So, I know I posted yesterday, but I have been having some serious flashbacks from home. And it's weird because I'm actually NOT homesick, so I have no idea why I've been randomly getting memories from college and high school. Like the following:
-Reading a Streetcar Named Desire in J-Pot's junior year English class and CJ having to yell "Stella", which he did quite unenthusiastically
-Watching One Tree Hill on Valentine's Day freshman year of college and then having Paul come to the door of Stratford with b-e-a-utiful roses
-Finding out I didn't get into Cornell U and then having to go to work afterwards
-when we had to do a presentation on Rumpelstiltskin (I think it was) in Coan's junior year English class (I'm feeling a trend from this year)
-Carpooling with Ian senior year of high school
-When the second floor girls pretended the hallway was a runway and had a fashion show after the Victoria's Secret fashion show
And just all these other random memories, and it's been really, quite the weird experience. Just thought I'd put this up, even though it's really a pointless post.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Paris and other ramblings
Oh. My. Goodness. Paris is SUCH a beautiful city! I'm so glad that I went, like for serious. Plus, it was really good to get to hang out with people from home; it was kind of like we were just taking a trip randomly (minus that I had to spend a good amount of time working on a presentation for my culture class). Plus, we got to see Brett, which I was so incredibly excited about.
We went on a free walking tour and saw a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce (including the French Academy, the New Bridge, the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, see my Picasa album) and had a really cool tour guide. Then we saw the Louvre (I was shockingly not as impressed by this as I thought I was going to be; yeah, it has a lot of cool art, but just not my style of art, and it said it had a big section on Spanish art and there were only a few paintings), the Eiffel Tower (WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, and it was really pretty at night; we even got to see it sparkle!), the Arc D'Triomphe (also very cool, and gargantuan), Moulin Rouge (but it wasn't open so we couldn't go inside, but the street that it was on was quite sketchy (most definitely the red light district)), Sacre Coeur (There was a service going on, so it was kind of awkward, but cool nonetheless), and the Musee d'Orsay (I loved, loved, LOVED this museum; it's the museum with all of the impressionist paintings, and it has Cervantes, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, and all of these other artists and I was so blown away). It was just a wonderful trip, although I'm not sure I've ever spent that much money on food in one weekend.
In other news, I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left here. Now that I'm traveling and seriously in the downhill slope and have a ton of school assignments to occupy my time with, time is seriously flying. I can't believe that I've been here for over seventy-five days already. That is SUCH a long time!! I will say, though, I am still incredibly excited to head back to Champaign and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm feeling very sad to have missed some of the Koin/Strat events this semester, which seems so ridiculous to say because I'm in EUROPE, but still.
Also, I can't tell you how busy I'm going to be in the next three weeks or so. I had a culture presentation today (that went well, I think), an art history take-home test due tomorrow, a linguistics exam next Wednesday (the 19th - after my weekend in Barcelona), and then an art history paper due the 24th, as well as an art history presentation the 24th (after my weekend in Madrid). So I'm going to definitely have to use my time wisely in these next few weeks, and still find time to spend with people since I won't be around for a couple of weekends. I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn't everything and that people are more important than school.
Other than that, I don't have too much else to report, except that my sister decided to come home for Christmas, which I'm incredibly excited about, because I thought it would be really sad for her to be by herself on Christmas and also for us to be without her. So yay!
We went on a free walking tour and saw a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce (including the French Academy, the New Bridge, the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, see my Picasa album) and had a really cool tour guide. Then we saw the Louvre (I was shockingly not as impressed by this as I thought I was going to be; yeah, it has a lot of cool art, but just not my style of art, and it said it had a big section on Spanish art and there were only a few paintings), the Eiffel Tower (WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, and it was really pretty at night; we even got to see it sparkle!), the Arc D'Triomphe (also very cool, and gargantuan), Moulin Rouge (but it wasn't open so we couldn't go inside, but the street that it was on was quite sketchy (most definitely the red light district)), Sacre Coeur (There was a service going on, so it was kind of awkward, but cool nonetheless), and the Musee d'Orsay (I loved, loved, LOVED this museum; it's the museum with all of the impressionist paintings, and it has Cervantes, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, and all of these other artists and I was so blown away). It was just a wonderful trip, although I'm not sure I've ever spent that much money on food in one weekend.
