Saturday, June 13, 2009

Adventures of the Bambi Kind

So we left off with the awesome discoteca adventure on the 29th…its been crazy (Brian Fellows Crazy – Eliza).

So I finally caught up on sleep, just to lose out again. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, just hung around the house. The week was also pretty mild, mostly hung out with the girls (Erica, Eliza, Janet, and Anah) at their place. Since we planned to go to Dublin on Friday way early in the morning (3am ahh!) we went to International Student night at Centro Parco. It was not as good as last time and the guys were way creepier and handsy. Took a lot of NOs to get them to leave us alone, it was like I had a jar of honey and the stupid bears wouldn’t leave me alone. I did make dinner before hand, which I am very proud of…everyone said it was good and I didn’t kill anyone!

BUT with that said and done with we went to Dublin really early Friday morning. Eliza and I had to skip a class for it, but one class won’t hurt our grades. We took a bus from the train station at 3:30am, which mean we had to leave their apartment by 3:00. Needless to say, I got no sleep as I am already having trouble sleeping here…honestly I’m not used to sleeping alone (let’s just say my roommate CS and I are super close!). So with no sleep since Wednesday night, I headed to Dublin. After the bus to Pisa we had to fly to Dublin…Ryanair is cheap, but the tickets were kinda cheap for planning so last minute. I just have to keep reminding myself how expensive it would be to fly from the USA to Dublin. We arrived to our hotel at 11am b/c the plane forgot to refill the gas and it delayed us quite a bit. Once we checked in, we immediately found an American diner…that’s right…Dublin has a BUNCH of AMERICAN diners. And they speak English…we were in heaven. We could special order our burgers and have cheese fries. All of us were just melting. It was even 60s themed and we listened to the Beatles and the Beach Boys!

Cutest Diner Ever

My New Irish Boyfriend and I sharing a Guiness

After the amazing burgers (I don’t know if it was the burgers that were good or that they were simply hamburgers like we like them…American) we took a train to Malahide, where there is a pretty castle. But of course Felicia and Bambi (Eliza) style, we got super lost. We made a right turn instead of a left (or vice versa, I’m not sure) and walked the long long long way, but it was nice to see a Dublin suburb. EVERYTHING in Dublin is posted in English and Gaelic (being the 2 languages spoken there). We ended up having to ask for directions, which still led us around a golf course and through the woods (not to grandmothers house) and then we found the castle. Eliza was very concerned how we could not see it from whatever trail we were trying to follow, she was convinced you should be able to see it for miles but all the trees seemed to block our view. Ireland is covered in green. It was much more impressive from the outside, but I think that was because we were planning to see a castle like in the movies, whereas this one had been updated through the years. It was held by the family for 800 yrs, more than any other castle in the area. The previous owner inherited it in the 1980s and couldn’t afford the inheritance tax, so she sold it to the government and moved to Tasmania (weird I know). We found out she recently died in February, very sad. Lucky for me Eliza’s camera has museum settings sooooo even though we weren’t supposed to take pictures, we did. We were sneaky sneaky. We took tons of pictures of the grounds though!

Malahide Castle & Me

After the castle we headed to Tara’s Palace, which is the largest doll house ever built. It was a whole tiny museum dedicated to doll houses. It was actually really cool to see the detail in these small houses. There was even a house dedicated to the nearby Malahide Castle and it really did look exactly like the room. Tara’s Palace took 15 years to build and each room is based of another real life room from all over the world. Pretty sweet. Afterwards we went to the next door train station museum. It sounds silly and we were exhausted, but it was really cool, and included in our Dublin pass so we didn’t pay anything extra. It was a 20 minute tour around a huge room of model train station. It explained the history of the railway in Ireland and had we all not been so exhausted we probably would’ve enjoyed it better.

