So I made it back to the US! It was a bit of a rocky start though. Since we had to get a taxi at 4:30am to catch our 7:00am flights, my roommates and I just decided to stay up all night instead of go to bed at say 9:00pm. Who would want to spend their last night in Italy sleeping?? We ended up calling a cab a little before 4:30, but didn't get one until 25 minutes later since their service wasn't very good. Once we got to the airport, Alessia and Amy went to one airline, and I went to another. We figured once we went through luggage check-in and security, we would say goodbye at the terminals. However, the lines to check in luggage were unbelievably long and were not moving. Somehow, I ended up being the last person in line, and by the time I finally got through, I had 15 minutes before my plane took off...and I hadn't been through security yet! Long story short, I ended up running in the airport a little ways carrying my shoes instead of wearing them. Don't worry, I ended up making the flight, but I never got my tearful goodbye with Alessia and Amy!! I think I was most mad about that.
My connecting flights were not as eventful. It was cold and rainy in Germany where my connecting flights were, so I was happy not to stay too long there! I ended up getting to O'Hare around 2pm local time...which was strange because I left Europe at 11:00am, but had a 9 hour flight! I felt pretty good when I came back energy-wise, probably because I was excited to finally see my family again :) But for some reason at 9pm, all of my jet lag hit me at once, and I felt EXHAUSTED. I had a nice catch-up session on sleep...since I slept until 2pm this afternoon (and had to be dragged out of bed!).
I'm very happy to be home and to be with my family and friends again, but I'm still feeling sad to have left Italy and the people I met there :( I'm just happy for Facebook, Skype, and texting to keep in contact with everyone!
This will be my last blog post, so I just wanted to thank you all for reading this and sharing my amazing month with me. I'm going to end it with a list of what all I will miss (and not miss) about being in Italy:
Things I won't miss:
- walking at "vacation pace" when I have somewhere to be
- peanut butter that costs 7 US dollars for a teeny jar
- geckos in the apartment
- not being able to understand people when they talk to me in a different language
Things I will miss:
- the friends I've made and all of our inside jokes :)
- passing the Duomo every day
- gelato/real Italian pasta
- the accordion guy who plays outside our apartment at sunset
- haggling prices at the outdoor markets
- red orange juice
- being able to walk everywhere
- seeing famous artworks/cities on free afternoons and weekends
- being in Italy in general!! <3
Ciao everyone!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Veni vidi vici
Last day in Italy :(
Just thinking about leaving makes me sad!! This has been such a great experience and one of the best months of my life. Last night we had to say goodbye to LaWanda because she was leaving early to do some traveling in Germany, England, and France before going home. Saying goodbye to her was hard enough...I don't want to think how tomorrow morning will be when I say goodbye to the other three girls!
While here in Italy, I have seen and done so many things that I never thought I would do. I've gotten to see Rome, Pisa, Nice, Monaco, the French Riviera, Siena...and of course everything here in Florence! I packed a lot of sight-seeing into such a small span of time, but I'm happy with all that I've gotten to see. And if I didn't get to see something, it will just be an excuse for me to come back someday!
Tonight they are shooting off fireworks from Piazza Michelangelo in celebration of the Festa de San Giovanni holiday today. My roommates/floormates and I are planning on watching them from Ashley and Alessia's balcony, so that will be fun!
I can't wait to come home because I miss my family and friends like crazy, and I can't wait to tell them about everything I've done here, but I am going to miss living in Florence so much. I definitely want to come back and visit someday, so this won't be the last time I'm here :) But for now, I'll just have to say "Ciao Firenze!"
Just thinking about leaving makes me sad!! This has been such a great experience and one of the best months of my life. Last night we had to say goodbye to LaWanda because she was leaving early to do some traveling in Germany, England, and France before going home. Saying goodbye to her was hard enough...I don't want to think how tomorrow morning will be when I say goodbye to the other three girls!
While here in Italy, I have seen and done so many things that I never thought I would do. I've gotten to see Rome, Pisa, Nice, Monaco, the French Riviera, Siena...and of course everything here in Florence! I packed a lot of sight-seeing into such a small span of time, but I'm happy with all that I've gotten to see. And if I didn't get to see something, it will just be an excuse for me to come back someday!
