Day #9084 - Dear June

Inspired by EmilieOfNewGloom's Letters to July and the also popular Document Your Life project, I've decided that after a year of doing favorite things videos every month I'd instead try making a video-letter to the month that has just past.

Day #8012 - When Sleep Won't Come

Maybe this post should be labeled as Night #8012 instead of day. My sleep schedule has been nice and normal pretty much all summer, so I can't figure out what's going on right now.

I went to bed shortly after 11 and have been not sleeping now for the last 2 hours. Of course if this were a normal night, I might not care as much, but since I am supposed to be waking up at 3:30 (aka 2.5 hours) so we can go to the airport, I'm at a loss of what to do. I have washed my face, been doing push-ups, tried clearing my mind, but so far, nada. It's even raining right now which usually results in me having a deep night's sleep that rivals being in a coma.

With this awkward time span, I'm not sure what to do. Well that's not true - I'd like to be able to crawl into bed and fall to sleep immediately, but for reasons passing understanding I'm just not tired. Which leaves me with the option that I like to refer to as the "Last Night in Italy" option. If you click back through this blog to a post sometime in early June 2008, I posted an entry around 3am (Italy time) my last night in Verona before flying home. We went to see the opera Aida at the Arena which didn't end until about 1:30 in the morning, and the bus taking those of us going to the airport was due to pick us up at 4am. So after the opera and saying our goodbyes, I went back to my apartment and packed, staying up the whole night. Of course that plan backfired a little bit when a bunch of us planned on just sleeping on the plane but none of us were able to as we crossed the Atlantic, but it's still an option.

I'll try more push-ups for now (or maybe crunches?), and if that doesn't work, hello YouTube...

oh, and happy birthday to JK Rowling!

Day #7981 Continued - Dollywood?

Well, after 11 hours of driving through Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, my mom and I have finally arrived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Apparently Dollywood is nearby, but unfortunately I don't think we will have the time to take that in on this particular trip. The drive went fine, nothing too crazy or anything. I think the most "exciting" parts were when we were about halfway through Indiana and suddenly there were hills and then I looked at my cell phone a few hours later and realized that we had in fact changed time zones. I don't know why, but for some reason that hadn't occurred to either of us Tennessee was not only south of Schaumburg, but also far enough east where the time would change too.

I'm already about one-third of the way through "Eat Pray Love" and am really enjoying it so far, though it could largely due to the fact that the first part of the woman's journey takes place in Italy so it was making me homesick for Verona and really good pizza. But in a good way!

Anyway, we're here. I've promised to be on my best behavior and at least attempt to act like, you know, a responsible and respectable young lady. Yeah, I'm laughing on the inside, too...

Day #7973 - Shades of Beige

Last week, I finally went to see the movie Letters to Juliet with my mother. While it follows the predictable plot line that most romantic comedies use (and I'm a complete sucker for most of the time), this was a movie I wanted to see for different reasons. The second line of William Shakespeare's famous play declares that "In fair Verona, where we lay our scene." Verona, Italy of course being where I studied abroad two years ago and the whole reason that I started this blog in the first place. I was so excited to see this movie even if the story was terrible just because I wanted to see that skyline and the piazzas blown up on the big screen. However, the way that certain aspects of my beloved city and its citizens were portrayed irked me a bit - not a whole lot, but just enough where I felt it warranted space here.

First off, Juliet's courtyard and the letters that started it all. It's actually true that people from all over the world for over a century have been leaving letters for Juliet at her tomb, beneath her balcony, and mailing them to Verona from all over the world seeking her advice (or really, the wisdom of her secretaries). However, the movie bases its whole plot on the fact that every night the letters are removed from the walls of her courtyard - now when I was there, this wasn't done. People are no longer allowed to stick their notes and letters to the walls because they were finding that the chewing gum people were using as an adhesive was ruining the stones. In addition to this fallacy, there were the scenes that took place here. First of all, every time I was ever at the courtyard it was always PACKED with tourists - not exactly the sort of "off the beaten path" setting that the movie made it out to be. And benches for women to sit at while they sobbed and wrote letters? Yeah, not so much. I understand the need for these changes/inaccuracies - it makes for a cuter scene, a better shot, a good plot point. It's the same way that movies show people going to the Trevi Fountain in Rome and it's completely deserted except for the characters - yeah right, like that would ever happen in reality.

Also, while it is true that Italians love soccer, that doesn't mean there are always boys in the street kicking around a soccer ball. I feel like I have now seen this in every movie that's supposed to take place in Italy.

However, none of this bugged me quite as much as the color palate that the costume designer chose for this particular motion picture. Everyone was wearing beige, all the time! Beige, cream, khakis, pastels - if it was light and kind of bland, that's the color they were wearing. And not just the principle cast, but the extras too! I couldn't help but laugh and cry a little bit at the same time - the Italy I went to and the Verona I have pictures of are filled with explosions of COLOR, and vibrant ones at that. Again, I'm sure it was so people weren't clashing all over the place on screen, but I couldn't believe that such a blah color palate was used to show people in the land of love, life, and passion. But I guess que sera, sera, no?

