ITALY

Italy seems so long ago that I can't remember it. I am lying in bed with a bad case of a resaca at 3:15 PM on a Friday and attempting to organize packing in my head. I leave Cádiz in about 12 hours. I don't even know what to do with myself! But that is a story for another time.

We left Thursday night to Barcelona and spent the night there, leaving to Rome really early in the morning. We got off of the plane and saw a DOUBLE RAINBOW! After a bus ride into town, we checked into our hostel and went exploring. We saw Roman Ruins, some big ol' buildings, the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum. We spent a lot of time in the Colosseum messing around. We also visited the Vatican and Kristen and I attended mass. It was surreal being in places so old, powerful, and famous for those reasons. I loved Rome. We ate a lot of yummy food: pizza and pasta.

At dinner the first night, we sat next to a pair of Australians and ended up talking to them and eating dinner with them for 3 hours. They were hilarious and argued about whether or not camels ruined the vegetation while making wild gestures with their steak knives. Straight out of the outback! We had a few drinks and then I went to bed kinda early. I was super tired from Brussels and catching up on schoolwork (a 10 page, single-spaced essay on Spanish Literature from the Romantic Era that I am happy to report I got a 3.9 on!) that I hadn't slept much during the week.



Kristen and I were in a room with 4 British guys who came back drunk at 4 AM and tried to wake me up (I don't wake up easily at all), but failed and only woke up Kristen. They proceeded to harass her and being a good sport, she played along, yelling at them to go to sleep. Poor girl couldn't sleep! We left that afternoon for Florence.

The train ride was about 4-5 hours and pretty long, but I was really happy when we got there. Our hostel was the most legit hostel of my life. It was super social, but the rooms were quiet and the beds were comfortable. Unfortunately I froze to death, but I can't heat my own body so it's my own fault. We walked around the town, did a lot of shopping, saw some sweet sculptures and architecture, and ate the best food of my life. Florence is my favorite. The huge cathedral is called the Duomo, which we thought meant dome because of the big dome on it, but really it means cathedral. Regardless, our duomo/dome joke still lives and we taught it to our British roommate in the Hostel. We took him to dinner with us, got tipsy off of wine, and then Abel told Kristen and I to parcour so we did... The 15 minute walk home. My only upset moment happened when we couldn't see The David. The hours they had posted were wrong and it just didn't work out. I was sad.



We took a long train ride through Siberia (actually just cold Italy) to spend the night in Venice. Initially we were going to spend more time there, but it was raining and cold and miserable so we just enjoyed a night in a cozy bed and breakfast. I slept like a baby. Venice is stinky and everything is hard to find. Definitely not one of my favorite places, but still beautiful and very cool.

Hmm

At this point in my night (11:41 PM) I would rather stick pins in my eyes than study, but study I must.

Lit Española, prepare to die.

All Stress...

But nothing to worry about?!

I do not live in the real world. Circusland is getting a little much for me to handle because of how ridiculous it is. I slaved away all of yesterday and this morning trying to memorize every minute detail for my Linguistics exam. I was in the Cafeteria reviewing with friends on the verge of sleepless, fearful, stress tears when my professor waltzed in and used "teacher magic" to calm me. Unfortunately, when she left again, I fell right back into my frantic cramming mode.

Turns out, I wasn't screaming the F word the entire time I was taking my exam. I actually feel like I did fairly decently. I am really happy about that. She told me not to worry, but I did and for no reason.

Also, my history class was only 30 minutes instead of an hour and a half and my Lengua class was canceled. Needless to say, I curled up in bed all afternoon with a mug of tea and plenty of Dexter to stream online.

Brit managed to get me out of bed and I got my Secret Santa gift on lockdown. Who my Secret Santa is is a mystery. I lost the paper. I will keep searching. I always find everything.

Still need to write about Italy, but not feeling too motivated at the moment.

Currently...

I am sitting in the Library attempting to study for Linguistics... I have no idea how I am going to memorize all of this! For some reason I blanked on having my exam tomorrow so I haven't really done anything. I am so sick of school. I just want to go home!

Packing is going to be awful. All of my shoes take up my duffel bag. I have to throw out my Coach sneakers (they are trashed) and my not so trashed running shoes. I am really sad about that, but they take up too much room! I also have to throw out some clothes so I will be experiencing quite a bit of anxiety. My frayed sports bras & running shorts, my worn teeshirts... It's funny how your favorite items are usually the most worn. It makes sense really-- when you like something a lot you are going to wear it all the time and it will get worn out and be perfectly matched for just you. Anyways, I need to be focused and clean out all my things.

I also need to study for Linguistics, correct my essay and add another paragraph for my Lengua class, write an essay for my golden era of Spanish literature class, prepare for my History final, and prep for my other Lit class final. I think I also have another exam in the lit class I have an essay in about 3 days later. And I have to do another exam next Friday for Linguistics.

