FINALLY... :)

Ahhhhh this week has be a really busy week. Let's just say I am glad that I am done with midterms and I think I did a decent job on them. Second off, MY PARENTS AND BROTHER ARE IN ITLAY!!! They got here safe and sound and have been here for 7 days now. They leave this Sunday.  Tomorrow (Friday) we plus Alexis are heading to Rome. We are going to see Vatican City, The Colosseum, and other tourist attractions.

FALL BREAK IS HERE!!!! YAY!!

Next week we don't have any classes so that means one thing....TRAVELING!! :)

Alexis and I are going to be traveling 8 days/7 nights to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. We are so excited to travel around Europe and spend a little time away from Italy. 

Saturday leave at 9:50pm train ride out of Florence and arrive in Vienna at 8 am the next day. 

We are staying 2 nights in Vienna, Austria. I really want to go on the sound of music tour!!

Then we are heading Prague, Czech Republic. I am half Czech so I am excited to go to my homeland. We are staying there for 3 nights. 

Then we are traveling by train to Berlin for 2 nights. 

On Sunday Oct. 30th we are heading back to Florence and when we get there Alyssa and Laura are going to already be there from Spain. They are staying with us for 3 days and I am so excited to show them around the beautiful city of Florence! They are here for Halloween and we plan on all dressing up and having fun Halloween night because me, Alexis and Brittany, don't have class the next day!!

I am really excited to be traveling and to see Alyssa and Laura!! Also, I am not going to be able to have a laptop while traveling so the best way to communicate me is by my international phone for emergencies! Ciao! 

Family Dinner!

Me and Alexis in ROMA!

Family in Vatican City!

Leaves are changing in Piazza Michelangelo!

My mom and I in Piazza Michelangelo!! :) (You can see the Duomo in the background)

Midterms, Parents Visiting, Almalfi Coast, Weather, Fall Break... :)

I can’t believe that midterm time is almost here! Currently, I am sitting in my living room and I am quite cold. My apartment is freezing and the heat has not been turned on yet. Once the heater does get turned on, we can only have it on for 8 hours a day because that is an Italian law. Italians don’t have the freedom to leave their heat on all of the time. This past weekend was cold, but I looked at the weather forecast today and it is suppose to be back in the 80’s this week. 

Well, to start off this post I have been here for about 6 weeks now (42 days) and I can’t believe where the time has gone. I need more hours in the day because I am so busy, but I am making time for homework. During the week, I have class Monday-Thursday, I do homework, sleep, prepare food for myself, have dinners with friends and roommates, go out to eat, hang with friends while getting gelato, and walk around Florence.  I am exhausted by the end of the night because I am so busy, which is good. I am also getting over a cold right now, but at least I am getting better!

Next topic, MIDTERM WEEK, ahhhhhhh!! Next week is midterm week and I am slightly freaking out because midterms are half of our grade. I am going to be studying all this week and next week because I want to do really good on them. I think I will do well; I just need to study at the library where I have no distractions. The school library is about a 30-minute walk from my apartment, which stinks but oh well, I need to do homework in the library.

MY PARENTS ARE VISITING ME ON FRIDAY!! I am so excited for them to come and for me to show them around. I can’t believe they are actually coming. I am so excited to see my mom, dad and brother. I was just skyping with my parents the other day and I was giving them a list of things to bring me such as; peanut butter, oatmeal, shampoo, contact solution, north face jacket, black boots ect. They are going to love it here and I get to be their own tour guide haha. They are going to be staying from Friday (Oct. 14^th- Oct. 23^rd) at a hotel about 20 minutes away from my apartment. On Friday, I think I am going to make homemade pizza for them because they are going to be hungry after flying for a whole day.

FALL BREAK! Right after my parents leave, I have fall break the next week, which means that I don’t have any classes!! Yippee! Since I don’t have classes for a week, Alexis and I are going to be traveling around Europe. Brittany is not coming because her parents are going to be visiting during that time and she is staying in Florence. Alexis and I booked our trip about a week ago and this is what we are going to be doing. From Florence we are heading to Vienna, Austria for 2 days, then we are going to Prague for 3 days, and then we are going to Berlin, Germany for 2 days and then we are coming back to Florence. I am so excited to travel with Alexis because I know we will have a fabulous time!!     

      

This past weekend I went to the Almalfi Coast. I went to Capri Island, Positano, Pompeii and Vesuvius. In Capri Island we went on a boat tour around the Island. It was raining that day and the waves were really rough so we were not able to enter the blue grotto.  It felt like I was a on a roller coaster in the water, it was so much fun! I also did a tasting of lemoncello (a common drink in Italy). The next day I went to Positano. It was a beautiful day and I laid out on the beach pretty much the whole day. The next day I went to Pompeii and I got a guided tour around the town where Mt. Vesuvius erupted. It was really cool to see the ruins of what used to be Pompeii. Our tour guide was really good and funny!  After Pompeii, I hiked up Mt. Vesuvius in some very windy, and cold weather. It was a horrible hike because it was really cold. Yes, I only had sandals with me and by the time I got back to the bus, my toes were numb. Overall I was glad that I got to see the view from the mountain. 

