The Last One

I have been staring at the computer screen for like, 10 minutes now.  I have no idea how to even begin wrapping things up in the form of words.

I am currently sitting on my bed.  It is almost 1 in the morning, and we are leaving for the airport at 7 AM.  I find myself thinking back to the very beginning...having Jen convince me to talk to my advisor to see if I could fit study abroad into my 4-year plan, applying, getting accepted into the program in February, meeting my group at the end of the school year (and maybe knowing like 10 out of 30), and sitting on my bed, typing my first blog ever.  It truthfully didn't feel like I reality at that point...it wasn't until I was sitting on the plane that I was like, whaaaat am I doing??  Living across the seas for 4 months??  Traveling with many people I hardly knew at the time?  Honestly, at the beginning of it all, I never imagined I would have such a hard time facing the reality that it is done.  It is so sad to think that something you've been planning for a year, places you've been pumped to see your whole life, and now it's all over.  I knew that I would have an incredible experience, learn a lot, and see some awesome sights, but I had no idea that I was going to fall in love with two amazingly different places, as well as fall in love with the random group of people that I was put together with.

This evening, we had a delicious farewell dinner that lasted over 3 hours, and as I looked around the room at each person from our group, I honestly got tears in my eyes.  I can remember looking around the room at our group at orientation and seeing so many faces I had never seen before.  But now I look at each face, and I know a piece of their story.  I got to share an incredible experience with them, and I couldn't have picked a better group.  One of my favorite parts of this whole experience has been getting to know such amazing people.  I had no idea that our group was going to become this close by the end.  I can already tell that we will still spend time together when we are back at school, and I'm so thankful for the special bond that I have with them.   It's definitely true that God sends people into your life for a purpose, and never forget how much you can learn by getting to know someone new.  You can never anticipate how they will touch your life, and it's something beautiful to watch.

In the past 4 months (August 16th - December 16...right on the dot!) I've seen Madrid, Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Lyon, Paris, Athens, Sounion, Aegina, Santorini, Napflio, Olympia, Meteora, Corinth, Delphi, Munich, Salzburg, Dachau, Venice, Siena, Rome, Vatican City, Subiaco, Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento, Assisi, Florence, Tivoli, Ostia Antica, plus maybe even more cities and towns that I forgot to mention.  I've bungee jumped, parasailed, learned a little Greek and Italian, met many new people, flew on planes, rode on trains, enjoyed the bus rides that you should get an olympic medal for trying to hold on with out flying all over the place, went swimming in the ocean, cliff jumped, read a book on our terrace, enjoyed authentic foods, was sung to at a soup kitchen, sprinted to the grocery store to buy tortellini for supper before it closed, sang at a karaoke bar, and so many other incredible memories that I have embedded in this blog forever.  It saddens my heart very much that I will never be in this situation ever again.  Living somewhere truly makes you become a part of it.  I'm really going to miss living here...I've learned how to work the bus system and metro, where things are in the city, and so on.  These places that I've seen will hold a special place in my heart forever.  Before I left in August, I remember thinking that I would be so ready to leave at the end, and that it wouldn't be hard at all.  I have NO idea what I was thinking!  It's honestly going to be so hard to leave here, and I'm not ready to leave and for this to end.

I know studying abroad has changed me, but I probably won't know the complete effects of that until I get home.  It's going to take some getting used to!  Being in my houses again, seeing my family and friends, driving a car, having a phone, US money, etc.  It's changed my outlook on the world, but it has also made me appreciate so many things much more.  I'm truly thankful for my family.  I miss them so much, and they are very important to me.  They are an important part of my life, and I can't wait for them to be a primary part of it again.  I can't wait to see all of my friends as well...I've really learned to appreciate how much they mean to me and how lucky I am to have them.  Also, I've learned that I am in the right field in studying to be a Dentist...it was wonderful having a break and taking classes like history and art in Greece and Rome, but believe it or not, I actually miss science classes!  That's a pretty good indication I'd say.  I have fallen in love with Europe, but I definitely embrace the fact that I am an American.  I love my country, and it will always be number one in my heart.  As you can see, I have a lot of conflicting emotions these days!

