Sarah's Blog

Last Days

2010-05-12T14:40:00.001-07:00

Hello there! Can you believe that my time at Stonehill is down to days instead of years, months, or even weeks? This is the real home stretch. I have already had one final, turned in two papers and have one last final on Wednesday before my undergrad career is complete. It has been a busy past few weeks, and it is no understatements to say they have flown by! But I have been very busy wrapping things up for the year.

Recently, I went with the senior class on a harbor cruise for our 25 days event. It was fun to get dressed up and spend an evening with just students in my grade.

I have also been busy applying for jobs. Hopefully, I will be gainfully employed soon!

In the midst of all the craziness I did get a chance to explore some of the north shore on mother’s day. Since I could not be at home with my mom I tagged along with Tyler’s family. We spend the day in Rockport which is a beautiful town right on the water. There are lots of art galleries and cute places to peak around in. We also drove through Gloucester which is just as cute and adorable. If you have not had a chance to check out the north shore I highly recommend it!
That’s all for now! I’ll be sure to post lots of picture of the whirlwind of events happening over the next week leading up till graduation! Until then~

Happy Easter

2010-04-07T08:47:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone had as nice of a holiday as I did! One great thing about going to a Catholic school is that even though we just had spring break a few weeks ago, we manage to get a mini break for Easter. Stonehill closed on Wednesday afternoon so anyone with classes after 4:30 was excused for the day. Apart from a few of the sports teams who still have games, most students go home to see their friends and families.

Since my family is so far away I split my vacation between my boyfriends in Lexington and family friend in Rhode Island. I spent the first few days of break in Lexington. Even though I still had to work part of the time, the weather was BEAUTIFUL…70’s in April!! Needless to say I spent a lot of time relaxing outside. I also went to the Easter Vigil at a church in town. It is one of my favorite masses of the year. It is always such a beautiful service and this year's did not disappoint.

On Sunday I headed down to Rhode Island for a nice visit. I was worried with all the rain we had gotten I would not be able to make it down but thankfully, a few warm days last week dried up all the flooded roadways. My friend Kacie and I spent time walking the sea wall, and catching up on impending graduation plans. It was great to see her and her family.

Now that break is over it seems as if the graduation countdown has really begun. Most of my friends are still looking for jobs or waiting to hear back from grad schools. I still can not believe that in just over a month we will be Stonehill Alums rather than students.

Road Trip

2010-03-17T11:22:00.001-07:00

Spring Break has come and gone, and while I didn’t make it to someplace warm and sunny I still managed to have a great week. I consider myself a fairly fanatic baseball fan, I used to work for the Texas Rangers and have become a Boston Red Sox fan during my college years. One thing that I have always want to do was visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Now if you have ever been you know that Cooperstown is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and therefore I had little reason to make the 3+ hour drive to get there. So why did I know have reason?? Apart from having a whole week off with nothing pressing to do, I planned a little road trip.

Tyler and I set out to visit some of his family in New York just outside of Rochester. To break up the road trip I planned stops both at Howe Caverns and Cooperstown. It was a blast. I have been to numerous caves before but Tyler never had. If you haven’t you should defiantly look into it. They are all so different but equally interesting.

After our stop at Howe Caverns we headed into Cooperstown for the night. Since it was off season the town was pretty quiet. Even still we walked around main street and checked out Doubleday Field. The next morning we finally made it to the Hall of Fame. It was great! Three floors full of baseball memorabilia.

You could easily spend all day at the museum but we had plans and had to hit the road.

Before long we were pulling into Tyler’s Aunt and Uncle’s driveway. We spent the next three days hanging out with his cousins; bowling, going to the movies and such. Even though it was a low key kinda week, I am sad that it is over. Not only does it mean back to school, but that the end of the semester is that much closer….and we all know what that means.

Love is in the Air!

2010-02-16T16:18:00.000-08:00

Well I started this post just after Valentines day, and it has taken me until now to come back and upload pictures and finish it off. Sorry about the delay!

A well know fact (or old wives tale depending on if you believe it) insists that a majority of Stonehill students meet their significant other during there time at Stonehill. While I don’t really know how true that is, I do have to say that there are always tons of college sweethearts listed in the Alumni magazine’s wedding section. Whether the romance fact is true or not, one thing that is for sure is that love is defiantly in the air at Stonehill. Even before Valentines Day the mailroom was swamped with hundreds of packages. Never in my almost four years of working in the mailroom have I seen so many packages stacked up like this.

Keep in mind this is the Thursday before Valentines and these are only some of the packages!!! Friday was sure to bring more and we even had to open on Saturday to help student get all their lovey dovey mail, flowers, and candy.

Last One!

2010-02-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

I cant even begin to describe the feelings that comes along with knowing this is my last semester at Stonehill. As much as I would like to relax and savor every minute of the time I have left here, the first weeks of the semester have been a whirlwind.

Some of the highlights include interesting classes like American Sign Language, great jobs and internships and of course, my favorite back to school celebration….my birthday!!

I can’t believe I’m actually 22. I remember when that used to sound soo old to me. I had a great day! Because of the class schedule I did not have class or work that day so I got to spend the day relaxing and playing in the snow (a winter time favorite). I also got to go out for a nice dinner and got some great presents! It really is such a pity you only get one birthday a year.

It was so beautiful with all the snow on my birthday so I took a few pictures... Enjoy!

In other exciting news the line up for Spring Weekends concert was announced! State Radio and Girl Talk will be jam’n out Friday night. I am already super excited!

Until next time...stay warm!

Happy Holidays

2010-01-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everyone,

I hope you have been enjoying this wonderful time of the year because I sure have. Even though I have been busy it has pretty much been all fun stuff so let me catch you up!

First off, right after finals I headed home to Texas with Tyler. (I'm beginning to think my family likes him more than me). The same weekend we got home we headed down to San Antonio to visit some of my family, but also to see some of the tourist sites since Tyler has never been. We stopped at the Alamo, as well as the Meager Hotel, home to FDR's Rough Riders, and my favorite, the River Walk. We also spent sometime outside of San Antonio with my mom's sister and her family. They live on a ranch and own just over 30 heads of cattle. Us city folk like to pretend we are real country bumpkins anytime we go down. As always we had a blast.

On the way back home we stopped at LBJ's ranch in Johnson City. Johnson's ranch is now a State Park, and you can see the "White House of the South" as well as the rest of the ranch. We also stopped at Enchanted Rock. Also a State Park, it is one of the largest granite deposits in the country. At the park you can climb to the top of the rock, it is a lot longer of a hike than you might think by looking at pictures...it is really steep!

Before I knew it Tyler had left to meet his family in Florida and it was Christmas Eve. Not only that but it was actually SNOWING!! Keep in mind two days earlier it had been 70 degrees. But after 83 years we finally had a white Christmas in Texas!! Even though I usually look forward to a little warm spell at home over the holidays I cannot complain about a snow on Christmas, one of my childhood dreams has finally been fulfilled! Christmas morning was great!! Since all my siblings are older now I did not have to wake up at the crack of dawn. Everyone got some great gifts and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Soon after I flew to Florida to meet up with Tyler and his family in Naples. I was really excited to go since I had never been to Florida before. After a suitcase debacle at the airport I finally arrived in the land of Palm trees. We spent most days relaxing at the beach or pool, but we also made a trip over to the Everglades. We took an AMAZING air boat ride though the mangroves and Everglades National Park. I also had the chance to go deep sea fishing. Unfortunately, it was really cold and windy so the ocean was really choppy and we did not catch much, but it was still fun to be out on the boat for the day.

Now that I'm back I have just been getting ready to go back to school.

Enjoy the last of your holidays!

Sorry there are no pictures I could not get them to upload. :(

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays! We are already in what I call the home stretch…2 weeks until break!

While I am very excited for Christmas it has been a busy few weeks. Apart from catching up on all my school work, which is an ongoing work in progress, we celebrated one of my favorite holidays—THANKSGIVING!!

I have not celebrated Thanksgiving in the same place since I got to college and this year was nothing different. This year I celebrated the holiday with Tyler’s family in Lexington. Between all his aunts, uncles and cousins there was 24 people over for the day, quite a full household!

Since I’m a huge fan of cooking I was put in charge of garlic mashed potatoes. Tyler was supposed to help me since they are his favorite. Typical man, he abandoned me part way through, but they still turned out delicious!!

At my house we usually just have one big meal and that’s it. Not at Tyler’s, as all his family is showing up there are munchies and appetizers everywhere. Needless to say I ate my way through the day. By the time the turkeys were done I was already stuffed from everything else. Although, I still managed to eat my whole plate!! I had so much fun hanging out with everyone and watching the DALLAS COWBOYS win!!

The Friday after thanksgiving I went with Tyler’s family and his cousins that stayed over to see Jim Carey’s new movie A Christmas Carol. The movie was great! It is done in 3-D so you feel like you are actually in the movie, especially on the IMAX screen.

Saturday, Tyler’s mom, Leanne and I all headed up to Somerville High School for a craft fair. We have been to a few to try and sell the painted glass we do. After having a fairly successful day, I got to experience a New England tradition, candle pin bowling. Now I love bowling, I’m just no good at it. Usually I play regular 10 pin with bumpers, so when they told me I had to knock down these little pins with these little balls I was rather skeptical. Needless to say I was as just as terrible as I expected, but somehow my team managed to win!!

To wrap up the weekend Tyler and I went out to pick out a Christmas tree. Tyler’s family decided to not put up their big tree because no one will be home for Christmas. So instead of the big one inside, Tyler and I picked out a small tree to put outside on the deck. Picking out Christmas trees is one of my favorite traditions and I especially loved doing it with Tyler for the first time. After looking at tons of trees we finally picked on. Now all it needs is some outdoor decorations!!

I hope your having as much fun so far this holiday season as I am!
There is much more in store before we leave for break so check back soon for all the great holiday fun going on at Stonehill!

Dog Days

2009-11-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Hello there!

I know it has been a while since my last post so I figured I should take the time to fill you in on my long absence. Unfortunately, it is not good nor exciting news. Truth be told I have been sick as a dog. Now I don't normally get sick, but when I do I just can't seem to get over whatever has me under the weather. Even more upsetting is that I missed some of my favorite campus events like freak week and the Halloween mixer. But at least I seem to be getting better. I've been on a few interviews to try to set up an internship for next semester, and I even attended my first career fair. Even though most of the companies I wanted to meet with didn't show up it was still a good time for me to get my resume all polished up and printed. Now I just have to find someone to give me a job after graduation!

Sorry to disappoint, but that's really the only update I have for the past few weeks. But I do have some tips for if you get sick!

1. Stay in bed. Being sick is a great reason to sleep all day, watch TV and be lazy

2. Drink lots of fluids. I love orange juice anyway, but when I'm sick I drink it by the gallon...so delicious!

3. Eat Jello! I know it's an unusual piece of advice but ever since I was little I loved eating jello when I was sick. Peach is my favorite, but how could something so giggly and wiggly not make you feel better? J-E-L-L-O It's alive!

Till next time~

To Home and Back

2009-10-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Well it's that time again when I sit down and try to catch you up on what's been happening. I think I say it almost every time I sit down to write, but I am amazed at how fast time flies!!

The highlight of the past few weeks has been my trip home to Texas! Now I usually don't go home during the semester, but with the economy I was able to snag some CHEAP air fare and spend a few days at home over Columbus Day weekend. I haven't been home since the end of May so I was excited to be back in my own bed and spend time with my family.

Of course no trip home would be complete without doing a few of my favorite things. First off, I have been dying to check out the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Over the past few every time I would go home I would go and check out the progress. Let me tell you, now that it is finished--THAT THING IS HUGE!! Not only did I check it out, my brother, Stephen, Tyler and I all took a tour. By the end of it I was tired from walking so much, but you do get to see EVERYTHING from the media rooms, to the suites, and even the Dallas Cowboy's locker room.

There usually is turf, they were just setting up for the U2 concert.

My brother in front of some of his favorite players lockers

Leather heads in the gift shop

Another highlight of the trip was a mini road trip down to Dublin, yup Dublin, Texas not Ireland. It seems like any other small town south of the metroplex but it is home to Dublin Dr. Pepper. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Dublin Dr. Pepper is the only place in the country where they still bottle the original Dr. Pepper--no high fructose corn syrup here. To get Dublin Dr. Pepper you have to have the old returnable bottles, that's all their machinery can fill, or live with in a 44 mile radius, because that's as far as they distribute. Now the trip from my house to Dublin is just over 100 miles, but it is definitely worth it. I love to go visit Dublin every now and then to drink up the nostalgia and famous Dr. Pepper.

