Frozen Fog Expected...

So, 11 days ago when I said I only had 10 days left in London, I lied. I'm sure at this point all of you have heard from me at one point or another about the current horrifying conditions in London airports. Heathrow is a complete mess, and there is no hope as of right now to be fixing it anytime soon. I have gotten a total of 5 hours of sleep since Friday, and last night I spent 8 hours from midnight to 8:30 am on the phone and online trying to book another flight out of here before christmas after my first two were canceled, from Genna's house after I had to go back there at midnight because I found out my flight was canceled and BONUS: my residence hall had no internet for 2 days. I miraculously booked a direct flight to JFK for Wednesday morning - this was amazing because all flights available have layovers in other European cities that are snowed in. Heathrow estimates half a million people to be stranded in the airport through the holidays. I literally cannot believe there haven't been riots. I can tell you that I will be leading them on Wednesday if my third flight is canceled, and I will also be resigning myself to a nice lonely Christmas away from home.

The only somewhat entertaining part of this whole bit is watching the news and seeing the interviews with Americans who have been sleeping in Heathrow on standby for any flight out by Christmas. The Brits seem to be aggravated but not quite enraged about the whole situation. The Americans on the other hand, know that this would NEVER happen in America, and this is why I am so surprised the riots have not yet begun. There is more snow expected tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. Though checking the weather is mostly pointless, because it changes every 23 seconds and they predict things like "frozen fog". What is frozen fog?? Is it like foggy out and then you walk into a block of frozen fog? Picturing this at least brought some humor to the situation.

If I can't get out Wednesday, I am hoping that I will at least be able to fly out Christmas day or the 26th.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that my flight Wednesday does not get canceled. I would really like to come home now.

Eeeeeek! SLAM! Lockeylockeylock

So, I have a mere 10 days left in London now. THANK.GOD. That's all I have to say. I won't bore you again with all the reasons why I want to come home, but I will just tell you that I have watched about 35 netflix movies since Monday, and leave it at that.

Anyway, life has been pretty normal, winding down on my 8 papers. I have handed in 4 now, and I am currently procrastinating from finishing up my 7th. My nursing applications are also due next week, which is stressing me out. But, on December 15th (only 6 days from now!!) all my papers and applications will be handed in!

So Monday was my 21st birthday. It was a really relaxing day, which I have to say was nice, although contrary to a typical American 21st birthday. I decided that I would rather wait to celebrate until I return to DC, and I don't have to pay 20 quid to get in somewhere. Emily and I went ot class that day, then came home and roasted a chicken for dinner. It was delish again! And I have to say, Genna I don't know if you read this but I am turning into a GREAT cook. hahahah beware to anyone living in the berks next semester! just kidding, I'm really getting good :)

Then on Tuesday, Emily took me to see a Christmas Carol for my present! It was without a doubt the FUNNIEST version of that play I have ever seen. It was some sort of arts school production in a pub. Yes, the theater was actually a pub. And the actors had no props or sound effects or anything. So, they made the sound effects and props themselves. When they opened a door they all said "Eeeeeek!" and then when they closed it, it was "SLAM!" "Lockeylockeylock" was the sound to lock a door, of course. Needless to say I was cracking up the whole time.

Since then we've been laying pretty low.. I've had a bad case of staring at my paper and not writing anything for hours on end. Hopefully in the next few days I will power through and just finish them up! On Saturday, Emily's friend is coming to visit, so that will distract us for a while. We are going out Saturday night as our final goodbye drinks to London. And Sunday we are going down to this adorable pub by the Tower Bridge to have  a Sunday Roast! So excited. And then we will truly be in the homestretch. Which is great because if I eat pretzels or cheese as a meal one more time I think I'm going to turn into one.

This country is the MOST annoying.