I wish so much that I had the words to explain to you all how incredible this truly was.  Just give me like a day to talk to you, and that should be enough time to talk to you about everything :).  I'm so incredibly thankful to Jen for advising me to do all I could to make this possible, and to my parents, family, and friends for being so supportive.  I'm thankful to my teachers and staff here in Europe, and my amazing group...I'm so so blessed to have met each and every one of them.  I will never forget this amazing experience and every little magical detail it had.  It breaks my heart to leave, but know that I am looking forward to seeing everyone and hearing about the 4 months of their lives that I've missed!  If anyone who is reading this is thinking about studying abroad, I HIGHLY recommend it...you will never regret it for a second, and it's something you will never ever forget for the rest of your life.  Take care everyone, thank you so much for tuning in the past semester :) and see you all soon!

Ciao Roma!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

Ostia Antica - just some of many ancient ruins we saw

Oh I will miss the beautiful city of Rome

Simply exploring is one of the best ways to spend your time

Christmas time at the Colosseum

View of the Vatican from St. Peter's Dome

The Dome of St. Peter's

Oh yeah, we did climb 320 steps!

The river Tiber

From Serving Food to the Needy to Serving Food to Guys for Gelato

Yes indeed, I have decided to tune back in to my blog.  The delay is not because I don't want to write, I just seem to be getting more and more busy here.  I have 8 days left currently, so the rest of my time here will be spent studying for finals, taking finals, but primarily doing everything I can before my time is up here.  Here come the highlights of this past week:

Last Monday, we had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at a soup kitchen here in Rome.  As I think I've mentioned before, our school arranges events for our group to sign up for throughout the semester.  This is one that they put on for us this week, and I was excited to see that almost our whole group signed up.  As we got there and got assigned jobs, I noticed that this soup kitchen was very different than the ones that I've helped out at at home.  I worked at the registration desk, so I quickly learned how everything worked.  The people who came to eat had an ID badge that had a certain number on it.  We had big binders at the registration desk with loads of numbers in them and we would flip to their page.  It had all of the days of the month on it, and then they would sign their name and get a ticket.  Then they proceeded to go through the line to get their food, which I was surprised to see they had all different kinds of dishes that they switched out.  Many of the guests would stay around the entire time it was open, talking to everyone there.  Of course, many of the Italian men did their fair share of wooing all of the girls in our group.  I was working with two other girls, Kirsten and Judy, at the desk, and many of the men came back to the desk to chat with us.  One guy even sang to me as he signed his name.  It was pretty humorous watching this occur all across the dining room.  An older Italian man worked at the registration desk, and he was so incredibly kind to us.  We had a great time talking to him and getting to know him.  Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, and had a blast doing it!

Before I studied abroad, I had heard from my brother Alex and a few others to do the Scavi Tour at the Vatican - this tour takes you underneath St. Peter's Basilica and allows you to see the years of excavations they have done down there.  So while we were in Greece, each apartment did their best to sign up for a tour, because they are extremely popular.  Last Tuesday, my old apartment got to go, and it was incredible!  Again, we felt like we were members of the Vatican - the Swiss guard let us pass through blocked gates with our reservation sheet.  We had a really excellent tour guide, who knew his information extremely well and wasn't forceful or opinionated.  Underneath St. Peter's, you will find all kinds of ancient funeral rooms where pagans from the 1st century AD had buried their dead...crazy that it looked so well-preserved for being over 2000 years old!  We also saw the spot where St. Peter is thought to be buried.  Archeologists are pretty sure for a couple reasons - first of all, it was tradition that when a church was buried over a saint, it would be named after that saint.  Also, the skeleton found in the grave was a 1st century Palatine man.  The remains contained bones from every single bone group except for one: the feet.  St. Peter did not feel worthy to be Crucified as the Lord was, so he was crucified upside down.  When they removed a body on a cross that was upside down, they would cut them off by their feet and the body would swing down for them to bury.  Hmmm...sounds like St. Peter to me!  I found the tour very much worthwhile, so if you are ever at the Vatican, make sure to do that tour!

This past weekend we had free, and many of us stayed in Rome since we don't have that much time left. A few of us spent an evening seeing a couple churches and going out to dinner.  The first church we saw was called "Scala Sancta" or "Holy Stairs".  This church contained the steps that led up to Pontious Pilate's residence, where he condemned Jesus to death.  Jesus walked up those stairs many times that day.  They are made of marble, but got covered in wood to preserve the marble.  There are even spots on the stairs that are covered in glass instead of wood, because the blood of Jesus is actually spilled on those spots - pretty incredible!  What you are supposed to do is go up the stairs on your knees, praying continuously as you go up.  So a few of us did this, and let me tell you, my knees killed the whole time - 28 steps!  As I was going up, I realized this pain was very symbolic.  Jesus endured so much more pain the day he died than I ever have my entire life - so I should be able to kneel up a staircase!  I really liked it a lot.  We then proceeded to see St. John the Lateran church, which was huge but also beautiful.  To end the night, we had a delicious dinner in Trastevere - the neighborhood that has a huge Sunday market.  We found the cutest restaurant called "Le Fate," and it was decked out in Christmas decoration, soft jazz playing in the background.  Such a perfect Italian night!

