My imagination. My silly life. I SURVIVED VENICE :)

Well America I am home and back from a FANTASTIC weekend in Venice!!!!! I would go back in a second! Definitely going to be a long blog just a little pre-warning but with lots of humor!

Thursday night I finally got to skype with my Twin Kaitlan J for once and get caught up on her life! So glad to finally talk to her! Now I found out she got accepted into nursing school J good job to my twin that is for sure!

Well Friday, left for the train station and got into Venice at about 12 or so. We really didn’t have precise directions on how to get to where we were staying, but Haleigh was able to ask the bus station what bus to take. After doing a full round of sitting on the bus because we didn’t know what stop to get off at, the nice lady in front of us helped us out and got the bus driver to stop where we needed to. Amy, Briana, and Haleigh found my comment about what I think of when I think of masks absolutely hysterical.

I looked at them all on the bus and was like you know what I think of when I think of masks? I think of a big open field of all these people with cloaks and masks on walking around with tents and then the dark lord coming to burn them all down. (Like in Harry Potter!!) Yes that is what I think of. They found it hilarious, but I was like for real, that’s how it is.

We finally got to the little bed and breakfast we were staying at. It was so cute! It literally was a 2 room B&B, but the other people apparently weren’t checking in until Saturday so Friday night we had it all to ourselves! So we dropped our stuff off and then decided to get some lunch because we were all starving and stopped by this kebab and pizza place. All of us got their version of the kebab, which honestly tasted like a mix of a Mexican burrito (oh how I miss qdoba!) and then the sauce on it tasted like ranch dressing (oh how I miss salads!). It was good though, but I will def. have to go get a real kebab soon because that one just didn’t compare to Florence kebabs! Amy however got the cheeseburger. My brother literally could have done a challenge with how big that thing was. The bun was huge, but so good, and then lots of lettuce, tomato, and ketchup with 2 really good burger patties. So good, but so large! Considering Amy is dying for some ranch dressing as much as I would do anything for a bottle of KC Masterpiece, she was a tad bit upset she didn’t get the kebab! HAHA

But then we made it back to around the train station and decided that Friday we would do an island and then Saturday make it to Carnivale. So we caught the water taxi and headed to Merona, which is known for its glass blowing.

Side note- Yes mom and Kelly, I went to see the glass. However, sadly, unlike the time I went with my mom and my cousin to the botanical gardens in STL to see the glass, I only went because they bribed me with Amaghetti’s afterwards which def. made it worth going to. This time I didn’t have to be bribed but I definitely would have liked to go to Amaghetti’s afterwards. HAHA

But the water taxi was so cool, but so cold! We got to see a lot of Venice and finally made it to the island to explore. However, we are pretty convinced we saw an ice cream boat on the water- which was hilarious! We went into a lot of the shops and they had some really cute, expensive obviously stuff. I of course was attracted to anything orange or bright blue J. Haha We stayed on the island for a bit and then decided to head back for dinner because it was so cold. This time we literally forgot to pay attention to what number water taxi we got on though L so we were on the thing for over an hour before we had to ask where to get off at! Whoopsies! But we made it back and found this cute little side restaurant. I got a margarita pizza (oh how I miss margaritas!), it was very good of course! Sadly Venice doesn’t have much of a night-life and due to the TOTALLY FREEZING weather, we decided to just go back to the B&B and play cards and then go to bed.

We were better at getting ourselves back to the B&B this time around and played some cards and went to bed! Didn’t sleep too well even in that comfy bed, but thankfully I had wifi on my phone to help me get through most of the night’s frustrations.

Then Saturday morning I couldn’t get myself to fall back asleep when my alarm went off at 6, so I got up and got ready. Amy and everyone else had been saying how I never wear my hair down, so I decided with my extra time I would straighten my hair. It has been so long since I have done that, that’s for sure!!

Side note news- I was going to bring 2 bottles of wine with me for the weekend to help me make it though Carnivale without passing out in fear, but walked out without the wine opener. DANGIT.

So after they all woke up, I decided I would replace my wine with expresso shots. Never had I done those before! But actually I used the expresso maker and used coffee because the B&B didn’t have expresso powder. They had these little grapefruit juice boxes I had mistakenly, but so worth it, left in the freezer for too long and chased the shots of “coffee” with the frozen juice. LMAO it was so funny. But then also, I must add—had a croissant with nutella that I had placed in the microwave (MISS THOSE TOO MUCH!!) for a few seconds……..SO GOOD. Ughh nutella is like a new obsession. Nutella here is nothing like it is in the states! But anyways.. had to leave a little time for all those coffee shots to kick in and boy when they did later-- I was like HELLO! We made it to the bus stop to go back to the train station and I had to mentally prep myself for the masks. I lucked out with them wanting to go to an island on Friday and didn’t have to really face all of the masks J, but Saturday I could no longer avoid the scary things L.

We made it out of the bus and saw this sunglasses stand. I was stupid and left my sunglasses in the car before my flight so I have been living without sunglasses, but this weekend I was like my sunglasses will be my mask. HAHA! Worked out though! I am in love with the things, wish they were orange, but I settled for yellow! HAHA! I got to act like I was at the fleamarket and bargained the price of course! I’m such a pro by now at that.

Then the masks began after that…………. I just don’t get it. WHY does anyone have to walk around with the ALL WHITE masks? If anything add some color to it please. If there is one dreadful nightmare I always have it’s that I will wake up one morning with a guy in a mask over me ready to kill me L. There were the full masks, the half masks, the masks that only cover the eyes, etc. Masks of all kinds and colors. ALL THERE TO SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF ME L!

We needed to get to San Marco, which was where the actual Carnivale really was. It took forever to get there, but we ended up stopping at a few little squares to check things out. We found this cute little ice rink they had- there was a kid dressed up like Buzz from Toy Story which was so funny. There was a lot more people dressed up in Halloween costumes besides the Venetians who were in their extravagant gowns and suits. Some were funny and some I just wanted to cry seeing.

Then we made it to this large area of all shopping places for masks, food, souvenirs, etc. IT WAS JAM PACKED! No one lied when they said it was going to be a MASS MOB of a ton of people. Of course Haleigh, Amy, and Briana HAD to get masks and of course I had to go around to all the shops and face my fear. They all 3 got masks, luckily only the ones that covered their eyes because I don’t think I could have allowed them to get a full mask without me screaming. I may sound like a child, but sorry after so many nightmares of masks being involved, I have a fear comparable to my hatred of spiders.

Then we trekked it over to San Marco, which took FOREVER because people don’t know how to walk over here. With my walking mentality, it gets me very frustrated when people stop in the middle of the already narrow walkways to look at things or talk to people, so I had to push around people. SO annoying. Finally we made it and OMG it was so crowded and def. took many photos. There was the cutest child dressed up in an animal costume of some sort right as we were walking towards the center and lots of people dressed up totally extravagantly and it was so neat looking minus the ones with the scary masks. I absolutely wanted to knock the masks off anyone walking around with the masks with large noses on them. UGHH so scary. Some of the time they would warn me not to look left, right, etc. and I would look down while they guided me along. Such good friends they are J I was so thankful of course! But we walked around San Marco for a bit and then decided to get lunch at this cute little shop on the side. They had a Hard Rock Café, which was really neat that we found on the side. But then we made our way back into the area and happened to find a bunch of people who had gone through SAI for the trip to Venice and Ainsley, who I went to Salzburg/Vienna with, ended up branching off and just going with us because their tour was so boring. We all walked around for a bit and then decided to go tour the Doge’s palace nearby. It was so neat and I only wanted to go so I could see the prisons and chambers cause I love that stuff, aka why I want to go to Sicily. But anyways, we weren’t really allowed to take photos, but HELLO no flash on the camera and a little blockage by my friends, I sniped some photos for everyone to see! J It was so big and I would never have wanted to live in a place that big because I would have a constant fear someone is hiding out in another room watching me. L But the prisons were neat and the paintings, sculptures, etc. were cool to see and after reading the explanations, it helped us all realize the significance of everything. I still have to research why the place caught on fire so long ago.

