Friday, March 16, 2012

Stage 3 of spring break! Barcelona

Barcelona was BEAUTIFUL! I would go back in a heart beat. It reminded me of Florida...except Spanish. There wasn't a lot of sightseeing which was good because we could relax more. We woke up later and took our time. We went to Park Guell by Antonio Gaudi. It was amazing!! Soon I will post some picture from my trips. We also went to Sagrada Familia. It was the coolest church I have ever seen! We stayed in an awesome CLEAN hostel. It was so cool! The people were the nicest and most importantly was that it was clean haha. Everything was easy to get to by metro. We also walked along the beach and La Rambla.

Our trip home wasn't as easy. We were supposed to take a metro to the train to the airport. But instead someone gave us the wrong directions. We left in plenty of time..if we didn't get lost. Our plane was at 12:15 and boarded at 11:45. We were on a train that took us 30 minutes(just one way) out of the way! we were on that train coming back from the middle of Spain at 10:45! we then had to take another train then a shuttle and then check in and go through security. We got there with 20 minutes to spare. Never in my life have I sprinted in a train station, around Spain, or in an airport.  It was an experience haha.

It was an awesome time though!!!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Stage 2 of spring break: Paris!

Paris was chilly and rainy but an awesome city! There was so much to see. We tried to se it all but there was no way. We saw plenty though!

The day we got there we didn't do anything because it was late. We went out to dinner and called it an early night.
The next day we were to Musee d'Orsay and Notre Dame. We climbed all the way to the top of Notre Dame and went inside it. It was beautiful!

The next day we did so much! We went to The Eiffel Tower and me and my friend Tim climbed all 324 meters up! It was worth it the view was beautiful! Then we went to the Arch Triumph then to Champs-Elysees then to the Louvre then Eiffel Tower at night then Moulin Rouge! We had a very busy and long day! And every moment was s wonderful! Off to Barcelona! 


Stage 1 of spring break: Amsterdam!

Amsterdam was so different than any other place I have ever been! the food reminded me of America a little. Good food that is bad for you. I have a really good pancake and awesome fries! We went to the Heineken Brewery and walked around for 2 hours! It was really cool to see how the beer is made. We went to the I Amsterdam sign. It is these really big letters that people climb up on! It was amazing...and hard to climb. We also went to the Red light district. It was...interesting haha. I had a great time there. Pretty soon though it was off to Paris!

Parents are here!!!!

Sorry for not blogging in a while. With mid terms, my parents being here and spring break I have had no chance. I have been very busy lately with everything. 

My parents got here two weeks ago today. We had an amazing time! In the short days that we saw each other we did soooo much site seeing! We went to Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, Bargello, Ufizzi, Carmine Church, Duomo, San Mintato, Piazza Michelangelo, the Bell Tower and the Central Market! 

Me and mom climbed the Bell Tower and the three of us climbed all the way up to San Minato and walked around the cemetery there. I had an amazing time with them! I enjoyed every second and I already miss you guys!!! I love you!!! 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Chocolate fair

Quick blog today! On Saturday me and my roommate Caroline went to the chocolate fair in Piazza della Repubblica. Which is right near my apartment! I got some awesome goodies for my parents when they come and I bought a dark chocolate dipped waffle on a stick covered in coconut and sprinkles(jimmies to normal people :) ). It was a lot of fun. We saw a quick parade there. There were a lot of people throwing flags in the air and doing tricks with them. It was a lot of fun.

Ciao for the night!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

View from San Miniato

Gondola in Venice

View from the top of the Bell Tower

Bell Tower, Venice, Piazzale Michelangelo, San Miniato

Hey everyone! I am so sorry I haven't been blogging. I have been crazy busy this past week or so. I have done so much lately! I can't wait to tell you!

Last Wednesday, 08/02, I climbed the Bell Tower next to the Duomo! Mom and me are going to do it when they get here in 12 days!!!!!!!! I climbed a total of 828 steps (both up and down in total). It was rough and my legs hurt for about 3 days, obviously I need to do the stair master more. The view was amazing! Absolutely breath taking. I will post pictures about the 4 places after this post so you can see how beautiful it was without having to climb it!

