Day 26- Going home!

Tuesday, May 18 (Day 26)

We go home today! We got up for breakfast at 7:15. We ate, packed up the coach, and said bye to the people who were staying in Paris. It was sad leaving them because we were really just getting to know them. But we said bye and the coach left at about 8:15. On our way to the airport!

The coach dropped us off at some really random terminal and it took us a while to figure out where check-in was. Once we found it, we prayed that our bags were under 50lbs (23kg). Everyone passed, some with only 20kgs and me, the heaviest (I don’t know how!!!) with 23.3kgs. They didn’t charge me for the extra .3kgs, though. We made it! Everything was checked in and we were on our way to the security line… which was an absolute mob! At first, we waited 25 minutes in a huge line to get to the actual line. Once we reached the actual line part, everyone started crowding around and the new people didn’t go to the first line. There were people everywhere pushing and shoving and complaining. It took us an hour and a half to finally get through the line. Once through, we were x-raying our carry-on’s and, of course, they stop while my bag was in there and start pointing to the screen. AWESOME! So they took two of my bags and pulled them aside, told me to get the rest of my stuff and to meet them over by the counter. They said that they saw three knives in one of my bags… crap! I forgot to pack them in my checked-bag because I had put them in a plastic bag with the rest of the souvenirs I bought. The third one was a little pocket pliers-scissors-screwdriver that I carried on all my other flights with no problems. So the lady gave me two options: 1. Throw them away and continue to the gate for my flight, or 2. Go back to check-in and check them. I really didn’t want to throw them away, especially because they are unique to Switzerland (not even online!). I didn’t know what to do. I stood there for a few minutes talking to my friends, across the room, while the lady is telling me that I need to make up my mind NOW! They told me that a second checked-bag was 55 euros! Crapppppp! That’s a lot! Then this other lady came by and said that I could buy a box to put them in and that would only be 10 euro. So I made up my mind to go back to check-in and check the knives. My friends took all of my belongings so I didn’t have to go back through security when I was done. All I took was my wallet, passport, and the knives.

I couldn’t find the exit signs and I must have asked 15 different people where to go. The best part of that is that I was pretty grumpy, so when I went to ask someone where something was, I would just go up to them and ask. Everyone I did that to made me smile and say hello to them first. I felt bad for being rude to the first few people but I had already had a rough morning and I was not happy that I had to go back to check-in.

I saw this nice looking airport staff lady and asked her where I could go to go back to check-in. She told me and I followed her directions. I finally made it to check-in. BUT, now the line was HUGE! I did NOT want to wait in that line to check 3 tiny knives. I went and found a guard and asked him and he told me to go to a counter and ask this certain guy. So I went to the counter and guess who was there? That lady! I was so happy to see her again—she was really nice, easy to understand, and told me the correct directions.

I told her what was going on and she jumped up to help me! She took me to buy the box and we skipped the line, then took me back to her station to wrap the box and put tags on it. I then asked about the price of checking a second bag. She said she would look up my records and if it was a second bag then it would probably be 55 euro, even though she disagreed with it because my box weighed less than 1kg. She did her part and then went to ask her supervisor if she could override the fee because it was such a small and light package and it was a mistake. He agreed! That was a bit of luck. So then she took me to the passport line and I skipped everyone and then she took me to security and wished me a safe flight. Thank you lady! But now, the security line was just as long as before. I literally only had my wallet and passport on me and, again, did not want to wait in that huge line that I already spent an hour and a half in. I asked another guard. I explained to him what was going on and I think he was trying to funnily give me a hard time. He finally winked and said he would take me to the priority line. YAY! So I got through security in just a few minutes.

Well that all wasn’t so bad looking back now, but dang! Why do things like this always happen to me?? (Granted, I DID forget about the knives which was my fault)

When I got back through security, I met up with the other 4 in the café where they said they would be. After a while of eating, talking, and resting, we headed to our gate.

When we had our tickets checked at the gate, the guard said to me, in a French accent, “What is your final destination?” I said, “Orlando.” He goes, “Detroit! Good! Where are you flying from?” I was a bit confused but said, “Here…” He said, “Good!” I found that conversation very amusing.

At the gate, I wrote some postcards desperately trying to get them sent out in the airport to be postmarked from France. I got 5 done and asked a guard if there was a postbox where I could drop them. He said no. ☹ now what? I guess I’ll just send them IN the US FROM Paris. Another guy looked at me right before I turned around to walk away and goes, “I’ll mail them for you.” Aw, how nice! I thanked him and went back to my seat. I had 5 cards left and frantically started writing as many more as I could. I got 4 more done before they called boarding and I ran to find that guy to add them to my other pile. I found him and he stacked them right on top of the other pile that was right next to him at his desk. What a nice guy.

On the plane, I went to get something out of my souvenir bag and discovered that the bag of chips I got for my mom was huge! The empty spaces inside the bag had completely filled with air. I though the bag was going to explode! I opened the corner of the bag to prevent that from happening. So mom—sorry if your chips are a little stale. I figured it would be better than an exploded bag on the plane ;).

When we got to Detroit, we had to go through customs. I had put down that I brought food back into the US and they asked me what I had and I said, "Wine, some Italian chips and snacks..." The Guard looked at me and put his pen on my birthday and goes, "What's wrong with this picture?" I automatically assumed that I wrote my birthday wrong so I replied, "Oh, did I write my birthday in the wrong boxes? I can fill out another form..." He kept pointing and repeated himself. I was really confused and couldn't figure out what he was talking about. He finally said, "The drinking age in the United States is 21. You said you had a bottle of wine in your suitcase." Argh! I asked him what I could do and he was giving me a hard time to be funny. He then said that he would let it go and pretend he didn't know about it and if I happened to get stopped for a ransom check to tell the guards that it is one of my friends and it was in my bag because of the weight limits. Another streak of good luck!

Then we got to the part where they check our carry-on bags (even though they had already been checked in Paris...) and all 5 of us got stopped for some reason or another. The guards were nice and were making fun of us for bringing back unique souvenirs. One of them goes, "What happened to bringing back keychains?!"

So after alllllllll that, I ran through the airport to meet up with my cousins who so generously met me at the airport for a bite to eat. We had a nice, but quick, visit and then I had to go to catch my next plane.

The plane from Detroit to Orlando was extremely empty and I had a row of 3 seats to myself so I layed across them and used my sleeping bag as a pillow. I think that is the first time I slept on a moving vehicle this entire trip! And that surely made the plane ride seem short! We arrived in Orlando around 10:30.