So, I am officially the worst blogger on the planet. Although I do believe no one is actually reading this (except for my mom when I call her and yell at her to haha) but just in case, I don't even have a valid excuse why I've neglected my blog so much for the last month... In the last two weeks I have been doing a whole lot of nothing so I couldn't tell you why. But I'll catch you up now I suppose.
So right after my last post (I believe) I went to Prague! It was super cold and rainy there the whole weekend but it was great to see Emma, and it was SO CHEAP THERE. it hurt me so much to come back to the pound. But it was nice while it lasted.
A week or so after I returned from Prague, Lynn came to visit! And I was sooooooo happy!! It was so nice to see family, I was starting to get really homesick and lonely. We had SUCH a fun time over the few days she was here - I took her to Primark (the best place ever, and I think her head almost flew off with excitement) and then we had some great walks around the city, some nice meals, and Sunday we did ALL the sightseeing. I have to say, I am impressed with all of us. Somehow we managed to see every single sight in the entire city in one day. And we had a Sunday roast!! It was so cute and englishy. Then Monday, we went to Liverpool which was amazing. The Beatles Story (big exhibit) was awesome, and then we got to see the pubs where the Beatles played, the John Lennon Statue and wall of fame, the Eleanor Rigby Statue and Penny Lane. We failed to realize that Abbey Road (after desperately searching for it) was in fact, in London. Oh well, at least I will get to see it before I leave! Then Tuesday I took Lynn and Diane to Camden market which was so fun. I was so glad they came, we had a great time - and I got to see more pictures of my baby Deanie! I can't wait to meet him when I get home :)

So after Lynn and Diane got on their plane back to America, (I begged them to put me in their suitcase) it was Thanksgiving. It was so weird to be away from home, but my roommate and I decided to make the best of our teeny tiny kitchen and roast a chicken. Her mom mailed her cranberry sauce and pumpkin to make pumpkin pie too! We failed to realize in the supermarket that you don't need to marinate a chicken, you just roast it, but our chicken ended up being DELISH! Despite the fact that we were missing mashed potatoes (my fav) we had a wonderful dinner and it was so cute.

Since Thanksgiving a week ago, I have started to go a little stir crazy. Once the holiday was over, it felt like we were really in the homestretch. The problem is, that we aren't really close enough to going home yet to be thinking about it every second and counting down the hours. Yet, I find myself doing this just about every moment of the day that I'm awake. Its not that I haven't enjoyed my time in London - I love the city, but I am getting fed up with school (a whole fiasco with my papers) and I am homesick for America, and I'm just done with my experience here for now. I am sick of the food here, it is WAY too cold outside, and I miss my wardrobe. Not to mention, my family, friends, boyfriend, my doggies! and my BED, my car. And a normal American grading system. And things are winding down now, and I just spend so many hours at home on my computer, bored to tears. And all I can do is stare at my calendar and try to make the days go faster with my eyes. Well, just 18 more days and I will be home for the holidays....

I don't even KNOW anyone in this place

Okay, so, the last week has been mostly uneventful. Last weekend was very cold and we were working on papers, so we mostly stayed in. On Saturday we did take a paper writing break to go visit Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster! It was strange that I had not been to visit yet.

We got a nice view of Parliament, and then walked down along the Thames. Across the way we could see the London Eye (which I have yet to go on, but will in a few weeks when Lynn comes to visit!!)

It was reallllly cold and windy, but it was a beautiful autumn day so we hung out for a bit in a park on the other side of Parliament. It is right on the Thames River so we had a beautiful view!

It was really beautiful. After our little walk, we headed home. The next day was Sunday, Halloween. Most of you probably know that I hate Halloween and I was very excited to be in a country where it is not so widely celebrated, and I could get away with ignoring it. Thank god. We did go to a pub that night, just to do something fun. And oh, was I mistaken. We saw quite the sights. I wish i could have taken pictures of everyone there and even more so the way they were dancing without being super creepy. Speaking of creepy, a few older men decided to join the crowd on this Halloween night. And by older, I mean I was actually getting hit on by my grandpa. Talk about a creepy Halloween.

Anyway, on Tuesday we met up with Genna (YAY we really missed her while she was gone because her and Miriam are actually 100% of our friends). We headed over to Trafalgar Square to go to the National Gallery of Art and the Portrait Gallery. Both were pretty fun. I had forgotten that there was a Van Gogh room at the National Gallery which I greatly enjoyed. I was a little disappointed at the Portrait Gallery because there were very few people I could recognize, probably mostly because they were very strange portraits that mostly didn't really look like people. But Trafalgar Square is a cool place, with some nice fountains and big lion statues. I can't wait until December when they put up the huge Christmas display there!!!!!

Oh by the way, London appreciates Christmas the way I do - they start the day after Halloween!!!! I'm staying here forever. There are already christmas lights all over the city!!! Its the best.
Anyway, I left out a really nice photo of the mountain we climbed in Scotland last time, so I'm going to add it here. There was a rainbow over it!!