This past Saturday, 11/02 I went to Venice for Carnevale! There were a total of about 250 kids that went! It was a 3 1/2 hour bus ride. I had a wonderful time. Everyone there was just enjoying themselves and making the best out of Carnevale. My mask was really pretty too :).

Today, Wednesday 15/02, I climbed up to Piazzale Michelangelo with my Story of Florence class. Another amazing view. From there we went to San Miniato, which is a church at the very top of the hill. It is a Medieval church and is very different. I really wanna show my parents this too. I thought the Bell Tower walk was bad? This was pretty close/worse. But it was every step!! The Bell Tower was very closed in and was kinda claustrophobic. Whereas the walk to San Miniato is all outside and open. Daddy you can do this one!!! <3

All for now I will post pictures later!

Ciao! <3

Monday, February 6, 2012

Brrrr

Currently it is -1 degrees out here. Time to drink a cappuccino and do my homework.

This is going to be a busy week for me. I have an outline due, a Italian test, an Italian paper(yuck), and I am going to Venice on Sunday!
The super bowl last night...such a late night. Me and 11 other Roger kids went to a really good MExican place before the game. We ate dinner at 10:30PM. We got to the game around 11:15ish and the game started at 12:30 AM. I got home and fell asleep at 5:00AM. I had class at 9...

What a late night. Was it worth it spending 8 euros to watch the game and only get 3 hours of sleep and the Pats lost? Absolutely! It was a really cool experience. Instead of watching the game with my family, which is always fun. I got to watch it with about 300 screaming fans hanging a great time. Pats vs. Giants fans in a pub having a great time yelling at each other.

Ciao for now!
<3

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Kebab

So in America.. a kebab is meat and veggies on a stick. In Italy a kebab is a delicious wrap or panino. The shave meat usually pork or chicken off this huge spinning thing(kind of gross) and they add spicy sauce ( Mom you can get it without it! =] ), some white sauce I think its kind of like ranch, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and french fries!!! It is sooooo good. I just ate one for lunch at this place down the road. I can't wait for my parents to try it! I didn't take a picture because I ate it so fast but I took one from Google, and it pretty much looked the same!

Super Bowl

This has ben a very relaxing weekend for me. I am still trying to get over a cold, which is getting better very slowly, but still getting better. Tonight is the super bowl though! It starts at 12.30 AM! our time. We are all going to be very tired in the morning. All of Roger is going to watch it at Red Garder a pub that is only about 15 minutes away. But since it is so cold out we will probably walk really fast.

I am going to go to the market in a few minutes and then try to find some gelato. Also on my way to the market I am going to throw trash away which isn't in just dumpsters. They are these weird things on the group that you push open with your foot. You put the trash in and if you open it back up the trash is gone. It goes underground! Kind of cool!

Off to find some food.

Go New England!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Third week of classes

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. There was nothing crazy interesting to report this past week. Now I have some stuff to tell you though!

Sandie--I did find the Chinese food place. My recommendation...NEVER GO THERE. The rice was good but the chicken...well...I don't even know if it was chicken. It was weirdly soft and just like iffy. I bought sweet and sour chicken. In the sauce was pineapple(normal) and tomatoes! Who does that? At least it wasn't expensive because I could not finish the tomato pineapple soft chicken or other type of meat dish.

It is veryyy cold here. It was very windy on Wednesday, it reminded me of being back at good 'ol Roger. It snowed here yesterday. It was very weird because they never get snow. Not enough to make an Italian snow ball, but it still snowed. In Italy they aren't prepared for this kind of stuff so in my school building all the power went out. Half of my class was cancelled.

On Wednesday for my Story of a City class we walked around Florence and had a Roman Treasure hunt. We walked to many different places and with our groups we had to identify the thing around us that was Ancient Roman. We had to pick our own groups so naturally all the Roger kids went together. The prize was a bottle of wine and we had to split it with our groups so we all went into smaller groups. My group didn't end up winning but we were in second place! We were very close. I can't wait to show my parents all the things I saw. One really interesting thing that wasn't Roman was the flood marker from 1966. It was about 11 feet high!!!!

