Amsterdam!

On Thursday evening, Sarah and I made our way to Amsterdam for the weekend! We got on a plane with many GU students who were en route to Budapest, but we parted ways in Munich.  Once we landed in Amsterdam, we found our way to the train station that would take us to Central Station, so we could get a tram to our hotel.  I could have stayed in the Schipol Airport all weekend.  Weird, I know, but let me tell you why.  1) Outrageous amount of bulbs for sale and tulips everywhere- (tulips are one of my favorite flowers on Earth.  In the top 3 with plumerias and daffodils 2) Starbucks.  I feel like I am on the European tour of Starbucks and I am completely fine with it.  We map out every Starbucks in the cities we are going to and make sure to go as many times as possible. There is something so comforting about finding a place that looks, feels, and tastes the same no matter where you are in the world.  Whether it is a sip in Prague, Bern, Barcelona, or Amsterdam, Starbucks brings back all of the comforts of home.

Anyways, enough about Starbucks.   So once Sarah and I navigated the public transportation system (VERY easy once you know where you are and have a good map- too bad this wasn't the case at that point), we checked into our hotel, which was outside of the main downtown and in the more residential area.  It was very cute and quaint- the beds were SO comfortable and we watched TV (in ENGLISH!).  We ended up at a little Chinese restaurant called Happy Corner.  Guess that's what we get for not venturing out.

Friday morning, we woke up early(ish) and made our way to the Anne Frank House after getting off at the wrong tram station 3 times.  Whoops.  The line was long, the ticket was expensive, and the experience was absolutely incredible.  Actually no, incredible probably isn't the right word because there really is no words for something like that.  I've grown up hearing about Anne Frank and how her family hid, but I never really realized where it was and what the living situation was.  It was heart breaking and I have never felt more connected to history.  I'm no history buff and have had my fair share of history museums, but when you are inside the house that the Frank family hid in and preserved so well, there is really nothing quite like it.  We got some bagels (yum) and met up with Shane! He was fresh off the plane from LA and was ready to take on the day! We got to our hostel called International Budget Hostel.  It was nothing short of an international budget hostel. Our 4 person room included Shane, Sarah,  me, and one random man- this was my first experience staying in a room with a completely random person.  Luckily it was a very nice Dutch guy who was visiting from England.  Even with that said, we locked up every single thing we brought with us before heading out to Sara's Pancakes (SO GOOD.  banana and Nutella Dutch pancake that was out of this world!)  After that, we walked around the Flower  Market (SO MANY BULBS AND TULIPS!!) and made our way to the Heineken Brewery for the Heineken Experience, where we got to see how beer is made and get some "free" beer at the ideal temperature. I don't even like beer that much, but this was delicious!  We wandered back to the hostel, freshened up, and heading out to dinner- hellooo fajitas in the middle of Holland!

We slept in for the first time since I have been abroad on Saturday morning! It helped up get through a day of walking and sightseeing.  In the rain.  We saw the iamsterdam sign, Van Gough museum, got waffles in a cute little cafe, and explored the Red Light District before meeting up with Amelia and Annie at the Central Station.  The Red Light district was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life.  There were live sex shows (one guy tried to sell it to use by asking, "Do you want to see some real culture??"), endless "coffee" shops (aka places where they sell all sorts of weed), and prostitutes in the windows wearing nothing but bikinis and lingerie.  It was unreal and absurd.  It was so sad seeing the girls in these windows as we were just walking around going about our day.  We were so happy to see that Amelia and Annie made their way to Amsterdam successfully.  They got settled in at the hostel and we all freshened up before dinner at the Burger Bar (sort of like The Counter where you can build your own burger yummm) and a pub crawl through the Leidseplein area of Amsterdam.  The pub crawl took us to some bars and clubs in the area and we enjoyed meeting new people from London! Yay for foreign friends and fun times.

Also on a side note, today was the first time I went to the GIF gym.  Envision one room with 2 treadmills, 2 broken ellipticals, and one bike  with no foot petal straps or a working monitor along with another room with some room to place mats down along with some random fitness do dads.... you now have a mental picture of our gym!  Its small and nothing like the one in Spokane, but I will take it after this 6 week carbo load.  My class schedule made it virtually impossible to go to the gym before dinner, but now I finally can on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I have never appreciated Rudolph Fitness Center more and will be spending a lot of quality time with it this summer..

