snow covered chacos...

amy and i just got back to Rome at 8 this morning (monday morning)...we had to leave for the airport at 2:30 A.M., which i will explain in a second...

Friday morning, we had a taxi pick us up at 6 AM to get to the airport on time...everything went perfectly...we arrived in poland right on schedule...found a shuttle to take us to Krakow, and then began the search for our hostel...we were there about an hour, still looking for this particular street, when i went and asked some guy if he could show us where we were on the map i had in my guide book...he said "this is a map of krakow"...i looked at him kinda stupidly and replied "yes, i know...we're in krakow"...he smiled and said, "no...this is katowice"...umm, cue panic mode...i really almost started crying...but, thankfully this guy helped me out...apparently, katowice has two airports...one which usually shuttles to krakow, and one that is katowice's main airport...amy and i felt really stupid for a while...we kinda just assumed krakow and katowice were the same...kinda like florence is the same thing as firenze...and they kept showing as the same thing on the airlines webpage...anyway, enough excuses...we messed up...but luckily, auschwitz is on the way to krakow...so friday we just headed there instead...

so, auschwitz...where to start...first of all, it was not how i pictured it...i imagined it would be sort of alone...in the middle of nowhere...but it is very much a part of the town...also, it was really green...i always thought it would lack any type of color for some reason...i am so incredibly glad i got to go...to walk where they walked...to see thousands of shoes...7 tons of hair...i really can not describe to you all the feelings it evokes...we also got to see auchwitz 2...birkenau, the larger camp a few miles away...and sadly, it looked just as i imagined...treeless, sameness, sadness...honestly, i don't want to blog about all that i thought and saw and learned there...so, just ask me and i'll tell you in person...it's good stuff...

afterwards we went to our hostel in krakow...i love hostels...honestly, i do...they are so much fun...just awesome places...this one was called Nathan's Villa Hostel...they had a kitchen, pool room and theatre room...anybody interested in opening a hostel in the states with me? locale is key, but i think it could work...that night we went to the most polish restaurant you could imagine...it was fabulous...except, Amy and i unknowingly ate lard...i don't recommend it...

the next day we saw the castle in krakow...didnt really know what it is...still dont really know...it was pretty though...the weather was great, the people were hilarious, and the town was just darling...we had the most amazing kebabs ever...and then headed to zakopane (which is kind of like the interlaken, switzerland of poland...a ski/adventure town)...once again, our hostel was so great...this one was actually a little cabin...that night, amy and i went to see Mamma Mia...we had been craving the theatre experience...this one guy behind us laughed the entire time at peirce brosnan (and for good reason) which made the movie doubly enjoyable...that next morning we waited 2 hours to go up in a cable car...it was certainly worth it...except, i wasn't really dressed for snow...i definitely had on my chacos...bad, bad decision...i didn't have a choice though...i only brought one pair of shoes...afterall, i have to carry everything on my back...some things i just have to leave behind...like snow shoes...here's what happened...i fell 3 times trying to walk up the wet/icy/slippery "path" in my chacos and quickly lost all feeling in my toes...after we had our fill of pictures and watched two nuns have a snowball fight, we started to head back down...but, umm...i couldn't...it took me forever to walk the shortest of distances...at one point, this man walked up to me...bent down and threw snow on my feet...i laughed, because i think he was trying to be funny, but you don't throw snow on people's bare feet...it's cold...but, it was pretty funny...then not 2 minutes later, a guy came up to me and offered me a hand, and made my day...he took me rest of the way down...i love poland...

and ofcourse, we could not leave poland without trying one of their traditional mystery bread things...i bought one for amy, because they are everywhere and i just had to know what it was...they are shockingly heavy and filled with terrible smelling cheese...you can tell by amy's face that she liked it...

the rest of our trip is unexciting so i'm going to kinda skip it...we slept for a couple hours in another hostel in Krakow, but because of our flight mix-up we had to leave for the airport incredibly early...all in all, another fabulous weekend...