I'm leaving tonight at 3 am for Prague!!! I will write more asap about my trip!!

Krackawheat - good for you, good for me

I am officially the worst blogger ever. I have failed for nearly the last month to update! I think its because the excitement died down for a bit, and then picked up a lot and I just fell off the earth. Anyway, here's the update:
So I started school! After the longest most complicated registration process on the entire planet, we got our classes and have now been in class for four weeks. Everything is pretty boring, for the most part, and I have concluded that the English are the weirdest most non-sensible graders in all the world. Next week is our last week of 2 hour classes, then we have a week off and then 1 hour classes haha.
That weekend we went to Notting Hill. It wasn't quite as quaint as the movie, and the little bookstore where Hugh Grant works is apparently not real. It was a cute little market though, and I somehow managed to restrain myself from buying anything. That week Elsha came, but I only got to see her once because she was so busy.

The next weekend we went to Edinburgh, Scotland!! It was really, really beautiful there, but colddddd. Every building there is gorgeous - every single one has that blackened gothic architecture- restaurants, stores, houses, etc.  We walked around the town the first day, and then went to a pub and got SAND BUCKETS! They served you drinks literally in a sand bucket with a straw. It was fantastic.

The next day, we went to see the Edinburgh Castle. It was pretty expensive to get in, and there was a huge line so we decided against it. It was beautiful though. It is up on a big hill and its that really beautiful Scottish stone.

That night we went back again to the pub for sand buckets. Then on Sunday, we hiked up a mountain to Arthur's Seat. From there we could see all of Edinburgh and it was absolutely breathtaking. It's a very small city, but it was still a wonderful view.

Later that day we took the train home. The week when we returned, Camille was visiting! And although we took no pictures, we did a lot of walking around, catching up and checking out the city. It was a great time! I was very happy to see her after our month long separation from backpacking.
This past weekend, Emily and I stayed in and wrote papers for school. We have 8 papers to write for the semester, so we figured we'd get started so we don't have to scramble at the end of the term. We also went to Primark, as my only pair of boots had lost their soles, and it was making it difficult to get around. I purchased a new skirt and a wonderful new pair of boots! It was a great success, as it always is at Primark.
Tomorrow I have to register for spring term classes at AU. I spent most of the week dealing with this disaster, but I think now things should go smoothly. This weekend we are taking it easy, and then on Saturday going to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster. And next week I go see Emma in PRAGUE!!!!

Forecast? Rain. Heavy rain. Light rain. Scattered showers.

This last week has gone by so fast I have done so many things! I will try to give a brief overview of the past week.
Monday we went to the museum of natural history and the science museum. They. Were. Awesome. The museum of natural history had so many cool exhibits - I actually especially enjoyed the dinosaur one, which is slightly strange because i'm not usually a huge fan of dinosaurs but this was just so cool!

So we saw all the exhibits there - mammals, fish (ick), reptiles, etc. Then we made our way to the science museum. It was pretty cool, but my favorite exhibit was the last one. It was called the history of medicine, and it had all these rooms with wax people as doctors and patients showing how dentistry, surgery, childbirth, etc. has changed throughout the years. It was reallllllly cool and interesting! (Maybe just to me, but whatever)

Anyway, on Tuesday we went to register for classes. I will cut to the chase and tell you now, no, we still did not actually register that day. We had to go meet with our "affiliate tutor" to get approved for the classes we wanted to take. The really efficient system they had was.. oh, wait none. So all the studnets showed up at the same time and met with the tutor one by one by one. We waited over an hour and were the 4th and 5th people in line!! Anyway, then we went home and tried to register and of course it didn't work. We in fact are now less than 36 hours away from the start of class and still do not have any classes. Monday will be interesting.

Wednesday we went to see Genna!! She took us to her house which is huge and gorgeous and kicks our tiny excuse for an apartment's ass all the way to China. We hung out most of the day at her house, meeting her flatmates and just doing whatever we felt like it in a HUGE HOUSE. That night, we made our way through the pouring rain to a chinese restaurant that the guy at Carphone Warehouse had recommended to us. It was delicioussssss. I had been craving chinese food like no other since I got here and it hit the spot.

