Rachel's In ROME!

Paris with Mom :)

2009-05-03T02:59:00.001-07:00

This was the event that I was waiting for all semester! I had a secret countdown the instant my dad told me that he was going to surprise my mom with a ticket to Rome!! She had no idea she was coming until about 3 weeks before! It was so hard keeping it a secret the whole time!! There were so many times that I was homesick and talking to her on Skype and just wanted to say, “I can’t wait until I can actually talk to you in person!!” but I couldn’t! After she knew the days seemed to drag on because I was sooo excited to see little Trishy!!

She came in on Friday at 8:45 am. I, obviously, didn’t find out any of her flight information so I went to the airport just knowing that she would be there, not even prepared if she were to get lost in the giant airport or something crazy like that! I took the train to the airport and got there about a half hour ahead of time, flowers in hand, so anxious for her arrival! Well, I waited, and waited and waited! I couldn’t check the Arrival board; because I had no idea what flight she was on so I started to get a little worried. At 9:30 I was debating calling my dad, but I knew that it was only 2am at home, and once he’s up, he usually can’t fall asleep and I would have felt so bad! So I continued to wait. At 10 I decided that if she weren’t there by 10:15 I would break down and call him to check and make sure everything was ok with her flight. By this point I was totally out of it and had seen so many people coming in and out of the doors that I didn’t even notice her arrive!!

I was in a daze and she was shouting my name! I was SO excited! I scurried over to her and even cried a little bit! It turns out that her luggage was delayed and she had to stand around waiting for an hour before her luggage even came! From the airport we took the train back to my apartment and our week was started☺

Mom took a shower and freshened up after her long flight and revealed all of the goodies she brought for me ☺ Peanut butter, Oreos, Easter candy and all of the ingredients needed to make cookie dough! I was in heaven! I opened the jar of peanut butter and took a big finger full before I even sat down! Then, we were off. I took her to my favorite little Pizzeria that I went to my very fist night in Rome ☺ Then, we got on the bus to go to the train station to get on, yet another bus to go to the airport. She was able to experience first had all of the craziness that I have had to go through during all of my travels (well kind of..she took catnaps while on these various forms of transportation and we weren’t rushing so she didn’t get to experience all of the panic I have had! Haha )

We got to the airport very early and we weren’t even allowed to check in yet! Haha I guess it was better early than late! Plus, we would have just been sitting around waiting at my apartment, so as long as we were with each other, we were happy! We grabbed a little lunch/dinner at the airport and we were on our way to PARIS ☺ Lots of traveling for mom, but it was all worth it in the end!

When we arrived in Paris we had to take another bus to get a cab to get to our cute little hotel! We had the crabbiest cab driver that tricked us into tipping him…I was not pleased! Ahah Being in Europe so long has caused me to be a little hard on the cab drivers, I suppose! Ahah! We decided that we were going to walk around a little bit and try to find somewhere to get some wine! We didn’t want to go very far so we just went to a little restaurant right down the street and split a shrimp cocktail and some vino! After we got back we fell right asleep and we even slept in on Friday…turns out that vacation without Dad has some perks! ☺

After we got up and got ready we began our weekend of navigating the metro system…and we DOMINATED it! You would think that we were real Parisians! We got our first croissants and coffee and were geared up and ready to start touring! Our fist stop was Notre Dame! Mom had been there before, but everything was obviously new to me! The church was so beautiful! It reminded me a lot of the church I saw in Strasbourg (which is nick named the Notre Dame of Strasbourg- and now I know why!). The ceilings were so tall and the chandeliers were absolutely beautiful! I was happy because it seemed that this one had heat, the church in Strasbourg did not and we were FREEZING!
After Notre Dame we headed to Sainte-Chapelle where we bought our weekend museum passes ☺ They definitely came in handy! Saint-Chapelle was BEAUTIFUL! I liked it even more than Notre Dame. The stained glass was absolutely stunning! Inside the chapel it went from floor to ceiling! Each different pain of glass represented a story (don’t ask what they were, because we didn’t know…but we knew they were stories!) There was even a little statue of St. Louis…probably after our very own saint, Louis Edward Mann ☺
From Saint-Chapelle we headed to the Louvre! We decided that we were going to do the Readers Digest tour and just looked in our tour book to see what were the ‘must see’ pieces! If we hadn’t done that we could have probably spent all day inside that thing!! Among many other things, we saw the statue of The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Raft of Medusa painting, The Liberty Leading The People, The Wedding Feast at Cana and of course, The Mona Lisa. I really liked them all, but I do have to say that the Mona Lisa wasn’t as exciting as everyone says. It was beautiful, yes, but I think I was expecting a little bit more. Maybe I’m just not ‘artsy’ enough to appreciate it. I took a picture of everyone taking pictures of it ☺ It was funny!After we conquered the Louvre, we sat down outside in the courtyard for a while and mapped out the rest of our trip! We were pretty proud of ourselves for already accomplishing so much! We each got salmon salads for lunch accompanied with a rather large glass of wine and we split a chocolate, banana crepe for dessert ☺ Our last stop for the day was Musee d’Orsay.

We did another power tour, mainly just to look at the Monet and Renoir paintings. The museum is located in what used to be an old train station, so the set up was really cool. While we were inside the museum I turned a corner and ran into a friend that I had met in Greece!! Small world!!! We chatted with her for a while and decided that we were going to try to meet up with them for dinner by the Eiffel tower ☺ Mom and I navigated our way back to the hotel on the metro and the took a little nap before we got up and got ready for dinner!

Ron got me the cutest high heel shoes for Christmas and I decided that I was going to wear them out! Bad idea, I was cursing his name all night long! I wanted to cut my feet off! Ahah I think that I still need some practice walking in heels…I’ll keep you posted if I improve anytime soon! Haha! After we got ready we began our journey to the Eiffel tower. It didn’t turn out so smooth. First, we got on the metro going the wrong way (rookie mistake) so we had to get off and back on. That wasn’t such a big deal, but then when we got to the next metro we had to transfer on it was broke down ☹ We could see the Eiffel tower in view, but there was no way that me and my fancy heels were going to make it! Usually things that big end up being a lot farther away than they really are, anyway! So, we decided that we were going to find a little restaurant in the area we were. We found a really cute, reasonable restaurant, but it just so happened to be ITALIAN! I was hoping to escape Italy for a few days, but we ate there anyway and ended up having a really nice time! I didn’t end up getting to meet my friend Julie, but it was ok because just seeing her again at the Museum was awesome!

Saturday we slept in again ☺ The Chmill women are not early to rise, Paris or not! We like our sleep ☺ We got croissants and coffee again, but this time at a little restaurant across from our hotel and made our way to the metro to go to the Picasso Museum! It turns out that the metro station we were supposed to get off at was under construction, so we had to get off at the next one a little further away! We very successfully navigated our way there like pros! On the way I bought myself a fabulous pink purse as a little souvenir ☺ The Picasso Museum was AWESOME! I don’t think that it is something that everyone does when the visit Paris, so it seemed even more cool to us! When Picasso died his family donated a lot of his personal collection to the city to avoid paying taxes, thanks to them we were able to see his fantastic pieces! We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but we obviously took quite a few ☺!
From there we made our way to the Pantheon of Paris. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t too enthused about this because there is a perfectly good Pantheon in Rome, but we went anyway. We somehow got ourselves turned around and it took us FOREVER to find! Plus, we stopped and got lunch at a nice little English pub and our waiter was not very friendly! It didn’t really lighten up the mood! The food was great though, so I got over it and we went on to see the Pantheon. It is actually a lot different than the one in Rome! The Pantheon in Rome is very simple, but this one was so intricate and ornate! It was beautiful to see!
Next stop, the Arc de Triomphe! It was a cloudy day, but we still decided to walk to the top! It was 284 steps, Mom was very proud of herself for making it up to the top! I was proud too! I am so used to doing tons of walking, but she kept right up with me the whole weekend ☺ Such a trooper! The view as still beautiful, the streets in Paris seem to be built all around the Arc, perfectly symmetrical! It was awesome!From the Arc we decided that we were going to try to go to an Andy Warhol exhibit, but when we got there the line was a little too long for our liking! We were so tired from all of our extra navigating that we decided to just head back to the hotel and rest before our last dinner in Paris and our trip up the Eifel tower!

