Coming to the final week!

WOW! What a week it has been, and to think, I am going to be home next weekend!  I am definitely ready to be back to good ol' Canton and see my family, it has been so long since I've been home it seems!  This week has been pretty crazy, last week we had Thanksgiving on campus and it was a great meal and great company...but it wasn't home, so that was a pretty hard day for me.  I had a breakdown or two--but I was able to Skype everyone back home and even watch them eat Thanksgiving dinner (thanks to the guided tour by Aunt Mary) and it made me feel a little better I think :)

Last weekend we all took a trip to Sorrento and had a tour in Pompeii...I have to say, I think Sorrento has climbed its way up to number one on my list of favorite cities that I've been to.  It was SO much fun there, and the atmosphere was amazing.  They were setting everything up for Christmas and even had their Christmas tree up and decorated in the middle of the town square.  It was beautiful.  Out hotel was awesome, it was equipped with a spa, a gym, and a bar with a huge lounge.  Everything was walking distance (except when we went to Pompeii) and the stores there were awesome, so unique and little family owned businesses, can't get much better than that! Alyson, some of the guys in our group, and I all went out on Saturday night to a little bar and it had music and dancing, so we got to all hang out and relax and dance to some American music! That was tons of fun as well.  Pompeii was such a neat experience, I didn't know what to expect prior to going there, but this was such a unique and interesting place that had so much history preserved right inside of it.  I was amazed, and I'm not a fan of history (yawwwwn). 

This week I was sick Monday and Tuesday and had to stay back on campus and I literally slept for 30 out of the 48 hours.  I was running a fever and had a huge headache and a stomach ache, thank God for Alyson because she filled Mom and Nana's role and helped me out a TON.  On Wednesday we got to go to the Papal audience which was such an awesome experience! We had third to the front row seats and our group was called and recognized by the Pope, he even waved to us, such a cute old man :)  Then today, Thursday, we took a hike up to town and got to take a tour of the Pope's summer home here in Castel Gandolfo, WOW, what a site.  Such an amazing view from the top of the building. 

Tomorrow morning me, Alyson, Catie, and Steven fly to London for the weekend!  I am very excited to go to London because I will FINALLY be able to understand (for the most part) the native speakers! Woohoo! This is exciting news for me.  It should be a fun weekend.  THen next week we have a few projects and presentations and exams to end the semester.  And next Saturday, we will be boarding the plane one last time to head back to the United States!  Crazzy, right?? Ahh and then it will be Christmas time at home--couldn't be more blessed this year xoxo 

Enjoy the pictures!

And the adventures continue!

I am SO sorry for not updating all week, it's been crazy busy here, but I am here now to inform you what all has been going on this past week :)

The last I left you with is being in Florence.  Florence was such a beautiful city and everything was walking distance (aka no public transportation!! woohoo!) Alyson and I did a lot of shopping for everyone in Florence-we definitely boosted their economy a bit during our stay.  After we got back we had regular classes Monday and Tuesday.  On Monday, we went into Rome and saw "Cine Cita" which is the cinema city where all of the films were made in Rome (the HBO serious "Rome" is also shot there).  That was pretty cool.

On Wednesday, the whole group went to a monastery for an overnight visit.  At first I was pretty hesitant...no internet, no town, no stores...nothing.  It was a monastery that was built on the side of a mountain, and so it was literally in the mountains.  I was not too excited to go, on the way there we had to take the train to termini, which is a 47 minute ride.  Then got on a subway and took us to another stop, that was about a 35 minute ride, then we waited at this bus stop for about a half hour to catch a bus, that drove us about an hour to the town...at this point I was on the verge of tears from how motion sickness I was from all these different public transportation vehicles. Then, we were picked up in shifts by this man in a tiny little car that drove like a race car driver up the windiest roads/hills I have ever come in contact (like West Virginia x 846847321...no exaggeration!)  We actually almost got ran over by a semi truck because these people drive like complete MANIACS.  So when I finally arrived at the monastery I was as sick as a dog...we had 2 hours before our first tour and I went into my room there and laid on my bed and passed out for those 2 hours, I felt like I was spinning the whole time (again, public transportation and myself are the worst of enemies).  After my nap I felt much better and we took a walk up the mountain to another monastery and got to take a tour of it.  It was San Benedictene's, absolutely beautiful.  The brother that gave us the guide was so informative and interesting, I loved it!  Then we took a tour of the other monastery that we were staying at, which was also very cool.  The next morning we woke up at 5:30am and went to "morning chants" with the monks, following chants we all had breakfast at the monastery, and then me, my teacher, and Joe (one of my classmates) left for a long hike up one of the mountains.  It was beyond amazing, It was about a 4 hour hike, lots of climbing, but the view we got at the top of the mountain took my breath away.  It was so beautiful and amazing, definitely worth every minute of that awful public transportation I went through to get there.  It was a very relaxing stay at this monastery-definitely a much needed time.  I got to just relax and do a little self-reflection and really connect with God in a different way than I usually do...in his beautiful masterpiece of a world.  It was great.