Tonight they are shooting off fireworks from Piazza Michelangelo in celebration of the Festa de San Giovanni holiday today. My roommates/floormates and I are planning on watching them from Ashley and Alessia's balcony, so that will be fun!
I can't wait to come home because I miss my family and friends like crazy, and I can't wait to tell them about everything I've done here, but I am going to miss living in Florence so much. I definitely want to come back and visit someday, so this won't be the last time I'm here :) But for now, I'll just have to say "Ciao Firenze!"
Thursday, June 23, 2011
School's out for summer!
I can't believe that today was my last day of class!! These past few weeks have gone by faster than I ever expected. I had mixed emotions in class today. I was sad that I won't be able to hang out with my awesome classmates all together anymore, and the actual printmaking process was pretty fun. (And better than sitting through a lecture class for 3 hours!) But I'm also glad to be done with class because now these next couple days can be just for fun! Class today was just finishing up last minute project details and then doing critiques of everyone's work. I was really happy because my professor had nothing but good things to say about mine! She even kept a proof of one of my final projects to keep as an example to show future students :)
Tonight we have a (free!) farewell dinner for all of the students from the Lorenzo de Medici school. We had a welcome dinner at the beginning of the month, but I think this dinner will be more fun just because I'll know more people! Tonight will be a little sad though because one of my roommates (LaWanda) is leaving Italy tonight because she is traveling to Germany (and England and France) before heading home. It's sad to think about how I won't see these girls for a long time! Thank goodness for facebook and texting though :)
I'm starting to pack everything into my suitcases now. I'm a little worried though because my suitcase might be a litttttle over the weight limit...unless I'm a really good packer or wear a lot of my clothes home. Right now my bed and desk look like a souvenir tornado hit, so I have a little more organizing to do!
All of my preliminary and final prints for my class
Last day of class with my classmates Marie and Rachel!
Tonight we have a (free!) farewell dinner for all of the students from the Lorenzo de Medici school. We had a welcome dinner at the beginning of the month, but I think this dinner will be more fun just because I'll know more people! Tonight will be a little sad though because one of my roommates (LaWanda) is leaving Italy tonight because she is traveling to Germany (and England and France) before heading home. It's sad to think about how I won't see these girls for a long time! Thank goodness for facebook and texting though :)
I'm starting to pack everything into my suitcases now. I'm a little worried though because my suitcase might be a litttttle over the weight limit...unless I'm a really good packer or wear a lot of my clothes home. Right now my bed and desk look like a souvenir tornado hit, so I have a little more organizing to do!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Stomach sandwich
It's hard to believe that it's finals week for classes already! We don't have a final test in my printmaking class, but we do have to have all of our finals prints done by Thursday. Luckily I finished one project last week and another today, so I only have one to go. I may have had to do extra studio time in the past couple weeks, but thinking about it, I'd rather do that than have a final test or paper to turn in like most of my friends have to do!
This week has been pretty laid back so far. I've already seen almost all of the sights I wanted to in Florence, so this week is devoted to spending time with my roommates and friends...and shopping of course :) This past weekend, I went to the Boboli Gardens across the river. I didn't get a chance to walk through the whole thing, because these gardens are huge. I did get to see a good portion of it, so that was good enough for me! Thankfully, the weather here has been beautiful for the past week. Although it gets really hot during part of the day, I don't mind because it's much better than cold rain like a couple weeks ago!
Yesterday some of my roommates and I went to Mercato Centrale (a huge indoor market) to get some food to make dinner for last night and tonight. While we were there, I also had to stop at a certain restaurant for lunch. A few weeks ago, Mom sent me a "top 10 list" of things to do in Florence, and one of them is to have a tripe sandwhich at a place called "Da Nerbone" in Mercato Centrale. At this point, I had done 8 out of 10, so I had to do this one so I can complete the list! For those of you that don't know, tripe is cow's stomach. Yes. I had stomach in my stomach yesterday. And surprisingly it didn't taste too bad!
This morning, Alessia, Ashley, and I got up really early to walk to a certain market that happens only on Tuesdays. We wanted to go before class to make sure that they still had a good selection, so we left a little before 7:30. It was a 30 minute walk to get there (and another 30 minutes to class!), so we definitely got our exercise this morning! When I come home, I'm going to have to do a lot of walking because otherwise I'm going to feel very lazy since I've been doing a LOT of walking here!
