"Lean" On Me

As I sit here thinking about what to write about Pisa, I want to give you all a mental picture. It's a sunny day. I'm sitting on my hotel balcony watching two restaurant owners have a very heated conversation that I can slightly understand, and I'm eating Bacio and caffe gelato. Isn't it wonderful? Gosh, I love this place.

Anywho, yesterday after class, we went as a group to Pisa! You know, that place with the leaning tower? We left the hotel at 2:30 and drove the hour and a half-ish to Pisa. Once we got there, I instantly felt uncomfortable. The AIFS directors kind of warned us that it wasn't the nicest place, and they weren't kidding. Our bus stopped, and we were surrounded by illegal immigrants trying to sell us stuff. It made us all feel pretty uncomfortable. We walked down blocks of people staring at us and selling random items (mostly umbrellas, which I thought was strange). But we scurried along and finally made it to the tower.

We took the very stereotypical leaning tower of Pisa pictures, and within an hour, we all met back up to go back to the bus. An hour was plenty of time to spend there, because there is literally NOTHING else in Pisa worth seeing. Not my favorite place we've been thus far.

But, I'm glad I went because I want to take advantage of all the opportunities handed to me! And the bus ride back wasn't so bad with Claire giving us a little concert to our director, Marco! :)

I hoped it would fall over while we were there. It didn't.

Some kids in the program stopped by McDonald's in Pisa, because, why not?

Then today we had another 4.5 hours of Italian. And yes, I still have NO idea what's going on! Haha! I guess I know what I will be doing tonight!

At 2, Georgie and I went to grab some lunch. Georgie is an absolute sweet heart. She reminds me a lot of my friend Megan from high school. Anyway, we went to this restaurant right next to the hotel that I stare at every day! It's right outside my balcony, so it's fun to people watch customers there. We sat outside, and our waiter was so funny! Oh, and I tried muscles. No thank you, never again.

Arrivederci!

Paperorosso! The place Georgie and I grabbed lunch! (Taken from my hotel balcony)

I ate muscles. Not my fave.

Venezia

Venice. I think every person at some point in their life has wanted to go to Venice. And they should. It’s beautiful. Friday, we all got up and left the hotel at 9 am. We drove the 4-ish hours (No one really knew, because we all slept through it.) to the very sketchy-looking bus stop. After a quick boat ride, we made it to our hotel. Cute little rooms with the same bright red color everywhere! Quite the sight. We went to a couple museums and churches, one of which had St. Mark’s body inside (How cool!).

At the top of St. Mark's church.

After working so hard to try to not look like tourists, Daniela and I get handed these head sets for our tour. Game over.

But of everything, my favorite thing we did was get ourselves lost. Marco (our assistant director of AIFS) told us that if you take one wrong turn in Venice, you’re lost. He was so right. But, by getting lost, we found Grom (the best gelato place EVER), cute shops (I bought a purse), and awesome restaurants that not many tourists would find. We also found a lot of great street performers and could hear the gondola rowers singing in the canals!

Everything looked so peaceful.

Saturday was full of adventure. Daniela and I, with a couple other people, decided we wanted to go to the beach. Awesome idea, right? Wrong. The two of us ended up wandering around for an hour trying to figure out how to buy tickets for the water taxis. Then, we had to take a 40-minute boat ride to get to the beach. But once we got there it was so wonderful. People-watching at beaches in Venice was HILARIOUS. I don’t think I saw a single man wearing anything but speedos. Gross. But it was so much fun and a much needed time to relax!

Pigeons are evil here! They swoop down and land on you! These people were feeding them.

Trying to tan on the beach. It was so beautiful!

Check out my new tab "Random Thoughts By Rachel"! Because, guess what? I have lots of random thoughts and no organized place to put them. Ciao ciao! :)

Could Only be a Dream

Oh my goodness. Tonight was wonderful!

Well, today's Italian class was pretty tough. It's really hard to keep up with the fast pace, but luckily all of us are in the same situation. Our first quiz (or "queetz" how the teachers pronounce it) is tomorrow morning! Wish us all luck!

Tonight we went to a wine tasting in a castle. Yes, a castle. Seriously, who can say they've done that?! Me! But it was beautiful. And I didn't think the wine was bad. (Most people know I am NOT a fan of wine, so that's saying a lot.) I liked their white wine better, even though the area is famous for their Chianti. Oops.

Isn't it gorgeous?!

I think the wine is aged enough. Don't ya think?

