Weekend in Florence

                                                                  Dinner at Aqua al 2 

           Don’t really know where to start considering this weekend was indescribable. Guess I’ll begin by saying we made it back all alive!.......well despite the fact that we left one person there (whoops) who had to take a train, bus, 

and cab back to campus, but eventually made it! The weekend in Florence was beyond busy to say the least. We left Friday night on a bus with 50 of us and traveled 3 and a half hours to this gorgeous city. Checked in at the Plus Florence hostel (my first time staying in one). I felt like I was at summer camp, bunk beds and all. 5 of us fit in one room, which was interesting to say the least. After droppin our stuff off, we grabbed some maps and we’re on our way to explore aka GET LOST in the city. We strolled around and found this one bar called Rex, which was more of an older crowd, but no doubt a good time. Saturday we were early risers, waking up at 8:30 and out of the hostel by 9 to begin our day as tourists after getting croissants at the local Pastry shop. Our first stop was at the Uffizi- an art museum filled with amazing and HUGE paintings dating back to the 1400s. The next stop was El Duomo, an ornately designed cathedral. After lighting candles, we prepared ourselves for the 436 (I think) steps climb to the top where we could see the ENTIRE city. After this lovely and long hike up extremely small and steep steps, we thought it would be a great time to stop and eat. It was difficult to choose considering every other store that lined the street was a pizzeria or a gelato shop. OF COURSE we got pizza (mozzarella e tomato)…..followed by gelato (duhh). There were so many different flavors I think I tried three that day (banana being my fav). In between our touristy/typical America trips to the museums we stopped at various markets along the way, similar to Canal Street in NYC, but with more leather bags and fur coats then you can imagine. After lunch we stopped to see the infamous statue of David, which is incredibly bigger than you would think or that it seems in pictures.

Riley, Raymond, Scott, Matt, and Luke 

            After a long day of attractions we decided to stop and enjoy some Chianti and bruchetta before making our way (somehow) back to the hostel and getting ready for dinner/a night out with everyone.  Dinner was at Aqua al 2….and at 8:00…..which we were a little late for considering all 10 of  us had zero idea where we were going. The fratties joined our hostel room consisting of Luke Murphy (yes, he’s Irish), Rilezzz, Raymundo, and us (the twins). Collectively we thought it would be best to get a sampler for 5 different types of pasta and 3 different types of steak for our meal----all of which we devoured. The blueberry steak was one of the best things I have ever tasted in my entire life, hopefully we will be returning there soon! Our night then took us to Astor, a bar/club basically filled with all Americans. We’ve noticed that Europe is a big fan of American music. Despite the fact that they are about 5 years behind in the top 10 hits, the jams were in English so hey, we’ll take it! After we got our dance on, we navigated back in the pouring rain to the hostel. Woke up Sunday feelin’ like P. Diddy and headed out in the rain to grab some good old American breakfast, FINALLY EGGSSSS! Made it to the Boboli Gardens, which was quite the sight to see. Statues, gelato, paintings, wine, pizza and beautiful sights were what our weekend consisted of. The group of 50 of us ran into a little mishap on the way home when the trains decided to go on strike and not leave the station. We knew something was wrong when we were still in Florence 2..then 10….then 20 minutes after we were suppose to leave. Quick to think of how to make it to the bus that was meeting us 20 minutes away, ALL of us pilled into multiple taxis, whom drivers were more than thrilled to provide us with their services. 50 euro bus ticket, 3 ½ hour ride, 28 euro hostel, 30 euro on museums and sight seeing, bottles of wine…..one weekend in FLORENCE…..priceless. 

SHOUTOUT TO MY NEW FRIENDS

                                                            Before Dinner and Bassano 

                                                   (Kenzie, Sara, Luke, Me, and Devann) 

Because we are in a small town and have class ALL day long, there is not much to do during the week aka not much to blog about. SOOOO I thought I would update yall on everyone I have met so far. (don’t worry I’m going to FLORENCE this weekend and will be sure to come back with interesting stories! J). Kenz and I got lucky with our living situation. We have 2 boys (really 4 because the other 2 are always in there) that live across the hall from us from KU (still trying to figure that one out considering it is The University of Kansas-not Kansas University). I call them TFF (the fratastic four) because they are literally your stereotypical frat boys to the tee: khaki pants, crokies, Patagonia zip-up, Patagonia pull overs, Patagonia hats. These guys are awesome and therefore Kenz and I will be “pledging” their fraternity this week HA-wish us luck!  Then we have Riley, across the hall as well-humor:check, awesomeness:check, “I’m from Chicago, but go to UofIowa”:check. Next door we have 2 girls, one that has the same name as me, but spells it “Kahle” who has said “prego” over 200 times since we have been here (think it’s time for her to learn another word in Italian) and her roommate is Devann, who loves breakfast especially croissants. Annie and Sara live upstairs and are just as crazy as us. Sarah has a fabulous selection of JCREW filling up her closet and you can never have a bad time with Annie, who’s e n t i r e family I met the first night on Skype. She’s is also a clutch navigator. Luke lives down the hall from them and honestly cannot say a bad word about the kid---he loves to call me Sandra, is down for whatever and is totes a faster runner than me. Still have yet to figure out where Natasha aka Tash aka Tosh.O lives but this girl is SOOOCOOOL. P.S. Zach the RA is MAUER-like the definition of him….hilarious. Over in the other building we have our boys Levi (yes like the jeans) and Danny (California): greetings from Oregon (gin/gon, tomAto/tomaaato, same thing). We also have in that building Natalia and Jaim-one’s pretty much fluent in Italian and the other one has my fav nail polish “Lincoln Park After Dark” (thank god for these two, we’d be lost with out them)…..they’re from WestVA-holler……..there’s a million other people we have met, but if I shouted out to all, we could be here a while. Everyone is really really different from each other and us east coasters, which makes this better and better everyday. All in all if I had to describe this bunch in one word I would say: classic. To say I am having great times with this crew would be an understatement and our lives in Italy have just begun…….. 