parla inglese? good...i need vitamins

well, i have been in rome for almost a week now...it has been wonderful...we are still trying to make our apartment a home...it is lacking in some essential areas...for example, our pillows are filled with cotton balls and we only have a bundt pan...but, we bought a coffee pot at a store down the street...that was an ordeal...the guy kept saying "discount, discout"...and after some really confusing sign language, i decided that he was saying that was the last one...so i just smiled and paid for it...however, once we were home we quickly discovered that it didn't fit any of the outlets...maybe thats what he was trying to say...but why on earth would they sell a coffee pot in italy not for italy? luckily Amy had a converter that fit it...i'm just waiting for that glorious morning when it explodes because of the wattage...

my little neighborhood is great! we are learning where to buy things and such...one thing i learned from mongolia is coming in handy...you actually have to go in to the store to figure out what they sell...we searched high and low for notebooks the other day, and then i went into what i thought was a tabac store right next to our apartment to buy postcards but there weren't any because it was a notebook store! seriously...what are the chances...

everyone on our program has been sick/getting sick/getting other people sick for about 2 weeks now...i had managed to avoid it in Florence, but one of our roommates (who will remain nameless) has brought the disease into our home...amy and i have been determined to beat it...so, i have taken some precautions...i removed my toothbrush from the communal toothbrush cup by the sink and i've been keeping my own set of dishes separate from everyone elses...i also got some multi-vitamins with the help of the lovely english speaking pharmacists...sadly, the other morning i woke up with a sore throat...i can still beat this...

we just started classes this past monday, which has been nice being able to figure out my routine...every morning amy and i drink our coffee and are out the door by 8:30...we say good morning to St. Peter's, pass by the crazy poodle lady (who doesn't have a lot of poodles...just actually paints her face to look like one) and arrive at school in about 25 minutes...on mondays and wednesdays im done by 11...isnt life beautiful...

well...rome is so good...so so good...i went to Mass at the Vatican last Sunday...pretty amazing...i can't believe i can say i've done that...and i'm 95% sure i saw Father Donohoe...and even though i was a good distance away, it was really awesome/weird to recognize someone in such an elaborate procession...

i'm off to poland this weekend, so i'll be updating with some more pictures soon!

deuces

farewell firenze...

well...my last days in florence were great...i took my final on wednesday...really crazy how im getting 3 hours of credit at furman for a 3 week course...anyway, after the test, my teacher Marco played us three songs on his recorder...i know it sounds lame, but he was really really good...i was expecting those plastic recorders that we all played in 2nd grade...but it was legit...then after our free concert, Cathy, Stephanie, Amy and I decided we had to go to the top of the Duomo before we left...it was 400 and some odd stairs, but actually turned out to not be that bad...the view was gorgeous, as expected...afterwards, Amy and i did a little art shopping...we cant stop...we always have a good time bargaining with the crazy painters of firenze...

anyway, that night we had a farwell dinner...but it wasnt anything special...except we got really good bread with our meal, instead of the usual "prison bread"...

thursday morning we woke up and got on the bus to go to roma! the bus pulled in around 12:30 and we were in our apartement by 1...it is right in between the Castle of San Angelo and Vatican City...i saw 16 priests in the first two hours we were here...seriously, i counted...our apartement is on the 2nd floor of the building, and has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a living room and a kitchen...we have two other roommates...Theresa from ohio and Christina from Connecticut, i think...i cant remember...amy and i took the small bedroom...i guess just to be nice...the other one is huge...but, its ok...amy and i live well together...we did rearrange our room though...and we converted the ironing board into our bedside table...amy brought some pictures from home and we put them on the walls...that made my day...


the rest of the house really is fine...we have a gas water heater, which means we should always have hot water...the stove works, but you kind of have to guess the temperature...the landlady just pointed to the knob and said "low, medium, really hot"...so we will just guestimate...we have a washing machine, a fridge and a tv...AND it came with scategories!! fun times ahead...

amy and went to see Cathys apartement after we ate dinner in Piazza Novana...and quickly realized how not nice our apartement is...ha...its really ok though...but once amy and i got back, we could have sworn our room had gotten smaller...

well, florence...it was great...but i think im going to really like roma...peace

where birds fly at your face...

