to be such a huge group. When it was only five of us it was much easier to get around without being the huge-group-of-loud-American-girls target. But now...we no longer have that luck.



Oh. Did I mention...I can't believe I will be home in less than a month. I'm actually kind of sad to think about it. I don't think I want to leave. But I do want to come home. If that makes any sense? I was to see everyone I miss so much, but I guess I just don't feel like my time here in Italy is done. Hmm...I guess I will just have to move back here some day. :]

"The Agency"

Yeah. That sounds legit.
So I was the last one to leave my apartment on Friday morning, and the first one to come home to my apartment on Sunday afternoon. That by all accounts should mean that nothing would be any different than I had left it. Right?
Wrong. I come home and all the windows are open. I notice this first because well I left pretty much everything I have here in Italy with me in my apartment for the weekend. And I've been told to keep at least one set of windows (either the shutters or the glass windows) locked at all times to prevent creepsters from climbing into my apartment and taking my precious Muzzy stuffed animal (I hear he's all the rage here). So all the windows are open. And thank goodness I got home during the afternoon or I would have been terrified had I come in when it was dark outside. So I lock all the shutters and go into my room. Where most of my stuff seems to have been moved around a little. All my clothes that were on the drying rack have been haphazardly piled onto my bed, and Missy's bed has been completely cleared off. I was really confused. But I start moving my stuff into the other room (Missy and I are switching rooms). I get all my stuff organized in the other room and my bed made and I think there are a few books of Missy's left in the book case in our old room and a pile of towels and my sheets on the floor for me to wash. But everything on the drying rack (that some stranger put there) is still damp so I leave the pile of laundry on the floor until the morning when I can clear off the drying rack and have space for the other things. So I get all my stuff together to go up to campus, take a good look around the apartment (I want to remember how everything looks, to make sure no one has been there when I get back) and off I go. When I make it back to the apartment later that night, there is no evidence that someone has been there, thank goodness. But I am still a little creeped out to be there by myself just because I know someone was there over the weekend...
I fall asleep excited about the opportunity to sleep in! I have no classes, nothing I must do. It's wonderful!
Sleep in...riiight. At about 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning I wake up to some woman barging into my room and switching on the light. I sit up in bed. And she starts talking to me in Italian. Okay not really talking more like yelling. She's angry. I'm not sure why. I should be the angry one. You just woke me up, remember that part lady?! Now I sit up in bed and ask who she is? To which I learned that she was the cleaning lady. Cool. I lay back down and she wakes me up again because she wants they key for the other door in my room. A door which leads to another completely different apartment (where some boy lives). I tell her no. I'm not opening the door. She's like banging on the door and yelling stuff to me in Italian about how she needs the door unlocked. And I'm just like no, a boy lives there we don't need to open that door. Besides if you could get into my apartment when I locked the dead bolt I'm pretty sure you can figure out a way into that apartment that doesn't require me standing there in practically nothing. (Remember she woke me up, I have no air conditioning, therefore I sleep in a sports bra and shorts...not acceptable to be opening random doors to random boys apartments). She keeps banging around...and trying to open the door even though she knows it's locked and yelling in Italian. So I finally get so annoyed that I get up and rummage for the key and unlock the door for her. But she takes the key from me and doesn't give it back. I went back to sleep because well I was exhausted, and when I wake up the door is still unlocked. Thanks lady!
Oh but wait. Want to know how I woke up the third time that morning? With some random lady standing at the foot of my bed yelling at me. Lovely! At least her screaming was mostly English. I wake up to see this creeper standing at the foot of my bed yelling about something and I sit straight up and yell (so she can hear me over her own screams) "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?" She ignores my question and just keeps yelling. Something about how this isn't my room, I don't live here. Something. To which I just say. Umm...remember that part about you waking me up. Right.. I sleep in here. This is my room, all my stuff is in here. I've lived in this apartment for over a month now. What are you talking about? And she just keeps yelling about me not living there and how it's not my room. Again I try to ask who the heck she is! With no real response, except that she is from "The Agency" whoever that is! And she walks out of the room, and I think she meant for me to follow her but I just lay back down on my bed. So again she comes into my room yelling. And this time she has her cell phone in had, and there is someone on the other end that I apparently need to speak with. So I take the phone (hoping to find out who the heck this lady is) and here's the conversation:

Hello, who is this?
so-and-so from The Agency.
Does said "Agency" have a REAL name?
(she completely ignores my question...seems to be a theme with these "agency" workers)
Who am I speaking with?
Amanda
Amanda Celentano
Sure.