                                                        After our hike up Mt. Grappa 

                                            (Sara, Annie, Kenz, Riley, Kahle, Devann)

Two Words: Bassano Clubin'

So we were had to stay in Paderno this weekend for a workshop on Satruday called The Divinci challenge, which was exactly that…..a challenge. This all day long workshop consisted of working with group members to climb over a 20 foot wall, crowd surf and “trust fall” aka Mean Girls fall. After a day a much physical activity we decided we needed a night full of fun. Instead of going to the 1 of three bars in town that we have single handedly managed to keep in business, we decided to adventure to the next town over and hit up a local night club called Jamila (twin)----ironic we know. We rented a 50 person bus, put on our best European looking outfits and were on our way. When we arrived at the club we were beyond ready to hit the dance floor. Playing ALL American jams from circa 1995 like All Star we were all loving life. Little did we know that towards the end of the night a middle-aged man wearing a gold sequence jacket came on stage, held a burping contest and the whole thing turned into pretty much a game show. This is when we decided it was time to bounce. Glad we found a new spot to bring 200 Americans to. Great things to come in Bassano-that’s all for now folks. 

WE MADE IT

GREETINGS FROM PADERNO: After our first few classes, which are 1 hr and 45 min (extremely long for ALL of us) we thought we would take a little adventure up Mount Grappa, which we can see from our bedroom windows. After getting a hand drawn map from one of the teachers, we got a group together and were on our way. Annie aka Jillian Michaels led the way….which at times we we’re unsure of her navigation skills. After a little confusion we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain. The path became narrower and narrower, but Annie with her encouraging words helped up to keep a speed walking pace (despite the fact the path was becoming extremely steep). We had a few stragglers and wanted to stop at times thinking we would never make it.  An hour and a half of walking/hiking/sweating later we made it to a halfway point and too one look at the view and agreed it was beyond worth it. You could see for miles and miles from the spot we were at on the mountain and we were all so excited we kept climbing to see it. We took a million pictures, but none of them do justice to the sight we saw. Sat up there for a while and as they say “took it all in”. We’ll be back soon for sure…..think we found a new hobby here in Italy. 

"And So it Begins...."

After months and months of planning and anticipation, the day had finally arrived. Mackenzie and I were on our way to Italy for the semester to study abroad in a small town called Paderno del Grappa, about an hour north from Venice. We flew over the night out of Newark, NJ and landed in London the next morning. Our flight had very few people, making it possible to lay out in the entire row. Once we landed in Heathrow we had to take a bus to Gatwick and from there would catch another flight to Venice. I loved all the English people’s accents and they were all very friendly. Mackenzie and I ate an amazing breakfast at the airport after our long flight. Strange fact, when asked what kind of bread you want they ask: “brown or white?”. The flight to Venice was quick (only about 1 hr and 45 min), but we slept again (shocking I know). We took a 15 min cab ride right to Hotel Tritone and settled in. The elevators aka “lifts” were extremely tiny. We then met up with a bunch of people from the program and went to a restaurant called wine and pizza; we couldn’t have found a better place to spend our first night in Venice. The next morning we woke up early and walked across the street to the train station where we quickly had to buy tickets and “validate” them-running down the stairs to get to the other side of the track with 3 suitcases and 15 Americans was stressful yet hysterical to say the least. We were also running a bit behind schedule because I thought I lost my blackberry at the hotel, yet it was buried in my pounds of luggage. To some my new nickname became “blackberry”.

The train ride was only 30 min. We were then picked up by the CIMBA staff on a bus that we rode for another 30 min to campus. Campus is small, but beautiful. I wake up with a view of these huge mountains. We went to a few orientation activities and then we ate dinner in the cafeteria.  While looking at the menu, I soon noticed pasta would be served at every meal. Pasta with sauce, pasta with chicken, pasta with calms, pasta with cheese……the list goes on. The first night we all went to this sports bar on campus. 200 American packed into either this one or the hotel bar across the street lead for an interesting evening. Here I was given my second nickname for the trip: “Sandra Bullock” (like I haven’t heard that one before). So far we have met so many great people from all over the U.S. and are learning more and more about them and their home universities every day. Today is the first day of classes so we’ll see how that goes. For now….Arrivedercci!