I love italy.

spain

2008-12-01T13:21:00.003-07:00

Since my trip is over in 2 days my mom keeps bugging me about updating my blog. Its almost over does anyone even read this any more? I think its only her and i talk to her almost daily and tell her what i am doing so Mom this is so you can know what i have done this past week and a half and you can read it anytime you want. my blog is now updated. :)

I went to Athens, Greece. Hostel was great. We had a roomie from Chile. She had been traveling for weeks. She spend 6 hours in a museum we spent 2 in. Their was also a guy that looked like Johnny Depp.
We went to an island of the coast of Greece and met a old man from England that used to be a teacher and now lives on aegina (the island). he taught us many great things about the island. sadly we learned no Greek.

With only 4 lovely days in Athens we jetted off to Barcelona.. well almost. Apparently Alitalia sucks. So they changed our original flight and canceled our second so we made a full circle and we spent the night in a 4 start hotel in Rome. We felt very much at home.

The next morning we left for Barcelona. Our hostel was young hip and cool. We putted around Barcelona for 3 days going to museums, parks and enjoying the Spanish culture.

When we started out trip we didn't know how we were going to get from Barcelona to Madrid so we were looking at options. They were the following:
1. high speed train for 150 euros= 3 hours
2. overnight train for 100 euros= 8 hours
3. bus for 50 euros= 8 hours
4. plane for 56 euros= 1.5 hours.

Plane won. Saturday we took a plane across Spain to Madrid. What a great city to end with! I love Madrid. Saturday we spent walking around Puerto del Sol. Sunday we spent at church and walking around. We got into the Prado museum for free! wahoo. We spent 3 hours in there and are planning to go back on Tuesday (when its free again) because there was so much to see.

I have been trying to upload photos but the internet in my hostel is not as speedy as i wish. Therefore all you get is words

Taaa daaa mom.
Also i am sending my mother my password to my blog so she can correct all the spelling mistakes in my blog post.

countdown:
2 days until Family
9 days until Kiel

Athens

2008-11-25T13:33:00.001-07:00

I have just spent a wonderfully relaxing 4 days in Athens. We have seen the Parthenon, Acropolis and bought some hand made Greek sandles.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Barcelona then moving onto Madrid.

I can't believe is almost over!

8 more days until hugs.

Venice and beyond

2008-11-21T23:05:00.001-07:00

I just spent a fabulous week in Venice. I saw an orchestra concert, rode a gondola and bought some Morano glass.

It was a perfect ending to an amazing trip in Italy with the best friends anyone could as for.

Today I leave for Athens, Greece and then on to Spain.

hugs and kisses I'll be home soon.

Ciao.

2008-11-16T10:39:00.009-07:00

Since we are leaving Siena tomorrow morning I have been thinking about my time here and what I will miss here's a list.

1. Cioccolatta calda. Italians confuse hot chocolate with the either warm chocolate pudding or a Hersey syrup
2. Ben (my host dad) telling me what of our dinner that night and that I should eat it. And usually its because I am not eating it.

3. The special invites Erika and I get for dinner every night from Guiseppe.

4. The friends I have made and always remember.

5. Our horrible Italian that makes our teacher want to commit suicide.

6. Literally running to catch the bus every morning. *

7. Hanging out in the Irish Pub.

8. Gelato.

9. Tuscany beautiful landscape

10. The Everett Family

11. My Italian Family

*Not the actually event but laughing about it after wards.

Ciao this is my final post from Siena...

SIENA SENDS LOVE

the end.

2008-11-14T08:44:00.008-07:00

Well its here. the end. Erika and I made our last walk to school this morning.

We spend most of today we spent saying our goodbyes to our beloved Italian teacher and our wonderful chef.

Alessandro and Enzo, our humanities and italian professors on our last day of class.

We woke up to a cloudless sky and knew today was going to be great. Erika and I caught the bus to school flawlessly. (it finally took us 2 months to master this public transportation system).
We got to school and began our finals. These were the two easiest finals of my life. Our Italian was only about 20 questions and humanities was two essay questions about 150 words long.

When we finished our finals Erika and I strolled up to Piazza Gramschi and did our 'tourist' thing along the way. We turned around and hit the the internet cafe on the way back to school.