Two months until America! Two months until America?

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I think this quote perfectly describes how we are all feeling in Florence right now.  I have been experiencing SO much, but missing so much too.  We have been having so much fun and seeing some incredible parts of the world, but we've only just realized how much we are missing while we have been gone!  It is easy to forget how time keeps going on at home and we aren't there to experience it all.  I am very appreciative of the time I have while in Europe and savoring all of these moments, but also looking forward to being reunited with some of my favorite people on Earth back in the States!

This week, I was fortunate enough to have my parents in town, so I could show them what I've been up to and what life for me has been like in Florence.  They caught me at a bad time of being tired, cranky, and wanting to get back on the plane with them as they left for Florence.  We got some fabulous meals and took a little afternoon visit to Fiesole.  We got caught in the rain Thursday and Friday, which put a little damper on our ambitious plans to make it to San Gimigiano and Assisi.  They struggled with jet leg while they were here.
I now have my two fabulous roommates, who keep me sane laughing until my abs hurt and my eyes water every single day, back from their weekend adventures and I am focusing on the studying part of study abroad!  I was also able to see TWO friends from high school this weekend- my friend, John, is studying in Bonn, Germany and he came down to visit me and his friend from LMU, who is also doing GIF.  It was so fun to have him here and show him our favorite parts of Florence!  Saturday was hands down the most gorgeous day we have had this semester, so we climbed to the Duomo, spotted all of our favorite places, and just sort of soaked in the fact that, yep, this is what I am currently calling home!  Later that night, we saw one of our good friends from high school at Space, so that was so fun to see her out and about in Florence. This weekend, I am not meeting just one, not two, but three of my good friends from high school in Amsterdam.  It will be so great to see some more old faces from high school.

Oh Barcelona...

Over the weekend, we jet set across the Mediterranean Sea to check out what Barcelona was all about.  We all had very high expectations for this weekend because we heard it was a very exciting and beautiful place and there were at least 50 Gonzaga students going that weekend.  Barcelona is an absolutely incredible place!  The city is HUGE, often compared to LA, felt like Paris on the ocean, and has incredible architecture.  Though I hate to say it, our trip was less than perfect...

Friday morning, we were up and out the door at 6:30 am to speed walk to Santa Maria Novella train station to catch our train to Pisa.  We made it, all bought our tickets, ran around trying to find a place to verify our tickets, sprinted to the train, and boarded the train, which felt like a sauna, didn't leave for 10 minutes, and almost landed us a 50 euro fee for putting our feet on the seats in front of us. We finally arrived in Pisa (along with another random group of students studying in Florence and going to Barcelona) for my first experience with Ryan Air (a great discount airline in Europe).  Our flight went to Girona (about an hour out of Barcelona).  From Girona, we took a bus to Barcelona.  It was about 1 by the time we arrived in Barcelona, so we were all ready for lunch.  The 14 of us wandered towards what we believed to be the center of town and took some random rights and left and found ourselves at a wonderful tapas place on a main street.  The sangria was strong and the sun was glorious!  After lunch, we made our way to the hostel. Half of us walked the 45 minutes while the others took on the metro station.  My only motivation to walk was to find a Starbucks. And we did. And it was one delicious grande nonfat caramel macchiato with extra caramel :)  On our walk, we say Gaudi's Casa Batillo and Casa Mila both of which were incredible! We were able to see Once we checked into the hotel, we made our way to our cute little room at Residencia Erasmus Gracia, took a little lay down, and get recharged for the rest of the evening.  We took on the metro system and made our way to the Mirador de Colom (also known as the huge statue of Christopher Columbus) to meet Maggie who had explored with some of her friends.  From there, we wandered onto harbor that has an aquarium, IMAX theatre, and a variety of restaurants.  After that, we still had time to kill before heading to the restaurant I wanted to go for dinner (it came up when I Googled "best paella in Barcelona", so I wasn't about to pass that up!).  Some people wanted to catch happy hour, so when we were offered free shots at a little restaurant, we went on in.  We got our free shots, but were hoping we weren't going to have to buy anything.  The owner pressured us into getting something, so we got the cheapest beer while watching highlights of all the weekend futbol games.  Once it was dinner time, we went to the restaurant and checked out the menu, which was more expensive that we all thought, but I wanted that paella, so I was still down.  Unfortunately, some people decided against making a decision, so they went in with us and complained the entire time about the price.  Needless to say, I did not enjoy that dinner or the paella I had been craving all week (though it really was incredible!!).  Oh well, that's what you get when you travel with cranky, hungry college students on a budget.  After that we sped walk to the destination I wrote down for our pub crawl, which turned out to be a location for a different pub crawl.  We were too exhausted to deal with it, headed to an Irish Pub called Dunnes, got some nachos, and decided to call it a night, so we could enjoy a day full of sight seeing.  We felt a little lame going to bed before midnight in the party capital of Europe, but we got over that fast once we laid down on those beds!