Boboli Gardens (looking at the back of Pitti Palace)
Produce stand inside Mercato Centrale
Eating my tripe sandwich :p
This week has been pretty laid back so far. I've already seen almost all of the sights I wanted to in Florence, so this week is devoted to spending time with my roommates and friends...and shopping of course :) This past weekend, I went to the Boboli Gardens across the river. I didn't get a chance to walk through the whole thing, because these gardens are huge. I did get to see a good portion of it, so that was good enough for me! Thankfully, the weather here has been beautiful for the past week. Although it gets really hot during part of the day, I don't mind because it's much better than cold rain like a couple weeks ago!
Yesterday some of my roommates and I went to Mercato Centrale (a huge indoor market) to get some food to make dinner for last night and tonight. While we were there, I also had to stop at a certain restaurant for lunch. A few weeks ago, Mom sent me a "top 10 list" of things to do in Florence, and one of them is to have a tripe sandwhich at a place called "Da Nerbone" in Mercato Centrale. At this point, I had done 8 out of 10, so I had to do this one so I can complete the list! For those of you that don't know, tripe is cow's stomach. Yes. I had stomach in my stomach yesterday. And surprisingly it didn't taste too bad!
This morning, Alessia, Ashley, and I got up really early to walk to a certain market that happens only on Tuesdays. We wanted to go before class to make sure that they still had a good selection, so we left a little before 7:30. It was a 30 minute walk to get there (and another 30 minutes to class!), so we definitely got our exercise this morning! When I come home, I'm going to have to do a lot of walking because otherwise I'm going to feel very lazy since I've been doing a LOT of walking here!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
"Dove San Marco??"
Earlier this week, Amy and I decided that while we were in Italy, we had to see Venice at some point. So we found an agency in Florence that provides day trips to students or anyone that wants to sign up. Yesterday we met the group at the train station, and we took a bus for 3 hours to Venice! I was really excited because Venice is so unique, and seeing it in person after hearing about it and seeing it in pictures was awesome.
We got to Venice a little after 12:30, so we went right to lunch. We had lunch on the island of Murano where they have the glass blowing factory. During lunch, it was raining pretty hard, but by the time we were done eating, it completely cleared up! (Wish that would have happened in France...) For lunch I had real Italian spaghetti for the first time (Lexie!), and it was delicious. After eating, another girl (Carina) and I walked to the glass factory. Unfortunately since we weren't with a large group, we couldn't see the demonstration, but we did get to look around the shops to see what all they made! After going to Murano, we had to navigate the water buses to try to make our way to another island called Burano. This island was so cute! The houses and buildings on this island were painted in every color imaginable. Plus it wasn't too tourist-y, so it had a very relaxed vibe. We didn't spend long on this island because we just wanted to see the buildings. So after about a half hour on Burano, we caught another water bus to get to the main island where the Grand Canal and St. Mark's Square are.
The canals in Venice are spectacular, and we were all saying that it was a nice change not having to worry about being run over by cars every five seconds! I wanted to take a gondola ride, but not enough people I found wanted to take one, and they were crazy expensive anyway. I guess I'll have to settle with the water bus rides :p
I met up with a couple people and we were on a mission to find St. Mark's Square. We found the Ponte Rialto bridge no problem, and walked across it a few times. Then we followed the signs to take us to St. Mark's Square. Unfortunately, the signs disappeared after a while, so we had to ask for directions. Finally, we found the square (which shouldn't have been so hard to find since it's huge!). All of the buildings surrounding it were beautiful, and I did see the old clock with the sun revolving around the earth (Mom!). I'm a little sad that I didn't take a gondola ride while I was there, but now that will give me an excuse to come back someday so I can!!
Last night was another long night because we had to wait on the bus to leave for an extra 1.5 hours, since two people got lost and missed the sooner water bus ride. We ended up getting home around 1:30am. I was really tired...until Amy found a LIZARD in our room, and then I woke right up because I was freaking out! Lizards are cute when they are outside, but when they are in your room by your bed?? Then no. I cannot handle it! Thankfully, Ashley came over and caught it and let it go on our balcony. Hopefully that will be the last reptile wandering around our room!!
Eating legit Italian spaghetti at a restaurant on the island of Murano in Venice.
Island of Burano in Venice with super colorful buildings!
Me standing on Ponte Rialto looking over the Grand Canal
Lots of gondolas in Venice...I'll ride one someday!!