Then we got back Thursday night and on Friday morning me, Alyson, and Catie left campus at 4:45am for the airport to head to the beautiful city of Madrid!  When we got to Madrid we took the metro (cleanest metro ever might i add) to town and walked to our hostel...it was a cute little hostel that we all liked (thank goodness!) We got settled in and Katie Rice (Alyson and I's friend who has been studying in Madrid sine August) came to our hostel and we began exploring the city! We went to Musea del Prado and Museo Reina Sofia and looked at some amazing art pieces, (like Picasso's Guernica), then we walked through a huge park and saw the Crystal Palace, we also got to see the bull fighting arena and the Royal Palace, we went shopping, and went to eat and to a couple bars...it was so much fun!  Also, I was pretty impressed with my Spanish skills (thanks to Senora Gary!) It was so much fun and having Katie there to show us around was such a blessing...she made it such a great weekend!

This week is Thanksgiving and it's been pretty rough for me thinking about all the festivities going on back home preparing for this holiday and for Christmas and everything.  It's hard being so far away during big things like that--but we are having Thanksgiving dinner here as a group in Castel Gandolfo and are holding our very own Turkey Trot run and a chef is coming and cooking us dinner...even though it will be nothing in comparison to a traditional Hibbard Thanksgiving meal...but it will be nice I'm sure :)

This weekend we will be going as a group to Pompeii/Naples/Sorrento from Friday - Sunday...that should be fun, and that is our last trip as a group...then the following weekend (Dec 2-4) me alyson and katie will be going to London for our last trip as a 'free weekend' and then the following weekend (Dec 10) we will be returning to the United States, it will fly by I'm sure.

If anyone has any special requests from this part of the world let us know!  We will definitely be needing to either ship stuff home or check abnother suitcase, we have SO much stuff to bring back!! but Christmas shopping is just about complete :)

Well I love you all and miss you TONS! See everyone sooooon!

Random thoughts

So I am currently sitting in the hotel room in Florence, Alyson and I just got done with shopping at the Market for a few hours this morning and are now waiting to leave for a church to visit with the whole group in a half hour, so I thought I'd write a short post to catch you all up on Europe!

As I just said, this weekend the whole group is in Florence, and so far, I LOVE it here.  It's a lot different than Rome, it seems a lot cleaner and organized than Rome and the buildings are absolutely beautiful.  The streets aren't as crazy with drivers, and the best part is, everything is super close so I haven't had to get on any public transportation yet!! All walking, thank goodness.  After the church visit Alyson and I are going to rent some bikes and ride to the Boboli Gardens and go on a run in that park, should be beautiful :)  then later today we are going to ride our bikes to the oldest chocolate factory in the world (yum!) and probably go to a local bar tonight to hang out for a bit.

Tomorrow we leave around 3pm, so not too much more time here unfortunately.  We are definitely getting a lot of Christmas shopping done, and just to let my family know...you are SPOILED this year by us!!! But a good way to ease the home sickness and us missing you guys back home is by buying presents for you all :)  We are definitely going to need to look into FedEx prices to ship a box of stuff back home because we are not going to have enough space/weight room in our suitcases (Michelle we might need your assistance on looking that info up!)