Then we made it back into the square and kept taking photos of all the cool people and then decided to wander off and find ourselves a GONDOLA ride J and we needed to find Ainsley a mask! During the time Ainsley was looking for a mask, Haleigh and I ventured off to find a quick snack. Haleigh got this rice cake thing stuffed with cheese and it was so good! But then when we were walking back, of course the weirdos all dressed up had to be nearby. This girl with hair in front of her face and a white sheet on looked like the girl from the ring and came up to me with the VHS labeled The Ring. GRRRRRR I was so mad, I ran off. But then Haleigh and Ainsley went back to this mask place while Briana, Amy, and I stood around and ended up talking to these American boys who were really nice. Then Ainsley found herself a mask and we began our walk to find a gondola ride!! We walked by their outdoor market, but it was closed and then finally found a gondola ride to take nearby off to the side. We wanted to take one of the rides off to the side since we already had been on the water taxi on the Grand Canal, so we wanted to go around the narrow “streets” or whatever. It was AWESOME! We all got into the gondola and Briana had started to tape a video and ended up asking the kind sir we had as our guide what his name was………we all wanted to fall out of the boat laughing. His response was “Casanova Sex Machine of Venice”……..omg it was so funny though and plus he sang to all of us too! It was about a half hour ride and so worth it! Venice is absolutely gorgeous and I would go back in a second.

After that we kept walking back towards the train station to find some dinner. We were trying to wait it out a bit and not eat so early, but we kept walking into bakeries so we decided to go eat dinner. Once again I got the margarita pizza…… totally yummy! Amy got the 3 course special for fish instead of meat and the first course was literally this black squid pasta. It was so salty and turned her mouth black. It was kind of funny but it didn’t taste as horrible as it looked! Haha

After that we wanted to go out with these American guys Amy, Briana, and I had talked to earlier, but once again Venice doesn’t have much of a night life and Amy and Briana weren’t feeling good esp. because it was so cold, so we decided we would go back again because we didn’t feel like walking all the way back to San Marco to meet up with the guys. We all had decided before dinner what to get for desert and I was so set on what I of course called cannelloni, meaning canoli. However, Ainsley got it before me and warned me it wasn’t canoli. It was like a whip cream center and that is NOT okay with me. So I ended up getting some gelato even in that freezing cold weather J! HAHA! I cannot wait to eat canoli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I go to Sicily J!

After that we tried to go see if we could book our train tickets back for the next day, but that failed. So then Ainsley went back with her roommates to where they were and Amy, Haleigh, Briana, and I went back to the B&B and played cards and what not. I ended up calling Julie from my work to see how she was doing (geez it felt so good to use my whiteberry again!) and so glad to talk to her since it had been so long (I know you’ll read this eventually, so I just wanted to say glad you answered and I didn’t get your voicemail J.) I ended up trying to go to bed a little early since I didn’t sleep much the night before. Well I probably fell asleep about 11 and then woke up at 2 because I drank too much water before bed. It literally took me about 10 minutes to get myself to go out the door to the bathroom. I had in my head that the other people staying in the room next to us were going to be sitting on the red couch in the kitchen with masks on ready to kill me. Finally I did get up, locked them all in the room, ran to the bathroom, and then quickly locked myself back into the bedroom. Total fail at falling back to sleep quickly. Played on my phone for a bit, turned on my iPod, etc. but totally couldn’t fall back asleep till probably after about 3:30. WHY? Oh maybe because then I got in my head that when I woke up at 6 the people would be sitting in their masks ready to kill me again. Plus, I was still seeing all of the masks from the day in my head. Such an imagination I have right?

Woke up at 6, couldn’t fall back asleep once again, so I got all my strength built up to walk out of the room. So I got ready, had my nutella croissant again, prepped my long email to my lovely roommate Seigs that I miss so much (how are you still putting up with me after all this BTW?? HAHA), and made it through the daydreams of people walking around in masks. Took advantage of the good water pressure in the shower considering our water pressure in our apartment STINKS, but so sad all that hard work of straightening my hair had to go away. It is going to be SO LONG by the time I get home and I will definitely have to dye all this gray hair out of it when I get home. HMMM I wonder where all the grey hair is coming from (Seigs you know that one J)! HAHA

But anyways, they all woke up and I totally failed at making my coffee shots this time around sadly. I must have put too much coffee in the thing or something. But I did get to have my semi frozen juice again J. Made me so happy J! But then we all got ready to go check out and make our way back to the train station to book our train back. We checked out and the lady who I guess ran the place was so nice and we def. enjoyed our stay. Must I add, we don’t think the people in the other room ever came, so I was worried for nothing! HAHA

We hopped on the bus at our usual stop and then the next stop like 438979248 people got on and we TOTALLY failed at fire code regulations. GEEZ I could not move and my back hurt so bad of course because of the way I was standing with my book bag. I was so frustrated because the ride lasted forever it seemed like. LUCKILY we finally made it to the train station and checked out train times. We were so fortunate we made that out first stop because basically anything after 1:30 I think was booked. So we ended up taking the 12:30 train back. We had about an hour to kill and that was not enough time to get back to San Marco for the Carnivale esp. with our bags this time, so we just walked around and grabbed lunch and looked for the T-shirts Amy and Briana wanted. The big day of Carnivale was yesterday apparently, but we were happier with actually getting a train back instead of being stuck in Venice. Plus the weather was cold, cloudy, and supposed to rain. We had such good weather Saturday, so we were okay with just seeing everyone in their costumes Saturday, of course I was J. There were people around the train station dressed up and there was a family walking in front of us at one point in their pretty costumes, but then the dad turned around and I saw his mask and wanted to scream DO NOT TURN AROUND AGAIN! Haha.

But then we made it to the train after finally figuring out what platform we actually needed to be at came on the screen. It was luckily a short ride back and we got back into Florence about 2:30. It was raining unfortunately so I came back and did my laundry and since I am running out of internet for the month, I went down to the coffee shop after dinner and got a cappuccino and used their wifi to add my photos to my computer, catch up with my friends from home, and download SVU J. Then I came home and got to skype for a bit and discuss my silly life with my mother and father. It was a nice chat of course!

Then I finally went to bed and made it through the night luckily and woke up and went back to bed. I hate Monday morning wake up calls. So then I finally got up and got the call from Haleigh that our special events project due this morning wasn’t working so I had to book it to school and then finally we got everything printed and legitly ran to class! We made it though!

Then I had Italian and AHHH I GOT A 38 out of 40 on my quiz! YAYA! Considering at first when I saw the numbers, I thought it was 38 out of 110 from what it looked like! But yay for my grade considering I thought I got so many more wrong!! J

Then I booked it up to the other part of town and worked out. I ate so much this weekend, definitely felt good to work out again!!

Then I booked it back across town, in my shorts, def. got some weird looks, and made it to Customer Relations class. Then I came back here to eat dinner, I was starving. Eating at 10:30 am cause I was bored in class was not my best idea. I walked by school after I worked out and of course had to smell the deliciousness being cooked in one of the classes inside L.

Now I am sitting here writing this………………

Well what else is there to add? Sorry this is so long but technically it’s 4 days put into 1. J

I love how every weekend I always say AHH I cannot wait for next weekend! Thursday a bunch of us are going to go out for dinner and margaritas again and then out before some of the others leave for the Rome & Tivoli trip that. AND FRIDAY IS the parmesan and balsamic vinegar factories in Parma and Modena!!!!! I cannot wait! And then we are all planning to possibly go to Assisi on Saturday!