Thursday, Emily and I headed down to Leicester Square to buy some half price theatre tickets! After quite a bit of scouting and haggling, we purchased our tickets to Chicago for us and Genna for 19.50. Not too bad. We got all dressed up that night and went to the play! It was really fantastic! Afterwards, we went out for a casual drink (cause we can do that now). Overall it was a very fun night.

Friday we decided to take a very risky trip back to Primark. I can't remember if I wrote about Primark last time we went, but it is kind of like Walmart. But its TREMENDOUS. Like racks and people everywhere in every direction running around, trying things on, its just chaos. It kind of makes me want to sit in a corner and cry, but also makes me want to run around and buy everything. Its super cheap, so I wanted to head back, as I currently own 4 shirts, and laundry is just too much of a hassle every 4 days. So we figured out the bus system because the tube is too expensive (or so we thought) and we went to find the bus stop. This day it was raining (as usual) and the winds were about 16 mph. In the first 3 minutes outside I got literally dragged down the street by my umbrella. We looked for about 15 minutes and then gave up and decided to call it a day and go inside and just chill for the afternoon. I spent the day cuddled in bed watching Grey's :)

And finally today, we went to Camden Market. For those in DC, its kind of like Eastern Market, but 10,000 times bigger and better. Its absolutely huge. We spent 4 hours there and didn't even make a dent. I am extremely proud of myself that I only made 4 purchases. It is just filled with everything you could ever want - clothes, handmade jewelry, furniture, tapestries, shoes, trinkets, paintings, food- I'm serious it goes on and on. I literally shopped till I dropped today. It was really fun and I bought a cute little scottish looking skirt, a ring, a headband and some nice incense so our apartment can smell nice and homey. Tonight we had dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant with a new friend! (the italian food here hurts me in comparison to Italy, but dinner was very good)
Tomorrow, we are staying in because all public transportation workers are on strike. Apparently this happens a lot. Welcome to walking in the rain.

Apparently they don't believe in knocking in the UK

So for the past week (the entirety of the time I've had the pleasure of being in the UK) I've been sick. This has not stopped me however, from exploring the new city! In the past few days, after we settled the kitchen debacle, Emily and I have been to our first pub (yay!) the tower of london (and tower hill and tower bridge) and buckingham palace! On Friday night (despite the cold weather and rain) we did ourselves up and went out to our first pub. Now we planned to go to this pub - an ale and cider house - that was supposed to be close. I was quite excited about this because I couldn't wait to try some traditional english cider! Despite our hopes, we walked for nearly an hour until we found ourselves lost and gave up. We made our way back to school, and then found our fall back pub - the court. this is the go to place for students of UCL, and also offers great student discounts. Emily and I tried some english beer, english cider, and some english vodka cranberry (which kicks america's vodka cranberry's ass, by the way). Now this pub was really crowded, and had all walks of life. College kids to middle aged men dressed in suits. And it was totally normal. Everyone just sitting around tables drinking cider and beer and having a grand old time. We stayed for a few hours, met some new friends (yay!) and then made our way back home.

The next day we headed out for the Tower of London. It was 15 pounds to get a ticket in, but it was definitely a landmark of London worth seeing. We got a free tour by these men who live in the tower and guard it (but also give tours..) but they have to serve in the military for like 25 years and all this crazy stuff to qualify. That was fun, then we explored around. We saw the Crown Jewels (reallllllly amazing), some torture chambers and dungeons, some armor and swords and things like that. After a long, long day of touring around, we made our way to the Tower Bridge. Now, for those of you who are confused by the nursery rhyme, the huge landmark bridge in london is NOT the London Bridge. Nor is it falling down. The Tower Bridge is the huge bridge that was sooo exciting for me, because I love bridges. Its absolutely tremendous, probably the biggest one I've ever seen. There are offices IN THE BRIDGE! How cool is that?!

Anyway, we grabbed some food at a pub and tried some pimms (a lemonade fruity alcoholic drink that is just delightful) and then made our way to Tower Hill (where all... well, pretty much every person who lived in London got beheaded). It really was a bunch of nothing, as what's left of it is just a patch of grass. We walked past it like 8 times before we realized. Its in the middle of this huge navy memorial, which if you ask me is not the place for a guillotine site. But oh well.