We were home!!!!!!!!

Day 25- Paris

Monday, May 17 (Day 25)

Today is our day in Paris! I woke up feeling pretty sick: headache, super stuffy yet runny nose, and a super sore throat with a lost voice. We ate breakfast and then headed into the city. The first stop was the Eiffel Tower. We had a group photo taken first and then we had 5 only minutes to take personal photos. We had 7 girls with us and 6 of us made a human pyramid. Then we switched out girls and I was on top this time. I threw my hands up in the air. What a fun picture! Then we all had individual shots with the tower.
After being yelled at by Filippo to hurry up, we got back on the coach and headed to the perfumery. On our way there, Russell took us to the Arc de Triomphe and drove around it a few times while the song “Danger Zone” from Top Gun was playing and we were all screaming and cheering for him. Apparently, it is so dangerous that as soon as you enter it, all vehicle insurance does not work. I guess there is an accident every 12 minutes. There are also 12 roads that feed off of this crazy roundabout. At the perfumery we learned a little about perfume, how it is made, and a little history. Then we got the chance to buy some! I bought mom a bottle there.

We only had half an hour at the perfumery so we jumped back on the coach to go to our next destination. Turns out, it was just us 5 Florida girls! And instead of going where we were ‘supposed’ to go, we asked Russell if he would drop us off at Notre Dame and he agreed.

We got to the church and took some pictures and went inside to take some more pictures. It was truly a beautiful church.
After Notre Dame, we headed to a café for lunch. It was really good and not too pricy! I ordered a quiche with broccoli and cheese and Erica and I split a French onion soup- it was SO good! Some of the other girls ordered a sandwich and it came as an open-faced sandwich and looked like something my mom had been cooking Justin and I since we were little: pumpernickel bread with melted Colby cheese and tomatoes on top. That looked good too!

The Louvre was next on our list. I did not realize how BIG it was! What a huge museum!! It is said that if you took a minute to look at each piece of artworks there, it would take you over 9 months to get through the whole museum. And it was really cool to see the pyramid outside after having read The Da Vinci Code a few years back. We went in and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the inverted pyramid.

After that, we sat on the lawn outside the Louvre for a few minutes to get some rest and then decided we wanted to go shopping. After walking 30 minutes down the road, and buying a Nutella crepe, we realized that the shops were much further than we thought and we turned around. We found some chairs around a fountain and all took a seat. I think everyone but I dozed off for a bit there. The sun was really nice but it got chilly when it went behind the clouds. It was also very windy! After two and a half hours of napping, we made our way over to meet up with the rest of our tour to change for dinner. We walked to the coach as a group and the girls got on the bus first to change. We pulled down the shades and started changing. Then it was the guy’s turn. While we were waiting for them, we discovered that the shades were see-through and only blocked the sun, but we were in a parking garage and everything could be seen! Good thing I wasn’t facing the window!!

We all headed over to dinner. We had to walk up a million stairs up a steep hill but the view was definitely worth it! We could see the whole city from there!

At dinner, we had a four course meal. First was appetizers and I ordered escargot, although the French onion soup was tempting. For the entrée, I ordered fish of the day, which was cod. It came in a white sauce and had spinach and some potato thing. The bread and wine were unlimited and we were poured one glass of white wine with current liquor. It was good! Sweet, but strong. I saved that one for dessert. So, I had three glasses of wine in front of me: white for dinner, red for the cheese course that we had next, which was brie, and then the liquor wine for dessert which was chocolate mousse cake. It was all SO good!

Carli’s birthday was the next day but this was a great time to celebrate it: while everyone is together at our farewell dinner. Filippo came over, singing “Happy Birthday,” and gave Carli a present. Everyone joined in on the song and the lights were turned out and a piece of cake with a candle in it was brought over. It was really cute.

After dinner, Filippo brought us to an Irish Pub, O’Sullivans by the Moulin Rouge. This place was EXPENSIVE! Carli got a free shot for her birthday and we all hung out. Then one of the guys bought a round of shots for everyone. The dancing started and we were having fun. I was still feeling under the weather, though. I sat on the couch the majority of the night and just watched everyone dance. That was fun to me! I bought Carli and I a drink for her birthday and then I about called it quits. I lied down on the couch in the lounge and the guys were trying to get me to go out on the dance floor. I either refused OR was picked up and put there but I didn’t dance. I found three other girls who were ready to go and we all went back to the camp sight.
It was late and it was cold, and our taxi driver took the longest way possible, but I was happy to be so close to bed. I took a shower and hit the hay.

Day 24- Paris

Sunday, May 16 (Day 24)

Today was our LONG drive! We went from Switzerland to Paris, left around 7am and got to Paris around 5pm. On the bus, Carli and I played card games with Bob and Dick. That helped. But once again, I couldn’t sleep one bit on that stupid bus!

When we got to Paris, we had a welcome at a café there. We all sat down at the café and had a single snail (escargot) and a glass of champagne. I really enjoyed both!

Once done with that, Russell took us around the city to show us around so we could figure out what we wanted to do the next day.

After all of that, we got to our camp sight and brought our bags in and had dinner. Carli and I were at the camp store trying to buy drinks for the night and it was then that I realized that I was supposed to be in the kitchen on dinner duty! Oops! I ran to the kitchen and finished up cutting the dessert and platting it. Then we ate dinner. It was good! It was pasta with feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and olives, salad, and rice with stuff in it.

After dinner, I took a shower and then met up with the girls to go to the bar at the camp. I really wasn’t feeling well that night and even gave my cider away. I hung around for an hour and nothing was going on. We were all supposed to play a card game but nothing was starting! I was feeling worse and worse and I decided to call it quits and go to bed. Wouldn’t you know that as I am leaving, the rest of the crew shows up to play the card game? I missed out again. Oh well, sleep was more important and I definitely knew that the next morning!

Day 23- Switzerland

Saturday, May 15 (Day 23)

We got to sleep in today (Still in Switzerland)!! Breakfast was at 8am and we went down all ready to go to the top of the mountain after breakfast. We got bad news though, there was bad weather and it wasn’t really worth it to go up the mountain for that amount of money.

