And the week goes on :)

Last week was a down week for some reason. Rain, homework and a day trip to Sienna made up my week.

As I said before we took a day trip to Sienna. It was typical beautiful Tuscany. Rolling hills with Italian buildings on top, freshly washed clothes hanging on clothing lines in the streets, and little cafes every now and then. I learned a very important lesson that day. Never leave my dSLR camera at home, no matter how tired I am or how much I convince myself I don't want to lug it around. Now I don't have any cool pictures to show y'all. I know, I know. Bad decision.

Anyways the rest of the weekend we studied for quizzes this week as well as Sam and I making fun of eachother all weekend. Haha She knows she loves me as a roommate. I can hear her laughing at that when she reads it (if she reads it).  We have pretty much decided which trips we will be going on. I'm going to give all of you a 20 sec breakdown of our trips (because I'm sure you're all dying to know haha)...

This weekend: Venice for Carnivale
March 3-6: Either Dublin or Slovenia
March 11th: Pisa I think?
March 18th-27th: Genoa, Cinque Terra and Croatia! Croatia is the big trip :) Dalmation Coast and Dubrovink
April 1st: Rome, Italy
April 7th-10th: Prague!
April 15th: Not sure yet/Sunday Trip to Cinque Terra?
April 21-25: Easter Weekend- Amalfi Coast!!! (Sorrento, Pompeii and Naples)
The last two weekends are open, but most likely study weekends

Anyways this coming weekend is Venice, and I have been longing to go. Carnivale started last weekend, so I will probably go to the mask man and buy a mask. Most likely a purple one :) I can't wait to see this Italian city on the water! This time I am bringing my camera. Trying to see everything I want to see, hopefully I can sneak Greece in there somewhere :) I'm SO lucky!

Rain, rain go away...

Today has been a hard day so far. I really miss home and being able to complain about things to my parents and Rachel, face to face. It's raining here. I just got back from taking pictures of a mask maker in his little creepy, dark shop for a photojournalism project. These were some very creepy masks. He reminded me of Gepedo from Pinocchio. That was italian, right? Maybe he had a puppet hiding in the back that lied alot too. Walked back in the rain which was slightly annoying because the streets here are so small and if you step outside the sidewalk there is a very wide possibility of being hit by a bus. Umbrella diameters are wider than the sidewalk so people have to jump out of the way if they are the oncoming traffic (on the sidewalk). I'm slightly less ticked off right now, because I am in bed about to take a nap before studying for my italian quiz tomorrow. Just wanted to vent to the internet. Hope Texas is having a sunnier day.

Apartment Pictures

Sorry I am a little late on posting apartment pictures. Here they are!

Our cute little orange living room

Sam, Claire and I's bathroom, I opened the window here.

View from our shower. If I ever want to look at an ancient church while I'm showering I just have to open the window :)

Sam and I's room. They had an orange and green theme going before we put extra comforters on the beds.

Our cosy little kitchen.

Other side of kitchen- notice no dryer or dishwasher.

Toliet and butt washer.

Sam on facebook.

Sorry it took me so long to post them.

First Big Trip :) Bologna and Verona, Check!

Just arrived back last night from a two day trip to Bologna and Verona traveling by train. Each city had their own qualities. Bologna had a great nightlife with lots of Italians, not too mention fantastic Italian food. Bologna is also known for the Mambo Modern Art Museum which was pretty cool, and not to mention let alone weird for my taste, but cool. We got lost a lot this weekend, and fought alot about which directions were right. haha. I tried to play the neutral part and stay stressfree. When we got lost in Bologna we passed through fresh produce, formaggio, meat, bread and pasta. My parents would go crazy! They think whole foods is fantastic.

