Greece!!

Hey to those who are still reading. I left Rome yesterday, 24 Saturday, and made it safe and sound to Athens. Our apartments are nice, with a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and a bathroom. Each bedroom has a balcony which is pretty cool. However, it has been raining this weekend and unfortunately a few of us got caught in it. I am enjoying myself even though I haven't been anywhere nor seen anything. I feel at home, but still miss my family and friends. Wish you all could be here to enjoy it with me. I'll keep you posted on what I am doing for my fall break. Hope everyone is doing well and that it isn't too cold where everyone is at. Have a spookilicious Halloween!!! Miss you and love you!

Finals in Rome!! :/

I can't believe October is almost over!! It has gone by way to fast. This upcoming week for me is finals and they aren't looking to great. SO this past weekend wasn't too spectacular with traveling, but I did do some fun things.

On Friday for my History class we went to Ostia Antica, which was a small town until Rome took it over then it expanded. It was known for its trading and salt mines. The ruins there are amazing, becuase the history of the buildings and city just kept evolving and building on top of one another. It was very historical and I am glad we had Jan, history prof., to take us around other wise I would have gotten lost and wouldn't have seen half the ruins there. After the ruins a small group of us went to see the Basilica of S. Paul which was gorgeous! It is similar to the Basilica of Mary Maggiore, but not quite. It is a massive church that has all the pictures of every pope painted on the top walls all the way around! It was a very beautiful church.

Saturday was kind of a study day, but instead of studying a lot I went shopping for food and other things. I was semi-productive. Then that night a few of us decided to do a night tour of Rome and go see some of the monuments all lite up. We saw Piazza Venezia, Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. It was a lot of fun, but a bit cold and naturally I am sniffly and sick. But it was worth it.

Sunday was more productive with studying for the whole day. Then for dinner, it was Evan's birthday, and his restaurant choice was Hard Rock Cafe. That is the picture above of four of us, b/c we got split from the major group. It was good food!!!!! Because we all have been craving a burger!!! hehe Evan had a great time and got a free dessert and we sang to him.

Monday has been productive so far with studying. Naturally I have some paper towels for kleenix and papers scattered everywhere. Tomorrow is my history final at 2, then Wednesday is Theology at 2, and finally Art on Thursday at 9. Then I will fly out to Greece on Saturday! Well I got to get back, history is beckoning! Have a great last week of October!! Hope all is going well! Miss you and love you all!!

Also, Happy Birthday Aunt Karen I hope your trip to Disney World was a blast!! :)

Hello!! How is everyone? Hopefully, some of you can guess where this is from!?!? It is the Duomo in Florence! This past weekend I was there for mostly my art class, but we did get some free time in there. For our art class we got to see a bunch of architecture and museums. And yes the famous David statue. I won't give you all an art lesson, but there are a ton of artwork and statues. And my teacher Paolo was having a fabulous time running us around so we could see all the wonderful works of art. Not to mention took us to a great restuarant for dinner the first night that served Florentine steaks that were 35 euro! They weren't that big in my opinion, but I didn't get it. I did get to see the famous tombs by Michelangelo for the Dukes of Medici which if you are curious you should look them up on google. They are amazingly done plus soo much hidden meaning behind the 4 statues of the day: Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night. I did get to go shopping as well, since it is the leather city of Italy. It was fun bargaining!

The rest of my week is going alright, since it is my last week of classes in Rome. I have been getting to last minute places I want to see. Today I went to the Vatican Museum, which is huge! I did get to see the Sistine Chapel, which was beautiful! I couldn't believe my eyes. Naturally after walking for just a few hours hunger got in the way and we didn't get to see everything in the museum. But the paintings, tapestries, statues, that are in there are just beautiful! Well, I am going to make this a short post because I have some studying to get done since finals are next week. Hope you all are doing well and school/jobs/daily activities are going well! Enjoy some hot apple cider and pumpkin decorating for me!! Love you all!

Naples, Herculaneum, Colosseum, Palatine

Ciao! How is everyone? I hope you are all as well as can be. This past weekend on Friday we went to Naples as a group. Lucky us it was cloudy and had been rainy/misty when we were there. We went to the Archeological Museum there in Naples which had some very neat artifacts, but didn't really strike my fancy. After spending roughly 2 hours there we went on to Herculaneum, which is one of the cities that was destroyed when Vesuvius erupted. The ruins there were amazing to see. It was sad to think that the city was destroyed by lava, but the remains of it seemed to be well intact and preserved. We left Herculaneum and went back to Rome that evening. Mostly everyone went on a pub crawl while Ellen and I hung out and planned what we wanted to see in Rome.

On Saturday we started off in the Colosseum. We went inside and the arena is massive. It is unbelievable how it was built! All of the arches were so cool and the passageways underneath the floor of the arena were amazing to see how they were built. There was also a little museum in there as well which gave a lot of info. about how it was built. After spending some time there we went to Palantino, Palantine Hill. There weren't any hand held maps to tell us what some of the ruins were, but every now and then there would be a few big maps to tell you where you were at. The picture above is from the ruins at Palantino. I conquered those ruins.hehe We did get to see the Casa di Augustus, before some tour guide snapped his fingers at us. After an eventful day we decided that we wanted to hang out with the others that went on the pub crawl the night before. So we met them at Scholars, the Irish bar, (because they are always there) and had some fun and watched the Twins game that was on for us because the bartender knows us very well by now.

Sunday is going to be a relaxing day doing homework and such. Nothing too big planned since most things are closed. Only three more weeks at Rome and time has just seemed to fly on by. I hope you all had a great September and having a fabulous October! Miss you all, and keep me updated with your life as well. Love you!!