So I decided not to go and hang back with Carli, Erica, and Lisa. We went into town and shopped around and I went to the post office to mail 5 postcards, which cost me 13 euro!! What an expensive post office!! Then we went to Trummelbach falls which is a bunch of waterfalls inside of a mountain. It was beautiful, but really cold and really wet. It was a 45ish minute walk and we played with the cows and sheep on our way there and way back. Once there, we took a lift to go up to the top of the mountain. It was a pretty steep lift and it had glass windows that allowed us to see everything that was going on to make this lift work. Kinda scary… looked like Splash Mountain in Disney!

After admiring the booming, rushing falls, we moseyed back to camp and had lunch at the café on at the camp sight. We ate with some Contiki workers there. For lunch, Carli and I split rossi and a pasta dish. Rossi is like hashbrowns with toppings like tomatoes, eggs, cheese, etc.

After lunch, we all went to take showers and get clean. The showers reminded me of dorm showers! And they were cold at first but then got reallyyyy nice. There showers also had a button that you had to keep pressing to keep the water going. Only this time, it lasted for two or three minutes.

After getting dressed, we went to dinner which was American hamburgers and fries (and really weren’t that good). After dinner, we walked to the camp bar and bought a beer to bring back to the lounge. Everyone was watching tv and we sat in there for a while just hanging out.

Then it was time to go out! We went to the camp bar and from there went to a disco in town. We were allowed to bring our drinks in which we all thought was pretty cool.

That night was… a night full of fun! We all danced and were bought drinks by guys. An older man, claiming to be 44, wanted to buy me a drink and dance, but I thought that was weird and said no. He bought me a drink anyways but I walked away from him after that.

We all stayed out quite late, I think we made it back to our room around 2:30 or 3am. But it was a fun night!

Day 22- Switzerland

Friday, May 14 (Day 22)

We left Venice this morning at 7am and headed to Switzerland. The drive was spectacular! There were mountains all around us and we could see their snow-capped tops. There were also cows and sheep in fields along the way. The roads were extremely windy- hairpin turns every couple of minutes. We were climbing the mountain fast! We were also going under many tunnels and when we looked behind us when we came out we realized that we had just passed through a massive mountain!
Ben slept in the aisle of the bus on our way there.

On our way to Lucerne, our tour guide Filippo was talking about the Swiss government and just at the second, we were getting pulled over by the Swiss cops. They wanted to check our weight and driving record. How funny!

We got to a city and saw the weeping lion carving then got to Lucerne. We had two hours to shop around the town. We were taken to a Swiss army shop and I ended up buying two white Swiss army knives (in the color white that are unique to Switzerland) and had them engraved. I also bought Swiss chocolate for my family and friends.

We got to Jungfrau around 7pm and brought our stuff to our rooms and headed down to dinner. It was really good here! There was some chicken and rice with black pepper and risotto looking rice and salad. Dessert was tarkel (I forget the correct word but this sounds similar to it. The real world was used in Alice in Wonderland) which was a watered down vanilla pudding with fruit cocktail and a streusel-like toping.

After dinner, we got into pj’s and played a few card games. Then story time started and I fell asleep.

Day 21- Venice

Thursday, May 13 (Day 21)

We were up and ready and downstairs for breakfast this morning at 7:15am. I had a nice breakfast and then it was time to load up the coach and move on to Italy, Venice to be exact. We stopped once in Italy on our way over for some lunch and Lisa and I split 3 dishes. Then we got back on the bus and headed to Venice.

The bus ride today was super annoying. Everyone and everything was really quiet in the beginning, when I was updating my blog. Then when I decided to TRY and sleep, the music started blaring and people were over-compensating and screaming to each other. I did not get a good night sleep last night and I was really looking forward to resting. On top of that, the blaring music was some random, obnoxious music. Oh well.

So we got to our Venice camp sight, in the outskirts of Venice around 2pm. We are staying in little cabins, three to a room and it has a bathroom in it. Since I was so tired, I brought my bags into my room and passed out until 3pm because we were meeting at 3:15 to go to the city.

We left the camp sight and took a little ferry over to Venice island. It was about a 20 minute boat ride. Venice is also very beautiful! There is water all around and it was really sunny out today. It was like a taste of Italy and Florida all in one! There are bridges everywhere and skinny streets with no cars- all walking/biking.

We saw a few landmarks and stopped to get pizza, gelato, and a doughnut. We shopped around in the little shops and admired the Venetian glass and lace that the vendors were offering.

At 6:45 we all met up to go on our gondola ride. As I said before, the weather was absolutely gorgeous: the warm sun with a nice cool breeze. Well imagine that it started POURING as soon as we met up to go to the gondolas, because it did! We were told that there would be no refunds and it was either go on the gondola in the rain or stay behind and eat the money. So we decided to go. We had a bottle of white wine on the boat and it turned out to be a nice ride. We were on the gondola for about a total of 35 minutes. The rain was on and off so our umbrellas were opened and closed. But it was nice that the three gondolas that had our tour members on them were all together and for a while were going side-by-side.

After the gondola ride, we all went to get dinner. We stopped at a restaurant and Carli and I split an artichoke pizza and gnocchi. It was pretty good but a bit expensive considering the portion size. We also order a “sprits”- a white wine/orange vodka drink that is popular in Venice. It was good and was served with a blood orange slice. After dinner, Lisa and I got gelato again- out last gelato on this trip! I do have to say that it was a bit weird being back in Italy. It seems like our second home now.

We got back on the ferry around 9 and headed back to the camp sight. Laying here in bed now, typing this blog, the cabin is rocking back and forth and it is really a strange feeling.

Day 20- Austria

Wednesday, May 12 (Day 20)

We woke up and went downstairs for breakfast, at the hostel, at 7:15. We ate- not a very good breakfast though. We loaded up in the coach and headed to Austria. We got here around 4 and checked into the Contiki stopover, which is just a hotel/hostel that Contiki owns. After bringing our bags up two flights of stairs, we changed and met downstairs for our bike tour. Although, we found out that we did not have a guide for the bike tour; we were simply renting a mountain bike and going exploring. Carli, Erica, and I all went on this bike tour. We rode down a local road and found some cows (all of which have cow bells!! So cool!!) and really pretty houses and fall running down the mountain. We also saw a creek running through the town over river rocks and there is a logging company right near where we are staying that was cool to see. Then we rode into town and went to a souvenir shop and a local supermarket. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a local bakery and Carli and Erica bought a pretzel which was really good.

The views and landscapes in Austria are BEAUTIFUL! This is where “The Sound of Music” was filmed and it looks exactly how it did in that movie. The town we were in was Tyrol (Tirol in German) and was surrounded by mountains covered in bright green grass. Trees populated the top of the mountains and there was a bit of snow on the very top. The fields were covered in bright yellow flowers and Erica and I, then Carli and I frolicked in the field of flowers, skipping, and spinning in circles.