As we were leaving the internet cafe, the lady who ran it asked if we are sisters...

What do you think?

At 1 o clock we had our farewell lunch. It was delicious.

Throughout our program we all talked about our lives at home but not to the extent we did today. For most of us this was a 3 months vacation from reality. With only 1 week left we all are stating to talk more about home and the lives we have going on there.

This is the highlight. Okay so in September I bought a snazzy green umbrella here in Siena. When I was in Milan, I was walking out of the subway my umbrella fully broke. Great. So the next day it was raining so i bought a new black one with a sweet handle. I just figured that it would last me the 4 weeks I had left in Europe. Today as I was leaving school it was raining and so i pulled out my umbrella and this is what happened.

Taaaa daaa. Seriously?

I just busted up laughing. just my luck. So on our way home I bought a flashy bright pink one. 3 weeks I am hoping that this one will last me the 3 more weeks I have left.

Once we got home we Alberto and Guessipi had friends over and were using the computer in our room. All I wanted to do was take a nap and use the internet. I tried using the internet but because there were 3 computers on it i guess it was overloaded. haha europe. So I took a quick nap, the boys left then i got to use the internet. Its still a little picky on which webpages it will load. but hey i can't complain.

siena sends love

Phenotics video

2008-11-09T13:39:00.004-07:00

We never know what to expect from Phonetics class.
I snuck this video. :)

countdown

2008-11-09T13:03:00.006-07:00

I feel as though the countdown has begun. We have finals this week and then we leave Seina in 7 days! I can't believe is almost over. I am excited to spend a week in Venice though. Then Greece and Spain!

Here are some lovely photos of the week.

Signor Bebelacqua. (Mr. Drink-water, Yeah that is his actual name) Our phonetics teacher/actor from Rome.

In our last phonetics class we learned some very valuable phrases.
"la citta e bella perche l'amiable "
"The city is beautiful because it is lovely"

Erika and I decided that makes absolutely no sense. We came up with some other sentences that were similar.

"You are fat because you are obese"
"You are ugly because you are not good-looking"

Take 10

Tuscany

Pottery shops in San Gimigano

Kendis and I in front of one of the many towers in San Gimigano

Everyday our bus drops us off near the church on the left, San Domenico, We walk past the Duomo (center one) and school is next to that FAR church on the right.

Medici fortress in Siena.

Chelsea and I in Il Campo

So this weekend we just traveled around tuscany. Saturday night, Johanna, Erika, Chelsea and I got Chinese food and had movie night. It was a great change of pace.
Also our host family -finally- got internet in the house (wireless. Wahoooo!) so i am writing this from the comfort of home and not the beloved Irish Pub. :)

Siena sends love!

dinner.

2008-11-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 19^th BIRTHDAY PATRICK!

So this was the menu for last night’s dinner.

Bruschetta with olive oil

Bruschetta with porcini mushrooms and olive oil

Bruschetta with smoked salmon and butter

Gnocchi with porcini mushrooms

Gnocchi with salmon and a cream sauce

Chocolate cake

Yeah I ate the mushrooms and tried the salmon. Go me!

Love ya

Milan and football

2008-11-04T06:44:00.005-07:00

Sorry i have no motivation to write anything so i will just upload lots of pics!

Basically i spent the weekend in Milan and it was a blast.
Jo and I in front of the Duomo in Milan.

unfinished statue by Michelangelo. its in some random castle in Milan. we got in for free.

In front of the Opera house in Milan. Its the most famous. We saw the "Merry Widow" in our own box. yeah it was cool

Gourmet hot chocolate from the McCafe.

Saturday was the craziest day ever. We were going to catch the 9.15 train to Verenna. so we got to the train station at 8.50. the entire milan central station had 1 ticket line. So we waited in that line for over and hour. during that hour Jo and i ran to get food. by the time we got back to erika she still hadn't bought the tickets so we 5 min to buy tickets and get on the train. so we bought the tickets and took off running with all our overnight bags through the station. We missed the train. so we went to the top of the duomo.
At the top of the duomo. First day it wasn't raining.

Verenna.

This is the view from our resturant. nice.

