One of the best things about studying abroad is being able to travel on the weekends. One of the best things about the JFRC is that they understand that and only have classes Monday thru Thursday, so students can travel.

Our first weekend travel excursion was with the JFRC to Pompeii. The sheer size of that ancient city is ridiculous. The most ridiculous, however, is the fact that they seemed to think pensis’ good luck. You can find them on walls as you’re walking along the ancient streets, or on the streets themselves, pointing you to brothels. Oh, the things history  books don’t teach us.

My next great weekend excursion was to Florence. Florence (“Firenze”) is wonderfully compact, ancient and touristy. You lose the hustle and bustle of Rome in Florence, but still find yourself walking amongst history that is just as impressive. We managed to hit all the main sites before we left. This included the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio and THE David.

The Duomo is truly awe-inspiring, something like the 4th largest dome in the world. The entire outside is smothered in decoration and art. I didn’t really know what to expect from it, but it took my breath away.

Ponte Vecchio is also fantastic. It’s name means old bridge, and it is just that, currently full of classy jewelery shops. We had many a photo shoot there since my friend and roommate shares a name with the bridge.

And the David. At first I thought,” ah well, it’s just like all those pictures you’ve ever seen, right?” Wrong. In person, the size and detail of that statue makes you realize why it’s photo is everywhere and why it is so idolized. Things like the veins on his arm, the curls in his hair, and, unexpectedly, the handsomeness of his face are so poignant and wonderful, you really just have to appreciate it and MichealAngelo.

Also, overall, Florence is just quainter. You can find English spoken everywhere, because it is so full of tourists, but that’s ok. You can enjoy gelato or lunch in adorable little cafes (bars) right outside the Duomo. You can also meet many other tourists from across the world. We met someone from Ireland, Germany and California while there.

However, I do enjoy the size and vibes of Rome and am glad to be living here, even though Florence is so wonderful. So I’ve decided Loyola needs to make a sister school in Florence. John Felice Florence Center, let’s go.

Also, speaking of being in Italy, boy did we get a taste of that on the way home from Florence. Our first transportation strike experience! We show up at the train station to see that all regional trains are canceled. As we were discussing what to do, a man from Tennessee (I think) was explaining to us how no, that train was canceled too, and no, that one might be full, ect. ect. He then says “well, you can go and ask over there, but they’re all on strike”. AL ITALIA! So we waited in an exceptionally long line (thanks to the three people working not on strike) and had to pay an extra 30 Euro to take a fast train so that we might get home in time for classes. It was indeed an Italian experience!

Greetings from Italia, home of heat, side streets, rain, and the Jersey Shore.

This week was the middle of my trip, and it sure seemed like it. I had midterms in the beginning of the week, which went well. Then on Wednesday, my whole program went to the Papal audience, because our school was being mentioned in “noteable attendees” … or a “special blessing”. I thought us getting to see the Pope speak and hold mass was a big deal, and then I found out it happened every Wednesday (when the Holy One is in town). I would love to say that I cheered like a sinner when the LUC John Felice Rome Center was named… but I was asleep. The heat and Midterms really wiped me out. But don’t worry, the trip wasn’t a total bust for me, Loyola took us to lunch at a pizzeria after. The later half of the week was nothing special, went to class, planned on working, but took a nap instead.

People from our program went on a program-sponsored trip to Asissi on Saturday. The town of Asissi is a medieval mountaintop town, three hours north of Rome. The population is around 6,000, most likely half being nuns and priests, since the St. Francis of Asissi church is there. We went on a walking tour around the town, and visited the church. The priests and nuns who are with the church have taken a vow of silence, so obviously the church is pretty quiet… except when someone’s alarm goes off on their cell phone. Leave it to a Loyola student to make a ruckus in a church that has been pretty much silent for hundreds of years. I wasn’t the nimrod, but I did have to spend the rest of the weekend with her.