Saturday started off with Starbucks and three of us split from the group.  Sarah, Mary, and I wandered down La Rambla, which is a major street full of shopping and whatnot.  We stumbled upon a little candy shop where the candies were presented like pills and you put them into little medicine like bottles.  It was pretty cute and who doesn't like candy?!  After that we saw the Font de Canaletes and headed to the Piacasso museum.  We got in there for free! My jaw literally dropped when he told me and the man then went onto giggle and tell his co-worker that I dropped my jaw because he demonstrated. Haha oh well! The museum was awesome, although I was surprised to not see more of his well known work. I really want to know what caused the dramatic transformation in his artwork!  After the museum, we met up with the group at Dunnes for lunch, got bagels, then went to a puppy store :) Sarah, Mary, and I stayed together and went to the Parc de La Ciutadella, which I fell in love with- I felt like I was walking in Paris mixed together with Southern California.  There were a bunch of trees, open spaces, children birthday parties, buildings, dogs, and general prettiness.  My favorite (and soon my least favorite) spot was the fountain there.  We were admiring it, taking pictures and soon decided to climb to the top of it.  On our way up, we we confronted with about 7 5 feet tall Spanish women trying to get us to sign petitions or something.  I don't know Spanish and just decided to hold my purse, say no gracias and avoid all eye contact.  Unfortunately, Sarah did not do the same.  Two of them put their clipboards into her face and started touching her arm.  She tried to get them away and then I heard to say "They stole my wallet!".  We started pointing and yelling.  Finally they started pointing at the ground and we saw her wallet there. She checked her wallet and saw that her cards were in there, so we left very quickly.  We were shocked and our hearts were beating out of our chests.  We made our way to the beach so we could just sit there and relax.  We bought fresh bananas and kiwis and watched the ocean.  It was so nice to put our feet in the sand and enjoy.  Luckily Sarah calmed down and checked her wallet only to find her cash was still in there!! It was a miracle.  They must have unzipped her bag, grabbed the wallet, and then threw it under a shoe or something so we wouldn't notice it.  It was such a relief to find out nothing actually got stolen, but it was still so creepy!  After the beach, we got  Starbucks (reoccurring theme of the weekend much?) and met the group at Wok to Walk for a cheap, but pretty decent dinner.  Once dinner was over, all of us went to the magic fountain show at Muntanya e Montjuic.  It seriously felt like we were in Las Vegas watching this fountain light up with Spanish Queen-like music, but it was really cool!  We went back to the hostel to change and take on the Barcelona night life!  Of course I brought my Barcelona airport bus ticket instead of my metro pass, but a nice guy let me walk through with him and I just hopped over the next stand.  Sorry Spanish law. We signed up to go to a club called Razzmataz through a hostel where our friends were, but the tickets didn't go on sale until midnight and we didn't leave until 1:45 am... We enjoyed exploring the area, hanging out with the other GU students who we met up with there, and making new friends.  We finally made it to Razzmataz and many of our friends were well under the influence, so it made it hard to have much fun when we were looking out for the others who were struggling because the place was huge, loud, and dark.  Sarah and I ended up leaving early to take our very intoxicated friend home in a cab. We then went to bed at 6 am. Ohh life..  Turns out that night, our friend had been kicked out of the club within a minute of getting there because he accidentally went into the girls bathroom because he couldn't see the sign and our other friend got mugged- he left by himself because it was impossible to find anyone, turned a corner, got hit in the face with a big stick/wood plank by one guy, put in a chokehold by another from behind, and knocked unconscious. They got his 3 year old iPhone and his 1 euro and 50 cents (just enough to get home on the metro).  Poor kid woke up to find his stuff scattered on the sidewalk with no money and completely lost.  They didn't take his cards or ID and by some miracle, he made it home alright.  TOO MUCH.

