Hi. I'm in.. Italy...: April 2012

Okay wow. I'm really sorry. As the number of days left go down, it seems the more and more stuff I have to do. It wasn't very nice of my teacher to have presentations and papers due the week before finals. I don't like it. But I can not believe that I am home in two and a half weeks. Holy crap. But before I get there, let me update you.

First thing's first, Paris.
Paris was beautiful. A huge city but really elegant... if you may.
So Eliza, Elaine, and myself got up and left Florence at like 3:30 to get on our early flight. We stayed in this really cute little apartment right by Sacre Coeur and two stops from Moulin Rouge. It was adorable. The guy couldn't speak a word of English so that was a little challenging, also the reason why I didn't have wifi the whole weekend, there was no way we could figure out what he was saying. But it was still so nice.
After we got all settled we decided to check out the Eiffel Tower. We bought a three day metro pass which was perfect. The metro was a little confusing but really convenient once we got it down.
The Eiffel Tower was amazing!! It's kind of ugly but just so daunting and fantastic. I loved it. There is this big park all around it so people just have picnics right underneath the Tower. I saw a group of 70 year old men playing bocce ball. And then there was this giant truck/bus that stopped and had a flash fashion show. Super weird but I liked it.
We spent four hours in Louvre. There was soo much artwork. Saw Mona, she's cool. There was a band playing outside the building so we watched them for awhile. We walked down Champs de Elysee. Saw the Arc de Triumph. Climbed the Arc de Triumph. Saw a beautiful view of the city and the Eiffel. Walked back down Champs de Elysee. Bought the famous macaroons from Laduree. Holy shit I almost died they were so amazing. And then we passed this building with a big line outside. Found out it was an Abercrombie and Fitch after seeing the five models standing outside topless and in bright red board shorts and flip flops. We asked the guard why there was a line and he went off saying that no Abercrombie is like the one in Paris, there is a garden and five levels or something crazy. We were skeptic so he let us in. The place was freaking weird. Right when you walk in there is another model that you take a polaroid picture with. And then you're greeted by a girl and guy dancing. And then you have your typical cologne suffocating, music blasting, dark store. Except this one had five levels. It was so weird. We walked in and walked right back out. But not without getting the models numbers. Who btw, just ended up inviting us to a "sex party", we politely declined.
We went to the famous graveyard, Pere Lachaise. It was giant. Reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera actually. It was kind of cool walking through it. It was actually beautiful. So we went to the graves of Chopin, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, and Oscar Wilde. As Eliza and Elaine were playing Edith Piaf's music at her grave, too much for me.. I want wondering. And what did I find... The section of the graveyard with monuments dedicated to the memory of Jews from WWII. It was obviously the most emotional spot for me from the whole place. It was so beautiful.
We saved climbing the Eiffel Tower for our last day there. Naturally it was so freaking windy and cold that day! Plus side, because of the nasty weather there wasn't a line to climb, when usually it's like two or more hours. The climb was fun, you can only go to the second level or something, which is still really high up. And then you take the lift to the top. The wind was crazyyyyy! But the view was awesome. And I was on the Eiffel Tower! I felt like Anastasia. :)
After we climbed we decided to just take a stroll and ended up in this big square with all these flags and people. We knew there was the big marathon going on so we though maybe we had found the finish line so we went in to investigate. After ten or so minutes the place got packed and there were all these French flags and big screens and this announcer comes on to introduce someone.. It was then that we realized we had stumbled into a political rally. haha. But it was kind of fun and we were trapped so we just decided to hang out, pretend we were French. But after like six speakers and the Prime Minister, we realized that Nicolas Sarkozy was here. And sure enough this pounding techno music came on, the flags all went up, the crowd went crazy, and Sarkozy came out. He gave about a 45 minute speech, I obviously had nooo idea what he was saying but he was so good. Got us fired up. When the crowd boo-ed, we boo-ed, when they cheered and screamed, we joined right in. It was nuts. When he was done they played the national anthem and everyone was screaming it and waving their flags. The three of us were just standing there with shit eating grins pretending to mouth the words. It was too much.
One of the last big landmarks we saw was Notre Dame. It was really beautiful, but the Duomo is more impressive I think. But while we were just sitting there we met this older man who I believe is autistic but nonetheless we struck up some conversation and watched him draw. He likes to draw things that leave impressions on him, so he was currently sketching Notre Dame. After about 30 minutes of conversation we asked him to draw a picture of us. So he did. It's pretty abstract but lovely.
We didn't end up going out while we there except for a happy hour drink on this random street that was full of bars. Ended up being a popular gay area. We caught on to that after all the trannies and the Bear Bar. Literally packed with bears!! Reminded me of Dana.. haha
The last night Eliza and I went out to see the Eiffel Tower light up. We decided the park would be fun. So we found a good spot close but not right underneath it so we couldn't see it. We laid down and watch it light up for five minutes. It was beautiful. I couldn't believe it. I was watching the Eiffel Tower light up. I'm so lucky.
Paris was really expensive so we only went out to one nice dinner. But for lunches I covered the bases and had french onion soup, their croque monsieur (ham and cheese), and lots of crepes. They were so freaking yummy.