ok...i'll try and sum this all up as best as possible...i can't wait to get to Rome where i will hopefully be able to update more than just once a week...anyway, i digress...

last wednesday, i took my midterm (which i got back today...i passed!)then we went to the Academia where Michaelangelo's David is...every museum we go to, a history teacher goes with us which is so wonderful...i'm going to miss having a personal tour guide in the future...but he told us all about the techniques Michaelangelo used...if you care to know, ask me when i get back...the David is way bigger than you'd think...even if i tell you it's big...it will be bigger...and, even though you arent supposed to, i stole a picture...just because everyone else was doing it...

Thursday after class we all loaded into a bus and headed to Sienna...it is only about 1 1/2 hours outside of Florence...the town is really quaint...it's divided into 17 (i think) districts, each with there own flags, colors, churches, etc...we learned a lot about St. Catherine...she apparently starved herself to death...very interesting life...we visited a church while we were there that was beautiful...and i took way too many pictures...


Friday, we got up early and had to be on a bus by 8 a.m to go to Venice! But ofcourse, the forecast for Venice was rain...every day...anyway, the bus ride was about 4 hours...and then we had to take a 20 minute ferry ride to our hotel...which was TINY...it re-defined tiny...honestly it wasn't that bad...except i left the window open, so all of my clothes got wet...Friday afternoon, we dropped our bags off and went straight to a cathedral...that i can't remember the name of off the top of my head...then, Amy and i decided to skip out a little early and go grab a snack...minutes after we walked out of the church, down pour...after we had dried off sort of, and the rain had died down, Amy lead us to St. Marks square since she's been to Venice before...it was scary...birds everywhere...apparently this is THE PLACE to feed the birds...they just attack...i was constantly having to duck to dodge a low flying pigeon...even though i didn't participate, it did provide some great entertainment...

after we had our fill of bird watching, we headed back to our "hotel" to get ready for dinner...then we ate some pretty terrible pizza, because all of us are cheap, venice is really expensive (the most expensive city in italy), and no one could decide where to eat...we still had fun though...i introduced everyone to the "can you frown game" and "no smile" game...perhaps i can show everyone the leaf game next...

Saturday was by far my favorite day in Venice...even though it literally did not stop raining...our first stop that morning was St. Marks Cathedral...i wish so badly i could show you all pictures of the incredible mosaics in the cathedral...but, once again no pictures allowed...so, i'll describe it as best i can...over 8 square miles of mosaics covered the walls...the entire inside practically glows...try to imagine the amount of time, work, and money that goes into finishing something so spectacular...unreal...but the art work wasn't the coolest part...even though we did see Venice's most prized piece of artwork (a gold altar piece, only put on display for special ceremonies)...we got to stand right in front of Mark...THE Mark guys...Jesus' buddy...i mean, i could see the actual stone coffin he is in...it was very different from being able to stand in a building that someone is buried under...it brough Amy and me to tears at dinner that night...we were right there! this guy was real...weird, crazy, good...i really wanted to open it so i could say i've seen his face...but upon realizing how weird that would actually be, i decided to take an illegal picture instead...after that amazingness, we went to the Doges Palace...it was cool...but i was still in shock from our first tour...that afternoon Amy and i attempted to do some shopping and after little success due to the cold rain, we called it quits...we took naps, showered and then went out for a nice little dinner just the two of us...as it should be...we found this artsy little restaurant with pictures everywhere and the food was wonderful...

sunday, was...rainy...we went to another museum and then to the Rialto Bridge...then we just wondered because we had three more hours to kill until we left...we came across the best looking pizza in Venice...maybe even in italy...and we were all just drooling at the window...Chandler didn't have any money, and he kept going on about how he didnt have any money...before we knew it, this cute couple from iowa was buying us pizza...ha, free pizza is the best pizza...they were so kind...i hope i get to buy broke college kids pizza one day...

well, we go to Rome this thursday! i am so excited to not live in a hotel anymore...hope everyone is doing well...love and miss you all...

peace

shout outs:
liz is my favorite...love you sharing sister

running through train stations...

