Rest of the Amalfi weekend....

Positano on Saturday. This was such a fantastic place to see. The city was built on the side of a very steep hill in south Italy along the sea. But everything there was so picturesque. We first got there at 11am at the top of the city and had to hike down what seemed like a thousand stairs (maybe more like 700 but my knees were hurting toward the end... then again, I hate going down stairs. But the hike was worth it. When we got into town, we set up shop on the beach (which had black sand... wtf? I guess the rocks had something to do with that). But we pretty much just relaxed in the sun for the rest of the morning and early afternoon until 1:30pm when a group of us caught a boat to go see another part of the island. 

We jumped in the boat, all 23 of us, and set off to go cliff jumping. When we got to the spot, there was another boat there so we went further down to the green gratto. This was very cool to swim in this gratto. The water was about 75 degrees and absolutely beautiful. Some of us initially jumped in and others hesitated cause the waves were a little choppy. I would guess that the waves were about a foot and a half or even just over two feet. This is not something that a beginner should jump into, just those of us that can actually swim (or at least keep themselves afloat on their own). What did two noobs do? Jumped in the choppy waters, swam for about 30 feet, then panicked, causing everyone to get out of the water as everyone thought they were drowning and wanted to help. This pissed me off cause I just got in the beautiful green gratto. Oh well. When we got back on the boat, we went back to the cliffs. 

When we got there, many people just wanted to jump once so they went big (to the THIRTY-FIVE FOOT cliff). At first, even I was a little nervous, I can't believe that of the 16 of us that jumped, 14 went to the bigger one instead of the ten footer. But when we got to the top, ToniAnn jumped first and landed a little awkwardly, but nothing that bad. Next was Olivia and she pretty much sat down when she hit the water instead of doing a pencil like you are supposed to from that height. Next was Stella, then some other people, then me. Unlike everyone else who stood at the edge syking themselves out, I pretty much just jumped on a whim. I was actually sitting on a rock the entire time, then I just said "F*** it, I'm going" and just walked off the edge and did  a perfect pencil into the water. The only bad part of entire thing was that I ended up touching the bottom of the sea (about 10-12 feet deep) with my toes. I didn't injure myself, just got a little freaked out. It was so much fun, I went back up. 

When I got back up to see Clint, Lindsay (Snooks), and Angelica. Finally we talked Clint into going. Then it was the three of us. I wanted to go last to make sure those two went and didn't walk down the jagged ledges as they would hurt themselves. Finally after about ten minutes, Lindsay jumped. She landed a little awkwardly but did fine. Then it was just me and Angelica. Thankfully Matias came up cause I wanted to jump again. Once again, I just said F* it, and jumped. Then Angelica jumped. She was leaning waaaay to far forward and her chest took most of the impact. Thankfully she was OK. After Matias jumped, we headed back to the beach. For the rest of the day, we just relaxed on the beach and then headed back to the hotel. That night we had a small dinner and went walking in the downtown area of Sorento. 

The next day we saw Pompeii and everything it had to offer. It was so epic to see a city that was built before Christ even was a thought. Just everything that Pompeii had before Vesuvius decided to screw the entire city over was pretty awesome - raise sidewalks for crossing the streets, sliding doorways brothels with pictures above each room stating what you would get in that room, and just so many roads to make it actually a bigger city for that time. After seeing Pompeii, we were going to go to Vesuvius to hike it but mother nature axed that idea with thunderstorms. Thankfully we got back into down earlier Sunday because I would have hated walking around Florence with God knows how much in camera equipment on me. Finally home

I know I added this late, but lets just pretend that I posted this last week. Thank Buddha for a good memory.

Week 4-5 recap

Well I will try to remember as much as I can from this week.

Monday: Made a tomato sauce and gnudi (gnocchi minus the potato) in class, the chef also showed us how to make homemade pasta which reminded me of the Worcester days when Mum made easter ravioli for us. Had a big salad for lunch and then went to Christina's for dinner and stole her free fast internet. 

