07 Apr 2010

Wed Apr 07, 2010 Full Page

I haven't written in awhile, sorry about that! Things here are going well, as usual. Spring break was a couple weeks ago and 7 friends and myself decided to go to Athens and Santorini in GREECE! Athens was fun- we saw the Acropolis and other ancient ruins, ate some good food and relaxed. One night we went out to a club and danced with some local Greek men. For the record, Greek men are wayy more attractive than italian men, never thought I'd say it, but from my experience it appears to be true! After a few days in Athens we took an overnight ferry to Santorini. Unfortunately we came during off-season which meant that the island was more or less completely deserted. However everything was extraordinarily cheap, which was a nice change of pace! We rented ATV's and drove all over the island. We saw the Red Beach as well as the towns Oia (where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed) and Fira. One afternoon we spent the day on the beach, even though it was not that warm. We all ended up getting really sunburned, which turned into a nice tan for me, but unfortunately has resulted in peeling starting the other day. There wasn't much of a night life in Santorini but we enjoyed ourselves all the same. I came home a day early to meet my parents in Rome because they came for my sisters spring break here!! I was so proud of myself that I got from Santorini to Athens to Rome all by myself with no issues! :) I'll have to update about my families visit later, must leave now for class! Ciao


Filed under Italy

Tue Mar 16, 2010 Full Page

The next weekend was my 21st BIRTHDAY!!! Courtney -who is in my sorority back home- and i met up with 3 other sorority sisters/friends who are studying in Sevilla in BARCELONA for the weekend!! It was amazing to see friends who i hadnt seen in sooo long. Courtney insisted we go out thursday night- so I could turn 21 at the bars- even though we literally had to leave for our flight at 3:30AM. It was a lot of fun, but lets just say i was miserable all day friday. We spent friday -my birthday- traveling, napping and eating and then got ready to go out when our friends arrived at the hostel. The hostel was actually really cute- very spanish and ethnic, CLEAN, and the people were really friendly and helpful. My friends took me out to a nice restaurant where we were the loudest people in the room- surprise, surprise- then we headed to a multiple-story club called Razzmatazz. Expensive cover to get in but we had a lot of fun. It wasn't TOO wild, but we had a really good time. The next day we all felt GREAT and decided to take a bus tour of the city. This tour didnt have a guide, so it kind of sucked, but we were able to get a good view of most of the city. Barcelona, by the way, is GORGEOUS!!! We had amazing weather the entire day. We sat on a pier and looked out on the ocean, ate lunch and later on went to the Gaudi -spelling?- park and explored that for a while...it was beautiful. We napped and then went out for a late, late dinner for tapas and sangria. Sadly, me and court had a super early flight on sunday and we had to leave around 5AM. The weekend was MUCH too short but well worth it!!!