my first week in italy flew by...everyday was jam packed with going going going...my classes end at 1, from there we eat lunch, and then we have some type of afternoon activity...last week, for example, we went to the Uffize Museum with a History professor...it was amazing! i loved having someone tour us around...he knew so much about so much! i could have listened to him forever...but, once again my feet got tired (which i have found is occurring more and more frequently) and amy and i had a lot of travel planning to do...

this travel stuff is difficult at times...well, atleast the pre-travelling stuff...amy and i were very productive though...we had planned to go to poland this past weekend, but do to our last minute planning our trip was going to be beyond expensive...so, we had to come up with a plan B...we shifted some weekends around on our calendars and decided that this weekend we would explore the beautiful land of Switzerland! Amy and went through a whole lot to make this happen...after booking our hostel reservations online for both nights, we went to the train station and bought our tickets...then, the next day we had to walk these two guys (Alex and Chandler) through the entire thing because they wanted to go with us...which is fine (even though frustrating at times) because i'm glad they came...long story short, we eventually got on our train to Zurich Friday afternoon, even though the boys didn't make a hostel reservation...amy and i couldnt do everything...

the train ride took about 6 hours...not bad at all...we played cards and read...we arrived around 10:30 p.m. and easily found our hostel...thankfully, there was room for the guys (but they had to pay triple what we did)...the hostel was really much nicer than i had invisioned...i guess i always picture just, dirty nasty worse than camp disease ridden mattresses...but they were very clean...and each bed had it own little cubicle with a curtain, and a locker to put your stuff in...it was great...our hostel was located right in the center of the "old town"...and it was bumpin'...seriously, there is no other word...there were people all over the place...music was blaring (which made sleeping difficult)...so we decided to go walk around a grab something to eat...the next morning Amy and i woke up early and went to the saturday morning flea market at the end of the River...there was so much junk...we had a lot of fun just walking around...and this old man tried to convince us that the statue of the naked man in the park was actually of him...it was funny...he was kinda crazy...he really might think thats him...we met up with the guys and went to get bikes! the city lets you ride them for free! so we just rode around for a few hours, exploring, falling over and laughing hysterically...but we could not leave Zurich without eating some fantastic truffles right? don't worry, amy and i had our fill...i have finally tasted how chocolate should taste...i could keep talking about our day in Zurich, but i'm afraid a lot of it would just bore you/not be funny to you...so i'll wrap things up...

it started to rain late that afternoon so we headed to our next stop, Luzern, Switxerland...about an hour outside of Zurich...our hostel here was even cooler...very trendy, i guess...i can't really explain...it was just cool...if i had a hostel, it would be like this one...it was raining pretty steadily now, but we refused to let that get in our way...we went to eat thai food at a local restaurant...really good and really cheap...then we went to a bar called Jazkatine which was in Amy's guide book AND my guide book as the best place to hang out in town...however, there was no jazz on saturday night...there was a Swiss vs. Israel soccer game instead...it ended up being fun anyway...even though they tied...

well, the next morning it was still raining...and after visiting the Picasso museum and getting soaking wet, we headed to the train station...but our train never came...too much water on the tracks they said...so, Amy and I were now panicked/mad...Amy and I headed down to talk to the ticket people...some lady told us we had to buy new tickets...Amy and i were not happy...we told her that was unacceptable...and after lots of talking, we got a new lady to help us who actually understood the situation...there was lots of german being exchanged between the clueless girl and the smart one...when we asked what was going on, the lady said "we book new tickets for new train to Bern that leaves in 5 minutes"...yes...we had five minutes to exchange tickets for four people, get all of our bags, and get on said train...if we missed this one, we would miss all the other connecting trains we would need to get to Florence that night! I ran head to gather the guys/bags, but Chandler was no where in sight...he had waited all afternoon until right now to go use the bathroom! i started running to the bathroom, passed Amy, shouted "chandler, bathroom", she shouted back "platform 9" and i continued running...ofcourse there was a huge concert thing going on downstairs, so i had to weave/jump over children and luggage...ran into the bathroom, caught chandler's eye, said "we gotta go!" and then we both sprinted as fast as we could back through the crowd, onto platform 9, and then onto our train!!! we were so lucky...and running through train stations is really fun when you make it to the train and are able to laugh about it after...unfortunately, that wasn't the only time we had to run...but by then, i was pretty good at weaving...4 trains and 7 hours later, we made it back to florence...