On our way home we decided to cook for ourselves at the hostel and went to the supermarket. We were all very disappointed to realize that it was cheapest to cook pasta, we were so burnt on spaghetti pomodoro, but we did it anyway. The most awesome part of Dublin (in my opinion) was the Ghost bus tour we took later in the evening. It took us through some Irish tales of supernatural and horrid past. Every story he told was based on true events and he of course picked on us, being the squealing American college girls. We stopped a lot of times so he could show us buildings he was describing and it was really weird when we walked by them the next day. We stopped at a cemetery and heard a story of brutality against an Archbishop during the time of Henry VIII. When good ole’ Henry announced himself head of the Church of England, he tortured any preacher, priest, bishop, or any high church official who would not denounce the Pope and all things Roman. The man was tortured for 3 days by the boot (metal boots filled with oil and heated to boiling) in order to force confession. After the legs were boiled off from the knee down, he hung the bishop with a noose of thorns (playing of Jesus’ crown of thorns). Another 3 day process. It took 6 days to kill this man and he never once renounced his faith. Our tour guide said that this man was responsible for the culture and religion in Ireland to this day and 9.5 out of 10 Irish natives have no idea who he is. We continued to move along on the tour and heard more scary stories of exorcisms and ghosts.

Teaching us how to dig up fresh corpses

Us on the torturing site of the Archbishop

Keep in mind that in Ireland the sun doesn’t set until 11pm, so we were on the top level of the bus with the heavy curtains shut and red lights to enhance the effect. One of his next stories included the series of people buried alive due to the “commonality” of catatonia. The terms saved the bell and dead ringer come from this problem. Anyway one woman “died” in her sleep the night of her wedding and was buried in all her wedding finery. A man tried to steal her gold ring and when it wouldn’t budge he tried to bite it off. The next thing I know, the guide has grabbed my hand is mimicking biting off my ring finger on my right hand, where my gold promise ring sits. I don’t know how he noticed it in that dark bus, but my mom says it is his job to notice those things. It just so happened to be the American girls he was messing with (spilling fake guts on us, jumping up at us, and constantly pulling stunts (showed us how to rob a grave and in doing so dropped a fake body from the ceiling right as we walked under the archway) that had the gold ring. Toward the end of the tour we arrived at the “Gate to Hell”. According to Irish legend, there was a city under Dublin occupied by lepers and criminals. It was referred to as the Four Corners of Hell (there were 4 entrances). We were standing right in front of one. The legends say that the church felt that locking away lepers was unfair to them and allowed them to leave “camps/prisons” and live there. They would live in Hell and then ascend the steps dressed in black clocks and big brimmed hats to go to Mass. We stood on those steps and it was cold and breezy and you could almost imagine what it felt like being shunned into a dark, lonely place you didn’t necessarily deserve. These steps also happened to be nice houses back then so it was really easy for the criminals to steal from the rich and then run to Hell, where few were brave enough to follow. Those who did said the city was a glimpse into what the afterlife would be like, fire and constant screaming and sketchy characters surrounding trash. The tour guide was wonderful, it was the best spent 25 euro. We all went to be bed rather early that night from being so exhausted by the busy day. We didn’t meet any of the other 2 girls in our 6-person room until the next day.

Abigail’s Hostel wasn’t actually too bad, beside a couple of things. The computers with Internet they had were a euro for 10 minutes, which is a joke, the connection was slow and the timer was not. Another funny thing, they has soap dispensers like a normal school bathroom would, but they don’t supply soap. I thought it was confusing and a waste of money for them to install them if they weren’t going to use them. BUT on Saturday we went and did so much stuff. Eliza did want to get out of bed so Janet, Anah, and I ate a breakfast of toast and cereal at the hostel which was followed by a stop at the coffee shop, I had a chai latte…I have missed them.

Mine & Anah's Bunk ---I was on top

Our first stop was to Trinity College and in true Irish style, it was raining and only 55 degrees. I decided a light running jacket wasn’t enough and bought an awesome Trinity College hoodie. The only item I splurged on for myself, besides food to be mentioned later. We met a student there named O’Connell who gave us some cool hints and info about Trintiy College, Dublin Zoo, and Dublin in general, as well as the Irish opinion on Americans. His response to our question: “We hate everybody in general, but we tend to like individuals”. He was pretty cool. Then off to the National Art Gallery of Ireland. That was pretty cool as well, but again no pictures allowed. We spent quite a bit of time there. I love art and it was nice to be able to just relax and look at paintings, although it was very rewarding when I knew things about the older art or artists, thank you Art History freshman year; I may have been asleep for a lot of it but it sure did sink in, especially when we got to the time period/subject of my term paper in that class. I’m taking Renaissance Art History this upcoming semester, so hopefully my art tours this summer will help me in class. After this we stopped by another coffee place (we were exhausted) and got another chai latte (my poor tummy) and it was still raining, and I decided being under everyone’s umbrella was annoying and walked in the rain with nothing but a hoodie. Next was the Archeology & History Museum and that was also amazing. We got to see not just Irish things, but an Egyptian section too. We saw mummy where her hands and feet had been cut off post mortem. I saw a lot of hieroglyphics, which made me miss when I used to be really into Egyptian things. Again no pictures and I couldn’t even try to sneak any because we were in such a hurry in that morning, I forgot the camera. GRRR!