We went back to the hotel and took our daily nap, got ready and left to see the Eiffel tower lit up at night! We saw it from the Arc during the day, but I think lit up during the night is much better☺ We opted to take the elevator to the top! A very wise choice! We ended up meeting some girls that go to UWM and chatted with them for a while! The world is seriously so small! The views were breathtaking! We were above the clouds! We finished our night off with some French fries, French onion soup and some Bordeaux! A perfect meal to a very perfect visit in Paris!Sunday morning we got up early and went to the train station to take our train to Dirmstein so that Mom could meet THE BARFS! Marc and Kalus picked us up at the train station and insisted on showing Mom some of the places they took me while I was there. We saw an old palace and the famous water tower in Mannheim. Then, we went back to their house where Anna was busy slaving away in the kitchen! Just as I was assuming, she had a whole feast ready for us! We obviously had champagne and they used their best china! Once again they were shoving the beer down my throat and they even made mom take a shot after lunch…and she thought I was joking before! No, no, those Germans mean business! After lunch we went on a walk around town and through the vineyards and before we left Anna literally weighted our bags to see how much chocolate she could send back with us!! She had it down to the gram…. It was another great visit for me in Germany and I think that Mom really liked meeting Anna and Kalus and, of course, seeing Marc again!
Our flight back was very successful. Traveling with Mom means having the perks of taking a cab back home as opposed to fiasco of taking the multiple modes of transportation that I usually take! ☺ It was great!

While we were in Rome we did all of the Roman tourist things. I’m not going to tell you all of them! Haha, I’m sure you would like it, but it will be very repetitive. We saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, Trastevere, the Vatican and the Coliseum. You know, the usual! ☺ I had seen all of them a million times, but it was my first time in the Coliseum, and I loved it! I loved experiencing all of these things with my mom and being her ‘tour guide’! I have enjoyed most of my time here, and I really do like Rome, but being here with someone you love makes it even more special and it makes you enjoy every little bit of it more that I thought was possible! Every night we went out to dinner and shared a bottle of wine, it was absolutely perfect! One night we even made our own dinner and cookie dough for dessert ☺

I looked forward to this week the entire time I have been in Rome and it was exactly what I need and what I thought it would be! I love my momma soo much and I am so grateful that my dad bought the ticket for her and let us experience this together! It is a week that I will remember forever ☺ We had SO much fun! I only wish that every week I spent here could have been that happy! Soon enough though, I will be home and we can be sharing a bottle of wine out on the deck with Dad and whoever else happens to wonder on over ☺

Links to more pictures!

link one: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041682&id=59002872&l=5e8dd111da

link two: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041684&id=59002872&l=a1f96ab60e

link three: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041687&id=59002872&l=bd50a888dd

Spring Break in Greece!

2009-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Gosh I never know how to start these things! I think that is part of what takes me so long to get motivated to write them! haha

So here it is…

For spring break I went to GREECE ☺ I went with, Bus2alps, the same program I went to Switzerland with, so before we even got started I knew I was in for a good time ☺ I paid 400 euro, which seems like a lot, but it included: a hostel for 7 nights, transportation to and from Greece and from Corfu to Athens, breakfast every day, 3 dinners, tour guides the entire time I was there and LOADS of fun ☺. My roommate went and spent about 250 euro alone on her flight over there, so I told myself that I was getting a great deal!

This time, my journey was all smooth sailing…literally! I went with my roommate Kristin and her friend Kari. We left Thursday morning around 9 and took a 3-hour train the Ancona, which is the port city our ferry left from. From there we had a 14-hour, yes FOURTEEN-hour ferry ride to the island of Corfu! My roommate and her friend decided that they were going to pay 25 euro and get cabins since we were going to be sailing over night, but I decided that I would rough it and sleep in my wonderful chair ☺ ahah it actually wasn’t so bad…but more on that later!

As soon as we got on the ferry I ran into Alicia and Gina from SNC! Small world!! They were the girls that I stayed with in Florence and they were there with another program called Euroadventures (same thing as Bus2alps, but different) so I decided that I would stick with them on the ferry ☺

From the minute we took off the boat was ROCKY! We were initially sitting at the front of the boat in the restaurant on the 8th floor and the waves were literally crashing up on the glass! I’ve never really been seasick before, but then again I’ve never really given myself the opportunity to be before so I took two Dramamine just in case…and immediately left the front of the boat to go back down to my cozy little chair ☺ After a little while had passed the ocean seamed to be a bit more calm and we went up and had dinner at the outrageously pricey restaurant on board. I was literally falling asleep at the table! I guess I didn’t realize that Dramamine made you so drowsy until I read the label that said “less drowsy!” Not “non-drowsy…less drowsy”…so I was a little tired! The other girls went to their 25-euro luxurious cabins and I went down to my chair where I crawled underneath and slept like a baby on the floor throughout the whole night ☺

When we got to the port we got off and had to haul our luggage to the next ferry! It was raining and windy, I was not liking my first impression of Greece, but I kept my head held high. Out second ferry was about an hour and half followed by a 30 minute bus ride and we were there ☺

As soon as we got to our hostel, The Pink Palace, I passed out! The weather wasn’t very nice and as much as I would have like to think that I had a perfect night sleep, I was a lot more tired than I thought! I roomed with Kristin and Kari and we all ended up taking a little nap before getting ready to being our spring break extravaganza!! When we got up we got ready and headed down to the bar for 1-euro drinks at happy hour and then down to dinner. When we got down to dinner we sat with some girls that we met on our train ride. Soon, however, our table doubled in size because these crazy Australian guys decided to join tables with us! Let’s just say that it made for a very, very interesting dinner! The food was great and when we were done we danced our booties off ☺
Monday we got up early and went down to reserve our places on the ATV safari that the hostel ran. Not to worry, they gave us helmets and mini lessons on how to drive the ATVS before we took off! We thought it was going to be so warm…we were wrong! The weather was beautiful and the sun was out, but we got up to 50 miles per hour on occasion with the ATVS and the wind was icy cold!!! I had jeans and a long sleeve shirt on so I was just fine.The views were absolutely INCREDIBLE! I have never see water so blue! We went through a bunch of old villages too where people still used mules to transport things! There will little old me and women outside that would flash us big toothless smiles and wave at us as we passed ☺ They were so cute! We had lunch at the top of the mountain outside of a little church and took in the scenery ☺ it was a perfect day! Two people did actually end up rolling their ATVS, but I was a pro!! HahaWhen we got back we rented our TOGAS because the hostel hosted a pink toga party ☺ trying to tie them was a different story! The three of us girls spent a good 45 minutes trying to get those darn togas on! We finally got it and went down to another great dinner and fun night of dancing! This time, they had a special treat in store for us.To start with, they had traditional Greek dancers dance for us! There were two guys who were outrageously good at dancing! They were prancing around kicking their legs up above their heads! One of them even held a table with a chair stacked on top of it in his TEETH and continued dancing around the room….all the while the other one was smashing plates on the ground around him! After they decided they were done smashing the plates on the floor, they decided to walk around the circle we formed around them with a large kettle of ouzo and tilt our heads back and literally pour a shot down our throats and then SMASH A PLATE ON OUR HEADS!!! When in Greece, I suppose! Ahah it didn’t actually hurt, but I’m not sure if that was because there was a special technique or if they used the ouzo they gave us first to soften the blow…I hope I never find out! AhahTuesday was a pretty low-key day. We woke up to cloudy weather, again ☹ By this point we had actually made some pretty good friends with a bunch of people from Florence and we decided to hang with them during the day since we had no plans. We spent the day on the beach and in the hot tub enjoying the perks of being 21 ☺ needles to say, it was a fun filled day! Later that day we all piled back on the bus and got ready for our 7-hour bus drive to Athens. A few of us continued the party on the bus through most of the night and when we got to our hostel in Athens we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows!