We got back to the hotel and got re-dressed and did some laundry. After that we went downstairs and waited for dinner. At 6:30pm, we all had a welcome from the staff and hung out for a few minutes and went to dinner. We had turkey schnitzel, salad, potato salad, and apple strudel.

After dinner we went back upstairs to get ready for our party- themed cross-dressers! So the girls borrowed the guy’s clothes and the guys borrowed the girl’s clothes. It was hilarious getting ready for this party! I have to say, I have been to a party with the same theme before but this group of people took it to a whole new level!

Carli ended up wearing Ben’s rugby outfit and his sneakers that were way too big for her. Lisa wore Bob’s outfit that was khaki shorts with a tan plaid shirt tucked in and Sperry’s with long white tube socks. Erica wore some scruffy clothes and made some really dark 5-O’clock shadow and looked like a cross between Jesus and Luke Wilson. Paula dressed as a gangster and wore jeans with a black button down and a hat. I wore a black, golf polo shirt with a pair of khaki pants with a brown belt and Sperry’s.

We all put on make up to look like guys: made our eyebrows thicker and not neat, scruff on the face, goatees, mustaches, beards, and some drew hair on their chest and legs with an eyeliner pencil. Some of the guys came to our rooms to get made up and they got eye shadow, lip stick, a fake mole, new eyebrows, and nails painted.

We all met downstairs around 9:30pm and the party started off with a “battle of the sexes” which was confusing because they would say, “Guys to the right, girls to the left” and we didn’t know who they were referring to… the guys DRESSED as girls or the girls DRESSED as guys… haha

After the battle of the sexes, we danced around a little bit. Because of the way my make-up looked, I took on the role of the creepy guy that stands in the back and just stares at people while dancing very subtly. I was told that I never break character and I was in fact, creepy. I thought it was really funny and a ton of fun. I was tired though; we have been going for 19 days now, nonstop. After a bit, Carli and I went upstairs to shower and go to bed.

Day 19- Munich

Tuesday, May 11 (Day 19)

We woke up this morning at 5:45am to get ready for breakfast at 6:45am. We ate and left for Munich at 7:15. The drive was somewhere between 6 and 7 hours- it was a long haul but I hear that our drive to Pairs from Switzerland is 10 hours! Anyways, we played music for the bus from one of our iPod’s and played some card games. We taught Canadians how to play Uno and we also played some other games like “things”. The games made the bus ride feel much shorter.
Munich looked very different from St. Goar- it looked more like America. There were buildings all around and people walking everywhere and at every corner.

We arrived in Munich and checked into the hostel. We got ready to go out in the city center and go to the beer hall following that. We all curled out hair and one of the other Amanda’s curled my hair and ended up burning my shoulder—twice. Around 4pm we went to the city center and walked around for an hour (and found an amazing pastry shop that we bought apple strudel, a piece of veggie pizza, and a cinnamon-sugar croissant) then watched the Glockenspiel play at 5pm. The only times it plays is at 12pm, 1pm, and 5pm. I’m glad we were able to see it. It was a very big clock, the biggest in Germany, and it has something like 42 separate bells inside it. There are two layers of characters on a circular track and when the clock strikes 12, 1, and 5, the characters start playing. It is supposed to be a story about when there was a fight and the blue and white team won (I forget who this fight was between and who was each color…) and you can see a knight on a horse knock the other knight over. This was all happening on the top layer. The bottom layer, after the fight had been “won,” the characters were celebrating and dancing all around. I though this clock was really cool although other people didn’t feel the same way. It amazes me that this clock was built so long ago and still works. The enactments of the characters are really cool to watch. We watched for 10 minutes and left before it had finished, but we figured that the characters were going to just continue on the circular track around and around.

After watching the clock, we went shopping! I got 2 shirts at a really cheap store in the city center and then got a pair of pants and a skirt at H&M. Good shopping there! It was really the first time I went shopping for myself in Europe.
Then we all met by the Glockenspiel at 6:45pm to head over to the beer hall. It took us a few minutes to drive there in the coach. We got there and walked inside and there were rows and rows of tables all set up for us. We only took up 3 of them, maybe an 8th of the whole beer hall. There were two men playing music up on the stage; one playing the trumpet and the other playing a piano-looking-organ-sounding instrument. We were informed that there was a special song and cheers at points of our meal and we witnessed it for the first time about 15 minutes after we walked in. The guy starts playing the song and the other guy starts singing something that sounds like “bullsh*t, bullsh*t, blahblahblah blah blahblah,” then the cheers part that follows sounds something like, “eins, zwei, drei, superfly, zuran, PROST!” The “prost” is the “cheers” and everyone clanks glasses together and drinks. During this whole singing, cheersing thing everyone holds up their beer (which is a massive 1 liter beer in a very thick glass) and swings it back and forth from side to side until the cheers part. It was a lot of fun. We got our food, I ordered vegetarian because the other options were pork knuckle (just sounds gross) and chicken but it was prepared differently. My meal came out and it was similar to mozzarella sticks: a very strong cheese breaded and then fried. It came in a tomato sauce with broccoli. It was good.

While eating, 4 girls came out on the staged dressed up in the usual German outfit and began dancing. At first, they were just standing on the stage with garland looking arches and were moving them back and forth over their heads. Then they started dancing and twirling. They also played songs using only cow bells then a xylophone. That was also very fun to watch. I finished my beer and was bought another one by Ben, a guy on our tour. I only drank half- I shared with Erica. Then the dancing started. We all stood up and did the chicken dance, and then other modern songs were being played. We were all dancing around and having a good time. At one point, a train started and went around the room.

After a while of dancing, eating, drinking, and having fun, we left the beer hall and went back to the coach to go back to the hostel. But, the party continued on the coach, too! Everyone was standing up in the aisle and dancing, our tour guide was playing dancing music, and he was also flipping the lights on and off to look like strobe lights. It was a lot of fun.
We got back to the hostel and I went downstairs to use the internet and update my blog. But first, we called Contiki to get our voucher situation figured out: We signed up at a certain time and got $100 off and then a $100 voucher for excursions but for some reason only one girl got the voucher. So Paula and I sat on Skype and talked to these people. Apparently, they couldn’t find any record of it but we all have it in our confirmation emails. They said they were going to ask the big boss and email us the vouchers if found.