We then went to Dublin Castle but didn’t go inside b/c in all honesty, we couldn’t figure out how. We gave up and went into a national art gallery/library and looked around a bit. We then walked over to Christ Church, the oldest building in Dublin, built by the Vikings. Couldn’t go in but it looked really cool! We were starting to get really tired at this point so we did some souvenir shopping and head out to dinner. I told the others I was either going to continue cokking the pasta we bought or I was going to a pub. I wanted IRISH Food. What to I do…go to a pub and order a steak. We all shared the potato and leek soup and it was actually amazing. I then got an 11 oz. warm red most beautiful steak I have ever had. I am a very much so red meat girl. I love my meat and I love it rare. It was ABSOLUTELY wonderful. Also had chips, aka thick fries, and I ate it all. I was so full, but toward the end of dinner my not feeling well got really bad. I thought it was just the whole monthly ordeal, but no, Felicia had developed a fever. I guess that is what happens when you walk in the rain and cold all day in not proper attire, and this was their summer. I curled up in my bed and Anah and I napped while the other girls (Janet and Eliza) went and shopped some more. By the time they returned my fever was in full swing and medicine was forced upon me, I hate medicine, but it worked. Eliza and I then camped out while Janet and Anah went to a pub. They got a little upset with us for refusing to go out in the cold, claiming we would be back in 2 weeks and didn’t want to go then. I had the excuse of the fever, but I could tell it still bothered them. I tried to hit the sack and eventually met one of our roommates. The woman we had met earlier in the evening was from France and came for the weekend for a vacation, she is studying marine biology there. The younger blonde parties all night and slept all morning; she didn’t say a word to me. She took a shower and we both sat there on our computers until we each went to bed.

On Sunday we all woke up late, vacation really does take everything out of you. Dublin by storm was making us very sleepy. We checked our luggage so we didn’t have to carry it and left for our day. First off to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which of course we couldn’t go in because it was closed for services only. Then we went to find the Guinness Storehouse b/c we didn’t think it would be that bad to walk. It was horrible. We kept getting lost and blah. We stopped for a British breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, and some kind of meat pudding and tea. It was only 6 euro to boot. Then off to the Guinness factory. I pretty much took pictures of the entire tour so that even if you hadn’t gone you could see everything I did. I did try some of Eliza’s Guinness, and let me tell you when she puts the picture on Facebook I will post them because they are hilarious. I started off slow, then the cringing began, then the giving back and eww face appeared. I know a lot of people don’t like Guinness, but from I understand fresh from the storehouse was the only way they have ever liked it, and I couldn’t stand it. Eliza was quick with the camera; mine had already died at this point. We took a some pics and headed out to the zoo, which again we walked to, which again we got ridiculously lost in East Jesus trying to find. We had gone west, like we were supposed to, but had also gone south, not north. Once that was corrected it was still quite a walk.

Saint Patrick's Cathedral

British/Irish Breakfast

Guiness Factory - There were way too many pictures to choose from!