2500 bottles of wine in each one. Bottoms up!

Supermodel!

My roommate, Jo! She's from New York and an absolute sweetheart!

When we got back to the hotel, me, Sara, Nick, and Theo went and got some more gelato! Can't ever have enough of the stuff! This time I tried watermelon, cantaloupe, chocolate chip, and more pistachio! (We all shared!)

Annoying Americans

I get it now why Europeans hate American tourists. We are loud, are disrespectful, aren't knowledgable about the world around us, and are complete space-cases. And you know what? Every one of those is true.

Everywhere we go we get stared and glared at, mostly because of our noise level. I blame the six New Yorkers we have on this trip! Haha! But really, if you get 35 people in a group, they will always be loud. But I'm starting to understand just how hard it is to try to blend in here.

Besides that though, I kind of secretly love the negative attention we draw, because then there are people like me and a girl named Georgie who can suddenly break into conversation with the locals and enjoy the impressed looks we get. It makes me feel like I'm helping America's reputation, even just a little bit. So you're welcome America! :)

Probably my most proud moment thus far has been when I ordered gelato completely in Italian. The very stern-looking owner of the shop gave me a big grin and told me my accent wasn't too bad. Look at me go being all impressive!

Last night, there was a super fancy restaurant that had a big dinner for us! We each got two free drink vouchers where we could order anything we wanted, so I took advantage of it and got some wine! Then about 7 of us decided to go afterward. Yes, on a Monday night. Great decision-making, right? But anyway, our casual night out at a bar turned into a crazy night at a club. Let's just say I wasn't exactly thrilled when my alarm went off at 6:30 am, but the shot of espresso really helped me get to class! And honestly, funny nights like that make the best memories.

First glass of wine at dinner. Guess what? I still don't like it! Sorry mom.

Day two of class was today. Four and a half hours of Italian a day. And cramming a semester's worth of Italian in two weeks. You can imagine the fast pace. Our teachers don't do any of the class in English, which is very different than the language classes I have taken before, but I really like it.

Today, I went on an awesome tour of secret passageways around Florence. I didn't really understand why any of it was significant, but it was still cool to see. Pictures below.

Dante's death mask, or what he looked like moments after death. I thought that was pretty cool.

Such strange weather here but I love this picture!

People here are TERRIBLE parkers! This picture just cracked us all up. I mean, the car in back is covered with newspapers! What were they thinking?!

Welcome to Florence!

Internet sucked last night, so I couldn't post this...

This is my third day in Florence, but I've been so busy that I forgot to write. Oops. My bad.

We flew from London to Pisa and bused from Pisa to Florence.

Our hotel in Florence is pretty cute. I got pretty lucky because my room has a balcony that overlooks one of the beautiful streets. I'm rooming with a girl named Jo who is also one of my roommates in Rome. She is SO nice, and we get along great!

When we first arrived in Florence, we had a little free time (or nap time to most of us). That night we went to a couple bars. Our biggest mistake that night was to go out so dang early, and by early I mean 10:00 pm. We quickly realized that we were the only people out, since some clubs don't even open until 11:00. Don't worry, the next night we learned from our mistake.

Saturday, we had most of our orientation stuff. Our school for these two weeks is more like a random building with a couple classrooms, but I like it. We did some ice breakers and then went to lunch... a three course lunch. I've never felt so full in my life. It was quite painful actually. That's when I wondered: How the hell do European women stay so skinny when they eat like this every day?!

I discovered the secret... They walk EVERYWHERE. And not just a few blocks. We walk miles every day. My feet and knees hurt so bad that I can't even recover at night. I wake up still sore, and get to do it all over again. But I am loving every second of it.

How could you not love this?

That night we didn't leave the hotel until after 11:30 pm and went to a huge club in Florence called "Space". And let me tell you, it was out of this world! We took the place over, all of us getting free drinks and shots from the club owner. It was awesome. A guy in my program named Nick and I even sang "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi karaoke style. We will see if that video ever pops up on Facebook!

Then after a very long night of fun activities, we all finally got to sleep in. And we definitely did. My roommate finally woke me up at noon, knowing I wanted to enjoy the day. But I was not alone. Most people were still asleep. So, I grabbed Daniela, Sara, and Katie and we went to a little pizzeria down the street. Then we went exploring and did a little shopping as well! At 5 we had an optional art walking tour, so I decided to go, because, why not? Turns out, it wasn't even about art, but our tour guide was a hoot and a half! Such a cute Italian man.