Chelsea, Erika, Me and Jo at a Siena football game.
-Siena almost scored right after this photo was taken and the guy that took it broke his seat, threw it into the crowd and got kicked out of the game all within 5 min of taking this picture.. crazy drunk man.

SIENA SIENA SIENA... we won!

love ya

pasta

2008-10-29T07:40:00.002-07:00

i hate sitting down at dinner and finding a tentacle in my pasta. something about it just makes me lose my appetite.

tuscany travels

2008-10-27T02:36:00.003-07:00

This week was busy busy busy.

Monday we had a surprise exam. I got a 91.

Tuesday Peter gave us the rest of our assignments for the semester. I have a lot of paintings to do and not a lot of time.

Wednesday we had our new Italian class. We have started this program with an acting school in Rome (its equivalent would be Julliard). Every week an actor comes to Siena and teaches us how to pronounce words and letters in Italian. It was like Yoga, Choir and Italian all in one. For 3 hours we learned to pronounce 3 vowels. Eeee. OU, and aahhhhh. Each sound had an action. For the E action we just raised our hands over our heads then for the OU we moved our hands straight in front of us and aaah we made an alligator mouth. We started out class by saying the vowels and singing them. Then our teacher had us lay done and focus on our birth (he meant breath). Then we stood up closed our eyes and imagined we were a piece of grass. We had to imagine the color and then we had to move like the grass would when the wind blew by.. Then we got back in our circle and practiced saying the E sound. We did the same thing for OU except we had to imagine we were a cloud. And the ahh sound we were the sea. We were all doing our best not to laugh but it was hard.

Friday I went to the chocolate capital of the world, Perugia. Every October for 2 weeks there is a chocolate festival in Perugia. So about 10 of us went this year. We took the bus to Perugia and walked around the festival for a few hours.

Me, Charley and Kristen with chocolate covered bananas and our cow hats.

We got a card that let us get free samples and goodies at designated shops. It was delicious.

giant chocolate cow.

Saturday I met Jo and Chelsea at the bus station and we went to Arezzo. When we got their it was raining so we just walked around and we found some nice shops, so we went shopping and we had a relaxed lunch then we caught the bus back to Siena. At 4 the missionaries took the ward bowling in Poggibonsi.

Jo and I at the bowling alley.

I didn’t do very well. I think I got a 60 or something.Then we caught the bus back to Siena and went home.

Sunday our host family took Erika and I chestnut hunting and to a chestnut festival in Santa Fiora. It was a two hour drive into the mountains. We went with 2 other families. We hunted for about 2-3 hours. Erika and I found a ton of chestnuts.

Then we went to Santa Fiora and we had lunch. (in American it would be similar to a fair but on a smaller scale) We had ravioli filled with chestnut and a mushroom sauce, roast beef and chestnut paste/sauce with ricotta cheese. It was pretty good. Then we walked around Santa Fiora for a while and we got back to Siena at 6. It was a long but good day.

siena sends love

Banks, Assisi, Chestnut hunting

2008-10-21T00:20:00.007-07:00

Siena is the home to the oldest Bank in the world: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. These is a museum about this bank but tourist are usually not allowed to go in. We are cool though and got to go in because it was part of our cultural experience here in Italy.
We saw one of the first bank notes, some cool architecture and a great view of Siena from the roof....

This past week Peter took us to Assisi, since Erika's family was in town they came too!

We saw the church of St. Francis...

We were walking and I stopped and looked in this mirror and we looked like midgets so we had to take a picture....

Friday I went to Peter's house for the good part of the day with about 11 other girls
Leah made us delicious mexican food..

We went on a hike around his house and for the most part had a nice relaxing day in the Italian countryside.

Saturday I hung around Siena and did homework. It was Gusippie's birthday so he had 4 friends over for dinner. Anna made delicious lasagna and we had meet with fries. Then the cake was 3 layers with nutella between the layers and rum in the layers.. yeah

Sunday we went chestnut hunting! Apparently every Sunday in the fall the woods are packed with Italians looking for nuts. Erika and I had a fun time searching the ground for the best ones. We got a ton...

Then on the drive home we stopped to look at the boar at this far. it had some babies but they ran into the woods..

i ate that.