Tue Mar 16, 2010 Full Page

Hello there! well, I decided that since the photo uploader on this site takes FOREVER, I am just going to give a link for my pictures, which is http://picasaweb.google.com/bshmitty16. I have most of my albums on there so far so hopefully you'll be able to see everything! Okay, so where was i? I think I last posted about Paris. Well, since my life is soo rough, obviously I had to spend the next weekend in LONDON!! This has been my favorite city so far, I'm in love. You have no idea how nice it was to come to an ENGLISH speaking country and have access to such things as STARBUCKS!!! We had a difficult time leaving... We left early thursday morning and came back late sunday night so it was a nice long weekend. It was pouring when we arrived- no surprise- and we got lost trying to find our hostel. Eventually found it an hour or two later, and discovered that sometimes you really do get what you pay for! The hostel was old, smelled bad and generally not all that sanitary. We also had booked an 8 bed room, and there were only 4 - well, technically 5, we snuck one person in and used 4 beds- of us, so we had some interesting roommates. One looked exactly like Jesus..though he wasnt all that nice. We didnt spend much time there thats for sure! So, we went to dinner and I got fish and chips for the first time ever and it was great. Then we had heard that the Alice in Wonderland World Premiere was going on in London (all I heard was JOHNNY DEPP) so we decided to check it out. Somehow we found where it was going on, though our dinner made us considerably late for it. We didnt get a glimpse of Johnny, however we did get to see Prince Charles drive by about 5 feet in front of us!! Pretty cool. After a long day of traveling and no sleep the day before we decided to call it a night and went back to the lovely Dover Castle Hostel. Friday we got up early and took the "Original" London Bus Tour, which was pricier than i expected but was worth it. We had a fun guide and got to see all the main sites that would have taken us lightyears to find and see on our own walking. We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgers Square, the Pariliament Building, etc etc etc. We also saw the building which posed as "Gringotts Bank" in the first Harry Potter movie. We took a trip to Harrods and ended up spending about 3 hours exploring every level. That place literally sells EVERYTHING!!! Though its not for the poor, thats for sure. We decided to get the full english experience by eating dinner at the most american restaurant ever- Pizza Hut! I think the waiter was appalled at the amount of food we consumed...we certainly did our obese country proud!! Then we ran "home" and did a quick change to go see "Jersey Boys." LOVED IT! Later we decided to hit up the night life but ended up in a semi-sketch bar sitting near a bunch of kids who literally could not have been older than 15. The girls didnt look like they had hit puberty yet. It was an experience, I suppose. That night my friend Shannon who is studying in Sevilla, Spain flew in and met up with us. We got up early the next day and went to Madame Toussunds -probably spelled that wrong- Wax Museum. It was packed but awesome. Some of the creations were scarily realistic. Sadly I read in an article that they are just putting the finishing touches on a Robert Pattinson wax figure and will be debuting it soon...i just missed seeing it! Oh well..next time. Later we took a ride on the London Eye and got to see a spectacular view of London and Westminster. Oh yeah, i forgot to mention we had beautiful weather that day. We then spent about 4 hours eating dinner at an italian -ha- restaurant...spent a lot of money too. Later we went to a club called "The Zoo". London boys are not as gropy and gross as italian men in bars...but almost. ick. Sunday my friend Courtney and I took a walking tour of the Beatles. We got to see a bunch of recording studies, etc of the Beatles..pretty awesome! The tour ended at ABBEY ROAD!! I got to walk across it several times... I was in heaven.. sadly we had to jet off to the airport then, but overall AMAZING weekend.

Mon Mar 08, 2010 Full Page

Well...its been awhile since I've written..sorry about that! Too many things to remember at once! So..where did I last leave off? I think it was Venice...hmm where have I been since? Oh yeah... A few weeks ago my friends and I went to Paris.. and loved it! We had an early flight out there and had to wake up around 2:30am to make it on time...brutal!! Our hostel was called St Christophers or something and was actually really nice. It had a restaurant and a bar on the first floor and was very clean and modern as a whole. Our first day out we stopped at Starbucks - this was HUGE for us-- Rome refuses to submit to the finer things in life such as starbucks coffee- and started the afternoon. We had good weather surprisingly though it was kind of cold..couldn't complain, we were in PARIS! We explored the city, saw the Arc * is it called the Arc de Triont or am i making that up? * , stopped in a ridiculously expensive Louis Vuitton store and ate dinner at a french restaurant which was expensive but pretty good. Except two of my friends got sick later that night * we suspected it was from uncooked burgers..yuck * . Oh yeah, we also went to a Holocaust memorial museum and went inside Notre Dame Cathedral. Later that night when it was dark out we went up to the top of the Eiffel tower. It was so cool, as we were walking towards the tower it began sparkling bright lights. Apparently it does this on the hour every hour at night or something like that because after they debuted the light show on the Milennium, there was such a positive response to it that the city decided to make it light up every night. Pretty sweet :) The view from the top was amazing... though it was cold and windy. The next day we got up early and visited the Louvre. We actually visited almost the entire museum (I think) even though they say you can't do the Louvre in a day..maybe we did it wrong. Anyways, I got to see the Mona Lisa - not that special - and some other famous stuff. I kept thinking back to The Davinci Code the entire time! Later we went to Versailles, which was beautiful. It's amazing to think of the wealth that went into building that place. It was an incredible place...I can't believe people actually lived there!!! That night a few of us went and saw a Burlesque show called Lodi (I think?) It was pretty cool...though after not much sleep the previous few nights * plus some champagne * I was having trouble keeping my eyes open for it. We had an early flight again the next day so I got a whopping 45 minutes of sleep before we had to jet off again back to Rome. I really enjoyed the city...it was so pretty with gorgeous architecture. Also, in our experience there we decided that not all french people are "mean". Everyone we encountered was pretty friendly- more so than some of those in ROME. I'd love to go back one day, but probably with my future husband or something..its definitely the romantic city they say it is.