After we finished in Asissi on Saturday, me and two girls went on to Florence for the night. We took a two hour train ride into the city, and then got to the hostel. Our cheap accommodations were quite lovely; it looked like an Ikea ad, rather than a military barrack. It wouldn’t really had mattered anyway, since we got there around 9pm and had to check out at 10am the next morning. We got dinner, and learned that pretty much all over Italy, you will be served frozen food if you chose to dine in a main piazza, otherwise known as a tourist trap. It’s not a big deal though, you just need to find smaller restaurants on side streets. After dinner we walked around for a good two hours, and a good hour and half of that was spent being lost. Florence is one of the most confusing cities I have ever been to. There are so many side streets that aren’t on maps, and so many piazzas that look the same. It was ridiculous. We finally decided to just turn around and walk back the way we came. It turned out to be fine since there was a plethora of gelato shops on our route.

The next day we ventured out to the city again in search of the famous leather market, and other shops we saw on our confused tour of the town from the previous night. Being that we were there on a Sunday, many of the shops didn’t open until later or not at all. We putzed around, making sure to stay with the “in-crowd”, also known as the crowd who weren’t boneheads and actually knew where they were going. After a few stores, we decided to try to find the pizza shop that the cast of The Jersey Shore was working/filming at this summer. After doing some research the night before, post jaunt around the city, we found it pretty easily. The idiots from The Shore weren’t working that day, but we still got pizza, it was probably one of the best I’ve had so far. After we scarfed down the pizza with spicy salami, we then went to find the leather market. Naturally we got lost again. This time we ventured past the center of town to the outskirts, with only locals that spoke no English. The outskirts of Florence looked much like Cabrini Green, or how I would imagine it looked like in its prime. Thankfully we found a street name that looked familiar and that could be found on a map. After a little navigational genius, not involving me, we made it back into town, and the leather market.

Unfortunately no merchant had a pair of leather chaps for me to buy, so we headed out and strolled the streets a little more, because it always worked out so well for us earlier. And then much to our surprise, we randomly stumbled upon half the cast of The Jersey Shore sitting on the street being filmed. None other than Vinny, Pauly D, J Woww, The Situation, and Ronnie were just hanging out outside their building. There was a small crowd, most likely populated by dumb Americans, and a whole squad of security. The Jersey idiots started walking, so we obviously followed… staying a good distance behind, in hopes of not catching any diseases they were dishing out.

Then not even a block later, it started to rain. The cast and crew stopped to hide under an awing. And then a downpour occurred. After a little schmoozing with a security guard, who happened to be a “runway model” in California, my girls got two ponchos from him, while I was stuck with a dilapidated umbrella. The rain came hard, and my regret of sticking around for these Jersey juice-heads came even harder. As soon as it started hailing, they all ran, while we were stuck in an apartment building’s lobby, but the girls and I were able to hail a cab in the monsoon. Since our train back to Rome was in two hours, we headed to the station early to avoid the rain. Needless to say, I was a bit soggy, but thankfully I had an alternative change of clothes, which I put on right away. Because it rained hard for the entire two hour wait, when we went underground to get to our train platform, we had to walk through mid-calf high water. Not great.

I arrived safely back in Rome, after an hour and half train ride. The trip back was a bit uncomfortable, since the Italian couple I sat next to obviously judged my Pringle consumption. Pringles are sold like water in Italy, and I’ve definitely taken to the cylinder packaged snack. I have no plans for the next week, but I’m sure I’ll end up embarrassing myself in some way. I hope all is well back in the U. S. of A. and I miss all of you… along with Mountain Dew.

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So all I can say is that I´m absolutely in love with this place, my title was inspired by the Queen song which I feel can pretty much describe how things are going. 1. I live on a cliff over the water so I get an awesome butt workout everyday going home. 2. siestas are bomb. 3. The people are so friendly here and there is no crime. 4. I´m in Spain! But I am having the best time and my spanish is definitely getting better. I have also been going out and making new friends which is  really fun. They are very shy people here so obviously I am funny to them because I am loud and will just walk up to anyone and practice me some spanish. My class is pretty cool because there are only 4 of us in it and my professor is in charge of this program so thats pretty sweeet. This blogging business is hard because I can´t remember any of the things I wanted to say when I finally get a chance to sit down and write! So please, if you have any questions feel free to ask! Agur! (thats basque for bye!)

