pretty pretty

have decided that i must go to austria. driving through it wasn't nearly enough.

OKTOBERFEST!!

Probably the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. It's exactly like Beerfest!! Amanda and I had planned to only go one day, and explore Munich the other. That didn't happen. After a 12 hour bus ride, we arrived in Munich at 9:00am, checked into our hostel (which was really nice!), and left for Oktoberfest. We lucked out with our hostel - it was 2 blocks from the grounds and we had our own room and our own beds. And they didn't even try to talk to us about jesus or anything, which I was happy about.

So we got to Oktoberfest around 9:30 and went to the Hofbrau Haus. ITS AWESOME. The rest of our friends showed up so we got a table and just drank beer for the rest of the day. We met so many interesting people too - Australians, Germans, Italians, Danish, South Africans. Its funny how each country has their own song that they sing and the US has...none.

More on Oktoberfest later - I have to get to class!

Here are some pictures - enjoy!

ROMA

Just for you Mother, I'm going to do this one with proper punctuation and capitalization (but don't get used to it).

So we're finally in Roma! Its really really cool. We live in an apartment in the Trastevere neighborhood, which is known for its minimal tourists and many bars and restaurants. I love it - cars aren't allowed by our apartment! Although that doesn't mean its quiet. Every morning at like 5 AM it literally sounds like there's a war going on outside. It's ridiculously loud. But my friend Cate gave me earplugs :)

My classes have been really interesting, with the exception of one. Mythology is AWESOME and History of the Italian Mafia.....oh my god. We get to watch like 10 movies (including The Godfather parts I, II, & III) and have GUEST SPEAKERS. I'm assuming/hoping they are ex mafia members. For our final paper we have to write about something having to do with the mafia and our major - biology and the mafia don't really correlate. So I'm doing it about organ trafficking I think (you know how I like murder!). Our teacher is really nice, and he doesn't look like he would be. I'm pretty sure he was actually in the mafia. But he told us that he'll go easy on us because "we're in Roma! we should be going to the disco all night and falling in love!"

The Class That Won't Be Named (ahem - high renaissance art) is ridiculous. I'm not even going to talk about it.

Anyways, our school is about a 15 minute walk from Trastevere, right near the piazza navona. We pass a dog park on the way, so I'm ok with it! I saw a dog last night that looked EXACTLY like Jessie, it made me really sad. But she was really cute (obviously).

It's weird walking around Rome and actually knowing my way around - and that I live here. But obviously it's really exciting.

We're about 95% sure there's a group of guys from another program staying in our building, so we're going to investigate that shortly.

Amanda and I are leaving for Oktoberfest in 2 days on Thursday - SO EXCITING! It takes about 14 hours to get there by bus, buuuuut I'm trying to not think about that. I think we're going to spend one day just exploring Munich. I can't wait!!

Anyways, I'm going to go have dinner by the colosseum :) probably pizza or pasta. They have a lot of that here.

what....a whirlwind

JUST got to roma.

so tired, will update tomorrow! in the meantime...i FINALLY got pictures from venicia uploaded.

clickkkkkkkk here

..violent weather

its severely storming. the thunder shakes the buildings - its sweet. we're all waiting at school until 3 when we have wine tasting in chianti.

dear mother, i'm currently downloading supernatural. but it says its going to take 13 hours. the anticipation is killing me. also - please watch one tree hill tonight :)

nicole, stop eating meaty sandwiches.

venezia!

I LOVE VENICE.

i want to live there and have one hundred doggies. its so pretty - I've never seen anything like it. there were actually men in striped shirts playing accordians.

On saturday we went to Murano, the glass-blowing island in Venice. We watched a man make a glass horse in like 2 seconds - it was confusing. But Murano was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. It looked like a movie set! I bought a bracelet and a little elephant and a little hedgehog, all glass-blown. I got SO many pictures this weekend that I'm going to upload on Monday at school.

After school monday we're going on a wine tasting tour through tuscany so I'm assuming that will be pleasant. I'm definitely ready to get to Rome, though. And i'm really excited for my parents to comeeeee.