Mon Feb 08, 2010 Full Page

Sun Feb 07, 2010 Full Page

** I looked up the cafe we went to- Caffe'Florian. Apparently it is the oldest cafe in Italy and was established in 1720- crazy! just thought I'd add in that side note :

Sun Feb 07, 2010 Full Page

Last night I learned that officially NOTHING is free in Rome. While at a train station I was forced to pay 80 cents just to pee...rude!! Not only that, but there were two MALE security guards who proceeded to guard either side of the gates in front of the bathroom, casually walking in and out of both the boys AND girls bathroom.  Talk about lack of privacy!!     Got back from Venice about 9pm last night.  It was a lot of fun, but it was my first experience with weather seriously becoming an issue with the potential to tamper with my happy-meter.  We got there friday late morning *after 3 busrides, a flight and a water boat ride- I'm becoming pro with my transportation skills* and it poured ALL DAY.  We had decided to spend a little more than usual for our hostel  *about 30 euro a person for one night* and it was worth it.  The place was nice and authentic looking- the stairs to get up to the reception looked like we were inside a castle.  Venice has a lot of baby stairs we also found, which doesn't work so well with our large american feet.      We spent the day dodging in and out of shops, walked through Saint Marks Basilica (so cool) and stopped for coffee at a place called Florians *I think* .  I forget the exact significance of the place, but I know its been around for a very long time- possibly one of the first places to serve coffee ever?  I'll have to look up the history.  Anyways, the place was very cool and victorian looking and the waiters looked like they'd just stepped off the titanic.  I spent about $13 on a cappuccino, but I'd like to tell myself it was worth the experience.    That night we went out to dinner and then attempted to find a Piano Bar a waiter had told us about.  But if you've ever been to Venice you'd know that its set up is more confusing than Rome  *never would have thought it possible* and we spent at least an hour running around-- getting farther and farther away from our hostel, in the pouring rain.  Eventually we found a bar, though not what we had been looking for.  I was tired and still sick and just wanted to go to sleep, so we asked for directions to get back home.  I am the one who knows the most italian in the group *scary* so I understood most of what the man told us, but it would have been helpful to know the city we were in *which I don't at all* so we were lost again in minutes.  Somehow the 6 of us got split up as well.      We spent another hour at least running up and down deserted alleys, completely soaked and miserable. Eventually we had to take a water boat *also missed our stop* and got back home late.  The next day Carnivale began, so there were tons of people on the streets that had been empty the day before.  Sadly all of my belongings/clothing were still drenched from the night before *I had to pack lightly, of course, and re-wore almost everything from the day before* so I spent the day wearing 2 pairs of wet socks, wet knit boots and wet jeans and a wet bag/coat -ick!   Carnivale was craziness,  I was disappointed we didnt get to stay for the opening ceremony but we definitely got a taste of everything.  It was kind of like a circus, but with more oddly dressed up people, singing and dancing and weirdness.  One of my friends said it reminded her of a Beatles video. I'd imagine that had one decided to trip on acid while there, it'd be a seriously scary experience.   All in all, Venice was fun, though VERY expensive and wet.  I think the wet and cold worsened my cold, and I am currently laying in bed feeling awful.  Tonight is the superbowl, and a popular bar here is throwing a party for it.  Kickoff isn't until 12:30am our time- and they plan on staying open until 5am so people can watch the entire game- but I'm thinking I'll go for awhile then call it a night- got class tomorrow!  I'll put up some pictures of Rome, Interlaken and Venice so you can see my adventures!