We didn't make it out last night because we were exhausted, and had to wake up early this morning to get to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards. We arrived there at 10:45 am, 45 minutes before the guards changed. I kid you not, there were THOUSANDS of people there. I don't understand. The changing of the guards happens every single even day of the month at Buckingham palace. And every single even day of the month there are thousands of people there!!! Its unbelievable. It was cool to see but rather uneventful as I am quite short and could not see the bulk of it. But the guard's band did play a nice Abba medley. After the changing of the guards was over, we waited in line for a long while to get tickets inside the palace. Now, I had never really thought much about the queen and her palace, but after seeing it I could definitely see myself living there. Or being the queen for that matter. Every single thing in that palace is gold - the staircases, the chandeliers, the walls, the chairs, its like endless gold. And there was this one display of some of the queen's actual gowns, which I wouldn't mind wearing myself from time to time.

After the palace, we headed over to a small tea shop that I remembered from when I was here a year ago. It was still there!! We went in, and tasted some of the BEST tea I've ever had. I bought a few packages of tea and as it started to rain, we got on the metro to Euston. Next, we went into this medical museum that is part of our school and was sponsoring a free skin exhibit. It was really cool (a little creepy) but had real human skin, some photography, some information on skin diseases and some really cool tattoos.
All in all it was a long but great day, and then we finally made it home and decided to just hang out for the night because we had been running around so much. Tomorrow we are going to the science museum, which I'm really excited about!

You have to be 21 to buy a knife. No, this is not a joke.

Two days ago, I arrived in London. My flight from Milan was delayed 3 hours while we were sitting on the plane. However, I met this nice woman named Shaney who told me all about how she was engaged to man she met six weeks ago. After we landed, we waited on the line for border patrol together. At this point in my trip (I had now been in the UK for all of about 2 hours) I learned something about that British accent that I love so dearly. It either makes a person sound extra nice and friendly or SUPER mean. I don't know what it is. But anyway, the woman at border patrol wasn't very nice. She kept asking me what classes I was taking. I kept telling her I hadn't registered for classes yet, and she proceeded to tell me that this was the dumbest thing she had ever heard of - why would i pay for classes at a university that won't tell me what classes I'm taking? I said this was a good question, but there was still nothing I could do about it. She stamped my passport as a short term student and asked me to please just leave.

A few hours and quite a struggle with all the luggage later, I made it to my residence. I say this because one cannot actually call this an apartment. I walked through the steel door into my apartment, and entered the miniscule standing area we have. you can probably comfortably fit 2 people in this area, standing. then there are 4 steel doors - one to my bedroom, one to Emily's, one to the kitchen, and one to the bathroom. The kitchen is fine, though I am wondering if we would even be able to fit a plate in the oven. Though this is apparently a wonderous living situation, we were not equipped with any kitchenware. We spent the entire day yesterday wandering around trying to buy plates, utensils, cups, pots/pans, etc. so we could actually eat some real food. It was an epic fail. We ended up going to a restaurant and stealing some plastic sporks, and we found two ceramic mugs at the grocery store. Needless to say my cheerios this morning out of a mug with a spork was quite a treat.

Today we woke up fresh, and actually had the energy to go somewhere farther (Poundland - everything is one pound) and buy all of our kitchen stuff. It was a great success! We even made pasta tonight. Oh except for one thing - we tried to buy a little pack of things - a steak knife, a grater and a pair of scissors - which was entitled "student kitchen package." When we were at the cash register ringing it up, the cashier asked us how old we are. When we replied 20, she took our knife away. "You aren't allowed to buy knives unless you are 21," she told us. We started to laugh until we realized she was serious and I asked her how we were supposed to cut anything because we live here alone and we don't know anyone who is 21 who could buy us a knife. She laughed, but failed to give us an alternative option. After that, we made our way to Primark, which is something like Walmart. It was fabulous. I bought blankets, a beautiful pair of boots for $15, rainboots and a winter coat. It was great. And then tonight we unpacked, cleaned up and set up our living space quite nicely. I think things are finally starting to get less stressful now. The last hurdle is registering for class, which we are going to try to do tomorrow. I am also trying to figure out how to get photos developed here, I bought some frames today to make my room look like less of a prison cell.
It definitely has been an adventure thus far...

This is the highway...