In other news, I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left here. Now that I'm traveling and seriously in the downhill slope and have a ton of school assignments to occupy my time with, time is seriously flying. I can't believe that I've been here for over seventy-five days already. That is SUCH a long time!! I will say, though, I am still incredibly excited to head back to Champaign and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm feeling very sad to have missed some of the Koin/Strat events this semester, which seems so ridiculous to say because I'm in EUROPE, but still.
Also, I can't tell you how busy I'm going to be in the next three weeks or so. I had a culture presentation today (that went well, I think), an art history take-home test due tomorrow, a linguistics exam next Wednesday (the 19th - after my weekend in Barcelona), and then an art history paper due the 24th, as well as an art history presentation the 24th (after my weekend in Madrid). So I'm going to definitely have to use my time wisely in these next few weeks, and still find time to spend with people since I won't be around for a couple of weekends. I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn't everything and that people are more important than school.
Other than that, I don't have too much else to report, except that my sister decided to come home for Christmas, which I'm incredibly excited about, because I thought it would be really sad for her to be by herself on Christmas and also for us to be without her. So yay!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Happy Birthday Ruthie-face!!!!!
Dear Spain,
When the rest of the world jumped on the central heating bandwagon, where were you?
In other news, I got to spend this weekend in Granada where it was, shockingly enough, RAINING all weekend, and very cold. There's just something so different about a rainy day when you can't curl up inside your warm house with a big comfy blanket. The rainy days here are just miserable. BUT, despair not, because I still had a fairly good weekend. We celebrated Halloween the best way we could on this side of the ocean, and it was actually quite enjoyable. I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people that I don't normally hang out with and I quite enjoyed myself.
But I'm really just posting to avoid studying for my linguistics exam (second test in one day, whoo!...), so I'm going to go do that.
Hasta luegino!!
When the rest of the world jumped on the central heating bandwagon, where were you?
In other news, I got to spend this weekend in Granada where it was, shockingly enough, RAINING all weekend, and very cold. There's just something so different about a rainy day when you can't curl up inside your warm house with a big comfy blanket. The rainy days here are just miserable. BUT, despair not, because I still had a fairly good weekend. We celebrated Halloween the best way we could on this side of the ocean, and it was actually quite enjoyable. I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people that I don't normally hang out with and I quite enjoyed myself.
But I'm really just posting to avoid studying for my linguistics exam (second test in one day, whoo!...), so I'm going to go do that.
Hasta luegino!!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Third Post in a Row!!
Sorry guys, I just wanted to post a frustration really quickly:
So throughout Semana Blanca (our week break), I was under the impression that I was going to have a culture exam AND a linguistics exam this upcoming Wednesday (the 29th). However, during culture today, my professor decided to change the day to a week from today (the 3rd). So I was pretty excited about that, because then I could study for each exam individually and still do well. But THEN in my linguistics class, my professor decided to change the date of my exam as well. What day did he change it to, you ask? Yeah, next Monday. Dangit! AND I have a culture presentation the tenth, but I'm not going to be in town the 6th-9th (AT ALL) and my partner also has both of those tests the same day AND her boyfriend is coming into town tomorrow or the next day. So basically, my next two weeks are going to be very busy school-wise... lovely.
So throughout Semana Blanca (our week break), I was under the impression that I was going to have a culture exam AND a linguistics exam this upcoming Wednesday (the 29th). However, during culture today, my professor decided to change the day to a week from today (the 3rd). So I was pretty excited about that, because then I could study for each exam individually and still do well. But THEN in my linguistics class, my professor decided to change the date of my exam as well. What day did he change it to, you ask? Yeah, next Monday. Dangit! AND I have a culture presentation the tenth, but I'm not going to be in town the 6th-9th (AT ALL) and my partner also has both of those tests the same day AND her boyfriend is coming into town tomorrow or the next day. So basically, my next two weeks are going to be very busy school-wise... lovely.
Venice!!
And... my Venice update.