Thu Feb 04, 2010 Full Page

---sidenote- * = parenthesis', because apparently you can't make them on this thingHello hello! Well, I am currently sick in bed, eating soup and about to watch The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (to get excited for Greece). All is well here in Rome otherwise though...same old, same old (ha ha). Classes went alright this week, though italian is getting tougher/more intimidating everyday. I am understanding more of what I hear, but still having major difficulty forming sentences to speak. I'm making an effort to try to listen to people on the streets and translate their conversations...its kind of fun actually, but they speak so fast its not easy! Last weekend four of my friends here and I traveled to Interlaken, Switzerland. Amazing! In all honesty, Switzerland had not been on my radar for potential travel destinations *wasn't even entirely sure where it was located...* but people wanted to go so...when in Rome! We went through a company called Bus2Alps, which offers a bunch of trips to studying abroad students all over western europe. It was a 12 hr bus ride each way which allowed me to watch some of my favorite movies (which was nice since we don't have tv here- everything if anything has to be watched on my laptop) and get in a couple hours of uncomfortable sleep. They set us up at a hostel called Balmers, which turned out to be nicer than I'd expected. They provided us with breakfast and a warm place to come back to after being out in the cold. The bottom level of the building was also a bar/nightclub that is apparently the "hot spot" for Interlaken locals...so we hit that up once or twice and it was fine -- about what you'd expect for a bar located inside a hostel. We spent our first afternoon skiing the alps!! It took a long time to rent clothing/equipment and get up the mountain (a bus and 2 trains were required to do so) but it was well worth it. I decided to retire my board for the trip and try out skiing for the first time since 7th grade. It took a bit to pick up but eventually I was doing pretty well. I'd actually consider doing it again! Luckily none of my friends were that great at it either so we had a good time together.

Mon Jan 25, 2010 Full Page

Day 13- MondayCiao! I'm officially living in ROMA!! Things so far have been great. I've made friends and am getting to know the city *slowly *. My apartment is nice and is literally 5 minutes or less walking distance from the Vatican! I can see the dome from my balcony and at night it is beautiful!! I like the street I live on, though I do wish we were closer to Trastevere, where our school *John Cabot University or JCU* is. There is a long creepy tunnel that connects Trastevere to the Vatican neighborhood and I inevitably have to walk through it multiple times daily. The walk to and from campus is simple- which i discovered after getting lost several times the first time through- though sometimes you have to dodge cars a bit. JCU literally dropped us off at our apartments the first day and I didn't have a clue how to get to campus. Luckily my "internal compass" kicked in and I eventually found the buildings for both campuses *which are about 5 min apart* ...haha just kidding, we all know I suck at directions, it was more like trial and error, though i DO think my abilities are gradually improving. My classes are all interesting, though sadly I don't think any of them will be easy. I'd prefer a simpler semester so that i can focus on TRAVELING and enjoying rome, but I guess I'll deal with the homework. My italian class is going to be super difficult. Everyone in my class is pretty qualified, much more so than myself..some students seem fluent, which makes me wonder why they are even in the class? But I have to take this course *which is only one course below "advanced" * because I need to fill my "language" gen ed requirement in order to graduate. I think if I make a big effort to do work outside of class ill be alright- also I like my teacher a lot, though she doesn't speak english during class at all. Anyways, my roommates are all cool and our apartment has worked out well so far. It'd be nice if we had a living room or somewhere to sit and do homework but oh well. My roommate and I share a desk so I guess that works, though there is not much privacy. I finally started noticing all the shops and such around us and was happily surprised! Right outside our door is a general store which sells basic everyday stuff from cleaning supplies to school supplies, which is awesome! There is also a massage/spa place nearby, but its kinda pricey. I'm going to make more of an effort to notice things around me when I'm walking because I tend to stare straight ahead and I miss a lot. Finally started planning travel trips the other day! This weekend my group of friends and i are going to Interlaken, Switzerland to ski/board the alps/explore! I'm really excited. Then next weekend we are spending a night in Venice for Carnivale which should be fun. We also booked spring break-Greece! We are spending several days in Athens and several days in Santorini. Then I'm coming back to Rome a few days early since my wonderful family will be visiting ! and the rest of my group will visit Milan. Tonight we are planning out a trip to Amsterdam, and london and paris trips are also currently in the works as well. This semester is gonna fly by I can already tell! This is pretty lengthy so I'll stop here for now, but just wanted to give an overview/update on life in Roma thus far. I'm loving living here and am slowly understanding the italian way of life more on that later . I keep getting mistaken for being italian weirdly so I need to hurry up and learn the language well so then I can fool people ; We'll see how that goes...

Mon Jan 25, 2010 Full Page

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