It's time to do me!: February 2011

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Finally all caught up!

February 23, 2011

I was so happy to go to bed last night when I did and I actually ended up waking up this morning before my alarm clock! I think my sleep is back on track and I’m definitely starting to feel as good as I felt when I was in Spain (health-wise). This morning in Italian Gloria asked us if we would like to go to a local school and speak Italian with the students there like the Italian II class did. We all thought that sounded like a really neat idea! She told us that we would speak for about 30 minutes in Italian to challenge us, and then speak 30 minutes in English to possibly challenge them, even though many Italians know really good English. In the middle of class Gloria also brought up that she watched another episode of Inspector Barnelby, or whatever that British show is that she watches, and she came across another word she didn’t know and she told us it was “im-pluck-ibly.” We laughed for such a long time and she just kept saying it over and over and over again stressing “pluck” and none of us could understand what she was trying to say. Eventually Ivy looked it up on her computer and realized she was trying to say implacably, which Gloria still pronounces “im-pluck-ibly”….she’s too stinkin’ cute!

After class Marissa, Danielle, and I went up to the library to scan our Visas and print out different things (I printed out my papers to fill out to work at Pepperidge again this summer). We had to scan our Visas because tomorrow we have to go early in the morning to the Police Station to get fingerprinted for our stay permits and need a ton of different pieces of paper and documents in order to get fingerprinted. I was able to get the rest of my pictures uploaded and onto my computer, which works out much better at the school because their internet is much faster and I don’t run the risk of being kicked off the internet there.

When all three of us were finished at the school we decided to go to Conad and buy things to make dinner for tonight and tomorrow night, because we miss making family dinners like we had been doing a couple weeks ago. We decided tonight to have chicken with eggplant and zucchini and for tomorrow night we would try and make one of Marissa’s favorite shrimp and pasta dishes that her mom makes. While in the store we saw this long thing of bread up on the counter and I suggested we get some to eat with dinner tonight and when I picked it up the bread was still warm and smelled heavenly, so I decided to get another loaf of it to eat myself. Leaving the grocery store I immediately broke into my bread and started devouring it…it was so warm and so soft and so delicious. It ended up becoming my lunch along with a banana...I guess adding a banana to a whole loaf of bread makes it healthier, right? Haha. Before I knew it it was already time to go back to school for European Issues. This kid in our class Vince started a discussion which I couldn’t follow and ended up lasting 40 minutes into the class. Our teacher realized this and handed the show over to Isabelle who did her presentation today on the prime minister of the U.K.

After class we came home and started making dinner and we decided to put this spice rub on our chicken and along with the garlic it smelled heavenly! When we went to dig in we realized that it was much spicier than we anticipated, which Danielle wasn’t really a fan of, but me and Marissa loved it! Danielle ended up buying this little tiramisu cake from Conad for dessert and it was absolutely delicious…we should invest in those a little more often! While we were eating dinner we watched the most recent episode of Gossip Girl. And after the episode was over I started typing all of my blogs from the weekend which takes so much longer than one would think, but if I didn’t do it now then it would never get done because in two days I’ll be off to Rome and would have even more to write about! Luckily after the longest time I got them all done and all of my pictures up so now everyone can enjoy, I can shower, go to bed, and prepare to wake up super early and spend 3 hours at the police station tomorrow morning getting fingerprinted….can’t wait!

Getting ready for Rome!

February 22, 2011

I decided to end up going to bed early last night because I was so tired I didn’t feel productive studying, and figured I would rather wake up early this morning to study. I woke up two hours before school to have plenty of time to get ready and study for Italian, and possibly read over some Roman Achievement notes because the midterm in that class is quickly approaching! In class today Miss Frizzle talked about the different sights she would be taking us to on our Rome field trip which is this weekend! It was really interesting and I’m excited to have a personal tour guide that just happens to be our teacher…this also means that I’ll hopefully be able to sneak a picture of her on the trip so all of you can see what I’m talking about when I say she looks like Miss Frizzle.