Siena sends love

if italy doesn't kill me

2008-10-18T07:15:00.003-07:00

I swear that if italy doesn't kill me i am going to be the strongest person ever.

our host family fed us pig liver. ew then we had wild boar. Last night we had pasta with clams and calamari- with tenticles.

uuugh. i found some really good granola crackers at the supermercato.

Thursday we went to Assisi. It was cool. lots of churches. Then Erika and her family and I had dinner in Cortona. Friday I spent all day at Peters with some other girls. Leah made us mexican food! it does not exist here in italy. we loved it.

Not much else is going on. We only have 4 weeks left in Siena and that measn 15 more days of school. yessss

Cinque Terre Photos

2008-10-14T04:14:00.003-07:00

Sign on the toilet at McDonalds

Erika and I on the Via Dell'Amore

we sat here for about 40 min enjoying the view.

Sunset in Cinque Terre

Hiking along Cinque Terre

Beach in October. :)

Cinque Terre

2008-10-13T08:05:00.001-07:00

Friday morning 22 of us left for Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is an area of Italy that is a group of 5 cites. We met at the train station at 6.30 am and took a train to Empoli then to Pisa and then to La Spezia. We missed the train from Pisa to La Spezia by like 2 min so we had to wait an hour for the next one. Once we got to La Spezia we took a train to Riomaggiore. We walked along Via Dell’Amore. We were like 50 ft above the ocean. It was so crystal blue! It took us about 30 min to walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. Then we continued along the coast to Corniglia. It was like a 40 min hike along the coast. The view was amazing. Some of the girls stopped and swam at different points. Then In Corniglia we hiked up some 400 stairs to the city where I had honey gelato with mango.

We took the train back to Riomaggiore where we got Foccocia for dinner. I had tomatoes and mozzarella on mine. Then we watched the sunset on some rocks. All 22 of us were staying in the same hostel near La Spezia. We arrived there around 9 pm and hungout and went to bed.

The next morning we caught the 7.20 bus back to Riomaggiore then Erika, Johanna, Chelsea and I took a train to Corniglia and we started the 1.5 hour hike to Vernazza. It was gorgeous. We were about 100 feet above the ocean and you could see for miles. In Vernazza we caught the train to Monterosso. There we hung out on the beach until lunch time. Erika and I both got gnocchi with pesto and Jo and Chelsea got other pasta with pesto. Cinque Terre is famous for its pesto and Foccocia. It was so good. We had a beach front view. After lunch we relaxed on the beach. We caught the train back to Riomaggiore and shopped and had more Foccocia for dinner. We then caught the train with everyone else from La Spezia to Pisa then Empoli. 10 min after our train left Empoli it stopped on the tracks for an hour! Apparently a train in front of us had become detached so we had to wait for it to get reattached. We finally got to Siena and Erika, Jo and I took a taxi home cause it was going to be another 1.5 hours until we got home. Jo spent the night cause we were too lazy to catch the bus or walk her home.

Also our teach peter got bite by a viper snake. Friday he was in the woods with his kids and they saw a little snake and he thought it was just a baby snake that his kids could play with and it ended up being an adult viper. He had to spend the night in the hospital but is okay now. We saw him Sunday and his hand was so swollen but he said it has shrunk almost half way so it must have been huge. He is fine though just waiting for the swelling to go down.

I love you all!

stories

2008-10-07T23:28:00.006-07:00

Sunday we had church at 1. The Italian members made pasta and us girls brought dessert and salad. The pasta was DELICIOUS. yummy
getting foor at church

Monday we had school and our poor Italian teacher said the best phrase ever " I want to suicide" We hadn't studied enough and he was quizzing us and we weren't doing very well.
Enzo. our fantastic italian teacher. he actually opened the window and acted like he was going to jump.

Then we had a special humanities lecture, but Erika and I didn't know about it so we accidentally skipped it. Honest. Then we had our midterms which i am SO glad are over. It wasn't that hard but just annoying to have test while your in Italy, ya know?

Tuesday i just had art and then I went with Johanna to get her hair cut at the Franco Salon. Her last name is Franco so she wanted to go there.

Then Jo and I went home and She found wireless internet at our house!!! There is one catch.
I have to go outside on the porch, sqeeze behind the shed and stand on one foot and the wind has to blow JUST right. - the standing on one foot thing is to prop my computer up but it makes it sound harder. I got it yersterday afternooon when it was windy but last night it wasn't windy and i couldn't get it. So yeah.