We had quite the interesting time finding our hostel. It was on the mainland (and pretty far in), so we had to take a bus, but the directions from the hostel were really bad, so we ended up at the Marco Polo airport. We found the street on the way back (after asking in two different pizza parlors), but then the street address didn't exist. We found a building that had the same name as our hostel, but when we buzzed, no one answered. So we were out there for about an hour before this Italian woman came in her car and let us in. And she only spoke Italian so we couldn't be like, "where the heck were you? We've been here for an exceptionally long time." But we got it all figured out (we just didn't end up going back into Venice because we were so tired of trying to figure out travel situations). The hostel was really pretty; it was more like a mini-apartment, which was great. We did wake up to a rooster crowing, though...
We also just walked around in Venice, since we only had one day to explore. We went to Saint Mark's Square (but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I was going to be because it was just the cathedral and then a big open space with a bunch of shops all around it). We also took a boat to Murano and got to see a blown glass demonstration, and it was phenomenal. He made this little glass horse in like five minutes. The only thing is that when he finished, as people were leaving, he took it and just pitched it! It was crazy that he didn't just sell it to someone.
But Venice was really pretty. We did get lost like four or five times because a lot of the streets ended at a canal, or just ended for no apparent reason.
We were all pretty ready to head back to Granada, though. We did have one heck of a travel day. To save the unnecessary words, I'll just list our itinerary:
411 bus from hostel to island of Venice
Arrive 430ish
540 shuttle from Venice to Treviso Airport
Arrive 640ish
8am flight from Venice to Rome
Arrive 9am
115pm flight from Rome to Madrid
Arrive 330ish
530 bus from Madrid to Granada
Arrive 1030
Home.
It was SUCH a long day. We did keep ourselves occupied in the early morning hours (the first two buses) by discussing (in GREAT detail) what we would do if zombies attacked. No joke. The conversation lasted probably around two hours.
But I am glad to be home, and will be posting another update immediately following this one documenting my new situation!
We had quite the interesting time finding our hostel. It was on the mainland (and pretty far in), so we had to take a bus, but the directions from the hostel were really bad, so we ended up at the Marco Polo airport. We found the street on the way back (after asking in two different pizza parlors), but then the street address didn't exist. We found a building that had the same name as our hostel, but when we buzzed, no one answered. So we were out there for about an hour before this Italian woman came in her car and let us in. And she only spoke Italian so we couldn't be like, "where the heck were you? We've been here for an exceptionally long time." But we got it all figured out (we just didn't end up going back into Venice because we were so tired of trying to figure out travel situations). The hostel was really pretty; it was more like a mini-apartment, which was great. We did wake up to a rooster crowing, though...
We also just walked around in Venice, since we only had one day to explore. We went to Saint Mark's Square (but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I was going to be because it was just the cathedral and then a big open space with a bunch of shops all around it). We also took a boat to Murano and got to see a blown glass demonstration, and it was phenomenal. He made this little glass horse in like five minutes. The only thing is that when he finished, as people were leaving, he took it and just pitched it! It was crazy that he didn't just sell it to someone.
But Venice was really pretty. We did get lost like four or five times because a lot of the streets ended at a canal, or just ended for no apparent reason.
We were all pretty ready to head back to Granada, though. We did have one heck of a travel day. To save the unnecessary words, I'll just list our itinerary:
411 bus from hostel to island of Venice
Arrive 430ish
540 shuttle from Venice to Treviso Airport
Arrive 640ish
8am flight from Venice to Rome
Arrive 9am
115pm flight from Rome to Madrid
Arrive 330ish
530 bus from Madrid to Granada
Arrive 1030
Home.
It was SUCH a long day. We did keep ourselves occupied in the early morning hours (the first two buses) by discussing (in GREAT detail) what we would do if zombies attacked. No joke. The conversation lasted probably around two hours.
But I am glad to be home, and will be posting another update immediately following this one documenting my new situation!
Florence!!
So... this is my Florence update. : )
Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.
On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.
Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).
Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.
I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.
Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.
Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.
On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.
Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).
Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.
I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.
Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
ROME!
Holy cow, I'm in Italy!!!
I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.
So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.
Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.
Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).
Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.
We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.
Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.
So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!
I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.
So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.
Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.
Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).
Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.
We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.
Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.
So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!
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