Tuesday: Woke up late and picked up some fruit on the way to Italian class. In Italian Cinema, we watched Nuova Cinema Paradiso, by far the best movie in the class so far. We went to get Mexican that night (argh!) and had the worst service ever. The food wasn't all that great either.

Wednesday: Cooked some desserts in class which were wicked good. Came home to nap, lolol. That night, went over to Mandy's apartment but before we went over, Jake put on a ton of cologne and I got sick because perfumes and I don't get along.

Thursday: I wanted to kill Jake cause I had to miss a class. I made it to the other class though. We watched another stupid movie (the Postman). Actually it wasn't bad, just it really did appeal to me. Came home and went to bed that night. Also went to 4Leoni again! This place is awesome.

Friday: Slept for 12 hours cause I was sick. Really didn't do anything that day other than watch the movie for my film class and write my review on it. Tried to go to bed at a decent hour, didn't fall asleep until 2:30

Saturday: Woke up at 3:30 sick as hell. Took some Advil and Aleve. Started to feel better and decided to go on the weekend excursion to the Tuscan country side. This was stupid because we spent a total of 6 hours on a bus, toured a small castle, got a few pictures, had a crappy lunch, tasted a few sips of wine, went to another small fort, got a nice view off Tuscany, then went home.. NOT WORTH IT. Watched the USA-England game with some friends and went home and to bed early that night

Sunday: Woke up after 12 hours of sleep again (I love this sleep thing). Worked on a paper for class. Jake went to Pisa so I was alone all day (FINALLY!). I went to some Giubbe Rossi place that was recommended by my cooking class teacher and it sucked. I got a Ravioli dish that was drowned in butter. That night, I went to an Irish pub to watch the Germany-Australia match. Tried Guinness for the first time and actually liked it (got a second pint in the second half). Came home and went to sleep.

Monday: Made some more tasty food in class. Came home and pretty much just rested cause I was still sick. That night, went out to watch the Italy-Paraguay game with Christina and friends at an outdoor viewing party along the river.

Tuesday: After another good nights rest, went to class and gave an oral presentation that I bombed. It sucks when of the 7 other students in the class, only 1 is also learning a second language while everyone else already speaks English and Spanish. Not Fair!!!! Oh well. Italian Cinema was alright again, nothing special. That night, went to an Osteria with Christina since neither of us were formally invited to a birthday party for some bitch. We actually had an awesome dinner even though it was raining. Our waiter was cursing up a storm and gave us free champagne, lol. "Com'e si dice 'lightning' in Italino? fulmine.. and this, this is fucking rain!!!" hahaha. So awesome. But that night, I came home, worked on another paper that was due the next morning. I didnt go to bed till 1:30. Woke up at 2:30 coughing and wanted to leave Italy that moment because I missed the States and Walgreens and actually having a home that as medicine. But I stole some of Jakes night time cough meds and went to sleep. Bastard deserves it for getting me sick.

Wednesday: Cooking class we made some desserts again. This time we made a truffle (with too much cream so they didnt come out right) and biscotti (which had way too much nuts). After class, normally I am not hungry, but this time I was so I got a big ol salad at Cuco again. The Chef there is awesome. He and his assistant were helping me work on my Italian communication skills. The assistant can speak pretty good English but the chef is just as good in English as I am in Italian so it was cool. I got some good recommendations on where to eat from him too. Now I am finally caught up on my blog, I can edit some photos!!!

For the rest of this weekend: AMALFI COAST!!! My 7D is going to get a TON of pictures. Hopefully I can go cliff diving too!

Until then..............

Roma - Giorno 3 - Destinazione: Ovunque ma non qui (Finalmente)

Day three finally arrived and that meant we were finally going back to Florence. We woke up at 7:30am (once again, 3.5 hours of sleep). Ate breakfast and set off to see the capital city again.