So that was my Paris trip in a nutshell. I loved it. The city is really beautiful. Maybe not for me. I'm not elegant enough. But I still really enjoyed it.

Let's see what pictures I can find for youuu...

The view from our apartment. That's Sacre Coeur in the background.

Sacre Coeur

My first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!!

Dog photo shoot. Something I totally would do..

You can't really see cause I was creepin, but it's the old men just playing bocce ball..

Hi, I have the longest legs known to mankind..

Flash fashion show. And sick Asian..

The best macaroons everrr

Arc de Triumph

The view from up top

Waiting outside the Louvre

Mona doin her thing..

Me doin my thing..

The band outside the Louvre

Pere Lachaise

Apparently he was quite popular with the ladies so everyone rubs him for sexual powers...

Oscar Wilde's grave. It's surrounded by glass and there's all these saying and messages for him. I liked it.

And then these.

At the top of the Eiffel Tower.

And the rallyyyy

Sarkozy

The Eiffel Tower all lit up at 11 pm

Couldn't leave without a picture.

Nick, the artist man we met outside Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Quasimodooooo!

Happy Easter!!

Wow. Well it's been quite a while and quite the wonderful few weeks.

My week with Michael was amazing and very relaxing. Following Rome, a relaxing week was just what I needed. But the weather was beautiful and really warm so we had to be outside and take some walks, I showed him where I run and the places with pretty views of Florence. One day we decided to go for a bike ride to this park. Well, little to our knowledge we were headed up a mountain. We literally were on the lowest gears and pedaling so fast but not weren't making any progress on this canyon road. It reminded me of PCH, when it cuts through the canyon. Exactly like that. We were getting hungry so we ended up stopping and having a picnic on someone's olive vineyard. Perks of biking up a mountain, we had the most beautiful view. After our lunch we decided to go back down to return the bikes, two hours up, 20 MINUTES down. We literally biked up a mountain. Typical..
Gosh I don't even remember all that we did. We found really yummy beer that we both loved and went quite often to happy hour to drink. Now the people at the bar recognize me when I walk by. Ha. Michael also got a lovely glimpse of the roommates and all their craziness. After being around guys and lesbian roommates he was not ready for it but did well. They all loved him, per usual.. Showed off his dance moves, also typical. It was a really great week and I was really sad to see him go.

But I didn't get too much time to mope. Taylor Demargien was here for her spring break so I met up with her on Tuesday to catch up and chat. She's studying in Madrid and having a lot of fun. And then Maddy and Meghan came on Wednesday and were here till Friday. It was nice to hang out with them and catch up. Meghan is staying with a perfect little family in Copenhagen. Denmark sounds like a complete Utopia, it's weird. Spain sounds pretty similar to Italy. Maddy also lives with a host mom who force feeds her. I asked if I could come to a dinner. :) So my last three weeks with family and friends was amazingggg.
Unfortunately with all these fun visits I didn't get much/any homework done and I sadly do go to school where my grades transfer. So I've really got to get goin on the 4 presentations, papers, and exams I have due within the next month. Wahoo! Good thing this weekend we went to Pisa! The tower is still getting its lean on. I don't know how much longer it can stand like that. We took the classic Pisa pics and headed back to Florence, there's not much else in Pisa other than the tower.

I was in Florence for Easter and they have this tradition where they parade in this giant cart full of explosives and place it in between the Duomo and the Baptistry. They then have this fake dove fly from out of the Duomo and into this cart that sets off a fifteen minute explosive/ firework show. So Eliza and I went to an Italian mass in the Duomo, didn't understand one word. We got out at 10 and there was already a large crowd gathering for the show at 11. We tried to find a good spot to stand and just dived into the depths and masses of people. It was actually pretty terrible. At 10 45 it started to rain so all these umbrellas popped up and you couldn't see anything. People were shoving and trying to squeeze through to who knows where, it was just complete chaos. The rain stopped just in time, the umbrellas went down, and the show started. It was really cool. But you can understand why a lot of Florentines haven't even seen it, just because it's an absolute zoo. And then I guess in Italy it is popular for families and friends to go out for a big lunch instead of dinner. So Eliza's mom treated us to an Easter lunch (via her credit card) at this really yummy place across the river. Ended up being a place that her mom and dad ate on their honeymoon. Cute cute. We had a really great Easter lunch/dinner. I ordered a random dish, ended up being beef and tasted like Mom's beef stew. I had a sentimental moment. And then ordered cheesecake and was all better.

Monday we went to another small Tuscan town called San Gimignano. It was really beautiful. I fudged up and definitely should have gone there with Dana and Michael. It was really pretty. They call it the medieval town; it's enclosed by a big wall and has a lot of its towers still intact. The view was freaking beautiful. I really missed the family while I was there.

But one month left! Holy crap. Good thing in this next month I will be in Paris, Barcelona, Amulfi Coast, and possibly a concentration camp..? All fun and games!
One more month and then I am home. So crazy!

Let's see what little pictures I have to share..