This weekend was so much fun and I am so glad we all went! I def. would go back in a second! I am despising how fast time is flying over here but I still have so long to go thankfully! I am absolutely loving it here, but yes America I miss you too for many reasons! I told Haleigh I would probably pay her Mom 20$ to bring me a bottle of KC Masterpiece, sadly I probably would. HAHA

Nikki is coming OH SO SOON and I cannot freeking wait to see her and spend the week exploring Florence with her! Dublin flight is going to be booked oh so soon and now I found out Tricia and her friends will be there too, so that worked out well! I could cry at how excited I am! Souvenirs are already being planned. I am so getting a jacket-- that is for sure!!

Hmmmmmmmm…… Mid-terms are coming soon…….. Really soon and I am in shock at how soon.

But anyways, I will leave it at this for now J more to come tomorrow of course esp. because we are baking the croissants and danishes in baking tomorrow J!!!!!!! Hello dinner J!!

Love and miss you all and hope you all had as good of a weekend as I had!

And Krob- did you really think I would forget! TOMORROW MARCH 1! My best friend Katie Robert finally turns 21!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH! Wish I was there of course to help celebrate but don’t worry! You know I will be ready to re-celebrate when I get home J!!

pray for me........i need all the prayers i can get.

Happy Thursday my friends!

Well thankfully I do not have classes on Thursdays, def. paid off today! I woke up pretty much on the hour last night from my back pain and plus either people out on the street or the apartment under us were fighting so loudly. I was too lazy to get up and check it out! Haha

But then I got to sleep in longer than my normal 6am and woke up about 9 to go find this different outdoor market that is by my friends apartment but that totally failed and I ended up just walking around for a bit and going to the market by my apartment!

Then I went back and got ready to go teach Briana my brother’s Spartacus workout……..needless to say we are both pretty prepped to be sore tomorrow again getting into Venice!! Haha

This stupid back pain better go away soon cause just like last year it’s really starting to interrupt my life all over again!

Now I am at school and downloading last night’s SVU that I didn’t even know was new J! Plus I am checking on flights for Dublin! I am so excited!

Pretty soon I am going to back and pack for this weekend ahead…….Pray for me. Wish me luck. I need it. If I don’t write a blog Monday night, don’t get worried…… I am probably just sleeping off the fear. I will make it……..somehow. haha!

Then later tonight we are all going to dinner to discuss this weekend and plan out what we want to do…..bringing my trusty Italy book with me so we can figure some things out!

We are leaving tomorrow about 9:30 am on the train and then checking into our hotel!

In other news, finally got to skype with Stacey last night……. Since that skype date is 2 weeks late! L But hopefully she will be coming here next semester without me here though sadly L Chelsea….. free some time up and be ready to skype next time J

Anyways.. you all have a good weekend and expect one heck of an interesting blog after this weekend. PRAY FOR ME J PLEASE!!!!!! HAHA

somebody cure these shooting knife pains in my back.

CIAO!!!!!!!!!!

Well well well.. Happy Wednesday and hello weekend for me J!!

How should I start this blog today?

So let’s just start with how lovely my morning went.. I wake up, go back to bed, wake up again...... plan on studying for my Italian quiz that was going to be at noon about 10 am. Watch a little bit more of Sanctum (cool movie that comes out soon that I somehow found online).. For some reason before I started studying, I decided to check out my bank account. Well.. I wasn’t expecting much of a change-- BUT here’s a big change for ya!

MY AVAILABLE ACCOUNT BALANCE READ A BIG FAT “0”……….

What do you think my reaction was? Tears? Shock? Etc. YES!

I literally did not know what to do-- I am 4927 miles away with a 7 hour time change and no phone to call my bank from. My ledger balance, like I know what that is, read the right amount, but my AVAILABLE balance was 0! I haven’t ever seen that before. Grab my phone, call my mother! No answer. Get on yahoo, text her like 3 times to call me asap. Must I add in here, it’s 930 for me, 230 for her. L I didn’t know what else to do though. Finally she texts me to skype her. I tell her what happened and she didn’t know what to do, neither did I! So she goes okay well let me go shower and get ready for work and I will call the bank on my break and be on your computer at 4 your time and I will text you. I’m like mom, it’s 230. And shes like what? No it’s not, it’s 5:30; my alarm went off. And I’m like no mom, it’s 930 here, it’s impossible for it to be 530. (This whole time I am looking at all my clocks like OMG I am missing my quiz then!) Then she looks at her phone like oh well crap looks like I’m going back to bed, you’ll have to wait a bit then but don’t freek out. I was like okay, holding back my bankrupt tears! Haha! So then I guess she kept looking at my account and somehow someway it all got fixed after like a half hour. I was trying to study, needless to say that was hard because all I am thinking is-- looks like I have to go home early.. I am bankrupt. Then she texts me to check my account again because it should say it’s right and so I did! IT WAS FIXED! I was like THANK YOU!!!!! And apologized for waking her up but she understood, she would be like that too.. but just for that, I needed to change my profile picture on facebook. Sorry mother, I like the picture. HAHA! (So thank you mommy again since you’re reading this J!)

So then I continued to study with a little better mindset. Okay let me add in here now—DO I REMEMBER HOW TO STUDY for anything? NO! Geez last semester FRIED my brain, I can’t study anymore if I tried! But I did my best and went to class and took the quiz! I don’t know how I did! But let me add in here now how much I miss blackboard from MSU so I could constantly check my grades! They don’t have that here L. But hopefully I did okay J!

So then I came back and worked out. My back feels like a bunch of knives are going through it so I have to watch everything I do again L! Hopefully this pain goes away someday but from all this constant walking I do, I don’t know when that will be.

Then I went to meet with my group for planning our farewell party at the end of the semester and then went and hung out with some friends for a bit discussing this weekend and future weekends!

I am excited for tomorrow because I am going to teach my friend Briana the Spartacus workout from my brother and we can both share in the pain of walking through Venice on Friday once we get there! HAHA!

Ughh……. 2 more days, let’s see if I sleep. I refuse to wear a mask, but apparently if I don’t they’ll laugh at me. L I need to get all the sleep I can in these next 2 nights because next week won’t be pretty. L

24 days till the arrival of Nikki! SO excited for that and so excited to find every single bakery around Florence with her too! HAHA!

Well, what else is new?

6 days till my best friend KROB turns 21……. So sad I will be missing that L!

One of the last few good national holidays to celebrate is Sunday- National Strawberry Day, today’s National Banana Bread today by the way. My friends and I are currently planning how we will celebrate Sunday. I already planned Cinco De Mayo for all of us tonight that’s for sure. Sangria Margaritas will definitely be made that day!

Tomorrow I don’t have class of course, but I will write one last blog before nightmare weekend update blog on Monday. I might cry while writing that one.

Anyways……….. Have a great rest of your Wednesday! Time for me to catch up on some Golden Girls soon and finish my movie! J

L8R!

A dedicated student :)

Welcome back to work/school day! Hope you all had a great 4 day weekend!

Well usually today’s blog would consist of mainly my baking class stories, but not this time!

Last night, wasn’t very tired but I had a huge headache and a stuffy nose, so to avoid getting sicker, I took a benadryl before going to bed. Worst idea ever. I woke up this morning like a zombie with a headache still! However, I no longer have a stuffy nose so I guess it did something right!

Of course this morning I had my lovely hospitality accounting class.. Normally I would say I will let you all imagine how that went. Not today! I walk in maybe about 8:50 am, the first one to class. Sit down and start talking to my teacher about my weekend and what day trips and other trips he recommends so I can plan for when Nikki comes! Might I add in here, he tried to tell me to go to London over Dublin because London is so much better! Too bad he’s wrong! I told him I am and HAVE to go to Dublin…… I’m Irish of course- have to represent the Murphys and mention how I know a bunch of Hogans while I’m there too! He was like well okay then but he still thinks London is better…… but I couldn’t agree. He mentioned a few other good places I need to look into as well.