Lastly, a trip to Texas in the early part of October would not be complete without a trip to the State Fair of Texas. While the fair has many claims to fame my personal favorite are Big Tex, and tons of fried food. My whole family headed out to the fair Sunday afternoon. Some people go to ride the rides, or see all the shows and animals, but my family goes for the fried food. I like to think that over the years I have become an expert in fair food. Every year though, they come out with new crazy things to fry. Of course I had to try those, and enjoy a few old favorites. So what all did I clog my arteries with in a mere matter of hours?? Here's the list: Fried turkey led, fried cheesecake, fried bacon, fried butter, fried peaches and cream, fried pizza, a corny dog, some ice cream, and to top the night off frozen turtle cheesecake dipped in chocolate! And that's just what I ate. The fair also offers such delicacies as fried Coke, oreos, snickers bars, cookie dough and so much more. While my food coma came on quickly I still got to enjoy some evening entertainment. One of my favorite bands, Little Big Town, happened to be playing Sunday night for free! So of course my family all stayed around to enjoy the music.

Tyler with his fried pizza...yumm!

Little Big Town put on a great concert

The State Fair of Texas was the perfect way to end my trip home. Since I've been back at school I have been as busy as ever. My senior thesis is currently underway and I spend most days in the library writing away. Even though I love my topic, at this point I just wish it was finished.

One of my favorite theme weeks at Stonehill is coming up and I'll be sure to update you all about freak week and Halloween here at the Hill real soon!

Till then~

Fallin' in Love with Fall

2009-10-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

There are many reason I have come to love New England over my four years at Stonehill. Every fall I am reminded once again why I fell in love in the first place.

Growing up in Texas I never got to experience fall like we have up here. As soon as the leaves begin to change I get just a little bit giddy as I wait to enjoy my favorite season of the year. I think fall brings the best weather of the year so I like to enjoy the crisp fresh air by spending a lot of time outside before it gets to cold and I go into semi-hibernation. In the past week I have managed to get a lot of fall fun into my busy schedule.

To start the month of October off, Tyler and I went up to Harvard, MA to spend the morning apple picking. I have to say this is one of my all time favorite fall activities. Not only do you get to enjoy treats like apple cider and cider donuts after picking your apples, I usually end up eat a ton of apples before I even get to the ones I actually picked. This year was no exception. I ate at least a dozen apples, all in the name of finding the best ones. I don’t know why they try to tell you what kind of apples they are; you really have to do a taste test to make sure you have found the good ones. Even though it has been just over a week since our apple picking excursion we still have a huge bowl full of apples…and I don’t know if we will ever be able to finish them.

Found a good one!

This week I also got to go to a Red Sox game at Fenway. I don’t know how it got to be so late in the season before I saw a game but I was glad to go. Even though the game was called in the 7th inning due to heavy rain and the Red Sox lost, it’s always fun to spend time down at the ballpark. The only real sad part for me is that my hometown boys, the Texas Rangers, are officially eliminated from post season dreams. Although, this does mean that I become a full time Red Sox fan going into the post season, so I guess it’s not so bad.

This weekend I got to experience a new fall activity that is sure to be an ongoing favorite. Despite some drizzly weather I headed up to the Topsfield Fair. Even though the rain kept a lot of people away it was nice because you could still do everything without having to fight any crowds. Since I went prepared for the weather, rain boots and all, I enjoyed every minute of the fair. I even managed to eat a whole turkey leg, they are my favorite fair food after all.

This pumpkin weighed over 1,400 pounds

Me and my GIANT turkey leg...I ate it all!

This Wednesday I head home with Tyler to celebrate my Dad and little brother’s birthdays. I also have a list of fall time favorites down there. I’ll be sure to update you on my trip back home when I return, until then there is less than three months till Christmas…but whose counting! ;-)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

2009-09-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well hello there everyone. Can you believe the end of September is just days away?

So what have I been up to lately? We'll I've been busy, that's for sure. You would think that with a light course load this semester I would have a lot of free time, but that just doesn't seem to be the case. As Stonehill kicked off a new school year I headed down to Rhode Island to do some dogie/house sitting for the weekend. That meant that I missed Welcome Back weekend and all that craziness but I managed to have a great time down in RI. Tyler came with me, so we made plans to hang out in Newport Saturday afternoon. In all the years I have been visiting I have never seen it sooo busy. Apart from it being an absolutely beautiful day while we were down there, the Irish festival that was going on happens to be one of the largest in New England. So of course Tyler and I decided to check it out. We got to see my Irish step dancers, hear some bagpipes and of course have some Irish beer. We checkout all the little stands of people selling all sorts of Irish goodies but got out of there without buying anything.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera down that week, but I did manage to steal a few picts offline.
Another highlight of the last few weeks is a weekend spent out in Western Mass. We headed out to Springfield last Saturday for the day to visit some of Tyler's family. We spent the day outside visiting with his family and just relaxing. The next day a group of us gals headed out to Hadley to try and sell some of our artwork at a local tag sale. It was our first time at one of these but we are headed up to Gloucester in Mid October to give it another try. We sell hand painted glasses, and cards, as well as hand made earrings and bracelets. We just started a website to try and sell some of our stuff. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7399920 After the tag sale we headed to this great farm stand for lunch. I forget the name of it but it was absolutely huge. We all got sandwiches and had a great picnic lunch outside. It was the perfect way to enjoy the very early signs of fall.

working on our crafts

Our table at the tag sale

Everyone enjoying our picnic outside

So you may be thinking that all I do is no work and all play but that couldn't be farther from the truth. This semester I am finishing up my History major by writing my capstone. Everyone, regardless of major has some type of big final project they have to do to graduate. As a History major we get to write a big research paper. We are talking a minimum of 30 pages. Needless to say I spend a fair amount of time in the library. However, the last two Mondays, I have ventured off to Harvard to do some primary research in one of their libraries. After getting really lost the first time I went up there, I have finally got the hang of it. I'm writing about the Women's Army Corp during World War II, so t is really neat to get to see original letters,

As always I'm a busy bee. I hope all your semesters are off to a great start!

Don't Look Now!

2009-08-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

Classes started today...well at least for most of the students here on campus. I managed to luck out without having classes because of following a Monday schedule even though it is Tuesday! So with my free time I thought I might look back and figure out where my summer disappeared to.

So where did my summer go?? Here is a little recap! For starters, Tyler and I got in touch with our country side and went horseback riding for the day. Horseback riding was something we had talked about doing ever since we had gotten back from visiting my family down in Texas earlier this summer. So after a little Internet searching I found Bobby's Ranch in Acton. Needless to say we had a great time, although I did pay for it the next day with rather sore legs.

At the beginning of July I flew out to St. Louis to meet my immediate and extended family for my cousin John's wedding. The wedding was really nice, and it was great to see some of my aunts, uncles and cousins I hadn't seen in a really long time. After the wedding my family headed down to Meramec State Park in Missouri. When I was younger my family used to drive up and go canoeing every other summer, but it had been a while so I was really excited to doing a little time on the water and check out the caves that are in the park. After a very busy long weekend I headed back to Stonehill!

Cousin Lynn and I at the rehearsal dinner.

Not quite everyone on my mom's side of the family at the church.

Me with my siblings at the reception--we clean up good!

Everyone after a day on the river!

I also got to spend time in New Hampshire again this summer. My boyfriend's, brother's girlfriend's family has a lake house in Maddison, NH on Silver Lake. (did you follow that?) I really love it up there. It is so beautiful and relaxing, and despite a little bout of bad whether we had a great weekend. Besides just hanging out, relaxing and making homemade ice cream, we got to get out on the boat for a little tubing, and the guys did some wakeboarding...I have no athletic ability so I tend to stay away from these and enjoy my time zipping around in the boat.

To round out the summer I got to spend a week down on the Cape with Tyler's family. Despite that fact that I was sick for part of the week I had a really great time. We went to the drive-in theater in Wellfleet to see the new G.I. Joe moving which was a pretty bad movie but it was still fun to hang out with everyone outside. I even went out on a flounder fishing boat one day. Of course I didn't manage to catch anything other than a nasty skate, but I really love being out on the boat. And of course a Cape vacation wouldn't be complete without some beach and pool time. I even managed to get in a half round of golf...don't get the wrong idea, I'm terrible at golf too but I really enjoy it so I just keep plugging away.

Out on the fishing boat
Enjoying some beach time

I hope everyone is enjoying there fist days of school. I PROMISE to update soon with pictures from convocation and such.

On the Road Again

2009-07-19T18:16:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been a while since I updated you on my summer. What can I say…I’ve been busy!

I realized I left y'all hanging out in music city and never finished up the rest of Tyler and mine’s road trip. Well you know that we made it back safe and sound but we saw a lot before we got back to MA.

After we left Nashville we headed north towards Louisville, but made a pit stop at Churchill Downs. We had tried to make it to the Jim Beam Distillery but were too late so we decide that it would be neat to see something else. Lucky for us there were no races that day so the whole place was pretty much open. After walking around outside for a while, someone told us we could go inside and check out where they do simulcasting of other races across the country. I thought that’s all we would get to see, but next thing I know we are headed outside towards the track. We got to walk right up to it; I don’t know if we were actually supposed to be down there but no one stopped us or told us otherwise. It was really neat to get to see the famous racetrack up close. Once we left we drove to our hotel which was actually across the river in Indiana, so we can say we made it though another state. The next morning we crossed the river again and went to the Louisville Slugger Museum. I had been a few years before, but this was Tyler’s first visit. It was as cool as I remembered. We spent some time in the museum before taking the tour of the factory. While in the museum Tyler got to hold a game used bat of David Ortiz and while we were taking the tour itself got to hold a bat they had just finished making for Dustin Pedroia!

We got back on the road to make it to Wild Turkey Distillery. Since we hadn’t made it to Jim Beam we really wanted to visit at least one distillery on the Bourbon Trail. The tour at Wild Turkey was really cool. We got to see everything from where they ferment the grain in huge vats to the rick houses they age the bourbon in. Unfortunately, since we stopped there we landed up driving really late into the night in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania where we stayed the night. The late night drive was all worth it when we pulled into Chocolate World in HERSHEY Pennsylvania. We learned all about how Hershey makes there chocolate and tried plenty of it ourselves! After a few hours at Hershey we got on the road and headed home. By night fall we were on the Mass Pike and home safe and sound.

All in all it was a great trip, my little '99 Honda made it with no problems, we got to see beautiful parts of the country, and we have hundreds of pictures to remember it by. I don't know if I'll be making that drive again anytime soon, but this time around, it was definitely worth it.

The New Science Center

2009-06-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are incoming science students or any one thinking of studying science here at Stonehill I have great news for you....the new science center is absolutely AMAZING! I myself try to stay as far away from science classes as humanly possible, but the new science center is making me reconsider my usual inclinations. I had the opportunity to go and check it out for the first time the other day. In the last few weeks the students participating in the SURE program, a summer undergraduate research experience, have had a chance to begin using the building. Taking a walk around the building you can tell there are still some little things to be finished, not all the classrooms are set up completely, and there is still some equipment to be unpacked, but you can tell the students LOVE being in the new space.

Like I mentioned before the building is just as beautiful as it promised to be. Construction just started on the new south quad and seems to be moving at a surprisingly rapid pace. In August when all the constructions is finished everyone who returns to campus in August will have a great new space on campus to enjoy.

If you haven't seen pictures or plans of the new science center you can check out the original renderings of the building by clicking here.

I hope you're all enjoying the summer....I promise to finish out my cross country adventure with another blog post soon!

Mile Marker One and Music City

2009-06-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

I had a great time at home with my family. I never get to spend as much time at home as I would like, but that makes my visits all the more special. After a few days it was time to hit the road. Part of the reason Tyler came to visit was not only so he could finally meet my family, but also to help my drive my car back up to Mass. We visited AAA got lots of maps and books and had planned our route so early-ish Wednesday morning we hit the road. The first days was the longest. We drove all the way from my house in DFW to Nashville. We made little stops along the way but 12 hours later, by the time we arrived we were tired!

Just one of the many scenery picts we took!

We made it!!

Since had limited time and wanted to make the best of it. So we freshened up and headed out to see and hear what we could. We stayed on Music Row which is a street full of funky little bars and shops. The next day we headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame! If you haven't guessed, I'm a pretty big country music fan, so this was a small dream come true. The Country Music Hall of Fame also has a pretty cool museum in it. After spending the morning poking around the museum we headed back out to Music Row for some lunch before hitting the road again!

Music Row
The band playing at the bar--They were really good!Not a bad view of the city out of hotel window

Country Music Hall of Fame

The actual Hall of Fame

Clearly we were having plenty of fun and this was only our fist stop of many! I'll be back working in the admissions office next week but ill be sure to post more of our cross country road trip soon!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

2009-06-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! I am glad to report that my '99 Honda Civic with almost 160,000 miles has made it safely from Texas to Massachusetts.

After Tyler arrived in Texas my time at home quickly began to wind down. As a newcomer to Texas, Tyler still had a lot he wanted to see and do before we hit the road. He was at my house for about 5 days. We went to Fort Worth, Dallas, the Ballpark and my little brothers graduation. I could tell you about every bit of his visit but since a picture is worth a thousand words i'll leave you with a few.

Texas owns a heard of Longhorns, part of which live at the Fort Worth Stockyards...this is just their daily stroll down Main Street.

At the Rodeo! Go Rangers!

I'll post again soon to share some road trip stories and pictures!