well, zurich was good...i'm headed to the duomo now and then to the symphony tonight...love you all...peace

shout outs:
frances: your aunt s-unit loves you!
rebecca: fli flove flou
tiffany's puppies: look out, your mom's got the squirts
etak: ELLO, MY NAMES RIICHAAAARD! I LIVE IN IIREELAND!! so many accents here...wish i could impersonate them with you...soon...very soon..
ferg: please imagine what might have happened if we actually had picked up that baby deer...what a story that would have been
cameron: so, at breakfast, there are never any spoons...so we are all forced to use the huge serving spoons to eat our cereal...and every morning, all i can think about is the fact that "MY SPOON IS TOO BIG!"

oh my heavens...

buono serra from firenze! sorry i sort of disappeared for a while...i couldnt ever find affordable internet access...plus, Amy and i haven't really stopped going since we left...we just started out italian class in florence today so i have a little down time...but not much, so this will be short...

the first two days we spent in london...our flight was 2 hours late, but our spirits were high...anyway, london in 1 1/2 days is impossible...we had a guided tour on thursday morning, and then explored by ourselves...we went to westminster abbey and then to platform 9 3/4 (like in harry potter...we took pictures...it was funny) the we took the tube to notting hill just to see it...there's nothing there really...but then we walked through Kinsington Park and sat in the grass for a while...then it was time for showers and a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre...amazing right? well, Amy and i bought the cheapest available tickets...and even though they were called "yard" tickets, there was no grass and you weren't allowed to sit...the play was in old english, so we couldnt really follow the plot...it was still cool...but, our feet were hurting after walking all day...and we had no idea what was going on...and we were hungry because we didnt have time for dinner...so we left at intermission and went to a pub to eat fish and chips...and drink my first london beer...

our flights for rome left the next morning, but we had to wake up at 3 A.M. to get all 75 of us there on time...it was miserable...and after we arrived in rome, we took a 4 hour bus ride to florence...it was a long long day...but Amy and i are now in the same room, with another girl named Cathy who we like...the next day (Saturday) we had a whole bunch of orientation stuff...they showed us important places around florence and gave us a mess of papers...oh, and i forgot to mention the food we are getting...it's insane...three or more courses at lunch and dinner...and mostly pasta...anyway, after all of the orientation activities, Amy and i set out on our first independent adventure!

we were so excited...we found the train station, and then found some friendly Londoners to help us buy our tickets to Monterosso, the biggest city in the Cinque Terra...the cinque terra is five cities all connected by footpaths...the whole route take about 5 hours and is supposed to be beautiful...anyway, long story short, we made it to Monterosso after making many friends along the way...the next morning we woke up and hit the trails at 8 sharp...i can't beging to describe it...the trail is right along the coast of the Mediterranean...and there are vineyards, and lemon trees and blackberries EVERYWHERE...it was so great...i ate a few blackberries along the way...delicious...we hiked the entire route and it took us about 6 hours because we stopped to look around each of the towns we came to...some parts were really hard...but it was so worth it...by the time we reached the last one, Riomaggiore (i think) we were disgusting...so, we put on our swimsuits and found a nice rocky place to jump in the ocean...yep, the mediterranean ocean! the beaches were too crowded...and not as cool as jumping off a rock...Amy did have to talk me through it...for those of you who don't know, i am afraid of the ocean...espeically this one...the water is clear...to the very bottom...freaks me out...anyway, i did get in, and i'm so glad i did! it was wonderful...and definitely made that train ride back better than it would have been...after our swim we bought our train tickets back and ate some much deserved lunch...mozzarella and tomato sandwhiches...yum...

anyway, this was long...hopefully i will be better about posting...and i'll get some pictures up soon...

peace
sal

p.s. i want a strawberry