Douze

Again, to go with the theme of the weekend, this number is not Italian (it would be dodici), but French. So I don't know how to pronounce it. All I learned how to say in French was "my name is jacky," "thank you," "please," and "I don't speak French."

Anyways, this past weekend was SO MUCH FUN. It was so great to see my friends and France is a really cool country and overall it was just fabulous beyond words.

My friend Molly that is studying in Florence came to Rome on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we flew to Paris. On the way to the airport, there was another suitcase miracle known as the metro miracle. My silly little suitcase handle is broken and will usually not go down, causing problems while traveling, espcially when I get on a plane because it has to go on a seperate luggage thing. Anyways, somehow it magically went down on the way to the airport and it was miraculous. THe same thing happened in Greece at the airport and that was the Greek miracle. Once I got off the plane, it got stuck again and I looked like a retard trying to load it on the bus. Anyways, our plane was delayed and then we have to ride a bus into actual Paris, so we don't get there until 5 or so. But my amazing suitemate and dad, Katrina, was there waiting for us and it was really funny because we hugged and got stuck on each other's jewelry. That night we had a weird French sandwich (it was good though) and went to see the Eiffel Tower. It was SOO cool at night! I really wasn't expecting it to be so amazing, but it was just so cool to sit and stare at. AND, as an added bonus, it sparkles every hour for like, 10 minutes! It was so nice to sit and stare at the Eiffel Tower with some of my best friends. Then we ate a chocolate crepe, which has been one of my best European purchases...so delicous.




The next day we made lunch for ourselves and then wandered around Paris. We admired Notre Dame, which was crazy crowded because it was Good Friday and listened to a jazz band play "Georgia On My Mind" on the street. We also went to the Arc de Triumph, which is HUGE and then to the Lourve, which is HUGE times 1000. I still can't believe how ridiculously huge that place was! Molly and I got chewed up and spit out. It is free for students on Friday nights, so we just wandered around for an hour or so. Somehow we got stuck in the Italian art section and it took a long time to escape. We wanted to see the Mona Lisa, because that is what you are supposed to do when you go to the Lourve, but then the Italian painting section trapped us inside. It's all nice and everything, but we wanted to see something different since we had both seen our fair share of Italian art. Anyways, we finally escape somehow and meet Katrina back at the metro. By the way, the Paris metro system is INSANE. Rome has 2 lines, Paris has 14. 14! But it was nice because we could pretty much go anywhere on it. That night we had a quick McDonalds dinner (I had a Chicken Mystic, wouldn't recommend it) and then went to a club that was a boat on the Siene (sin) River, so that was pretty cool. Next day we eat a more traditional French lunch and then hop on the train for 5 hours to Cannes to see Carter. Carter's parents were leaving that night but we had dinner with them and they bought us an amazing crepe dinner. Crepes are fabulous, let me just say for the record. We were all really tired, so we went to bed in our creepy little room we rented on Carter's campus.

Easter Sunday (Buona Pacqua!) we laid on the beach pretty much all day (don't worry, we said a little prayer and thanked God for the beautiful weather) and enjoyed a fabulous fondue dinner. And we went to this bar that had a band playing and they made fun of me on the mic, for everyone to hear, when I requested Belinda Carlisle. I was not big fans of them. Cannes was a lot of fun and really pretty. And we got to see where they have the red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival. It is also where Carter will be strutting her stuff with Jake Gyllenhal, haha.

So then Monday we are back on the train, this time for like 9 hours. It was a little too much train time, but we met some nice people, so we survived. We finally got to Florence, where Molly's roommate in Florence and our friend (my mom) from school, Blakely was there waiting with a really fabulous dinner on the table. We walked around and got gelato afterwards. It was kind of strange to be back in Florence. That was where I spent the first 3 weeks of the trip and it was weird to be back, 1. because it wasn't FREEZING and 2. because I am just so used to Rome and its craziness now...Florence is a different kind of crazy. But it was nice too. And it was so unbelievably wonderful to be with my friends. Unfortuantely, I had to go back to Rome the next day and go to class...but it was nice to be back in Rome Sweet Rome as well. AND-I had a TrenItalia miracle! I was worried about struggling with my suitcase by myself on the train, but somehow the handle went down again. Of course, it wouldn't when I got on the metro, but I take what I can get. Anyways, my Roman roomies were here waiting, as were the two research papers I have yet to write. So I'm going to get on that so I can have fun with Katrina when she comes here tomorrow. Ciao ciao!

Undici

I dont even know how to spell out the first part...oooona. I can't think of an English equivalent right now. And then dieci, which was explained in the last blog.

Ok, well nothing too exciting lately. Just wanted to drop in, say hello before my long, amazing weekend in which I will not be posting blogs because I will be off having an amazing time with no time for silly things like blogs. More on that later.