And the Homestretch

2009-05-22T08:01:00.001-07:00

When I first started writing this blog we had just entered the homestretch at Stonehill. I still had papers and finals to finish up and turn in before I could head home. At this point I am really headed towards home. I spent a week in Lexington with my boyfriend and his family after taking my last final and packing up my room last Friday. Today I am headed home to see my brother graduate from Texas A&M Corpus Christi. His graduation on Saturday really got me thinking about how fast the past three years have flown by and how fast my senior year is likely to be. I’m not quite ready to be a senior; I was just getting good at being a junior.

This will be me next year!

Because I live so far away I don’t go home that often. I was home last, over Christmas break but after my visit home these next few weeks I wont be home again till Christmas. This trip home is extra special not only because my brother is graduating college, but so is my younger brother from 8th grade. To top it all off my boyfriend is coming down to meet the family! The two of us are then gonna road trip it back in my 1999 Honda Civic…don’t worry it’s gonna make it!

Until then I hope everyone is enjoying the first few days of summer or the last few of school whichever it be for you!

Tyler and I depart for our road trip on the 27th so ill be sure to post updates as we travel across the eastern US, we will be stopping in Country Music City, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, KY and HERSHEY PA! This should be fun!

Spring Weekend!

2009-04-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

Now that it is Monday afternoon, and we have all gone back to being regular college kids with classes and meetings, it is safe to say we have all survived Spring Weekend. This also means I have a ton of work I should be doing as classes are coming to and end in just two short weeks. But since I promised new posts I have the perfect excuse to avoid them just a bit longer.

For those of you who don’t know or have not heard of Spring Weekend, it is by far the largest and most fun theme weekend here. Originally it was just a weekend, but this year the festivities kicked of a bit earlier with a comedians, duck hunt, and a diversity program to celebrate Asian Heritage month all before the weekend ever got here. Even still Spring Weekend is really all about the weekend and so Friday night kicked off with a concert featuring Raining Jane, Sarah Bareilles and Three 6 Mafia. Every year the student body gets to vote on what type of music we want for Spring Weekend. Then the concert coffee house committee makes a list of people they want to try to get. It is always a big secret of who is actually performing at Spring Weekend until the big revel at a coffeehouse night.
Saturday is my favorite day of Spring Weekend because not only is there a mixer Saturday night (we call dances mixers in college cause it sounds much cooler ;-) but there is a carnival Saturday afternoon. It is basically the equivelant of a big kid recess. There are rides like spinning tea cups and swings but this year we added a mechanical bull. There are also carnival games and food. The Caf is closed because everyone gets to eat at the cookout put on by our cafeteria catering service. If that doesn’t sound like enough fun you can also get airbrush tattoos, decorated frisbees, keychain pictures and even better its all FREE! Since the Carnival ends at three you have time to take a break and come out of your sugar coma induced by ice cream and fried dough. This year I spent the afternoon at the Stonehill softball fields. My roommate freshman Kristen, year plays outfield for the team and since I had not gotten to a game yet this season I headed out. Unfortunately they lost both games of the double header against Southern Connecticut State University, but they still played two really great games. Here are a few picts of Kristen in action. To cap the day off, we ordered some food, and hug out with friends until the Spring Fling mixer. It is always fun to dress up and act like you are at one of those good ol Jr. High dances. Even better was this year's raffle of a brand new Macbook Pro to anyone in the doors by 10:30. Unfortunately that means I didn’t win it, but I’m sure whoever did is pretty stoked! My friends and I danced the night away until they brought out pizza for us all to snack on. By the time my belly was full of pizza I decided it was time to call it a night and head for my bed.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!!

2009-04-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Where did the time go??? I really don’t know. As I sit down to write this I can’t believe we are already in the home stretch of the semester. Pretty soon May 8th will be here before we know it and I will be enjoying my last summer of college. I can’t even remember everything that has been going on over the past few weeks; they have all rushed by like a crazy whirlwind. But here are some of the more important things.

First off, Spring Break!! It is hard to believe that break was weeks ago by now. Since I spent first semester in Italy I am still broke as a joke, and so I did not make any extravagant travel plans. I spent the week sleeping, eating, and catching up on the work that had managed to pile up. I spent part of the week in Lexington with my boyfriend and his family and the rest of the week I spent in Rhode Island with my adoptive family. I am really not adopted, but my best friend moved to Rhode Island after fourth grade. Now that I live in New England most of the time they have become a second family to me. I even have my own room in their house! I love them so it’s a pretty sweet gig I got. In Rhode Island I caught up on some of my favorite Rhode Island past times like shopping, scrapbooking and the most famous and delicious South County Brickly’s homemade ice cream.

Secondly, I GOT A JOB! Finding a job every summer is something I just dread doing. I had so much fun working for the admissions office last year that I really wanted to do it again. Not only do I really enjoy the job it allows me to stay on campus for the summer, which is a pretty great perk! So when application time came around I reapplied and crossed my fingers. There was a lot more people who applied this year so I was a little nervous about getting rehired. But a week or so after Spring Break I got the word that I will be living on working on campus this summer…I could not be happier!

Next on the list is I am getting my CAR! Now this may not seem like a big deal to most of you but to me it is. I have never really needed my car on campus and getting it from Texas up to school seemed to be a ridiculous idea. It does not pack neatly into a suitcase like most things. In all honesty until now I have been quite content borrowing friends’ cars and stealing their gas anytime I need. But with senior year approaching I realized that I will be going on interviews and eventually looking at places to live. So it only seemed practical that I have my own car. Right now my mom drives it around so it does not just sit in the driveway, but when I go home for by brother’s graduation in May I will be making the cross country road trip back up to school! Hopefully my ’99 Honda Civic, comically named the Green Machine will make it back!

Last but not least is Easter Break! At Stonehill we are very spoiled with a second shorter break spring semester. We always have Holy Thursday through Easter Monday off. It is just one of the many perks of going to a Catholic school. So while all my friends were in classes Thursday and Friday, I slept in, relaxed and put off doing homework just a little bit longer. Friday my boyfriend Tyler and I headed to Rhode Island to spend Easter weekend with them. We had plans to go fishing Saturday but the weather man had other plans. The weather was rather gross so we stayed in side and watched movie and caught up with one another. We did manage to find a break in the rain to enjoy the hot tub for a while…it’s my favorite! Sunday we all went to church and had an amazing brunch after. Because not everyone was as lucky as I was to have Monday off we all headed in separate directions Sunday afternoon. Tyler and I to his house to have Easter diner with his parents, and my friend Kacie back up to school at UNH.

Even though the end of the semester is mere weeks away we still are all still looking forward to Spring Weekend before we have to hit the books for final exams! I promise an update before then!

Phil Say’s 6 More Weeks of Winter

2009-02-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

What many people don’t know about me is that I have a special love for Groundhog Day. Growing up, the pastor at my church was originally from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of Groundhog Day. Needless to say this often forgotten holiday was never forgotten in the halls of our elementary and junior high school. Even though I’m older I still look forward to Phil’s prediction every year.

For those of you who don’t know the story of Groundhog Day I’ll fill you in on some Punxsutawney Phil history. Groundhog Day has a history that dates back to the earliest settlers in the small town. The first trek to Gobbler’s Knob, was in 1887. Every year on February 2, Phil emerges and makes his prediction. If he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter, if he doesn’t see his shadow we are in for an early spring.

So what was Phil’s prediction for this year??
6 more weeks of winter….stay warm!

Here We Go Again!

2009-01-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

Hello, Hello, Hello

Sorry it has been so long since I last let you peek through the window and into my life. Lets just say I finally have a new computer and everything seems to be working again. That being said I didn’t mean to leave you hi and dry about the end of my semester. Instead of rehashing my last few days in Perugia let me assure you they were WONDERFUL! The three and a half months I spent there were truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I hope everyone has the opportunity to have a similar experience at some time. So to wrap that part of my story up I’ll share with you my list of superlatives from the past semester…Enjoy!

Best City- Dublin, Ireland
Worst City- Barcelona, Spain

Best Travel experience- Overnight trains
Worst Travel experience- Tie: First weekend of trains to Cinque Terri, 12 hours on a buss back from Munich.

Best Food-tie: eggplant parmesan and gelato!
Worst Food-

Best Weekend- Long weekend in Munich, minus the rain
Worst Weekend- Archaeology field trip…I have never been so wet and cold in my life.

Best Shower- Ben Albert’s Geneva Switzerland
Worst Shower- the one in my apartment…gross!

Friendliest People-Dublin
Least Friendly People- Paris

Best Museum- Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel
Worst Museum- Archaeology Museum

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

2008-12-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

As I sit down to write this I can’t believe it is already December. I just got off the phone with my dad and he told me he would see me next week. I think in that single moment it hit me…my time here in Italy is coming to a close. Wednesday was the last day of reviews. Finals begin Thursday and carry on until Tuesday. That same evening we will be packing up and heading home. It’s a strange feeling, knowing that we are actually going home after living her for the past three and a half months.

This weekend I went on my last trip of the semester. It is hard to remember what my first weekend traveling was like, and it also makes me grateful for how much better I have gotten at using the trains and using charades to communicate when I have trouble speaking the language. Visiting Munich lets me mark off the last place I really wanted to visit before heading home. Now I can say I am officially ready to hit the road back home.

Munich was absolutely amazing, just like everyone said it would be. It might actually even be my favorite place of the semester. My journey to Munich was a littler different than most of my other travels. My friend Lindsay and I signed up with a travel company called Euroadventures. They organize different tours for study abroad students throughout the semester. You pay one flat free and you get transportation, a place to stay, breakfast, and a guided tour of the city. It worked out great, we even ran into fellow Stonehill-er Kait Mendell. So after boarding the buss Friday evening we drove for almost 10 hours before reaching Munich. Every year Munich decorates for the holidays and celebrates with famous Christmas markets. You can buy all sorts of holiday presents as well as food. If you can believe it, I held off my shopping/ eating bug just long enough to take a walking tour of the city and see some of the highlights…did you know there were surfers in Munich?? Here are just a few picts from around the city.

The old town gate

Town hall and the famous clock

Old town hall

Lions are the symbol of Munich, you can rub their noses for good luck.

Later on Saturday afternoon the three girls and our new friend Jose headed about 20mins outside of Munich to Visit Dachau. As a history major, WWII is one of my favorite time periods to study, and so I was really grateful to get to visit this piece of history. Even though it was mid afternoon, the weather that day made it dark and dreary. Being on the grounds of Dachau, which was the first concentration camp established, was very sad and eerie. We had just enough time to see the memorial museum, view the video explaining the background of the camp and view a few of the remaining structures. It is nearly impossible to imagine the atrocities committed there.

Later that night we headed out to experience what Munich and Germany is known for….beer! Lots and Lots of it. Anywhere you walk in Germany you can see beer gardens and beer halls. Our Euroadventures group headed to Hofbrauhaus house, one of the oldest, biggest and arguably the most famous in all of Germany. I have never seen a three storied restaurant so packed at 7:30. We had some traditional German food, sausages, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut, and a big stein full of beer to wash it all down. The entire hall is packed so you just join people already sitting at the long wooden tables. By the end of the night everyone is friends, eating, drinking, and singing together to the house band dressed in full lederhosen. Sunday morning we slept in before heading out to fight the crowds at the Christmas Markets. The entire main square is turned into a Winter Wonderland. Sunday became a day of eating local treats and shopping. We also took a shopping break to watch the Glockenspiel clock go off. For as famous of a clock as it was I was slightly disappointed by the show. But my huge pretzels, 4th or 5th bratwurst of the weekend seemed to make up for it. Before calling it a day Kait, Lindsay and I had a glass of Gleuwine which is a warm spiced wine. I have to say, that it is not my favorite German holiday food.

We finished our weekend with a trip out to see two of Mad King Ludwig’s castles about two and a half hours south of Munich. Apparently, the mad king got his name by spending tons of money on building castles all over the German country side. We got to see the castle he was born in and one of the ones he built himself. I am sure most of you know what the Disney’s Cinderella’s castle looks like. Well you can thank good ol’ Mad King Ludwig for providing Disney with inspiration. The castle itself I absolutely beautiful by itself, but the foot or so of fresh snow made the trip feel like a winter wonderland. The whole day we drove home was like driving though a picture.

I can’t believe that in less than a week I will be back home in Texas where a white Christmas is only a dream. Good luck to everyone with finals!