I fully intend on going out on Thursday with my friends for one last hurrah! Hopefully I am so tired and hungover on Friday that I can fall asleep in time to wake up fully rested for a 4 AM taxi ride to the airport for my 26 hour traveling adventure. It takes all of that time and I leave Jerez at 7 AM to arrive in Seattle at 8:30 PM the same day.

So silly. :)

I am so excited to come home. I miss it.

A Little Photo Session

I was on a public computer when I last blogged so I couldn't upload any photos. Here are some of my favorites from my past few trips...

Paris:


The Moulin Rouge


Nicole & I under the Eiffel Tower at night

Weekend trip with the group to Cáceres, Salamanca & Mérida:


Underneath a building in Cáceres


Out in the Streets of Salamanca! Nelson sandwich!


Some Roman ruins

Brussels, Belgium:


The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!


A gorgeous light show complete with Opera music

PS It is technically Thursday here... Only nine more days! I just have a bunch of essays and exams to conquer first! And my packing... Hmm...

I am behind

I have not updated my blog in ages. I have yet to talk about my trips to Paris, 3 stops in the East of Spain, Brussels, and I am currently in Italy typing this entry on a broken keyboard... The reason I have been so lame about blogging is simple. Spain school got hard all of a sudden. Before I knew it, I had lots of essays and tests due. My 10 page single-spaced essay written in another language about a set of short stories from the Romantic era was none too easy to tackle. I also had an essay about theater from the Spanish golden ages, an exam on that class covering work from September, and another essay on a documentary from 2004 about Pais Vasco. My time in Cadiz consisted of me hiding from the rain (yuck) in my warm room, drying my clothes over my space heater, or in the library working hard or hardly working. I will be following this post with some photos from the places I went to, but here goes a long post about my travels.

Paris was absolutely beautiful. I am remembering this from the beginning of freaking November and it is now December... Oops. I left Cadiz early early Friday morning. My friend Lindsay and I went to the airport together and flew in together. Both of our girls were arriving later that night so L and I got some delicious Chinese noodle soup by her hostel and went to the Moulin Rouge and looked around in the scary sex shops. They were funny more than anything and I tried to contain myself because I know some people shop there for real. I met up with Nicole later that night and we went to our apartment. It was really big and comfy. We were not really hungry so we went and got some crepes on our way over and retired for the night.

The next morning, we woke up and saw the Notre Dame, some fountain right across the river that is pretty and famous whose name I forgot... And went on a free walking tour to see what Paris had to offer.

Over the weekend, we made it to the Lourve for free (it was the first Sunday of the month), did a little bit of shopping, had Starbucks, ate escargo, lamb braised in wine, and attended the end mass at the Notre Dame. It was a blast and a beautiful city. My favorite part was going up the Eiffel Tower at night with the lights on the city. We came down and saw the lights sparkle. It was really beautiful. I am sure I am missing more things like how when we tried to go out on Saturday, a drink cost 10 euro and they would NOT let you go dance unless you bought something.

The week when I came home, I spent lots of time doing school work. We only had class Monday through Wednesday because on Thursday we went to Caceres and the Salamanca. We went to a museum in Caceres and looked at the lovely architecture and country side, but there was not a lot to do during the siesta. We spent over 8 hours on the bus that day, but had a blast in Salamanca that night getting delicious tapas for 1 euro each. I got shrimp and mussels! We went out and I got a Guinness on tap. I miss Ireland. The next day, we saw the University & Cathedral, but I was very upset that I couldnt have a little chat with Jesus because ever Spaniard was screaming "ma o meno". In a house of GOD none the less... We had a blast in the cold! Que refresco. The nicest hotel we stayed at was in Merida. I got to spread my arms out! It was great. Slept the best in months. Danielle and I did a little facemask session in our room and then we wandered around hanging out with our groupmates because it was our last time together. The next morning, we toured Roman ruins and I discovered that I am really good at taking jumping pictures. We headed back to Cadiz and got in in time for dinner and more homework.

On Friday evening, Kristen and I left for Brussels in hopes of a successful time at the Christmas market. It was successful! I found so many presents and spent way more money on chocolate than I thought was humanly possible. For dinner one night, Kristen and I met this girl named Andrea from Carolina and we went and ate at an African bar. We were the ONLY tourists because it was a random local dive we found. Nine euro for all you can eat food with flavor? Yes please! There was a legit carousel too. It was freezing, but fun! We went to a bar called Delirium that has over 2000 varieties of beer. Ay, que pena... I havent gotten sick from drinking at all in Europe and that was no bueno. I only had 3 beers over a few hours! What the heck.

When I got back, it was slave labor with my homework. No rest for the wicked I suppose.

Now, I am in ITALY! We left on Thursday and flew into Barcelona, spent the night in a nice hotel, and flew out early morning for Roma. Rome is gorgeous. I spent a lot of time in the Colosseum. Kristen, Abel & I took senior photos. We went all over and met 2 wicked funny Aussies. We played around more and then left via the train for Florence where I currently am!

More later...