Home sweet home

Just to let everyone know, I made it home safe and sound. After a long 24 hours I was back in Utah and enjoying the sweetness of my own shower, amazing air conditioner, own bedroom, my amazing bed, and seeing the fam again! Things I learned:

9 hours is a long time to not go to the bathroom. people are not what they seem. America kicks butt. p.s. i love you was better the 2nd time. there is always room for one more. never underestimate yourself. things are what you make them. always be open to new ideas and trying something new. i like walking large amounts everyday. no one loves you more than the people at home. traveling is something i love to do. pictures are my life.

Here is a picture of the group in Venice.

Anyway I have been handling jet lag rather well. I of course ate cafe rio for lunch Saturday and since then I have been catching up with friends, giving souvenirs away, looking up places to go on adventures this summer. Making a list that I am going to check off. Anyway until something better comes along to blog about, ciao!

Venice

Hey everyone, I don't have long. I just wanted to say I am in Venice and it is beautiful here!! I seriously am in love. As well I am so excited to come home, I can not believe it is already time. Friday is the day and as much as I do not want to travel and be on an airplane that long it is gonna be so worth it. Back to Italy, Monday was our final which went well. It took 3 hours which is what I was expecting and I think I did pretty well on my essays. Then Tuesday we headed off to Venice, you should have seen everybody traveling with all of their crap and trying to get around. It was semi hilarious, stupid Americans. And 2 people couldn't take any of their own luggage so aside from all of our own crap we were helping take other peoples, it was quite the trek!! The 3 hour train ride on the Euro star was not bad at all. Our hotel here is so great!! 3 star is amazing compared to our previous 2 hotels, and I can not complain air conditioner is so amazing! The hotel is so cute, it reminds me of Beauty and the Beast or something. When you walk down the hall there are hallway lights and they are on but they are on a lower light, so when you walk closer to them they are motion sensored and they turn on brighter, it is so fun. Yesterday we took a taxi boat ride around the town, and you seriously can not believe the water streets unless you are here. I still don't believe it, it is so fun and cute though. We fed the pigeons and one landed on my scared me half to death though as you will see from my face. We explored around town and then had a really yummy pizza. Margharita with garlic, it was seriously the best pizza I have had here in Italy. Today we went to some churches and did some other stuff, it is so humid, hot, and muggy everyone is dying. I probably won't update again until I get home!!! love you and see you all SO soon!!
Me freaking out about a pigeon landing on my shoulder, scared the crap out of me.

Enjoying mint gelati from Steve it is always better when someone else pays for it!!Our hotel room so cute!!
Picture of the grand canal and Venice, I tell everything is so picturesque. Not to mention there are so many worn out old buildings which makes me so happy! I love it here so much!

Sunday

Today really was a serious day of rest, we got up and went to sacrament. Which was great, there was hardly anyone there compared to last week so a missionary just sat next to me and translated for me, that was pretty funny. It is always interesting to be listening to someone speak another language, but then to have someone tell you what they said and you know that they aren't saying everything it was interesting. He did a really good job though, and I really appreciated it. We came back to the hotel and I started packing my bag, we got Stefanie up and went and got some lunch. Steve ordered us this appetizer, it was canteloupe (which I detest) and it had very thinly sliced, naturally cured, raw ham on top of it. I tasted it and the meat was actually really great. I only ate one slice of the canteloupe, but for not liking the stuff it was pretty good. Then I had tortellini which was amazing and some sort of struedel dessert that was also really delish. Came back to the hotel and had a little nappie, which felt amazing. I have been looking at my pics and sorting out letters that I have gotten, I am almost done, good thing because I leave on Friday, can you believe it? I have about 5 letters left, so I have to step on it. A few nights ago some of us went out at night to take some pictures so this light picture is a pic I took that night, with my fun lensbaby. So fun I love playing with it and I kind of like this pic so I just thought I would post it so you could see.

And here I am all ready for church this morning. sweater?

No sweater?