An Italian Thanksgiving

2008-12-02T09:54:00.001-08:00

Can Thanksgiving really be Thanksgiving without a Turkey? Last week one of the quintessential holidays transpired without me, or the hundreds of other students studying abroad…Thanksgiving. Now I love Thanksgiving as much, if not more than the next guy, and not being home for this holiday centered on family and food was very strange. Every year I look forward to being with family, cooking all morning, eating all afternoon and watching football all night. Thanksgiving in Italy transpires much differently. Instead of awaking to the smells of the turkey already cooking in the oven I awoke to the smells of my granola and yogurt breakfast. Instead of spending the morning watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I spent it in Italian class. Instead of helping cook in the kitchen, I helped my friend to research online. Right about the time the Titans and Lions kicked off back home our Italian Thanksgiving here finally began. We had arranged to do our own makeshift version of the classic, complete with food, and friends who have become like our family here over the past 3 months. There would be no turkey, but rotisserie chickens would make a great substitute. By the time everyone came with their favorite Thanksgiving dishes we had assembled quite the spread. Stuffing, mash potatoes, green been casserole, cranberry sauce, and bread, even pumpkin and apple pie, not bad for a bunch of 20 year olds. And as we all sat down to a very late Thanksgiving dinner in my tiny apartment I realized I had something to truly be thankful for…great friends, great food, and a great semester.

Sam and I working on the apple pieIt looked even better once it came out of the oven

Our friend Matt making green bean casserole and a mess of our kitchen

Thanksgiving with the Italian fam

A Horse is a Horse of Course of Course

2008-11-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

This week kicked off with the 7 Stonehill girls reuniting for an evening of eating. It seems to have become a tradition for us to get together about once a month to share our stories as well as reminisce about the Hill. We really do miss everyone there! As usual this month everyone had crazy travel stories to tell. I think we have all learned that getting anywhere is half the battle. After wining and dinning we all realized we have less than a month before we go home. It is a crazy thought. What is even crazier is how we actually get home. We have recently been told that after a farewell dinner following the conclusion of exams everyone heads home to finish packing before hitting the bars before we re-enter the world were most of us are not of legal drinking age. Reality sets in around 1am when the 6 busses roll into the main piazza to take everyone back to Rome. Now this plan is not so bad in theory…a well known central meeting place to coral all 120+ of us. However this means that after several hours of being out and about in town we must all make sure we get ourselves and our luggage to the busses. If you’re thinking what I am thinking, that means I have to get both my enormous suitcases up the gigantic hill at 1 in the morning. As there are only 9 cabs in all of Perugia I foresee an adventure.

As far as my adventures of the weekend go, I headed back to Florence not only to see my dear Kristen Clark, but to do a little horseback riding though Tuscany. I love horseback riding but haven’t been near a horse since I used to go to camp year and years ago. Needless to say I was just as nervous as I was excited for our trail ride through the country side. To make matters worse it was POURING rain when we woke up. Thankfully, by the time we saddled up the rain had stopped and we only had to worry about muddy trails. Our trek through the country side of Tuscany was absolutely beautiful. Even though most of the fields had been plowed, and a lot of the flowers had died you could tell fall had arrived. All the left over grape vines were beautiful gold colors and all the other trees were changing colors as well.

By the time we got back to the farm we were a little chilly so we warmed up inside by the wood burning oven with a glass of the farm’s homemade wine. Once we had regained feeling in our fingers we headed off to lunch inside a castle in the Siena countryside. We had a delicious three course meal accompanied by wine tasting. After two days of wine tasting back to back (I had wine tasting in my food class the day before) I felt like an everyday wine-o. Before we headed back to the city we spent a little more time exploring the castle.

Once we were back in Florence, Kristen and I set off to do some shopping. I know my shopping is starting to seem excessive but I am finally almost finished with my Christmas shopping! We finished our night with a dinner at one of our favorite restaurant called the Cat and the Fox. I have eaten there every time I have visited Florence this semester. The food is delicious and not that expensive! Instead of going out for the evening we stayed in and watch a movie…horseback riding and shopping all days really just takes it out of you!

My plans for Saturday were a little up in the air so I took the opportunity to sleep in. Once again Kristen hit the streets in search of boots! I have been trying to find a pair of brown boots all semester, and I know what I want, and what I like, I just can seem to find them ANYWHERE! But I keep seeing people wearing the style I want so I keep having home one day I will find them. As consolation for not finding boots, I did get tickets to the Fiorentina soccer game. The trip to the game was organized through the school which the students in Florence study through. But since I was able to get a ticket I got to tag along. Not only did I get to see a really great game, our team won 4-2 againstUdinese I got to see a lot of Stonehill-ers again. I think there are about 40 of them studying in Florence, as it is one of the most popular programs. Saturday night they were all out in style wearing the purple and white of not only the Skyhawks but of Florentino…how convenient!

With One Month to Go

2008-11-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

Sex and the City…After being in Italy for over 2 months I think many of us have reached that point where we start to miss things about home. I’m not talking specifically about friends and family, because you miss them from the start; it only makes sense after all, you are on the other side of the world. I am talking more about the things like readily available internet access, English TV, much less cable, cheeseburgers and french fries. Basically all those little things we take for granted at home. Now I have one of those crazy personalized yahoo homepages that pops up anytime I am able to get on the internet, and the other day I happened to give it a look over. What caught my attention was not any of the real headlines but the movie listings—the greatness of the internet has my homepages list the movies playing at my local theater back home. I quickly realized that out of 16 different movies playing I had not a slightest clue what any of them were….except Disney’s High School Musical III of course. It was the weirdest feeling of being totally disconnected. That evening it hit me. I was walking home and passed the movie theater that shows movies in their original language on Monday nights. The movie poster displayed for the following Monday was Sex and the City. As news spread around Umbra that it would be showing the excitement was almost comical. Of course it is a great chick-flick of a movie but I think people were more excited to feel that connection to home. Needless to say, Monday night the theater was packed full of American girls clamoring to see “The Girls” on the big screen once again.

After the week always comes the weekend and this was my first back out on the road in a while (with the exception of my class field trip last week of course). Since I hadn’t been out of Perugia in a while I went big and got out of the country! One of my really good friends Mr. Ben Albert is interning in Geneva, Switzerland, so I headed out to visit him. Getting to Geneva from Perugia takes about 12 hours on the train so I had my first overnight train adventure! I’m happy to report that everything went as planned—I guess I’m finally figuring the trains out after all this time. On the overnight trains you are assigned a cart number and a bed. The beds are tiny and fold out from the walls, but other than being a little small they were fairly comfortable…they even give you sheets, pillows and breakfast! You fall asleep in Italy and wake up in Switzerland! The country was just as beautiful as I remembered from my visit about 4 years ago. Stepping out of the station I felt like I was back in New England. The air was crisp, there were trees with leaves changing colors, and streets filled with the daily hustle and bustle.

Ben and I spent the afternoon walking around Geneva. There are lots of public parks all along Lake Geneva and so we walked through our fair share. We also walked through what is known as Old Town. And it is just that, the original or old part of the town. We visited one of the churches and the town office building. For those of you who know Ben know he is a fantastic tour guide and his skills were in fine form as he told me all about the history of Geneva. One of my favorite things I learned was that the men used to ride their horses right up to their offices in the Town hall building. To this day there is a ramp instead of stairs up to all the offices. We also took a break for a gigantic game of checkers in which Ben kicked my butt! Ben Albert…here is your prize, just like I promised, your picture, nice and big on my blog.

In the afternoon we headed right across the boarder into France for a little hiking. Mont Salève
is in the really small French town of Salève itself. Unfortunately I was a weekend late and the gondola which would take you to the top of the mountain was no longer running. Thankfully we were still able to take the foot train about halfway up. The views through the trees were beautiful as was the autumn leave covered path. Here are some picts of our hiking adventures.

In exchange for letting me crash at his place I cooked dinner and then we headed out to see Geneva at night. It is just as gorgeous as it is during the day! As we made it back down toward the lake the large fountain in the center was turned on and illuminated bright blue! Sorry my picture does not do it justice. Before calling it a night and heading inside to watch a movie with on of Ben’s friends we happen to stumble across a Starbucks! I know most of you are probably Dunk n’ Donuts fans but unfortunately they have not made it across the Atlantic yet…Starbucks has. Even better is the fact that they already have this year’s holiday flavors out! I decided that Dark Cherry Mocha was worth the try and it was DELICIOUS! I hope ya’ll can try it soon!

Sorry for my Starbucks tangent! Back in Geneva I only had one more day. Ben and I joined the rest of the students in his program for their weekly venture across the boarded to the French market. By now I have been to my fair share of Saturday markets and this by far was one of the best. Even though I was headed home on the train that evening I still left with a bag full of fruit and bread! That afternoon Ben showed me where he has been spending his semester interning…the United Nations. One again I put Ben’s tour guiding skills to use and had him explain to me what the difference was between the UN there in Geneva and the UN in New York. In case you were wondering the UN in New York is where the Generally Assembly is held and Geneva has different ones like the one on human rights. Even though the General Assembly is held in New York today, Geneva was the original site for the League of Nations, but today serves as European Headquarters for the UN. Ben and I spent the rest of our afternoon exploring the beautiful gardens all around the UN. We actually stumbled into a few green houses that were absolutely amazing. Eventually we made our way back to his place via the small Geneva zoo and waterfront.

After a short pit stop so I could stock up on some chocolate, (and boy did I ever!) it was Ben’s turn to cook dinner. Sadly I had another over night train to catch and headed back to Perugia.

It was so great to see another Stonehill-er this weekend and I can’t wait to be back on campus with everyone. With only three more weeks of class before finals Christmas break will be here before you know it!

All Saints and All Souls

2008-11-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

All Saints and All Souls

Hello again! I hope you enjoyed reading about my fall travels as much as I had actually having them! But now that I have been back home for over a week everyone here has settled back into classes and such. With less than six weeks left here in Italy, I literally just finished my first paper of the semester! (I’m typing this while waiting for One Tree Hill to finish downloading in Itunes! What can I say we all have our guilty pleasures ;-) It was a 10 pager on the invention and evolution of Italian-American Cuisine. When I signed up for The History and Culture of Foods in Italy class I thought I would be doing a lot more eating and a lot less reading throughout the semester but I really do enjoy the class. I had not written a paper since the end of last semester so I was a bit rusty, but I am glad my first paper is out of the way. I’m even more glad I only have two papers left!

In other news the end of October and beginning of November are an exciting time here for the students at Umbra. First off is Halloween! Now the Italians themselves do not celebrate Halloween like we do back home. No decorations, no scary music and worse of all, no free candy. However because Perugia is a college town we still got to have some Halloween fun! Many of the bars around town had Halloween themed parties giving everyone a good excuse to dress up! Of course that posed a little bit of a challenge as there are no costume shops or even art supply stores to construct your own. Thankfully Sam’s grandparents had sent her and all the roomies bright orange jack-o-lantern shirts, so the four of us went as a pumpkin patch! Even though it was rainy and cold going out was a lot of fun, and everyone did a really good job getting creative with their costumes.

The first of November is what Italians celebrate rather than the 31st of October. November 1st is the Feast of All Saints. It is a national holiday here in Italy so everything is closed except for a special Fiera dei Morti market. The market is set up around town and has vendors from all over selling all sorts of interesting things. Apparently this is the time when the Italians get a jump start on their Christmas shopping. While I was excited to experience this holiday I was more excited about what November 1st meant for our apartment. This is the day that it becomes legal to use heat in our apartments. Italian law regulates when you can turn the heat on, what times of the day it can be one, and for how many hours a day it can be used. Thankfully it has not gotten to cold here but I am glad to have the heat run, only if it is for 5 hours a day. We are told that as it gets colder we can gradually request increases in the amount of time we have our heat on, but we cannot ever exceed 8 hours a day! Thank goodness I brought some thick socks!

This week rapped up with my second to last field trip of the semester. For my Roman Empire class we had an overnight field trip to the old Roman port town of Ostia and Rome itself. I can say that our day in Ostia was probably one of the neatest things I have seen since I have been here. It is basically a huge archaeological site. All the ruins are separated from the modern day city so you as you walk around all of the sights you feel like you have been transported back in time. After spending the morning there we headed into Rome. If you don’t remember I visited Rome earlier in the semester but did not visit all the ruins so of course I was excited. We started at the Forum. We have been learning about it all semester so it was really neat to actually be there and know what we were looking at. We also visited the Palatine hill, which is the hill Rome was founded on. Over time it became the residences of many of the Emperors and today you can see the ruins of their gigantic homes and gardens. Right about the time it started raining we headed inside to visit the Colosseum. As many of the buildings of Ancient Rome it is pretty impressive. What I found most interesting was that under the main floor there was a network of rooms and passage ways the gladiators used to get from their training area to the Colosseum itself. Also, contrary to popular belief gladiator battles were popular but just like extreme fighting today, was almost always a show. Hardly ever did a gladiator actually die; the only person in all of Rome who could have a gladiator killed for spectacle was the emperor himself. The last stop on our field trip was the Baths of Caracalla. They are some of the largest and most famous of the Roman baths. As we learned on our visit there you can think of them as the amusement parks of the Roman world, except you could go everyday! Of course there were the steam rooms, but baths also had swimming pools, gardens, a gym of sorts, as well as shops and bars. Almost everyone in Roman times was a frequent visitor because they were so inexpensive. Here are some picts of my class' field trip.