It becomes about 9:07 and he looks at me like where is everyone……. Needless to say by this time I am thinking OMG I am going to be the only one out of the 6 people we have in the class that showed up! Well I was right.. I was the only one in class today. Dedicated student? Maybe. More like I don’t like skipping classes- especially here, they lower your grade! It’s rough but luckily for me I don’t skip classes J! I guess I didn’t get the memo that today was skip class day! Well considering I was the only one, my luck he doesn’t let me go home of course.. so I sat there and had a one on one accounting lesson! How fun considering I just love accounting! All I can say is if I didn’t have the pre-req of accounting before coming into this class……… I’d have an F. (for fantastic J) HAHA….not! But anyways.. he finally looked at me and was like well that is it for today and then e-mailed the other few and basically said where are you. A few of them have already skipped 2 classes so it really hurts their grade! So maybe by the end of this I will be the only one if all of them drop the class. AHHHHHHHHH………… I hope not! But he did say there will be a big ? on the mid-term that none of them will know because he won’t re-teach today’s lesson next week. Hopefully I get that question right!!!! HAHA! I can only hope!

So then I went home and got ready to go work out. I totally had in my mind that I would re-do Spartacus like I did on Thursday……….but I am still sore so I stuck with the cardio! Haha! Thanks to my brother for teaching me that Spartacus workout. My body loves it!

           

After that, I went to the market and got more FRESH spinach and ricotta ravioli J my favorite!! It is so good! And then I got more of my obsession- banana chips and now I have a very expensive obsession of dried kiwi! (Seigs- you like kiwi, you gotta try this stuff! It is DELICIOUS!)

Then I met up with Haleigh and Briana to get our train tickets for nightmare weekend ahead! We are so ready to go with big plans for the weekend! Gotta get my fleamarket mindset back and be ready to bargain for the gondola rides J or I might just date one of the guys who guide the rides! HAHA

Then BAKING CLASS! WOOHOO! Today was the big day! Croissants, Danish, and Brioche making! I looked at Valerie (lab partner) and was like we have to call croissants! (Stacey—I miss the days where we looked into the workbook and got to class early to call what we wanted to make L) I have been anxiously waiting to make those! So that is what we got to make while the others prepped the danish and brioche. All I can say is if these croissants turn out anything like the croissants Julie and I got to try at the French Pastry Institute………I’m going to be VERY excited! Those things were beyond delicious in Chicago. They are such a process to make though. And where is my good friend Paula Deen when I need her. First you make the dough, which today was the first time I got to use a commercial mixer! I miss my kitchen-aid! But then you roll out the dough and then put a whole SLAB of butter on top and then fold the dough over! And another few processes after that to incorporate the butter and then the same thing went for making the danish! It was so cool though and I cannot wait for next week because that is when we get to bake both the danish and croissants because they have to rise/proof/etc. But we did get to make the brioche today! We made fried Italian donuts and then baked brioche classic rolls with sugar on top, a brioche knot with almonds on top, and then a roll with pastry cream on top! All of them were good and def. another week of my baking class goods being my dinner and another week of feeling disgusting! Haha! Def. going to be a good workout tomorrow! The donuts were so good, but I haven’t had a donut in a long time! Some people filled theirs with pastry cream, but I didn’t opt for that! Gross! I covered mine in sugar! It was definitely another good week in class and next week should be even better! I really am loving that class lately! Then also to add, in the downtime we had waiting for things, def. had to tell the 2 girls in my class all about my sandwich I am so in love with because the class next to us was making focacia bread—so obviously that reminded me of my sandwich! That place is going to get just as much business as I made the fleamarket from bringing so many people to it and telling so many people about it! I wish I could make a profit from it! HAHA!

Then I came home and ate some protein and called it my dinner. Now I feel gross from all that bread consumption but it was too good to pass up!

Now I get to study for my first quiz tomorrow in my Italian class. It’s going to be rough. I feel like I am in high school Spanish all over again! So pray for me that I do good J thanks!

Well.. hope you all are having a good day so far and hopefully having warmer weather than we are having here!

I am excited because we asked my baking teacher tonight where the best canoli place is and I am going to try and find it. Of course Sicily has the best and when I go-- I will eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I am so excited for that trip but it seems so far away! L

 Well for now, Ciao! Miss ya’ll!

When anyone wins the lottery, let me know when you’re coming to visit J!

pray for me this weekend coming up.......please.

Ciao to America.

Well good evening here, good afternoon to you all.

So sorry there has been no update until today. Long weekend.

So I will start with Thursday night, went over to my friends apartment and planned out what we were going to do Friday and the holiday weekend and then just hung out for a bit.

Well stupid me decided to do my brother’s Spartacus workout Thursday and let’s just say waking up Friday morning was more than rough. I waddled around Florence and made it to the train station to meet my friends to go to Siena. They all were laughing at my total inability to walk all weekend. I can’t lie and say I didn’t look ridiculous but I couldn’t help it!!

Thankfully in a way I was not the only sore one, my friend Briana had done a workout class Thursday too so we dealt with the pain together in Siena Friday. It was horrible to go up and down steps and even to just walk in general!!!! I cannot even explain it! Haha

But we made it to Siena and it is a very pretty place. We really didn’t have anywhere we really wanted to go so we just went to the center on the bus. They also had this cute little mall we went through, didn’t really know they had American looking malls over here!! Haha

We all were pretty hungry and figured “The Shell” area, which is the center, was too pricey, so we all ventured off to find food. Briana had never had a sandwich over here yet and Amy, Briana, and I all saw this GREAT looking sandwich shop that we tried to find from earlier but totally failed. We all had the plan of finding the food we wanted and then going back to eat together in the shell area since it was so nice out, but that failed. Everyone else did, but us 3 finally had to give up and find other things. I got this awesome thing I can def. compare to my obsession sandwich, it was like this thin layer of dough, kind of like a stuffed pizza with potatoes, cheese, and ham in between, but I am pretty sure it was hot dog and not ham. Haha! It was sooooo good though and totally one of my favorite foods over here now!!

Then we walked around for a few hours, saw their Duomo, churches, shopped a bit, etc. Pretty sure I wanted to fall over and sleep for hours afterwards because of the pain I was in!! haha But I made it! We stumbled upon their residential areas and it was very pretty! I got so many cool photos that is for sure! Their shops around the town are so cute but SO pricey! Haha But I did see a few purses I could only dream of buying that were bright orange and then another one was bright blue! My favorite colors, so ironic.

Then instead of taking the train back, we took a bus. Can’t tell you how much my body appreciates sitting on buses for over an hour now! Haha

But then we came back and ate dinner and got ready to celebrate national drink wine day. Celebrated it, needless to say never will celebrate that holiday again. Like my Aunt Marie said, I will leave that holiday for the Aunts and everyone else to celebrate! J haha

Then Saturday, woke up and met my friends for lunch at this American hamburger and fries place…… probably the first restaurant hamburger I have had in ages and the third time I have eaten fries in a few years. The hamburger and fries were SO good though. However, we only went here AFTER my sandwich place ran out of my sandwich. I wanted to initiate the 3 of them to my delicious sandwich but that failed. It’s just so good, the place usually is out of them by the 1:00 time range sadly. So then we went back and napped. We were supposed to go to Assisi or somewhere else but the train was too pricey and we were not in much shape to go from being so tired. But then of course we had to celebrate national margarita day and we went to this Mexican restaurant (doesn’t compare to my lovely Qdoba) that is known for their peach margaritas. They were soooo good! Frozen too! And then for the first time I got to try Strawberry margaritas but those didn’t have too much flavor sadly! So will def. have to try strawberry margaritas somewhere else cause everyone says they’re so good! Then we all went back and hung out for a bit and then went out to this karaoke bar for a bit. Needless to say it was kind of hard to celebrate my 2nd favorite national culinary holiday over here, so summer, my friends prep yourselves to celebrate the holiday a few months late! J

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early and horribly skyped Seigs for a little bit L sadly did not last long due to the horrible connection! Then I was barely tired and ready to go and met Haleigh for lunch and finally initiated her to my sandwich place. SO good. I just love that sandwich way too much and wish I could check a bag full of them when I go home. Haha! Then I went back over to my friends’ apartment and we all just hung out for a bit and did homework and tried to plan for Venice this weekend, aka the trip that will give me nightmares for weeks to come. Tylonel PM won’t even be able to do the trick of putting me to sleep after this trip. Then came back here and skyped my momma and daddy and nikki! My stupid internet is totally failing lately so sorry everyone for the horrible connection!