Last Friday I went to Assisi for the day, with Dr. Hotness as my guide. Amazing, of course. And thats right, Assisi as in St. Francis of ASSISI. I saw his tomb and everything. Other than having cool earpiece things so we could hear Dr. Hotness and his infinite knowledge of everything, Assisi was a tad boring. It was really really beautiful and the weather was amazing for us, but it is a really small town with a lot of pretty churches. So we toured those, had some lunch and admired the view. I had forgotten that in Northern Italy the bread is terrible because they don't add salt to it, so that was a disappointment at lunch. Of course Alessandro explained to us why they don't use salt because he is so incredibly wise that he would know such things. And now I'll share it with you: when the Vatican took over the Tuscany area for a brief period of time 150 years ago (more or less), they put a ridiculously high tax on salt, so people just stopped using it to make bread. And, even though the tax has since been lifted, they decided to leave the bread salt-less. Which is really quite a shame, because it is so much better with salt. Crazy Tuscans. Anyways, the bus ride there and back was pretty, but uneventful, as was the rest of the weekend. It was really hot Saturday, so I walked around for a little bit but then tried to work on one of my research papers. I chose the most generic topic ever, Baroque Architecture, so I was going crazy with all the information. Its far from being done, but I started. That night I went to the sketchiest club EVER, but it was really funny, so I had a good time. There were the most random people..from like, 15 year olds to way older people. It was very strange.

Sunday, worked on the papers some more and then walked around and finally did some shopping. I actually have some money now thanks to my amazing family, so I treated myself. Everything was on sale, of course, but it was still exciting to actually make some Roman purchases, other than the neccessities. I got some really strange looks though because I had on flip flops. It was so hot though! Of course the crazy Italians are still in winter coats, but I just can't do it. I also went to mass for Palm Sunday that night. We got there at 6:30, when it said mass started but that actually meant they were going to do the entire rosary at 6:30. So, we sat through that and then actual mass. It was so different from mass at home, it was actually pretty entertaining. Other than having to stand up for 30 minutes while they read the Passion, there were funny old women and little kids to watch. And people were just wandering around the whole mass, going to confession, coming and going, whatever..anything went. And of course the church was beautiful, so I had something to look at instead of trying to translate what the homily was about. That night we went to a cute little restraunt near the church and had the craziest old man as our waiter. He kept playing little jokes on us and would just crack up at himself! It was hysterical...he wasn't even that funny, but he thought he was and had this insane laugh, so it was really entertaining. For example, I asked where the bathroom was and was like, sorry we don't have one and starts to walk off. Then turns around and just busts out laughing and pointing at me like he just played this huge prank on me. It was great..then he gave me a high five.

Anyways, this weekend is going to be amazing because I am going to FRANCE!!! I am so so excited! My friend Molly (who is studying in Florence) is coming here and we are flying to Paris to see my friend Katrina, then the 3 of us are going to Cannes to see another friend, Carter. After that, the same 3 are leaving Carter and going to drop off Molly and see our friend Blakely. Then I will be returning to Rome and Katrina is coming to visit here a few days later. I am sooo excited to see them and to see France! I'm a little nervous because I heard French people aren't very nice, so we'll see. More to come on that post-amazing French/Italian adventure. Now its time to work on my papers some more. They are due a lot sooner than I realized...haha.

Ciao ciao!

ΔEKA

This one is a toughie..."Theka" I don't really even know how to prounce it because I don't know any Greek. Italian is "diece" (de ay che) but since this blog is all about my "Big Fat Greek Spring Break," I thought throwing a Greek number up there would be more approriate.

Ok, so Greece. Amazing. Only, amazing times infinity. I can't even begin to describe. It was quite possibly, the best week of my life. Everything about Greece was fabulous. The food, the weather, the beaches, the people, the view, everything.

[sunset in Naxos}

For starters, we flew into Athens and rode their immaculate metro system (it puts the Roman metro to SHAME) into the heart of the city, arrived around 3, went to our hostel and then exploring. It was to late to actually go to the Acropolis, but we did get to see it from a distance, and also the Parthenon. Both were really cool to see and I hope to go back someday and see them for real. It started hailing on us, and a nice restraunt owner offered us shelter and free water (this is a huge deal, water is NEVER free in Europe) under his umbrellas. We ended up staying and eating there, and I discovered that real Greek salads do not actually have any lettuce in them. Its cucumber, tomato, onion, bell pepper, olive, and feta. And since I don't really like cucumbers, tomatos, bell peppers, or Greek olives (they are crazy salty), I just ate the feta and onion. Still, it was delicious. Then we got free dessert, which was the first thing we got free in Greece. After that, we got something free every day, sometimes multiple somethings. The man also taught us how to say thank you, and it wont let me type in Greek on this thing, so just know that it is a lot longer and more complicated than saying "Grazie." We realized that the language barrier might be more of a problem there than in Italy. However, lucky for us, almost everyone we met could speak English. And, everyone we met was soo nice. They would ask where we from, why we were in Greece, where else we had been and whether or not we liked it so far. Italians are nice, but these people were unbelievable. So accomadating and helpful, it was wonderful.