Part of the Square of the Guilds

Ruins by the old theater

Temple of Vesta

Gardens for the house on top of the Palatine HillThe Colosseum

So seeing Ancient Rome was amazing but while in Rome I also got to satisfy one more guilty pleasure…DINNER AT THE HARD ROCK CAFÉ! Now I know what you’re thinking…you are living in Italy, with some of the best food in the world! Well this may be true, but for starters I cannot afford to eat out every night and therefore am not enjoying the fine dinning Italy has to offer. My diet consists of granola, fruit, eggs and pasta…it gets old after over 2 months. Plus anytime we eat out we eat Italian food. Perugia does not have the plethora of different types of cuisines that we are used to back home…no Chinese, so sushi, no Mexican, no American food. So I know they say when in Rome, but I say when in Rome take advantage of a DELICIOUS cheeseburger, fries, and a margarita at the Hard Rock…it is worth every penny! I just hope when I get home I get to put in dinner requests for a while!

Ciao!

Here, There, and Everywhere

2008-10-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

What a week, and that’s an understatement at best! I can’t believe it finally happened. All semester people have been talking and planning fall break, and I know I have been keeping yall in suspense about where I was going, so if you will….drum roll please…….I ventured to Pisa, Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, and Milan!! It was a busy and exhausting week to say the least. Thanks to discount airline RyanAir we made it all over Europe. Now that I have been home for two days, I think I have slept for more than 24 hours! But I have good reason to be so exhausted; in 8 days I saw 5 cities in 4 countries!!

Sam, Nora and my trip started with a visit to the leaning tower in Pisa on Saturday evening. Later that night we flew from Pisa into Barcelona. After two days we headed to Dublin for two days, and ended in Paris for two days before heading home through Milan! While I loved my whole trip of course I loved some places a little more than others.

First off, I’m so glad I got to see the tower in Pisa. It really is leaning!! When you first walk up to it, it doesn’t look so bad, just a little lean. But as you walk around to the side you’re like WOAH! The tower looks like it’s about to fall over. Of course we took the typical tourist pictures of each other holding it up. It was getting late, so although we did get to see a beautiful sunset our pictures didn’t turn out so great. I’m just glad I got to see the tower before it falls over…trust me someday it will! After our few pictures we had to head back to the train station so we could get to the airport. One downside of flying on discount airlines is that they don’t fly out of main airports. The airport in Pisa is technically for Florence. Thankfully once you get to Pisa the airport is only 5-10 minutes away from the station. We got there in plenty of time and thought we were doing great. We had checked in online like everyone had told us we could, got through security and weren’t to far back in the line to get on the plane. Another side note is that RyanAir does not assign seats. Everyone lines us and rushes out on to the tarmac to get on to the plane. Unfortunately in Pisa when we got to the front of the line the guy taking tickets told us we could NOT do online check-in. He told us we had to go back to the check in desk and check in again. That meant going back through security and everything. Of course there was a moment of panic when I asked him we would make our flight and he paused, looked at us, and said run fast! So we did!! As we were finishing up at the counter they called to see if we had finished re-checking in. I guess the clerk said we were, even though we weren’t really, because they held the plane for us, and we were personally escorted onto the plane just before they closed the doors. A little more adventure than we had bargained for on our first time flying.

The flight from Pisa to Barcelona is not very long at all but it was still really late by the time we got in and found our hostel. We were all exhausted and so we pretty much went straight to bed. Even after a late night we got up early to hit the streets of Barcelona! We pretty much took our map and wandered around the city on our way to Gaudi’s apartment. Barcelona is a cross between modern New York and old beautiful buildings, statues, and such. A lot of the sites we saw we are not really sure exactly what they are, except pretty. One of the small squares we passed had beautiful flowers and fountains. Gaudi’s apartment is really crazy, he also designed the Sagrada Familia, which we saw after his apartment. He has a really unique crazy style that is very modern but based on nature. You can tour his apartment, but we didn’t go in, we decided we would rather check out the church. The church is still under construction today even though work on it began in the late 1800s. Even still it is an incredible building, many say, and I agree that the outside looks kinda like a drippy sandcastle. After our stop there we headed toward the Picasso Museum. Along the way we saw the Arc de Triumph…Paris is not the only city with one. Once we made it to the Picasso Museum we spent a few hours there. Everyone knows his later more crazy works of people in weird ways, but after seeing his earlier work it is hard to believe it is the same guy doing the paintings. His earlier works are of normal things like still life, scenery, people and such. By the time we finished at the museum we were really tired and headed back to the hostel for a nap before dinner. Once we ventured back out we have a really yummy dinner of Paella and Sangria. We spent the rest of the night out at a really fun little bar.

Our second day in Barcelona was shorter than the first because we had to catch our plane in the evening. In the morning we did a little shopping, and then checked out the harbor. Once you get down toward the water you can see the famous Christopher Columbus monument. He stands overlooking the harbor pointing to the New World. The harbor is really beautiful so we took our time walking around and taking it in before saying adios to Barcelona and Spain.

Getting to Dublin went much smoother than our personal escort to Barcelona. We rechecked in before heading to our gate and had plenty of time to find something to eat and relax. All was going well until our flight got delayed. We were already supposed to be getting in pretty late so an extra hour was not good. By the time we got into Dublin and found our hostel it was easily past midnight. Again we crashed and went to sleep.

Dublin itself is just beautiful and the people there are some of the friendliest I have ever met. They are a little crazy and drive on the wrong side of the road. It took me forever to figure out which way I was supposed to look before crossing the street. Thankfully at most intersections they paint it right on the group for you! We started our day by walking to St. Patrick’s Cathedral end enjoying the little park out front we headed towards Christ’s Church and Dublin Castel. Then we headed to the Guinness Storehouse and Factory. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Dublin, but lucky for us, it was not very crowded. It is a self guided tour of the 5 story building and by the time you reach the top, those over 18 get a free pint of Guinness. Now I can’t say that Guinness is a favorite beer of mine, but right at the Storehouse it is pretty good. I even got a clover drawn in the head of my beer! As we drank our beer in the Gravity Bar you can look at all the 360 degrees of windows and see all of Dublin. Even with the weather being in the 50s everything was green and the leaves were beginning to change colors. It was absolutely beautiful! After we left we decided it would be a good idea to take one of those open top buss tours of the city since there is a lot to see and it is really spread out. I have always wanted to do one and it was great! You get to see almost the entire city with live commentary so you actually know what sites you are looking at. We got to see Trinity College, the National Gallery, St. Stephen’s Green, Temple Bar, Kilmainham Jail where movies like the Italian job have been filmed, The Zoo, The National Museum, the Jameson Distillery, and a lot of other smaller things. After our tour of the city we went back to our hostel to meet up with some friends from Umbra. We went out for a really yummy dinner before heading to Temple Bar. Temple Bar is Dublin’s Cultural center. The streets are lined with pubs, restaurants, and shops. We actually went to the Temple Bar in Temple Bar. It was defiantly a popular place. Even though it was really crowded everyone was really friendly and we made friends with a few of the Irish. We ended the night at another pub before heading home.

Our second day in Dublin was shorter again because we would by flying out later that evening. We had wanted to see a castle since we arrived and were not too impressed with the one actually in the city. A really nice and helpful store owners we came across recommended that we check out the one in Malahide. It’s about 13km outside of Dublin so you have to take the train, but it only takes about 25 minutes to get there. The castle is in the middle of a really large park and although we took the scenic route to get to the castle once we arrived at the train station it was a beautiful day and we got to see some of the town. The castle looks like something right out of a fairytale book; the only thing it didn’t have was a mote or a dragon. The tour of the castle is really cool because the castle is really well preserved. Someone actually lived in the castle until the late 1970s before it was donated and opened for tours. Because the weather was so beautiful and the park we were in was so nice we took our time getting back to Dublin. Once we did we did a little shopping, had some delicious fish and chips and headed to the airport again. I was really sad to be leaving Dublin, and I hope I get to go back someday.

Once we left Dublin we were off to Paris, which was to be our final stop of our trip! Once we got into Paris we had a hard time finding our hotel. We were quickly reminded of the vast language barrier when we were trying to ask directions. When we asked "Parlez-vous anglais" most of the time the answer was just no! After a lot of wandering around we eventually found the hotel. We were thankful to finally have our own room with our own bathroom and shower instead of sharing in hostels like we had been all week. Before going to bed we made a game plan to take on the city. We had really enjoyed our buss tour of Dublin and decided that it was probably a good deal to do it again in Paris. The city is really big and the things we wanted to see were pretty spread out. On top of that getting around the city even with a map was really confusing. I don’t think we ever took the same route anywhere twice. Of course our first priority was to check out the Eiffel Tower. We saw things like the Opera House, Arch de Triumph, Grand Palais, and Trocadero, before getting off at the Eiffel Tower. Being at the base and looking up at the tower was almost a surreal experience. I have had a couple of those throughout the semester but the Eiffel Tower just doesn’t compare to anything else. On top of that the weather was gorgeous a perfect day for us to have a picnic lunch in the park in front of the tower before finally going up. Now we could have taken an elevator all the way to the top. But since we were on a budget we opted to walk up the first two parts of the way. In total there are just under 670 stairs. The views at each level are incredible and the further you go up the further out you can see. You can’t walk to the very top of the tower but there is an elevator that will take you. Nora who is afraid of heights decided to head back down towards solid group while Sam and I headed to the tip top. Once you get up there you really can see for what seems like forever. All around the top they have direction markets for all the countries in the world; of course we found Italy and the USA! What goes up most come down, and while that elevator ride was a little more gut wrenching than the way up, soon enough we were back down at the base. We got back on our tour buss to see more of the city. On our way to Notre Dame we saw Champs de Mars, and the Louvre. Standing outside Notre Dame Cathedral I couldn’t help but think of Quasi Moto and Esmerelda for the old Disney classic. The movie doesn’t do justice to the Cathedral. It is a huge and impressive structure. Everything about the church from the doors and the carvings to the stain glass is simply breathtaking. Unlike a lot of churches you can take pictures inside. Here are just a few of mine. Leaving Notre Dame we finished the buss route and landed up back at our hotel before heading out to dinner and to revisit the Eiffel Tower at night. If the tower wasn’t incredible enough during the day at night it is lit up with blue lights. On top of that every hour there is a five minute lights show where the whole thing sparkles against the Paris night sky. It was the perfect way to end our first day in Paris.

By the time we woke up on our last day we were VERY tired, and had only a few things left to do on our list. Since our hotel was near the red light district we figured we couldn’t leave Paris without checking out the famous Moulin Rouge. It was pretty easy to find with the famous windmill on top, but I’m glad we were looking for it in the daylight. It is not called the red light district for no reason. It was really funny seeing families posing for pictures right outside. We snapped a few photos and headed for the Louvre. Out of all the museums I have been to in my life I have to say this one is easily the best. It is no wonder people say you can spend multiple days inside. We didn’t have as much time as we wanted so we picked a few things to see. Of course we started with the Mona Lisa. I have to say that she was kind of a disappointment…sorry Mona. Because there are so many tourists trying to snap pictures you aren’t allowed to get anywhere close to the actual painting. I would say 15 feet at best. Don’t get me wrong I am really glad I can say I saw the real Mona Lisa but it was hard to appreciate the actual painting. After seeing Mona we spent some time in the Italian and Large French painting hall. Some of my favorites were The Raft of Medusa, by Gericault, and The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese. After leaving the paintings Nora and I set off to see the Apollo Gallery. It has mostly dining objects from the time period of Louis XV. At the end of the gallery are the coronation crowns of Louis and someone else I can’t remember. One of the crowns was covered in gems and had 262 diamonds alone! We also walked through the Egyptian and Greek hallways before finding ourselves in the Napoleon Apartments. I have to say this part of the Louvre was my favorite. I don’t know how they did it but it honestly looks like the museum was built right on top of the apartments. Grandeur and splendor only begin to describe the apartment. They are simply incredible; Napoleon was defiantly living the good life. After that we got lost for a little while before finding our way to our last stop at the Venus de Milo. Unfortunately, after that we had to head back, but I would have loved to spend a LOT more time there; one morning is just not enough.

We thought our adventures were coming to and end as we boarded the plane to Milan, but we were wrong. Long story short, we arrived at the Milan train station to find it closed! It was just after one when we got there and found out that we couldn’t get in until 4. Needless to say we were a little worried what we were going to do for about 3 hours. We started at McDonalds but they were technically closing at 1. We were able to sit there until just after 1:30. Once we had to leave we found a bar that was open until two, so the three of us each got a drink and hung out there till just after 2. At that point we were out of luck and had to head to the train station. We, being three girls alone at 2:30 in the morning didn’t really want to hang out with the homeless people outside the station so we found a nice little spot right next to the police SUV. We just sat and talked for a while. Eventually the police came out and talked to us, asked us what we were doing there and so on. They were really nice and they hung out with us for a while and told us if we wanted to be escorted into the station when it opened to just let them know. Just after 4 we headed inside and bought our tickets for home. Unfortunately the first train didn’t leave till 5:30 so we had some more waiting to do. By the time the train came I was so happy to finally be on it and headed home. Once we finally got back to Perugia I was excited to be back in my apartment!
Looking back over this week I cannot believe how many amazing things I was able to do. I feel truly blessed to have had this experience because it is unlike any other. Of course parts of it were frustrating, tiring, and wearisome, but on the whole I cannot imagine a more incredible week. Looking back through pictures I feel so proud of the three of us, setting out on our own across Europe, making it from place to place without the help of anyone else. We saw and did amazing things that some people will only ever get to dream about. I wish everyone could have an experience equal to this at some point.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Festival!

