Verona and Germany

Ciao a tutti! Sorry I havent posted in a while, things have been really hectic here with classes and traveling and what not, but I guess I will start with my trip 2 weekends ago to Verona. It was beautiful, even though it rained 50% of the time. The city was small but it had a lot of charm. When we first got there they took us on a walking tour then on a bus tour which brought us up to the top of a nearby mountain where we could see all of Verona. The was gorgeous! Then after that a group of us went out to dinner and we found a trattoria(family owned restaurant)that was a Disney theme with toys, stuffed dolls and pictures of all the characters everywhere and the food was awesome, they even had gluten free pasta..bank! The next day we had free to ourselves so we walked around on our own and shopped then got back on the bus and headed home.
This past week of class was great! We went to the Santa Maria Cathedral(the duomo) and Giotto's Belltower for art history, the Jewish Synagogue for my world religion class and another class cancelled(thank god, I was in rough shape haha..sorry mom and dad). But then Thursday night me and 2 of my friends went with a tour group called Florence for Fun to Munich for Oktoberfest. It was an overnight bus ride, took about 9 hours, so we arrived in Munich around 8 in the morning. Had some McDonalds for breakfast(McDonalds is gourmet here), freshened up, got all ready to start drinking at 10 in the morning only to find out that our bus was broken. So we sat at the rest stop for another 2 hours waiting for another bus to come and bring us to the city center. We finally got a bus and got to Oktoberfest around 12 and we headed straight to the Hofbrauhaus Tent. Oktoberfest is basically a huge carnival with all these huge "tents" which are basically huge warehouses run by the major breweries in Munich and all over Germany. We walked in and there were hundreds of drunk people singing, dancing and chanting and it was so awesome but definitely overwhelming. We definitely stood out like a sore thumb..we werent dressed in dirndl or leiderhosens haha. We all got a table and joined in and the most popular songs were "hey baby" and "sweet caroline" haha it was great.
After a couple of hours we left the first tent and walked around the festival for a while and this is where the true story comes in. So as I leave the first house, I stole one of the liter mugs and put it in my purse and took a picture of it in there because I was so proud of myself..and in the picture you can see my wallet. As we start walking to the next tent, all of a sudden I "run" into this guy and he was "jokingly" not letting me pass him and starts to tickle me and of course all of my friends think it is hysterical and start taking pictures. Then his friend comes behind me and starts tickling me too, and finally I broke free. Yes, I thought it was funny at the time too until I get to the next tent and about to pay for some food when I can't find my wallet. Yes, my wallet was stolen. What was in there? 200 euro, a debit and credit card. Awesome. So of course, Alyssa is a hysterical mess and is on the phone with the oh so comforting Johnny Masch(almost a Johnny fit haha). No worries, got the cards canceled and there were no charges so that was good, but I am still out 200 euro and had no money for the whole weekend and no way to get money. Then the day just gets better, I was wearing sandals and a tank when it all of a sudden drops 20 degrees and starts pouring..wonderful. I really wanted to go back to Florence, but I was a champ and stuck it out. We got to our hostel around midnight that night and it was pretty legit, the breakfast the next morning was good and gluten free :)
So the next day, Saturday, still a little rainy out but I had already paid for a bike tour so I went on a bike tour of Munich. I'm just "Lancing" it around the world(thats for you Heely and Madison haha). It was a little cold and rainy, but it cleared up and it was awesome. We went to lunch at the Biergardens and I had Leberkäse which is a Bavarian meatloaf, it was amazing! Then we got back on our little beach cruisers and we went through the largest Metropolitan Park in the world and our guide took us to this bridge that has a constant wave where locals come to surf.