Thursday was Greek Independence Day! It was really cool to be there! Almost all of the museums and tourist attractions were closed down but our guides from Bus2alps took us on a walking tour of the city. We walked to the Acropolis and from the top we got to see the Greek fighter plans flying by for the Independence Day parades! It was really cool! We also went and saw Zeus’ Tomb and the old Olympic stadium from 1896! After that we went to the local market where we had the most delicious gyros ☺ The tour lasted the entire afternoon so by the time were done we went back to the hostel and took a nap before we got ready for dinner.I decided that I would shower after my nap. Bad idea. It seemed like everyone else in the hostel had the exact same idea! I also made the same mistake while we were in Corfu and I hadn’t had a hot shower all week! In Corfu I even washed my hair in the sink as opposed to getting in the FREEZING cold shower! ☹

Thursday night for dinner Bus2alps had arranged for us to go to a nice restaurant ☺ Everyone dressed up so nice and it was great to enjoy a nice meal with new friends ☺ We got to dinner and filled up the whole restaurant! Our first course was bread with tziki and Greek salad. Next we got some sort of baked feta spread and fresh calamari ☺ For my main course I chose veal and French fries (they put French fries with everything!)…and it was delicious ☺ For dessert we got fresh fruit ☺ The perfect way to end our meal because we were all STUFFED! And most importantly, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you this first…we had unlimited wine throughout the whole dinner…all for 13 euro ☺ it was perfect! Afterwards we went out for a bit but I called it an early night so I could regroup for Friday!
Friday we were on our own! We decided to go tot he Acropolis again since we weren’t able to actually go in on Thursday. I really smartly forgot my wallet, which had my school ID in it so I had to pay 12 stupid euros to get it ☹ sad! It was really cool to see, though! The Parthenon was ginormous! After all of the miraculous buildings I have seen, I still can’t get over how they were able to construct them all of those years ago! Afterward we did a little more shopping in the market and I got some handmade Greek sandals☺ Then, Kristin, Kari and I took the metro about a half hour to the new Olympic Stadium! It was so neat! It was designed by Calatrava just like the museum in Milwaukee! There wasn't really anything else in that part of the city so we basically got on the metro, saw the stadium and then got back on to go back to our hostel. Not many people can say they went there though, so it was definitely worth it!!
For our last night of spring break, Kristin, Kari and everyone we met from Florence decided that we were all going to go down to the port for dinner! We took the metro and after a little bit of confusion we ended up at a little restaurant that I don’t even know the name of! There were 13 of us and we were the only ones in the whole restaurant! The owner LOVED us! At the end of the night he even took a picture with us :) They brought us salad and bread and we cleared out all of the beer in the fridge! He kept telling us how proud of us he was that we were traveling and that none of us smoked! Haha it may seem silly but almost every young European smokes and it is really rare to see a group of 13 21 year olds where no one smokes! Afterwards a few of us went to a local bar and had a pretty low-key night just enjoying each other’s company! It was really nice to be hanging out with people again, since I pretty much only know my roommates here, meeting nice, new people is always great!
Saturday morning I went to Subway before we left Athens! It was another little treat from home that I gave myself ☺ Plus, I made sure to get a foot long so I could save the second half for dinner on the ferry as opposed to spending money on food again! We had a 4-hour bus ride to the port followed by a 19-hour ferry ride! This time, it wasn’t as fun! On the way there we were all excited, but knowing that we had homework to go back to didn’t really motivate anyone to have a great time!

When we got back on land we had to wait 2 hours for our train. The train ride was 3 hours, which means that our total travel time to get home was 30 hours!!! It was insane and by the time I got back to my little IKEA bed in my apartment I was more than happy!

I’m really glad that I ended up going to Greece! I was a little hesitant about it at first because of the cost, but it was worth every penny! I met some really great people and had an extremely fun week! I would love to go back to some of the other Greek Islands again but I think seeing Athens once was plenty. The city was really dirty and the only thing to really see was the Parthenon. Don’t get me wrong, it was great, but the next time I’m in Greece it will be straight to the beach ☺

I took tons of pictures in Greece! Here are all of the links!

link 1 : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041193&id=59002872&l=3de5394b5c

Link 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041194&id=59002872&l=e0af3994a7

link 3: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041199&id=59002872&l=9c61c4b62f

link 4: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041206&id=59002872&l=dbb212df07

Visitors in Rome :)

2009-04-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

This blog is entirely dedicated to my wonderful week of visitors☺ I had 8 people come to visit during one week and as tiring as it was, it was so worth it because it was great to see people I love from home!

Wednesday, March 11th I was lucky enough to get to see the POPE at the Papal Audience at the Vatican! I went with my roommates Nicolette and Kristin. We left around 9 in the morning and got really good seats, not front row, but right by the aisle. Before the service started the Pope drove around in his little Pope-mobile and went RIGHT by us! We were probably 6 feet away from him! It was so weird because we didn’t have to go through any kind of security when we walked in! Kind of scary to think of the weirdos that could have gotten in there!! It was really awesome to see. He was such a happy little man. He was waving to everyone like he was a rock star! Haha! The service lasted about 2 hours and I think he spoke in 7 different languages throughout the whole thing! It was a really neat experience. We’re going back on Easter, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to wake up a little earlier if we want to get great seats again! I’ll keep you updated! The rest of the day was nothing spectacular, but my friend Kerrie was scheduled to come in around 10pm that night and I was anxiously waiting to pick her up at the airport☺ After I picked her up we went back to my house and talked and caught up with each other until late!

Thursday morning we got up and I showed Kerrie where I went to school and we got coffee before we headed to the Vatican to meet my parent’s friends from American Family the Guerins and the Brynds! They were in Rome with American Family and we had planned to spend a few days together, which was perfect timing because at this point I was really missing home!

We walked around St. Peter’s Basilica and they very generously bought Kerrie and me tickets to go on a Vatican Museum tour! We had the cutest little tour guide, Maria. She did a great job telling us about all of the important artwork in the museum and told us what we needed to skip over! The museum is HUGE. If you look at every piece of artwork for 1 minute you would be there for 12 years!!! My absolute favorite was the Sistine Chapel! It was AWESOME! You aren’t allowed to take pictures and I was rebellious enough to try this time! The pictures wouldn’t be able to even capture its beauty though! I might have to go back and buy a book its creation because it is amazing all of the hidden things are spread throughout the painting and it was also really interesting to learn what Michelangelo went through during the 4 years he painted it!

After our two-hour tour we walked around a little bit and headed back in the direction where we would be having dinner. We ended up walking back to the Spanish Steps. One of the streets that the steps are off of has the most expensive stores you can imagine! It’s fun to look, but I doubt ill ever be able to afford anything inside of them! Haha! Mrs. Brynd has been there earlier in the week and wanted to show all of an 85,000-euro purse. While we were there the workers invited us back to the trunk show that they would be having later that night to show off the new collection. We decided that we would be back! We went back up to the Spanish steps and watched the sunset! It was so beautiful! You would think that I would have done that at least once in the 3 months I have lived here, but it was my first time and now it is my most favorite place to sit and relax!! After the sunset we still had some time to kill before dinner so we headed back to the trunk show!

Keep in mind; we had been up since 8:30 in our tennis shoes and jeans, pretty warn out from all of the walking we had been doing all day! Basically, we stuck out like a sore thumb in the crowd of women filled with silicon and botox! Haha! It was absolutely hilarious to see all of them! We just took advantage of the free champagne and chocolate mouse that they had circulating and then headed to dinner! It was a really fun experience that Mrs. Brynd said we should all experience at least once ☺

We had a great dinner with the Brynds and Guerins and then Kerrie and when they went back to their hotel Kerrie and I ventured to my favorite Irish pub, Scholars. We had such a blast and didn’t end up getting back until the early hours of the morning!

Friday morning Kerrie and I met up with the Guerins and we walked around Trastevere (known to be the most traditional area of Rome) and did some shopping in the local markets. We had a lot of fun hanging out, again, but all of the walking from the day before combined with a late night out had really tired us out! So, we decided to stop for a rest at the same pub that we had been at Thursday night. Our one relaxing drink turned into two and we had a great time talking with the Guerins! They left to go back to their hotel and Kerrie and I somehow found ourselves at the next pub down the block! ☺ It was a tiring, but great day!

