Florence first few days

Buenoserre!

So it has almost been one week since I have left all of you back in the BORING U.S.A. Ok its not so boring sometimes but its not like living in another country. :-) So we got here on Friday and the first night we were here we walked along looking for gellato which is really famous in Italy, but couldn't find any so bought a couple bottles of wine and drank by the river. The next day we had orientation and I ate like....spinach lasagna? Which sounds nasty but I have never had a better lasagna in my entire life! It was just....awesome! (Look I'm using U.S. words again, pretty soon it will be Italian) That night we went to a ristorante and had a couple bottles of wine and good conversation with friends. And when I mean we I jsut mean my group. Sunday we had an art tour and I found a hobby of mine now that is kinda dangerous at times...like literally time, the wrong time could be dangerous. I literally get lost in Florence and try to find my way back. Which has its pros and cons because I always seem to find the same path home (pro and con) and I haven't found paths to my favorite places yet, well don't really have anything yet. But the getting lost has been quite fun. Gellato is amazing and people here are...I'm not gonna say unfriendly but don't respond to my head nod like I do in America. Smiling also doesn't work as much. Don't know if they don't like us Americans, us American kids, or just people in general. Hmmm

Went to class today for the first time and its INTENSE to say the least. We have a grammar teacher and a pronunciation teacher and the second one does not speak any Italian to us at all. She knows engish, just doesn't speak it to us...grrrr. lol It is kind of funny seeing some of the kids try to figure out what she is trying to say when the rest of us got the hint. And MAN do they talk fast! If I ever learn the Language I will fit right in. Anyways I have a meet and greet thing to go to now and its like a 15-20 min walk...well not that much but I got to go. By the way, if I don't lose at least some weight while I'm here I will be SHOCKED because I eat a good breakfast, walk all day long, eat like an apple or two for lunch and then have a good dinner. It is crazy! But the food has been delicious, I wish they would serve a more variety of Italian food at the hotel, but it is Hotel de Americano so most of the food is like American food with some Italian food. But feeding 133 kids three course meals takes FOREVER so when dinner is done its I'm tired. Anyways I really do have to go.

CIAO

sittin in the airport in London

good evening ladies and gents,

first of all, if you noticed there are nocapitals, that is because of i am on myphone at the airport and for some reason it likes to be a pain.

any whose, i guess i will start with my flight. british airways rocks. and wow i just noticed i cant use an exclamation point so u cant see my excitement lol. but on the flight my three glasses of wine were free, the new release movies were free and the stewardesses were as they were supposed to be....hott.exclamation point. and i do love me some english accents which made them even better.

next ill tell u about my first day. i was pretty tired but figured stayin up until the proper time to go to sleep would be best. my friend jojo, i call him bilbo, met up with my friend robby, i call him rj, who was visiting london. we went to find food and took the wrong turn and ended up in a mall with only american food, but we were hungry enough so ate halu or hulu or hala subway. kosher subway. it sucks.exclamation point times two. never again but it was worth the experience. we then went to the british museum where, dont freak out, there was a suspect package. but it was all good and we got to see a lot of free history. we then went to our meet and greet and i noticed that, unlike wyominh, the ratio of girls to men is three to one. bloddy brilliant.exclamation point. we then went out to dinner with a group of people, two girls of which we became good friends with. one girl is named becca and the other is named andrea. i call becca bex and andrea sherboski because she looks a lot like robin from how i met your mother and she is also from minnesota which gives her a funny accent which reminds me of robin. anyways we wanted fish and chips and it took us one hr to walk around and eat at the first place we had stopped to check out but decide against. fish and chips was pretty good, but expensive. we then went to a couple pubs to have some drinks. weird thing, i am the oldest person here because there is only one other senior in the group. so when everyone else is goin hog wild over being able to drink....i feel old. lol especially when i started fallin asleep at the bar. lame i know but being awake for thirty nine hours and a few beers got to me so i called it a night.