I also went on skype but the only person that was on to talk to was Craig so I talked to him for a little bit. In the hostel, there were a bunch of younger German boys and they were trying to talk to us and make friends. They kept coming over to my computer and looking at the screen and saying, in English, “Oh, it’s okay, I can’t read English.” I kept yelling at them to get away. That was a little annoying.

After my time on the internet, I went upstairs to get ready for bed. I took a shower- wow what an experience! You know how when you are in a public restroom and you have to press the handle of the faucet in to get water and then it turns off after a few seconds and you press it again? Yea, well that was what our shower did. It took me twice as long to shower as normal. I counted and the water only stayed on for 5 seconds. It was like soaping your hair with the water off, then rinsing your hair, then water off to soap up your body, then rinse off, then wash face with no water on, then rinse. That was super annoying. Then I went to bed.

Day 15- London

Friday, May 7 (Day 15)

We had the leisure to sleep in a little bit (as in waking up at 8am which is still early for me). Lisa and I started packing our bags to leave. We were also trying to do laundry before we started our tour and the dryer wasn’t working well. And it doesn’t help that we left our clothes outside last night while at dinner and got wet so they needed to be re-dried.

The taxi picked us up at 12:30 and we got to the airport around 1. Our fight to London was at 5:30. We were checking in and the lady told us that we should transfer to the 1:30 flight because they didn’t know what the volcano’s next move was going to be. We all said that we were fine for the 5:30 flight but she basically pushed us to go on the 1:30 flight. We agreed and she starting transferring our tickets (for free) and taking all of our paper work and weighing our bags. She was doing this all in a hurry because it was already 1:00 and the gate closed at 1:10… we still needed to go through security and get to our terminal.

So she just took our papers and printed out our new tickets and told us to quickly get to the gate. The line for security was pretty long and we were trying to ask people if we could go in front of them because we were late but most of them didn’t understand English, including the guards. So we waited in line and when 3 out of the 5 went through, we RAN through the airport to our gate, which was up some stairs, down a hall, a tram ride, some more stairs, and another hall. WE FINALLY MADE IT THERE with 10 minutes to spare! But it didn’t look like anyone was boarding yet. We found out that the plane was late getting in so our flight was delayed. Go figure. I guess that was our workout for the day.

After about an hour, we boarded the plane. Once on the plane, we waited yet another 2 hours before the plane took off. There was some kind of traffic jam on the runway. Lisa and I were sitting next to an Italian lady and her 1 ½ year old son. He was Italian and Dutch and was learning 3 languages. It amazes me how behind Americans are in the world. The little boy was cute but it wasn’t fun when it was crying a screaming and having to get up to go to the bathroom.

We finally arrived in London! We were really excited and went to baggage claim to get our bag to find out that… apparently our bags didn’t make it on the plane! Now what!!

We went to the British Airways counter to get things figured out and we filled out a lost/misplaced baggage claim. They so “generously,” as Erica put it, gave us a bag with travel shampoo, body gel, lotion, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, and an XL, very see-through white t-shirt. How generous!!

After getting all of that done, we bought a “tube” (subway) ticket to go to our hotel. We were on this for about an hour, maybe 50 minutes. We got to our hotel (The Royal National) and at first they couldn’t find our reservation. Great- another thing to deal with. After 20 minutes or so, we finally got a room. We put all of our stuff in our rooms (Lisa and I, and Erica, Paula, and Carli). We were hungry by this point so we set out to find food. The guy at the concierge suggested a good place for fish n chips and we went searching for it. His directions were literally, “Go out of the hotel, go left, right, left, right and you’ll see it.” Helpful. We did end up finding it, but the prices were a bit much for us. So we went back to the pub that was adjacent to our hotel, “The London Pub.” This was a really fun place- the bartenders were really nice and they played American music. Plus, the food was pretty decently priced, too. The five of us ordered fish n chips and three of us had a beer and the other two had a Smirnoff cooler. The food was delicious! We finished the food, ordered another drink, and hung out there for a while. We were all invited to go bowling with the bartenders and we wanted to go BUT we had nothing to change into because we didn’t have our bags and we were really tired from traveling. So, we left and went up to our rooms to go to bed.

Day 14- Last day in Rome

Thursday, May 6 (Day 14)

Today was our last day of our internship. Thursday, May 6 (Day 14)It was also the school’s dance festival. It was really nice to see all of the grade’s dances. It was also neat to see my friend’s classes dance. This took place for the morning part of school, until about 11am. Because of this dance, there was no math lesson in the morning and the 8th grade was there in the afternoon, of which I do not teach. So it was a pretty easy day for me.

Michelle and I did go to the market to pick up the meat and cheese for the sandwich making that was taking place later on. We also stopped by the supermarket to pick up baggies, napkins, and lettuce. It was very interesting because I was explaining to Michelle what a hard time we had had going to this market because no one spoke English and we couldn’t ever find what we needed. She looked at me and said, “Really? All of the people here can speak English.” That was really awesome to hear… NOT! So all that hassle we went through to buy food for dinners was purely for the Italian’s amusement.

We got back to the school and met with a 2nd grade class to make the sandwiches. This is a service project that Ambrit does every other Thursday. Michelle picks up the supplies and goes around to different classes for help putting the sandwiches together. The kids were so cute doing while making them. Once that was done, the day was about over as far as school went.

We got back to the dorms after school we all did laundry and took a nap. When we woke up, we finished the laundry (hung it all up outside because dryers are a rarity and often do not dry clothes all the way. We also got ready for our second “seminar dinner.” This one was with all of the interning teachers and some select, significant staff members. Michelle came to this and I was very glad she did. Lots and lots of starters were passed around and then Lisa and I split a plate of Carbonera and some dish with olive oil and pepper. They were both good, but filling! Then for dessert: Lisa and I split a chocolate mousse and a tiramisu. We also had Lemonchello sent our way. I’m not sure how I feel about that drink…

At the end of dinner, Michelle told me that she had a little something for me. It was raining outside but I had an umbrella and I offered to go to her scooter with her to get my gift. She looked down at my feet and said, “No! I’ll go… your toes are all uncovered and stuff!!” (they don’t wear flip flops really in Italy, or really no open-toed shoes). I thought that comment was cute. She came back with a bag that had a bottle of wine in it and tortalina, curly-q baked dough snacks from Italy.