Class ended a little early which gave us a little time to study again for our Italian test, but hours of studying still wouldn’t have prepared us for the test…when Gloria handed out the tests I just stared at it like it was in German or something instead of Italian. She wanted us to tell the meaning of verbs from Italian to English and from English to Italian which were verbs we hadn’t even studied yet, nor were they in Chapter 3 which was the chapter our test was SUPPOSED to be over. Oh well. I tried my hardest, although it was the most confused and blindest I have ever felt going into a test. I was just glad to get it over with and eat my packed lunch in the cafeteria before it would be time for us to pack up and head over to the statue of the fake David in Piazza Signoria for art history class. Today and Thursday we are going into the Uffizi and having on-site lectures both days. Going into the Uffizi was nuts because you had to put your bag through a scanner and walk through security and you couldn’t take water into the building, nor were you allowed to carry bookbags through the museum, so I had to check my bookbag at this desk. Once inside we walked up a ton of stairs before we finally started to look at paintings, which I must say are definitely worth the hassle of getting into the building! The paintings are just beautiful and the majority of the ones we looked at and discussed are religious paintings, typically of Mary and Jesus.

Before class one of the comm. girls, Tessa, asked us if we would want to go to Tijuana tonight for dinner..the Mexican place I went to a couple weeks ago. I decided I wouldn’t mind going to get a margarita or two, but I didn’t really want to spend my money on food there, so I made rice for dinner out of a packet which I guess had mushrooms and saffron in it (so says google translator). After I ate we made our way to Tijuana and we were sat at a table which was a reservation for 25 people…I had no clue so many people were coming! I ended up getting a cranberry margarita and then a verde margarita which was basically the typical lime but was sweet instead of salty. Bria and I ended up splitting some chips with salsa and cheese and the salsa had jalapenos chopped up in it, so it was super duper spicy, but I loved it! I ended up leaving the restaurant and heading back home to try and get my pictures on my computer so I could start putting them up for people to see, as well as doing a little reading…but I ended up showering and heading to bed after doing just a little work because I still wasn’t caught up on my sleep from this weekend!

I'm too tired to eat raw sausage!

February 21, 2011

After a couple hours of sleep my phone alarm went off at 3:00 because our taxi was supposed to pick us up at 3:30 from the hostel. We were initially planning on taking the metro to the bus station where the bus would take us from Barcelona to Girona, but the metro closes from midnight to like 5 a.m. or something like that, plus taking a taxi at that time at night would be the safest option. We checked out at the hostel and soon after the taxi arrived and took us to the bus station. We timed it perfectly and caught a bus where there were only about 8 seats left…once again, super lucky! The bus got us to the airport a little before 5 a.m. and our flight was leaving at 7:30 which meant we had time to eat a little breakfast and relax. We decided to go through security to just get it out of the way and get something to eat by the gates. We ended up finding a McDonalds, and I was definitely not ashamed to get an egg and sausage mcmuffin with a coffee even though I had that apple tart on the bus. My sleep was so messed up that my stomach didn’t understand what was going on and was hungry nonstop. Marissa and I got some food which was the SLOWEST fast food I have ever experienced in my entire life! It definitely sucked up a ton of time and shortly after we finished our gate was announced and we ran to the gate.

When we got there a huge line was already formed…how did all of these people get here so fast? Then we realized that they had posted two different flights for the same gate, so confusing! We let all of the people from the earlier flight to pass by and we ended up in the front of the line for our Pisa flight. Eventually our flight was able to board the plane and we got good seats again right behind the priority seats. It seemed like we had to wait a while before our plane took off which we blamed on this mother and daughter who got pulled out of the line by the gate because their suitcases were too big and even though they tried shoving them in the bin that was the sample size of the baggage you were allowed to bring on the flight, their bags were not fitting. We eventually took flight and I think I had the best sleep of my entire life on that plane! When I woke up we were approaching Pisa and as we started descending my sinuses felt this outrageous pressure and even though I was feeling 100% better in Spain, I felt all of the crap coming back into my system…ahhh!