On Sunday, we got up in time to check out.  We headed up to Gaudi's Park so we could see the world's longest bench, his house, and many of his other famous art works.  It was a gorgeous day and full of people.  Having been so worn out from the weekend and the night before, we were really not digging sight seeing and were ready to get back to Florence! We then made our way to Temple de La Sagrada Familia, got Starbucks, and Subway.  After that we wandered back to La Rambla and put into our name for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.  Thumbs up for a California burger (with GUACAMOLE yumm)! We were exhausted and our feet hurt so bad, we just sat in the park and let time pass before making our way to the metro to catch the bus to the Girona Airport.  At Girona, we got the BEST McDonald's Happy Meal (or at least that's how it felt when I was hungry, tired, and cranky).  Ryan Air got us to Pisa (bear in mind it was a 30 euro roundtrip flight. Only trade off? They try to sell things to you for the entire flight). We got into Pisa and realized we had 10 minutes to make it to our bus to Florence or else we would be staying in Pisa until 12:20 am.  We landed and booked it to the bus (in the rain. wearing flip flops. then soon going bare foot. running in the wrong directions).  Luckily we made it on the bus just in time and would not have been happier! Britt and I took the last row, sprawled out, and laughed about the weekend we survived (well almost. we weren't back in Florence yet!).  Before the bus even started, I got an instant message from Sean's roommate, Tanner, telling me to not freak out, but Sean broke his ankle really badly and was being rushed into surgery.  There I was.  In the back on the bus, soaking wet, rain was pouring on the window (literally looked like one of those depressing scenes from a movie), and half way across the world from the only place I wanted to be! So while I was driving to Florence in the early minutes of Valentines's Day, Sean was back in Spokane getting his ankle put back into place.  I had gone into the trip being more homesick and boyfriend sick than normal/than I had been all semester and that was seriously the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cherry on top of the cake.  So after a mild breakdown with help from Britt and my iPod, we arrived in Florence and walked as fast as we could across Florence.  When I arrived back at the pensione, the flowers my parents ordered for me for my birthday were sitting outside our room door.  It was exactly what I needed.  The flowers were struggling because they had been in the hall for a good three days, but luckily some lovely ladies of Gallo d'Oro kept an eye out for them and watered them for me!  We all had no problem whatsoever falling asleep that night and we couldn't have been happier to be asleep in our beds even though I was still so sad thinking about poor Sean!  (Send some love his way, please!)

We are already looking back at the weekend and laughing.  It was full of life experiences and reminded us to appreciate the good and learn from the bad. Barcelona, you win. I do hope to go back on day, but maybe with just a tiny group or one other person.  For now, I am just enjoying spending quality time with my parents while they are in town for the week!  They could not have come at a better time and it is fun to share some of my study abroad experience with them (and enjoy some delicious meals out in Florence!)

21st Birthday in Florence!

The day started off with getting our favorite cafe lattes and pastries at Cafe Cavour, then got to Ethics late (what else is new), went to Italian class (they sang to me in Italian), and then went to a paper shot called Il Papiro where we got to make our own paper designs- I'll upload the pictures from my phone soon! I didn't have my camera, but that's okay.  Gianni works there and is easily one of the nicest men in this city.  He gave me a free fancy birthday pencil and showed us around the store teaching us about the various techniques they use for making their paper products.  After that, Sarah and I got to lunch (10 minutes late- whoops!) where we enjoyed lasagna (yummm), delicious pork and carrots, and dessert (cream puffs- a great birthday treat)!  After lunch, I made my way to the Sculpture studio to meet my professor and two other students so we could go to a local mask maker's studio to see his incredible masks!  We're currently making masks in class using molds of our own faces, so it was really neat to see all the possibilities of projects we could do! After that, I went to Fresco and starting a new fresco project.  It's a nice class, but I didn't exactly feel like being there for 3 hours on my birthday! Then we got ANOTHER dessert at dinner (normally fruit is our dessert, so it is always fun when we get cake or ice cream).  After dinner, we went through 183048 outfit choices and I had my personal hairdresser and make up artist a.k.a. Brittany Fuller get me ready for my 21 run!  We had fun in the pensione and welcomed about 30 people to celebrate with us here before heading to Shots Cafe, Naima (where we met the rest of GU because there was another 21 run), and Club 21 (how fitting, right?) where we danced the night away! It was so fun to celebrate this milestone in such a fabulous city with my best friends and new GIF friends!  Can't wait to order a drink back in the states! Thank you to everyone who thought of me on my birthday and sent birthday loving my way :) Cheers to being 21!