The homework load here is a bit stressful, we have tons of reading and writing to do and it gets to be kind of annoying when we want to go into Rome but need to get back to study or do homework, etc etc. But, Alyson and I are both trying to stay stress-free and enjoy every minute here because in less than a month we will be coming back home!

Like I said in one of my earlier posts, this traveling is absolutely amazing, but has been pretty hard for me.  I get homesick a lot and wish my whole family could be over here with us experiencing these adventures with me and Alyson.  Whenever I hear about things you all are doing at home (sushi night, Jasmine, dinners, game night, and so on) I get pretty sad and wish I were there for all of that--BUT I keep reminding myself to enjoy each moment I have here...because who knows when I'll be back!

I miss my nieces SOOO much.  Oh my gosh...seeing them on skype and facebook pictures makes me sad lol they are growing up so fast! But we got them the cutest present ever...so that will be fun giving that to them.  The hardest thing that's going to happen for me is Thanksgiving...I know it won't be the same here, I already miss the food back home a ton (I know you all love Italian food...but I prefer mom and nana's cooking a TON) and especially for Thanksgiving because I absolutely love our family traditions.  But there is every other year to have Thanksgiving at home...only once to have it in Italy I guess.

Christmas things are beginning to go up around here and so Alyson and I have been jamming out to Christmas music quite a bit...can't wait :)  The weather here has been mostly in the 60's still, I'm sure on our plane ride home we'll have to start layering up because we might be walking out to a white Ohio from the sounds of it!

Well I miss you all very much...I better get ready for this group outing...I'll update again after we get back from Florence.  Love you!

Karma

And I had to have a little payback after Alyson's blog post the other day...we have a tendency to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere these days. Enjoy!

bonjour...au revoir!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, it has been crazy busy with school work and traveling it's hard to set aside enough time to update on what's been going on over here in Europe!

This past weekend me and Alyson and 5 other students from our group packed up and went to Paris!  It was a MUCH smoother trip to and from Paris than Greece was two weeks ago, we are practically experts at this traveling business nowadays :)  We got to Paris and once again ran into a couple that was from Canada who was studying in France that told us exactly what we needed to do and where we needed to go and what metro we needed to get on and how to buy our tickets, etc etc etc.  Let me just reiterate the obvious fact that Jesus has blessed us all with some amazing guardian angels, and we were definitely saying a few extra prayers that night!

We got to the hostel very easily, and got all set up and situated.  Mind you, this was our first time staying in a hostel, it was called St. Christopher's hostel and was ran by mostly English speaking people, and the people staying at this hostel were mostly our age and traveling from America as well.  The atmosphere was fun and relaxed, they had a restaurant and bar on the first floor and even a night club atmosphere in the basement (however we did not check that part of it out on our weekend stay) butt he option was there!

There were 7 of us and I had booked all of us to stay in one room, which happened to be an 8 person room.  So as we walked in our room we noticed that the eighth bed had clothes laying out on the bed, so it turned out that we did have an 8th roommate!  However we never actually saw or met him because the first night he came back very late and we got up and left for the city super early the next morning, and the second night he didn't come back at all.  So it turned out great anyways!  We did have a community bathroom (yuck!) whose odor resembled very old, moldy, urine that has been covered with rotten eggs, all in a very moist tiny space whose temperature was that of a sauna...just not the relaxing aspect of a sauna.  So needless to say, we avoided having to use that restroom at all costs and remember to go in the public restrooms in the city before returning to the hostel for the nights.

SO...we arrived in Paris late Friday night, so we wanted to get an early start on Saturday to get as much exploring in as possible.  We got up and were out of the hostel by 7am the next morning and immediately head into the city to find the infamous Eiffel Tower...and we found it.  Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking, it was hard to take in that I was actually looking at this landmark that I have seen in countless number of films and read about in tons of books and seen hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of all over the world.  It was amazing.  I stayed with Alyson and Danny the whole day and we explored the entire city, from 8am-9pm we were out walking around the city of Paris...sounds cool, right??  We saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Palace of Luxenburg, the Louve (however didn't go inside the Louve), a couple churches, some boutiques, a cute restaurant in the park, and so many other random places that we just stumbled upon.  I was in love with this city, the buildings, the parks, the weather...it was absolutely amazing.  Everything seemed so clean and organized, the streets weren't overwhelming, the metro system was manageable, and the city was just flat out gorgeous.