So sorry to anyone who is actually reading this, but we had scarce internet the last few days of backpacking so I had to wait until now to update. After we left Florence we headed for Venice. We ran into a slight issue on the train there which was that we bought a ticket, but not a seat (because apparently it wouldn't make sense to put these two things together) and nearly got kicked off the train. So after a lot of harsh words and 36 euros later, we arrived in venice to our hostel which was conveniently situated in the middle of a chinese restaurant. No, not next to it, in the middle of it. Strange.

Anyway, we made our way into the actual city of Venice (different than the one where our hostel was) which is the real Venice. It was gorgeous. Every single thing is on the water.. it really is a floating city! I don't know why it was so hard for me to believe, but it just seemed so magical. Every type of public transportation is on the water! And there are bridges EVERYWHERE (which I lovvvved).
So the first day we just wandered around and somehow made our way to the complete opposite very end of the island. As in if we took another 10 steps we probably would have dropped off into the ocean. After a very very long battle trying to find our way all the way back across the island, we finally made it back. The second day we went to this main piazza, where all the pigeons land on people if you stand still. I found it to be freaky and disgusting, but amusing at the same time. We made sure not to stand still for too long. In fact, one guy was lying on the ground with about 20 pigeons on him, and one eating a pretzel out of his mouth. And people had their babies with pigeons on them!!! It was very weird.

The day after that we left for Milan. Milan was a very needed rest, and also a very needed shopping spree as I had finally bought a suitcase and was able to buy things to fill it! We bought Camille the teeny tiniest straightener and hair dryer i've ever seen. We also had McDonald's for dinner this night, just because it was a stressful day and the smell of American french fries were calling to us. It was delicious!

After Milan I left for London, and I will write about that in my next post!

"I just mind the incredible number of bloody horrific drivers"

So today was our last day in Florence. We had a lot to do today because we planned to go to the Uffizi gallery yesterday, but then learned that everyhingggg in Italy is closed on Mondays. So we had to squish in a bunch of activities into today, our last day here.

Last night we left our walking around to come home, only to be drenched in a tremendous rainstorm. Again, I had to protect my leather bag and all of my electronics within it. After about two hours of being completely lost in the pouring rain and probably walking the entire perimeter of florence, we made it back. In the process, however, I completely soaked my good walking shoes, and today had to wear a flimsy pair of flats from payless instead.

So today we woke up early and took a bus into Greve in Chianti. The bus ride made me incredibly carsick, which made it hard to walk around once we arrived. But it was sooo beautiful. It's a gorgeous little countryside town of Tuscany, with terra-cotta houses. I decided I'm moving there when I retire.
Anyway, then we took the bus back and walked from the train station to the uffizi gallery. When we arrived we waited on line for almost an hour, and then finally paid the ten euros to get in. We had painfully made the decision to go into this gallery instead of going to see the David, because we Both were so excited about all the famous Renaissance art, and also special Caravaggio exhibit, and we didn't have time to do both. Sadly enough, the museum was a terrible disappointment. Most of the renaissance art we were expecting was not there, and the caravaggio exhibit was just ONE painting!!! We left very sad and disappointed.
Tomorrow we leave for Venice early in the AM, so I should get to sleep!

"Europeans don't line up...they mash"

Today Camille and I decided to take a break from the regular sight seeing of Florence life and take a day trip to Siena, a nearby town (or so we thought). So we woke up early, trekked the 45 minutes from our hostel to the train station. A few strange fountains and piazzas later, we made it to the station. But THIS bus doesn't leave from the front of the train station like all the other buses! Of course it doesn't. So after several confused conversations in several languages (everyone seems to think we are Spanish here..) we finally found it. The next bus wasn't leaving for an hour, so we sat down to relax until we saw this ridiculous line forming and feared it might be for our bus. It was.

So we stood in a squished line for almost an hour, and met two nice guys - one from San Francisco and one from Sweden, both going to school in Florence. When the bus pulled up, a mob formed around the doors like the parking lot was flooding and this was the only form of survival. The Swedish boy calmly told us, unfazed by the horrifying situation, "Europeans don't line up, they mash into each other" and oh was it true. Camille somehow weaseled heerself onto the bus, and pulled me in from behind (I almost lost an arm in the process) but then we took the nice, bumpy 2 hour ride to Siena.