Lisa and I got left behind on our walk home, in the rain, but eventually made it back to our dorm. Upon returning, we remember that out clothes were outside and it was raining!!!! What a waste of work! We ran up the stairs to see how wet our clothes were and we were lucky enough to have put the drying rack under an awning! But they were a little soggy from the humidity and the wind blowing some of the rain on the clothes. We brought them in and were going to deal with it in the morning.

Peices of the blog

So since I started to lack in the blog area, I have started to go backwards to remember the most details. I will fill in the blog as I have time on the bus (coach) and I have the days labeled.

Europe is amazing!!!

Day 18- Amsterdam and Germany

Monday, May 10 (Day 18)

We were in Amsterdam again today. We met for breakfast at 7am and got on the bus and left for the city at 8am. We had until 12 to wander around the city. We went to the Anna Frank house and it was amazing—much bigger than I expected. Walking around the house was very moving. At the end of the exhibit there was a room about Otto Frank, Anne’s dad, and how his plan was to rid the world of discrimination. That was one of the reasons that he published Anne’s diary.

After the museum, we walked around the city. We were trying to find the rich district to see the houses and buildings there.
Many of the shops were closed because they open later on Mondays… what a party city! Haha

I wanted to walk by the red district again to see what it was like during the day. We didn’t make it, but I was told that it is open 24 hours. So weird!

We grabbed some food at Subway and hopped back on the bus to head to Germany. On the bus, we all individually introduced ourselves. Afterwards, I tried to sleep on the bus but it is SO hard! We stopped at a rest stop and I asked the lady at the counter what a certain flavor was and she started ringing me up. I told her I just wanted to know the flavor and she started speaking this foreign language to me. I didn’t realize we were already in Germany!!

We got to St. Goar in Germany, the Rhine Valley, around 6pm. This is where the first kookoo-clock was made, the land of the teddy bear, and originators for Birkenstocks shoes. The Germans are also the third biggest beer drinkers behind by the Czech and Irish, and castles and wine (ice wine) are very famous here.

We saw a few shops before checking into our hotel- Birkenstock, a beer stein store, and the first teddy bear shop. We checked into our hotel and were given a real key! No swipe key. It is SO beautiful here! You can see castles on the top of mountains and the flowers against the river in the background were just beautiful! We met for dinner around 7 (some kind of meat sliced, noodles, peas and carrots that we all got 3 extra servings of, and a cherry, chocolate cake for dessert.

After dinner we went to take a walk around outside along the Rhine River. It was really nice. Then we saw a castle on top of a mountain semi-close to us and we decided to go up to it because it said “hotel” on its side and we wanted to check out the lobby. We stopped at a gelato place on the way, and again, took me right back to when we were Rome.

On our way, we stopped in the cellar where the wine tasting was going on. That was kinda cool. Then we made our way up the very steep hill to the top where the castle hotel was. The view was spectacular!!! We could see all of the small town of St. Goar, the Rhine Rover, and the other castles that were now at our level but across the river.

After wandering around the castle for a while (we couldn’t find the lobby and it was getting dark) we headed back to our hotel. When we got there, everyone was down in our hotel lobby drinking, smoking, and playing games but we decided to go up to our rooms and go to bed early. We ended up in bed by 11:45pm-- probably the earliest the 5 of us have gone to sleep since we arrived in Europe! It was very relaxing.

Day 17- Amsterdam

Sunday, May 9 (Day 17)

Our contiki tour started today! We had to meet downstairs at 6am to check in and get ready to board the coach. We still don’t have any luggage but that means that we didn’t have to weigh our luggage! (and I am pretty sure that mine was over the limit…)
So we woke up at 5am to shower and get ready and to get our luggage situation figured out.

For our shower, we used the travel shampoo and body wash that British Airways “generously” gave us. Second day with no conditioner. Last night was my second day wearing my DAILY contacts. So I took them out to sleep because they started to irritate my eyes, which means that this morning I had to contacts to put in (because they are all in my luggage). I started off the day blind. I tried asking people if they had glasses or contacts similar to my prescription but no one that I talked to seem to have anything that would help.

Paula’s mom called the airlines to figure out what was going on because we were promised our luggage on Saturday night. They knew that we were leaving for Amsterdam early on Sunday morning and had our status as “urgent.” After trying to figure out what was going on, we finally found out that our bags were at the Heathrow airport (in London) all last night! But because there was no one working at the desk because it was after-hours, there was no way for us to check it out of the airport. So close, yet so far!! So the airlines said that they would get our bags onto the next plane to Amsterdam and it would meet us at the hotel later tonight. They PROMISED! So we were glad that they bags were still in sight and going to be on their way to meet us.

We all met downstairs and got checked in, DIDN’T have to check in our bags since we didn’t haven’t any, and set off towards Amsterdam!
We arrived at the ferry station, to cross the English Channel, and saw the castle on top of the white cliffs of Dover. The cliffs are white because they are made of chalk. It was pretty cool. The ferry was huge! We drove our coach onto the ferry and walked inside. It was like a cruise ship with coffee shops, cafes, lunch rooms, and lounges. Because I couldn’t see, I couldn’t read any of the signs so I was blindly following everyone else. It was really rocky on the boat and we all felt like we were drunk walking around.

After an hour and a half, we arrived to France. We boarded our coach, on the ferry, and waited for the ferry to dock. We drove off and were continuing our journey to Amsterdam!

While on the bus, we played speed-dating to get to know everyone. We had two ro three minutes to talk with the person sitting next to us, then we all moved one seat forward, or backward in some cases, to make a big loop. This was a good idea but in theory, we only met half of the people; the ones sitting next to the window didn’t move and one ones in the aisle made the loop. So, the ones making the loop didn’t get a chance to meet each other. Everyone I talked to knew that I was one of the four that had lost luggage and I explained to them that I could barely see them and not to be offended or weirded out because I was talking so close to their face (to see them). Haha. I talked to one girl who said that her normal seatmate, and friend, wore glasses and contacts and was a similar prescription to mine. We talked some more and she said that she would ask her friend if I could borrow her glasses for the night.

I went to charge my phone on the coach and a girl came up to me and shoved this case into my face. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was and she said “My friend told me that you need glasses! Here, try mine!” This was an awesome surprise and relief!! They were a bit weaker than my usual prescription but they helped a ton! I could actually see shapes rather than all blobs.

So, we got to our hotel around 5pm. Our bags STILL weren’t where we were and again got on the phone to talk with the airlines. After three different calls and many minutes of being on hold and being disconnected, we finally heard that our bags were at the Amsterdam airport and should be leaving the airport to the hotel within 30-45 minutes. This was good news because they had made the correct flight but this meant that I was going to see Amsterdam in a literal blur.