Today I had special events and then Italian and then worked out and then customer relations. I am just now not really feeling the soreness from my dang workout Thursday!! Haha! Needless to say, I am pretty much making that workout be a daily Thursday thing now so I am never in that much pain again! Finally got to skype with my cousin Kelly again today, hopefully one of these days she can skype me from papa’s because I miss him so much!! One of these days I hope someone in my family has a computer around mama and papa too so I can see them!

This whole depending on computers to talk to everyone is so annoying! I miss my phone L haha!

But anyways, so what else is new in my life?

Well SPRING BREAK is finally planned. Nikki is coming to Florence and I am beyond excited! We were supposed to go to London, but it was going to be pricey and what not, so now she is coming here! I didn’t realize how long it takes to get around Florence so now we are probably going to explore all of Florence, cook a lot together, find every bakery around town, maybe take some day trips, and tour some places! I am so excited and cannot freeking wait, nik- you know I’m going to cry asap when I see you so prep for that! Haha

And then other GREATTTTTT news! I am going to Dublin the first weekend in April! SO what does this mean! Shelley’s 3 trips she had to do will be accomplished!!!!! Sicily- check. Sound of Music tour- check. DUBLIN- check. J I could not be any more excited for Dublin! I am so ready to explore that place it’s not even funny! I will have like 5 facebook albums. Seriously! Had Salzburg been better weather, Ainsley and I would have had so many more photos!!

And then this weekend……….Venice Carnival weekend……….New Orleans Mardi Gras x10…… Aka nightmare city. Why you ask? MASKS! I am deathly afraid of masks. I am actually more afraid probably of masks than I am spiders! I am excited to go to Venice with my friends yes, because it was on my list of places to go, but I must mentally prep myself to not pass out at the sight of all these masks. I will make it- I know, but I might be traumatized by the end!! Haha! Trust me, I will have one heck of an interesting blog after this weekend!

Hmmmmmmmmm……… What else. Tomorrow is my baking class and we are supposed to make danishes and croissants so prep for those photos that is for sure! I am pretty excited for that!

Well until an update tomorrow, you all have a great rest of your President’s Day! Love and miss you all!

No Internet :(

Well folks, another rainy day here in Florence and I am still in shock at how AMAZING last night’s LAW & ORDER SVU was. I don’t think I took my eyes away from my computer for minutes, never have I ever wanted to cry during an episode I don’t think until now!! haha

Bad news, woke up this morning and no internet. So for the current time being, I don’t have internet unless I am at school until me and my roommates can figure out what is wrong.

For the record, Krob- I missed my usual 6am chat with you this AM. L

And thank you to nikki and abby for the messages that I missed the BEST SVU ever last night. Waking up not being able to watch it really made my morning!! HAHA!

But anyways.. no class today. SO I went and bought my straightener FINALLY and then I bought my first pair of REAL Italian Leather boots! So cute and I cannot wait to wear them tonight J

Then before my workout I finally got to skype with my momma for once considering the stupid time change, I haven’t skyped her since like 2 weeks ago I think. Enjoyed that and even my Pooky Monster got to join in the skype session J (that’s my kitty). HAHA! She misses me…..not. And then while using school’s wifi, def. downloaded SVU from last night.

Then made probably one of the top 10 worst decisions I have made since I have been here. Did my brother’s Spartacus workout and practically cried and wanted to fall over by the end. HAHA So tomorrow when I wake up I will probably have to allow 10 minutes to go down my 4 flights of stairs.

Speaking of pain, most of you probably remember me and my stupid back pain where I could barely walk normal for like a month around spring break last year…….well pretty sure that pain is coming back and I just love walking around with the pain……not. Hopefully it will eventually go away like last time; luckily it’s not as painful as last year yet.

Hmmmm.. so tonight not really doing much but hanging out with a few friends and planning for tomorrow and Saturday. Tomorrow we plan on going to Sienna for a day trip and then going out after celebrating National Drink Wine Day J

Then Saturday, I believe we are going to do a day trip to Assisi and then come back and celebrate National Margarita Day by making homemade margaritas. It will be interesting without a blender.

Def. in for a good weekend that is for sure…… yes I will BE CAREFUL of course J

Possibly have a new way to get to Dublin too so I am one happy girl if that works out. That would mean all 3 trips I HAD to do would be taken care of and I can come home feeling AWESOME. Haha

Not ready to talk about coming home yet, but I will say first thing I will do when I get home is buy a HUGE BBQ Pork sandwich and load it up with a TON of KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce and savor every single bite with a large cup of Sprite right next to me.

Anyways. Almost a month till I get to see NIKKI finally!!!!!!!!!!! And Tricia soon after!!!! YA!

SO you all have a good weekend, I don’t know when I will update this again esp. with my internet not working at the moment. SO until next time. L8R and celebrate this weekend of National holidays accordingly and make me proud.

Love ya’ll and miss ya too!

Hello weekend of GREAT holidays!

Hello my friends!

Not much to report here. Rainy day here in Florence. I never should have walked with an umbrella that’s for sure. I will get to that later.

Well, this morning woke up and trekked around for a bit to find new boots and a straightener. Took new pictures cause I just went around different ways.

Then I had Italian, first quiz next week. Joy.

Then I worked out. (After last night, I needed to!! HAHA!)

Then I had my meeting for my special events class and now were just sitting here hanging out and doing homework before we kebob it tonight finally again for dinner. Those things are delicious!!

But tonight we are going to plan this epic weekend. National Drink Wine Day is Friday---- that’s like Christmas in Italy and then National Margarita Day is Sunday. We will be celebrating that however Saturday night into Sunday with HOMEMADE margaritas. I don’t think the margaritas I want to be shipped to me will get through customs. L HAHA! And then we are going to talk about the day trips we will do this weekend because we all want to stay in Italy for once. My body is still aching from the bus ride last weekend. But because I got to walk on the ground Julie Andrew’s did, I have no regrets. I hope you all plan on being good citizens and celebrating the holidayS too.

Pretty excited for this weekend though. Celebrating such a great national holiday that is probably just as big as an American’s Christmas…….. cause for celebration cause I love Christmas!! And then my 2^nd favorite holiday is Sunday next to National Cheesecake Day.

Spring Break is still in the works………………. Dublin is now a maybe. AKA I hope a yes.

As for this umbrella story. Everyone, a little note, when I return. You better learn how to power walk, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep up with me. I have MASTERED the art of power walking.

But honestly, I don’t know how any Italians over here stay so skinny when they walk .2 mph. NO ONE walks fast. It’s so annoying because people stop right in front of you and then don’t move out of the way even though the sidewalks are so small. I swear I have to power through the crowds of people and it’s so annoying. They say Italians stay so skinny because they walk so much. I don’t see how it’s possible. And then try walking my speed with an umbrella. FAIL.

I just have to add I am extremely missing a cellular phone. I can’t tell you how many times I have picked up my whiteberry ready to send a text. IT’S HORRIBLE.

And as for cellular phones. T-Mobile sucks just as much as my Italian phone company sucks. I have sent 1 text and I have 10 dollars worth of charges. 10 dollars for a text. Looks like my bank is looking out for me cause they denied the charge and now I have to go in and talk to them. They’re going to hate me like T-Mobile does. Why do cell phones hate me? HAHA

Anyways. Well that’s it for now but I will report back after my adventures tomorrow for whatever we do cause IT’S MY WEEKEND NOW! J

Mi manchi!