This time we started out at the Spanish steps. Once again, I was underwhelmed as I expected more with it being so famous. Afterwards we set out to see a few more monuments including the Trevi fountain where some girl from our group slipped in and got yelled at by the cops and also a few piazze. The biggest thing we saw the Pantheon. This was actually really cool minus the scaffolding on half of the building. The Pantheon is still used today as a church but there is also a massive dome on top. The dome has a big hole in the middle symbolizing god always watching over his followers. This hole is actually open thus exposing the inside to some elements. Our tour guide said one of the coolest things he has seen is the Pantheon being exposed to snow and some of the snow coming inside. While here, I also snapped a ton of pictures of people looking up at the hole but no one took any for me (one offered at the beginning though, thanks Clint). After the tour ended, a few of us got lunch together and I broke a glass (not my fault that the weak glass couldn't survive a fall from 2 inches). 

After a nice lunch, we were walking around and eventually made it back to the hotel after 4 hours. We then just hung around the hotel until everyone had to go to the train station to head back. I was extremely warm on the train as I had the sun beating down on me and Jake was sitting next to me. We finally made it back to Florence and Jake just wanted to stay at home for dinner and ate cereal while I went out to get some food and also enjoyed a half liter of wine. I was quite high to say the least. I actually went to bed at a decent hour last night too thanks to that wine (12:30am!!)

First half of week 3

Monday: Made an Onion soup, Risotto, and Beans in cooking class. My group made a mean onion soup that I will actually try to make at home. The beans were pretty good. The risotto was alright, nothing to write home about even though that's what I am doing right now. Later that day I went to the top of the Duomo for a spectacular view of Florence. Nothing else really happened Monday night thankfully.

Tuesday I had class alllll day. In Italian we reviewed for the test on Thursday and also she taught us some curse words!!! This made my day. During the film class, I downloaded "Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)" as I am going to write a paper on that film. We also watched Mamma Roma but I missed out on much if it since I was downloading my movie.

Later Tuesday night, we went out to an American pub again. I felt like I was back home (and this is not a good thing). It felt that I was in a college bar in Alabama or at an Old Navy convention. It was pretty sad on how many people were from America. Later, after getting sick of the bar, Jake and I headed to the a bar called Yag. This was a first for me to say the last, a non American bar. Things here were much more relaxed. It was an interesting bar and I couldn't complain at all except it was 5.50 for a beer. The scenery was nice though. We stayed here for an hour then left.

Wednesday: Nothing but studying, procrastination, and blogging.  OH and eating. Jake and I finally went to 4Leoni (Four Lions) for dinner. I had the best meal since I have been here at this place. The prices were not too bad but next time I will spend less and I will not get Filet steak.

Siena

Well I guess I haven't stuck to my word by updating this thing every day. I remember to, but then I don't bother as the internet here is pissing me off most of the time. oh well.

Before Siena we went to a wine tasting at a winery in the Toscana country side. The views here were pretty breathtaking (especially after 4 glasses of Italian wine.) While here, we got a little intro to wine that I did not pay attention to as I was too busy taking pictures of everything and showing off my huuuuge Canon lens, hehe. But afterwards, the owners set up a few tables for us and we sat down and tried a couple wines and some foods. This was one of the first times in a while that I realized how much I hate Americans. The guy just finished bringing out the food all the students just started digging he. He didn't even get a chance to tell us anything about the food. Why do Americans have such bad manners? I hate being American at times, my own people are so damn annoying. The food and wines were very tasty though. It really was just a small sample of meats and cheeses, nothing special, but everything just blended so well.

Well after a few glasses of wine and being quite high off the alcohol, I just started walking around snapping up some pretty damn good pictures. I was expecting some crappy photos when I uploaded them, but almost every photo was a keeper! After everything was said and done, we went back on the bus and headed off to Siena. When we got back on the bus, everyone wanted to start singing but I was tired as hell so I just put on some Alkaline Trio. I woke up about an hour later and pretty much everyone else was finally asleep. Eventually everyone woke up as we just arrived in Siena.