2008-10-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Perugia has turned into a circus! All week we watched as people set up stands and stages for the famous Eurochocolate festival. Overnight, Perugia went from being a quite small town to a town infested with tourists and chocolate. Eurochocolate was one of the reasons I decided to study in Perugia! I know it is sad to admit that I let my academics be influenced by food, but when you have the draw of the largest chocolate festival in Europe it is hard not to take that into account.Saturday morning we got up early to check out the first day of the festival. Even a half hour before it began the streets were already littered with people here for the festival. By 10:00 when the festival actually started the usual 5 minute walk from the main piazza to the smaller one easily took 20 minutes, and that’s only if you didn’t stop to drool over any of the stands. You could easily find anything and everything made out of, or dipped in chocolate. We spent most of our morning walking around and trying as many free samples as we could. While I didn’t buy any chocolate bars, truffles, or the usual suspects at the festival I did manage to have my fill of hot chocolate and chocolate churros! DELICIOUS!
As if my town turning into someplace fit for Willy Wonka wasn't great enough, it was also really nice to see a lot of Stonehill-ers who had come to visit from Florence and Rome. Here is a picture of Kristen and I after going though the Milka house!

If you want to see more about the festival just put Eurochocolate into Youtube and you can find more chocolate videos than you could imagine. I tried to upload a video but I cant figure it out!

Eurochocolate lasts all week but unfortunately I will be gone for most of it. It is our fall break, and as you know I have week crammed full of exciting travels—the suspense is almost over!

Midway Marker

2008-10-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

I have officially made it halfway. Today marks the end of midterms and the halfway point of my time here in Italy. It’s shocking, time really has moved pretty quickly. Last Thursday I had my first midterm and this Thursday I am finally finished! Being a history major I usually escape taking actual tests in lieu of writing papers. Not this term, five classes--five midterms. I can say that my classes here are very different than Stonehill. My days of discussions and interaction with the teacher are currently on hold. Classes are more structured as lectures and the assigned readings are really not a must, which I guess is nice. But I’m used to having a voice, being able to share my thoughts and opinions and engage in friendly debate while in class. Needless to say it has taken me a while to get used to this style of teaching. But now that we are halfway through the semester and I have finished midterms I feel good. I really don’t like tests, but none of my midterms were too horrible. I think I should pass them all with flying colors.

As this week winds downs I’m about to jet off to fabulous places, I know I’ve kept yall in suspense about where I’m headed over break but you’re going to have to wait just a little longer, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise right before I leave.

One thing I will share with you is an ongoing project I have undertaken since I arrived here. GELATO! I think you will be hard pressed to find anyone who loves ice cream as much as I do. I could and would eat it by the gallon if people would let me. Unfortunately Europe does not share the same love for ice cream, instead for them it is gelato. I decided that the best way to immerse myself in this part of the culture would be to try as many gelato flavors as possible before I leave. Now this is no easy undertaking as the flavors vary from stand to stand and place to place. There is no way to be sure just how many flavors there are actually to try. This of course also makes it hard to decide which to try each time…what if I never see the flavor again…worse yet, what if I don’t like it?!?! Of course I like to be prepared for dilemmas such as these so I devised a plan to make sure I cover an as many flavors as possible while still enjoying my favorites. Easy enough I just get a scoop of each, one new and one old favorite. I have to say half way through the semester I have tried quite the array of flavors. Of course there is chocolate (no need to even try vanilla) and surprisingly pistachio is an old faithful favorite as well. Then you have your more fruity sorbets of which lemon rains supreme, strawberry and the apple I tried in Cinque Terri follow close behind. Kiwi however should remain in unfrozen juice form! Not a favorite! Mixed fruit or fruit de bosco as the call it here is also only good if you don’t mind picking seeds out of your teeth for hours later. In my professional opinion, gelato is really about the thick and creamy flavors. Not just the tried and true basics, but tiramisu, vanilla with cherries, after eight (mint), strachinella (chocolate chip), caffe, caramel, and my favorite and shop specialty—Crème de Grom!! I first discovered Grom while visiting Florence. Kristen and Kait along with their roommates told us about the best gelato place in Florence, called Grom. The first time we visited they told me about Crème de Grom. The best way to describe this incredible flavor is as chocolate chip cookies goodness. They told me the only place I could get it was there in Florence so I am not proud to say I probably tried it at least 4 times during the weekend. Upon returning to Perugia I was telling a friend about the amazing flavor discovery and Grom. She smiled and told me that there was a Grom right here in Perugia! Needless to say I was ecstatic. As if that wasn’t good enough Grom in Perugia is cheaper than in Florence so I don’t even feel bad getting a coppa medio!
Needless to say as this week of midterm’s winds down Grom and I have become even closer than before and my list of flavors left to try and shrunk dramatically. Although as the weather continually gets colder I know my days of gelato are numbered…at least there is still hot cocoa to look forward to!
Ciao!

Venice

2008-10-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

I know that when I usually sit down to catch yall up on my semester I always start with what has been going on during my week, keeping you in suspense about my weekend travels till the end. Well not this week, I am too excited to wait till the end to tell you about my weekend in Venice!! What most of you don’t know is that for as long as I can remember I have always wanted to go to Venice! It was a city that just captured me and finally this weekend my dreams of visiting the sinking city came true! We saw everything, ate everything, and did everything Venice is famous for from St. Mark’s Square and Basilica, to seafood, Tiramisu, Bellini’s, and Gondola rides and Murano glass I could die tomorrow happy.

The city is truly amazing. From Mestre, which is the last town on the mainland, the train takes your right over the water into the main station in Venice. When you step out of the train station its like you walked into another world. The Grand Canal is right in front of you, there are gondolier waiting to give you rides, bridges and thousands of people enjoying this fairytale place. We took a vaporetto, or water taxi down to the Rialto near where we were staying. After checking into our hotel we set off to explore the city. Our hotel was not far from St. Mark’s Square so we started there. As all the guide books warned it is not only swarming with tourists but with pigeons! New York has nothing on the thousands of pigeons here. They are not in the least bothered or scared of all the people. They will eat right out of your hand and if you stay still will land right on you. Even though it is good luck to get pooped on by a pigeon in the square that was not on my list of things to do while in Venice so we headed off to see what else we could find. What we really did was get lost in the city, every guide book tells you to find a good map but expect to get lost. Well we did both and it was great, the streets wind around until you have no idea where you are, how you got there or how to get back. Eventually we found this little Italian restraint right off one of the smaller canals and decided to have a nice sit down dinner. I had spaghetti with clams in white wine sauce, as was recommended to me by my Foods teacher. It was probably some of the best food I have had since I’ve been here. We all still had a little room left for desert so we decided to split some Venice famous Tiramisu which also happened to be extremely delicious. With our bellies full we continued our walk of the city. After a second desert of gelato we called it a night and looked forward to the morning.

Saturday we got up early to avoid some of the lines at St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace. Thankfully tourist season is winding down so the lines were not that terrible. All the churches I have visited are absolutely stunning, I’m not sure how anyone pays attention in mass…I would spend the whole time staring at the ceilings. St. Mark’s is no different; the ceiling is incrusted with golden mosaics depicting Venice history, the winged lion, the mascot, if you will, of Venice and the symbol of St. Mark’s Gospel. The Basilica is connected to the Doge’s Palace so we naturally headed there next. I have to say that I would LOVE to live there. Of course now days it is strictly a museum, I’m not even positive if there is still a Doge. I would think not as he was really only a figure head of the state, rather than having any real powers. Like I said, the place is beautiful; room after room is gilded with gold, decorated with incredible paintings and each is bigger than the last. I don’t know how many rooms we saw but we did spend more than two hours exploring the palace. By the time we finished we needed food, and some time to shop! We managed to both without any problem. We headed to the famous Rialto Bridge and Rialto Market. Even with tourist season being all but over the place was PACKED. I’m not even sure what all you could buy because there were just too many people to make me want to do any real shopping…such a shame! Don’t worry I checked another thing off my list with some Murano glass purchases from smaller little shops away from the touristy area. We had decided the day before that we were going to have a light dinner, so we could enjoy pastry and wine on a night gondola ride. Usually it is really expensive to ride in a gondola but the night before the gondoliers were willing to barter with us. We got really luck and for 70 euros a boat the group of 9 of us took an evening ride. Our gondolier clad in the traditional navy and white stripes sang to us everything from traditional Italian songs to his own renditions of the Final Count Down and Yankee Doodle. Those 30 minutes were some of my favorite! We were tired but we still had one last thing to check off our list. Bellini’s! I didn’t know until recently that Venice is famous for this drink. But as the saying goes… when in Rome, we figured it only made sense that when in Venice we should give them a try. Believe it or not we land up at an Irish pub near our hostel that just happened to serve the famous drink. Even the Irish owner seemed to know what he was doing because it was delicious! After the soundtrack to Mama Mia came on for the 3rd time we decided it was time to call it a night and head to our hotel.

Sunday was really just a travel day. It takes about 6 hours to get from Perugia to Venice by train. Travel days are my least favorite. I love coming back to Perugia, to my apartment, but it also always means I’m tired, and have homework to do! Each weekend goes by in a world wind, one amazing place today, another next week. Midterms are coming up soon which is unbelievable in and of itself, but every time I take a minute to think I cannot believe where I have been and what I have seen already. Last week we celebrated Sam’s half birthday. None of the four roommates get to celebrate their birthdays while we are here so we decided half birthdays are just as good; I get my three-quarters birthday because my half has already passed. Of course this meant birthday crowns, party dresses, and a birthday dinner to round out the evening before heading to our favorite bar to hang out with friends for the night…I do love Tuesdays! Happy Half Birthday SAM!
This Tuesday we were not celebrating birthdays but I was just as excited to finally meet my Italian family. I don’t know if you remember but I had applied to be part of a project called ‘la famiglia.’ Well I found out a few weeks ago that I had been selected for this project but has still not gotten to meet my family. My anxious wait finally came to and end! I have to say our (I have a partner named Angie) first meeting with the family went great. We met Catarina at her nail salon and walked home with her. We had dinner and landed up talking about all sorts of things for hours—she speaks English! J When we realized it was already 11:00 we had to excuse ourselves and head home. I can’t wait to go back next week. Catarina’s mom will be visiting; she speaks very little English so my Italian will have to be put to use!
I’m sure that just like many of you, I’m headed into midterm’s week. Good luck to all of you, keep your fingers crossed for me!
Ciao!

When in Rome!

2008-09-30T02:02:00.001-07:00

Well hello again to all my faithful readers, and welcome to everyone who has just joined me on my abroad experience. As I sit down to write this week on that which has just passed I don’t know where to begin. I guess it should be where I left off and usually start; the beginning of the week. My time in Italy is becoming just another day in the life of a student who happens to be in one of the most amazing places. This week I broke out of my routine of classes, eating, homework and hanging out to experience one of the things Italy is famous for….CHEESE! I along with my three other roommates joined other students for a night of cheese indulgence. It was bellisimo! Apart from Asiago, which I already eat on a regular basis I have a new favorite in Pecorino Fresco. I am told that I can use it to make macaroni and cheese, which I foresee an attempt at in the near future; some things I just can’t leave behind.

This week I also found out that I was chosen to participate in the experiential learning project “la Familia” for one of my classes. Each week I will get to spend a few hours with a family, learning while living like they do. I am very excited and anxious to start! I am also working on my first paper here in Italy….I’m sure some of you might be worried I’m not working hard over here with all my adventures. Don’t worry I am! I do have to say that I miss being able to sit down in a library like at Stonehill and have everything I need or could possibly want at my fingertips. But since that is really my only complaint so far I feel like I can’t really complain.

So that’s the weekly recap…here comes the weekend which was simply beyond words. Friday morning Sam and I headed to Rome! Being in Rome is almost like an out of body experience, and while I say that words can’t even begin to describe I will try my best. Stepping out of the Roma train terminal is like walking out into a living museum. If I could have, I would have taken a picture after every step I took. After meeting up with my friend and fellow Stonehill-er Matt we headed out to some of the major sites. We saw Piazza Navona, Campiodglio and another one I can’t remember the name of. We wandered around inside the Patheonon, threw change into the Trevi Fountain, sat on the Spanish Steps, saw the Forum, Colosseum, and the Arch of Constantine. Needless to say it was a very busy day! Each thing we saw was just as amazing as the one before it.