Last night erika and I also made a full pan of brownies that Erika bought. I guess they liked them cause there were only 3 left this morning.

A daily breakfast in Italy consitst of yogurt (they started buying this one yogurt with egg and cream and sugar- its not very good), cookies, crackers with the options of nutella(which is gone most of the time), jam and peanut butter(which erika and I bought) and warm milk and pineapple juice. -The cookies are delicious. hhaa

i was drawn to him.

I am half way done. boooo yaa sucka!

love ya

for prevention

2008-10-05T00:23:00.005-07:00

Tuesday I still felt sick so I slept in, went to art class came home and tried to sleep some more. Wednesday we woke up early and went to the market to buy some more yummy dried fruit. Then we had Italian again and Humanities. I came home and slept and did some homework.
Thursday all 24 of us met peter at the train station and we went to Florence. Peter too the watercolor class (which I am in) to Santa Maria Novella first. Then we went to a couple other churches that had famous frescos around Florence. Then Peter took us to his favorite gelato place. I got hazelnut (my favorite), mapo, (pink grapefruit-I think) and coconut (another favorite). Then we met the rest of the girls in front of the church were Fra Angelico lived. Then Peter took the second group around Florence.

Johanna, Alyssa, Chelsea Karli and I went around Florence. I got a really good pizza for lunch and then we went to a little market. I found the best leather purse EVER! It is gorgeous!! Then we went to the Pitti Palace, where the Medici family lived. We only had time to tour the gardens. Then Erika, Johanna and I found a paint store so I could buy more watercolors and then we took the bus back to Florence. That night Anna made the best pizza I have ever had. One had zucchini and the other was just cheese. Alberto had hotdogs on his pizza. That boy has a weird sense of taste. He doesn’t like cheese! Crazy

Our very fidgity humanities teacher

Friday Peter took us to Buonconvento. Our humanities teacher Alessandro came with us too. We had a quick tour of Buonconvento then we went to Monte Oliviteo. Basically all that is there is an abbey. We toured the abby which had a lot of frescos on the wall and then Peter bought us a really nice lunch at the cafe next to the abby.

We got back to Siena around 4. Erika, Johanna and I did our sightseeing and tours of Siena. We went to Museo d’ Opera, the Duomo, the baptistery and the crypt. Then we went home to get our computer and went to church then to the Irish Pub to use the internet for a couple hours because we were in withdrawals.

Saturday, the boys have school which sucks, Erika and I woke up and studied for our test on Monday then we went to the pub again and then to church. We came home and I had told our host mom Anna and I really liked veggies. Since then she has made us zucchini and tonight we had eggplant and squash risotto. Yummy.

So Friday night Erika and I got home around 10.30 and Ben was sitting at the table watching animal planet. He told that the on Saturday he has going to buy some shampoo for prevention... (Prevention for WHAT?) He said tuberculosis. Uh huh. Then he started to explain that Chinese and African immigrants bring diseases. (Yeah, cause I come in contact with those people daily). So Saturday night he brought us the bottle to use for prevention… yeah right! Erika and I deciphered the bottle with our Italian dictionary; apparently it prevents you from getting louse, larve and eggs. Do I look like I have those? NO! So the question is do we use this and risk waking up bald or waking up with some eggs in our hair? We still have no idea why he said tuberculosis.

nutella is a staple

2008-10-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

Friday we had our Italian oral exam. Erika and I were partners. And WE both did very well. We each got a 92. The teachers here are so much easier than at BYU. We had to write a paper for our humanities course. Our teacher said he didn’t want it to be more than 200 words. So EASY! Its like a paragraph. Friday Erika and I tried pane forte, its a Tuscan specialty. It was very good but it would have been better with tea to dip it in because it was very hard. We also did genology again at the church.

Saturday we went shopping in Florence. Sunday we had church. Jo came over and we watched a movie in our apt again. I started to feel sick Sunday night so I went to bed early. Monday we had school and afterwards I slept all afternoon.