(that means I miss you in Italian! Hahaha)

Call me Chef Shelley!

Hi my friends.

So today was back to normal day. Well, this morning I had Hospitality Accounting. I will let you imagine how that went. Accounting 201 from MSU again. Thankfully I took that!!

Then I came home, worked out. Felt great, and then explored Florence trying to find a new grocery store and a straightener. Yes I caved- its either I chop my hair off or buy a stupid straightener. I have been growing my hair out for too long to cut it now. L I miss my lovely Chi and my curling iron L

Then I had baking class J OMG please check out the latest fb photos. I feel like I need to work out again. I ate more butter in one sitting than I probably do in a week. Today we made three things with different types of toppings. Creamy toppings, soooo not my cup of tea considering creamy stuff like yogurt makes me queezy. But others made this thing with chesnut flour and pine nuts, raisins, and rosemary. Weird mix and didn’t taste too good. I tried the topping on it made with ricotta, brown sugar, and white chocolate which made it a little better. Not something I would probably try at home. Same with the other thing that was a bread cake made with raisins too. Was not very flavorful either and then the topping was made with a base of wine.. skipped that.

HOWEVER……………. Valerie and I made yes, something I would make at home once again. She told me it was going to be good and apparently it is one of the oldest Italian baked goods. I don’t know the spelling for what it was but OMG it was to die for. I literally ate so much dough and then ate like half of one of the 2 cakes. I felt disgusting and def. called that my dinner. But omg it was so good J I tried to run my steps up to my apartment to make myself feel a little better……haha! I need protein, like I said on facebook-- anyone who wants to send me a huge thing of bbq pork with a whole thing of kc masterpiece bbq sauce…… I will love you forever. But all this cake was------ was sugar, flour, almond flour, egg yolk, lemon zest, vinegar, vanilla, and a ton of butter. It was soooooo good. And then the topping was mascarpone cheese, coffee grounds, and sugar basically but I didn’t try too much of that. So another successful week in baking. My good friend Paula Deen would have been proud.

Anyways….. now I am actually going to do homework for once besides my Italian homework.

I am pretty excited for this weekend that is for sure…….. and I am super excited about Spring Break. Had a nice catch up skype sesh with Tricia yesterday who is in London! Soooo I cannot wait to spend my long spring break with Tricia and Nikki! J

Trying to think of what I cut out from yesterday……. Oh yes, still working on the internship for the summer ordeal and hating it. Being this far away is so not helping!

But whatevs!

Well I hope everyone is doing swell in good ol’ America. Hopefully the weather is starting to shape up for everyone!

I prayed...WHERE JULIE ANDREWS WALKED!

HEYYYYYYY everybody! I am back J

I am welcoming myself back to Florence! That bus ride was TERRIBLE! I am so ready to stay in Florence this weekend! My body is sick of sitting on a bus! But the past 2 weekends have def. been worth it!

I cannot wait for this weekend! National Margarita Day Sunday so I hope all you good citizens of America celebrate it too!

Well let me update you on the past weekend! Same as I said for Rome and Tivoli blog goes for this one. It’s long so take a break and come back to it if need be J

Well we departed Thursday night around 10 pm our time for Vienna. So hard to sleep on the bus because the DVDs were playing so loud and it was so hard to get into a comfy position! The bus ride was SUPER long and we got into Vienna around 9 am and had a great breakfast. We stayed at this SUPER nice hostel. We weren’t expecting it to be that nice. There was 5 of us in the room and Ainsley and I’s roommates were really nice. So basically we all freshened up and met back up with the group for a tour around Vienna. Their language is so different and sometimes just sounds so harsh! But we took their train to the historic center of Vienna. It was a bit cloudy out, which was annoying and so windy/cold. But that didn’t stop us. We walked around to many historic places like their government buildings, statues from WW2, Spanish horses, churches, etc. It was pretty neat! And then we all broke off from the group after the tour was over and honestly Vienna is nothing special. Ainsley and I got pretty bored and were just super ready for Salzburg. I looked at Ainsley and was like it feels so weird that I am saying Vienna is boring, it’s a lot different to say like STL is boring or something. HAHA! But we walked around and found this cute little café and got some APPLE STRUDEL! Omg it was soo good! Then we trekked it back to our hostel to take a nap to get ready for the night. We woke up and then went and did Vienna right once again and tried our first wiener schnitzel. It was SOOOO good! I got this sandwich, which reminded me of my grandma because instead of pickles, they use ghericans. Then we went out and found some wine to get ready for the night! Cheap wine but I think it’s better than the expensive stuff! Haha! They had an Austrian form of an Aldi’s! I was in love! We then went out to The Bermuda Triangle! We started out at this Irish Pub. My knowing ability to talk made us some friends with these 4 guys and we all ended up going to this other bar for a bit and just hung out for awhile. Most Austrians don’t go out until 2am or later. Sorry but we Americans do not! HAHA! We had to prep for Salzburg in the AM! The guys were super nice and I know I know, everybody keeps asking if I have a boyfriend yet…….. if the one guy didn’t live all the way in Austria I totally would have gotten his number! HAHAHA

So glad to go back to the hostel to sleep in a BED for once after that! Haha Then we woke up and got ready to have our free time in Vienna before we left for Salzburg at 3! We really didn’t know what to do so we kind of just walked around Vienna and shopped at some markets and stores but it was fun! Found this really HUGE and cute market that reminded me so much more of an American grocery store for once besides the Aldi’s.

Finally it was time to go to Salzburg and Ainsley and I were SUPER pumped! It was our whole point of going; Vienna was just an added bonus! Another long bus ride, but got there around 7 and got ready and went out to this monestary where the monks brew the beer! Wish I liked beer, but they either had liters of beer or half liters that everyone got. Ainsley and I once again did Austria right and split a Wiener Schnitzel! It was pretty good once again! Seriously though, I can name a list of people who would have LOVED that place because the beers were so big and apparently pretty good. L None the less, I am saying this meaning wish you guys were here J!

Then Shannon, Ainsley, and I champed our way back because we really didn’t know how to get home but we had a map! The tour guides in charge originally told us it was like 5 minutes away, NOPE! More like 30 minutes. Thankfully we really watched for street signs and what not cause it totally came in handy later.

We stayed at a 4-star Holiday Inn and WOW it was def. a very nice Holiday Inn! The beds were so comfy but I could barely sleep for some reason! Went to bed at around midnight and woke up at like 5 L guess I was pretty prepped for the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!! Then we woke up and got ready for the tour. The breakfast was delicious! They had meat once again and fruit! Totally devoured as much fruit and meat as possible considering I barely get that in Florence!!

Then it was raining, which we were super sad about but it wasn’t stopping our excitement! We got on the bus and our tour guide was so funny and so awesome! If it didn’t end up being good tour, it would have been worth it anyway because they drove us all over Salzburg. But it was totally worth it! The bus even had Sound of Music tour on it so Ainsley and I kept joking that everyone driving by us right now is probably so jealous.

They first brought us to the lake and palace where Maria and the Captain danced in the background and the lake scene where the children and Maria are getting out of the boat! Then they took us to see where they filmed the gazebo scene from I am 16, going on 17! That was super cool! And we got to see the place where Maria first runs into the gates singing! Then we got to see the trees Maria skips through! When we had a bit of free time when the tour guide wasn’t telling us facts from the movie, we all sang songs from the movie!! Of course Ainsley and I chimed in to help! LOVE that soundtrack! I totally felt like I was in Colorado again because of all the mountains and what not, but it was the real thing this time!! They also took us by the actual Red Bull corporation buildings, which are made of mostly glass so that was pretty neat! Then they took us to see the trees the children were all climbing in.. they’ve grown a bit since the movie! HAHA! Then they took us to none other than THE CHURCH MARIA AND THE CAPTAIN GOT MARRIED IN!!!! (AKA when we have my wedding over here, book your flights to Austria because that will be the church I get married in. Details to follow at a later date J) OMG that church was STUNNING and I mean GORGEOUSLY STUNNING.