And then she starts yelling at me too. About blah.blah.blah.
While the lady on the phone is yelling at me, so is the lady in my apartment with me. So I tell the woman on the phone that i have to go and then hang up the phone. To which the lady in my apartment asks "Did you not speak to them?" I was like really really!? So I told her "No I couldn't listen to both of you yell at the same time."
So the yelling continued and then she finally left. I have no idea what prompted her departure and I really didn't care. Just as long as she was gone!

Wow! Two Angels, Very Sexy!

Saturday morning was another one of those early site seeing mornings. As it usually is with me and Nora.
We got breakfast at the hotel, which is excellent because that is one less meal we have to figure out or pay for! :]
First on our agenda for the day is the Colosseum. As we are walking up, this man dressed up like a roman soldier or something says "Wow! Two angles, very sexy" and then winks and both of us just walk off shaking our heads saying "Really? Really??!" Haha. Even though we got there right when it opened we still waited in like for about twenty minutes. And after we were already in line we read something that we should go to Palatine Hill first because the lines are shorter there and then come over to the Colosseum because we'd already have our ticket and be able to just speed on through. But we were already in line, so why cause too much trouble. So into the Colosseum we go. And it's so cool! I can't believe 50,000 people used to crowd into this place. I walked around in amazement for a while, and then got really animated while talking to Nora about Gladiator (ya know the movie) which she's never seen, so added it to the list of movies she must see before we hang out again. :] Sadly she will have far too much time to watch all these movies.
After the Colosseum we went over to Palatine Hill and we got in SO quickly. We really didn't know where to go here so we just started walking up. We figured that was best when trying to get to the top of a Hill. ;] As we're walking I'm eating an apple, and when I was finished I told Nora that I didn't really want to throw it away in a trash can, because well then it will just go to a land fill, but if I throw it on the ground maybe a bird or something will eat it for dinner and then the core will deteriorate and that would be better than a landfill. Right? So I casually toss it over my shoulder into the wilderness and the couple walking behind us gives me a funny look. Oh well. I shrug my shoulders and keep on. Through out the course of our day we saw a bunch of old things and rocks. Hehehe. Casa di Augusto, the Palatine Museum and the Roman Forum. Then we hopped on our favorite subway line (B, feel the sarcasm :] ) to find the Roman Baths. Once we were good and sweaty from walking around there for two hours or so we went back to the hotel and showered, got all fancied up (hoping Papa would be down stairs so we could take a picture with him) and then went to get a romantic dinner for two. ;]

Ma'am. You can wait for your friend outside!

Happy Independence Day.

This morning was interesting...I love people...
Moving on.
Our train to Rome left at 7:52 am so apparently I needed to be up at 6:00am...
I got ready and realized I get the whole apartment to myself from Sunday through Tuesday and that made me feel a little better about the morning. I met Nora at the train station at 7:40, ten minutes late...oops. But don't worry we made the train (we're such paranoids now). An uneventful train ride made me think I get to do this by myself on Sunday, sad. When we made it to Rome first we went to drop our bags off at the hotel. Our hotel is called Hotel Papa Germano and when we walked in this really energetic animated guy greets us. He was hilarious! And we're pretty sure he is Papa Germano. So we just call him Papa. We're going to get a picture with him before the weekend is up!
After all that we left to make our way to the Vatican City. Because on the train ride to Rome we found in the guide book that it is apparently closed on Saturdays. Which neither of us knew. But we had been planing to go Saturday morning. So instead we made it today.
Another rumor we had heard was that we wouldn't be allowed in with bare shoulders or short shorts. And this seemed to be partly true. Some security guard made sure we were covered up before we walked in. Yet once we were inside no one had anything covering their shoulders so because it was hot we took our sweaters off too. And no one ever said anything. Bare shoulders! In the Vatican? *Gasp*
So getting to the Sistine Chapel takes forever. And the other stuff is cool but really I don't know what much of it was (I haven't studied about it I mean). So we get to the Sistine Chapel and put away our cameras because it had a No Pictures sign right outside. but then when we saw everyone taking pictures we got out our cameras again. And after like ten minutes this guy comes up to me and is like "No pictures allowed" So I put my camera up. But then he's like "Ma'am you can wait for your friend outside!" and points to the other end of the room. Well Nora and I start walking that direction and then stop to look at something and the man yells out to us, "No stopping". Oh okay! Haha. So we get to the other end of the room and he doesn't seem to care if we stop there. (Actually he's probably already preoccupied by all the millions of flashes going off in the room). So here we are standing at the back of the Sistine Chapel, where they send all the misbehaviors. And I'm not going to lie to you, I could see the entire room still just as well as I could from the other end. I mean, what are you looking at in here anyways. The ceiling. Haha. So we stood there for another 15 minutes before my friend started making his way through the crowd yelling at some other fancy photographers to get out. So we left. It was amazing to see though, besides the crowd (barely room to stand or even walk) and the deathly heat I probably could have spent a year looking at it!
Now it was time to trek back out of the museum. As we did we came up with a game plan to also visit St. Peter's since it happens to be right next to the Vatican. Oh did I mention we did not wait in any lines to get into the Vatican even though every one told us it would be hell getting in (no pun intended). So we thought St. Peter's would be the same, well it twas not! There was a line that practically wrapped around the entire piazza. After about five minutes of standing in line the boy behind us asks me if this is the line for Basilica di San Pietro. "We hope so" I say and laugh. Because actually we're not entirely sure that we're in the right place/line. But we wait anyways. the rest of the time in line we learn our new friend's name is John, he is a lawyer from Argentina backpacking for a month around Europe. Also during our conversation he said something that made Nora and I laugh. "It's cheap for you to visit here. 1.7 right?" (meaning exchange rate) And then we learn that his exchange rate is like 4.something. Yikes! Yeah I guess in perspective to that it is cheap for us to be here.
Next thing we know we're through security. We decide against climbinb the stairs to the dome and instead go into the crypt of the popes (or something..) first. I'm going to be honest with you. It's not that interesting. A bunch of stone caskets with what, I'm taking a wild guess and saying, holds many old very dead popes? Maybe if I was Catholic or thought the pope held any sort of importance. Eh. Oh and Saint Peter's "tomb" is down there too. But the inside of the church I loved! Beautiful. I saw Michelangelo's Pieta, wow...thats all I can say. It has been protected by bullet-proof glass since 1972 when an axe carrying freak attacked it breaking Christ's nose and Mary's hand, which is a very useless yet hopefully interesting tidbit of information for ya. What I want to know is how did said attacker get into the church with an axe? They examined my chapstick like it was something dangerous.