Siena was nice. There were only a few bad things about the place and that really wasn't Siena's fault. Some of the chicks on the trip kept begging me to use my expensive camera. Also, some of the Zeta chicks were just complaining the entire time that they just wanted to go drink (another reason why I hate Siena).

Siena is full of hills unlike Florence. There also were not as many tourist which was nice. There were a few nice places in the city too. In the centre of the city, there is a massive square that they have horse races around every year. Really other than that, there wasn't too much to see in Siena.

We finally hopped on the bus and headed back for Florence. Had a nice dinner with some friends that night and talked about some other students on the trip and how some are just weird and others are cool, the normal gossip shit.

Went home, went to sleep. The next day I didn't really do much of anything either.

Day in Venice

First off: I promise that I will update this thing more often!! ARGH!! It's frustrating that I do not keep up with this enough!

Now. Venice was amazing. We first arrived and every one wanted to put their bags into storage so they wouldn't have to carry them around all day. Being the rebellious one, I said screw that and decided to take mine along with me. There was only one point through out the entire day that I regretted that choice and it was when we were going into the basilica at St. Mark's square. They wouldn't let me in - bastards.

But Venice was tight but it started off on a bad note. We were waiting in line to get tickets for the 9:05 train to Venice and it was about 8:55. We were in front of the ticket office which was two stories below the train platform. Well, we found out that we could just get our tickets on the train so we booked it for the train. We eventually got on the train and settled down. That is when I wrote the previous post. When we arrived in Venice, we did our normal head count. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. DAMN IT! We lost someone!" Turns out that we left Rob at the station in Milan. He was unable to keep up with us and no one even noticed that he was gone until Venice. Sorry Rob, but it was kinda your fault cause you are so damn quiet. Oh well. We booked our tickets home on the long train to Florence right away. There was supposed to be a high speed train but apparently it does not exist any more (thanks trenitalian.it for lying to us!).

Well, while everyone was checking their bags. I decided to roam around a little. Since they were taking an extra long time, I thought they were eating some food, so I decided to do the same. I can honestly say that I have had the worst pizza ever in Italy. Pretty sad huh?

But we finally met up after everyone's crap was checked and we set out to explore. We pretty much set out for Saint Mark's Square, the popular tourist spot on the opposite side of the small city. Normally this is supposed to take about 20-30 minutes to get there, it took us about 2.5 hours. We were not in a hurry though. We stopped for lunch, stopped for pictures, stopped for snacks, and eventually stopped for a GONDOLA ride. This was pretty freaking awesome. I never thought that I would be on a gondola in Venice. Since there were 10 (yes, 10, one stupid chick didn't want to be social) of us, we split up 5 and 5. My gondola had Angelica, Jake, Stella, Zim, and Me. It was absolutely surreal that I was on a gondola with 4 people that I just met less than 10 days before but have become very good friends with. We saw a couple neat bridges, some amazing water ally ways, and even the house that Marco Polo (Fish outta water!) lived in.

We actually ended the ride a little early in order to get to St. Mark's. After snapping a few photos, we just started to explore the area a little. Nothing spectacular here. I did a little gift shopping here (yes, I have already done Xmas shopping) for the family. We eventually took a water taxi back to the train station as everyone was sick of walking. This was pretty awesome as well. The people in Venice are magicians with these boats. They are better at driving the boats on moving water than most people are at driving! Pretty crazy stuff.  We eventually made it back, I snapped about a 100 photos on the water taxi ride alone, and we set off for Florence.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing weekend. I snapped about 600 photos too. Venice is by far one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.

Catching up FINALLY

So here is a recap of week one.. I just hope that I can do more and more of this blogging stuff as the progresses. 

With that said, here we go. Good luck getting through this, there is a TON of stuff. 