To end that weekend, we spent a morning at the Tivoli Gardens.  Yes, Becca Lais, I was Lizzie McGuire for the day :).  These gardens are contained in a Villa, so there is a huge residence that we walked through first.  Then, it took us a couple of hours to go through the garden because it was so huge.  Fountain after fountain.  We ate a nice packed lunch there, and even saw a fountain that opened up and had an organ play.  It was a nice, peaceful morning.

This week, we had our last week of classes.  Our Theology final was on Tuesday, so we spend some time preparing for that.  On Monday night, our friend Nick decided he wanted to come over and cook for us.  His apartment got mad at us for stealing their cook but hey, he offered!  He made us pesto and pasta, which we ate outside on our terrace.  Yep, that's right - we ate dinner OUTSIDE in December...I'm really going to miss this nice weather.  It is in the low 60s everyday, and we have been blessed with little rain.  Going home next week is going to be a rude awakening...I'm going to be a wimp!  After our Theo final, we had a wine tasting at our school.  A professional came and explained to us how they make wine, plus let us try a red, white, rose, and sweet wine.  It was very fun and interesting!  Then that evening, we made a chicken parmesan dinner for a few boys in exchange for them taking us to their favorite gelato place.  Kate is truly an excellent cook, and we had a wonderful time.  Today (December 8th) is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is a holiday here in Italy.  We have the entire day to ourselves, so a few of us went to Mass at the Vatican this morning.  That's twice I've been to Mass at the Vatican on a feast day - pretty cool.  After Mass, we leisurely walked out to St. Peter's square, and quickly noticed that it was packed with people.  We looked up to the apartment building where the Pope lives and sure enough, his window was open!  We waited like 2 minutes and all of a sudden, there he is in his window!  It's up high, so he looked pretty tiny, but it was pretty incredible how we didn't even plan on it but saw the Pope today.  Pretty successful day I must say.

I'm filled with very mixed emotions at the moment, because I'm so excited to see family and friends at home, but seeing this experience come to an end is really tough.  I'm really going to miss it here, and the time keeps going faster and faster!  I know for sure I will have one more post, maybe two if I can so hang in there!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

My roommates: Megan, Caitlin, Jen, Taylor, Ricki, and Kate

Cool bridge in Florence

There were many cool bridges in Florence

A man rowing through the river

Jen, Kate, Caitlin, Brigitta, and I

Massive Mickey Mouse gelato from my last post

Cute restaurant in Trastevere 

The many fountains of Tivoli

Kate, Brigitta, Lauren, and I

The whole Tivoli group

Fountains yet again

Lauren, Kate, Brigitta, and I in front of a door Jen really liked

Feeling the Christmas Spirit in the Air

Greetings to all!  A special shout out to my random friends in Russia viewing my blog.  Thanks for tuning in.

Highlights of this past week.  Ready, set, GO!

Last Sunday, I spent the day in Assisi with Kate and Jen.  We got up very early, took a warm and toasty train at 7:45, and spent the entire day there.  We enjoyed it very much, and we all agreed that it was one of our favorite towns period.  To describe it briefly, it is a gorgeous, Medieval town filled with beautiful buildings, breathtaking churches, and misty, mysterious scenery.  Both St. Francis and St. Clare are very important to Italy and to the Catholic faith in general of course, so it was so cool to see everything that they have there in relation to these saints.  They had clothes they wore and other relics in addition to their tombs.  We also saw an amazing exhibit within one of the smaller churches.  It was called "Santa Maria delle Rose" by an Italian artist named Guido Dettoni della Grazia.  He created a handheld object made out of either wood or marble that showed the Virgin Mary in different positions.  One shows her kneeling, another pregnant, another holding the baby Jesus, another her carrying water to the well, and another as a dove for the symbol of peace.  You can hold this small object in your hand and it feels like you are holding Mary's hand.  There were 33 of them on display in a semi-circle, representing the 33 years Jesus lived.  The symbolism, craftsmenship, and meaning truly amazed me, and I couldn't get over how cool it was.  The day was well spent to say the least.