We had dinner at 7—penne marinara, broccoli, salad, and strawberry ice cream.
We gathered at the lobby at 8 to go into the city for the night. We rode the coach into the city and it dropped us off to get on the boat ride through the canals that we signed up for. This was a really fun event- there were tables and chairs in an enclosed boat with windows on the side and some of the top to see out. There was also an open bar and snacks! Music was being played, people were drinking, and the sun was setting- what a party! (Except that it was still hard to see the city without my own glasses or contacts). But from what I could see, the canals were beautiful! Tons of house boats too!!

The boat ride lasted an hour and a half and then we gathered to go out in the city. First on our list was to go to a coffee shop and to see the red light district. We walked through the red light district first. How bizarre! Girls were standing in windows, with a room behind them, along a certain street, in underwear! (or other various ways of just covering up their parts). The windows where lit up with a red light (hence the “red light” district) and they opened their door when an interested patron walked by to inquire. Most of them were on the phone like this was a very normal thing. We were told that this is legal, and an actual profession! These girls rented out the windows hourly and some had a pimp to protect them. Each girl had a different room setup behind them- one was in a tanning bed, some were regular rooms, and I literally couldn’t see the others. The windows with the curtains closed meant that they were “busy.”

We got word from the hotel that 3 luggage’s had arrived! But where was the other one and whose was it?!?? We were all betting on whose was still lost and I thought for sure that it was mine just because I had the biggest problem with my lack of glasses and contacts. We were all so anxious to get back and see who’s bags were there and whose weren’t!

After this, we ventured over to a coffee shop. This is where they sell the illegals. I took a picture of the ridiculous menu and we took a look around and left. Near the red light district there were signs everywhere for “sex shows” and “sex shops.” What a crazy city!!! The sex shows were exactly what they say- as some of the other people on our tour told us.

We took the tram back to our hotel when we were done exploring the city. The tram took me RIGHT back to when we were in Rome. Even though we had some rough times in Rome, I was “homesick” from it at this point. In Rome, we knew were the stops were and we knew where our dorm was. Here- we were relying on the guys that were with us to guide us home.

We got back to our hotel, busted in the doors, asked where the bags were, and ran to them! I SAW MINE YAYYY! What good news! But which bag was still missing? Seems like everyone had got theirs! Turns out that Erica’s bag had arrived just 10 minutes before we had. How lucky!!

We all headed off to bed.

Day 16- London

Saturday, May 8 (Day 16)

Our full day in London! We woke up at 7am to get a good start on our day.

We showered with the travel size toiletries that the airlines gave us and our shower faced the mirror. But it was already fogged up from Lisa’s shower.

We met downstairs at 8 to get breakfast. We had a full English breakfast which included eggs, fried or scrambled, sausage, bacon, toast, baked beans, coffee, and juice. So delicious!

Then we called the airlines and the assured us that our luggage would arrive at the hotel later tonight.

Then, we set off for the city. We bought a hop-on-hop-off, double-decker bus tour to travel around on. It was cold and rainy out so this was a very good option for us. We saw SO much! We saw Hyde Park which was absolutely beautiful with all of its flowers, fields, and trees. People were jogging, playing with dogs, and feeding squirrels. The squirrels were very friendly and would climb up people’s legs. Then we went to Princess Diana’s memorial fountain which was a circular fountain in her memory. Then to Buckingham Palace which was HUGE! There were two guards there but they were inside the gate and we weren’t able to get any pictures with them, but I got pictures OF them. We saw Big Ben (parliament), which we found out was as tall as 21 double-decker busses stacked on top of one another. We saw the London Eye, but didn’t ride on it because it was 15 euros and we had just spent a lot on the bus tour. We saw St. Paul’s cathedral and then we rode the bus to the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge (which people always think is the London Bridge). We also saw the Waterloo train station and Shakespeare’s dome. On the way to all of these places there were cute little parks and benches facing ponds with swans swimming in them. So beautiful! If it wasn’t so cold and rainy, there is NO doubt in my mind that I would move there right out of college (although it is quite expensive). The architecture is amazing as well.

After walking around all day and eating at a local diner for lunch (fish n chips and a beer) we started to head back to the hotel to make our contiki meeting at 6pm. We were walking backwards along the bus track to find a stop close to us but we ended up walking so far backwards that we would have made it to our hotel by then. So we decided to take a taxi back to our hotel. It was soo much cheaper than in Italy!

We got back and rushed to the contiki room since we were a few minutes late and we were informed that the meeting wasn’t for an hour.

So since out bags STILL weren’t at the hotel, we spent that hour trying to figure out what was going on, again.

We met at the contiki room at 7 and went over procedures and met the other people on our tour. Everyone seemed really cool so far!

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We did NOT see Abby Road nor platform 9 3/4 as we had wanted to see.

Day 5

Today was our first day of teaching!

It was almost impossible for me to wake up this morning, but we had bought breakfast yesterday and I was excited to get up and eat it-- croissants with nutella :)

We made our way to school and I didn't have class until 12:30. I prepared my lesson on adding and subtracting fractions and tomorrow is with mixed fractions (for the 6th grade) and linear equations (8th grade)
It went well overall.

On our way home, we stopped and got the best, cheapest gelatto! I got tiramisu and dark chocolate and it was so so good!

Tonight, we had some amazing dinner (we are taking turns cooking and cleaning, we have 3 groups of 3 and it is working out really well. Tonight they cooked rizotto and chicken with salad and tomatoes and zucchini and bread. I (and the other 2 in my group) cleaned up.

BUT! We are going out to the Ice bar here in Rome tonight and I still have those 2 lessons I have to plan. And I am teaching at 9:30am. Guess I'll do it when I get back ;)

We will see how it goes... bye for now!

Day 1 of interning, day 4 in Roma

We got up this morning and started our internship!

My teacher is super cool and her students are awesome!

I am interning in a 6-8 grade math class and I am teaching a lesson tomorrow.
The school we are at is very rich- the Borghese family children go there as well as soccer player Totti's daughter goes there!

They have a "bar" at the school which means 'cafe.'

We also went to the market and bought lots of food for dinner and breakfast's for super cheap.

I teach my first lesson tomorrow and I am really excited about it.

For my friends: inside jokes--

Craig- I have been washing my feet with soap... they get really dirty ;)

Kristen- I saw 3 silverfish the other night in the bathroom!!