1 June 2011… Is it really June? When did it become June? When did August end? I am still having a hard time believing that my calendar is correct in stating 1 June. It doesn’t seem possible. Now what makes 1 June so odd to me that I cannot believe that is is here? No, it is not the fact that it is the first day of June, or that it is a Thursday. It is that tomorrow is 2 June: mañana, if you will, is the day my USAC Madrid program starts.

Summer vacation ends tomorrow when I take the train into Atocha Station and walk the block and a half to the Orientation Hotel, officially starting my last study abroad and making the count at 31 days until returning to the US. But those feelings shall wait until a later blog. Allora (that will also be hard- I have phrases in German and Italian that come to mind easier than English… sorry roommates, you will be lost), first, I have some catching up to do.

So last Saturday, 28 May, I was able to cross off another item from the Bucket List: Rock Climbing. Now I don’t mean rock climbing in a gym or a recreational center, but here is a mountain face, some rope, don’t look down, and go. Jeff, who loves rock climbing and any activity that gets people outside, took me to a park with wonderful hiking and rock climbing, La Pedriza near Manzanares el Real. After hiking for about 30 minutes (which involved some minor scaling of rocks/boulders), we reached the mountain and began climbing up. This was scrambling over rocks and ledges, following a path that was somewhat marked if you knew what to look for and the way it should be going. Needless to say, I was having a blast, even if it was hard work. 20 minutes later and we were at the location where the actual rock climbing could start.

This is when Jeff taught me how to use the harness (and put it on), what the equipment was for, what knots to use, what phrases to say, and what to do to not injure myself or anyone else for that matter. When he was satisfied that I knew what to do, he went up, secured the ropes, came back down, and told me to go. The first time going up I was not the most comfortable. I was sure I was going to lose my footing, slide, and go off the face of the mountain, many hundreds of meters down into the valley and to my death. The fact that I was harnessed in did not matter. In actuality, I was as safe as I could be: Jeff had the other part of the rope and should I have fallen, he would have stopped me using the belay (basically a brake on the rope). About half way up, he told me to stop so he could take my photo. I was not happy about stopping as it meant I had to turn around, face him, and the drop beneath me. Not the most comforting view. When I got to the top, I turned around again, and the view, along with the feeling of awe of what I had just done, was amazing. I felt like I was on top of the world. That is, until I looked down and realized I still had to get off the face of the mountain. Yikes!

After Jeff, from the ground, instructed me how to get back down (lean back, standing up, and walk backwards as he slowly let the rope out), I made it to Terra Firma (yes, I was on land, but to me, now, terra Firma means solid ground where one slip will not seriously injure you). We did that particular run a few more times, until Jeff had to go up and take off the equipment ( the bolts etc). After he had done that, he secured himself up on a ledge, then had me climb up, join him, and then worked his magic while I was panicking about slipping and falling to my death (we were both fine and secured to the mountain 3 fold) so that we could repel down the mountain. One of the scariest and coolest things I have done. Would I do it again? You bet. We then did a few more runs in various other places on the mountain, before hiking down to get dinner and then go home. In all, it was a fantastic afternoon.

The logical event to follow would be a day of rest, right? Ease the shoulders, the arms, the legs… After all, they had a good workout the day before, ¿Sì? Well, they did have a work out, but the day of rest… yeah, not so much. On Sunday, Jeff invited me to join him on a hiking trip. Not a day hike or a “lets drive to location A, hike out a few hours, return to A, spend the night in a hostel, hike the next day some more, and then return”. No, it was a here is a 22+ kilo (cerca 50 lbs) hiking bookbag, a walking stick (for which I am grateful!), and prepare to spend 2,5 days out in the mountain range of Los Gredos, starting in Bohoyo. I am glad I run a lot because otherwise this trip would have been nearly impossible. We slept in one man tents which we brought with us in our bags, brought enough food for 3 days, pots and cups, and camping stoves with fuel.