We returned back to Castel Gandolfo on Sunday around noon and were able to get settled back and do some homework and go to mass at 5 up on the hill.  So that was really nice, the mass was pretty interesting as well.  It was all spoken in Italian (of course) and Alyson and I got there about a half hour early and were sitting with our Italian teacher (she's American, but she teaches Italian at this campus in Italy for Walsh).. anyways, an Italian man came up to us and spoke some Italian (Alyson and I just sat there and looked at Laura for a translation)...turns out he needed readers for the mass that evening...and so he asked Alyson if she would do it.  Alyson didn't know how to respond, seeing as we have had about 3 weeks of Italian, but Laura answered for her and said yes, of course Alyson would do the reading!  So...she did...and although she stumbled over a few words, and maybe forgot the last line that translated "the word of the Lord", she still did an amazing job!! I was shocked because I know how she gets beyond anxious saying the reading back in America, speaking English...so I was extremely proud she was able to go in front of entire congregation of Italians and read from the Bible in a language she is very unfamiliar to, so props to her!

This week has been filled with class and homework and sprinting through the streets of Rome trying to catch trains and buses and every other public transportation out there.  One thing I am not going to miss when I leave here is public transportation, I absolutely hate it.  I might even sleep in my car a few nights when I return home because I will be so much more appreciative on just having the capability of driving myself anywhere I'd like whenever I'd like and not have to sprint in pouring down rain across the city of Rome trying to get to termini and to the correct train station by 4:23pm so we can catch the train and not have to sit in termini for another hour until the next train.  Why did we have to run (literally) across the city to get to termini?  I'm glad you asked!  It's because Roman people enjoy having strikes about anything and everything and at the most inconvenient times and places, so basically anytime that it will inhibit convenience for us a strike occurs.  So the buses were not running that would take us to termini, therefore we had to fall back on running...or sprinting...to the station.  It was an adventure...to say the least.

This weekend we are packing up again (the whole group this time with our teachers) and heading into Florence for the weekend!! Should be an awesome time, maybe do a little more shopping :)  gotta finish that Christmas shopping!!! We are definitely going to need to ship stuff home...it's been quite the expensive trip-but all so worth it!

I miss you all and get homesick a lot at night, but I'm having an amazing time here and can't wait to see everyone come December!! I'll try to post more often now, and share pictures with you all :) love you and miss you!!

Venice...the city of love...love for Christmas shopping :)

Well, this past weekend we had a group trip to Venice!  We left at 5am on Friday morning and returned around midnight on Sunday night.  It was a very fun and eventful weekend.  Venice is a beautiful city with absolutely beautiful churches and buildings at every corner.  We had to hop on a boat to get from one place to the next, so my vestibular equilibrium was definitely off throughout the entire weekend (not sure if that's the correct way to word that, melissa?).  But this was a very successful weekend in the Christmas gift shopping area for Alyson and I...we have decided to do most of our shopping here (since we aren't returning to Ohio till Dec. 10th AKA we are missing out on black Friday shopping!!) Anyways, we are mostly going in with each other and buying the family presents from the both of us, we can only fit so much luggage :/ I wish we could get presents for everyone! But I definitely don't have the money OR the luggage space to have that luxury!

So Venice...two things I will NEVER take for granted anymore: 1) Free meals from my parents and grandparents and 2) Free water at restaurants ....I now realize the life of luxury I live back home in America, a life when you can order a glass of water and not get a bill and see that it cost me 2.50 euros! (which is about $3..for WATER). Also, I came to the realization that I have the ability to have some major attitude with rude people...who woulda thought?  I went to the grocery store that was down the road from our hotel and bought 2 apples and some pistacchios for a snack for the plane ride back for Alyson and I, and I go to the check out line to pay...the lady scanned the pistacchios, then picked up the bag of apples:
Her : bunch of Italian jibberish
Me: umm...sorry, excuse me?
Her: groans huffs puffs eye roll...grab the bag and storm off...come back with a tag on the bag (bc apparently I was supposed to weigh and tag my own produce) tells me the price in Italian and continues with the biatchhh attitude toward me
Me:  Give her the money, look her stright in the eyes ...."THANK YOUUUU"....stare stare stare (dirty look, like the one Mom gives us and it scares us more than anything....what can I say, I learn from the best)
I think I got her a little uncomfortable, but that woman deserved to get fired with her horrendous customer service skills, I would have been fired in a second with that type of attitude.  Oh well.