A Weekend Under the Tuscan Sun

Pizza along the Arno

Last weekend, we finally had some time to soak in the fact that we are living in Florence, Italy! Thursday afternoon was filled with a long (and much needed) nap that lasted until 5.  We got up, got ready, met our friends Molta Dolce's Happy Hour, and made our way to Gusta Pizza (of course!).  By the time we got there, the place was packed, so we got our pizza (the pesto was delicious!) to go and ate it on a curb, got yelled at in Italian to move, moved, got yelled at in Italian, moved, and then decided to eat it along the Arno, which was a success (even though our pizza was cold)!  We got 1 euro gelato and then made our way back to the pensione for a relaxing evening before waking up early for Verona!

Friday morning, we made our way to the train station in a part of Florence that we had never seen and hoped on the direct train to Verona.  That's when we learned how to ready Italian train tickets.. whoops.  Verona exceeded ALL expectations.  I thought it would be small and quaint and we'd be ready to go soon after, but there was a lot to see and explore! Thanks to advice from Rick Steve, we got our Verona Card (only 10 euro and paid for itself after 2 attractions), saw the Roman Colosseum that was there, and got a delicious lunch at a great price at the Mercedes Cafe.  After reenergizing with some food in our bellies, we were off to the central market (just a lot of touristy stuff and fresh produce for sale) and then to Juliet's House! They were filming a random comedy on the balcony, so we walked around a bit and decided to go back later.  We just walked along the river toward the castle and Roman theatre/ruins.  This city had so much more history than imagined! The theatre was neat and we got a great view of the city and headed back to Juliet's house so we could write our letters.  There really is a Juliet Club (just like in the movie Letters to Juliet!)  that responds to the letters that people write to Juliet.  We had fun writing and reading love letters from the past that were there.  After that, we made our way back to the bus station to get to the train station to catch the train back to Florence.  We got to train station and there was a huge line so we were all stressing that we would miss the train back, but luckily, it all worked out and we got on the train (and the right car) just fine! The ride was SO gorgeous as the sun was setting.  We made our way back to Florence and went out to Dante's Pizzeria with our pensione plus some others- it was a fun, loud group of 13 and we couldn't turn the free wine!

Inside the Colosseum

Juliet's Balcony

Roman Theatre

We finally got a chance to sleep in on Saturday morning! It was amazing to not set an alarm.  We went to The Diner for AMERICAN breakfast!  We figured that we haven't had 'American' food for a solid month, so it was time to get a break from Italian food even for just one meal.  I got blueberry pancakes and orange juice (with ICE! I miss having cold drinks!)- I'm definitely getting an omelette next time!  After feasting on American breakfast goodness, we walked to Santa Croce for Fiera del Cioccolato Artigianale aka the Chocolate festival! There was everything from chocolate shoes, chocolate covered strawberries, to a giant chocolate kebab. It was heavenly.  We sat and people watched (basically just counting the time we saw people trip on the cobble stone and looking at how stinking cute European children are especially when they wear costumes and chase pigeons).  After that, I met my friend Michael, who I met on the plane to Florence and visited in Siena, at the Santa Maria Novella train station.  We walked around the city because the weather was SO nice and as it got later in the afternoon, it also got a bit less crowded/filled with tour groups.  Too bad we ran into a pro-communism protest on my street.  Michael and I met Sarah at the pensione and headed out to dinner at Il Gatto e la Volpe where they have delicious balsamic and bread! We all got bolognese sauce but just on different types of pasta and had some great white wine!  After dinner, we walked Michael back to the station so he could head home and we could watch the Zags game versus Memphis! Half of us watched in one room and another in the hallway, but once we realized that we needed the best internet connection, we all watched the 2nd half on one laptop in one room.  It was a dumb loss, but it was so fun watching out boys and we couldn't help but be a little Sposick!