When we finally got home we made dinner for ourselves and decided that we were just going to call it an early night. We thought wrong. The Guerins texted us while we were laying in bed ready to pass out! We gave into the peer pressure, got ourselves ready, and headed back to Scholars! We med the Guerins and the Brynds and had an absolute BLAST! It was the most fun I have had out of all of my weekends spend in Rome! When we are all in Cancun this summer I am going to make sure that I hang out with them again! Haha! It was another very late night and the end of our adventures with them ☹

Saturday morning I got up very slowly and made my way to the train station to pick up my next batch of visitors from Ireland, Steph, Nick and Cha. We made our way back to my apartment to pick up Kerrie and then went to get pizza at my favorite little shop that I went to my very first night in Rome ☺ The rest of the day we walked around and I showed them the Trevi fountain, Pantheon, Piazza di Popolo and we watched the sun set at the Spanish steps again! We were so tired from walking and being up late the night before that we stopped for coffee and gelato! Steph and Nick each got hot chocolate instead and it was literally melted hot chocolate…something I know all of you O’Connor women would most definitely love!! On our way home we stopped at another pizza place in Trastevere called Ivo pizza- my program advisor says it’s the best around! ☺ We ended up going back to my place and drinking a little wine and calling it an early night!

Sunday morning we all got up and went to the two-mile long flea market behind my apartment. After we were done I gave them a map and they headed out to the Colosseum! Don’t get me wrong, it was FABULOUS having everyone, but playing tour guide for 72 hours straight was a little exhausting! It was so nice to have a little time to myself to rest and do my own thing! That night we stayed in again because I had class early Monday morning and Kerrie had to leave us ☹

After Kerrie left on Monday Steph, Nick and Chaz went to the Vatican and back to the Colosseum while I was in class. They had dinner and everything on their own, which meant that I did a great job at being a tour guide because they navigated it all on their own ☺

I loved every minute of having friendly faces around and I only wish that ALL of you could come to me!!!

Here are the links to pictures! :)

Pope
link one:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041285&id=59002872&l=2325b79094

weekend of visitors
link two: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041190&id=59002872&l=2d4b6a5a4e
link three: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041191&id=59002872&l=1ba4ac6408

Galway, Ireland!

2009-03-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in March I made a MUCH anticipated trip to Ireland to visit my friends Melissa and Alexa. I had my last midterm Thursday morning and was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon and get into Dublin around 8pm.

Well, you guessed it, things did not go as planned! Yet again, I had a very interesting trip to the airport! I finished my midterm at 10am and had the whole rest of the day to lounge around and get ready for my flight. The whole time I had 8 in my head, so I figured that I would leave my apartment at 5 and have plenty of time to take the train to the airport and get checked in with plenty of time. Around 3:40 I decided that I would check my email to get my flight confirmation in order before I started packing to leave. Well, this is when it hit me that I didn’t leave at 8…I got there at 8! My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:50!!! I literally packed my bags in 15 seconds and RAN out the door to get a cab! I was so bummed because I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to pay the 30-euro cab fare this time…but oh well! Haha

I got a cab fairly quick and we were off to the airport, in rush hour traffic…I had my fingers crossed the whole time! While we were sitting in traffic someone drove by my cab and hit the side mirror, the cab driver then decided that he would put his car in park and get out and go knock on the other car’s window…I was freaking out! This was all happening in Italian, naturally, and I had no idea what was going on! He was like yelling at the other car to roll down their window and the only thing I could think was that he was going to call up the mafia or something! Haha, I over reacted a little bit, but still…it was scary! He eventually got back in the cab and we were off again..He cursed (I’m assuming) the whole rest of the ride!

I got to the airport with literally 10 minutes to spare and got in line to board the plane. There was a storm so the flight ended up being an hour delayed and it was a pretty rocky flight, but I fell asleep shortly after we took off so it wasn’t so bad! After I landed in Dublin I was supposed to take the 9:15 bus to Galway, but because we were late I missed that bus and had to wait around until the 11:30 bus. I found some chocolate and a magazine and I was fine ☺

I got into Galway around 2:30am where Melissa and Alexa were waiting for me ☺ we were all being really cheap and decided to walk back to her apartment, so we didn’t end up getting home until around 3:15! By that time we were wide-awake and Melissa and I stayed up until about 4:30 talking!

Friday morning we got up around 8 to head out to the most westerly part of Ireland, the Aran Islands. It was pretty rainy when we left, but by the time we got there it was beautiful! The Aran Islands are known to be the most traditional part left in Ireland. All of the street signs are in Irish and English is a second language to all of the people who live there. We paid 10 euro for little tour up and around the whole island!

The island is divided into only 14 little towns and each town has only 12 houses! It is only about 28 square miles, but there are 7,000 feet of brick walls dividing up the land on the entire island! It was really neat to see! Everything was so quaint and old! A lot of the houses still had thatched roofs that need to be redone every 2 years. The island only got electricity 30 years ago! I’ve been learning to pay good attention on all of my tours ☺ haha

The van driver dropped us off and gave us two hours to explore! We hiked to the top of the cliffs and spent our time at the very edge of the island! The views were beautiful! There were absolutely no restrictions so we were literally sitting on the very edge! It was a lot of fun! After we headed down we got a drink at a local restaurant and found hand made wool sweaters for 30 euro ☺

When we got back to Galway Melissa’s friends were waiting for us in town and we met them for fish and chips. I had the biggest piece of cod I had ever seen! It was delicious! Afterwards we went to a little pub with a traditional Irish band playing. There was a fiddle player, accordion, banjo, singer and acoustic guitar! The atmosphere was exactly what you would imagine an Irish pub to be, people were singing, dancing, and drinking! I also enjoyed my first Guinness! I really liked it, too!

Saturday morning we slept in, still tired from our adventures on Friday. Once we got ourselves up and ready we walked down to the local market and down into a little area called Cladaugh, which was filled with beautiful swans! I bought a Cladaugh ring at the same place where Matt Lauer bought them on Good Morning America! Then, we headed down to the Atlantic Ocean and took a few pictures on the beach, but it was sooo cold so we ended up walking back to the apartment to warm up!

I loved being in Ireland and hearing everyone’s accent and especially ENGLISH! I am taking an Italian class while I am here, but I am no where near fluent and not speaking the language makes it that much harder for me! So, while I was in a mainly English speaking country I decided to soak up as much as I could and go to the movies ☺ we saw “He’s just not that into you” and LOVED it! Afterwards we went to SUBWAY☺ My yearning for home was definitely fulfilled: friends, English, movies and fast food…what could be better!? After our delicious meal we went to another little pub in town where I enjoyed another Guinness and Irish music!

Sunday morning I had to be up at 5am to catch the bus back to Dublin and I was so sad to go! ☹ I had a flawless travel back home, though so it was great! I loved Ireland and LOVED being with familiar faces!

** In addition to adding some pictures to this one I'm going to give you two links to view ALL of the pictures I took while I was in Ireland! Enjoy!! **

link 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040418&id=59002872&l=d0e82c1377
link 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040418&id=59002872&l=d0e82c1377

Visiting the Barf's in Germany!

2009-03-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

Ok, well most of you probably already know this, but for those of you who don't...two years ago my family hosted the one and only Marc-Michael Barf as a foreign exchange student. I was a freshman in college and my family very kindly gave him my room.... it made for very interesting trips back home! Haha but anyway, Marc is one of a kind...he is an only child, very studious, VERY proud to be a German and quite different than the Chmill's. We all made it work though, I'm sure he felt really out of place at first, but by the end of his semester he loved us...and so did his parents...they sent BOXES of German chocolate and gummy bears our way! So, it was basically a given that while I was in Europe I would go to visit the Barfs in Dirmstein...and they didn't want me to be there for just a weekend...I was lucky enough to spend 5 whole days in Deutschland!

Let's start out with my travel to the airport, because you have to know by now from my other transportation experiences that it did not go smoothly...haha! This was my first experience taking a plane anywhere so I was determined to make sure that everything ran smoothly. I woke up right on time at 6am and left the house at 6:30..It was smooth sailing…that is until I realized about 5 minutes after I left that I forgot my passport! So, I got off the tram in a hurry and luckily there was another one waiting at the exact same stop going the other direction! I called my roommate and she was going to meet me down at the gate...I thought it would be fine. Well, the tram never stopped at my stop because no one was waiting and I never pushed the STOP button.... genius, I know! So, I got off at the next stop two blocks down and started running with my bags to my apartment. My slow jog, of course, didn't last the whole way so it took me quite some time to get there.... Anyway, now that I was full out sweating, I was ready to go...I got back on the tram and headed to the bus. Once I got on the bus I was headed for the train station. I purchased my ticket and got on the train and headed to the next station where I planned on getting on a shuttle that took me to the airport...of course, that didn't work out either.... Once I got to the second station I found out that the shuttle wouldn't be leaving because there was an accident that it couldn't get around...So I paid 15 euro to take a cab 10 minutes to the airport.... At this point I had about 40 minutes before my plane left.... now I know AND appreciate why my dad leaves 5678 hours before a flight. JUST KIDDING DAD…but I really understand now! :) I went through a long line on security and made it just in time to wait in another line to get on the plane and I was off!

