Hello again!
I know I am terrible at updating this. Half the time I find I have a hard time trying to think of things to write about and the other half I want to give myself more time to write about what I have experienced. Either way, I'm way past due for an entry and I have enough things to write about now, so it seems like a good time.
This past Tuesday (28th) I got back from a 5 night 6 day trip to London, England! What an experience that was! London was exactly what I thought it would be and more. It reminded me of home so much, but at the same time had a very different cultural vibe to it. It was amazing! Here is a recap of my trip:
Thursday: We (Amy, John, and I) leave Florence and take a train to Pisa. Our flight left at 10:10am, so we were up very early in order to give us enough travel time. This was my 2nd time on a plane and we flew through Ryan Air. (I recommend Ryan Air to any student traveling in Europe! It is cheap and not at all sketchy like I thought it would be!) We arrived in London and then had to do some major time on public transportation. We took a train from Stanstead into the city and then bought an Oyster Card and a 7 day tube pass (24 pounds) --> transportation in London is expensive, as is everything else! We took the tube to Kensington where our friend Justin from SNC is staying. His apartment is right across from Hyde Park (where Princess Diana lived) so the first thing we did was explore Hyde and St. James Park. This was the best thing for me! I was craving a bit of the Midwest Fall atmosphere. Between the trees, falling leaves, and crisp autumn weather, these parks really made me feel at home! They were gorgeous too! Then, before dinner, Amy, Justin, his roommate Tom, and I went to a wine tasting at Whole Foods. After Justin made us dinner and then took us around London to see the sights at night. We saw Westminster, Parliment, Big Ben, The London Eye, and much more. It was so beautiful! After all that, Amy and I happily climbed into our shared twin bed at Justin's place! (What can I say, we tried to travel cheap!)
Friday: Friday our friend Billy from SNC (and John's roommate in Rome) met us in London. Justin took us around London yet again. We saw all of the sights mentioned above in the day time, plus the Buckingham Palace, and the house of the horse guards! Then we went to see the London and Tower Bridge. We did some more exploring that day and then headed back to take a break. Before dinner, we headed down High St. Kensington to do some shopping. When we got back Justin had made us a wonderful dinner and then we headed out to a pub for a night out on the town! Fun times!
Saturday: Saturday we headed to Camden Market! This was by far the BEST experience I had in London! This market was full of everything you could think of! Food from all around the world, clothes from alll over and in every style imaginable, jewelry, bags, etc. It was giant! We found some very cool vintage stores in there which we spent a great deal of time at! :) We spent most of the day here and then traveled back to Kensington to get our things together. On Saturday for dinner we met up with Magda (a friend/coworker from SNC who is know going to grad school in London) and Michael (SNC studying in London), Michael (SNC studying in Valencia, Spain), and Katie (a friend of Michael's who gave us housing in London!) for dinner! We ate a small pub and had, you guessed it, fish and chips! :) Very fitting, I know! It was a great dinner and so nice to catch up with Magda and the others! After we went back to Justin's placed, said our goodbyes to his roommates, and took our stuff to our new home in New Cross. Once we got there we talked with Katie and the Michaels for awhile and then headed to bed.
Sunday: John left us today to get back to Rome for school. Amy, Billy, and I went into the city by ourselves on Sunday and saw Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and other London City things. Amy and I set out towards the Globe Theatre then and, although we did not go in to see it because it cost 11 pounds, we explored that part of London. Then the three of us met up and ate a very American dinner at Pizza Hut (What? We had to take the opportunity!).
Monday: Today Billy, Amy and I headed into the city to do some shopping, something that we hadn't really experienced yet and some of us wanted to see if there was anything cheap enough to get for Christmas presents! On the way, we spotted a cheap hair salon and decided to take the opportunity to get our hair cut! I know! Ridiculous! But a hair cut (even just a trim) in Florence/Rome costs about 45 euro! After, I met up with an old friend from high school, Rob, who is currently studying at Oxford University! (It's not a big deal that he hangs out with Emma Watson (Hermoine) on the weekends, right?) We all went to dinner at Wagamama, a very popular restaurant in London. Then we went and saw The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre!!!!!!!! It was fantastic! What a good night!
Tuesday: We had high hopes for the few things we wanted to smash in before we had to catch our flights and, unfortunately, only got to do 1 of the 3 things we wanted. We were hoping to explore the Tate Modern Art Museum (which is one of the things I regret not doing...), go to Kingscross where they have the cart stuck in the wall as a tribute to Harry Potter, and go to Abbey Road. We headed to Abbey Road first (obviously the most important!!) and had a great deal of trouble finding it! It seemed like everyone we asked for directions never gave us the same directions as the last person! Finally, we found it. We took some great shots of us crossing the crosswalk and then signed the walls waiting there. By that time, we knew that if we didn't start heading back we would be cutting it extremely close with our planes, so we got our things and traveled to Stanstead and got on our planes.
