2 Days 4 Amazing Cities

Where to begin? This week has been so amazing, apart from school of course lol Finally learning my way around Florence. Basically find a point where you can always find and go from there. For me it is the lovely Duomo. I can't believe we have only been here for a week, it feels like months already!

Friday was the big "school field trip" to Siena and San Gigigano. Let me tell you, clearly I get motion sickness in cars and we were on the bus forever trying to go to Siena. Not only was it 8am in the morning, but being sick the whole ride was NOT fun. But we finally go to the beautiful Siena and after a 10 min walk found our tour guide. She was very infomative lol uum we really had to listen to her to understand what she was saying and half of it kinda bored me but it was still interesting! First we went to the Siena cathedral which was beautiful( not as beautiful as the cathedrals in Florence lol ) and we basically got to tour all the museums in Siena. It was kinda funny how Florence dominated Siena in wars and sports (they seem a lil bitter) kinda reminded me of kstate but thats another subject lol. But the scenery of Siena and just the city overall was gorgeous. I loved Siena so much and the group had a lot of fun. you see 18 ppl in a group taking pictures of simple things like streets. Sooo "American" and "touristy" but who cares. Never know when we will get the opportunity to come back. But after the very very long tour we all went to eat and me and some friends went to this little restaurant right by the government museum because we were dying for some pasta! Overall it was ok, not the best. I have not been blown away by Itailian food yet, maybe we're just going to all the wrong places...idk. But after that ok dinner we went and got some Gelato! Mine was hella bomb and the lady packed it on..so here we have Le in 30 degree weather tearing up some Gelato..and it was worth it :)

Next City is San Gigigano! We were all tired from Siena and really did not want to go to this city, but when we approached it...I mean breath taking! I believe there are a total of 76 towers left and only 13 remain and this city had such an Medieval feeling to it. The Tuscany scenery was AMAZING words cannot express how beautiful it was to see the mountains over lay the town and just...WHOOOoooo lol. Beautiful is what I have to say. I loved this city soo much and cannot wait to go back

Saturday was fun day for Pisa and Lucca! At first my roommates were wanting to go earlier and kinda split up from the group, but I wanted to stick together with everyone. So I asked some friends who will remain nameless lol to meet me somewhere so I wouldnt have to walk to the train station by myself. So i was about 10 mins late and soon as i got there, there were no where to be found. I guess they waited 5 mins and left...LAMES but I was really happy my roommates decided to come with me. So we get to the train station and I can honestly say they are really confusing at first to understand the times..so basically we missed the first train and had to get on another one. Missing the group. First stop was Pisa. You can basically walk the whole city in 15-20 mins. The city was nice though, only went there to see the leaning tower of Pisa. And the funny thing is this mug is really leaning to the side!!! I know back in the day they were PISSED lol. but it was amazing..took many photos of me trying to hold the tower back up lol. The weather was perfect, bonding with the roommates wasnt as bad either lol. So leaving Pisa, next was Lucca! I can honestly say this has been the best city I have ever been to so far. I could go on about how beautiful and fabulous the town is but that would only be 1/8th of how to explain this city. And the people there were soo high fashioned! it was great lol I took a risk and went to a pastry shop to try some treats. Dont really remember what it was called but i bit into something and cream bust in my mouth. For ppl who know me, know i hate cream filled anything! Just the feeling in my mouth is digusting to me. So i basically died when that happened but played it off very well! LOL It was crazy how they have like outside garage sells selling antiques and some really interesting things. I wasnt too fasinated in others ppls junk but my roommates were.. :/. IDK i found it very interesting how they were selling antiques from the wars in past years. So thats how my favorite teacher Hassig got all that shit from! lol (love you Hassig!). No but I loved every minute of Lucca and I plan on going back and riding bikes around the whole city. So amazing, so beautiful.

In one week I have experienced more than in my 21 years of living. Each day is different, meeting new people, comparing life back home to life here and I can honestly say that at the end of this program I am going to be a different person for the better. :)

The Official First Week

The weekend was amazing, me and the group had some bonding time playing 10 fingers lol. We had about 9 bottles of wine, and the questions people were coming up with was so crazy. We all learned an important message, we have a group of FREAKS lol. I'm going to try to keep this pg rated, but people were asking questions like " have you even done it anal (gross), thought about someone else while have sex with another person, said the wrong name, cheated on a bf/gf, ever done anything with the same sex, stole anything of value, even done coke/weed, threesome, roadhead, and ever swallowed just to name a few. Believe me we had too much fun! 15 tipsy people dishing out dirt is a great way to get to know a person lol.

I love our apartment, but the only bad thing is the windows are poorly insulated so I can hear everyones conversation and every event that occurs on the street. Last night me and my roommate Shannon barely got ANY sleep. I woke up around 5am wide awake and just decided to stay up for our first day of class.

I forgot to mention, that after playing 10 fingers, me and Shannon left the girls apartment and they live in a sketchy area btw. Soon as we left we got offered some weed, then some weirdos kept talking to us..overall it was an uncomfortable situation to be in and it was only 1am in the morning on a sunday. Craziness I tell you. Next time we plan on walking in a big ass group so we wont get harrassed like that.