I flew Ryanair, which is initially very cheap but they charge you for every little thing including checking in at the airport! On the plane they not only tried to sell food, but little shampoo bottles too! Haha it was a much different experience than I am used to! When we landed all of the crazy Italians clapped and cheered! It made me a little worried that they aren’t used to successful flights! Haha the loudspeaker also played a little trumpet that informed us that we were on time and that 90% of Ryanair flights land on time! Haha

Anne and Klaus, Marc’s parents picked me up at the airport and let me ride shotgun on the way back to their house! They immediately started feeding me and pretty much forced me to drink a HUGE energy drink! Everything they did the entire weekend was soo sweet! On our way back to Dirmstein, where they live, we stopped at the Loreley Rock.

The legend says that Loreley, the mermaid, sat herself on the top of a rock in the hills along the Rhine river, all of the fisherman were so distracted by her beauty that they crashed their boats! It was a cute little story and I even perched myself on top of the very same rock☺

When we got back from our little tour Marc had just gotten home from school and was already studying…imagine that! Anne decided to feed us, again. She brought out some homemade soup and I was so happy! I was thinking that it would be the prefect thing to hold me over until dinner…. boy, was I wrong! She brought out homemade soup with a whole carrot floating around it and a huge dumpling, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables and chicken, and champagne to celebrate my arrival! All of this, of course was served on their best china and the champagne was in Waterford crystal…only the best☺ after our “little” lunch she brought us some sort of homemade cake with nuts and cream! I thought I would be full for the entire 5 days! After dinner I was soo tired but they had plans for us to go watch Marc at handball practice, luckily, we got there and it was canceled so I got to go home and go to bed ☺

Friday morning I woke up nice and early to go to German high school with Marc! Anne packed me a lunch and everything! I don’t speak more than 5 words of German so it was very interesting! A few of the teachers let me go on the computer while they taught and one of his classes was in English so that was a nice little break from the German I had been hearing since I got there! After school, Marc and I went down to Frankethal and got some Chinese (a nice change of pace from Italian and German!). That night the Barfs and I went for a nice walk (in the freezing cold) to Klaus’s physical therapist. She is from the States and they thought that I would really enjoy talking to her, haha they were right! For dinner we had traditional German wieners! After dinner, however, was a little different than the night before. I told them that I was very full and needed to digest before I could eat anymore…so they made me start taking SHOTS! I’m not talking about just one shot to soothe my stomach, either. We took shot after shot after shot! And, of course, I felt bad saying no, so I had too! Some of them tasted incredibly gross, too!! Needless to say, I slept very well! Haha

Saturday morning we got up early again and there was about every type of cereal and jam laid out for me on the table! We ate breakfast and left to make an hour road trip to Strasbourg, France! I LOVED it! We saw an amazing Cathedral and walked around the town all afternoon! I felt like I was in Beauty and The Beast! All of the buildings were so old! We even saw Gutenberg’s house (He invented the printing press in 1439…so the house was OLD!) We also walked up and down the Liil River and stopped at a university that Marc is interested in on the way home. For dinner, we stopped at a Greek restaurant back in Dirmstein. When we were done with our meals they brought us out shots of Ouzo….something that I tried the night before and did not like at all! I told them that I wasn’t going to take it and I think they actually got a little mad! They told me that it was rude not to accept the shot…I held my stubborn, American ground and told them that I still wasn’t taking it! Haha I guess I could have sucked it up…but I really wasn’t a fan! After we got back we called it an early night because we would be up early the next day to visit Heidelberg!

Heidelberg is a huge, beautiful castle about 30 minutes away from the Barfs house. It is over 1000 years old and sits on top of a hill. We walked around the castle and saw enormous barrels that used to hold wine! The sayings on the outside said “wine makes happy” ☺

Marc, who is just learning to drive, decided he was going to drive. That was another experience in itself! They had a manual car (most are in Germany because they think that you’re not really “driving” if your car is automatic…whatever!) Anyway, we were driving up these steep hills and Marc was trying to parallel park and Klaus got out and was yelling in German…I guess you had to be there but it was very funny! I just sat there the whole time drinking my energy drink reminiscing about locking my keys in the car on the day I got my drivers license ☺

When we got home, Anne, had a big lunch waiting for us with some more champagne! This was the first meal that I finished EVERYTHING on my plate!!! Anne took a picture ☺ after we were done we drove to the next town over and went to CARNAVALE!! It was crazy- it is basically Europe’s version of Mardi gras. I had no idea what I was getting into! Everyone was dressed up and there were people everywhere, someone even had a Cheesehead on! I hung out with Marc and all of his friends and they had a really good time speaking in English with me, so it was nice ☺ For dinner most every night we just had bread and meat and cheese, and of course, at least 6 shots!

Sunday we went to Meinz to an even bigger version of Carnaval, I think it is one of the biggest celebrations in Germany. Anne sent us with water bottles filled with alcohol and gave us a bottle of champagne and sent us on our way! It was so funny to see her encouraging all of the drinking, but it is just part of their culture, so I guess they are all just used to it! Marc and I took the train about an hour into the city and hung out the whole afternoon. We didn’t have any costumes on, but no worries somehow, my hair got painted green (it was washable)! When we got home later in the day Anne, once again, took a picture because she was so proud of me! Haha

Monday was my last day in Germany and a little more relaxing. We drove in to the city Manheim and they showed me where they used to live and where they were married! I saw more pictures of Marc as a baby on this trip than I was ever planning on it! I even saw Anne’s elementary school photos and their wedding pictures! They were very good at making me feel at home and welcome the whole time we were there! Monday night they gave me an entire suitcase filled with candy, food, a handmade chess set, a teddy bear, socks, fake flowers, and even a ceramic cat!! It was soo sweet of them! I still have no idea how I am going to get all of it home, but I will find a way!

Germany was a great experience! It was really good to stay in a home and have a mom take good care of me ☺ they live such a different lifestyle, but just like everything else, it really makes me appreciate what I have even more! Living with an only child for a week even made me miss Ron and Ryan ☺ I’m sure someday The Barf’s have already invited my family to Marc’s wedding, so I know I’ll be back there again some day!

Interlaken, Switzerland!

2009-03-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago (i know this is realllly late! )I went to Switzerland with 3 of my roommates. We booked our trip with a program called bus2alps…yes, that means we took a bus there…it took 12 hours! Haha it was really worth it though! We paid about 200 euro for the bus and our hostel for three nights and breakfast each day, plus we went with about 70 other people so we were able to meet a lot of people while we were there! I wouldn’t have done it any other way, it was great!

We left Thursday night at 8pm in our double-decker coach bus and I slept basically the entire ride there. We got to Switzerland at 8am on Friday and as soon as we got our room we had some breakfast and went to the ski shop! Two of my roommates and I went skiing and the other went snowboarding. We were able to rent snowboards, gloves, snow pants, skis, poles, you name it, they had it there to rent!

We actually decided to get take a lesson too, which I probably didn’t need, but it was nice to have a little review seeing that I have never skied on an actual mountain! Haha! Once our instructor came he took us up the mountain by van and then we had to take a train and finally a gondola up to the mountain! The sights were breathtaking! Every time I turned my head I felt like I had a more beautiful view than the previous!

Our lesson went well and by the end of the day I was skiing on the intermediate slopes with mogles and all! I am very proud of this! Haha! They were big!! ☺ and I only actually fell once! It could have been more, but I learned to be very good at catching myself! I had such a blast skiing! I was by myself for the majority of the time because it was kind of hard to stay with all of my roommates because we all went at a different pace. It was so peaceful being up in the mountain by myself, a few times I just sat and watched people go down, it was so relaxing. By the time I was ready to go all of my roommates had already left so I ended up leaving some people who were on the same bus with me. When we got the bottom of the mountain we had to catch a bus. The hostel provided us with bus passes that we had to fill out our name, room number and duration dates on. I only filled out my name and a few of the other people we were with didn’t fill out anything yet…this was not good! When the bus came he wouldn’t let us on the bus because our tickets weren’t completely filled out! We had to wait a half hour for the bus to come in the freezing Switzerland weather…I’m starting to think that public transportation is NOT my friend because goofy things like seem to be happening to me everwhere I go!!

