tribute.

my two favorite little divas :)

some more pictures! friends!

Me and Cate! She's becoming a really great friend!

Kaitlin and Amy - from UCSB

Me, Amanda, Ashley (San Francisco) and Anna (Chicago)

A picture from Pompeii that's not of a dog!

Not much news - I wrote a mythology paper today. Other than that it's been pretty slow around Roma! I'm going to make some olive salad tomorrow (with the lovely directions from dear Papa Dick - thank you!!!) so I'll take pictures. Because it's always funny when I'm trying to make food that doesn't go in a microwave.

Amanda is now 21 and all grown up. We all went out to celebrate on Saturday - very fun! On her actual birthday, the 18th, we watched T.V. all day and then got chinese food. So basically what we do at home :) It was nice to slow things down a bit. Doesn't happen often anymore!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Italian parliament with my Italian Society class, I believe we're going to sit in on a gay rights debate. Too bad I don't speak Italian well enough to be able to understand what they're talking about, because that sounds interesting.

Mom you'll like this one - I cleaned my room today. Swept the floors and everything. I think working at the zoo made me really aware of dirty floors and how much I dislike them (no, parents, my room doesn't count).

For the daily cute dog update, I saw a weenie dog today in a flower market in Campo de Fiori who was taking a little nap on its back amongst the flowers.

adorable.

pup

meeeeeeeeeee likey!

just an update!

Showing our excitement after having found KETCHUP AND MUSTARD!!!! Can't find it anywhere here!

Another picture from Capri!

So I have some exciting news regarding a restaurant that we've become regulars at - it's totally run by the mafia. I'm 100% positive. We were there last night and having applied what I've learned in class and from the Sopranos....I'm positive. So that's really cool! The owner really likes us so that's relieving (Mom & Dad - we're going there when you come so I can prove it).

We're not going to Cinque Terre this weekend anymore. Amanda decided she would rather stay here and spend it with all of our friends, which I understand. So that'll be fun! We'll probably have everyone meet at this American restaurant because they have wings and happy hour (WINGS!!!!!!) and than head over to Campo de Fiori, which is where all the younger people go. There are a lot of bars and restaurants so it's become the hangout!!

Only 9 DAYS until my parents come!!!! Single digits!!! I could not be more excited. It'll be fun to show them all the places I've found and feel like I live in Rome!

OH - an update from Iowa! I got a spring internship (I think it's just volunteering, but they're calling it an internship cause I'm a student) at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa! I'm going to be a "dog companion." Which is like my dream. I'm basically going to be loving them and making sure they're emotionally ready to be adopted. I think I can handle that :)

I"m still really missing Jessie but it helps that there are a TON of dogs here to play with! And Italians are so friendly so they always let you.

Have to go to class (Italian Society), but I'll be back with updates from the weekend!!

what a weekend!

Woah - sorry about the delay in posting! It has been a really hectic few days!

I'll start from the beginning.

So on friday we left at 7am for pompeii - I was definitely excited to see the ruins! All in all it was pretty cool to see. There were SO many stray dogs, though. I think I saw about 25. They were all so friendly and would follow us around because we gave them attention. It was nice :)

After the ruins we drove to our hotel, which was in a little town between Naples and Sorrento (I can't remember what it was called...). It was BEAUTIFUL. It was a little town among cliffs - it looked a lot like Laguna Beach. I loved it. Our hotel was extremely nice, too.

Saturday was one of the best days so far. We drove 40 minutes to Naples to take an hour long boat ride to Capri. Seasickness aside, it wasn't that bad.

Capri.........was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I can't even describe it. We arrived at about 10am and me, Cate, and Amanda layed on the beach until about noon. We ate lunch (pizza and pasta of course) and then took a private boat tour around the island. IT WAS AMAZING! It was about an hour long and we got an awesome tour of the most beautiful parts of the island.

So to the bad news. About an hour into the tour, we got a brilliant idea to go cliff jumping. We got to a cliff that our boat driver told us people jumped off of all the time - it was 20 meters. Amanda went first - jumped - hit the water - aaaaaaand ended up dislocating her shoulder. We had to go to the Capri hospital. It was not good. She has to basically wear a body cast until she goes to the doctor in Rome on wednesday.

BUT besides that questionable situation it was a great weekend! I posted pictures here and will be updating alot more now since this weekend should just be a laid-back time in Roma!

19 days until my parents come :) :) :)