Sunday, Anna had made a cake that we put nutella on it was delicious. Our host brothers LOVE nutella. It is a staple in their diet. Ben our host dad had a piece of cake with a HUGE glob of nutella. I pointed out to everyone that he had almost 3x the amount of nutella as opposed to cake. Ben said that he doesn’t eat nutella very often. Alberto said no no no. One day Anna and I went to the market and bought nutella and the next day it was all gone…. Lui lui lui and he did a bunch of scooping actions of Ben eating Nutella.

Monday night my host mom, Anna who doesn’t speak very good English was trying to tell me that she would make chicken noodle soup for me tomorrow. She talks to us through actions and some words in both English and Italian. She said pollo and soup and then she held her throat. I understood. She was going to make me soup to help my throat. Grazie Anna. SO Ben was like you are going to kill Emily tomorrow like a chicken. It was really funny. We all started laughing

Octopus and Dorthy

2008-09-25T00:05:00.004-07:00

I ate octopus for dinner. minus the suction cup things. i cut those off.

I was thinking last night how IRONIC my life has become.

the two food I dislike the most would be
1. seafood
2. mushrooms

My mom can attest to that.

In Siena my host family eats seafood at LEAST 6 days a week and my host dad is a member of a mushroom club here in siena and loves mushrooms.

needless to say my horizions are expanding.

Yesterday morning our itlaian class was cancelled and humanites was move to 2 oclock so we had all morning to explore Siena. Every WEdnesday moring there is a market in the park and Erika, Jo and I went shopping. I bought a cute purple peacoat jacket for 25 euros such a steal. a sweater and some other stuff. I also found some delicious dried pineapple. As we were walking through the food part of the market there was a stand that had a dried pig on the counter. HEAD and ALL! it was insanse. We just stood there for a moment looking at it..

Results of the market.

Yesterday afternoon I found an atlas in our house and I showed Ben (host dad) that KC was in the middle of hte US and I never had seafood cause we dont have any near us. Then I explained that BYU is like and 18hr drive my KC. He was surprised.
Then at dinner (Erika was at her cooking class) that night he told the rest of the family. I think they thought that KC and BYU were like from their house abnd the 15 min bus ride to Siena. not exactly. Alberto (host brother) realized that he knew Kansas and he kept saing Kansas like Dorthy... YEAH! so he got a funnel out and started to do a little dance and said Guesseppi (host brother) was the tin man.
Alberto found a DVD and we watched a movie that Guessepi had made 2 years ago with his class, he was the tin man. It was the Wizard of Oz and it was so cute! haha

Siena is has the best markets!

p.s. I actually just had a small bite of octopus. But thats practically eating it for dinner... right?

Bad Engineering, Bike Gangs and Home Theaters.

2008-09-22T23:44:00.020-07:00

Jo and I in front of a church in Florence

Jo, Me, Chelsea and Alyssa at the top of the dome in Florence

Quick play by play of the week and then I tell you the cool stuff.

Thursday Erika was in Florence so Jo and I just ran around Siena and shopped.

Friday night Erika and I went to the church and watched the testaments with the missionaries! Yeah Friday night movie!

Saturday was amazing. I woke up early and met Johanna, Shannon, Rachel, Erin, and Chelsea at Piazza Gramsci at 6.50. We headed off to Pisa and Luca for the day.

First stop was Pisa.

I AM HAD TO DO IT!

Jo, Shannon and I climbed to the top of the tower for 15 euros which with the crappy exchange rate is 25 bucks… I know but once in a life time… totally worth it. In Pisa we also went into the church and the cemetery.

PHOTO OP!

Then around noon we headed off to Luca. After about an hour bus ride we arrived in the cutest little town. We

found a pizza shop that was recommended by Rick Steves. Then we rented bikes for an hour.

Luca is a small town surrounded by walls.These walls are so cool because you are able to run and bike on them! Its about 2.5 miles around the town on the walls and on bikes you can make it around twice in an hour! This is what we did along with taking a ton of pictures!!! Some guy almost ran into Erin. He slammed on the brakes to miss her and went flying over the handle bars

After riding bikes we walked through the town and found an antique sale in a piazza.

Then we got back on the bus and headed to Florence where Shannon, Jo and I caught a train back to Siena while the other girls took a bus. Overall Saturday was amazing.