Next highlight: we got to have Mass in a chapel with Father Becker (a priest from our St. Ben's/St. John's community spending some time in Rome) in St. Peter's Basilica.  He walked us into this big church, took us over to a statue against a wall, and walked us down a hidden staircase behind the statue. Yeah, I felt pretty cool going down a secret passage.  Then, we had Mass in a small chapel under the floor of the Vatican.  These chapels are filled with other random groups throughout the floor - Father Becker said you need to reserve them in advance if you want to hold a Mass down there.  It was an incredibly awesome experience.  Afterwards, he invited us to coffee/hot chocolate at a place near the Vatican and even though we were supposed to be back at school for class, we couldn't pass up that opportunity.  We were very grateful to our program director for being so understanding when we showed up almost an hour late for class :).  That same day for Theology class, we were taken to Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.  Little did I know that St. Paul was buried in Rome.  This meant a lot to me, because the Letters of St. Paul are my favorite books within the Bible.

Tuesday night, we had the opportunity to see an Opera concert as a group.  This concert was not an actual opera, but a performance in a small church by four opera singers, singing many different arias.  Even though I can't understand a word they are singing, I enjoyed myself very much.  The Baritone singer in particular was such a character, getting in the faces of the audience and putting on a show.  I was also surprised that I recognized so many of the songs - thank you random movies and TV shows!  We really enjoyed getting dressed up and seeing this performance as a group.

Also this week, I got the chance to see the inside of the Colosseum.  This was a pleasant surprise, because for our history class, we were only supposed to see the Roman Forum.  We found out when we got there that our ticket didn't work for both the Forum and the Colosseum like we were hoping, and I could see the disappointment on everyone's faces when our professor broke the news to us.  Well, this professor is the same one that bought some of us cookies, so even though he acts tough, he has a soft spot for us.  So after class, he pulled some strings, and we were able to see the inside of the Colosseum.  I was so amazed - it was truly incredible!  So big, so intelligent, and so similar to what major stadiums look like today.  We read a lot of information about the gladiator fights between the criminals that the spectators would watch, as well as animal fights.  This information was so fascinating...even though it costs money to see the inside, I highly recommend it - super cool!