Skype

So, there is no wifi here at the dorms we are staying up, therefore, I cannot use skype to call or video anyone. I am using the desktop computers at the dorms and they do not have a webcam.

Unless I take my laptop to an internet cafe, there is no way to Skype chat/video. I will keep you posted if I am planning on going to a cafe to go on skype.

Day 3 in Rome

Day 3 starts out with 5 hours of sleep from the night before. We also woke up an hour later than planned...

We all met downstairs at 10:30 to take a bus tour. This was really cool
We took a double decker bus around the city, and got off at the Treve Fountian for pictures and lunch. We also took group pictures at the REAL Spanish Steps. SO pretty

We ate at McD0nalds-- very decorated! and kind of expensive. I got a chicken ceasar salad and a small coke and it was 7.10 euros

Other than that, we just took the tour bus around the city. It was such a beautiful day- warm (hot-ish at some points) and sunny. and more gelatto!

On our way back to the dorms, we stopped at a market and got boxes of pasta and spaghetti sause for dinner. The pasta was .90 euro. Cheap!

We all came back and 2 others and I made spaghetti dinner and garlic bread... found some random spices and cheese. It turned out pretty good! And it made a ton of food!

That is about all for today... I have to be up and ready to go at 7:30am for our first day at the schools. We are only observing, then interning starting on Tuesday

Disclaimer

Just as a disclaimer, there is NO spell-check on these computers I am using and I am typing these up really fast before I go to sleep. So, sorry for any misspellings!

Day 2 in Rome

Yesterday was much, much better!
After getting 10 hours of sleep we were still tired but not so much sleep deprived anymore.

Also, the showers in the other rooms are 150% better than mine- so I have been using those showers! Things are starting to look up!!

We took the bus with a group of people to Vatican City. We went into St. Peters Basillica for a while and went into the sacred room to pray for a few minutes. Then we went out to eat at a cafe and we had the best food we had had yet!- Tortillini and a cappaccino with a chocolate heart (from our server!)

Then we walked around the city and went into the little stores and looked at the vendors.
Let me tell you, we saw more genetalia of David then necessary!!

Then we found the Sistine chapel and walked around in it for quite a while. We didnt realize that it isnt just a chapel... we walked forever!!

On our way home, Rachel and I walked to the top of the "fake" Spanish steps and saw an absolutely breathtaking view of Rome.

We made our way home and got ready to go out on the town!

Once showered, dressed, make-up done and ready to go out, we headed downstairs to go to the bus and meet Allison out at a bar. Thennnn we were stopped by Cleopatra at the front desk telling us that we needed to be back in 30 minutes (after we were previously told that we had no curfew)
SO we tried to negotiate and got an extra hour, but that still wouldnt have been enough time to get to where we were going, have fun, and get back.
SO we negotiated some more. We tried convincing some of the workers to give us a key or come let us in when we came back-- which seemed to be working but ended up failing.

We ended up calling our director, getting permission to go out, and became best friends with Cleopatra and the staff at our dorms.
So much so that they all said they are going to try and throw a party for us next Saturday for my birthday!!
Cleopatra had 2 workers come out with us ("bodyguards") to make sure we were safe and whatnot.
We ended up going out around 11pm...
One spoke Italian and the other Spanish. Talk about translations! From English to Spanish, from Spanish to Itilian and then back the other way too.

We ended up NOT meeting up with my friend Allison but went to a bar that Amir (one of our bodyguards) knew someone working there. We didnt stay for long then went to get kabobs which equal wraps in Italy. But they were really good and really cheap!

After a bit, we headed home and finally arrived to our dorm around 3:30am
Then Lisa and I talked until 5:30am and went to bed as we started to hear the birds chirping outside...

A few hours later we needed to get up to meet our group downstairs... and day 3 begins!

Finally in Rome

So we landed in Rome this morning at 8:30am Rome time, 2:30am ET- which means I was up (and STILL AM) since 7am ET Thursday morning!

So for the flight, I was in row 14 while EVERYONE ELSE was back in row 30. My seatmate was nice but it would have been cool to sit with all of my friends for the 9 hour flight. I wasn't able to sleep at all either...

We land in Rome and there is no terminal for us to pull into so they pulled down the staris and we stood on the tarmack in the rain for 15 minutes while waiting for a peoplemover to pick us up. Did I mention- it was COLD!

We finally made it into the airport and exchanged some money and found our taxi guy to bring us to our dorms.

So far, so good.

We get settled into our rooms then all meet up to decide what to do: Go see the collesium, spanish steps, other historical landmarks, and the city.

So we start our adventure and it is raining. We made it to the Spanish museum and then lost our friends for 50 minutes... but met a really cool guard!

Then to the collesium. It was cool.
On our way out, Nicole went to buy an unbrella and had it shoved in her face and American money slapped out of her hand and being yelled at by the vendor, "FU*K YOU! I DONT WANT YOUR AMERICAN MONEY"

Okayyyy soo that was an experience.

So we decided to head back to the dorms because it was raining and we were all tired and wanted to shower and relax. 2 hours later, we finally stumbled back to our dorm- tired and exhaused and stressed out. We were lost in the city for 2 hours, in the rain, backtracking over and over again. Turns out, we were just one block away from our dorm and had no idea!!

Plus, the food isnt that good... well, our street pizza, that is.

So finally back to the dorm, we were excited to shower and relax. Welll, out shower head is about the size of a half-dollar and faces the wall. And there is no way to make it face you. Plus, the water pressure is so strong that it basically tears the skin off of your body.
Freezing, raw skin, and sore from our walk of the city, we were all showered and... relaxing.

That is, until our blowdryer decided to catch on fire and make our whole room smell like burnt crap.

Okay, well we just had a bad day and I am getting all of my fustration out. Tomorrow should be better- we will be rested and going to Vatican city

Hopefully it will just get better from here!

Getting ready to depart

So, I am sitting at the Orlando airport now, 2 hours early.

Getting SOO excited that we are leaving the country today!... Although we won't arrive in Rome until tomorrow morning at 8:30am

And my SLR camera battery already died- guess I'll have to pull out my point-and-shoot for our arrival into Rome ;)

Test post before take-off

Okay, so I've got the blog set up and 2 weeks until take-off!

I can't believe how soon I am leaving!!

So, my plan:

Try to write an entry everyday that I am in Europe to preserve memories and share with all of you! I may not be able to POST everyday (depending on availability of internet) but I will try to keep a day-by-day account.

15 days and counting!