Tomorrow is our final, and Tuesday we are off to Venice!!

Long weekend

What a Long weekend it has been. It all began on Thursday we went to Siena a little town not far from the coast. It was so fun and really cute!! Weather was again rainy and overcast but I still love it! We went to the city hall, saw some painting, and a church. The church had crazy black and white striped marble inside it was really neat, and these crazy glass parts in the floor that you could step on and see down below you. People in our group were really scared of heights so Sydney and I stepped on the glass to show them that it was not scary and that it would hold our weight. It was really funny, Stefanie tried to capture it for me but she wasn't quite tall enough to get high enough so you could see the floor. The train ride home was so long, but I don't mind train rides as long as I have my little ipod, she sure does make the rides very enjoyable. (this was actually from Wednesday morning, but I forgot I had it until I loaded some more of my pics on to the computer, it is just a view from the top of our hotel. I eat breakfast here every morning.)

Friday morning we left for Pisa, the leaning tower. The tower was not near as big as I was expecting but man it was leanin. (jess-- "looked like she was leanin'!" we have to watch that show when i get back). I wanted to hike to the top of the tower but you have to make reservations and we had a train to catch at 2:30, they were booked until then, guess I will just have to make my way back to climb it some other time. I got some fun letters there in Pisa, I ate lunch with some people as well as our prof Steve. He bought us these bruschetta appetizers and man were the delicious. It was so good but so filling.

Here I am being so strong and holding up the tower, Aubrey kind of didn't have me position my top hand very well, oh well!

Here Aubrey and I are getting ready to celebrate because taking notes in Italy is over, we have our final on Monday and then party in Venice until Friday morning when I leave!! (so soon, that is crazy)

We said goodbye to Steve for the weekend and headed off to the Cinque Terre. After a few hours and some seriously long train delays we finally made it to the stop and then waited for a shuttle that took us down to our camping spot. We found these funny little tents that had 2 beds on cots on them. They were actually pretty nice, minus the spider I saw working its way to my bed when we walked in.We headed back to the town, which I swear was a ghost town, there was hardly anyone there and we had 3 choices of places to eat. We went and checked out the beach, exfoliated our feet because there is not really sand, just baby rocks. (makes your feet feel real soft afterward) Stefanie and I went to this hotel restraunt. I tried spaghetti carbonara, which was okay. It is spaghetti noodles with white creamy egg sauce and then chopped up bacon. The bread at the hotel however was amazing!! Went back and chatted with everyone and got ready for bed, Stefanie was bending over to get something and threw out her back. So this morning I went to the beach attempting to play and take some pics for an hour or 2 but it was so overcast and even rained for a little bit. So I headed back to get Stef. The shuttle at the hotel doesn't run between 11:30 in the morning and 5:00 and the train we needed to catch was at 4. I had already made the 40 minute trek from town to the camping site and figured stefanie would not be able to walk it with her back. I talked to the lady at the front and she talked to the shuttle driver who was really kind and drove us to the train. We got there and I bought our tickets just in time, I had to validate it and the train pulled up so I yelled to have Stefanie try to start running to the train I was booking it up the stairs with both of our stuff and I heard the doors shutting and Stefanie yelling hurry, she was trying to hold the doors open, pretty funny luckily we made it. Our ticket said we bought it at 3:57 and the train was scheduled to leave at 3:59 so we seriously barely made it. Made it to our next train in Le Spezia. We ran to our next train which was delayed, ended up being delayed for an hour, and then they had us switch to another platform clear across the way. We made it to that train which brought us back to Florence where we took a taxi back to our hotel. It was quite the crazy day but now Stef is in her room and hopefully her back will get somewhat better and I am in my room enjoying some alone time but a little sad I didn't get to play at the Cinque terre, yet another reason I will just have to come back to Italy I guess!!

So here I am at the beach for a little minute when it was overcast today.

Anyway I am beat so I am out like a trout, arrivederci!