But the hotel we stayed in was fantastic, we got to go tour a bunch of different churches, and attend mass on Sunday at San Marco Cathedral (SO beautiful).  We got to take a tour of the oldest Murano glass blowing business right on Murano Island, such a cool experience too.

Both nights we went out with some of our friends to local bars and just hung out...it was a lot of fun and we got to meet some really cool people from everywhere like Amsterdam and England, lots of fun.

Overall it was a wonderful weekend, I have to say, Castel Gandolfo is still my favorite place thus far in Europe...it's so layed back and pretty, such an amazing atmosphere in my opinion :)

GREECE!

     Well this past weekend Alyson, Catie, and I flew to Greece and spent three days in Greece!! And it was quite the adventure...to say the least.  We woke up and had to have a driver come pick us up from campus and drive us 25 minutes to the airport because the public transportation people were on strike, so we couldnt take the free train.  We got to the airport and managed to figure out where to go and who to see to get all the logistics of the flight figured out.  We then had about two and a half hours to spare before our flight took off.  So we took pictures, had some coffee, shopped around...anything to occupy our time.  When we finally got in line to board the plane we stood behind a group of students who were also studying abroad in Rome and were going to the same city in Greece as we were.  They had been here for about 2 months already so they gave us some advice about boarding the plane.  We were flying ryannair, which is a relatively cheap flight airline, and they told us that the seating was all first come first serve (so people literally sprinted to board the plane), they play "classical" music as you board (since it's super classy and all), throughout the flight the flight attendants would walk up and down the aisle selling anything from water and peanuts to lottery tickets...seemed pretty strange to me.  As we landed, they would play a cheerful song and everyone on the flight preceded to applaud (were we not expected to land safely?  I was confused)...my fear of flying has only increased thus far on my travels here in Europe, that's for sure!