On Thursday for my Art in Context class, we went to Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore Museum. We got to see some of the sculptures from the first Cathedral in Florence. We saw works by Michelangelo, Donatello and other artists.

This weekend I plan on being a relaxing weekend. I am going to book some trips, relax and then on Sunday is the Superbowl! We are all going to The Red Garder for the game. It starts at around 12:30 AM here I think.

More later
Ciao!


Sunday, January 29, 2012

The view from Chianti!

The wine cellar in Chianti!

Gabby and I in front on the tower!

Chianti, Pisa and Lucca

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, I have been very very busy. This past weekend has been wonderful!

On Friday we went to Chianti. It was RWU and ASU that went that day. It was beautiful there! I got to taste two wines. They were very good. The place wasn't far from Florence. It was about a half hour bus ride. We arrived there and got a tour of the place, had lunch, tasted the wine, and walked around and took many pictures. I learned a lot while I was there too. I learned the proper way to taste wine. First you DO NOT hold the glass on the glass. You hold it by the stem. Then you swirl the wine glass. If the tears (they are not called legs!) are close together and run down slowly, it has high alcohol percentage and it has full body. Then you smell the wine. We had to try to figure out what it smelled like because the chianti wine has the smells of many fruits. Then you look at the wine. You do not hold the glass up. You tilt the glass and hold it against something white. If it is violet red it is not very old. If it is ruby red its kind of old. If it is brown red it is aged. Then you get to taste it. You are supposed to chew the wine(weird). I also learned a lot about Extra Virgin Olive Oil. EVOO is not the same as regular olive oil. The extra means it has an acidity of less than .3%. Virgin means that it is pure and is only made out of olives. Manufactures of olive oil don't put the acidity level on the bottle because they can pass it off if it is under .8%. One way to tell if the EVOO is good is to look at the bottle. If it is a dark bottle, that is good because it protects it from the light. Also cans are good too, because that blocks the sun. If the acidity is on the bottle don't get it if its over .3%. The EVOO that we had on bread at Chianti was amazing! Best I have ever had!!

On Saturday I went to Pisa and Lucca with 40 other students. Pisa was fun. We took our 'Pisa pictures' which took a very long time. We then watched what other people did in their pictures. Some were really funny. One guy kissed/hugged it. And another woman put earmuffs on it! Then we went to the Baptistry, and Cathedral, and the Burial Ground. The Baptistry was very cool. A woman sang and it sounded like there was 20 people singing because of the echo. Then we went to the Cathedral which was BEAUTIFUL! I lit a candle for Gramma and Papa there.  Lots of frescos and beautiful gold ceilings! There is a Saint that is buried there who hasn't decomposed yet. He is in a glass tomb and it was very cool! Then we went ti the burial ground which was really cool too! Then we went to Lucca and ate lunch and went for a 2 hour bike ride along the raised boarder of Lucca. It was a lot of fun!

Tonight me and my roommate are going to attempt to find a chinese food place in Florence. With us luck!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Another week over!

Its the weekend!!! Sorry I haven't written in a few days, I have been very busy and very tired. It is still really rough getting used to being around and about all day and then not getting a lot of sleep.

Tomorrow we are going on our Chianti trip! It should be a lot of fun and I heard its beautiful! We are going to Trebbio. I will post some pictures tomorrow after the trip. 


The highlight of my day today? Mint Chocolate Chip gelato. 


Ciao till tomorrow! 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Mucca tripe

So my clothes didn't shrink! They just finished drying though. We only have a washer and not a dryer so we have to hang them on a rack.

Today, I ate cow stomach!!!!!!! In my food culture class he told us we were going to try something and then after we all ate it he would tell us what it was. It actually wasn't bad. The chewiness was weird and the texture but the flavor was actually pretty good. I only had one piece though.

Now to eat something 'normal'.