Then we saw a bunch of people were touching some statues feet. So Nora and I did too. Then I felt kind of gross cause little kids probably picked their noses and then touched those feet. Gee thanks Jess! Hehe :]
After walking around for a little while longer and talking with our friend John about some of the things in the church. Nora and I went back to the hotel to grab some stuff and head out again. This time for the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain and maybe some gelato. If the mood strikes us. While on the underground going to Trevi fountain we realize that if we stay on one stop longer we'll end up right by the Spanish Steps, so thats what we do. I don't really understand the big to-do about the Spanish Steps but here's how my guide book describes them: Designed by an Italian, paid for by the French, named for the Spaniards, occupied by the British and currently featuring American greats like Ronald McDonald, the Scalinata di Spagna are, to say the least, multi-cultural. Hmmm...So we saw those steps. And took some pictures. The moved on. Went into the Pantheon which was pretty neat! There is a huge hole in the top and I learned that when it rains 22 small holes in the center of the floor drain the water. How neat!
On our way to Trevi fountain, we just happened to walk by this gelato place that Nora's mom recommended to us and well...we couldn't pass that up. Hehe :] So we did get gelato..and it was excellent. Then we saw Trevi fountain, and made a wish!
We did call it an early night...it was an exhausting day 1 in Roma.

Farewell Dinner

Everyone is leaving either tonight or tomorrow morning. When I left my apartment this evening my roommates were getting all their stuff ready. They leave tonight for Paris. It's all quite sad. Thank goodness I get to spend all weekend with Nora in Rome. It's going to be fun.
So tonight was the farewell dinner, and everyone was supposed to meet at the Strozzi Campus at 7:00 so I went up a little early hoping to catch my mom, dad, Jess or John on Skype, because I wouldn't be on later tonight like I had said. Well I had emails from Jess and my mom and to my surprise I was able to talk to John. (I distracted him from work for a little hehe...sorry Dave). :]
So 7:00 comes around an no one is there so we call the other campus and they tell us it's not until 7:15 but Marina is running a few minutes late, so we hang out a little longer and then go back downstairs to meet everyone. Everyone...riiiight. the only person we see downstairs is Marina (Santa Reparata Housing Director) and she say we're going to wait a little longer to see if people are running late too, but I'm standing there thinking it's just gonna be the four of us (Nora, Missy, Kathryn and me) and our Santa Reparata Directors. A little awkward we're all thinking. So after a while we head off for the restaurant (yay I'm so hungry). Finally we get there, Marina and Rebecca were walking painfully slow. Haha. They probably didn't walk that slow but Nora and I were starved so it seemed like forever. The place was so cute though and really nice. We walked in and went downstairs to a neat little seating area which Nora and I could only call authentic. Sitting at our table already were Rebecca's parents (the owners of SR). Hmmm...
Once we were all seated Rebecca explained that this was a traditional Renaissance meal, which is apparently the specialty of the chef at this restaurant and a very special treat because he doesn't do it very often.
So first dinner started out with us tasting some wine. (I love it already! Haha). It was a copper colored sweet "white" wine. Very good. There were very few bottles of it made. (They told us how many...I definitely forgot that number). The chef only spoke Italian so Rebecca kept trying to translate for us. I caught some of what he was saying! YAY! Go me! After we had all tasted the wine and approved, I guess, he brought out more and with that Crustinis. Three different types: an olive spread, a chicken liver spread and (my fav) a peppers spread. They were all good. Not a huge fan of the olive one (Kirssy is crying a little right now) and the chicken liver one was interesting. I'm glad I tried it though. Next on the menu (omg did I mention how HUGE this meal was) was the pasta dishes. Linguine with a mixture of flavors I would have never in my life put together, I don't remember all of them but I know brown sugar was one of them. And ravioli filled with Picorela cheese in a duck sauce. That one was by far my favorite of the pastas.