Thurdsday, of course, was Thanksgiving...we got dragged to Florence for the weekend, which was no fun at all ;).  We didn't have class on Thursday or Friday, so we got to leave Thursday morning and stay until Sunday.  Now, Florence is famous for its leather goods.  I swear, when we left today to come back to Rome everyone's luggage doubled due to what everyone bought.  Countless boots, belts, wallets, and purses were bought.  Yes, I too was bit by the leather bug and bought a small purse.  This may be shocking to some, because I'm not a big purse person, but my red vera bradley purse at home is getting very beat up so it was a practical purchase!  So when our train arrived in Florence, the first thing most people did was hit up the leather market.  The streets are lined with vendors selling all kinds of leather products, in addition to ties, sports jerseys, italy gear, jewelry, and the like.  Thursday evening, our hotel treated us to a Thanksgiving dinner.  We got to have some turkey and mashed potatoes, and yes, it was not near as good as my mom's or grandma's, but I sure appreciated the gesture - it made the day feel at least a little like Thanksgiving.  The best part of the dinner was how sentimental it got.  Our director's wife had us go around every table and have every person say what they are thankful for.  Every single person was thankful for our study abroad group.  Thinking back to meeting these people almost 4 months ago, it is so fun to see how we have become a little family.  It was so wonderful to spend such a wonderful holiday with people I am so thankful to have met.  Many great dinner conversations were had, including one table discussing what everyone in the group's spirit animal would be.  I'm proud to report that they assigned me a golden retriever as my spirit animal.  I am honored!  The next day we had art class for most of the day, but we did get one break where we spent some time by the river.  The city of Florence quickly became one of my favorites.  It is a big city, but it has such a small feel to it.  We walked and saw so much of the city.  We spent some time taking pictures on the bridge filled with shops of blow-your-mind expensive jewelry.  After class, we had the mission of finding Jen some leather boots.  These boots in general are very expensive, and she was looking to go no higher than 80 euro.  We eventually ended in a store by our hotel that we had stopped in yesterday.  The owners immediately recognized us, and Jen showed them the particular boots she wanted, finding out they were 120 euro.  She told him she could not pay that much, and that she was a student.  He then proceeded to give her a student discount of 100 euro.  But Jen stayed strong folks, saying she would be willing to pay 80 tops.  The owner sighed, spoke some things in Italian to the other owner, and took her downstairs to try them on.  She loved them of course, told him again she would only pay 80, and amazingly enough, he agreed!  She was in shock for awhile afterwards.  I knew it was a great purchase for her, because the next morning, she rolled over, looked at her boots, and said, "Good morning, boots!".  We enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant we had visited last time we were in Florence and it was delicious a second time.  The next day, we had class again and then ate lunch that we brought in a park near our old hostel from our last visit to Florence.  We spent a lot of the day walking around and enjoying each other's company.  Today, we had the whole day to explore, so a group of us went to a Palace near the river, which was very impressive!  In the back, there was a huge garden where we spent most of our time.  We also went to Piazza Michaelangelo, which had an incredible view of the entire city.  We ended our time in Florence with a pretty humorous story.  About an hour before we needed to head back to the hotel to catch our train, Kate, Jen, and I were walking around the city.  Both Jen and Kate were very tired.  Then, Kate said something that was unheard of - that we should get gelato to pass the time before we had to go.  Kate NEVER suggests gelato, and gives Jen a hard time whenever she suggests it, so I knew she must really have been tired.  There was a place Jen had seen that she wanted to try, so we got there and Jen ordered first.  Now, she ordered a small cone (the smallest they had) with two scoops.  I thought this would be a nice, small size for a snack.  The lady then proceeded to put the first scoop on Jen's cone, taking a scoop so gigantic that all three of our jaws dropped to the floor.  She added an equally big scoop on top of that one, and added circular waffle wafers, saying, "I make you Mickey Mouse."  Woah.  Now normally the gelato we get is like 2.50, 3 euro.  Especially when it's only two scoops.  Guess how much this gelato ended up being.  7 euro.  7 EURO?!?!  By the time Jen informed us of the price, it was too late - Kate and I had already been given our Mickey Mouse, over-priced gelato mountains.  We then stood outside in the square, trying to make a dent in this gelato bigger than our faces, busting a gut the entire time of how funny this situation was.  At least it was incredibly delicious :).

As we got back to Rome, the city is decked out with Christmas lights and trees.  It really has me in the Christmas mood, and I am currently listening to some Christmas music while I blog.  We are so excited to experience the Christmas season here in Rome.  I discovered riding back on the train that we just had our last group trip and most likely my last train ride in Europe.  The end is less than 3 weeks away, and it is really setting in as a reality...I will probably only blog a couple more times!  Bittersweet feelings for sure.  I will now give you the pleasure of viewing some nice, random pictures.  I am naturally a disorganized person, so posting pictures under the appropriate paragraph is not really my style, so from now on I'm going to put some of my favorites at the end of my posts :).  Enjoy!  Missing you all.

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

Sunset - Villa Borghese

Sunrise at the Vatican

I only hire the rebel photographers ;) ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Gelato :) no, this is not the mountain Mickey Mouse gelato - photo to come 

Buildings of Assisi

The Mary exhibit

Candle pictures never get old

Incredible churches of Assisi

Kate and I 

The scenery of Assisi is so beautiful

Insert Creative Title

So I'm sure you've all been wondering what the delay has been all about in my blog posts.  Well, to put it accurately, as time has progressed on this trip, I am getting lazier and lazier when it comes to blog posts.  Yes it's true, half of my laziness comes from lack of desire and effort on my part, but in my defense, the other half is because we are so busy everyday!  Quite often I will leave my apartment in the morning and not return until it is dark outside.  It wipes a person out, enough that my brain can't handle the task of remembering the exact things that are keeping me so busy!  But alas, I'm feeling the desire to post, and I promise to document as many of the important things as I can for the rest of my trip.  Now, let's see what I can remember from the last time I blogged...