Then we made our way back to the city center where we went to the actual Hofbrauhaus, this is where my weekend really gets better. I discover the greatest beer concoction, light beer with lemon soda(sprite). It was unbelievable! Then I ordered a half of a chicken and some potato salad and feasted while singing sweet caroline and chanting hey baby..definitely a high light haha. Then our waiter comes over and informs us that half of our table was reserved and if we minded sharing the table, and since we are such nice Americans we allowed them to come sit with us. Then here comes these 4 old fat men and we look at each other like oooooh boy. So, this one guy sits next to me and we are all chatting it up and he is asking us about our study abroad experiences and if we are doing okay on money. So I tell him that my wallet got stolen and he whips out his wallet and hands me a $100 bill. Of course, I cant take it but his brother across the table was like "take it, hes loaded" so I sat it on the table and an hour passes and we find out that this man lives in Peru and is the owner of an oil company. Yeah. And the guy sitting next to him just owns an oil drill company and they were celebrating a deal they just made, no big. So needless to say, I ended up walking out with $100 haha.
The next day, we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp about 30 minutes outside of Munich. I am glad I went, but it was the hardest thing I have ever seen/experienced. It made me sick to my stomach seeing where they forced all of these people to stay and hearing what was done to them at the spot where I was standing. It was really hard to hold back the tears. The part that I really felt sick was in the Crematorium. Looking at where they basically burned people alive and standing in the exact same room where they were poisoned to death was the hardest thing to do, I had to leave, I couldn't contain myself. Even though it was a hard experience, it was definitely something that really made me think about my life and what things I definitely take for granted. It gave me a completely new outlook on my study abroad experience, and basically life. After we left Dachau and got back to Munich we got back on the bus and headed back to Florence.
It was definitely a roller coaster of a trip, but all in all, it was definitely one I will never forget and something I'm really happy I got to experience. Now, I am back in Florence and just cooking up a storm!! I am a chef, buon appetito! haha I have some good recipes for when I return back to the states so get ready for some good eatin!
Next weekend is the Amalfi Coast and it is supposed to be a gorgeous(80's and sunny) so I'm really excited!! In addition, last night me and my 3 friends Taylor, Nicole and Brett planned our fall break(end of October, 11 days long) and we are spending it all in Scotland and Ireland!! I am so excited, we are doing some awesome tours of isles and countryside as well as a tour of the places where P.S. I Love You was filmed and the Patriot! Waaaahhh so exciting!!! Well, I have my first quiz in the morning(yes, there is school involved haha)and I must get to the studying! Love and miss you all!!

Ciao miei amici!

(Picture to the left is of me and my friend Taylor)
This week has been awesome! I haven't gone many places or really done much, but the weather has been absolutely gorgeous and my classes are going great! I'm in love with my World religion class and in my art history class we went to the Santa Croce and saw all the amazing art work that line the walls painted by some of the most important artists in Italian history, Giotto and Cimabue to name a few. Also for the class, we have major research project where we have to pick a topic in art history write a 3-5 page research paper and give a presentation to the class. While I was in the Vatican I fell in love with the painting by Raphael called The School of Athens and my teacher was so excited when I asked her if I could use that as my topic so that made me even more excited! Also, in my sustainable tourism class we have to do 2 projects/presentations for the semester. My final project we have to create a 3 day sustainable tourist itinerary of Florence and the surrounding areas and I'm so excited to start working on it! Once my partner and I finish it, we are going to do it for ourselves and experience Florence in a sustainable way. Planning trips and researching things to do within Europe has been so much fun and something I really enjoy doing and I think I finally figured out what I want to do with my life!! Finally, right? So that's just a thought right now, but we will see where this semester abroad takes me!
This weekend we were supposed to go to CinqueTerre, but due to weather we cannot go anymore so instead our program is taking us to Verona(aka Romeo and Juliet) for the weekend...I can't wait to go to Juliet's house and write her a letter!! Haha (Letter to Juliet if no one caught on). Well thats all my updates as of right now!

Ciao a tutti!

This weekend was the first weekend we traveled, on Friday our program brought us up to the Medici Villa. It's where the Medici family lived in Florence(they are a big deal around here)and where the king, his wife and his affair lived when Florence was the capitol of Italy way back when(haven't gotten the history down yet). The house was amazing and the gardens surrounded the villa and looked over all of Florence, absolutely breathtaking.

Then Saturday, a group of about 10 of us went through a program called Bus2Alps to Venice for the day. The bus ride took about 3 hours but the scenery of Italy was incredible! Once we got there we got an all day waterbus pass and took the waterbus to the island of Burano. The houses were all rainbow colored and placed right on the canals, its one of my favorite places I have been so far, definitely somewhere I would love to go back to! After Burano, we took another waterbus to the main island of Venice and to be honest it wasn't what I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, it was amazing how there is a city built on water, but it didn't give you the feeling that places like Burano and Medici Villa gave you. But, we walked around for a while, got some dinner, vino and most importantly gelato and headed back to the bus station. Venice at night was a different story, taking the waterbus through the grand canal was gorgeous! After a long day we headed back to Firenze and arrived at 1:30 in the morning only to get up 5 hours later to be back at the train station by 7:30 for our beach trip.