After that, everything was greeat. Siena is beautiful and we saw a huggggge Duomo, which I'm pretty sure was bigger than the one in Florence. It's all hills and adorable houses, and we also saw a nice marching parade of jesters. We also saw an opera serenade, which was super random but cool. We spent some time relaxing in this main square that's sloped all around with the lowest point in the middle. Then on our way back we found this tiny little gem of a store where I bought some luggage and an unbelievably adorable umbrella, which I cannot wait to use in London. We finally made it back, scarfed down dinner (we were starving) and then walked the 45 minutes back to the hostel.
Tomorrow we are going to the Uffizi Gallery which I am so excited for. But right now it's time for bed!

You want your clothes back? Not possible.

I am happy to report that Camille and I survived a questionable stay in Bari and have now safely made it to Florence. I am also reporting that no one should ever go to Bari, as there is pretty much nothing good about this god forsaken place. So we arrived in Bari from Naples Wednesday night. After a 4 hour train ride and an entire day in the train station, we finally made it to Bari Central train station. From there we were instructed (after a lot of confusion in different languages) that we needed to take a bus to connect to another bus. Needless to say this went horribly, and not a single person spoke a word of English. A few hours, lots of rain and two very tired and confused travelers later, we found te hostel and passed out. Oh and our roommate was an African Queen who may or may not have been living permanently in this hostel... We named her Esmerelda.

So the next day, we woke up, got breakfast, and Camille washed her clothes. She hung them on the windowsill as usual to dry. Then we went out for the day, very excited for a day of relaxing beaches in southern Italy. We made it to one small castle when it started to downpour. We of course tried once again to navigate the public transportation system, but failed. I did everything I could to protect my new leather bag!! (shes ok don't worry)

So many hours later we made it back to the hostel. We quickly discovered that the storm had blown Camille's shorts out the window and onto a nearby roof. I of course died laughing. We had also discovered quickly on this trip that when you ask an Italian for example "I went to use the bathrooms in the train station but they are closed" they reply with "not possible." and nothing further. As if there is no physical way on the face of the planet that the bathrooms could be closed. They use this expression in many instances. You want a train ticket to Rome? Not possible. You want to share a plate of spaghetti? Not possible.

Anyway, so the next day, 4 buses, 2 trains and a plane ride later, we got the hell out of Bari and made it to Florence, my favorite place in the world. The hostel here is a converted convent, and is just fabulous. Today we saw the Duomo, a few other cathedrals, the main square and we went to a leather market. It smelled soooooo goooooood. I bought lots of presents here.
Then we finally saw Il Ponte Vecchio which is my favorite bridge (and favorite place) in the whole world, and it was even more beautiful than I had remembered.I wanted to stay there forever and just admire it.

Anyway we are off to dinner now! More pasta and wine mmmmm :)

Grazie!.....Prego?

So here we are on our second day in Napoli, and we seem to be getting along just fine, despite the possible death surrounding us (vespas). Anyway, today we went to Pompei. It was amazing. When we first arrived, my thought was, oh some more ancient ruins. It seemed to look just like the acropolis, and I was slightly put off by paying 11 euros for something I've basically seen already. But alas, as we entered and started our journey through the miles of ruins, I could have slapped myself for being so ignorant. They were incredible - so perfectly preserved and not infected by reconstruction or ugly scaffolding. We saw all the homes of the pompeians (?) a few theaters, and of course, some petrified bodies. Creepy, but SO COOL!

We spent about three hours there, then took off for sorrento. I Imagined sorrento being very touristy but Beautiful, and figured we would just chill on the beach for the rest of the day. Oh i say not.

We actually never found the beach, but we found was soooooo much better. Leather, leather, and more leather. In fact so much leather that I began to think oxygen smelled like leather. I did get a bit carried away with the purchases, but it was just so soft and beautiful and pretty! Camille swindled a nice bargain for the bag and belt I bought, saved me a solid $20 and we moved on. I did make several other purchases, although these are a surprise :)

We eventually (after several hours of shopping and a heavenly cannoli) found the port of sorrento which was breathtaking. I will try to load some pictures on here when I can figure it out. I have taken 254 photos on this trip thus far, so I promise there is much to see. When we returned to naples after about a 75 minute metro ride, we grabbed some disgusting dinner and made our way back to the hostel. We made a few friends last night, but they are gone today, so hopefully we will meet some new people. We have to check out tomorrow at 10 am, and then catch our 4 hour train to Bari at 5 Pm. I plan to spend all day Thursday tanning on the beautiful beach in Bari, as I think my body is going into exercise shock. It needs a day off to rest.