Positano

Pompeii

Capri

Hike up Mt. Vesuvius

I have been living by this phrase, “everything happens for a reason”, since I have been here.  I am truly blessed to be living in Italy for 3 months. I am having the time of my life and I am learning so much about myself. I am meeting so many great people and having the best experiences that I could ever imagine.  I am rooming with the best roommates that I could ever have, Alexis, Lia and Brittany. We have so much fun together and I have also meet Sara and Celia who live a block away from me. They are both from Texas and I love their accent hahaha they are so fun to hang out with! I could go on and on about how much I love Florence.  I am so glad that I made the decision to study abroad.  

FlorenceForFun-Venezia (Venice, Italy) The Sinking City!

Cita di Venezia! 

1. There are NO cars in Venice. Since there are no roads, and only narrow pathways, people use boats to get from one place to another. If people want to take a taxi, there is a boat taxi. If people want to take a bus, there is a boat bus. The only way to get into Venice, is a boat or a train.

2. There are canals, NO streets. The  canals serve the function of roads, and almost every form of transport is on water or on foot.  I found this on wikipedia, "Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges." A classic boat in Italy is called a gondola and a lot of tourists get the experience to ride on a gondola. Gondolas are a nice romantic way of transportation but they are very pricey. A gondola ride for about 45 minutes costs 90 euros (120 USD). 

3. Venice is entirely a TOURIST city! When I went there, it was crowed and there were a lot of tourist groups and cruise ships. Venice is the third biggest tourist city in the world because of it's uniqueness and beauty. There are about 50,000 tourists a day that come through venice. There are not a lot of locals that live in Venice anymore because there are so many tourists and it is so noisy. 

Okay  so now back to what I did in Venice. I took a day trip to Venice, through a student program called "Florence For Fun". We left at 8 am in the morning from the Florence Train Station and arrived in Venice at 11:30. 

Brittany, Celia, Me and Alexis at the Train Station ready to go to Venice

We rode the bus and then we had to take a train to get into Venice. When I first got into Venice, I walked out of the train station and saw the gorgeous Main canal of Venice! I got to take a 20 minute water taxi throughout the canals of Venice down the Grand Canal. It was gorgeous to see all of the boats and gondolas on the canals, and I could see the oldness of the the city by looking at the buildings. 

Ponte di Rialto

Alexis and I in the Water Taxi

When we got off of the water taxi we went past Piazza San Marco and saw St. Mark's Basilica. This is the largest piazza in Venice

Then we went to the Vecchia Murano Glass Company. At this factory, people make the finest and most elegant glass. Glassmakers personally blow glass to make cups, vases, plates, necklaces, rings, earrings, and of course chandeliers. Here is the description of how they make the glass from Vecchia Murano Glass Factoy handout:


"Each of the pieces produces by our company has been hand-made by Venetian "maestri" and expert bead workers who carry on the ancient technique of lamp-working and crystal cutting. The decoration of the beads is achieved by using fine glass or "avventurina" canes and silver or 24 carat gold leaf. The crystal, which contains rare and expensive neodymium, is also cut by hand. The tiny imperfections which may be found are sign that the beads are original and entirely hand made. "

I found this on Google and this is what the vases look like. It is made with 24 carat gold and that is why everything from this glass company is expensive. 

Murano Glass is not cheap but I ended up getting a rings and 2 bracelets that look like the real thing for cheap prices at another store (yes Amanda, I got you a glass blown bracelet from Venice). I could not take any pictures inside the shop of the Murano Glass Company, but I took some pictures of the glass blowing demonstration: 

Then we had free time. During this free time, I got my souvenirs and I found a mask. Masks are very important in Venice because every year they celebrate Carnevale. The magical celebration of Carnevale is an 8-day festa of concerts, pageants, masks and balls. People from all around the world come to this international reowned festival to see costumes, masks and parades in the heart of Venice. That is why there are a lot of masks in Venice. There are different styles and types in market stands and shops. Here is a picture of my mask for 11 euro, it is a real one because it has a stamp that is was made in Venice, Italy. 

Then we got to go on a 2 min. gondola ride across the canal:

I can finally say that I went on a gondola ride in Venice!!! yay!! After that we walked around Venice and went back to the train station so we could get our bus to go back to Florence. After going on this day trip, I can officially say I feel more in love with Italy. Venice was so beautiful with the canals and everything, I will be back to Venice in the future!! :) 


Random Photos of Venice:

Masks in a Shop (shhh I wasn't suppose to take a picture)

gondolas! 

A guy is making a mask! 

On Friday (the day before I went to Venice) I went to Mokaflor Coffee Factory in Florence. I got to learn about the process of making coffee, espresso and cappuccino. I even got to taste some of their coffee too :) 

Group of us that went on the day trip! 

This is awesome! <3 it!

a leaf made out of milk

me and my coffee! 

 


Last but not less, these pictures were taken when we went to the Tuscan coast about 2 weeks ago! I played around with the site called Picnik and came up with this. It represents SNC for St. Norbert College! 


Ciao SNC, all the way from Florence, Italy!