Saturday Sam and I had two main objectives: shopping (I know I know, every week) and the Catacombs. Well shopping we managed with no problems. We even managed to make some stops back at some of the sites from the day before. The Catacombs were another story…more like an adventure by themselves. Let’s just say after over an hour on the right buss going the wrong way we made it to the bottom of the street we needed. Unfortunately we needed to be 283 numbers down the street. So after we walked, and walked, asked for directions, and walked some more; God’s humor opened the sky above us and the rain fell, we got wet, and then we gave up! I’m starting to think that things like this are just inevitable from time to time. At least I got to see parts of Rome I never had imagined! Our journey brought us back to St. Paul’s Basilica so we decided to check it out as to not make it a totally wasted trip. It definitely made it worth it. The church in a word is stunning, big and beautiful.

Unlike Saturday, Sunday went off without any buss troubles. We lucked out that all of Vatican City is free on the last Sunday of each month which means we saved lots of money on the museums, but the lines were extra long. When we crossed the boarder out of Italy and into the Vatican we headed straight to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, and waited in line for forever. It was absolutely worth it. The Vatican Museum is one of the most beautiful and incredible places I have been. By the time you get to the Sistine Chapel and look up it is just overwhelming. I could not even begin to fathom that I was actually there, standing right under one of the most famous ceilings in the world; it did not disappoint. I have no idea how much time we spent looking at the ceiling, and even after we left the awe still lingered. You can’t take pictures inside, and even if I had I’m sure they would not have come close to doing it justice. We headed to St. Peters right after and hardly had to wait in line to get in! It had a lot to measure up to following the Sistine Chapel but it was incredible as well. First off it is HUGE, and it is gorgeous. As with so many things in Rome words can’t begin to describe. The best I can do is to leave you with some pictures.

I’ll leave you with my list of When in Rome:
- Do not get on the right buss going the wrong way, you will get there but it will take a while
- Buy a good map
- Paying for buss tickets is not necessary, getting of the buss when the men in blue get on is.
- Excessive PDA is acceptable for people of all ages; however staring at those engaged in it is not
- Cross the boarder and go to Vatican City
- Eat the Pizza
- Take too many pictures
- Take it all in

David!

2008-09-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

Ciao bellas e bellos!

I feel like I write this every time I sit down to write a blog but WOW did this week go by fast. It is nice to have finally settled in and established into some type of regular routine: Class, computer time, back home for a break/nap/lunch, classes, homework, dinner, out to enjoy the evening. Even without readily accessible internet, or television I seem to find plenty to keep myself occupied. Now that classes are in full swing, we finished our first full week of classes Thursday, I have an idea of the work load I have this semester. While it is not as packed as my semesters at Stonehill I know it will keep me busy. While I love traveling on the weekends it is definitely not the most conducive to studying. Although I did manage to get some work done on the trains this weekend…mom and dad are you proud? It is just really nice to have finally settled into my life here in Italy.

I’m sure you are glad I had a great week but I’m thinking I should also share with you my amazing weekend. Any guesses? Well if you were thinking FLORENCE you got it right, and it might also mean we are facebook friends and you read my status Thursday when I left. One thing that is so great about so many study abroad programs is that they give you Fridays off from classes so you have more time to travel. This being the case my roommate Chelsea and I left after classes Thursday and caught a late train into Florence. Lucky for us, my friends Kristen Clark and Kait Mendall are studying in Florence this semester and let us stay on their pull out sofa. I do have to say that their apartment is WAY nicer than mine, it’s right on the Ponte Vecchio! but I’m only slightly bitter ;-) Florence was great but I am glad I live here in Perugia. First of all there are hoards of tourists everywhere! While I realize I myself am a tourist, it is rather annoying when there are millions of people everywhere all the time. Everything is a little more expensive and a little dirtier than here in Perugia. Of course I’m not saying that I had a bad time, it was GREAT! On the Friday morning after we arrived it was raining so we decided to hit the museums. We got up and got inline to see David (Michelangelo’s famous work if anyone is wondering). He is big and beautiful, as is the rest of the Galleria dell’ Academia. We also did a walk-by of Dante’s house and church. We also visited Santa Croce church, it’s beautiful inside and out and holds the tombs of Galileo, Dante, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. We wrapped up out sight seeing for the day at St. Johns Baptistery. When you fist walk in it seems rather plain and simple and then you look up. The ceiling is ABSOLUTELY beautiful. Having a busy morning inside museums and hotels we decided it would be a good idea to take a break and hit the market.
Saturday morning was sunny and beautiful so we decided it was the perfect day to check out the Duomo. Now you can just go in and have a look around, OR you can walk up and down about 500 stairs all the way to the top of the dome. So far I would say this is my favorite thing I have done. The frescos are beautiful beyond words, and the views from the outside the top of the dome are breathtaking. Since we had gotten to the Duomo before it was actually open, we had some free time to just wander the streets of Florence. We saw the Uffizi Gallery, one of the three fake David’s (not nearly as cool) and the Loggia Dei Lanzi (an outdoor sculpture gallery). Once again after a busy morning we headed back to the market, where I spent too much money, but what can you do when you’re in one of the best leather markets in the world? By the end of the day my feet were so sore that we decided to have a nice relaxing evening inside, although we did make our way out to the pub for one birthday drink, HAPPY 20th Kristen! Bulmers Cider Beer is now officially my favorite.

We didn’t have a train till late Sunday so we took advantage of our relatively free day by walking up to Piazzale Michelangelo. It is one of the most popular spots in Florence because of the views. It’s set further outside the main city and sits on top of a hill. You have to make the treck up to see some beautiful scenic views of the whole city. I also really liked being able to see out into the Tuscany countryside away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We ended our sightseeing with a stop at Palazzo Pitti. Inside there are a ton of museums and the Giardino di Boboli (public gardens). Don’t be fooled by the name like we were, the gardens and everything at Palazzo Pitti is kinda expensive so we passed and just enjoyed the architecture. We spent the rest of the day just milling around. There are a lot of cool places, shops, and sites you can find by allowing yourself to just wander. Somewhere in our wanderings we landed up back on the Ponte Vecchio doing a little gold shopping. It’s a world famous spot for quality gold and I have to say someone is getting a very nice Christmas present! This is a picure of me taking a break on the Ponte Vecchio.
By the time we picked up our stuff from my friends apartment we were broke, tired and ready to go home! I’m happy to report that as our train pulled into the Perugia station Sunday night we had successfully made it there and back without getting on a single wrong train!
The weather has finally cooled off and I’m ready to start another week!
Ciao!

We were never off track!

2008-09-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

Week two went by almost as fast as the first one. We finished up our week of intensive Italian on Tuesday and started regular classes Wednesday. From the two days of classes I’ve had so far I think I am really going to enjoy this semester. As some of you may know I am a history major and am getting a few of my last requirements out of the way. I know it’s early, but so far I think my class on the Roman Empire will be one of my favorites. For my class on Contemporary Italy we not only get to learn about Italy from unification in the later part of the 1800s, I also have the possibility of getting an Italian family. If I get picked for this alternative track I will be assigned a family that I get to hang out with once a week or so for about 6-8 weeks to really learn about life in Italy today. I think it would be a really neat experience, but I just have to wait and see. I am also really excited about my history of food and culture class…on the first day I already learned that spaghetti, something most consider typically Italian is actually not at all. Noodles originated in China whereas tomatoes are from North America, the Italians just happened to put the two together. The only class I’m nervous about is Archeology, it seems interesting but I still haven’t decided if I like it yet. Most important I can’t wait for all my field trips…those were always my favorite part of classes when I was younger.
Of course I am here to study but everyone knows one of the perks of studying abroad is traveling! In my last post I left you hanging about where I was headed this past weekend so I hope you are excited…..drum roll please! This past Friday I headed to Cinque Terri with four other girls. It is actually made up of five towns that are all connected along the west coast. It is absolutely beautiful but getting there was quite the adventure!! We had originally planned on leaving early Saturday morning but Thursday afternoon we found out there was going to be a train strike in Florence and that no trains would be running though that area Saturday. So after a brief panic we booked an extra night at the hostel we were staying at and jumped on the train after getting our permission to stay documentation Friday morning.
Now I had a whole class on using the trains in Italian so I thought we were all set. Here is Chealsea and i ready to go!

We bought our tickets and got on the train, and then another, and then another, and then the wrong one, and then the wrong one again, and then we got kick off, and then we were on the right one and then got off only to figure out it was the right one as it pulled out the station. Needless to say our supposed 5 hour train ride lasted about 8 but we DID make it! By the time we made it in we were pretty tired so we had a nice bite to eat, walked around a little and headed to bed. It was a good decision to say the least as we were determined to complete the famous 5 hour hike of the five towns Saturday. The hike was long, really long but absolutely worth it! I could not even begin to describe how beautiful the hike is and since a picture is worth a thousand words you can just have a look for yourself. Sorry there is not more, italian internet is rather slow with uploading!Thats just one of the towns and some of the coastline!
You might be able to tell that it was a little rainy when we left at 10:30 but by the time we made it to Monterosso, the last town around 4 the sun was out and we enjoyed some much needed and deserved beach time. The actual sandy part of the beach isn’t very big, and so when the tide came in we enjoyed the rest of the town and a really good dinner. We decided taking the train back to Riomaggiore, where we were staying, was the best idea at only 2 Euro. We also thought that after the day before we had finally figured out the trains, we were wrong! Needless to say we got on a train that flew past our stop, thankfully it did stop in La Speiza which is the town right after the five towns of Cinque Terri. We hopped off there and managed to get on the RIGHT train back to Riomaggiore. We saw that sign so many times it is permanently ingrained in my brain. By the time we made it back to our hostel we showered and went out down to the water for just a little bit. There are not beaches in any of the five towns except Monterosso but there still are beautiful places to sit and just lookout over the Mediterranean. We were gonna go to bed early but when we went back to our little apartment we somehow managed to break the key in the door! Thankfully we were able to reach the owners who landed up having to climb through the window to let us in we all went to sleep! By the time Sunday morning rolled around we were all well rested and ready to head home. I had my 3rd hot chocolate of the weekend…they are incredible, and we spent the rest of the morning down on the water. We did manage to make it all the way home without getting on the wrong train! All in all it was a good week and a great weekend.

Here are some things I learned:
* Ask for a train itinerary…the cities printed on your ticket mean nothing.
* Always bring a raincoat/ jacket….Italian weather is tempermental
* Do not break your room keys in the door, it causes unplanned evening activities
* Italian hot cocoa is heaven in a cup

Hope your week was as great as mine…any guesses where I’m headed next?

Week one and done!

2008-09-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

Well my first week in Italy is already over! Some parts of the week flew by while others seemed much longer. I think it will still be a while before I feel completely comfortable here, its hard not to miss everyone back home and wonder what else is going on in the world from which you are currently removed. But on that note I would like to say this week has been pretty awesome! Intensive Italian has been just that INTENSE, and I still have two days left before our regular classes start. I don’t think I have ever been so excited for the start of classes before, but I really am looking forward to all of mine. On the upside I think I am at least starting to pick up on the language. At least now I can order gelato, ask to buy a train ticket, and how much things cost. Understanding what they say back is still a work in progress.

This week I did however; manage to successfully complete my first venture out of Perugia. We got out of class early on Friday so myself and a few of my friends headed to Assisi, which is right across the valley from Perugia. Both towns are built into and up opposing sides of hills and back in the middle ages Perugia and Assisi were constantly at war with one another. (Im not sure why though—my Italian isn’t good enough for me to understand everything there is to read) Anyways it was a great first trip. We made it there and back without any major catastrophes. Although we did almost get on the wrong train and lost a girl to illness and got lost. Don’t worry she is better now! To get to Assisi you take a 30 min train ride to the bottom of Assisi, then you have to take a bus up the hill, or if you’r crazy enough you could walk. We took the buss most of the way up but got off at the Basilica of San Francis. For those of you who don’t know St. Francis is the founding father of a Catholic order called the Franciscans. St. Francis himself was the son of a wealthy textile merchant who gave away all his possessions and to follow his calling. He is one of the most important and well known saints in the Catholic Church and the basilica commemorates a lot of his work. The inside is absolutely beautiful but you can’t take pictures inside but I did take a few good ones outside.

After our stop at the basilica we headed up to the tip top of Assisi where there is the old castle. I do have to admit that we got somewhat lost before finding our way up but the views at the top were defiantly worth it. We spent the rest of the day making our way down toward the buss stop and poking in and out of some of all the other churches.

The castle we hiked all the way up to!

A small chaple off the main piazza

Views from the top of the castle

On the way back down

Although we were exhausted from hiking in Assisi we got up bright and early to head out and explore Perugia. Even though I have already been here a week I felt like there was a lot of the city I hadn’t seen and I was right! Perugia has a mini metro (outdoor elevator on a track is the best way to describe it) that takes you up and down the hills of Perugia. Every Saturday there is a BIG market at the very bottom of Perugia so we checked it out. You can find almost anything you are looking for at the market for a pretty good price. I brought home some great looking vegetables and dried fruit. Once we dropped off our purchases we walked all over the city taking pictures, checking out the shops, little grocery stores and stuff like that. It was a lot of fun and I got a lot of great pictures! We spent the night in true Italian style sitting on the stairs of the main Piazza and people watching. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our day.