Sunday was Sarah's 21st birthday!  We went on a Best of Tuscany tour with FlorenceforFun, which is a comapny that organizes weekend and day trips as well as a variety of activities for people studying abroad in Europe.  It was an awesome and long day! We hoped on the tour bus for our first stop in Montepulciano and watched Under the Tuscan Sun (under the Tuscan sun).  I had the best cafe latte at Caffe Polizaino with an incredible view! After that, we had out first wine tasting at Cantina Crociani, where we got to try 3 of their red wines. I bought the Vino Noble from 2008 and am waiting for an occasion to pop it open! After the tasting, we wandered the city a bit and saw the spots where New Moon was filmed.  Then it was time for Percino cheese tasting in Pienza.  We got to try all sorts of their special cheese and got a demonstration on how the cheese is made.  Their olive oil was to die for. It was a nice little farm with gorgeous views of Tuscany and the people could not have been nicer!  We then met up with the rest of the group and went to the main 'town' in Pienza and got a little tour and just enjoyed the views.  We finished Under the Tuscan sun and the drive is absolutely amazing on our way to Centro Scout Sant'Antimo, which was a medieval church out in teh country side. It was a paleolithic church, so there were not depictions of humans inside of it, only animals and nature, which was pretty interesting.  The sun was setting as we made out way to the final wine tasting at Cantina Museo de Montalcino, which was gorgeous and owned by the most adorable little old Italian man. He taught us a bit about when before we sat down and tried some of their best wines.  It was fun getting to know the other people on our program (there was a group of girls from Long Island. Let's just say I will forever be a West Coast person..) and enjoying the vino!  Everyone sobered up on our bus ride back- we got to watch Letters to Juliet and it was fun being able to recognize places that we had just been!

All I can say is I am currently living the Dolce Vida!

February is my favorite.

3 days in and I remember why February is my favorite month (not just because my birthday is on the 8th, but that does play a big role).

February 1st: starting finally feeling better from this head cold, wandered around the city with Sarah, signed up for our Best of Tuscany tour with FlorenceforFun on Sunday, went to two museums for my fresco class (private tour with just me and my professor!), got back in time for dinner, and celebrated one girl's 21st birthday at Astors, which was a blast AND I ran into yet another girl from my high school who is in Florence for the semester- such a small world!  There are also SO many fabulous birthdays to look forward to this month!

Yesterday, we slept in because we didn't have class until 10:40, enjoyed an Italain class that involved wakling around Florence seeing some historical houses and practicing our Italian at the Mercato Central (a huge Pike's Place like market in Florence where you can buy the best meats, cheese, wines, fruits, and vegetables- it made me wish we had access to a kitchen here!), wandered around the city/leather market with Britt, helped an American student find a building (she eloquently said, "So I just pass the bubbly thing and then turn left?"  Well, that bubbly thing she was referring to was the dome at Basicilica di San Lorenzo... Who said Americans are embarrassing/ignorant?), sat out on a bench near Piazza San Marco for some great people watching with Britt, came back for lasagna for lunch (yummm), read the US Cosmo (yep, it cost 9 euro), went on a photo adventure around Florence with Hannah for the afternoon (We ended up on the other side of the Arno and found some delicious 1 euro gelato that is most definitely worth the walk!), had History and Culture of Italian food where he gave us samples of some traditional Italian deserts, went to YOGA at school, and came back to the pension to watch the Social Network with the boys.    (Sorry for the poor grammar/formatting- there was just too much good stuff in this day!)

Today, when class was over, we went to the Mercato Centrale (again) and bought some delicious dried fruit), came back for one of the best lunches yet, and took a longg afternoon nap. Time for happy hour, dinner at Dante's, and 1 euro gelato tonight! Ciao!