Day One: Lufthansa flying over was awesome. They know how to treat their customers. The only bad thing was I could not sleep AT ALL. It was quite warm on the flight as there were no personal fans, but I could deal with it. The meal wasn't all that bad either - a pasta dish with some veggies and wine. I took the wine hoping it would help me fall asleep, but like I said, I got close to nothing (one solid hour of snoozing). After landing, I went into Munich to visit some friends (Jan and Jerry, great guys) and had two delicious meals with them. After spending about five hours or so, I set off for Italia! Finally I would be in the land of half of my ancestors, the place that I have wanted to see more than any other nation. The anticipation was getting to me and my mouth was getting dry. After waiting for the slowest family in the world at the vending machine, I finally got the Coke I was waiting for. I forgot how crazy-delicious the Coke in Europe was. As I was getting my Coke from the machine, the door on the train closed on me and I thought I was going to miss my flight as the next train was not for another twenty minutes. After pacing back and forth and panicking that I would miss my plane, the train arrived, but trust me, my heart was still racing as it was a thirty minute ride out to the airport and I had forty-five minutes to get to the airport and go through security and finally make it to my gate. Long story short, I made it with five minutes to spare. The best part is that we didn't even start boarding for another fifteen minutes so I was worrying for nothing. I don't remember the plane ride as I passed out the second the main cabin door shut. Next thing I know, we have arrived in Italy! I finally made it to my hotel at 10:30PM and was starving but the only thing that was open was Micky D's. Who would have guessed that my first meal in Italy would have been a Royal with Cheese (Pulp Fiction tribute, woot woot!). After making it back to my hotel, I wanted to charge some electronics. I brought a power strip with me, plugged it in, and zapped all the power on my floor of the hotel. Oops! After getting the power back on, I just decided to charge one thing at a time and pass out for the night. 

Day 2: Woke up around 10:30 and caught a cab ride to my school. I know in Italy you are supposed to walk everywhere, but there was no way I was walking with a 50lb bag behind me in a city that I did not know. In this cab ride, I thought that at least thirteen people were going to die, the drivers are that crazy/ballsy here. People would just walk in the middle of the streets, cars would just not obey the traffic laws, and it was complete insanity, I love it! I finally made it to my new school and met the program director and was shown to my home from home, or at least I thought it was. The apartment that my flatmates and I were supposed to move it was not ready so they stuck us in another apartment for the night. I was there alone for about an hour or so until two of the guys (Mark and Clint) arrived. From there, we set out for lunch and met up with some other classmates of ours. Later that day, we met the other three guys (Matias, Rob, and Jake). That night we went out, nothing special and not very late because we had an orientation the next day. 

Day 3: Orientation day and finally moving into the new apartment. Nothing spectacular happened on this day other than us blowing the power in the apartment because we turned on a light and having to 

Day 4: Sunday - The last day of vacation. One again, nothing special. Took a short walking tour of Florence, saw where our classes would be. Saw the Dante's church (which was surprisingly small). We also participated in a wine tasting which was very boring. Afterwards, Jake and I set out for a bar to watch the second half of the Inter Milan soccer game. Later that night, we discovered a gelateria that offered free wifi! I couldn't be happier at that point, haha. 

Day 5: First day of my first class. After hiking across Florence at 8:30 in the morning, I made it to my class 10 minutes late (I underestimated how far it really was). This class is a cooking class and is by far the best class, or at least the one that I am looking forward to the most. In class, we sampled a couple different meats (I had wild boar for the first time, I must say, it was pretty good. I don't like it by itself and it needs to be married with something else, still good nonetheless). We also sampled different olive oils, the Toscana (Tuscany) one was my favorite. Nothing else of major importance happened on Monday

Day 6: More first day of classes. Started off with a test to try to get into Italian 3 (which I did not do well on and was sent back to Italy 2 to brush up). Next was my Italian Cinema class that I thought I was going to love. The first movie we watch., Obsession, was very boring. I know some people loved it, but it reminded me of a soap opera. That night we went out to Fratelli la Bufala and I got a calzone that was in the shape of bull horns, it was delicious. That night, Jake and I were roaming the city looking for free wifi as our gelataria was closed for some reason. 

