After Program Plans

Since I am no longer traveling with the person I was supposed to travel with after the program I have to force myself upon two other girls staying after the program. So the plans is to go to Barcelona for 3 days and then paris for three days and then head back to Rome for 2 days till I can fly back to Texas. I am excited about going to Barcelona and Paris but im honestly very home sick at the moment. I just wanna hug from my family and some free ac.. is that too much to ask :) I know i will enjoy the extra week so im just focusing on fun things till then

Vatican

Finally made it to the vatican last Thursday. I was overwhelming to be there in person. I can now scratch off the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel off my to do list. Feels good 

Time Flys

I cant believe that after this weekend we have less than two weeks left here. The first week felt so long but once the first week was out of the way time has flown by. I have had a great time here so far and ive learned a a lot; not only about myself but about others and dealing with others. Also, Ive learned a lot about traveling. By week three, I have taken every form of public transportation offered in Rome. Those include tram, bus, metro, train, mini bus, cab, and car. Now all I have to do is find a person willing to drive me around on their vespa :) cross your fingers for me .

Carravaggio/Bernini

Monday
- We went to see the famous churches where some of cavaggio's most famous works are held. I was really excited to see them in person.  He is my favorite artist we have studied so far.

 Wednesday ( today)
- We went to see the Extasy of St. Theresa which is one of Bernini's most famous works.

Lovely Morning

A bird(or multiple birds judging on the amount of poop) pooped on me today. It was horrible because it wasnt just a little bit. It got on my leg, foot and three spots on my skirt. Needless to say, I was freaking out a bit. Everyone tired to be encouraging by telling me it was good luck. But lets be honest, none of them would be okay if they had to walk around all day with crap on their skirt

Lessons

Things I have learned the past three weeks
1. You cant force someone to be your friend. So start loving and appreciating the ones that love and appreciate you.
2. At the end of the day your the one who will have to live with YOURSELF. So do what you know is right and dont worry about the rest
3. People are going to think things about you that arent true, or things that you will not like but if you know who you are and what is in your heart then hold your head high, your gonna be okay.
4.  In life times will be hard and uncomfortable but these are the times where you will grow the most, or at least learn some valuable life lessons.

Weekend update

Friday:
- Lunch with Jaz and Chelc by Piazza Navona
- Gelato by the trevi fountain
- Visited the spanish steps
- light window shopping
Saturday
- Luca ( abbeh's friend) took Jasmine and I to the beach. It was beautiful. Saw a ton of suppper tan italian women and quite a few very tan boobies. It was a nice way to spend the day because it was soooo hot. apparenty it is only supposed to get hotter
Sunday
- met with jaz and had a "american breakfast" of omelets and toast  then we went to Romes largest market. There was litterally everything you would ever want there. It was overwhelming at times and overwhelming the hot. ick lol but def a good experience. we got pretty good at haggeling. Then we had lunch at an irish pub. Nachos and french fries. So we had a very american day food wise. I learned a lot about jasmine this weekend and i think she is my long lost mexican sister lol. just kidding but i like her a lot.

Pictures soon :)

Grr

I am currently fading from drunk to tipsy at this moment. I went out with a few friends tonight ( chloe, john, abbeh, and Liz). We went to this irish pub who had this nirvana cover band playing. it was pretty fun i was drinking guiness ( YAY!) and giving the sexy eyes to this one guy i thought was cute. then we actually talked to the group that included the sexy guy and we went to this other place ( where we had acutally been before ) to dance. After that things got shitty and i ended up having to take a cab home by myself  from downtown rome ( costing 13 euro which is like15 dollars , which is like 3 drinks at a bar) bleh i was not drunk enough to be okay with that. im not gonna waste time being upset though. there is really no point . but the lesson is learned ( again ) hopefully i will not make the same mistake another time