Ciao!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday

Classes are half over today. I had class at 9:00 and then I have class again at 3:00. I am in the process of doing laundry for the first time in Florence. It is very difficult because the washing machine settings and directions are in Italian. Its very different than washing machines in America. There are about 12 different temps, settings, and all kinds of buttons. Hopefully my clothes don't shrink or something like that.
At 12:30 I am meeting my roommate, Liz, and we are going to Mercato Centrale. Which is a huge market in Florence. Then off to class again.

Buongiorno!


Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Florence sky at 4:30 PM

End of the second weekend

Today is the second Sunday that I am in Florence. It was a nice relaxing weekend. I got to sleep in and then see the town later on. Today I had a nice walk around the area that I live in. The sky was beautiful today. I will post a picture later of what it looked like.
Tonight I am going to a friends for dinner. Two of my roommates and me are going to walk over in about a  half hour. I hoping its not pasta :).
Tomorrow I start my second week of classes. It is very good to get into a schedule again.

More later when I post the picture.

Ciao!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

What is the name of this building?

19/01/12

Isn't it weird Italians write the date like that? It is taking a lot of getting used to!

Today ends my first week of classes. Thank goodness we don't have classes on Fridays! It was a good week, but long. I was able to Skype/Face Time a few people yesterday which was wonderful! My Skype name is sdolbec and my Face Time is just my phone number(from home). Speaking of phone numbers, I messed up my Italian one. It's 339 255 6963. Feel free to call me on that number or text me on my iPhone. I can't answer but I can communicate with email and Facebook and such.

Today I am cooking dinner for two of my friends, Tim and Gabby. We are going to have rice with eggplant, peppers, onion, garlic, and zucchini. I am going to cook sausage too and bread with olive oil. I found out today that bread with olive oil is actually NOT Italian. They don't do that here, but I'm American and no Italians will see that in the privacy of my apartment :).
I will let you know how it turns out!

Ciao!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ciao family and friends!

Today was another great day in Italy. I have been here exactly a week today!!! It feels like I have been here so much longer. I am really starting to know my way around, how to get to the places I need to get to and how to talk to the locals. Everything is going great. I had a busy day today. I had 4 classes. I started at 9:00 AM and ended at 6:15 PM. I had my History of Florence class today and it sounds so interesting!

Today I am FINALLY going to be able to FaceTime my parents! I am very excited!
More tomorrow,

Buonasera!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Wifi!!!

I never knew how much I would miss wifi. It was very hard to be this far from my friends and family and not be able to see them or talk to them. But I have it now!!!!!
Classes started yesterday and they went really well. I have Ancient Rome and Italian yesterday and today I have Cultural & History of Food and Italian. Very cool classes!
My Italian is improving and (hopefully) will continue to improve. I ordered my lunch in butchered Italian today, better than nothing I guess! And the best part was the owner understood me!! There is a small Café near my apartment which has amazing food! One huge piece of advice that I got once I got here was, to stick to the same food place so they get to know you. This is definitely coming in handy because I got a discount the last 2 days!!
We have been cooking a lot in our apartment, more like cooking pasta, pasta...and pasta. Its tasty though =].
Off to clean and then homework and off to learn more Italian!

Ciao!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The start of the trip

Ciao from Florence! I arrived here safe and sound after a very long day. I have 3 very cool roommates and we are having a great time walking around and enjoying everything! I live on Via della Parione 18. It is in a very nice neighborhood! We live right next to a very cute car (café) where the owners are very sweet! We live 10 minutes from the Duomo which is gorgeous! I still don't have Wifi in my apartment but I am at a cafe now. Once I get Wifi it will be very easy to keep in touch! my Italian cell number is 3393556963 feel free to call me I have a lot of minutes!

Talk to everyone as soon as I can!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Tomorrow is the day!

Well tomorrow is the big day! I leave for Logan at 12:00PM and fly at 4:30 PM USA time. I land in Frankfurt, Germany at 5:35AM (11:35PM USA time) and land in Florence at 9:45 AM (3:45 AM USA time)

We were having some issues posting comments... when you want to leave a comment it will ask you to 'Comment as:' choice 'Name/URL' and you will be able to post!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Countdown!

The countdown is almost over! I leave this Tuesday! I can not believe how fast the time has gone by this winter break. The fun of the break is over...now time to pack and then off to Italy!