Catching up again....

Going to make this pretty much shorter and sweet.. well relatively speaking compared to normal....
Italy - Monday: Woke up, took a tour of the city that we should have done during the first week. Headed home to study for two exams the next day.
Tuesday: Took two exams that I didn't do as well as I should have... but the professors hated me cause I knew how to form my own opinion (vafanculo Dr. Sipiora). Later that night, got some good dinner and headed to Christina's for some wifi and to avoid studying for an exam on Wednesday
Wednesday: Took the exam early in the day (FINALLY DONE!!!) then went touring the city. Bought some gifts, watched a soccer game while everyone else went to out to get shitty that night. Glad I didnt go because many people blacked out.. suckas
Thusday - Festival day in Florence. Pretty much just did some more touring around the city, got to sleep in later that day. Got the single best steak I have ever had.
Friday: Woke up early to go to Pisa but there was a train strike. Instead, I went up the Florence Bell Tower to take pics. Also just did a little more touring of the city and bought more gifts. Had a good bye dinner that night and went out for Christina's Bday with everyone. This was fun, but I hate clubbing. Oh well.
Saturday: Well, I didn't go to bed till 7am as I wanted to take pictures of the Florence sunrise and of places sans people. Also found a secret bakery and got some fresh croissants and bread. Ended up sleeping till 2pm, packed a little, got ice cream for lunch and a sandwich for dessert, lol. Ended up at Christina's that night for a little going away get together. This was awesome but sad.
Sunday - Left Florence. Actually was sad to leave the city and my awesome roomie of 6 weeks. But I knew I would see two good friends in Austria so all way good. When at the airport, I meet up with Gimli (Arin from our study abroad program, he looks just like the LotR character Gimli, just younger and more ugly). But we sat down to eat lunch together which made the three hour wait a little bit better. I got my single pizza slice and small fries and sat down where he was watching the bags. He then got up to get his stuff. When he came back, he got two big slices of pizza. He then left and came back with olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and two different things of pepper. When he came back to the table with all this crap, there were these 4 Swedish people sitting right behind him looking at him, then the food,  then him, then the food, then me and then repeat. When he left to bring all the extras back to the bar, they looked at me and said "American?" I quickly responded "Oh yeah". They laughed at him and said that it easily showed. Now not only is this kid ugly, but hes just awkwardly fat. Some people carry their fat well, but others like this kid look like they-have-an-inner-tube-wrapped-around-his-waist fat. They said that he had more than enough room to store all that food. They then asked me where I was from and I didn't have the balls to say the State so I said Canada. Then I ran along with this story for the next five minutes as they were asking tons of questions, lololol. Thank god for being a hockey fan and a Peter Forsberg fan (an awesome Swedish player that I asked a few questions about). When Gimli came back, he actually thought I was Canadian too, poor guy. But to make a long story short, I will never tell people I am American and the Swedish as awesome (and beautiful).

Austria - Finally landed in Austria, happy to be with good friends. Next day went on a Segway and walked up to a nice little restaurant on the mountain with one of Thom's coworkers and her kids. The next day we went up to the salt mines area to go bobsledding. This was just as fun as last year but this time I could record a video, woot woot. The next day we went on the rope climbing and I had to help Thom finish some of the courses as he was too weak to do so himself. For the dinners in Austria, we went to get Italian once, went to the Austria country side for some good local wieners, and the got Chinese where the food came out on a belt that we just picked off of.. soo awesome

Switzerland/Liechtenstein - Finally in Switzerland, so freaking beautiful here. First full day here was OK because of a shitty tourguide. Oh well. Massive Zurich Party this weekend!

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!!)

Roma - Giorno 2 - Destinazione: Ovunque ma non qui

I woke up at 6:45am on Saturday morning with just one alarm going off. For me, this is a miracle. I guess it makes sense since we were going to the Vatican that day. Every morning, like most people, when I wake up, I go to the bathroom right away. In Europe, especially in Italy, almost every bathroom has a bidet (an ass cleaner). Well, being right next to the toilet, I was bound to look at it. My wonderful(ly drunk as hell) roommate Jake decided to leave a gift for the maids in the bidet - let's just say when you consume that much alcohol and the same night you have pastas, hams, tomatoes and other stuff, it's going to end up looking like an omelet. It was quite nasty but thankfully did not smell as I would have punched that kid in the nuts. I went down to eat breakfast for 7:15am. I saw a few other students down there and we ate together. Rob and I went back to our rooms after breakfast to wake up our roommates (Rob actually ended up waking both Mark and Jake up, both were still drunk, not even hung over). In the end, only Jake made it down in time to walk with the group to the metro to the Vatican. Mark and Matias had to catch up later on (right before we entered the city actually, lucky for them cause they would have had to pay their own way in).

We eventually made it into the city and, of course being the awesome Catholic that I am, the first word I said was 'fuck' just because I could. We took a guided tour through out the City. We saw many painting and statues. Nothing extremely famous, but still some amazing stuff. I took many pictures of them and will post them on my flickr eventually. We started off seeing the painting and then the statues. Before the statues though, we were in this field with a giant globe in the center. Now the Italians are very lax when it comes to keeping people out of places they don't want you to go (now if they really don't want you there, that's different). There was only a chain in the way of the people from touching and spinning the globe. Some people (with the bad influence of the tour guide, haha) decided to go and spin the stunning spherical statue. Then after some statues, we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel. Personally, I was underwhelmed by the entire thing as there were too many tourists and I thought that it was going to be much bigger. Plus I hated the fact that we could not take pictures (legally).  Not even two minutes into the viewing, I was yelled at by a guard for taking pictures. This did not stop me of course. Many people were also asking me to snap pictures of them looking at the ceiling and of course I did cause I am a nice guy. After the Chapel, we set out to view St. Peter's Basilica. Personally, I thought it was a selfish and too arrogant of the Catholics on what they did to this beautiful building. Not only did they make it a tourist trap, but it didn't even feel like a place of worship. This is another reason why I sometimes hate being a Christian, let alone a Catholic.