As an apartment, we do our best to eat most of our meals together.  This has been one of my favorite things here so far, simply because I really enjoy spending time with people.  Also, the food is top-notch quality.  One of my roommates named Kate, bless her heart, really enjoys to cook.  And when I say cook, I don't mean whipping us up a couple of sandwiches.  She gets really creative.  Examples you may ask?  Well, she has cooked us a lemon-chicken pasta, pasta with not just red sauce but red sauce with MEAT, chicken alfredo, french bread pizza, and tonight she is making gnocci.  Last week she came up with an entire menu for dinner that week!  A lot of these things she is creating for the first time, and every time it is delicious.  Like I said, God bless her heart...I know she loves cooking, but we owe her so much.  At least a few nights a week we give Kate a break, one of those nights being a night when we eat out at a new restaurant.  One of my other roommates named Ricki had her brother suggest us a place near Piazza Novana - a calming little plaza filled with paintings, fountains, tourist trap restaurants, and sidewalk musicians.  The restaurant was called Monte Carlo, and it was excellent.  Here in Italy, I've gotten pizza so many times and I am still not sick of it yet.  Every single time, it is so great.  I usually get the Margarita (basically cheese pizza) so yeah, call me boring, but I like to call myself cheap instead :) it is always the cheapest buy!  From 4 to 5 euro, you get a pizza with the diameter of approximately a ruler.  They call these personal pizzas, and it's like triple the size of my face.  Even though these are incredibly generous portions for one person, I find myself being able to put it down no problem.  Just like at home, it never fails that I am the last person done eating, but I'm just doing like the Europeans do - aiming for a 3-hour meal ;).  This week, our out-to-eat dinner plans included going to a new area of the city called Trasavere.  This area has an incredible market on Sundays - the street is lined with tents going on far past what the eye can see.  You can pretty much find anything at this market.  We had heard from our program director that this was a great place to find cheap, 3-course meals and we were like ummm yes!  We left around 7 and took the bus to the place where the market was.  And we walked.  And we walked.  And we walked a little more.  Strangely enough, we weren't spotting any restaurants.  We pulled out a map, got back on track, and worked our way back over to the area we thought was correct.  At this point, we decided to ask the pharmacy where good restaurants were.  He pointed us in the right direction, told us to go left and we'd see restaurants, we turned the corner and......no restaurants.  We even hiked up a random staircase that was so big we all started laughing.  Finally, we pulled over at a restaurant and got some good food at 9:15.  It only took us 2 hours to work up an appetite so that was good.  We are going to go back to the area and explore a little more, since we've been through the mistakes already :).  In addition to dinner, we also spent an evening in the Villa Borghese, a huge beautiful park.  We rented bikes for an hour and explored.  We loved the beautiful fall colors, and we found a gorgeous overlook to watch the sunset.  It is now one of our favorite places, and one we hope to spend more time in.

Taylor, Ricki, Kate, and I

Jen, Kate, and I

Riding bikes!

Lion King-ish Sunset

I think I mentioned this before, but another favorite of mine is seeing the sunrise at different parts of the city once a week.  Last week, we ventured to the Spanish steps - a long stack of steps leading up to a church that are always PACKED with people.  During the day, the are truthfully completely full with people.  Well, it was pretty amazing to see them totally empty at 6:30 in the morning.  I take that back, they were totally empty besides our little friend from Tokyo.  When we reached the top, this little man approached us with his camera motioning for us to take a picture of him.  We did so, and he proceeded to bow to us, thanking us over and over.  He then motioned to take a picture of us, and we were like, "Yeah!" thinking he would take one with one of our cameras...well, he took it with his.  We are wondering if we are going to end up on a billboard in Japan.  He even got a little creative, showing me how to squat down to take a picture of him and the other girls I was with - they were all staggered behind him, making it look pretty awesome.  He was so grateful to us, bowing over and over again.  We got such a kick out of it!  This week, we went to St. Peter's Square for the sunrise.  I looked at the temperature before we left, which said 40 degrees.  I didn't think that would be that cold, but when we got outside, we were freezing the entire time!  We are going to be wimps when we get home if we can't even handle 40 degrees.  Even though it was cold, we saw a beautiful sunrise and got to see the Vatican Streets lit up before daylight broke.

Spanish Steps

Sunrise, ooooooo

Jen, Lauren, and I on the empty Spanish Steps!

Hello, Vatican

Another favorite of mine: the activities our school organizes for our group.  Since I last blogged, they have had a few more events for us.  One of which was a visit to Cinecitta, the biggest movie-making complex in Europe.  That was a pretty great experience to see how they make a movie come to life.  We got to see many different sets, one of which was the set for Gangs of New York.  We also went to a set that was filled with copies of ancient Roman sculptures and buildings - they looked like marble but when you touched them, they were clearly hollow plastic.  We got to see how they add sounds and effects to a scene as well, which was very cool.  The other event we had recently was our Nutella and Crepes night. This was perfect for the cool nights here in Rome.  We each got a crepe filled with chocolate or white chocolate nutella (or both) and one topping.  Then we got to sit in a little cafe in a square to eat them, complete with fires to keep us warm and a random guy playing guitar.