I suppose tonight we will take it easy because we are exhausted. Tomorrow before our train we plan to hit up "pizzeria street" (an actual street) with all the best pizza in Naples. Oh, and speaking of pizza, we witnessed a hot dog and French fry pizza last night (we did not eat it). We also learned the Italian word for cotton candy - puffo. We had some awesome puffo gelato yesterday. I'll write again soon though I may not have internet for a while!
Ciao!

How are the italians not fat???

So Camille and I arrived in Rome just about 5 days ago now, and this is the first time I've had actual internet. We spent our 3.5 days in Rome exploring the Colosseum, the Vatican, Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, markets, shopping and oh, the italians. We made two friends who we have named the following: Lo Mein: the chinese-italian woman who ran our hostel, and Mimo: the arab italian who waited on us at dinner each night. I had my first "lost in translation" experience with Mimo, when he seated us at a table right in the center of the sidewalk outside the restaurant and I said, "Oh, we're in the hotseat tonight!!" and he proceeded to think that I was complaining because the chair was too hot for me to sit in.

Anyway, everyone speaks wayyyy less english than I expected here - I definitely shoudl have brushed up on my italian. I have also learned that the most dangerous thing I will encounter on the trip is crossing the street, as it seems there are no consequences in Europe for running over pedestrians. We have learned that in order to preserve our welfare, we find an italian who is about to cross the street, and then latch on to them in order to cross safely. I have also been told by a different waiter we had at a restaurant near the vatican that he would "walk by me a thousand times in order to hear my beautiful voice". that was nice of him i suppose.

This morning we traveled to Naples, which I found to be less than thrilling thus far. It is somewhat of a dirty city, although the hostel is nice. There is a nice harbor of Portici nearby, which has a sad excuse for a beach, but a beach nonetheless. We are going to Pompeii and Sorrento tomorrow, so this should be fun and slightly more scenic. Apparently they also do not believe in eating meals here, despite that Naples is known for its pizza, as we walked for miles today and were only able to come upon "pasticcerias" (bakeries). As much as I love an italian dessert, I do need to integrate my healthy pizza and/or pasta meal each day. I actually have not consumed anything but pizza, pasta and gelato since I arrived in Italy, but thankfully we have been walking several miles a day with my (I kid you not) 48 pound backpack! Fun times. I will write more soon!

Ciao!

Crunchtime

So we are officially at t - 7 days now. i expect complete panic to take over by the end of this coming weekend, as i have yet to make a dent in the get-ready-to-go-overseas-for-4-months process. i haven't even unpacked from dc yet...needless to say i would laugh in your face if you asked me how packing for europe was going. i also don't have a phone yet (slight issue) nor have i figured out how i am actually going to pay for things over there (bigger issue)

regardless, i am still registering all the goodbyes i had this weekend :(
which seems to be leading me much more towards the denial stage of leaving in a week, rather than the embracing stage where i can actually start packing.. and by leading i mean i've been stuck in this stage.. oh pretty much since april when i got accepted to this program. although 5 months ago it seemed a lot more manageable to pack one backpack for an entire semester in a country that is freezing. oh yeah sure, its not like IM the one person on earth who needs 50 sweaters in the winter to pile on top of each other. great.

but on the less stressed note of things, i am really excited about my trip (without having moved out of denial that im actually going). i have always wanted to do a backpacking trip like this in italy, as it is the motherland.. but also the one place in the world i have ever been to that felt more like home than where i actually live. and even so without family or friends or familiar surroundings or nostalgia. i can't even really explain it, it just felt like i was meant to be there, in that place at that time, and it didn't matter that the reality of it was ridiculous. i wish i could bring the people i love with me (although i have my camilley!!) because i just want everyone to experience it the way i do. it is really comforting to know that even while i will be 3,000 miles away from home, i can be in a place that gives me such joy just in being there. i am looking forward to this very much, and i suspect that if i can just focus in crunchtime i will be able to get past the stress and move into the thick of the excitement for the journey!! now if i could just get some sleep... tomorrow's task is fighting verizon for a phone.

Exactly 30 days to take off!!