     So we finally landed and managed to figure out how to buy a bus ticket that would take us into the center of the city, where we were told we could walk to our hotel.  So we got on the bus and start the drive into Thesolonika.  We are standing in between to Italian men who are talking above our heads with each other, as we were looking at the directions to our hotel we started getting a little nervous because we didn't know how to get to any of the streets listed.  So we approach one of the Italian men (Paolo) and ask if he happens to know where this particular hotel is.  Our guardian angels were definitely there with us because Paolo was heading to the SAME hotel as we were!  So we were able to follow him right to the place, which was about 40329480 turns every which way...aka we would have taken hours to find it.  So we get all settled in and then go to the front desk and ask for a map and suggestions as to what places to go see.  He gave us a list of many different cool places to go site see for the weekend, and we were off to explore Greece!  The first day, Friday, we went out and went to tons and tons of shops...our conclusion with Greek fashion, they have GREAT shoes, but Italian clothes blow theirs out of the water.  However, the accessories were amazing! We decided to do all of the site seeing things the following day (Saturday).  We got some dinner at a cute little place and got some Greek tomato/cucumber salads (YUM!) and delicious grapeleaves.  They were fantastic! The next day we managed to roam around the entire city and found EVERY site seeing spot the deskman told us to check out, by just a map...I learned that Alyson and Catie are muchhhh better at directions and street smartness than I am, I will admit it.  But nonetheless, we got around perfectly and we were all very proud of ourselves.
            On Sunday, we got up early and found our way back to the airport bright and early, we wanted to be there extra early because we were a little nervous about being late to our flight or something going wrong.  We got to the airport and were directed where to go and wait, we ended up having 5 hours to spare before our flight was ready to board (we were being extra extra cautious).  When our flight was ready to board and we were next in line the lady checking our boarding passes said to us (in very broken english) that we were supposed to get our boarding pass stamped before we were able to get on the plane.  Panic mode started and we sprinted to every desk we could find asking where we can get our boarding pass stamped, everyone was pointing us into every which direction until we finally found the right spot.  We sprinted back and were stopped by a HUGE line for the security, which we REFUSED to wait in.  Security stopped us and we tried to explain we had already gone through security (about 5 hours prior) and just needed to get stamped and our flight was about to leave! We cut the huge line, however still had to go through the security again.  They threw away our waters which we had JUST purchased from the airport minutes before and patted us down like we were hiding something in any crevice of our clothes.  We finally got through and made it just in time to board the plane.
      We finally took off and were on our way back to Italy!  Woohoo! Oh...but if that were the end of our day I would have been a happy happy girl.  When we landed back in Italy, we tried to find the bus that would take us to the right train station that would take us to our town.  We were walking around and asking people where to go, and everyone was giving us a different answer.  So we thought it was safest to go ask the security right outside the airport, who proceded to tell us the bus stop was down the highway...we were a little confused, and began walking down the highway...we turned back to the police and gestured asking them if we kerpt going, and they waved us to continue to head down this highway.  So we did.  We walked down an Italian highway for about a mile and a half...my common sense struck me after a mile and a half of straight highway and cars beeping at us every minute that something was a bit fishy.  We asked a parked car about a bus stop that was down this road, and they looked at us as if we had a monkey playing checkers on our heads.  He told us there was no bus station, the one we needed was allllll the way back at the airport.  We look at each other, our legs tired, our stomachs empty, our arms killing us from the weight of our bags, and we turn around and start the mile and a half walk back to the airport, right where we had started.
        When we returned to our starting point, we walked around aimlessly, trying to find the sign for a bus stop. We then ran into an older Italian couple, who must have seen through our happy, energetic faces and saw that we were lost and helpless in this foreign country.  They spoke not a word of English, but still approached us, and through gestures and noises managed to communicate to us that the bus station that we needed to be was right there on the corner.  They continued to create small talk, in which neither us nor them knew what the other was really saying, but through the smiles and (what we believed) were jokes, we became relaxed and more comfortable with the atmosphere.  Grandma must have seen the hunger in our eyes and dug through her purse and pulled out a bag of little wafers and gave us each two, emptying her bag, to help our hunger a little bit.  Finally our pseudo-grandparents bus arrived and they spoke rapid Italian to the bus driver asking when the bus that would take us to Castel Gondolfo would arrive, the bus driver must have said the next bus would be going to our desired spot, and through more gestures and the little Italian we knew from class, we understood that we had to wait there for the next bus in order to get back home to Castel Gondolfo.  The bus driver said the next bus would be in about 20 minutes.
        About 45 minutes later we FINALLY see the bus apporach us, we leap for joy and have smiles from one side of our face to the next.  The bus stops, and the doors open, and what we see tore our smiles to shreds.  The bus was packed with people litereally falling our of the doors as they opened.  Faces were smashed against the windows, people were sitting ontop of people.  It was a site that will forever be implanted in my heads.  That was when my last straw was pulled.  I tried pushing our way into this insanely packed bus and yelled in my very American way that "WE WERE GETTING ON THIS BUS!!!" ....we didn't get on the bus.  The bus left, and we stood there...silence took over...we were heartbroken, tired, hungry, and alone.  No grandparents to guide us where to go.
          We head back to the airport, back to square one, and find a bus that will take us to a train station in a town next to our own.  We get on this bus and wait about 20 minutes for it to leave the airport.  It leaves and we drive to the train station, when we get to the station we get out and see that the train we need would leave in about an hour and 15 minutes.  So we sit...and wait...and wait...and wait.  Finally...the train arrives...we get on...and we sit in complete exhaustion, and finally, after another 30 min train ride, we get to our town.  We step out of the train in the darkness of the evening and walk to our campus.  The day finally came to an end...it was absolutely miserable at the time...but the dinner table that night had not a second of silence, we had so many sotries to tell...the good adventurous stories from Friday/Saturday to the awful/tiring/heartbreaking stories of Sunday.  It definitely made for a memorable first trip, and we learned A LOT.  So next time, when we leave on our own again in two weeks for Paris, we will be even more prepared :)