I love the ZOO! I mean LOVE! Probably my second favorite part of Dublin. There wasn’t really anything exceptional about the zoo, but just being there was awesome. I feel like maybe because I love the zoo in Saint Louis, it helped ease some homesickness. It actually didn’t rain either so it was a little warm too. Of course we spent too much time at the zoo and missed the bus, because we didn’t know the schedule and it only came once an hour and we were already going to be late to the airport. The lady at tourist information on the way in told us to get their 2 hours early. We left the zoo at 4:30, WALKED more than half way across Dublin in 45 minutes (a feat let me tell you), got a bus at 5:45, arrived at 6:50, and waited for our flight which left 15 min late at 8:20. We did all that stressing for nothing. The plane ride was filled with us reading British/Irish magazines and staring in awe at the shirtless Robert Pattinson in photos of New Moon sets. We were so upset to find out it had been filming during our first week here, and not even where it happens in the book. They had spent a bunch of money building the set in another small Tuscan town near Volterra…what a waste. A perfect set-up and a real-life location and they didn’t use it. If I has had any sway in film production, I would write them a note! Our flight landed early ironically and we were able to catch the last bus to Florence straight from the airport and arrived home around 130ish…then being the hungry girls we are…grabbed kebabs and went to sleep around 3. Let’s just say we were all very tired for class the next day. My days and nights were great for about 2 days, then this weekend happened. I’m back to being exhausted all day and wired at night. But I don’t regret any of it, this is turning out to be a wonderful summer and I am so happy to have met the girls here and gone on this trip. And this was just a 3 day trip!


A Snow Leopard and the Depressed Tiger

Eliza, Erica, and I (EEF..teehee) are going to to Dublin, London, Paris (at which point they go to Switzerland while I go home to save some money) during break from class. I thought I was rushed in Dublin, I’m only spending a day and a half in Dublin next time and a day and a half in Paris with 2 days of London in between. My mom has so graciously offered to help me with housing, giving way more money than I had anticipated needing for the summer. I think that I didn’t realize the amount of money I would need to fully enjoy Europe. Besides the trips (aka planes and hostels) I am living pretty thrifty, and one of my friends has taken out 14,000 for this summer. She says its worth it to be able to enjoy Europe and not have to worry about expenses because this is the only time in her life that this will be possible. I am starting to realize that with my wedding and graduation coming up in the next year or so, the same is true for me. Therefore I thank my mother so much and appreciate that she is doing this for me because this trip will be something I never ever forget. I’m so lucky to have this opportunity. I just hope that luck has stopped working against for a bit and will let me enjoy the rest of my summer.

Well 4.5 pages single-spaced on word and still waiting for Kodak to upload my 252 pictures that I alone took (still have to upload the other girls albums), over an hour later. I am going to head out and finish editing all the pictures and uploading this blog tomorrow. Off to bed because I have felt like crap for days on end and want to get better. Miss all you guys at home, including the Nickel!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Week 1 Complete

Well I've been in Florence for a week now, and it is wonderful...sorta.

When I first arrived, I arrived to a non-existent apartment. I had been scammed, I guess it serves me right for trying to find cheaper off-campus housing that allowed guests (the school does not).

But this was after the airport losing one of my bags, and waiting an hour to establish that point. Thankfully some nice girls from Univ of Illinois-Champagne stayed with me and split a cab. So a terrible 8 hours later, after 13ish hours of flying (where I met some nice girls-one from the East Coast and one from Croatia), I had somewhere to stay. There was a single room left with a group of girls from Clemson, in South Carolina. They have been very welcoming and have invited to just about everything they do. The apartment below us is also full of Clemson girls, with another Univ of Iowa (Go MIDWEST!)

And no we didn't do the color scheme on purpose!
Lauren, Me, Caitlin, Caroline, and Molly

Kaylee, Charlotte, Lee Ann, and Ashley

We went to Venice immediately this weekend. We took a train really in the morning, which was a hassle itself, as the girls chose the one line with a sign that says the guy did speak English. I tried to help as much as I could but my Italian was only marginally better than theirs. On the train we met Luca and David from Pisa, who were a hoot. I don't think David spoke much English but Luca was highly entertaining. I was trying to use my Italian-English dictionary like crazy, but the charades was fun. As we got off the train Luca did the traditional kiss the cheek goodbye, he was disappointed to find that in our short time in Florence we have already experienced this at an amazing restaurant, Il Gato e Il Volpe (the cat and the fox-like from Pinocchio). David was sitting by himself during all of this so I made sure he got a kiss too, tee hee.