Sunday we went with our school(FUA/Palazzi) to Viareggio Beach which is also in Tuscany. Our school reserved a private beach for us with umbrellas, chairs and what not and the water was perfect! Once you got to the edge of the water you could see the mountain in the background..it was awesome! After getting a little sun kissed(sunscrean costs about 20 euro=$30ish) we headed back to the train station where the conductors were on strike so we sat next to the tracks for about 2 more hours waiting for a train to come through. We finally got on one and made it back safe and sound!
Classes started up again today, and unfortunately I don't have mondays off anymore. I dropped one class(supervision and leadership) because the professor had horrible english and asked us to mainly speak with our hands so he could understand...yeah, no. I dropped it and added World Religion which I absolutely love, its so interesting!
Well, thats basically it for now! Love and miss you all!

Ciao begli!!

 

After about a week in Italy, I finally started class today. I had Art History and Italian Language and I loved both of them! For my art history class all we have is a midterm exam, final exam, a 3 page research paper of our choice and a presentation at our place of choice. The class is barely in the classroom, my professor basically takes us around the city going to different museums, churches and what not and we study by actually looking at the art itself...its amazing! Tomorrow I have Hospitality Marketing and Supervision and Leadership and Thursdays I have Sustainable Tourism and Italian again so I will keep updated on those classes as well. But as for the travels, I have soooo many trips booked. I have a weekend in Cinque Terre, Oktoberfest/Munich, the Amalfi coast and Prague so far and plenty of day trips to the Medici Castle(this friday), a coastline beach(this sunday), Venice(this saturday),Siena, San Giminagno, Assisi and Orvieto and not to mention a bike tour and wine tasting of Tuscany! And those are the only ones I have planned now...I'm trying to go everywhere!
Also, today I signed up to do an Intercambio once a week with a local Florentine. What it basically is, is a language exchange where my program sets me up with a native who wants to learn english in exchange for them to help us with our Italian, so needless to say this is going to be interesting seeing as I can't speak either of the languages haha.
Thats basically it for now, ill post another in a couple of days!

Ciao ragazzi!

finally made it!!

so after a few days in Rome, I finally made it to my apartment in Florence. Rome was absolutely beautiful, a lot bigger than I expected but it was awesome. We did the typical tourist stuff, Colosseum, Trevi, Spanish Steps, Forum etc. My favorite part was, Scholars Lounge haha its your typical Irish pub. There was a fairly large group of us that went and it was so much fun. No italians in there, but a lot of Americans,ozzies and other europeans and some random asians(Haley- real asians haha)But then the next day came and as expected, Alyssa got sick haha. I couldnt eat all day Wednesday and we had to walk all around Vatican City, I thought I was going to die. And as for eating, its a lot more difficult than I had expected. Most people dont know what gluten is so trying to describe it in italian which im already horrible at is half the battle. BUT risotto, is AMAZING!
So today, we left our 4 star hotel in Rome(they completely hooked us up) and drove up the coast to Florence where they brought us to all of our apartments. There are 80+ in my group and they split us up into apartments of 3-5. I live a block away from the Ponte Vecchio(look it up-incredible) on Via delle Terme la Corta. Its a building of about 10 separate apartments and they are all occupied by students all going to the same school(FUA) but through a different program so its pretty legit. My apartment is incredible, its a 2 bedroom 2 bath loft with a full kitchen, living room and dining area. As soon as we got here we made the journey to IKEA, which is apparently pronounced differently here haha(figured that out the hard way). Needless to say it took 6 college students almost 2 hours to figure out how to get 15 minutes down the road haha.
So im all unpacked and have to get up early for 2 more days of meetings and orientations then classes start monday(tuesday for me because im smart and chose not to take classes on mondays or fridays HA!). I'll keep updating this as often as I can and ill be posting pictures up on facebook as soon as I take some(im a little behind on the pictures) haha
Love you all and miss you tons!

p.s. keep on the lookout for the post cards!!