Surprisingly our flight landed early which gave us even more time to catch our train which was supposed to be a close call – another “sprinting” train. We didn’t even have to go through customs or anything and before we knew it we were on our train back to Florence with time to spare! I studied a little more on the train and when our train was about to stop we looked at the time and realized it was only like 10:00…we would have just enough time to walk home, drop off our stuff, grab our school stuff and make it in plenty time to Italian class! What a relief that I would definitely be taking my Comparative Media midterm on time! Italian class was a drag because we were all extremely tired and felt grody because we hadn’t showered in over a day, so we were “back row Joes” and hid out in the back of class.

I had a little time to eat lunch before my midterm, and even though I cut up a couple carrots and packed a granola bar before we left the house I was still super hungry and walked down the street from school to the little panini shop and ordered a Fresh Sausage and Eggplant sandwich. I got back to the school to eat it while I looked over my notes one more time to discover that “Fresh Sausage” is RAW, pink, gooey sausage! Gross! I was definitely not going to eat raw meat, especially raw pork, so I scraped off the meat and just ate the sandwich with the eggplant and was satisfied, although still a little sick to my stomach.

I walked downstairs ready to kick this midterm’s butt! Fabio handed out the exams and there were 4 questions…he told us we had to answer the first question, but could choose to answer only 2 of the 3 remaining questions. I wrote down a small outline of answers for all of the questions and chose the 3 that I felt the most confident about. It was hard to process thoughts because the lack of sleep was really kicking in, but I just took my time and ended up being the last person in the room for at least 20 or so minutes. When I handed in my exam Fabio told me he was happy to see I made it to class and asked me all about my trip. It was comforting to hear him be concerned for me and want to know all about my adventures. We talked for a little while and I eventually went up to the library to just wait til European Issues. I had trouble staying awake in class, but she went through the material over Belgium and the Netherlands so fast! I couldn’t wait to go home and finally be able to “rest,” even though I still had to study for our Italian test tomorrow, eat dinner, shower, try to unpack, and attempt to get some rest.

P.S. I must point out one little funny fact that I forgot to mention. When we were on our way to Spain we all were talking about how great it would be to use all of the Spanish that we learned in high school, but in Barcelona they actually speak a really strange language called Catalan there which is more of a regional tongue. Catalan was like a mix of Spanish, Italian, and French, but it was still understandable for the most part. When we got back to it Italy I thought it would be no problem to switch back over to full-out Italian, but I did end up saying “Hola” to the person at the sandwich counter…whoops!

Breathtaking Montserrat

February 20, 2011

It’s our last full day in Barcelona…how sad! But we have planned a trip for today to make the most of our time and experience here to Montserrat. Montserrat is about an hour by train from the center of Barcelona and is a place with tons of mountains and hills and is just absolutely gorgeous. We woke up early of course and walked to the bus station which is underground like the metro. It took us a couple tries to find the train we were looking for, but once we found it we were helped by the workers who showed us the package deal we were looking for on the machines to buy the right tickets. Danny told us the night before about this really good package deal which includes the train ride to and from Montserrat, the cable car ride to and from the top of the mountain, along with two train rides once up the mountain that takes you to different points, and two metro tickets for 23 euro…a steal deal! We bought our tickets and had plenty of time before our train came to the station so we headed upstairs for a pastry and coffee…I got this donut that was filled with chocolate and it was so so so delicious which made up for the fact that the coffee tasted nothing like my wonderful Starbucks that I got to enjoy yesterday. When we stuck our tickets in and walked through the little automatic doors we found a bathroom which I thought would be a good idea, since I just had a coffee. When we approached the bathroom we all got a little freaked out because there were so many instructions for this stinking bathroom! We ended up figuring out that it was a self-cleaning toilet, so once you opened the door you had 15 minutes to do your duty, and once you opened the door the bathroom would like clean itself, and there were like lights on the outside to let other people know the status of the bathroom….it was outrageous and so nerve wrecking! Talk about stage fright!