Kaylee, Ashley, Luca, David, Me, and Caroline


All 10 of us at Il Gato e Il Volpe
(previously not pictured is Megan ->1st on left)

Venice was a headache too. When we booked the hotel, there was no notice that the hotel was in a separate city then Venice. The girls did not want to take a bus, SO we tried to find new lodging, after taking the wrong bus to the hotel that was too far away. I wish I spoke Italian more fluently, would have made things much easier. So we stop at this cute restaurant near the train station and the waiter, Maximillion, was very helpful. He called around the area looking for lodgings and found a room for 5. That left 4 of us to figure out what we were going to do. Thankfully within a stone's throw of the 5 girls' B&B, we found a hotel with 2 double rooms.I roomed with Ashley and our room came with cute little keys. Overall, splitting everything evenly and down the middle, it ended up costing 70euros each for lodging, including have to pay in full for the forgotten hotel. The day ended with a walk to the Realto bridge and a gondola ride!


After getting situated we did some shopping, and let me tell you, these sorority girls from SC know how to shop. After a few hours I was bored but I did find some good stuff for the girls in my family and CW and KT. You see Venice is renown for its glass (ok actually Murano but the same area) and so glass jewelry and other trinkets were abound. I found a lot of things that would look awesome in my apartment but as I will be here for two more months and I am a klutzy, I left the glass items alone. Masks are also really big in Venice. I saw a lot I thought would look awesome in my room, I never realized how expensive they were. I've made paper mache masks before, but obviously my painting abilities were not nearly as good as these. They were in all different colors with feathers and glitter, some with those fancy S-something crystals. If I had a greater budget, I definitely would've bought one. On of my best buys I've made since coming to Italy was a fan, like the cute fancy ones you see in Spanish or Asian movies, except it has Venice pictures on it.


Venice at a Glance & Jesus painting outside of Basilica San Marco

We went and visited San Marco basilica, museum, and bell tower. The basilica was really cool and while walking around the museum on the top we heard the end of the church service (as it was Sunday). The chanting/singing was pretty awesome and the church was very pretty. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was beautiful. From the top of the bell tower you could get a panoramic view of all of Venice. It was beautiful. And of course we were up there when all of the belss decided to go off. The decibal rating was so high, it was like when you leave your iPod on high multiplied by 10+x. But it was really cool to have that moment.

We did some more shopping and then grabbed a bit to eat before we left. I slept the entire time on the first train home. We were all very excited to find a McDonalds near the train station on our mini-break. It was probably the most excited about McDonalds I have ever been. The 2nd train home we met some Moroccon guys who lived in Italy. At first we were creaped out becuase they spoke very very little english and were trying to warn us about taking night trains. Eventually we settled for charades and what was gotten from that was that sometimes at night if your door is not closed, people will come and spray someting in your eyes and knock you out and steal your self. You could imagine how weired that came in out with a language barrier. We all thought we were about to be murdered by our compartment mates. It was slightly uncomfortable, but overall they were friendly. One guy even showed us pictures of his kids (he was the oldest of the group). They were going to Naples to go swim in the ocean, a very nice vacation I think.

Since that trip I have just been relaxing in the city. I haven't gone sightseeing, just getting use to class and the city. I have tried gelato, but wasnt very impressed. I've actually become more addicted to the copious amounts of fresh fruit everywhere. Macedonia di frutta fresca (fresh fruit cups) are available everywhere. They come in cute little waht we call ice cream sundae dishes in pear/fruit juice. They are the same price as the junk food but are so good and so much better.I have met some awesome kids from my class (5 out 9 are from Univ of Hawaii). The rest of us comprise of me from Missouri and 2 from New york and 1 from new Jersey. It seems that way a lot here. I've met a couple kids ftom the midwest, but mostly coast kids and mostly girls. According to our advisor, boys tend to go less romantic areas of Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Amsterdam...of course. I feel like we have learned quite a bit in a week adn I was excited to get 100% on our first quiz. I'm planning on missing the next one to go to Ireland and they drop score so I was glad to have done so well on the first one. It seems like I'm doing better than most in my class,but I may be one of the only truly focused on their class as well as travel.

Starting next week I plan to be more touristy, but I'm trying to save it for the weekends I am in town. Thus far my excursions into the city have been purely supermarkets, restaurants, and bars. I haven't felt the need to get drunk everynight (like some) because I can here. I've tasted limoncello (a must), and had a total of three drinks, not including each wine I've tasted every time my roommates split a bottle. I think I'm just gonna be a hard liquor girl and should just stop trying. I've yet to find a wine or beer I like.