I also would like to inform you all that our history professor is somewhat famous.  Not only has he been on the History Channel with a show about Ancient Rome, but he also has been on house hunters with his wife to find a house in Italy.  Now, if you knew our professor, you would believe the History Channel bit but the house hunters would definitely make you laugh!  This guy is incredibly interesting.  I still can't decide where he is from.  Our history class consists of us trying to keep up with his brisk stride as he spits out enough information to make your brain explode.  He is also interesting because he likes to pick on people for fun.  Even though he seems pretty intimidating and tough, he has a soft spot.  The other day after class, he volunteered to walk a few of us to his favorite bakery.  We thought that was nice enough, but then he bought us some of his favorite Italian cookies.  We couldn't believe how lucky we were!

Last weekend, we spend our time in Pompeii, Sorrento, and Naples.  First impression of Pompeii - I could not believe how big the ancient ruins were!  The ancient city seriously went on forever and ever.  We were lucky enough to have a really great tour guide to explain things to us.  The most amazing thing to me were the body casts that they recovered during excavations.  These casts were thousands of years old!!  You could see parts of the skeleton as well as the expression on the person's face as they were buried by the volcano that destroyed the city in 79 AD.  Amazing.  We then spent the night in Sorrento, getting a chance to simply explore the town.  We found an awesome lemon grove, streets lined with shops and Christmas decorations, and Twix gelato.  The next day, we went to Naples.  Our same tour guide took us into the museum to show us some of the objects from the ancient city of Pompeii we saw the day before.  We had the rest of the day to explore.  My biggest surprise - how crowded it was!  We went down a street that was known for Christmas nativities and decorations.  You would not believe how crowded that street was, and how long it took us to simply reach the end of it.  We also went to a famous bakery to get some pasteries, and that was busting at the seams with people!  We sure are getting a lot of experience of how Italians have no personal bubbles.  Also, we got some pizza naturally, since Naples is the birthplace of this tasty food.  And yes, it was the best pizza I've ever had.

This weekend, we spend our day today in the Vatican Museum.  Normally, I don't need to spend too long in a museum (like 2 hours max).  Yeahhhh we were there for 5 hours!  You definitely get your money's worth.  We were able to get a student discount with our Greek student IDs which started off the day perfectly.  We then saw all of the incredible sights that the museum has to offer, leading up to the Sistine Chapel.  How incredible is it to actually see this place in person.  I am astounded with not only how beautiful it is, but how difficult it must have been for Michaelangelo to paint.  Wow.  I was highly entertained by the guards they have in there.  I understand that it is a Holy building and that they don't want people talking or taking pictures, but I had to smile watching them "SHHHH" at people so harshly that they were probably spitting all over the place and yelling "NO PHOTO" at the guy across the room who is not taking his photo sneakily enough.  I have a cold currently and was sneezing multiple times, so there was not much I could do about being quiet.  Sometimes I get this urge to misbehave, and I had a strong desire to mimic the SHHHH and NO PHOTO, or to just yell really loud to see what they would do, but I refrained.  Needless to say, the museum was amazing, a place that everyone has got to see someday.  We, of course, ended our Vatican day at Old Bridge Gelato, our favorite gelato place in Rome.

Well, I think I have certainly written enough for now.  Stay tuned for many more wonderful adventures coming up.  Hang tight, because I don't have that much time left!  Also, you best hang tight, because if time is moving as fast for you as it is for me, you'll know what I mean!  I have more pictures for you all to see, but my photographer is currently working on editing those, so more beautiful pictures to come!  Hoping all is well with you!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

How Many Gelato Flavors Can You Put In One Store?

Answer to the above: 80.