Day 7: Made it to class on time this time. We made some crepes in class that were pretty good. I really need to cook more when I get home. SawRobin Hood in a wicked nice theater that was like an opera house. It was in English with Italian subtitles. The movie was pretty good, but we couldn't beat the price - 6 euro. 

Day 8: Italian 2 and another movie. This time the movie was Rome, Open City. It was better than the last movie, but still was boring. Not sure why both these movies were chosen. That night we went out (we have gone out every other night, but tonight for much longer. Went to a couple different places for drinks. Nothing special again. 

Day 9: Off to Milan for the weekend!! We saw Sar Siro, THEE soccer stadium of Milan. Both Inter Milan and AC Milan play here. It was awesome to take a short tour of the massive stadium. The stadium is nice than Camp Nou in Barcelona but the Camp Nou tour was so much better. We got to go in both Inter and Milan locker rooms. Inter's locker room was based of the idea that there is one bench and they are one team. Milan's room was more focused on the individual. Each player had their own stall and very comfortable seat. To me, I would much rather Inter's locker room as I believe in the team and not the individual. After finishing up the tour and getting many pictures in the stadium, we set back for our hotel. Our hotel was decent but the price was amazing - a 3-star hotel for just 30 EURO! This is unheard of but you gotta love having a big group of 12 people. Later that evening, we went to the Duomo to take pictures at night and eat dinner. After dinner we just went back to the hotel as there was nothing to do according to our waiter that night. 

Day 10: Started off with a free breakfast but I woke up with a wicked congestion problem thanks to all the damn smoking here. One of my roomies smokes a pack a day and the smoke always seems to some how blow in my face when we walk around. Combine that with more than half of the people here smoking equals a very unhappy Sonny. I got some meds in Milan that seem to do a little, but I need my Mucinex that I left in Florence. We finally set out for the Duomo. When arriving at the Piazza del Duomo, there was already a watch party for later that night for the UEFA Champions League Finale. We went into the church for about 45 minutes. The church was amazing. I love the Gothic style churches. I lit a candle for each of my two recently deceased grandparents (Nana and Pep, miss ya!).  Afterwards, while the rest of the group went shopping, Rob, Zim, and I went on top of the Duomo. I still can't believe the amount of detail that was put into this project. There were just so many intricate details that the normal person would have left unattended to, but these builders did a phenomenal job.  After about an hour of walking around, we decided to take a break from and just lay down on top of the Duomo. Next to us were some teens that were sipping on some Italian beer. I swear, only in Italy can you sit on top of a church and drink beer. The thing that made the moment surreal was when a green balloon was spotted floating in the sky. Just a normal green balloon, nothing special, but it was just so weird to think that I would did similar things back in my childhood (laying on the grass, staring at the sky and random things just go by). It was amazing to think that 15 years later, I was doing the same thing, but this time on top of a church 5,000 miles away. After sitting around for about 15 minutes, we decided to walk down and meet the shoppers in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele - the oldest shopping mall in the world. In the center of the mall were four main stores - Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, and (drum roll please..............) McDonald's! Only Micky D's could get away with this. After meeting up, we went back to the hotel to drop off somethings and get some food. Later on, we went back to the Duomo to watch the game with what seemed 10,000 other fans. We had two giant TV's to watch. The fans were standing for hours upon hours. There were many chants going on and I couldn't participate in them as I was rooting for the other team (FC Bayern Munich). In the end, Inter Milan won 2-0 but I still had a great time. There were fireworks, flares, hundreds of flags waving, and God only knows what else was going on after final whistle blew. We eventually made it back to the hotel, but all over the city were thousands of cars honking their horns, Vespa's zooming around waving their flags, and so many people just crowding the streets. I was so happy I got to be in Milan for this, even if Bayern lost. Finally, at 11pm, we made it back to our hotel, where once again, I got McDonald's as I was just hungry and didn't want to wait for food. 

Day 11: Off to Venice on the train surfing the internet and writing this... I will update my entire day later on when I get a chance and the internet decides to cooperate. I love that I had a better connection on a 200km/h train than I do in my apartment.