After seeing everything the Vatican had to offer, a group of us set out to eat some lunch. We made it to this one little place near the Vatican. It was honestly the single worst Italian meal I have ever had. The waiters were rude and sneaky, the food was worse than Chef Boyardee canned food, and the prices were just too high. After eating that shit, we set out to walk toward the hotel cause some people wanted to nap. We saw a few sites on the way, but nothing all that spectacular. A castle that we didn't go in because people didn't want to pay and a square (Piazza del Popolo) that was underwhelming. After the Piazza, the rest of the group wanted to head back while I wanted to go up on the hill to see what was up there. You would think that a few people would want to have a view of the city from up there, but no, everyone wanted to head back. Once again, I was alone in Rome. At the top, there was a great view of the city and a very beautiful park. After spending about 30 mins up there relaxing, I decided to head back to the hotel and nap as well.

For dinner, the primo piatto was a pasta dish with a white sauce and sausage. For the secondo piatto, a bit of chicken with potatos. Our dolce was an ice cream dish with mints. Over all, the dinner was the best part so far. Also, for dinner, I initially sat with Evy (don't know how to spell her name) as she was sitting alone. Later on, Stella and Zim sat with us and we had a great dinner conversation.

Later that night, Jake and I met up with some of his friends who were back packing. We saw the trevi fountain at night which was amazing and also went to see the Colosseum at night too. While at the Colosseum, we took some photos of us jumping. There was one photo that I was actually so high that I was halfway out of frame, haha. I guess this white boy still got ups. This was probably one of the best nights on the entire trip and it was so simple yet fun. We eventually made it back to the hotel around 2:30 and went to bed at 4am.

Roma - Giorno 1 - Destinazione - Ovunque ma non qui

Woke up in the morning @ 6:30am after going to bed @ 3am.. F. M. L.

It actually wasn't all that bad. Jake and I had to leave the apartment @ 7am in order to make it to the train station for 7:30. They said that we had to be on time and we were... Too bad we had to wait around for 40 minutes to board the train. When we finally got on the train, there were essentially 9 of us that wanted to sit next together - 6 guys, 3 chicks.  Jake was the first one to go up ahead and he saved a seat for the three chicks. Matias and Mark were next and they jumped into the aisle seats next to them. That left two window seats for three guys. There was no way I was going to sit next to Mark cause hes a big guy and I really didn't want to sit next to Matias, so that left me all alone somewhere else in the train. Not only did someone not sit next to me, but no one even noticed. Pretty fucking lame shit. The 8 of them played cards while I sat alone. Now I am not trying to wallow in my sorrows, but this was a bitch move by everyone. I know that I would have gotten up and sat with someone else if they were alone, but that's me. I guess I have grasped the concept of caring.

Now that I got that off my chest, I can finally move on to Rome. When first got to the Hotel around 10, we couldn't go to our rooms for almost 40 minutes, so we had to wait around the entire time. Once again, I was kinda off on my own. Some people did come chat for a few, but they would only have a short conversation. Jake and I finally got to our room and dropped our stuff off to meet back in the lobby for 11am like we were told. The group didn't end up leaving till 11:30. We walked all the way down to the Colosseum area, about a Km or two away. I found this to be annoying as there was a train that could have taken us down there in about 10 mins instead of walking for 30 mins. We then just looked at some of the ruins in the area while snapping photos. Our 'tour guide' didn't tell us anything which pissed me off. We ended at some building where the other groups 'guide' told us about it. The only problem is that he is very soft spoken and isn't great for leading big groups. We grabbed a quick 30 minute lunch in order to meet back at this building (which I later found out was the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.) We were supposed to leave @ 1pm but that didn't happen, again. This time we left at 1:20. We set off for the Colosseum to take a tour there. While waiting for a real guide, everyone snapped a few photos. We finally got to go into the Colosseum. Once again, I was in the wrong group. This time I was with a group of people that I didn't know, a group that doesn't talk to anyone but themselves (Bugger off UF). The tour was kinda neat, I guess. We did a quick tour of the ancient building, too quick I think. We spent about 30 mins there and left. I easily could have spent 2 more hours there. We then set out to see some more ancient ruins which was cool. I took a few photos here and there.

After the tour ended, many of the students wanted to go back and nap while I just want to explore. Thankfully someone came with me this time (Rob). We found a neat little island in the middle of the river. After checking this out, I got a wicked good fruit milk shake at one of the best gelato shops in town. We then found this square with some more ruins but hundreds of cats. Ever where you looked, stray cats. It was cool at first then I got grossed out. We eventually made it back to the hotel after an exhausting hike to the hotel.

Later that night, we had a nice dinner with bow-tie pasta and some hams. After dinner, everyone wanted to get drunk and party while I just wanted to go take night photos, and I did just that, alone again. After seeing the Colosseum and Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at night, I decided to head back and goto sleep. At 2:30am, I got a call from drunk Jake saying he didn't know where he was. I didn't know either so there was nothing I could do, lolol. I went back to sleep listening to Against Me, again.

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.