The foutain in the piazza de novembre

View of the Perugia country side

More views

Out by the market

Views off the far wall

Sunday wrapped up the last part of our orientation here in Italy for the semester. We headed out into the countryside to learn more about the people and culture. We got lessons on local Italian agriculure, past making, our program and delicious breakfast and lunch. It has been a busy week but I'm already looking foward to the next...wait till you find out where I'm headed!

First days in Italy!

2008-09-03T04:22:00.001-07:00

So I am moved into my apartment! I have finished the first part of orientation, and started my week of intensive Italian! And I just have to say to anyone thinking of being a language major...your brave! I now remember why I was soo excited when I finished my year of language at Stonehill. Four hours of Italian in the morning just makes my head cave in. At least we only have intensive for one week. Then we just have regular one hours class each morning. Ill get back to that in a second.

Anyways here are a few things to cover to catch you up on my Italian adventure. Fist off we moved into our apartments Monday (9/1) and it is great. Take a look around for yourself but I think its pretty cute and cozy. Sam and I are sharing a room and our roommates Chelsea and Lizzy, from Denison University in Ohio, are sharing the other bedroom. We also have a little kitchen, a living room and a bathroom. We don’t have air conditioning but it should be cooling off here soon. On the plus side we do have a washing machine, so at least I wont be hiking up and down the hills to do wash!

Welcome to Via della Cupa 7!

Our little bitty bathroom

Our tiny kitchen that we have yet to cook in

Sam and my room--my bed is in the other corner

View out my window

So I know I mentioned our week of intensive Italian earlier so let me fill you in on that. ITS HARD! But I am learning. During this week of intensive Italian our afternoon session is called “survival Italian.” Each day we have a new topic to help us make our way around. Today’s topic was bars. Now don’t get too excited, here in Italy coffee shops are called bars. Most of them are privately owned so each one is slightly different. So today I learned how to order all different sorts of coffees or caffe, gelato, pastas (pastries) and other things. We also got to try lots of samples!! ;-) YUM! I dont know whats planned for the new few days, we will just have to see.

Yesterday (9/3) the girls from Stonehill went out for a really nice dinner. Here in Italy people don’t typically eat dinner till much later. Appritivios, or what we consider appetizers are usually eaten around 7 and then people will eat sometime around 9. We compromised and ate around 8 to save a little on the pocketbook. The outdoor cafe we picked was delicioso! Here are some picts of us enjoying our relaxing dinner.

Good news too! I have tentatively planned travel for the semester!!! Before I come back to the states I hope to visit lots of spots in Italy, but also Germany, Paris, Barcelona, Ireland, Greece, Switzerland, and wherever else I can fit in! But you will have to check back for more on my travels.

Arrivederci!

Im leaving on a Jet Plane

2008-09-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

So im finally here! After flights from Dallas to Chicago, Chicago to Zurich, Zurich to Rome and a couple hour buss ride I am finally in Perugia! And as excited as I am to be here I do have to say it is weird not being back at the hill with everyone. Im sure everyone there is having a great time! My time back home was great but very busy with lots of errands to run but I did manage to see some of my friends who hadn’t left for school yet eat at a lot of my favorite spots. Speaking of which, anytime I’m back home I overload on Mexican food! I love Massachusetts but I don’t love the Mexican food, I just really feel like nothing beats good ol’ Tex-Mex. So on my last day at home mom and I headed to Campo Verde for one last Mexican food fix. Now I have to share that growing up Campo Verde was my favorite restaurant not only because of the most amazing chips and queso you get for free but because it is quite possibly one of the tackiest decorated restaurants you can ever see. They have scrap metal mariachis on the roof of the building and once you get inside it looks like Christmas lights exploded everywhere but the food is YUMMY! So if your ever visiting Arlington Texas its defiantly worth a stop.

Check out the mariachis!!

SOOO good!

Anyways back to Perugia after all I did make it all the way across the ocean…so after arriving at the airport we were met by Umbra staff who made sure we all made it on to the right busses. This first night we are staying at Hotel Gio, tomorrow (Monday) we will move into our apartments in the morning. But tonight after everyone was settled into their rooms we had a nice welcome dinner with everyone participating in the program.
I know I have only been in Italy for a few hours but, as I sit here writing this on my hotel room floor I have already noticed quite a few difference. First well the internet that we are so used to being readily accessible is somewhat of a scavenger hunt to find. It will be an interesting 3 months without daily facebook and email checks (but don’t stop sending me messages, I still love those!) Another difference that is hard to miss is European bathrooms. Sam and I already had an interesting experience trying to figure out how to work the shower. Now I know all showers are slightly different but usually a brain power and you can figure them out. Well let’s just say it took Sam and myself more than a few minutes to figure this one out. On top of that it’s not ever a real shower. It’s basically a showerhead on a hose in a bathtub…hopefully we won’t flood the bathroom to many times this semester.

Sam's and my room at Hotel Gio

So that’s all that for now, time to finish settling and getting ready for the start of orientation tomorrow. I’ll follow up later in the week with new on my apartment, and orientation!

Home sweet home

2008-08-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

I cannot even begin to tell you how busy I have been! I thought I was really on top of things as I went into my last week at work and at Stonehill but I couldn't have been more wrong. But before I jump into that let me recap...I had a week off to pack and get ready to go and I spent most of that week in Rhode Island getting ready to go, but then I came back to school to work for one more week before heading home. That week flew by so fast and before I knew it my car was packed with the last remenants of my room and I was on the road headed to Rhode Island for one last weekend. I had some last minute packing and unpacking and repacking to do but my friend Kacie and I had a pretty busy weekend celebrating her 20th birthday!

As soon as I got to their house friday night I got all dressed up to go out to Foxwoods. We went to see a Cirque de Soleil show called Cirque Dreams Pandemonia. The show was absolutely amazing, and of course it is always fun to get to dress up. Here are some pictures of us before the show and after with some of the actors.

After the show Kacie wanted to go to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, and since we were celebrating he birthday we headed over there. While the food was good my favorite part is when the waitresses embarras the birthday girl...but you do get a free dessert so it was obviously worth it.

Kacie with her birthday brownie fudge sunday...SOOO good! :-)

Just because we celebrated Kacie's birthday Friday night doesnt mean we were all done celebrating. Saturday night we had plans to head into providence to eat at Fire & Ice and then head down to water fire. I love Fire & Ice cause you get to pick whatever you want from a huge buffet and then there are cooks who cook everything together. It's quite Yummy!

Me, Kacie and Mike, Kacie's boyfriend waiting for our table.

After dinner we walk along the water to see the waterfires.

As if we had not had a bussy weekend already I finished up packing Sunday morning so I could spend the afternoon in Newport with Kacie and our friend Christy. We all wanted to get chowder from our favorite resturant the Black Pearl right on the Harbor before I headed home and they went back to school. We had such a nice afternoon it was the perfect way to end my first New England summer.

Monday Morning we woke up wicked early so I could catch my 8:30 flight out of Boston. Since then I've been home just relaxing and running lots of errands to finish getting ready to go...10 days!

Enjoy your last days of summer!

Countdown: 20 Days!

2008-08-11T20:37:00.001-07:00

So my days here in Mass are becoming numbered. I just started my last week working for the admissions office yesterday after my week off to get ready to go. It was a really busy week but also a lot of fun. I got to go see State Radio with my boyfriend, his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. I haven’t been to many concerts and I didn’t know a lot of songs by the band but it was a lot of fun even though it was a rainy day. The rest of the weekend I just relaxed and worried about getting my visa Monday. You may not know that you have to get a Visa to study abroad and this has been by far the most stressful part of getting ready to go abroad. Of course I had to add extra problems to the mix because I am supposed to get my Visa in Texas because that is where I am a permanent resident. As you know I have been living on campus this summer so that was no way that was gonna happen. So I hoped and prayed that I wouldn’t have any problem when I went to go get it. After about an hour of waiting in this tiny jail-cell-esk room my name was finally called. While the guy did make fun of me about being from Texas five minutes later I was all set. I still have to go back this week to actually pick up my Visa but its definitely nice knowing that it is finally all taken care of.

I spent the majority of the rest of the week in Rhode Island with my friend and her family packing and unpacking stuff from my room here at school. I am proud to report that with a few minor exceptions I am almost entirely packed and ready to go to Italy. I did somehow manage to fit everything I think I need into to suitcases…I actually have some room to spare! (Thats me with everything...2 big suitcases, 1 carry on and 1 personal item! ) I’m sure it will be full by the time I come home. While all the packing was making me really excited about going to Italy I also had to say goodbye to my boyfriend this weekend. I got to spend the weekend with him down on the Cape where his family has a house. Being down there is always a lot of fun and relaxing…plus I got to work on my tan for just a little longer. But Sunday when I came back to school I had to say my first real goodbye. As much as I’m looking forward to being in Italy I am not excited for more goodbyes—they really suck!

*only 20 days but whose counting ;-)

The Countdown Begins-31 Days!

2008-07-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Packing my life into two suitcases is proving to be more challenging than I originally thought! I'm used to going back and forth between home and school so I thought I had gotten pretty good at this whole packing thing but I'm quickly finding out that I'm wrong. I don't know what it is about packing that is so daunting but anytime I start I just get overwhelmed! So far I have only got through preliminary packing of my fall/winter clothes, I've resorted to just leaving the rest strew across my room for now. I still have two and a half weeks till I actually go back home to Texas; I keep telling myself that's plenty of time to finish everything I need to do.

This past weekend I took a break from packing to spend some time with my friends who are finishing up their summers here on campus. My friends who were doing the SURE program, our summer undergrad research experience wrapped up their final week this Friday. To celebrate our friend Patrick, who is interning for the summer with Pumel in NY, came down and we all hung out till the the wee hours of the morning. It's weird knowing that I wont see many of them again till spring semester! Here are some pictures of our night!

This is us on the way to pick up our friend Patrick at the T stop....we didnt really leave room for him in the car..oops!This is Patrick, Sam, and Pat once we got back to Stonehill.

On Saturday afternoon my friend Steff had a BBQ at her house, which was great because I also got to see some of my friends I haven't seen since school got out. The rest of the weekend I spent in New Hampshire. My boyfriends, brother's, girlfriend's family (did you follow that??) has a house up on Silver Lake. I had never been to NH before and it was absolutely beautiful. It was such a relaxing and fun weekend! Getting back to school on Monday came as a reality check of how much I still have to do! While I'm still not even close to being ready to leave, the Umbra-Institute is almost ready for us to arrive. We got our pre-departure handbooks the other day. It is pages and pages of info we need to know before we go like different clubs and activities at Umbra, info on housing, safety info and all sorts of other things we will experience during our time in Perugia! Everyone I'll be spending my semester with arrives in Rome on the 31st of August. From there we take a buss to Perugia and spend the first night meeting everyone over a welcome dinner. The next day we move into our apartments and start our three days of orientation! After that we have a week of intensive Italian before the rest of our classes start, hopefully I'll be speaking Italian in no time. Once regular classes start I'm also taking a History of the Roman Empire class, one on contemporary Italy, a food and culture class, archeology, and Italian. Enjoy the last few weeks of your summer!

Ciao!

2008-07-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone thanks for stopping by! My name is Sarah Morales I am getting ready to start my junior year here at Stonehill. It is actually pretty scary knowing I only have four semesters of college left! I love being here today as much as I did the day I visited during my senior year. Stonehill has really become my home away from home…sorry mom and dad! The community here has given me the opportunity to do a lot of different things here on campus. This past year I became a resident assistant which was a roller coaster of fun exciting times and a bit of sheer craziness. This year I also tried my hand at intramural beach volleyball. I played back in my junior high days and wasn’t so bad, but let me tell you that unlike riding a bike it doesn’t just come back to ya. In all honesty I spent a lot more time as a cheerleader than actually playing but it was still a lot of fun. This year I got a taste of traveling abroad when I traveled to Peru as part of our HOPE alternative spring break program. And of course I love being a student ambassador and showing perspective students around campus, I’m sorry I won’t be there this semester to meet a lot of you.

So are you wondering where I am gonna be this semester? I will be studying in Perugia, Italy and hopefully traveling all over Europe! Words cannot describe how excited I am especially because I’m going with, and rooming with one of my friends Sam Ennis. This is us down in Rhode Island a little while ago rocking our Stonehill gear.
If you ask anyone on campus we are pretty much inseparable twins I couldn’t imagine going without her. She keeps reminding me how few days we have until we leave—just over a month. It finally just hit me the other day that I will be missing out on some of my favorite Stonehill activities like Welcome Back Weekend, Mr. Stonehill, the first snow and all that other college stuff you can’t help but love. That’s not to say I’m not wicked excited about Italy!

For those of you who may never have heard of Perugia, it is right in the heart of the country. It is known for being a typical Italian town right in the mountains. I stole some pictures off the school's website so you could check out some of the views!
Not to bad right?!? While I'm at the Umbra-Institute I'll be studying history, food, and of course Italian since I don’t really speak any so well will have to see how that goes. I do know one key phrase though...non capisco!--I don’t understand!