After we got back from skiing we all took showers and got ready for dinner. I’m only telling you this because I want to tell you about the showers! I was so worried that they would be cold because there were so many people staying in the hostel, but they were SO hot, and the faucets were so weird! I had to push a button like every 45 seconds to get more water, kind of like a sink in a public restroom! Haha it was an experience! ☺ We went to dinner at a traditional little Swiss restaurant and then went out later!

Saturday (Ron’s 20th birthday ☺) we took the train back up into the mountains and went to a cute little town called Wengen. It was so cold and I’m not gonna lie, my body was a little tight from my skiing excursion! When arrived on Friday it was one of the clearest days they had in 2 weeks, so we were very spoiled because Saturday was very cloudy and the views were still beautiful, but they didn’t have the same affect. It was really nice to walk around the little town. All of the cars had chains around their tires and people were literally skiing down the streets, which were obviously not plowed because I don’t think they could ever keep up with it! All of the little kids looked like Ralphie’s brother on A Christmas Story because they were so bundled up and their parents pulled them around in little sleds, it was so adoreable! For lunch we went back down to Interlaken to the ever-so-wonderful HOOTERS! Haha we were craving some American food, I know that HOOTERS probably wasn’t the best choice, but we were happy ☺

Saturday night we went NIGHT SLEDDING down the mountain! It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip! There were about 50 people who went and they took us up the mountain in a few vans and then we took little gondolas up the mountain where they gave us our sleds and a small glow stick that we wore on our back so that people could see us from behind. The stars were OUTRAGEOUS! I have never seen so many stars in my life…and I thought that the stars up north were pretty, they’ve got nothing on the stars in Switzerland! If it wasn’t so cold I could have laid there all night looking at them! Ahah! I learned that I must be pretty aerodynamic on this little sledding trip! I felt like I was in Mario cart zooming in and out of people down the hill! I went so fast, it was so much fun! We made one stop to look at this HUGE, beautiful frozen waterfall! It was awesome! All you could really see while up on the mountain was the glow sticks going down the mountain in a line, it was so funny to see! It took us about an hour to get down the mountain and at the bottom they had a traditional Swiss meal ready for us, fondue, eggs, rosti (hashbrowns) and beer! It was a great way to warm up! Once we got back we went straight to bed, the mountains are exhausting!!

Sunday it was gorgeous weather again, crystal clear skies! While the rest of my roommates slept I decided that it would be a good idea to jump off the side of the mountain! Haah! I went PARAGLIDDING! I, of course, forgot to put my battery in my camera otherwise I would have had a beautiful video for you! Ahah! Not to worry, I wore a helmet andddd went with a professional! We literally just started running of the side of the mountain and the wind took our parachute and we sailed 4000 miles above ground☺ The views were, as always, breathtaking! It was soooo, very cold! My eyes were watering and my tears literally froze to my eyelashes! It was worth it, though!

I loved Switzerland sooo much and it is definitely a place that I want to go back to and visit again some day:)

Visting Emma in Bologna!

2009-02-18T06:51:00.001-08:00

Once again, I planned a trip last minute! I have a good feeling that this won’t be the last time it happens, either! Haha! Unfortunately, again, I wasn’t able to conquer the train system….soon though, I’m determined I will get it down!

Emma has assured me that it is not necessary to buy train tickets in advance and you can buy them literally 2 minutes before you get on the train and be fine…I found out that this is true…sort of…

In order to get to the train station from my apartment I have to take a 5 minute tram ride to the bus stop and then take a 15 minute bus ride to the train station...I am learning that living in the city is WAY different that good ol’ De Pere, but I am slowly getting used to it, and doing a pretty good job (I think, anyway!)

This Thursday, however, the bus was running a little late and I ended up waiting at the bus stop for about 15 minutes. I was a little worried that I would miss my train, but not too worried because I knew that the trains leave about every 20 minutes. I made it to the train station at about 12:15, the train left at 12: 25…. I bought my ticket and things were going smoothly, I just had to find my train. Well, I didn’t know how to read my ticket (again, I’m thinking I need to work on my Italian) so I was frantically trying to figure out what train was mine and what car I was in, etc. I called Emma (who is fluent in Italian) as I was power walking (actually it was a slow jog!) through the train station and she helped me read my ticket and figure out which train I was.

I found my train, but realized that I was in the last possibly box car…I had 4 minutes until the train left! It was a mad dash! I hopped on the 6th car and before I was all the way back to 11th, the train was moving! I found my seat and was literally sweating from my close encounter of missing my train!

After my little run through the train I arrived in Bologna and Emma picked me up at the train station. We relaxed for the afternoon and then went over to her friends’ house where we had some wine and they played guitar and sang! It was so much fun! Later, we met up with a few other people and went to a traditional Bolognese restaurant where Emma ordered me a traditional dish. It was basically just noodles and meat sauce, but they call it something different…it was DELICIOUS! It could have easily become my favorite meal in Italy so far! While I was in Bologna I learned that it is the “food capital of Italy” ☺ After dinner we went out dancing! We had such a blast! On our way home we stopped at this little bakery that was already open because it was making goods for the next day! (It was like 330 am! Ahah) so we got FRESH CROSSIANTS filled with nutella ☺ they were SO amazing-warm right out of the oven! ☺ We stretched before bed so we wouldn’t be sore on Friday…that should give you an idea of how much we danced! Ahah

Friday we slept very late, which was ok because it rained the whole day ☹ the friends I had met the night before, Pedro and Carolyn were performing at a little restaurant so we had plans to go see them at night! Before we went to watch them perform we went to a pub and got an apertivo (you buy a drink for around 6 euro and then it is an all you can eat buffet) the food was, once again, delicious! When we got to the other restaurant to watch Pedro and Carolyn perform we got another apertivo…we were full, but it was worth it ☺ they did such a great job signing! I’m going to try to upload a video of them singing a song they wrote together! It’s in Portuguese and English!

(That little dot on the top of the hill is San Luca!)

Saturday we got up fairly early and decided to walk around Bologna. We climbed to the top of this tower right by Emma’s apartment…I’ve decided that if I climb a tower a weekend I will for sure get in a good enough amount of exercise! Ahah! Once we were at the top, Emma pointed out San Luca to me. It is a church about 4 miles away from where she lived! It looked so beautiful in the hills of Bologna, so we decided to be adventurous and try to make it there to se the sunset!

It was quite a haul but we made it! Just in time for the sun to set too! We were sweating by the time we made it to the top of the hill, but it was so worth it! It was one of the most beautiful views of the countryside I have seen so far! The top of the Duomo in Florence and the tower in Bologna were great, but they showed the city and tops of houses…this view was all hills! It was fantastic! After our 8-mile walk we went out to dinner at a little pizza place in town! I had THE BEST PIZZA I HAVE EVER HAD! It had mozzarella and Gorgonzola cheese, tomato and asparagus! It was SO good! I think I’ll try to attempt making it sometime! It is crazy what these Italians think to put on the top of their pizzas! Ahah we were very tired from our long day of climbing stairs and hills so we called it an early night.

Sunday I was headed back to Rome! I went to the train station to buy my ticket, just like last time, but much to my surprise the second-class tickets were SOLD OUT! The next train didn’t leave for another 2 hours (because Bologna is a much smaller train station, trains don’t leave as frequently) and I wouldn’t get home until 10:30pm! Much to my dismay, I had to buy a 69 euro FIRST CLASS ticket back to Rome! I was not very thrilled!!! The only difference was a Dixie cup of Coke, some cookies and a chocolate…. never again will you catch me on the first class train….

Overall, the trip was very relaxing and it was great to see another part of Italy! I have learned thought that I should probably kick my Italian speaking into gear and arrive at the train station a little ahead of time! Someday I’ll learn ☺

FLORENCE!

2009-02-09T05:12:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I went to the BEAUTIFUL, Florence! I literally decided to go on Thursday night when I was out to dinner with two of my friends from St. Norbert. I have learned that the great thing about traveling in Europe is that things are fairly cheap and you can book them pretty much whenever you feel like going!

