Flashback post!
One year ago this happened:
I also looked like this about one year ago:
What has become of me!!
Don't worry, nothing has changed.
at 8 years of age: 6 years later:
Ok, that didn't happen. But I'm sure that if I did see the Pope, and we did have lunch, he probably would have said hi anyways. I'm just skipping a step.
Aren't I nice.
ITALLLYYYYYYYYYYY...
(P.S. This part is long. If you don't want to hear about Italy, skip down to the end because there I posted some videos that depict what it is like to be on exchange. )
Was so cray cool. I went with one of my host sisters, Ingrid and her two daughters, and her two daughter's friends and now we're all chill and sing "Thüringer Klöße" together. (p.s. here's the link to the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJe3cdM7f1c
be prepaired to L.O.L. or rofl or pypwrofl (peeing your pants while rolling on the floor laughing)
Here was our trip:
- 13 hour night train to Rome
- Roam Rome for a couple of days, sleep in Freedom Traveler hostel where they give us pizza parties and pasta. And where you meet people that go to your sister's college and who know your sister's ex boyfriend. It's a cool place. I highly recommend it
- Train to Orvietto
- Play with 19 billion cats in Orvietto
- Take train to Siena
- Eat LOTS of Gelatto in Siena
- Take train to Lucca
- have the "oh, I've been here before" moment on the city wall in Lucca
- take train to Florence
- Have the same moment in Florence, spend Easter in Florence, go to a Easter mass in the Dome...
- Take train to Venice
- Spend an hour trying to find a hostel that was 20 meters away... and shout "ciao bello!" to every passing Gondola...
Our group would sometimes split up can explore the city in smaller groups or by ourselves. It was so good for me to explore the cities by myself. I could stop where ever I wanted, journal when I wanted, I had all the time in the world. There were no strict time limits, nobody saying where I should go and when... it made for a very relaxing trip. Exploring the tiny streets in Rome alone was quite an experience. And as easy as it is to get lost in the town, to find yourself again is so easy because on every single street corner there are signes and every 5 minutes you find yourself again by walking past a major monument or ruin.
At the hostel I met a couple of crazy folks: A lovely Canadian family (well, dad and daughter) (absolutely wahnsinnig) who, with Alyssa (the one who goes to Ithaca College with Emily), and I went out a search to find hot chocolate, pick oranges from trees and take photos in a photobooth. There were also these three dudes from Uruguay. (Remember these dudes, they're important)
Then Orvietto...
Oh, it was nice to get out of the crazy city of Rome... Orvietto is beautiful and built on a dormant volcano! There's a wahnsinnig huge church, absolute massive, right in the middle of the city. The decorations on this church depict the various stories in the Bible. In incredible detail. Sculptures, man, sculpures.
The city was actually built on top of another city which was covered in lava when the volcano erupted, which means... underground passages! There is some huge number of caves in this city, we took a tour through a couple. We saw where they mined cement, made olive oil, kept their pigeons... it was great! Surrounding the city is this huge valley. It's all green and there are cats....
Siena:
Siena wins for best gelatto. (just a side note, there)
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| In this bird's next life he will be a human. |
We got to the city a little late because we accidentely forgot to change trains and we ended up an hour and a half away in Florence! whoops! but it did mean that on our way back we got to Piza's train station.
Beautiful.
This is the time where we remember those three guys from Uruguay. I was walking around the city when all of a sudden I realized I had just taken a picture of somebody I had seen before! It was one of the dreamy Uruguayans from that hostel in Rome! After I collected my wits and screwed my head on straight I went over and said, "hii........." I'm terribly awkward. Anyway, the other guys were not far away and they greeted me with South American hospitality; asking me why on earth I was walking around alone, and told me that I absolutely must come with them because they want to practice their english and it was just too weird that we bumped into eachother again in Italy.
So I spent my time in Siena chilling with South Americans, it was out of this world. The people one meets while traveling...
Lucca!
Waaaaahh... It rained so hard in Lucca! I'll have to go back again sometime. I had a memory of this town from a trip I took with the Peterborough Children's Choir when I was 8! It was cool.
Our group was a little... tired that day, ok, by a little I mean we could have slept for the entire day. And night.
Florenz
What a great city! I'm getting lazy about typing so I'll just post pictures.
und...
Venice
Venice is so pretty... I felt like I was in some sort of romantic drama the whole time. It was awesome. Apart from getting lost every 5 minutes and needing to ask for directions every time we turned a corner.
Also we found the best hot chocolate. I now have a crush on the man who made it.
the streets are so small!
All in all, I took about 900 pictures, about 3/4 are terrible. but that doesn't matter.
ONE LAST THING
I'd like to say one last thing before I go...
It's more than just a feeling, you know...
This wonderful friend of mine, Erin makes all these exchange student videos. I want to share them with you so you know what it's like to be with exchange students.
All of them are on her youtube channel, but here is one that we all made together. It's stop motion. It's sick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XIIn71Pyk
and here is the March video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QOEQnhf1aM