Our tour guide! He also had bright red glasses. Sorry the picture is blurry... He never stopped moving.

At the end of the tour, Peter (our tour guide) just kind of left us miles away from our hotel! None of us knew where we were, but that's the great thing: You have to let yourself get lost to make the best discoveries! While wandering around we found some great shops and restaurants. I also bought some pistachio gelato, which I highly recommend if you are ever in the area.

Some awesome street art we stubbled upon.

Adventures in London

SO much has happened in just a couple days in London! Let me cover a few topics:

1) The flight. It wasn’t as long as I expected it to be. It helped though that I was sleeping through most of it. I ended up being the only person in my program on that particular flight, which is a bummer, but it worked out ok! The girl I sat next to was studying abroad in Spain this semester, so we were able to chit chat a little about our program. When I got to the airport, I walked to customs pretty quickly but then was stuck in a HUGE line of people. Have no fear, it moved pretty quickly and before I knew it, I was up at the counter. One question, though: What is it about customs employees that always makes you feel like a criminal?! The gentleman just asked me some general questions, and I’m sure I looked horribly suspicious. Then I grabbed my luggage, found my taxi driver, and got to hear all about how fat he thinks people in England are getting! At least he was a cute old man! Haha!

2) The arrival. I got to my hotel (which is attached to the Chelsea football stadium!) and was greeted by a really nice lady. I waited about a half hour for more kids to show up, and then we started exploring together! We wandered around for a couple hours and ended up eating at this little crappy diner. I had fish and chips which were fantastic. Then we all came back to the hotel and showered to get the slimy feeling of traveling off of us.

3) The welcome. At six o’clock we had a welcome info session to meet the rest of our group; then we were free to do whatever! Later on, we all met up and hit up the more exciting part of town. We split up for dinner, so six of us went to some cute little diner, and I had a hot dog. Stupid I know. However, America might have made the hotdog famous, but England perfected it! Best damn hotdog I’ve ever had. That’s when I also had my first legal drink!

A wheat beer made in London

4) The nightlife. Oh, wow. After dinner, we all met at an awesome bar called “Tiger Tiger”. We hung out there for a few hours and bounced around to a few other locations. Drinks are disgustingly expensive in London, so my goal was to try my hardest not to have to buy any! Quickly though, I realized I have ZERO game. Oh well, at least I found a new favorite drink… The pom pom.

5) Day two. The 7:30 wakeup call came a little too soon for most of us. But the free breakfast helped a little. Except for the “scrambled eggs” they served. Imagine the taste of an egg with the color and consistency of oatmeal. Gross. From there came my favorite part of the trip thus far… The bus tour of London! Wow, what a place this is. We saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Bridge, and so many others. At about noon, we all split up and went our own ways.

Westminster Abbey- The location of my future wedding to Harry.

6) The rest of the day. The group I went with ate lunch at a café. Delicious. All the food here is so fresh! Then we went to the London Eye, which was definitely worth the £20. Then we went to London’s national art gallery, where I saw two pieces by Leonardo DaVinci. Finally, we went to King’s Cross train station, which is the location of Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter!

The London Eye

You would be peeing your pants too! It was so high up!

So beautiful! View from the Eye.

More pictures are to come! I just don’t have them on my own camera!

Airports Are Interesting Places

First off, I left my house at 7:30 am this morning to head to the Des Moines airport. The drive felt so long because the anticipation was overwhelming.

Saying goodbye to my family was of course hard. I cried all the way through security and as I walked to my gate. I’m sure I looked crazy to most people.

The flight from Des Moines to Chicago was laughably short. It took longer to take off and land than it did to actually get there. I couldn’t even get through a magazine.

This leads me to another thought… When in the world did I become afraid of flying?! I have been on plenty of flights, including international flights, but this one gave me so much anxiety. I felt so nervous at one point that I grabbed the barf bag… Just in case. Strange, isn’t it? I guess I will see how the overnight flight goes!

I have learned something today too: Young people must not fly alone much. I have been stared at more today than I have in my entire life. And it wasn’t the “Daaaaannnggg gurl!” stare that creepy guys do. It was the “Oh you poor girl, where is your mommy?” look. Hahahahaha but people have been so willing to help today, which is wonderful.

Now I’m sitting in the Chicago airport (which is AWESOME, by the way) all by myself, waiting for my 6:00 pm flight to London. But hey, don’t worry about me, there are plenty of food options here to put my in a food coma on the plane until I wake up in London!