Our trip was overall very successful and taking into account how ridiculously expensive London is - very cheap! (Although we did sleep on a concrete floor for 3 nights which we made a bit more comfortable by folding our clothes to make some sort of bedspread to lay on and shared a twin bed the other 2!) At the end I was so happy to get back to Florence out of the cold and rainy weather and back into my warm and comfortable bed! For the rest of the break I will be resting, catching up on homework, and then playing host to some Londonites visiting Italy! :)
I am now officially less than 2 months away till I leave here. I don't know how it has gone by this fast and slow at the same time. Half of me wishes time would speed by even faster than it is so I can be back in DePere with my family and friends and the other half of me hopes this time crawls by. I can tell already that this experience will be one of the best I will ever have in my life. The things I have already learned from being away from home, on my own, in a different country with a different culture shocks me. So many things here will make me miss Italy so much when I finally have to leave - especially my roommates. Throughout my whole college experience, I have been blessed with some of the most amazing roommates ever! I have been given friends who go far and beyond what a friend typically is and make me so happy to have met them. These girls that I live with in Italy can only add to that list. I am so happy I chose to study abroad. As much as my homesickness gets the best of me and there are people I love so much back in DePere who I just want to be with, I do not regret coming.
Ciao for now!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Definitely Due for Another Post...
Hello all!
I am trying to be more prompt with my posts - and I figure I have enough events to write about that this post won't be weak - so here we go.
This past weekend Jenn, Autumn, and Amy (another girl from SNC who is studying abroad in Toledo, SPain) came and visited Florence. After me and Amy (my roommate) and I met them at the airport and cried like babies when we saw them, we brought them back to our apartment. Their plane got in at 7pm - so on Friday there really wasn't much we could do/show them for the touristy things. Our plan from the beginning was that on Friday we would go out dancing. At SNC, Amy, Jenn and I are in LOVE with dancing and any time a dance happens on campus we really try to go and since Jenn and Autumn really hadn't been dancing in Spain yet, we thought it would be fun to take them out here :) We went to our normal dance club, Twice, but it wasn't as fun as it was the night before. (The night before was Amy's birthday -- we took her to Twice where the owner gave her a VIP table and a huge bottle of champagne!) So needless to say we didn't stay at Twice long. We got back to our apartment and went to bed - everyone was quite exhausted.
Saturday we did some touristy things with our Spaniards. We took them to the Germanfest behind us were they got to eat some "normal" food - brats, fries, chocolate, pretzels, etc. They loved it there! Then we took them to Piazza Vecchio is to see the fake David. They really wanted to go to the Academia to see the real thing - but its 20 euro to get in and it would probably take up a good 2 hours of their day. Since they were leaving bright and early Sunday morning, they wanted to spend as much time as they could with us! How sweet! :) So then we just kinda walked around and showed them Florence. That night our friends from Rome (Billy, Jake, and John) came to visit and persuaded us to go out and dance with them again! 3 nights in a row for me - OUCH! But it was quite fun and the girls from Spain had a good time. When they got back they decided it was best to not go to bed cause the taxi was coming at 5 in the morning anyway. So we stayed up and caught up with them while they waited.
Sunday was catch up day - a lot of homework I neglected the rest of the weekend to do more entertaining things! My fault for procrastinating. Whoops.
This week I had a lot of homework/test due. On Monday I had a rough draft of my mid-term for creative writing due, Tuesday I had my first History of the Mafia test (OUCH), and a bible study to turn in for Women and Religion. Tuesday night I could not fall asleep till very late and ended up sleeping through my classes. I am surprised that my sleep schedule hasn't conformed yet - but in some ways I still feel like I am on the same time as Wisconsin haha.
There are a few things I have been quite disappointed with in Italy. One of them has been the fact that the sizes here in stores are extremely small. Most stores only carry XS-L and the Large will fit someone who normally wears a medium. It's been tough because there were a few things a purposely left at home assuming I would be able to pick them up here. So my parents are sending me those. GOOD NEWS though, yesterday I found a department store (something along the lines of target/old navy) that carries a wide range of sizes! :) WOOT WOOT! I was so happy! I honestly feel more comfortable here because I know I have a place to go if I need anything! Thank goodness.