Dumb baby camera

My dumb baby camera is broken so I do not really have pictures of me from today. I don't have many pictures from today actually because the two places we went did not allow pictures. I went and saw the real David today it is massively huge! Haynes and I went and got gelato after class, I got nocciole and nutella so good, it was huge and so cheap. Then I went and found my mom a souvenir, I hope she likes it!!! I have been working on my alphabet so this is my latest addition to it and I kind of like it. We went around shopping at some little stores, so fun. Had dinner which was not bad. No rain today but other then that it was pretty uneventful. Tomorrow we got to Siena which should be fun. Sorry about the boring blog, love ya
rach

Rain I love it!

Today was so rainy that we couldn't go on our day trip to Siena. We ended up going to the Bargello museum and seeing some art work what else would we do in Italy? Then we went to a chapel called the Medici chapel, it was pretty impressive, and tomorrow we are going to the Mecidi Palace and another section of the chapel. Basically they were a really rich family who ran Florence for a long while. Both of those were really interesting and good but I was so tired this morning it was hard to concentrate. After that we went and got some chinese food. It was actually really really good, I was impressed and had a full tummy. Then I went back to the hotel and had a nap for 2 hours because I was so tired, after that I went exploring and found some letters for my book which was fun. Hopefully I am getting close I need to check that out soon and see how many letters I have left to find. We met at 5:00 and went back to the Bargello because a room that we wanted to see was closed until 2:00, we went through there and then did a review on our class notes. Then we went exploring because we still had about 30 minutes until dinner. I played wiht my lens and stuff and found some sweet as Ducati shoes at the Puma store. I was looking in to getting them but they cost a lot so I probably won't I took a pic though so I could see what everyone thought. Went to dinner and it was actually really good. I had a green salad that had tuna fish in it and it as actually really good, I was appalled by the idea at first but it was actually amazing. Then we had some lemon chicken, cooked carrots and artichoke. Not so much on the artichoke, and we had really good dessert too, some apple pieish thing I rather enjoyed my day today. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy still. I am sad to report that my baby camera broke, so I might be a little less on the pics because I have to convert them before I can post them which takes longer!! Anyway love ya, 1 week and like 2 days until I get home!!!
Here I am in front of the Ufizzi gallery after we did our review, Aubrey just wanted to take a picture with my camera so we thought it would be fun to show my new red belt. so cute!!

And these are the Ducati/Puma shoes that I want to get, so cool!! What do you think?

Update

Well the past 2 days have been fun, but Sunday was kinda boring. We went to church which was nice, then it was raining so hard while we were waiting for the bus, so I got soaked. Aubrey and I went and got Mexican food for lunch which was SOO good. We split a beef burrito and some nachos I have fallen in like with guacamole. After lunch we came back home and then I went to the market with some people. I got some serious souvenir stuff to bring home to people, and this creepy super tall guy was hitting on me, hate it. He tapped me on the shoulder so I just kept walking and ignored him, made the mistake of walking by again and he said hey baby you give it to me, I give it to you. I was like oh boy, so I kept walking and he said I give you my soul. I turned around and said you can keep it. I was dying. Creepy creeperton!

Here Aubrey and I are.

Today we had short class, went to Greve and rode scooters. Aubrey and I rented a double scooter, but Aubrey was supposed to drive because I didn't have my license with me. She could not drive it, she was incapable haha. So we drove around the corner and switched. It was so fun, I am not gonna lie I loved it and I am basically pro at driving the scooter with 2 people. It was 125 cc so it had some serious power. We scootered around all over town, I decided I am excited to move somewhere like New York were I can have public transportation and a bike or a scooter or something. Anyway it was so fun and amazing we did however have 3 little accidents 2 of which were by the same girl, it was slightly ridiculous.

Here Aubrey and I are on the scoot with our sweet helmets.

Me in my new Ducati shirt with an amazing view, you can see the rain clouds though.

Here we are about to take off so much fun I am seriously in love with it, except for the geeky helmets, but I heard they are kind of in.
Me so excited to go on our scooter adventure. We got home and had pasta, then salad, french fries, pork with ham and cheese on top. It was quite the dinner!!!