Once on the train we were filled with excitement, but being an hour train ride of course I brought my Comparative Media notes along to study. There was a cute family across from us who we talked to for a little bit…they originally were from California but are living in France and travelling around Europe. They asked us to take their photo on the train so of course we had them take our photo too. Before we knew it the train stopped and we were there! Once off the train we looked up and were instantly amazed at the mountains, but with the early morning haze and clouds we couldn’t even see the top. We made our way to the cable car that was going to take us to the top and Marissa started freaking out because we couldn’t see the cable lines going up to the top…she wasn’t very trusting of the cable car. But the cable car ride was awesome and the view was amazing, not to mention the view from the top was BREATHTAKING!

Once we were up on the mountain we were so excited and started walking around and discovered all of these local stands set up with local cheeses, cheesecakes, nuts, figs, and honey. Everyone is extremely pushy to have you try THEIR cheese…it’s like a huge competition or something, and all of the cheese comes from sheep/goats that live there in Montserrat. And the one stand the woman had me trying her honeys and I don’t even really like honey, but I was in LOVE with her honey, especially the rosemary honey. Lauren, Marissa, and Danielle all bought this little 3-pack of honey from that stand, and if I would have had more room for liquids in my bag that went along with the airplane restrictions I would have definitely bought some too! From there we walked to the Monastery where we were hoping to see the popular boys choir perform, but as we approached the Monastery there were tons of people waiting in line, and when we opened the door to the church there were people packed in there like sardines…there wasn’t even room to stand! So that was kinda disappointing that we didn’t get to see them perform, but we at least got a sneak peek into the church which was absolutely gorgeous! Right beside the entrance to the church Danielle and I saw a place where we could light candles, and we have made it a tradition to light a candle in every church we go into, so we went over, paid for a candle, and each chose a blue one. We started to walk in to set our candle down when we saw candles wrapping along this entire stone wall and the wall extended for at least 100 meters..it was BEAUTIFUL! Danielle found the perfect spot for hers, and we walked back to the entrance where I placed mine. We took a few pictures of the lovely flickering candles and the glowing wall, and decided to walk back outside to meet up with Marissa and Lauren.

From there we decided to take one of the little train rides that we had tickets for up to Funicular de Sant Joan. Once at the top we were even more amazed…we were at an even higher point than before! There were quite a few different paths to take and we just took off in one direction snapping pictures right and left, climbing up some rocks, and basically just walking around in amazement. After walking that way for a while we decided to find the sign for Sant Jeroni which was the church at the very top of the one peak. However, the sign said it was about an hour walking to Sant Jeroni, and we didn’t really want to spend that much time hiking, so we walked back down and over to the path on the opposite side of what we already walked and snapped quite a few more pictures. We just couldn’t get enough of the view which seemed to change each path you took. But, if we were ever going to explore other parts of Montserrat, we had to take the train back down to the main area and eat lunch…I definitely walked up a huge appetite!

There was only one restaurant, but when we walked in there were so many different areas with different types of food like a cafeteria. We went to the hot food section because even though it wasn’t that cold outside, we still wanted a little warming up. I said earlier before we went inside that I really wanted soup, so I was super excited to see two different soups at the hot foods section, and I got a soup that was broth with tons of noodles and sausage..it was exactly what I wanted! After we were all finished with lunch we used the bathrooms (which were the nicest bathrooms I have been in since being in Europe!), and headed back out for more exploring. We took a quick break at the local stands once more to get a little dessert of sweet roasted almonds…delicious!

We decided to use the other train pass and headed down to Santa Cove and my nuts were gone by the time the train started to descend! Once we got off the train we realized the view was definitely different and you saw more valley and not so much the tops of mountains…once again, BREATHTAKING! The cove was more directed towards one path that was very windy and was uphill, downhill, uphill around a curve, etc. etc. One thing that we found really neat were all of the statues and paintings along the path which we discovered were the mysteries of the rosary! We continued on along the path until we got to this enormous cross which looked like an itty bitty cross from the bottom of the path when you first begin walking. Once we got that far we thought there wasn’t much path to go, but we were highly wrong! We eventually got extremely tired and just decided to walk back down to where we came from because who knew how much longer it would take to get to the top, along with the time it would take to walk all the way back. We definitely were satisfied and didn’t feel like we were missing out by turning around…this place was beautiful no matter where you were!