Anyways, the next day we got on the ferry (which was ENORMOUS) for four hours and spent the next 3 nights in Mykonos, which, of course, was amazing. Someone met us at the port, and drove us to the hotel, which was at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean and looked just like the buildings you see in pictures..the white square buildings with blue shutters. So so pretty. And they had a glass of wine waiting for all of us, which was really cool. Since there is still a week or two before tourist season really starts, there was hardly anyone else on the island, tourist wise. I really liked that, even though there were not many stores and restraunts open, it was nice to be away from the crazy crowdness of Rome. And we always managed to find somewhere to eat some delicious Greek food, so I was happy. There, we mainly hung out around the town, wandered around and watched the gorgeous sunsets. One day we did go down to the Paradise City. Haha, one of the beaches there is called Paradise. It was nice because no one else was there, except for people cleaning up the shops and stuff, getting ready for tourist season. The last night in Mykonos, we went to a local restraunt, where we were the only girls and the only people under 50. We met this guy who had a horse and offers horseback rides and scuba diving lessons during tourist season. He had dinner with us and got all his friends at the restraunt to teach us how to "oompa" dance aka traditional Greek dancing. It was sooo funny. We pushed all the tables against the walls and blasted Greek music and danced with these old men for like, 3 hours. And the owners gave us all at least 6 free shots. The alcohol was pretty gross, Ouzo and Ursus. Ouzo tastes like good and plenty and Ursus tastes like Dimeatapp. It was fabulous.

Next, we went to Naxos, where there was more stuff open, but still not a lot of people. More good food, wandering around, beach laying, and sunset watching went on. Some random man bought us free wine one night and the next, we got free shots again at a Tex Mex restraunt we accidently went to. I say accidently because of course, we wanted to eat Greek food and not Tex Mex while in Greece, but we didn't realize what it was until we got the menus. But the food turned out to be really really good, so all was not lost. They had a like, a resident salsa dancer there from Brazil, and he wanted us to dance with him. I got up and looked like an idiot for a little while, and then he got all 6 of us to do the rumba with him. It was really really funny. Esp since we were the only people dancing in this bar and our audience was pretty much all middle aged men and women, who were either laughing at us or ignoring us. Our hotel there was really nice (and had the comfiest beds) and was up on a hill as well, and you could see straight across to the Arch of Apollo, which was gorgeous. The family that owned the restraunt was so nice and was always willing to help us figure out where we were going and offer suggestions on what to do. In fact, I left a necklace and my watch there, and the owner met me at the port on our way back to Athens to give it back to me! And he said, "ok my lady," which I thought was soo funny. Anyways, we went to the beach there as well, and one of the days it was soo pretty and we could actually get in the water. However, the next day was really cold and windy and we were informed by our taxi driver that there was an eclipse while we were there. So, we didn't get a whole lot of sun that day.

Next, Santorini. Gorgeous, of course. The weather was perfect and we stayed in a really really nice hotel. It was in the capital, Fira and was like a 5 minute walk into town. It was a little strange though because apparently all Greek high schoolers take a 5 day vacation at the end of March, so there were about 1000 of them staying at our hotel as well. Other than the stares and boys winking us, it was fine. Our room had a loft and you could walk out on the roof...so we would walk out and wave to all the teenagers down below. The first night we had an amazing dinner and when we went out that night, there were actually other people besides just the six of us at the bars and clubs. Not very many, but still, it was exciting to actually see other people out and about. The next day we rented a car instead of trying to take taxis to the beach and that turned out to be the smartest thing we had done. We got 2 since all 6 of us couldn't fit in one and I was captain of car 2 (I was the only one who had brought their license). I got to DRIVE around Santorini and visit black and red sand beaches. It was so amazing. I was an excellent driver and did not get us lost, or in any accidents. Not that there was a lot of traffic, but whatever. And, the one of the best parts of the whole trip was driving around, listening to the radio and having "Heaven is a Place on Earth" (my favorite song EVER) come on!!! Greek radio is crazy, but I never would have thought I would hear the best song in the world on it! Anyways, that night we drove to Oia, which is in the north and has the best place to watch the sunset. It was really really pretty, but all the highschoolers decided to come as well, so we didn't really get to watch in peace since they were all crazy loud. But it was funny to see all the girls giving us evil looks and the boys checking us out. Also, it was interesting to see the differences between Greek and Italian teenagers. The Greeks seem less into fashion, but they are both all about smoking, PDA, big sunglasses, and being as loud as possible. It was just funny to watch. Anyways, our ferry ride back to Athens was 8 hours, but it was ok because it was gorgeous weather and we got to watch the sunset on the boat.

There is so much more I could write about, but this is already long enough. It was such an amazing experience. Everything about the week was fabulous and I really really hope I can go back one day. And the best part of it all, I got to come home to ROME, where the weather is finally starting to get nice and is after all, ROME. So I can't complain. Assissi on Friday and France next weekend! Ciao ciao!
Oh, check out the rest of the pics on snapfish.com... :)