Not for the weak of stomach

Well today was a rest and relaxtion day, thankfully I was not so sure I could handle another running day. Yesterday we went to Ravenna to see the famous San Vitale church. The train ride was 2 hours each way, it was a lot of fun. Until about 4:30 I was having a great time, at that point I was feeling so sicky, my tummy was killing me and the headache I had had all day was peaking, as well I was starting to have hot flashes. I needed to find a bathroom place and the picture you will see below is what I had to use. It was really awful, but I couldn't hold it anymore. For my convenience there was a bar for me to hold as I squatted, it was one of the most awful experiences of my life. I shed a little tear after the fact, mid laughter I shed a tear. Oh my was I happy to leave Ravenna after that experience. But Ravenna was a great place, so fun and low key and the weather was pretty great. It was overcast again, which I am loving! Came back to Florence and had dinner, which was pretty gross, Salmon spaghetti, which I did not eat. Then we had some sort of fish which was not too bad and some tomatoes, yum. Finally no potatoes!!

Today I slept in until 10, got ready and then Stefanie and I got some breakfast and went shopping, I found some souvenirs for people at home! I found a really cute skirt and some other stuff, I didn't buy anything. I went to the store that might as well kill me now the Diesel store. I found a super cute shirt but voted not to get it because I could order it online in the US for cheaper, but they probably have different stuff in the US than in Italy. Anyway we had dinner, tonight was better, then last night. We had green beans (no potatoes again!) and some pork, not bad. Dessert however was fruit, my pear was delicious. On our way back to the hotel Haynes bought me a baby cookie, it was pretty good. I love the cookies here because they are not super sweet, they are just perfect, and they aren't soft but not too hard. I am gonna need a seat belt extender to get home on the plane. Okay not really, but I am so excited to get home and have a diet and go running everyday I have to get back on track for the half marathon in October with my mom, so excited!! Love you all, church tomorrow, and we get to have 3 full hours because they have English classes.

Me petting the pig snout.
(today) The bathroom toilet that I had to use, a literal hole in the floor, reminds me of the joke my dad always tells me when the crap hit the fan!!

Aubrey and I at the baptistry. (yesterday)

Me in front of the church. (yesterday)

Boring

Today was a nothing day I really have nothing to report. I did laundry and read for my upper division class. Oh I went to the dollar store and the Ufizzi gallery. That is all, I didn't even take a single pic with my point and shoot today. Tomorrow is Ravenna should be eventful! Love ya all
ciao
rach

Day 17

Well days in Florence are fun but I feel like they are very uneventful. It is hard for me to blog about them, as well I don't take many pictures because we are not doing near as much and it is not exciting. I still like seeing churches and cathedrals and all but maybe I am getting sick of taking pics of them? So today we went to Santa Croce, which was cool. I like the inside of these churches a little better because they are not gaudy at all like the other ones were. Then we went to one Michelangelo's houses. He bought it never intending to live there, he was one crazy guy, I guess he invested in real estate all over, that is one of the reason's he was loaded. Anyway he gave the house to his nephew who than had it turned into a monument type thing for Michelangelo. So we saw about 4 of his works there. Then we went through the cathedral of Rome, it was pretty neat. There was a tomb for Brunelleschi the architect of the dome, Galileo, Rossini, the list goes on. (there are about 276 tombs in the church) Anyway then some of us went and got some Mexican food, I had a chicken burrito it was pretty good and pretty cheap I was happy! Aubrey and I went shopping I attempted to find some shoes for this really cute dress I am gonna buy but no luck, my feet are too big for Italians!! Oh well some other time. Had dinner and then 4 of us went and hung out at one of the piazza's. And we rode the carousel it was funny because these old women from England were riding it too.

The Santa Croce church.

Cam and I on the Merry go Round so much fun haha.

Me standing in front of some cute little doors okay cute big doors.