 We went to an Osteria there for dinner and the menu was in complete Italian. This was the first restaurant I have been in that didn't cater to the American crowd. We all ordered off the specials menu. It was so inexpensive and SO delicious. After that we headed out to a bar and ordered some beers and cocktails (It tried Sam's, actually wasn't too bad). Then we met a guy that was from Texas and happened to go to Sam's high school. Small world! He introduced to all his adorable friends who happened to be from all over Europe. One from Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England and even Columbia! Lots of diversity. They go to school in Bologna so they decided to take us to the next bar, Cafe Paris. They specialize in One Euro shots (mostly sugar and very little alcohol, dont worry mom). We then went from there to an Irish Pub. It was a fun, safe night. Then we went to back to our very comfy little hostel (which was part of a fashion agency line?).

Next day we hopped on a train to Verona, my personal favorite city so far. As many of you know I am a hopeless romantic, this was my fairytale city. When I think of Italy, Verona best matches the category. We happened to go on Valentines Day weekend so it was packed by the time we left. We visited the Amphittheater as well as "Juliet's house" which was really the Capulette I believe. The Capulettes and Montegues actual did exist, but we're not so sure about Romeo and Juliet. I wrote a little letter to my fairytale Juliet hoping she would wish me luck for an eternal happy life here on earth with someone one day. Plus I touched the Juliet statue's boob for love luck. Hope it works ;) Below I added a few of my favorite pictures of the trip, and some of me for the family.

Arrival in Bologna :) I stole this from Veronica

I told Sam, this has been the weekend of tatas.

Fresh Colorful Fruit.. I'm thinking I will mount this for my apartment kitchen next semester.. Bergen? Ashleigh?

Freshly picked flowers.

All of us ladies in front of Neptune's Fountain in bologna. (I stole this from Kristin-green scarf)

Bologna streets

Church in Bologna, I didn't catch the name. All these cathedrals are starting to confuse me.

Bianco Vino with my pasta lunch

Crepe with Marscarpone Cheese and Fragole (Strawberries) Best Crepe I have EVER had. The lady made them right in front of us. I cannot even try to describe how good it was.

Cappucino and Mille Foglie at Cafe after Museum visit

Italian dinner in Bologna, SO SO good. This was around 7 Euro.

Arrival in Verona. I love this town.

Beautiful fountain in front of a Roman Amphitheater in Verona

Verona Amphitheater Panoramic (Stole from Veronica)

Me after hopping a almost 6 foot wall, I left out the jumping part haha. Wasnt so graceful.

Me at the top, once again. Afraid of heights, stairs aren't my thing.

Typical Beautiful Italy.

Balconies everywhere in Verona!

I call this the lucky boob grab. It gives everyone either good luck or love luck.

Notes in the walls. Juliet's secretaries leave these here I believe.

My letter to Juliet

I found a good spot.

Now I know I have left a piece of myself in Verona.

On the balcony. I felt like singing Taylor Swift's Love song, but I didn't want to embarrass my friends.

Couple licking each other's faces in the Bologna at train station. Sorry this caption probably takes away from the picture.

Bologna is for Bars. :) Just kidding.

I couldn't help but pic all these pictures, I have more but yo will have to look on my facebook. Until next time :) Miss y'all in Texas.

Discovering and experiencing this new world.

Today some of the girls and I went and bought our Uffizi Musuem pass for the semester. After we bought them we decided to take a quick stroll through the Uffizi.

All I can say is wow. Wow. To see actual sculptures that I have had to memorize titles of, the artists who created them, the dates they were created. And to actually stand next to that painting/sculpture is really undescribeable. It's very unreal. Today I saw the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, the Annunciation by Leonardo di Vinci and the Laocoon sculpture. It's truly amazing. The Uffizi is located right on the river in Florence. It has an amazing view that overlooks the river and the countryside. After the Uffizi we stopped and grabbed some pizza and passed a cute little bakery/dessert shop. I stopped and did some window drooling and snapped a few pics of the yummy desserts.