I've been in Rome for about 11 days or so.  I already love it so much.  This city is full of SO MANY THINGS - we are actually concerned that we don't have enough time here to see everything!  My time here so far has been very eventful and full of activity.  When we first arrived, we were greeted by a staff member from our school (CEA) who brought us upstairs to our new apartment.  Now, we are on the 5th floor which quite honestly is quite the hike!  It's even worse than having class on the 4th floor of the Quad building at St. John's, if you can imagine that.  However, their are perks to this...first of all, good exercise.  Second of all, we have a rooftop terrace.  It is quite awesome - we have a gorgeous view of the entire city and a nice little living room which is nice for congregating.  We love this apartment very much so far, as much as I miss the bugs in our apartment in Greece.  The only problem that we had is with our toilets - at one point in time, neither of them would flush.  Our roommate Taylor somehow discovered that they would only flush when the opposite shower is running.  Well, this got a little complicated, so we had to consult the housing representative at our school named Andrea, who is a pretty entertaining guy to say the least.  We've heard that he used to be Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast, so we are waiting for him to perform for us.  In summary, this place is becoming a nice temporary home.

Some highlights since I've been here are as follows.  We were taken on a guided tour by a professional tour guide one Sunday, getting to see the famous Pantheon and a few random fountains and ancient ruins.  After this tour was when we found the 80 flavor gelato shop.  Quite honestly, that many flavors is a little overwhelming, how do you choose??  But the food here is so great...we are truly getting spoiled so far.  Speaking of food, another highlight we had was a pizza and gelato crawl put on by our school.  We got to have a snack pizza, some dinner pizza, a special coffee gelato that is Italian, and gelato.  We really enjoyed all of it minus the coffee...not everyone likes it.  It is still fun to try new things though :).  One of the flavors they had for pizza was a bacon, pumpkin, and onion pizza.  I guess they must be getting ready for the holidays already!

The Pantheon by night

St. Peter's Basilica and square by night

Even though they don't celebrate Halloween to the extent we do in America, we still all got dressed up and had a Halloween party at our apartment.  Our apartment had no idea what to dress up as...we were sitting there, trying to figure it out, when we asked, "What can you do with the number 7?"  Immediately, two people called out, "The Seven Deadly Sins."  So yes, we were the Seven Deadly Sins for Halloween.  We had a lot of fun dressing up and exchanging clothes to make the costumes work.  It was funny too, because none of us really matched the sin we were, hence, I ended up being Lust.  I was glad we were still able to have a Halloween.

The Seven Deadly Sins

One morning, we got up at 5:30 to see the sunrise at an important place in Rome.  This is something that we are going to do once a week, because the sunrise is beautiful and the city is quiet so early in the morning.  A few girls and I took the bus to the Colosseum and saw the sunrise.  The Colosseum is impressive enough as it is, but with the sunrise?  Wow.  We also went over to the Trevi Fountain to enjoy the morning.  I am looking forward to doing this every week!

The Colosseum at sunrise

The group :)

The Trevi Fountain

Last weekend, we went to Subiaco for a day trip.  Our main objective was to see two monasteries: St. Scholastica and St. Benedict.  The monasteries were beautiful themselves, but we were also in awe with how beautiful the area was - high mountains filled with trees and trees of fall colors.  After we saw the first monastery, we had some time to wander around, so we found a trail that went up a very tall hill.  Even though it only led to some small old ruins, it had a gorgeous view at the top.  After, we got to have a delicious, multi-coursed meal for lunch, which included pumpkin sauce on pasta?  Again with the pumpkins...must be the holidays!  We then saw the monastery of St. Benedict, which is really cool since our school is named after him.  We also got to see the cave that he lived in seclusion for 3 years.  They basically built the monastery around the cave.  It was cool to see how old it was but how well it was preserved.  We were pretty worn out after a full day of monasteries, but we really enjoyed it!

St. Scholastica and the beautiful scenery

St. Benedict and the beautiful scenery yet again

St. Ben's :)

The town of Subiaco

Well, that is all I have so far for Rome.  Trust me, I will have plenty of other adventures to blog about before I come home.  The clock is ticking quickly - we only have about 40 days left!  It amazes me how fast time goes by...so we are enjoying every moment to the max here.  Hoping all is well as the holidays approach!

Peace and Blessings,
Laura

Picture Day!

The beautiful buildings of Salzburg

Kate, Jen, and I on a bridge in Salzburg

The view of Salzburg from the top of the Fortress

Parts of the Fortress

Jen's new obsession - candle pictures!  I've got to admit, they are beautiful

The fall colors in Munich

City of Munich from the top of a church

Our mid-travel group in Venice

One of many bridges and canals in Venice

Like I said, it looks like a movie!

Many people use boats to get around thanks to the many canals within Venice

The view of Siena

Tuscan homes