Sunday Erika and I went to church and then to the internet café. Jo came over in the afternoon and Erika and I pushed our beds together and the three of us watched Pride and Prejudice. Kiel called in the middle and I got to talk to him for a while then my family called right before dinner! It was seriously one of the best weekends ever.

This week we have papers, test and homework due but the goal for this weekend is another trip out of Siena!

Jo and I eating gelato in Luca

This morning Erika and I found the best present in the fridge. OCTOPUS! Tentacles and everything! ahh hope its not for dinner!

Siena sends Love

Funny quote of the week

First Sunday in Siena we were at church and one of the Elders is explaining all the Genealogy that needs to be done and since there are 24 of us we can do a lot to help. “We just want to take advantage of you while you’re here”

Images

2008-09-17T23:58:00.007-07:00

Erika and I at the Panther Contrada Museum. We got special permission to go in there. Usually
tourist aren't allowed but it was part of our cultural experience.

Awesome.

Cheers Mom!

Italian Graffiti.
I LOVE YOU ALL!

Let Dreams Be Dreams

2008-09-17T05:05:00.004-07:00

This has been such a good week. Sunday church was really good and after church Erika and I went to the internet café where we e-mail our families and such. Then I took a nap. It was good to be warm and comfy after dealing with rain all weekend. We also found MTV and CNN on the little TV in our room.

Monday we had class then Johanna and I went shopping and I bought a scarf and I found this really cute leather jacket I am keeping my eye on. Then we met Erika at the bus stop and we went shopping at the United Colors of Benton Outlet. I got some sweet European jeans and some sweaters.

Tuesday Peter took the watercolor class to Florence for the day. It was so beautiful, the sun was shinning and the sky was blue. Peter walked us around for a while then took us to a museum (i temporarily forgot the name). Afterward Alyssa, Johanna, Chelsea and I got a quick lunch at this sandwich and wine store. Then we climbed to the top of the Dome. It’s the fourth largest building in Europe. There are only 416 steps not as many at St. Peters 523. Then The 4 of us went to the Ufize museum and I have this super sweet pass where we can just walk into the museum without standing in line. This museum houses Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. I didn’t realize how large the statue was. We turned the corner in the museum and taaaa daaa there David stood in all his glory. It is amazing to me that Michelangelo created this statue at the age of 29.

Afterward we shopped as we made our way back to the meeting spot to return to Siena.

When I got back to our house I saw that I had finally got the package that my mom sent me over a week and a half ago! I was so happy. I had clothes and my camera cord! I couldn’t stop smiling. Tuesday night for dinner, just as I was sitting down the phone rang and Anna answered and gave it to me and it was MOM!!!! Yaye I was so shocked at first to have her call me I didn’t believe it.

Wednesday morning Erika and I had no trouble with the bus Horray!

Florence sends love.

P.S. I had a dream in Italian.

P.S.S. I am going to try and upload a video of our walk to school late this week as well as pictures!

Love you all

They Say Italian Men are Good Looking...

2008-09-15T06:16:00.003-07:00

Monday was our first day of school. We had 3 hours of Italian then Tuesday I had watercolor. Wednesday Erika and I had some bus trouble and we were late of Italian. Whoops. It rained all weekend so we didn’t get to see much in the City yet.

Friday night we got delicious hot chocolate in a little café near the Campo.

(the internet wouldn't upload a picture but i'll try again later)

Okay so the menu of the week is crazy.

Monday: Shrimp and Pasta

Tuesday: Clams and Pasta and Curry chicken

Wednesday: Tuna and Pasta

Thursday: Salami

Friday: Gnocchi

Saturday: Swordfish and Champaign Risotto

Sunday: Rabbit and French fries.

So all in all this week was a lot of first for me and the combos of food are definitely different. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday the food was good. The Risotto was good too. Haha we tried not to eat too much with the Champaign.

These guys made quite the pair.

Sweet Mullet Man and Rat Tail Boy

Siena is rainy.

p.s. I ate the easter bunny. Yikes!

Home sweet home

2008-09-08T08:21:00.004-07:00

Wednesday we left Roma and drove Herculaneum. There was a ton of frescos and mosaics still there. We left Herculaneum and drove to Menori. Our hotel was seriously a 5 min walk to the beach.