We leave for Munich a week from Thursday and still have no idea how we're going to get there....i'm sure we will eventually. We decided that a bunch of us are going to the Cinque Terre for amandas birthday the weekend of October 18th. I'm SO excited - its supposed to be beautiful.

hi jessie!

thanks daddy :)

Update/Pictures!

So we started class yesterday - and I really like it (woooo!). All of my teachers keep asking if i know the meaning of Quattrini (que significo?) And i surprise them when i know that it means "little money." Class is kind of long - 6 hours a day. And we already have a test on thursday. I guess usually on this program they stay in florence for 3 weeks instead of 2 - so we're taking the 3 weeks worth of classes in 2 weeks. But oh well. I'm excited to get to rome.

Florence is really pretty! Today during our lunch break from classes Amanda and I got sandwiches from Gionnis (mozzarella, tomatoes, and pesto) and a bottle of white wine. We ate in this little piazza right outside our school where there are a bunch of doggies chasing pidgeons by a fountain. There's one woman who we've seen walking her dog everyday that looks like a giant Jessie...I'm going to talk to her tomorrow and find out what her dog is! And take a picture.

Tomorrow we have more class but afterwards we're going to Pisa. On friday we leave for Venice for the weekend, and next wednesday we're going to Siena and thursday Feisole.

I put up the pictures i've taken here but i haven't taken very many :( i'll be better about that i promise!!

Oh my favorite phrase i've learned so far - "ciao, cani!" (hi doggies)

florence is so pretty!!! it looks a little like des moines. not.

anyways today we basically walked around florence all day exploring and whatnot. we had lunch at an italian restaurant owned by a family which was SO good but had about 5 courses, which was too much (even for me and amanda).

we're in our hotel room with two other girls, danielle from san francisco who goes to UCSB and caitlin from berkley who goes to UCLA. we really like them - and we get along really well. our hotel is HUGE and AWESOME and our room is so much better than the holiday inn in london! tonight we're going on a pub crawl around florence, should be fun.

i'm starting to feel ill....if i have swine flu i'll be severely pissed.

we don't have any obligations tomorrow which is great. we start class on monday, though. 3 hours on m/w/f and 5 hours on t/th. yeesh. we also go to venice next weekend.

anyways, gonna take a nap!

peaaace.

ps. saw about 203948023984023 doggies today - i like this place.

game on, brooke davis.

also - just watched the first 4 minutes of the One Tree Hill premiere on perez.

IT LOOKS AWESOME. i feel better.

group travel is really easy and efficient.

we're at the heathrow airport waiting for our gate to open. we have a while before we're actually in florence - probably like 9 or 10 hours. so thats daunting, but we'll be there eventually.

I MISS MOM AND DAD AND JESSIE :( :( :( :(

jet lag blows

I'M SO TIRED. toured london all day with amanda, getting up at 6:00 to fly to rome and take a 4 hour bus ride to florence. oof. i just want to be there.

we went to an italian restaurant in notting hill for dinner...not like we'll be eating italian food for the next 3 months or anything. BUT it was good - had linguine pesto (pesto mommy!!).

we met these two weird guys last night at an irish pub - they were both wearing I LOVE MJ buttons that we thought were kinda cool at first but it turns out that they're in some weird fan club that like traveled around following him and went to his funeral and stuff. weird. one of them had to walk away when we brought up his death.

he has since developed depression.

i'm hoping we have internet in florence - but we'll see.

i miss jessie.

YOU SOUND LIKE YOURE FROM LUN-DUHN!

Haaaaaave arrived in London. Its cold. But very very pretty. We got here at 6am, took a bus to our hotel in Kensington, got breakfast at a pub called Garfunkels (no beer that early, we asked), and took a 5 hour nap. Its now 4:20 and we're getting ready to go to meet the rest of our group for drinks at 6! Tomorrow we have a touristy doubledecker bus tour of London at 9 and then we're gonna got shopping at Harrods :) :) We leave for florence on friday morning aaaat abouuuut 7am.

I've already made a huge mess in the room - shocking.

And I miss mom and dad and jessie. My framed Jessie picture is up by my bed already :)