I thought I had done a lot of walking… I was wrong. On Sunday, we only hiked for about 30 minutes, long enough to be in the park and find a good spot to camp. We found one, near a fresh, clean spring, and made camp. We pitched the tents, and then made dinner. I now know how to pitch a tent, find good water, and secure all items in case of storms. We hiked for about 6 hours on the next day, starting early in the morning. We reached our destination at the foot of the mountain pass after hiking through rain, fog, hail, fording rivers, climbing boulders, sun, shade, forests, and the whole time uphill. It was amazing. The rain was a bit of a damper (no pun intended), but manageable. We just put the rain jackets on, covered the bags in their rain gear, and we were on our way again. After settling in our camp, we had some lunch, before going up higher in the mountains, where we found the old province wall from before the civil war, some ruins from old huts used for when the path we took was the main path up the mountains for hikers, and a snow shelf. We couldn’t go to the Pass of Five Lakes due to hail and fog, so we headed back down the mountain to camp, had dinner, and went to bed. On Tuesday, we made it up to the pass, past, across numerous rocks on the side of a mountain with a sheer drop (again, shaved a few years off the life), made it through snow fields (where one slip and bye bye down a mountain into a valley below), to the ridge between La Galana and Almanzor in Sierra de Gredos. It was amazing. The views took my breath away and I could not believe what I was seeing.

After resting a bit up at the top (and letting my nerves relax), we headed back down, which seemed easier than going up. Maybe it was because I knew I could do the trip, having done it once before. When we reached camp, we had lunch, and then set off on a 6 hour hike back down the mountain and valley. Now, being the nerd I am, I have to say, I couldn’t but help feel like I was someone in Lord of the Rings hiking through Middle Earth. It was that unreal. Even more so because it was something I had wanted to do, but never thought I would. Much less in Spain, an hour and a half away from Madrid.

And that brings me to Mañana: Orientation. It is exciting that I will start Spanish again, but it is also sad, as it is the last part of my study abroad. I am looking forward to meeting the other students in my group, and moving into my apartment Friday. Ah, my own room again! That is truly a blessing. And to cook! That is something I missed in Italy: having a kitchen. I know this next month will fly by: school always does, even more so abroad. I know I will find the balance between work and travel and exploring, even if this time it will be harder, as I really do not want to be in school, but would rather just travel. Alas! Such is not in the cards at the moment. I guess I can handle school in Spain. 🙂 jaja

So, the next phase starts. Wish all of us luck, and long live Spain!

View from Trail

Rock Climbing

In Front of Almanzor

Crossing one of the snow fields

View looking down into the valley

While I (or rather my friend) upload pictures and gather thoughts for actual blog posts on actual happenings, let me share with you some wonderful things I highly enjoy about Itlay. (These kinds of things usually cause me to shout “Al Italia” to my friends or state “We are in ROME“)

1) Gelato.  It really is fantastic and delicious. But something I really like about gelato here, everyone eats it. Not just tourists like me who drool over each gellateria they see, but actual local Italians. It is truly a delicious cultural experience. With gelato, one can also say food is a favorite thing here. Pizza and pasta galore, truly.

2) History. I am a sucker for history. I have had many conversations about how Americans simply can’t grasp the history in places like this because it is simply SO OLD. American history goes back, at the max, to Colombus sailing the ocean blue in 1492. Here, you can literally walk in a 2000 year old building (Pantheon) and experience culture also thousands of years in the making. I am constantly in awe of this knowledge and stop and think every now and then that Caesar could have walked where I am walking, MichealAngelo could have experienced the same view of the Vatican I am, or any other counltess and mind blowing thing. That alone is worth travels to Europe, let alone Italy.

3) Italians. They really do kiss each other on both cheeks with a ciao. They really do takes HOURS to eat. They really do NOT form lines for buses and trains. They really are sweet and willing to chat. They really do gesture quite a bit. They really do siesta in the afternoon. And they really are the laid back, enjoyable people who understand Il doce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing. In my experience, anyway.

Those are just a few of things I am loving and continue to love while here in Rome.

Vingt-Neuf days until I am in Aix en Provence!

I got here a few days ago but it was hard to get to a computer for a while… but I am alive so don´t worry! My host mom is a wild lady she is so much fun. She was upset when I only came home at midnight the first night, she expects me to come home at 2 or 3 from now on! It is absolutely amazing here people are so nice. We received so much free food last night at the bars and Grandpa Mike you would be proud of me and my wine drinking 🙂 It is great here… I might just stay here forever!