yesterday we had our planned tour which was quick but effecient enough. took a lot of pics and as soon as i can charge my labtop and get free internet u will see them. fyi, this is killing my thumbs lol. we then went to our regular tea spot that we had went to a couple times the day before to grab some lunch. it was called the teapod and i found my new favorite drink, a vanilla tea latte with honey. mmmm yummy. sherboski, bex, rj, bilbo and i then went back to the british museum to see the rosetta stone since the suspect package had shut that part of the musem down the day before. afterwards took my my first siesta in europe and then us five went out to dinner at what we thought was just a normal restaurant but turns out to be an italian one. the food was amazing and i love how presentation is a big part of the experience here. and then...it might have taken me to go to another country to see it but me bilbo and rj went and saw the lion king. exclamation point. it was...in two words, emotionally brilliant. i cant count the times i got chills and teared up. i know that sounds lame but i dont care, it was just brilliantly put on and i couldnt imagine a better performance. we then went home and packed and went to bed because we had to be on the bus at five forty five in the morning. that leads me up to where i am now, sittin in the airport...waiting...again lol.

few fun details. it might say wifi free....but it probably doesnt work, unless ur eatin crappy subway lol.centered doors knobs make a random and funny convo stared, they are also brilliant. posh equals a rich cool thing, mint means cools, dodgy is like sketchy, and one day i will live in london i decided. its a wonderful place. o another fun fact, london is actually only a square mile big and only has a population of seven. the rest of the seven million people live in places like westminster. that was quite interesting to learn. they call london the city and its pretty much made up of only businesses which is why so little people live there. anyways hopefully more wondeful things to come but i am having a wonderfully brilliant, posh time.

and of course this was all rushed through so if u have questions just ask.

sorry bout the spelling

bye

Itinerary

CIAO everybody!

This is my first blog...ever and also the first post about my travels in Europe. So technically I have not even left America yet but some people I know requested that I put up my Itinerary for my time over in Europe so I thought I would go over that and then get back to you either before I take off on Tuesday or after I arrive in London on Wednesday. So here....we.....go!!!!

On Tuesday, Jan 25, me and 4 others from this Region will be flying out of Denver and headin straight for London. We arrive at about 9am on Wednesday, jan 26th. Because there is 133 total students going, we have a free day on Wed. so that everyone can arrive and get settled in their hotel rooms in London. Don't know if I have to share a room or not, I'm guessing I do, but I don't know who it is going to be with. My friend RJ is studying in France this semester, but he left a few weeks before his program starts and he is actually talking on facebook with me right now from London, so we are going to hit up a couple places on my free day. The next day we have like a 3-4 hour tour of London and then we have the rest of the day free again. On Friday we fly to Pisa.

After arriving in Pisa we take a bus to Florence where we will be staying for two weeks to get a crash course in Italian and the Italian culture. On Saturday we have to register with the police and let them know that yes we are in the country and we're here to stay....for about 4 months :-). The next weekend we get a 3 day excurtion to Venice and then when we come back I will find some people to watch the Super Bowl with at Midnight there in Florence somewhere.

February 12 we transfer to Rome and move into our Apartments with either other students or a host family. I picked a host family so I am hoping they will be cool. We have school orientation on that sunday and then Monday we start our classes.

March 18th we go to Naples and the surrounding areas for 3 days and then on the 28th of March my spring break starts. I have 9 maybe 10 days of spring break to go somewhere or just to hang out. I haven't decided yet but I'm thinkin that is when I am going to go visit RJ in Clairemont, France, but we'll talk about that later.

After all of that the program ends May 13th and Mallori and Dad show up om May 14th if everything goes right. We will then proceed to tour Rome for a few days and then some days in Germany, Amsterdam, Paris, and then London and we'll fly back home from there.

So that was my first blog, I know a little windy and probably has horrible grammar in it, but it's a blog so....anyways enjoy my blog and future blogs to come. :-)