Thursday we went to Pompeii. We had a guided tour at Pompeii and then we walked around for a bit and drew and took pictures.

Me, Erika and Johanna in Pompeii

Once we got back to Menori we went swimming in the Mediterranean Ocean! It was so warm, salty and amazing!

Friday we took a 2 hour boat ride to Capri. Then we took a boat tour around the island. While on the tour we went to the Blue Grotto. Inside the cave was amazing. It was so black but once you turned around the water was electric blue! We finished our tour and sat on the beach and drew. Then we took our 2 hour boat ride back to Menori.
Drawing on the beach in Capri

Saturday we went to Paestum. It’s older than Pompeii and Herculaneum and it is Greek ruins. We were there for about 2 hours drawing. Then we left to go to Siena! We got to Siena around 7 and our host mom and brother picked us up. Anna doesn’t speak any English but Alberto speaks a little. He is 13. We got to their apt and meet Benjamin (dad) and Giuseppe. Benjamin cooked a delicious dinner and they kept offering us wine.

Alberto and Guiseppe, our host brothers.

Sunday we went to church was mostly in Italian. After church we met Guiseppe and Alberto and they took us to their family. We left and went to San Gusme, where we had lunch with some of their family friends. We ate from like 1-3.30. It was so much food. We had:
1. bread- offered alcohol
2. bruchetta/meat/cheese
3. pasta with boar meat
4. lots of red meat and potatoes and mushrooms.
5. biscotti and cookies- we were offered more alcohol
The little town was beautiful and set back in time. It was built in the 13th century.

Siena sends love.

p.s. the views are amazing!

This is how the Romans do it

2008-09-02T11:15:00.005-07:00

So it’s Tuesday and still no bags. Delta said they are “off the radar” (whatever that means). It’s okay though, I am just ‘backpacking’ across Europe… well Italy.

Monday we met really early and went to Vatican city (which I can see right now from the balcony of my hotel). I saw the Sistine Chapel- I couldn’t close my mouth. After touring the Vatican we separated and four of us ate lunch at an outside café, then we strolled through streets and I bought some much needed clothes.

View from the Hotel Pacific

Chelsea found this church near the Colossum that had stairs that were brought from Jerusalem around 376 AD. These steps are thought to be the steps that Jesus walked on the day of condemnation. Now they are in a small church in Rome and covered with wood but there are some openings were blood marks were found. We climbed the stairs but you can only climb the stairs on your knees-which we did, all 28 of them! Very cool.

Today we met early again and went to the Villa di Borghese. This was the house of the family of a Pope long ago. Inside there was Canova’s Paolina Borghese statue, Bernini’s David and many Caravaggio paintings. I love Carvaggio. Love it. Afterwards we met Peter at the Spanish steps and he took us on a tour Rome and I got to see my favorite painting by Caravaggio, ‘The Calling of St. Matthew’.

Chelsea, Erika and I at church.

Well that’s about it. We leave for Naples in the morning!
Love and miss you all!

Roma never fell.

p.s. the Pope says hey.

when in rome...

2008-08-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

I AM IN ITALY!

And I have nothing. Freakin’ Delta lost my baggage. Not left it behind. Lost. Cool, huh?
Yeah I know.

I am good though. I am surviving. There are 23 other girls. This is totally do-able.

I left Kansas City (with my baggage) Friday morning and arrive to Atlanta (maybe with my baggage) and met Erika in the airport. We flew to Rome I arrived in Rome at 9.00 am on Saturday morning (without my baggage). Peter met us in the Airport and took us to the Hotel.

Saturday we walked from our hotel to the Colossum, the Forum and we took the Subway back to the hotel. It was like 2-3 miles.

This morning we all met for church and went to an Italian ward. That was way cool. The missionaries offered to translate for us but we wanted to listen in Italian. After church a few of us went to St. Peters Square and sat/drew. Then we went in the Basilica and climbed up to the top. It was 521 stairs. The view was gorgeous!

rome sends love.

p.s. the gelato was great!

2008-08-26T08:56:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone I am going to be in Italy for the next three months. Send me you addresses so I can send you some sweet postcards!

Also if you miss me you can check this website cause I'll be updating it while I am gone.

love