Oh wait...there is more. Two "main" dishes came. Veal meatloaf (the chef is shuddering at my use of that word) with peaches and a Beef something with apples and pears. With that we had a red wine, that I didn't like that much. Then of course there were a million different things for dessert too..
Of course we needed a different wine for this portion of the meal. :] We were served a sweet dessert wine-liqueur in what looked like shot glasses. Next a mixture of fresh fruits, which had kiwi in it!! Yum! And finally finishing the (HUGE) meal was a sort of ice cream something with chocolate sauce.
I mean this meal was amazing, but so big!
And dinner wasn't nearly as awkward as we thought it would be. It was kind of fun. I think we learned a lot.
Well Rome in the morning. Sleep time.

Molto Bene!!

So I can't believe I've already been here a month.

I just finished all my exams for this term. A's. YAY! And my Italian teacher said my Italian pronounciation during the speaking part of the exam was "Molto Bene!!". Yay. I'm quite proud of myself.

It's weird though, I was so over-whelmed by staying two months but now that I've already been here for one term, I couldn't even imagine going home right now. All the girls that aren't staying for two terms leave today or tomorrow. None of them want to leave. It's sad. Because I've made some really good friends, so I think the whole process of getting comfortable is going to start over a little. Just because I won't know anyone again. Hmm.

I leave for Roma tomorrow morning at 8:00am and I'll be back around 2 in the afternoon on Sunday. So be prepared for some chatting!

The Sights, The Sounds....The Smells??

So lets start this blog off right. With a depressing story. Just the way I like it. ;]
I sliced my finger open on a can last night. That was loads of fun. I was opening the can and I look down and my finger is bleeding A LOT...what? So I run it under some water, which got really hot while I was doing that. That didn't make it feel any better. And then searched the apartment for some Neosporin and a band-aid. Which I did happen to find! My luck is lookin' up! (wait...except for that part about my cut finger). But I guess I should have expected it. I have kitchen accidents in the states...I should have at least one while here. Ya know just to make me feel really at home! At least it was just a cut finger instead of...lets say...the whole apartment being on fire. :]

It would be quite sad if our apartment caught on fire. I do like it so. I mean. It's where I'm living. We have three bedrooms, there are five of us in the apartment. And really it's not that big, but we haven't had a problem yet of getting in each other's way too much and it's already been a month so I'd say we're doing pretty good! Our kitchen is bigger than our "living room" which i find humorous, and definitely what I would have stereotyped. But our table pretty much takes up the whole space. So what I was getting to. We have this little porch attached to our Kitchen. It is really neat. And we were very much looking forward to actually using it. (All the other girls were jealous). Until we did try to use it once. Lets just say it smells. It actually smells so bad it makes the whole apartment stink if we even open the doors. Haha. I've never seen the floors above us open the windows that face into this little area, probably because it does the same thing to their apartments. So needless to say, we have this lovely little area...out of use! Be glad that video and pictures do not send smell. Because our porch is definitely not the only place that smells in Florence. And it seems that the city smells worse for every day it gets hotter. Haha.

Now I shouldn't have a whole blog complaining about Florence. Because I absolutely love it here. I don't think I'm coming home...You guys can all just come here. :]

Oh. I'm going to Rome on Friday morning! I'll be back Sunday sometime. We're going to run around like mad women and see everything! YAY for tourists. Haha.