Last night all of the girls in our apartment cooked our first Mexican meal in ITaly. We had fajitas and chips and salsa. It was amazing! And definitely what we need after eating SO much pasta. :) Then, our neighbors (who we didn't know we had) invited us over for a party they were having. We were so excited! Italian people want to be our friends! YES! So we go over there and there are tons of people in this apartment. We meet some of them and realize that these people are all study abroaders as well, but from a different international school. The people in this room were from Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, America, and many more countries! Although we were disappointed that they weren't Italians - this was so much cooler! :) We hung out for awhile - it was a bit awkward cause we didn't know anyone there - but we ended up going to a club with them called Full Up. It was nice and we met some very cool new friends that I am so excited to hang out with! :) YES!
This weekend seems to be one of relaxation and homework. Mid-terms are not this week but the next and I have papers, test, and presentations I need to start on. So I am going to get a head start on these instead of my normal routine of procrastinating :)!
I will post again soon! :)
MISS YOU ALL!
I am trying to be more prompt with my posts - and I figure I have enough events to write about that this post won't be weak - so here we go.
This past weekend Jenn, Autumn, and Amy (another girl from SNC who is studying abroad in Toledo, SPain) came and visited Florence. After me and Amy (my roommate) and I met them at the airport and cried like babies when we saw them, we brought them back to our apartment. Their plane got in at 7pm - so on Friday there really wasn't much we could do/show them for the touristy things. Our plan from the beginning was that on Friday we would go out dancing. At SNC, Amy, Jenn and I are in LOVE with dancing and any time a dance happens on campus we really try to go and since Jenn and Autumn really hadn't been dancing in Spain yet, we thought it would be fun to take them out here :) We went to our normal dance club, Twice, but it wasn't as fun as it was the night before. (The night before was Amy's birthday -- we took her to Twice where the owner gave her a VIP table and a huge bottle of champagne!) So needless to say we didn't stay at Twice long. We got back to our apartment and went to bed - everyone was quite exhausted.
Saturday we did some touristy things with our Spaniards. We took them to the Germanfest behind us were they got to eat some "normal" food - brats, fries, chocolate, pretzels, etc. They loved it there! Then we took them to Piazza Vecchio is to see the fake David. They really wanted to go to the Academia to see the real thing - but its 20 euro to get in and it would probably take up a good 2 hours of their day. Since they were leaving bright and early Sunday morning, they wanted to spend as much time as they could with us! How sweet! :) So then we just kinda walked around and showed them Florence. That night our friends from Rome (Billy, Jake, and John) came to visit and persuaded us to go out and dance with them again! 3 nights in a row for me - OUCH! But it was quite fun and the girls from Spain had a good time. When they got back they decided it was best to not go to bed cause the taxi was coming at 5 in the morning anyway. So we stayed up and caught up with them while they waited.
Sunday was catch up day - a lot of homework I neglected the rest of the weekend to do more entertaining things! My fault for procrastinating. Whoops.
This week I had a lot of homework/test due. On Monday I had a rough draft of my mid-term for creative writing due, Tuesday I had my first History of the Mafia test (OUCH), and a bible study to turn in for Women and Religion. Tuesday night I could not fall asleep till very late and ended up sleeping through my classes. I am surprised that my sleep schedule hasn't conformed yet - but in some ways I still feel like I am on the same time as Wisconsin haha.
There are a few things I have been quite disappointed with in Italy. One of them has been the fact that the sizes here in stores are extremely small. Most stores only carry XS-L and the Large will fit someone who normally wears a medium. It's been tough because there were a few things a purposely left at home assuming I would be able to pick them up here. So my parents are sending me those. GOOD NEWS though, yesterday I found a department store (something along the lines of target/old navy) that carries a wide range of sizes! :) WOOT WOOT! I was so happy! I honestly feel more comfortable here because I know I have a place to go if I need anything! Thank goodness.
Last night all of the girls in our apartment cooked our first Mexican meal in ITaly. We had fajitas and chips and salsa. It was amazing! And definitely what we need after eating SO much pasta. :) Then, our neighbors (who we didn't know we had) invited us over for a party they were having. We were so excited! Italian people want to be our friends! YES! So we go over there and there are tons of people in this apartment. We meet some of them and realize that these people are all study abroaders as well, but from a different international school. The people in this room were from Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, America, and many more countries! Although we were disappointed that they weren't Italians - this was so much cooler! :) We hung out for awhile - it was a bit awkward cause we didn't know anyone there - but we ended up going to a club with them called Full Up. It was nice and we met some very cool new friends that I am so excited to hang out with! :) YES!
This weekend seems to be one of relaxation and homework. Mid-terms are not this week but the next and I have papers, test, and presentations I need to start on. So I am going to get a head start on these instead of my normal routine of procrastinating :)!
I will post again soon! :)
MISS YOU ALL!
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