I said a prayer on the kneeler since I hadn’t gone to church and I looked at Ainsley and was like, “I JUST PRAYED WHERE JULIE ANDREWS WALKED!!!!!” (haha)

I was in shock. Everywhere we walked……Julie Andrews probably walked on that same ground so many times!! I just love that movie.

So then we had some free time by the church for lunch and just to see the area. Ainsley and I once again did Austria right and got Apple Strudel! It was so good once again. The bakery had cheesecake and I was SO tempted. Ughh I miss my cheesecake days L. Then we looked around for a bit at the shops but they were all closed because it was Sunday. It was a super cute little area though. Then we finished the tour by watching some of the special edition feature from the movie, which was really cool and of course sang So Long Farewell L! So sad to be ending the tour, but it was a 4 hour tour which was so cool. We ended at the Mirabell Gardens where Maria sings around the fountains and the children touch the dwarfs. We never really found the dwarfs though L but we got the pics by the fountain! It was an awesome experience and totally worth it because I absolutely love that movie. When I was in Colorado this summer with the fam, I made my mom go get the movie so I could watch it.

I know you’re all wondering did Ainsley and I get the video of us singing in the Alps. NO we did not because along with a few other things they actually filmed no scenes in the Alps L so disappointing because we wanted that video.

Here are a few facts for all my fellow Sound of Music lovers:

1. Maria actually sang the opening scene at a different mountain in Salzburg, I cant remember how to spell it but it was kind of far away and we really didn’t know how to get there L
2. There are actually 2 gazebos. One is bigger and one is smaller. One is in Salzburg and the other was in the US at the time of filming. They actually had to move the gazebo a few years ago that was used in 16 going on 17 to a different location because meetings could barely be held at the palace anymore because of all the tourists singing I am 16 going on 17! HAHA! Also, the gazebo is now locked because an 82 year old one day was dancing around inside and slipped. She tried to file a lawsuit but she failed because apparently Austrians really don’t do lawsuits like Americans do! Haha Another fact about the gazebo is if you remember the scene with the Captain and Maria, the lighting back then was so bad that the light made weird noises and when it came time for the 2 to get romantic, they kept laughing because the noises sounded like someone farting. They did so many takes, Robert Wise said whatever and turned off the lights so that is why that scene is so dark so no one could tell if they were laughing!! Haha
3. Most of the outside scenes were filmed in Salzburg but all of the inside scenes besides the wedding were filmed in the US! L Which was very disappointing!! Also the lake and the house they had were filmed at 2 different spots. So when Maria and the Captain were talking in the backyard it was actually filmed in 2 different areas.
4. The cast was only supposed to be filming in Salzburg for 6 weeks but it actually turned into I think 11 because of the weather.
5. The actual Von Tropps now have a villa on the east coast that is still being run today as I think a hotel maybe?
6. Gretel, the youngest one, actually gained so much weight while in Salzburg because she hated Austrian food. There was like only 3 things she would eat and one of them was fried artichokes. When you watch it next, take a look at the part where the children fall when they’re in the boat with Maria. They shot that scene twice and all got asked the ? of can they swim. Well, Gretel couldn’t and Maria I believe caught her in the water the first time they shot the scene. However, the second time Maria fell into the water and if you look Gretel’s head pops up in the water, then back down, then up again because Maria wasn’t supposed to fall like that. They tried filming it a 3^rd time but something happened, so they kept the second. So watch for her head in the water! It was weird!

There are a few facts for all you guys! It was awesome and I am so glad Ainsley found us a way to get there!!

So after we got done at the gardens, we had free time to explore Salzburg before leaving at 5. Ainsley and I went around to the different stores if they were open. Why they have a Claire’s in Vienna and Salzburg, I will never understand. But the little stores were cute and Ainsley did Austria right by getting one of their special sausages. It was pretty good cause it had cheese inside! And let me say this, WHY THE HECK DO INTERNATIONAL PLACES MAKE MCDONALDS LOOK LIKE A 5 STAR RESTAURANT?? I swear, they look like an Olive Garden or something over here. They even have reminder signs on almost every corner! HAHA! It shocks me considering they are not near as nice in America. I will say this so, America is behind. They have brownie mcflurries over here. America is SLACKING!

Salzburg is absolutely gorgeous and I so wish the weather would have been nicer but it’s okay! I got so many pictures though! It is just a cute little place and I would love to go back some day! We really wanted to go up to the fortress but the easy way to go up the mountain was closed and it was a long hike up! So we walked around and around and got a tad bit bored. We found the Irish Pub we originally wanted to go to the night before and decided to stop in for a drink. Ainsley finally got her Strongbow cider she is in love with. I remembered Katie Hogan always telling me I have to try this special cider when I go to Dublin, but I couldn’t remember it. But just for you Hogan, I got Magners? Is that right? It wasn’t supposed to taste so beer like but it did, I was hoping it would taste more like apples! L SO everyone I had my first actual beer I guess yesterday. NEVER to be had again. I hate beer!! Haha We ended up going to the footbridge from the Sound of Music after that where the children and Maria all ran along! Def. a photo moment! HAHA! Then I looked at Ainsley in the beginning of our walking around and told her we don’t have a map. But knowing us 2-- we were like we can find our way back to the hotel. Seriously, Ainsley and I champ getting places now. We find our way with or without a map! Rome and Vienna we did without a map and then we did Salzburg too! Like I said before, really looking at everything we passed the night before def. came in handy at this point! HAHA! So we made it back to the hotel, very proud of ourselves of course!

We left about 5 for a very long bus ride to come! It was horrible but I finally got to watch Wedding Crashers since I had never seen it before and then got to watch The Hangover. They never could find Sound of Music for a legit price so we didn’t all get to watch that. We were sad L! SO those 2 movies helped to make time pass! But we didn’t get back to Florence till around 1:15 am and then had to get home so it was a late night cause I barely slept at all on the bus!

SO this morning def. overslept my 6am normal wake up call. But thankfully didn’t have my 9am class to go to! Ainsley and I knew not having that class today was going to pay off!! So I woke up finally started this thing and then got up and unpacked finally and did my lovely benderball. Went to Italian at noon and then worked out and then to Customer Relations at 3. Then came home made dinner and showered. Now back to writing this! So that’s caught up! WOOHOO! After customer relations is over, I am going to be the best Senior Living manager ever. HAHA!

Well, just to add a few things of thank yous and misc. info.

Bev (from work) and even Terri if you’re reading this because I know you love chocolate too-- totally meant to have you in the last blog for the chocolate festival info! You guys would have been obsessed and never would have wanted to leave!! Totally wish you guys could have been here for that!

To all my friends and family, I updated my facebook status today so I hope you like it if you have facebook- but if you don’t it reads----- I don’t know how I ever got so lucky to have the friends and family that I do. And I totally mean that!

Esp. all my friends back home, you guys make me want to cry at the texts, facebook posts, facebook messages, etc. of I miss you, come home messages! WELL I miss you guys too but don’t worry I will be home soon enough! But I love all the messages and I am glad you all miss me as much as I miss you. J SEIGS- I was sitting in the Holiday Inn lobby while we were waiting for the bus and I practically looked like I was about to cry my eyes out reading your message L! But it was cute and I loved it.

For the record, this no texting crap while I am over here is killing me!!!!! I am a technology loving 21 year old and I miss the ability for things to happen and text so and so about it or call them. BUT can’t do that here L I can’t tell you how many times I pick up my whiteberry and want to text whoever my stories. Thankfully I have this blog to do so. However, I know with iPhones they have a texting app. So I am looking into one for my whiteberry for when I have wifi when I am around school. So if anyone gets a weird text it’s probably from whatever application I found. We will see.