Back to the first week so far, we had our classes this morning with Anne and Chris and the classes seem to be not as bad as I thought. A lot of reading, a lot of papers, but we will all survive lol. Ready for my 4.0 to boost up the G.P.A and ready for more bonding experience with THE best group in Florence. Hopefully this weekend we can go to Siena, Pisa, and Lucca. Blog more tomorrow, goodnight!

From Lawrence to Florence

So I've decided to create a blog about my experiences overseas for not only myself, but my family and friends. To be anticipating something for so long, and finally get to experience it is beyond words and I feel so blessed and privledged for the opportunity to study around the world with some of the most diverse and amazing people. Saying goodbye to everyone was hard, but we all managed! I mean knowing that I'll be back in 4 months didn't make it as bad!

I'm going to begin with the plane ride and all its layovers. From Kansas City to Chicago, from Chicago to Philly, from Philly to Frankfort Germany which was the longest 7 hours of my life! And then from Frankfort to Florence Italy. Flying into Germany felt surreal, it was beautiful with light snow coming down. Looking over England and Scotland was amazing also, but let me tell you! I could not help but think the worse when flying over the Atlantic! Since the one plane just randomly disappeared over the damn ocean, my stomach was in knots the wholel time, but with prayer I mangaged lol.

Stepping foot into Florence was soooooo beautiful, the mountains overshadowed us and it smelt like fresh rain. Again it just felt surreal..knowing that I just spent all those hours on the plane, waited 3 years for that exact moment and it still felt like a dream. So after reality hit me, lol our coordinator called a cab for us and off we went driving through Florence to our apartment. At first I was a little sketchy because Florence DOES have a ghetto..with grafitti everywhere and just looking straight hood LOL but the further he drove us the nicer the area became. Me and my roommate Shannon had to quickly remove our luggage out the cab because the streets are soo narrow. Our apartment is in the shopping district and its so European lol if that even makes sense. BTW January is the sales month in Italy so most def when that financial aid kicks in, ima be going ALL in and getting some stuff for all my marvelous friends and family! Anyway lol i was a little sketchy about this damn apartment, but when we open the doors, high ceilings, wood floor, huge windows, fully furnished, not brand new but still nice. Our coodinator got us apartments with the people of Florence so we would get the full experience of this country. Im going to post pics very soon of the whole apartment so you guys can see not just hear about it!

So after getting adjusted, the program had a welcome dinner for us at this very fancy restraunt and the first thing we ate? PASTA lol and it was BOMB. Next was chicken and beans..now being a person that is a very experienced chicken eater and lover...not the best I've had but it was ok. Ya'll know I could've hooked it up, me or LeAnn Suber lol. Next on the menu was Flan..now I hate mushy stuff in my mouth ie. twinkies, pie, cream. I told myself I was comign to Europe with an open mind and to be free to try new things. Soon as I touched the plate, my food started jiggling like some selulite lol, but I tried it anyway and as fast as it went into my mouth was as fast as I spit it out LOL. Note to self..I do NOT like flan.

Next day was orientation and before we went to that (zzzz) we got lost in the city, ate at a local sandwhich stop too. Now I will say two things I have experience within the last two days with Florence people. One they are very aggressive with driving and overall personality, and two, they try to jip americans. Now the sandwhich clearly said 3 Euros..and they rung us up for 4 Euros...because they barely spoke English we didn't say anything THAT TIME. but I guarantee that will not be happening EVER again! Now after orientation had the craziest thing happen. We went the wrong way because Florene is very confusing and one of the locals said " Why are you in my country? Go back to America....Fucking Americans" At this moment my insticits kicked in and YES I started acting African LOL no terrorist threat over here for Le! I'll be damned lol and I was soo shocked to see so many Africans in Italy. Selling umbrellas and shit trying to hustle people in their money.

I've also learned that gestures and customs in the United States are not the same in Italy. A casual smile that means hello, it considered flirting over here and they will be...uum lets say aggressive toward you trying to hit on you and everything. In two days, its happened twice. SECOND NOTE TO SELF..don't smile at people!

Last night me and most of my group went out for dinner, we had pizza and wine. Now pepperoni pizza is not the same over here lol I ordered it and got some nasty ass peppers on my pizza, but it was still good. White wine is really dry, did NOT like it at all but I chugged it down like it was a Budweiser and was cool. We were talking to one of the waiters and he suggested a bar to us, walked us overthere and we got free shots all night. Everyone was pretty wasted, I was a little tipsy from the wine I'm not going to lie lol but I had to keep my common sense cause I had to clue how to get home. Even though I didn't drink a lot it was still fun and a bonding experience with all my new founded friends. Only the second day and everyone is so comfortable around one another. It's refreshing at this point, lol we said we felt like the real world:study abroad lol 18 strangers picked to live in a city...this is only the beginning to a life changing experience.