Limonocello

The bars I've been too are cute. They are mostly occupied by drunk Americans and some Italian men, but they are fun nonetheless. The first night we went to Red Garter, which has Karaoke too!, and met another 2 girls from NY who are wonderful. I feel like I get along with them best of all the groups of people I have met here. I just wish they didn't live so far away from me. It's way way too far to walk by myself and cabs are so expensive here. I went out to Red Garter again last night, but the experience was not nearly as good. I went out with a friend and his two roommates, they were all already pretty drunk and my friend got ridiculous. I felt very uncomfortable and ended up paying way more than necessary to take a cab from there to a friends. BUT we went to a discoteca, a far away one at that, but it was a lot of fun. I danced with the girls and a couple of Italian guys and it was a lot of fun. I think the club was the most fun I've had here and was very surreal. I think that will be one of the moments I remember for a long time. Every girls' dream, going clubbing in Europe and hooking up with an Italian guy, minus the hooking up part. One guy tried but since I'm a good girl I denied. Just danced with the girls instead, which was so much fun. The girls from NY are dancers and the girl from Mexico is well, hot Latina, no need to explain. I love their apartment. The girls are great and so much fun, maybe too much fun, lol. Eliza (one from NY) is my class, and we are constantly speaking Spanish on accident.


Erica, Eliza & Janet

Janet, Anah, Eliza & Erica

I slept off the week today. Probably slept way mroe than necessary which is why I'm still awake now, approx. 5 am here. Gonna have to hit the sack though. I still wish my friends from home could've come, but I'm meeting new people and doing new things. It's an experience...and I've only been here a week!

Week 2 here I come!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Until I arrive...

So until I depart, I wanted to tell you about this awesome woman, Pioneer Woman, and her awesome recipes, for ex. Apple Dumplings. My mother and I have taken to calling them Apple Orgasms. This has become my specialty and every wrestling dinner and pot lucks (I'm a wrestling manager at TSU) I am either asked to make them or provide the recipe. And it is not for the feint of heart, they are mighty unhealthy, but a wonderful treat. They are delicious.


http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/02/apple_dumplings/

Here is the link to the best cooking you will ever have. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/



Lemon Baked Pasta

I hope to try this one next. I'm actually starting to enjoy cooking, weird for me.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

And the Adventure Begins!

Hello World!

I've decided since I am going abroad and have lots of people I want to see pictures and recipes and fun things and such that I would just post them on my blog.

I am so excited that I am able to have this great opportunity to study in Europe and really get to travel for the first time, even though I will be going my myself. I've found a moderate priced place to stay with and Italian student and an Argentinian professional.

I'm really excited that it is within walking distance of my school.I will be staying in Florence near the Duomo and will probably spend most of my time there.

I will be traveling to Erfurt, Germany to stay with my dad's cousin Barb, she's a teacher at a university and I get to sit in on the classes, FUN!!!!! I hope to spend some time in Greece and at the very least, visit Volterra (all Twilight fans may now use this moment to be jealous) and Pompeii. My friend Katie says I have to make it to Naples and the Isle of Capri or she will fly back from Argentina to kick my rear.

I'm really excited to be learning a language where it is spoken. I've learned Spanish from a classroom and feel like I am unable to speak at a level I should be after this many years. Hopefully my Spanish-Italian-English speaking roommate can help me with both. Although the Italian professor at my school says I will have to work to catch up since my classes in Florence will focus on conversation and the ones at TSU focus on reading & Writing. I'm considering getting a Master's in International Business now, but I have no idea how I will actually use it when I focus on Italy, which during my latest project for my Int. Business class stated that Italy is 93% owned by families within Italy and that it may get kicked out of the European Union because its national deficit is reaching the 3% ceiling instated by the Stability and Growth pact they signed. As you can tell, I've done a lot of research and CANNOT wait to go. Less than 2 weeks!

My main focus will be on intensive language study but I hope to study Italian art and architecture too! I will be taking Renaissance Art when I get back next semester and it would be exciting to have already seen a lot of it.