We all agreed that it was getting kinda late, and that we had all had enough walking for the day…everyone said they would be going home more than happy! We looked at the time and realized the next train was coming in about 25 minutes, which would be perfect timing to take a cable car down and walk to the train stop. Once we got to the cable car station though we saw a semi-long line of people and had to take the second cable car, which pushed us extremely close to the time of the train…we might have to sprint for like the 3^rd time this trip! Luckily we made it in plenty of time, but when the train arrived it was pretty packed…we were lucky to find four seats. Lauren and Marissa ended up sitting beside this old couple who were too cute and started talking to all four of us because Danielle and I were sitting only diagonal from them. They told us they were from Illinois and were just visiting Spain and have been here for a week already. They asked us all kinds of questions and were really interested in what we were doing in Barcelona and were giving us tips on how to get around the city, particularly to get to La Rambla from the station the train pulls into. To be honest they reminded me of Grandma and Grandpa Snay because the woman would ask her husband a question like twice because he wasn’t paying attention the first time, but when he would answer she would tell us the “real answer” according to her…I’m not sure the point in her even asking him the question…but it was EXACTLY like Grandma and Grandpa Snay…it made me smile!

La Rambla is this extremely wide street that tons of people walk down and there are shops and stands set up all along the street. Once our train stopped we got off and went to the metro like the couple told us and got off at Catalunya which dropped us off really close to La Rambla. We started walking down the street and saw a ton of waffle and gelato shops and souvenir shops and different entertainers dressed up. There was a guy dressed up as a robot which even had sound effects and our favorite one was this guy who was dressed up in black, was really scary, and was sitting inside of this box which made you wonder where his legs were. His box where you would put money into was right in front of him and when someone would drop something into the jar he would jump forward and scare the crap right out of you. Lauren decided to do it to see what he would do and we videotaped her jump and her terrified face…hilarious!

We eventually made our way back to the hostel to put some stuff away before we headed to dinner. We wanted to walk to the Magic Fountain either before or after dinner to see the water and light show because we still haven’t seen it because of the rain last night. We weren’t really agreeing on a place or really finding a place to eat because it’s Sunday and nothing is open, just like Italy. We made our way to the fountain to discover the fountain doesn’t run on Sundays…great! Finding a place to eat became an issue between us, but we eventually ended up at this quaint little bar restaurant. They had a sign out front for a multi course meal for 10 euro, just like the first meal we had. Lauren wasn’t sure if she would find vegetarian options on the multi-course thing, so she ordered a sandwich and a sangria, while Danielle, Marissa, and I ordered the most popular beer in Barcelona, and our first course. Danielle got ravioli and Marissa and I got these noodles with pieces of meat which I think were a mixture of beef and sausage? For the second course I got a veal steak which came with pasta salad, lettuce, a tomato, and a pepper. Everything was pretty good, and I ate it all, but wasn’t as good as our first experience. For dessert she mentioned ice cream so we all decided to get that, but when she brought it out we all started laughing because it was one of the ice cream servings in a little plastic cup. Oh well…it was good! I definitely went away full and happy!

On our walk back to the hostel we all decided to try and find a pastry to better complete our night, and we went to this bakery that we saw earlier in the morning on our way to the train station. The lady working inside was starting to close, but still had a few pastries left, one of which was a HUGE roll covered in chocolate. I asked for that and after she told me it was ONLY ONE EURO I decided to get an apple tart for the morning which was also only one euro...what a great deal! We took our pastries back to the hostel and I started eating my roll out in the main area with my comparative media notes and was talking to quite a few of the different people we met earlier in the week. We talked for quite a while and this one boy brought in a traditional Mediterranean dish that he made me try…it was like a dip that you ate with these crunchy bruschetta crackers…it was so good! I stayed up for a little while and packed my bookbag and ended up just wearing the clothes to bed that I was wearing the next day because we would only be able to sleep for maybe 3 hours and I even debated if I should go to sleep or not. I studied for a little longer and decided to get a couple hours of sleep…tomorrow was going to be crazy!