Creeper at 6 o'clock

So Friday morning at 6am Abbeh, Johanna, Chelc and I were waiting for the bus to take us to the train station. While we were waiting, we saw a young man ( maybe 26-33yrs) riding his bike towards us on the side walk. We are all chit chatting and what not when I happen to look up as he passes us and what I, at first, think is a fanny pack is really his DICK hanging out of the band of his pants! Shocked, I looked at the others in horror and apparently no one else but me saw it. Which is fortunate for them, i suppose. The exhibitionist rides around the corner and I think we are safe until we see him walking towards us from the way he originally came. Just when it looked like he was about to flash us again, an old lady walked into view causing him to retreat into the nearby apt complex. All of us were so perplexed and were discussing what had just happened when, AGAIN, he rides by on his bike. This time, we see him early enough to run into the street where four other men are waiting for the bus and avert our eyes away from the pervert at all costs.  CRAZY!!!

Cinque Terre/Venice

Wow what a weekend it has been. It would take about 30 minutes for me to tell you every detail of my trip so ill keep it short and sweet. I went to some of the most beautiful places on earth and definetly went through hell to get there. I had to deal with an unexpected exibitionist act at 6am ( more on that later, i know you will want the gory details) catching multiple trains with 12 other people,  all of which have different options, attitudes and walking paces. But despite all the transportation drawbacks and stressors Cinque terre and venice were both worth the effort. Here are some of my favorite photos of Cinque Terre

And from Venice

Casanova's Palace ( i think) 

Gondola Ride

I have to say i wish we would have staying in Cinque Terre for long so we could hike all five towns. We were only there for maybe 24 hours. The hostel we stayed at had this awesome shared out door area with beautiful flowers and plenty of seats but down the stairs and to the left was what we like to call " our doll house" everything was small and pink and had like a million creepy dolls in it. def. an experience. 

In venice we went camping. I had booked a tent but it was literally a concrete slab with two cots in it surrounded by a tent and Jaz had an extra bed so i slept in her cabin. The shopping was great in Venice. There were so many street vendor and shops to go in. And i actually went on a gondola ride ( only because we got to split the 100$ price tag six ways) but we spoke to the driver in Italian the whole time which made us all feel cool and like we are getting better at Italian ( usually when italians find out we are american they speak to us in English which sucks because we want to practice)

stole this from chelc camera

my italian mamma ( looks like a diva in this picture but she is really nice)

Spanish steps

Monday night we went and drank champagne at the spanish steps and somehow ended up at a bar till about 330am. it was some much needed spontaneity then we went to the trevi and hung out there. We were on our way home when a young lady stopped us and told us to go to this bar down the road for free shots.. so a mellow night turned into a night of drinkin and dancing. Great night :) ( minus a little bump at the end)

la cena con mia sorrella

What a day yesterday ! Chelc came over for dinner for the first time and I wish i could say it went well. For italian mammas, food is everything so when chelc said she didnt like the lasagna that my host mother made.. things got real awkward. First my host mom tried to explain that chelc could learn to like it and that it was a delicacy. then she saw that chelc wasnt going to eat it she took the plate away and didnt say hardly anything the rest  of dinner. Tension was in the air and i tried really hard to get the conversation going again. After the other two courses I got my host mom in a better mood or so it seems lol. poor chelc. i felt so bad. my host mom has never made anything i didnt like before but it really wasnt very good :/ che disastro!! another fun day in italia This is what it looked like (sort of)

Tivoli/Florence

Back in Rome after a fantastic couple of days in Florence. This weekend has been awesome. Friday the whole program went to Tivoli to see Villa Adriana and Villa D'este. Both places were beautiful. Here are some pictures

After the tivoli trip a group of us went out Friday night. This was our first night out together and i ruined it by getting the worst stomach cramps ever and having to leave early :/

Now for Florence. We got on the slow train and slept for the 3hrs it takes to get to florence. Then we dropped our stuff at our shitty hostel and went to meet antonella. She took us to see a lot of awesome things in Florence. I really like Florence. It is much smaller than Rome and you can walk everywhere! We also went out to our first discoteche called SPACE. I have to say i was NOT disappointed :)