Hm……. And for the record, this blogging thing was like the best idea ever. I know I am going to read this so many times over the rest of my life. Besides writing in the journal my boss at Qdoba gave me, my pictures, facebook, and this blog- I will have so much to look back on and I love it! SO thanks to all those people who convinced me to write this thing! It will help me not to have so many stories to tell when I get home!! Wait who am I kidding, I have 4853409 stories to tell every day. Seigs, Nikki, and Krob- pretty sure you know that way too well by now!! Haha

But……. I received an email from Bev (from work) the other day asking me about the academic side, because that is why I am here, of this semester! HAHA This is a good question! So on that side, school is so different here. I looked at Alexa today and was like this semester is going to suck because I don’t know how I am ever going to get into school mode. I have 3 classes Monday, 2 on Tuesday, and 1 Wednesday with Thursday and Fridays off and so many places to travel. Hopefully I will manage to one of these days get into school mode! Haha! I have learned quite a bit in my classes however!

I will say this esp. since I know Dr. Dallas, ([the best department head ever]--Head of HRA at MSU) is reading this….. Special shout out def. goes to you for this! I definitely do miss Missouri State classes! Over the years I have definitely been able to praise how much I LOVE the HRA program at Missouri State to all of my family and friends. I like the classes and teachers here and I will definitely never regret coming here for school but I for sure can say I miss my favorite HRA program—teachers and classes included! J haha! So sad to think I only have 1 semester left at MSU after this! L

Alexa looked at me this morning and was like do you realize we only have 3 months left. 3 months from today we are supposed to leave…… Made me so sad because that seems so close but then I thought about it and even though 3 months sounds like nothing, 88 days sounds a lot longer! HAHA! This semester is just starting and I am super excited for everything else that is in the future.

2 of the things I def. have to put in here that I will thank myself for bringing in the future—my zig zag tennis shoes and my black purse from Target. I know most of my friends think those tennis shoes are just as ugly as my love for crocs, but those things are the best shoes ever on all of this old cobblestone. And if that black purse I got makes it through in tact by the end of this semester, I will praise the company whoever made it because people could probably bench press with this purse sometimes!! HAHA!

As for trips coming up, Dublin is starting to look like a no go and I am SUPER upset about it but hopefully I will find a way to go. L Hopefully nikki and I will be able to book our flights for London spring break within the next couple days! And a weekend in Venice after this weekend!

I received an email from my mom today saying my cousins who lived over in London for a few years are coming here at the end of Feb. so I am totally hoping I will be able to get to see them! I would love to see some family while I am here that is not seen through a webcam!! haha

Well this is getting way lengthier than I thought it would………whoopsies! I will write more tomorrow so I can split it up! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Loves and misses J check out the latest facebook photos if you can J

I found this.... it was cute. So katie hogan here is your quote for the day too!

When friends are forced to be apart from each other for whatever length of time, it will be a difficult period for the two of them. They will be forced to go through their normal routines apart from each other. Each one may miss the qualities that the other contributed to the friendship. There is a saying that, "absence makes the heart grow fond".

Dreams Dreams Dreams.

C-i-a-o!

Good morning my fellow Americans.

Last night about 11 pm Bess (other roommate) somehow by chance fixed our plumbing issues. It was great!!

Very much enjoyed my skype sessions with cousin Kelly the other night finally and then with Krob, Rachel, Seigs, and Deanne last night J I hate this time change and how much it affects my skyping abilities L

I could make this one really short about my day, but then I will go into detail of  a few things that I have learned so far over the past 3 weeks. Leave you with some good info since there will be no updates over the weekend.

Well today I had no class. So all I have done today is worked out and showered and just have to pack for this weekend.

Mini Details for this weekend:

Ainsley and I leave at approx. 10pm our time and get into Vienna around 9am. Have time to freshen up and then go on a walking tour of Vienna. Then they take us to The Bermuda Triangle (night life in Vienna). Then wake up Saturday and we have free time before leaving for Salzburg mid afternoon. We are thinking about going to one of the places that is considered a place where Hitler hid out during WWII. I am no world history lover, but I def. love American History and WWII stuff, esp because of my papa J Then they take us to Salzburg to see the night life there. And then on Sunday is a tour and then we can take the optional SOUND OF MUSIC tour, which of course we are because that is our whole reason for going J! The hills will be alive with the Sound of Music and so will we J!! I am so excited and can’t wait to share my photos on facebook and tell our stories on here J We will stick together and be careful of course.

So....... boring day but lets go into what I have learned over the past 3 weeks, at least a few things because I have learned a lot of other things besides these.

So last night I had a dream that I didn’t check my bank account until April and it turned out someone stole my card and I only had 5 dollars left. IT WAS HORRIBLE.

So this morning, major freak out moment and had to check my account. It is okay…… thankfully!

But I looked at it and as you know probably, the euro is $1.37 to the American $1.00. (Aka 1 of the reasons why I will not be living here the rest of my life, I miss my American dollar J haha!) I still have a lot of money left, but as most of you know this is all my money (which i am VERY proud of) with extra from others J (my parents, my lovely friends @ city hall, brother randall, etc. J thank you so much!! So much appreciated!!) and loans.

Anyways, I realized a few things.

Never in my life really have I ever had to stress about my bank account, my parents have told me how to pay loans and blah blah blah. Financially I have always been told what to do and how to do it. Never have I ever really created my own budget or kept track of my account, kept receipts, and so on…..never really needed to. As to where now I do. SO I decided in my down time waiting for alexa to get back to go to the gym. I formulated my own budget as to how much I can spend in a week and each day just in case and then I will keep a little record to make sure I am okay. I was very proud of myself for doing this.

But I also realized a few other things stemming from this budget that I am not afraid to admit and I am actually proud to admit that I realized these things.

Seigs, if youre reading this, skip this, it’s in your email already after our talk last night. Haha

Well, I realized that most of my money will be focused on my traveling. I thought about what is more worth it…. Traveling or clothes/eating out/shoes/accessories/etc. basically material goods.

The memories I have from traveling will stay with me much longer than any other material goods will. I have already admitted I rolled with the big leagues when I decided to go through the SAI program………it’s pricey, VERY pricey. But I WILL/HAVE TO come home with money in my account. I really don’t want my parents to have to watch me have a panic attack in the airport when they pick me up J haha! I’ve never been the little rich girl who could spend all the money in the world and I am totally fine with that. I don’t need to have the best style while I’m over here, nor do I need to when I get home (I never did before, so why start now!! HAHAHA!) I don’t need to shop at the stores equivalent to Macy’s/Nordstrom/etc. (all the rich American stores) when the clothes will probably go out of style soon enough or I just wont like them anymore since I am perfectly fine with the clothes I brought and I already have A TON of clothes at home. I don’t need to buy the expensive shoes when the shoes I brought are perfectly fine (I brought enough haha!) It’s not like I need heels on all this cobblestone anyways!! I don’t need to go out to dinner to all the best Italian restaurants when I get 1 hour of happiness from it, but I will go to the places who offer you wine instead of water. HAHA! I don’t need any more purses…….obviously. haha!

What I do want to spend my money on is traveling. I realized that last week in Rome and Tivoli, I looked out over all of Tivoli and was like wow, I cannot believe for a second that I am here. The memories I have from traveling will stick with me much longer into the future than any other material goods would.

I was very proud of these realizations. Some may think I am stupid, that im over here so why not spend my money, but whatever. Towards the end if I have a lot of money left, maybe I will go buy a few other things besides the souvenirs I’m going to bring home, but until then I am completely fine with the stuff I brought and the food I am already eating. Hell that kabob last night was better than anything, besides my sandwich, and it was perfectly cheap.

SO moral of the story. I am over here for the memories to last, not for the quick, I will remember it for a week and have to look back at facebook or my blog to remember it in the future and I am perfectly fine with admitting it on this. J Hopefully everyone can agree with my points. J

Anyways. You all go back to school, work, etc. and have yourselves a good weekend and I will be sure to come back with stories and photos to share after a great weekend singing to the Sound of Music.

Love and Miss you all!