Friday morning we left early and took an hour and a half train ride through the beautiful mountains (maybe they were hills, I’m not sure, they were big though, because my ears kept popping). The whole time we were on the train the view kept getting more beautiful, it was so nice to be outside of the city for a while and see green trees! Haha

Once we got to Florence we got on a bus and navigated our way to the hostel the other 4 girls were going to be staying at while I stayed with my friend Gina. We went to the exact address only to find a picture frame store! The hostel they had booked (luckily they didn’t pay yet) no longer existed!! To make a long story short, they called a friend and found
somewhere to stay, but for a little bit we were felt a little worried.

Once we got our sleeping arrangements situated, we climbed to the top of the Duomo, 463 concrete steps. It made me realize how out of shape I am! My legs were seriously sore for 2 days after! Once we got to the top, though, the view was INCREDIBLE! It was a perfect day, 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! From the top we could see for MILES! WE could even see the Alps in the distance, it was so incredible, I could have sat up at the top all day long, I took a lot of pictures, but just like everything else around here, the pictures just can’t do any justice! Later we walked around Florence and took in all of the beautiful scenery and wonderful shopping! Friday night Gina and a couple other friends we knew from St. Norbert took us out to a nice dinner and the to a club later for dancing! It was a blast!

Saturday we decided that we were going to see THE DAVID! We found the museum all on our own only to find out that once you got inside you couldn’t take pictures ☹ There was beautiful artwork that had been refinished to look as good as new! Everything was so amazing! Lucky for you guys, I’m pretty much a rebel and I took a picture of David from a distance! ☺ trust me, it was a harder task then one may think, every time someone took out a camera the “guards” would SCREAM at them, of course it was in Italian so I didn’t know what they were saying, but it never sounded good! I’m sneaky though, so I got this picture for you to see ☺

The rest of Saturday we walked around more of Florence and enjoyed the beautiful weather! We got dinner at MCDONALDS and got ready to head back to Rome on our 8:30 train…or so we thought…

We got on a bus that we thought led to the train station and when the bus came to its final destination and everyone got off, we realized we were WRONG. We were literally in the middle of nowhere! The bus driver didn’t speak English and none of us knew Italian well enough to understand what he was telling us! Luckily, this wonderful woman saw us struggling and spoke English. She told us that we had to take another bus to get to the train station, which would take us another HOUR….we only had about 45 minutes…we were freaking out! She could tell we had no idea what we were doing so she decided that she was going to lead us to the next bus stop. It was so nice of her, but the whole time I couldn’t help but thinking that she was going to rob us! Haha I know that is a terrible thought, but we decided that the 5 of us could take her on, so we weren’t as worried as you probably are while you are reading this right now (Amy! Ahah). So, the nice woman didn’t rob us, she just led us to our bus stop and we waited another 15 minutes for the bus to come, the whole time thinking we were going to miss our train! We got on the bus and realized that we were reading the military time wrong, our train left at 930…not 830…things were looking up! Haha! The bus did end up taking about an hour and we passed Gina’s house where we originally left from! In the end, we made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare and got back to Rome successfully!

Florence, minus the few glitches we encountered was a success! It was so beautiful and spending 2 days with friends from St. Norbert was a much needed taste of home☺ I would love to go back there and explore even more someday, perhaps when my navigating skills are a little better, and I know a little more Italian! If it taught us one thing tough, I would say that we are pretty tough and 463 STEEP steps, military time, trains and busses can’t stop us☺

Getting to Know Rome

2009-01-29T13:07:00.000-08:00

You will all be happy to know that I survived my 21st birthday:) Emma came to visit and it was so nice to have a little bit of Wisconsin with me!

She got here on Thursday night and we just layed around and watched movies and ate! Being lazy is basically what we do best together! Friday we ventured out to go shopping, but I was actually pretty unsuccessful! I was in kind of a downer mood because it was basically my birthday and I was without all of you! (Don't get me wrong, being in Rome for my birthday was awesome, but without the people I care about, it just wasn't as exciting! I know I'll have a few celebrations when I get back, though :)) We met up with some of my roommates and got beer and pizza and it cheered me up! After lunch the two of us decided to go on an adventure and got lost...multiple times...but we had so much fun because we ran into the Pantheon and got coffee and cake and enjoyed every minute of it! Later that night we went out with most of my roommates and popped champagne at midnight:)

We all went out again on Saturday, but there was no sight seeing involved...I was stuck to my bed all day on Saturday and Sunday (rightfully so, I think) ahah:)

This week was my first real week of class! My day's are pretty easy! Monday I'm in class from 8:30-1 and then again from 6:45- 8, Tuesday 9-10:30, Wednesday 8:30-10:30 and 6:45- 8, Thursday 9-10:30 and Fridays are off:) It's basically the easiest schedule I've ever had:) I'm having a hard time filling my days right now though! I've had a job at school for so long that I'm not used to coming home and doing NOTHING! It has been very cloudy and rainy lately, I know once the sun starts shinning on a regular basis I will go out and do some more exploring, and I'm sure I'll start to get homework too! :(

I think all of my time alone at my apartment is making me homesick lately! My roommates have started to divide into different groups now, which is fine because there 9 of us, but it cause the occasional girl "cattyness" which I have been trying to stay as far away from as I can!

I've felt a lot more comfortable walking around alone now and I've been good at taking the tram and even the bus on my own! When Emma came in she took the train and then the metro. I had to meet her at the metro station (which I had no idea where it was) and had to take the bus there! I did it though! I got on the bus and got there safe and sound in one piece!

- A funny side note to this story...I have quickly learned that Italians do not like to sit and enjoy their coffee or take it to go like Americans do. Many times they order an espresso drink it standing up at a counter and leave. Well..... a certain someone told me that if I wanted coffee closer to something from home I should order a late....So, while I was waiting for Emma to get in, I found a little cafe and ordered a late. I received warm, frothed MILK.....Now I know that you have to order a CAFE LATE;)

Anyway, all of my practice walking to class and to the book store and grocery store and etc has really helped me to be very confident when trying to get around! I usually bring my ipod so that I don't have to only hear Italian, though. Soon, when I know a little more of the language I may brave the sidewalks without any earbuds, but for now...I'm doing just fine! A woman actually came up to me on the street the other day speaking in Italian asking me if I knew where something was...I must not look that "touristy" after all!

Last night, I went to dinner with two girls from St. Norbert and we had such a great time! They are feeling a little out of place, just like I am! It was nice to hear that other people are in the exact same boat as me! I know that soon everything is going to fall into place and I won't even notice that I've been gone for so long! The three of us and a couple of their roommates are going to be heading to florence for the next few days, so I will make sure to update you on my first trip!

That's about it for now! I hope everyone is doing well at home! :) Love you all!

Oh- I am also recently addicted to the show Prison Break....ahah so that has been filling my time quite nicely! ahah

classes!

2009-01-21T02:43:00.001-08:00

hello again!!:)

today is wednesday january 21st and as of now i have had all of my classes (well almost)!