After our quick little run through of the Uffizi and our pizza stop/(my run across the street to snap snack shots), we decided to stroll through the annual chocolate festival. Beautiful chocolates from all over Italy and Europe! I could only be there for so long, all of you know my precautions with chocolate ;)

The chocolates above are liquor chocolates. Sounded pretty fun! And also above is me possessing a small cup of bianca (white) chocolate liquid I bought to sip on. (I gave Sarah the rest, which she accidentally spilled all over the sidewalk slash herself).

After my unending begging to go to the Piazalle de Michealngiolo, we finally went up. This is the point in Florence where you can overlook the whole city. The only thing is it's a little bit of a workout to get to the top of the hill. But it was totally worth it! We arrived up there as soon as the sun set. The colors were amazing. (By the way today has been the warmest it has been so far, so that was a plus!) Took a few shots of the city, and stole a few pictures of me from all the girls for family. (I get too carried away to take pictures of myself).

On the way up the hill. Pretty excited.

At the top of the hill. Great view of this amazing city!

Cool picture Teal took of me!

On the way back home, we stopped on the Ponte de Vecchio to take pictures of the river at late dusk. So beautiful. I'm in love here.

This is my favorite. Love the reflections.

Oh and here is my roommate Sam, who is easily persuaded to do things I ask her to. : )

About to go to bed, just came back from Hannah's birthday dinner at this great restaurant. Need to get some reading done hopefully.

One last thing, GO PACK GO!!  Will wear the hoodie proudly tomorrow :P

Classes are getting in the way of my vacation in Italy..

This week classes have been interesting. I have two art history classes that require alot of reading, a photojournalism class that will be fun and very time consuming, and a beginner italian class which is actually one of my favorite classes right now. I was taking a Nude drawing class as of this morning, but just came back to the apartmento from dropping it. This morning I got lost on my way to this drawing class. I had stopped THREE different times asking for directions. Finally arrived to this class 10 minutes late. For those of you who know me, you know I HATE being late, (thanks to being late to kindergarden every day and getting the red marker in my folder). Definitely has scarred me for life, thanks Mom. Anyways had to knock on the class door to make sure a nude model wasnt present yet. Thank goodness she still had her robe on. As soon as I got there we had to take a test and draw her with any choice of medium. I was terrified. I have never had any fundamental drawing of the human figure. I've only had practice with drawing still life. She dropped the robe. I attempted to draw her. It wasn't bad, but it wasnt as good as anyone else's work. The professor told me at the end of the class I would have alot of work to do to catch up with the rest of the class. I was already terribly embarrased and ashamed that I couldn't draw a naked older woman to the level of everyone else. I told her straight up I was going to drop it before she told me I should because I suck. Haha. No big deal, I think I will be able to go through life without having the skill of drawing naked people and their body proportions.

So in place of that class I signed up for a Italian Cuisine: History and Practice. This is something I should be good at and my family will appreciate/ future husband. Haha The ability to cook a good meal is more important than drawing the human species in the nude (just my opinion, I'm still trying to make myself feel better).  Just glad that experience is over. Live and Learn.

All my classes have visit fees for local museums and day trips. It's getting to be pricey, which I'm worrying about but Frannie and my parents keep telling me not to worry about it. I'm going to be washing dishes at Via Real for the next five years when I get back to pay back my debt. Hope Frannie is reading.

This weekend we will finally be able to climb the steps of the Duomo, see the David and hike to the Piaza Micheangelo. Oh and homework. The next weekend we will most likely travel somewhere close, probably Pisa or Bologna. Train tickets are around 5 Euro, so those will be great trips and not to mention inexpensive! The next weekend is one of the already paid trips to Sienna with TCU, then the weekend after that is a group outing to Venice for a day for Carnivale. Pretty excited for that! Then hopefully the weekend after that we will visit Prague for the weekend for a good price.  Lots of sausage and beer! Haha yes I will try beer while were there.
Hope everyone is staying warm and driving safe/not driving. Miss everyone! Please stay in touch. More pictures to come :)

Ciao!