We got to Venice a little after 12:30, so we went right to lunch. We had lunch on the island of Murano where they have the glass blowing factory. During lunch, it was raining pretty hard, but by the time we were done eating, it completely cleared up! (Wish that would have happened in France...) For lunch I had real Italian spaghetti for the first time (Lexie!), and it was delicious. After eating, another girl (Carina) and I walked to the glass factory. Unfortunately since we weren't with a large group, we couldn't see the demonstration, but we did get to look around the shops to see what all they made! After going to Murano, we had to navigate the water buses to try to make our way to another island called Burano. This island was so cute! The houses and buildings on this island were painted in every color imaginable. Plus it wasn't too tourist-y, so it had a very relaxed vibe. We didn't spend long on this island because we just wanted to see the buildings. So after about a half hour on Burano, we caught another water bus to get to the main island where the Grand Canal and St. Mark's Square are.
The canals in Venice are spectacular, and we were all saying that it was a nice change not having to worry about being run over by cars every five seconds! I wanted to take a gondola ride, but not enough people I found wanted to take one, and they were crazy expensive anyway. I guess I'll have to settle with the water bus rides :p
I met up with a couple people and we were on a mission to find St. Mark's Square. We found the Ponte Rialto bridge no problem, and walked across it a few times. Then we followed the signs to take us to St. Mark's Square. Unfortunately, the signs disappeared after a while, so we had to ask for directions. Finally, we found the square (which shouldn't have been so hard to find since it's huge!). All of the buildings surrounding it were beautiful, and I did see the old clock with the sun revolving around the earth (Mom!). I'm a little sad that I didn't take a gondola ride while I was there, but now that will give me an excuse to come back someday so I can!!
Last night was another long night because we had to wait on the bus to leave for an extra 1.5 hours, since two people got lost and missed the sooner water bus ride. We ended up getting home around 1:30am. I was really tired...until Amy found a LIZARD in our room, and then I woke right up because I was freaking out! Lizards are cute when they are outside, but when they are in your room by your bed?? Then no. I cannot handle it! Thankfully, Ashley came over and caught it and let it go on our balcony. Hopefully that will be the last reptile wandering around our room!!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Total eclipse of the...moon :)
I can't believe how fast this week is going! On the bright side, I did get to do more sight-seeing in Florence earlier this week. On Monday, Marie from my class and I climbed all the stairs up to get to the top of the dome on Duomo. The stairs were a little intense at times (and we were never happier to see rest platforms in our lives!) but the view from the top was amazing. One funny thing is that I could see my apartment window and balcony from the top, so I called my roommate Amy and told her to go outside and wave. And I could see her!
Yesterday, my other roommate LaWanda and Marie and I went to Basilica di Santa Croce, which is the church where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried. It was a little hard to figure out what all the tombs said because the signs telling about them were in Italian! I am learning a little bit, but if someone tried to hold a long conversation with me in Italian, then I probably couldn't do it :p
Last night, there was a lunar eclipse that was visible in Europe, but not the US. So a few of us went up to Piazza Michelangelo (where you can see a great view of Florence) to see it. We could see the moon really well because it was a beautiful day yesterday and there were no clouds in the sky at all. It looked a little creepy though because it was dark and red. I tried getting a picture of it, but my camera couldn't get it that well. Oh well, it was still cool to see in person!
Michelangelo and I! (well, he and his tomb anyway)
See the little reddish-orange dot to the upper left of the bright orange street light? That's the moon in the lunar eclipse!
View of Florence at night from Piazza Michelangelo
Yesterday, my other roommate LaWanda and Marie and I went to Basilica di Santa Croce, which is the church where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried. It was a little hard to figure out what all the tombs said because the signs telling about them were in Italian! I am learning a little bit, but if someone tried to hold a long conversation with me in Italian, then I probably couldn't do it :p
Last night, there was a lunar eclipse that was visible in Europe, but not the US. So a few of us went up to Piazza Michelangelo (where you can see a great view of Florence) to see it. We could see the moon really well because it was a beautiful day yesterday and there were no clouds in the sky at all. It looked a little creepy though because it was dark and red. I tried getting a picture of it, but my camera couldn't get it that well. Oh well, it was still cool to see in person!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Rome pictures!
Piazza Venezia
Marie and I on the top of Duomo! (463 steps up!)
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