Monday morning i had photography, which i think that i am going to LOVE! the teacher doesn't speak english that well but he's really nice and really good at trying to explain everything! i also had my digital media class...im not sure how much im going to be loving this one, but it is actually for my major so i'm going to have to suck it up! haha the teacher is from LA and is a huge nerd and wore two different earings...just imagine him! haha

Tuesdays and thursdays are not going to be my friend because i start the day at 830 with italian! ahhhh! yesterday she spoke in all italian...which i knew NONE of! haha so this one might be tough, but i'm acutally really looking forward to it! i feel so lost sometimes in the city because everywhere i go i hear italian and i never know what anyone is saying! i think once i know the basics i may start to feel a little more comfortable, especially when i can start communicating with people! i also had my religion class yesterday. the teacher is priest and also is the head of the english department at the vatican so i'm thinking that it will be a really cool class! we will be taking a lot of "field trips" to churches around the area so i'll make sure to have my camera ready! he also told us that he can get tickets to any of the masses at the vatican easily, so that is something that i think i should be taking advantage of! my last class yesterday was classical mythology, which i will soon be dropping and that's why i said i had gone to "almost" all of my classes! we got to class and right away the teacher assigned us 100 pages of reading for thursday! then he told us that we would be reading HUNDREDS of pages in his class and a lot of them would be in old english and that if we didn't like reading this class would not be fore us....needless to say...i'm searching for a new class! i don't want to have my face shoved in a book for four months! i'll keep you all updated on what i decide to do!!

last weekend we found a girls wallet in the street so we took it home and i looked her up on facebook! so, after my classes yesterday i took a nice walk to the spanish steps by myself to meet her and give her wallet back to her! (i decided that was my good deed for the month:) haha!) it was soo beautiful out yesterday! i'm pretty sure it was in the 60's! on my walk back home i stopped at a little shop and got a grilled veggie sandwhich:) it has been my favorite meal so far!! ahah sooooo goood!

at 4pm the school had a guest speaker come and then they had a live feed of the inauguration! the speaker was this cute old man who was the speech writer for gerald ford and he also assisted in writing the inaugural address for ronald reagan! he gave a really informative speech on the history of the inauguration! the school gave us a bunch of snacks and when they ran out they ordered pizza for everyone! i learned yesterday that john cabot has only around 700 students, and that is with study abroad students! last semester i guess they had 400! so i have a feeling that everything they do will be really personable like it was yesterday!

luckily for me, i got to the inauguration early and got a chair because i think they fit about 150 people in a space that only had 50 chairs! it was so weird to be in a different country on such an important day in our country! it was really cool to see all of the students that weren't american in the room watching with all of us! they even played it at a lot of bars around the area! i really enjoyed watching it and am really happy that i was able to experience it the way i did! it is something that i think i will remember forever!

yesterday i was a little homesick:( but i got to talk to 5 of my very best friends from home and my mom on skype though so it helped soo much:) it makes such a difference when you can actually see someone's face! my good friend emma is coming tomorrow night from bologna and staying for my birthday all weekend! i'll make sure to keep you all updated on what happens then! :)

p.s. my skype name is rachel.chmill if anyone has skype! and my phone number is 011-39-335-714-6533, just in case!

love and miss you all!

ciao!

Week One!

2009-01-17T11:04:00.001-08:00

Ciao from ROMA:) i'm sure all of you have heard that i made it safe and sound! obviously, i'm still not all of the way unpacked and i am just starting to blog even though i am a few days in! so, because i'm a few days behind i'll fill you in on what's been happening!

day one:

after a wonderful meal at the illinios chmill's i left chicago at 10pm! i took a few tylenol pm so the 7 hour flight was nice and peaceful for me:) when i got to london i thought that i would have a couple hour layover...oh was i wrong! the last call for boarding my plane was 1215...i finished going through security at 1217...and my terminal was on the other end of the airport...so i rannnn! haha! i made it on time, but it was close! once in italy i soon discovered that my big bag...with all of my clothes...was still in london! i kept my cool though and didn't even cry or anything! i ended up waiting at the airport for 4.5 hours for a shuttle to schooL! not fuN! but i did meet some nice girls...and snacked on the treats from peggy:) once i FINALLY got to my apartment all of my roommates had already eaten dinner, so i had a granola bar...not my idea of my first italian meal, but w/e...i made it work!

My apartment is really nice and so are my roommates! i got soo lucky! there are 4 double bedrooms, 1 single bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a tiny living room! ill make sure to post pictures soon...one of the bathrooms has what i think is the world's SMALLEST shower! when i got here monday night i took a shower right away (surprising, i know!) and i literally SAT on the floor of the shower and had to hold up the shower head because it is seriously that small...a sight all of you i'm sure are imagining right now and dying with laughter....i ended up going to bed around 12 and passed right out:)

day two:

we had to be up early for pointless orientation stuff but it was nice to actually be in rome and start to find my way around my campus and new town! we had lunch around 4 (my first real meal:)) at a little place down the road called salt and pepper! it was kind of like a buffet style restaurant but i inhaled everything! haha! after lunch we had more orientation and then back to our apartment and hung out. one of my roommates studied here first semester too so she didn't have to go to orientation! when she got home she took us to a small pizzeria about a block away from our apartment where we got a WHOLE pizza and WHOLE bottle of wine for under 6 euro...it was glorious :) after that we w ere all tired and came home and watched youtube videos:)!

day three:

more orientation! after we decided that we were going to try to explore and find somewhere for lunch...naturally, we got lost! ahha we found a cute little restaurant right near school tho! once we were done we came back and took a well needed nap! that night, the school arranged a little appertivo for us (which is basically an early dinner/ appetizers) it was ok, but nothing special. we went out for dessert after at another place right by our house with just our roomies and ended up splitting a few bottles of wine...which led us to our first night out on the town!

the area we went to is called campo de fiori, which is mainly a bunch of college bars...we left a little later than we should have so by the time we got there a lot of things were just wrapping up...we ended up meeting some cool people tho, so it all worked out in the end!

we've been walking everywhere, which isn't too bad, it takes about 25 minutes to get to school and 40ish to get to the bars, but we're trying to figure out the tram system...and if we plan it right, we don't have to pay for that...shhhh:) haha! the tw o things that are obviously the hardest to get used to are the time differance (7 hours ahead of wisconsin) and the language! i know literally nothing! i'm taking a class, so im hoping that it will help me at least be able to talk to waithers and read a menu...simple things like that!

day four:

we slept in reallllly late! the combination of going out and jetlag was really catching up with us! i really miss being attached to my cellphone and being able to talk to all of you guys whenever i want so when i get home l ate at night and everyone is on skype and facebook i stay up super late to talk! i'm sure that will not change, because even already i'm missing everyone like crazy! by the time we got up and ready it was time for dinner....so we slept super late...i'm just choosing not to reveal the time:) haha! we went to dinner down by the trevi fountain and a little restaurant called chianti...there were floor to ceiling racks of wine...something i'm sure my dad would be drooling over! haha it was really beautiful tho! we saw the trevi fountain..our first monument! and then heade d back home to watch sex and the city for a little roomie bonding time!

day five:

this was my favorite day so far! we got lunch at the pizzeria again..this time no wine...haha! we decided that we wanted to go shopping so we ended up taking the tram across the river and down to another area that was much more busy that what is around us! we walked FOREVER this day..probably a good 5 miles...i'm not kidding! we got lost..once again...but luckily we ended up finding the spanish steps and the pantheon....which are so close to us and SOO beautiful! i cannot fathom just how the romans built such huge, beautiful structures soooo long ago! while we were out and about we ended up meeting this club promoter who told us about a club named gilda. on our way home from our spontaneous sight seeing we stopped at a little irish pub and then headed home for a nap. after all of us got dressed up and went to find gilda....a task that was much harder than anticipated....in our heels...we walked...FOREVER...we ended up finding it and it was SUPER expensive...15 euro ( no i didn't buy a drink dad, so don't worry) per drink and it was dumb...there were literally like 55 year old men and women there...and no offense....but we all decided that should be an age limit to when you stop clubbing! ahha so we left and found another irish pub called scholars which was awesome! they played fantastic music and it was packed! there was even a bride there in her wedding dress! since the tram closes at 12 we had to walk home and it was not pretty...our feet were very mad at us! ahah once again, we got home and went on skype until the wee hours of the morning and slept in all day:) ahah

day six:

today! we've been seeing these huge red busses everywhere so we decided that we wanted to go on them. we left the house around 1 today and set out to find them! we paid 20 euro and it took us to like 15 beautiful locations! plus, it was warm and sunny today so we sat on the top level and had sooo much fun! we saw the vatican city! i'm thinking that we will be going back there to go on a tour, because they say it takes a long time! we just walked around and took beautiful pictures on our own:) we also saw a bunch of beautiful piazzas and the trevi fountain again, but this time in the daylight! we stopped for lunch at non other than...BURGER KING! and even though it usually gross...it was sooo good! and hit the spot! hah! we ended up leaving early because after the sun went behind the buildings we got reallly cold but our pass for the big red bus lasts 24 hours so we are determined to get up actually early tomorrow so we can go to the colosseum!

right now we are all super tired and just laying around from all of our walking and late night adventures. we're staying in tonight and i am DETERMINED to finish unpacking:)

Anyway, i know that is sooo much information to take in at once, but hopefully i will do this more often so that they are not all so long! i know that i've still left out so many things but i'm sure that i will get them all updated to u soon!

miss and love u all!

ciao!