So that's my rambling for this evening. Not exactly an issue of substance, but something I just felt like throwing out there. I'll get better at this with more time, I hope :o)

Day #7286 - They Built It, So I Came

So I know I haven't written here in a while, but I have two reasons for that: I've either been incredibly busy and therefore haven't had time OR things have been so boring that there's nothing to say. However, the past few days have been pretty memorable.

The week itself was pretty standard - Mom finished up school on Thursday, I worked more on getting stuff for the apartment and finishing up my shopping for recruitment. The other night we watched Sweeney Todd as a family, which none of us had ever seen before - wow. Quite, quite bloody and incredibly sad, but really interesting and well done. Oh theatre! I also had a shopping and baseball day with Michele which was nice - the two of us haven't really gotten to hang out just the two of us much this summer.

Yesterday, Mom, Dad, Steven and I went on a mini-roadtrip. On our way to Iowa, we stopped in Freeport, IL (Home of the Freeport High School Fighting Pretzels) and saw Little Cubs Field. Basically it's a miniature-Wrigley Field, complete with ivy and a scoreboard. It was pretty cool. We continued on to Galena where we walked around the town and saw President Grant's home. After spending the night in Iowa, we woke up bright and early to go play some baseball on the Field of Dreams in Dyersville. Wow. That was just plain cool. I'm not the brainest girl in the world especially when it comes to sports. I rarely understand all the rules, but I can appreciate and enjoy watching the game. I actually made some decent contact with the ball when I was up to bat, roamed around in the corn, and saw the big white farm house. It was such simple fun and I couldn't have been happier just to PLAY. We drove home after that, stopping in Dickeyville to see a fake grotto and then Pitosi to a micro-brewery. All in all, a very nice little trip.

Oh, and most people know that I'm a lover of storms. However I'm not going to lie, tonight's storms freaked me out. I don't like it when it's quite this close haha. However, rain usually means I'll sleep well tonight, and I'm all for that :o)

Day #7250 - Heading Home

I can honestly say that even though I leave for the airport in less than two hours, I cannot believe that my time here in Italy is already over. The past 6 weeks of my life have flown by so incredibly fast and while of course I am excited to see all my friends and family back in the US, the past few days with all of their good-byes have really made me see how much I got out of this whole experience.

To back up a bit, though. Monday we had Art History - classroom portion in the morning, saw Bascilica di San Fermo and some Veronese gardens in the afternoon. Beautiful. Tuesday and Wednesday in Florence were amazing. I had so much fun with Brenna, Colleen, and Krista - we saw a lot (including The David!), but there will still be plenty to see when I go back (and I do mean WHEN, not IF). So in addition to seeing the David, we climbed the bell tower and got a beautiful view of the Duomo, went to Santa Croce, and I got a gold cross from Ponte Vecchio. It was a great final trip for the semester.

Yesterday's goodbye dinner was bittersweet, which was really to be expected. I feel like we all connected in one way or another, and it's just so interesting because some of these people I never would have known at U of I otherwise. We went to the same restraunt we had our welcome dinner at not so long ago, then afterwards went to the very same German bar. It made our whole experience feel like it was coming full circle. Today I walked around for a while and just said goodbye by myself to this city, this place. People keep asking me what my favorite city was that I've been to and I always start going through the list of the cities I would visit. In all honesty, though, while I liked visiting other cities, I loved coming home to Verona. Tonight when we were all at the opera Aida (yay! It didn't rain!!!), we kept saying that Verona really was our home now. Only 5 of us stayed the whole 5 hours, but we still got to say goodbye to some of the others whose apartment was near the Arena. I'm already looking forward to the reunions I know that we will have because we share so much now. I didn't cry, but my heartstrings were being pulled to their limits.

So I should probably wrap up this post for now, seeing as it's 3am here and the bus picking me up to go to the airport is coming at 4:30. I'm done packing, just got to clean up a little bit and get changed out of these opera clothes.

Ciao ciao, Italia! Ti amo! Sono Libera e felice! Grazie!!

Day #7244 - Trains, Trains, and More Trains

Okay, so it's not all trains. The other half is good old fashioned walking!

Sorry for the extreme lack of updates the past couple of days, but I haven't really been home. I haven't even had time to write in my journal since last Thursday! So let me try to think about what's been going on since then...

Friday, me and three other girls from the program went to Cinque Terre for a nice, relaxing, fun-in-the-sun beach weekend. And let me tell you, we absolutely were able to make up for 5 weeks of gray skies in 3 days! There was not a cloud in the sky the entire time that we were there. It was a five hour journey to get there by train, transfering 3 different times. By the time we got there, it was early afternoon. We took a bus up the mountain to our hostel and then after getting changed and settled, decided to hike down to the closest town. Our legs were shaking the whole time (visibly shaking!!) but the views were incredible! We went swimming for a little while in a lagoon, then hiked from Manarola over to Corneglia which took about an hour and a half. We took the train back over to Manarola (because we were exhausted!), then the bus back up to our hostel, grabbed dinner at the town's one restraunt, then went to bed early. Good day one.

Saturday was beach day in Montenegro. Despite our total care in using sunscreen, we still got burned, but not too badly. A couple other girls from the program met up with us on the beach in the afternoon, and that was fun for the most part (for the exception of one girl who was beligerntly drunk all day, but then again, she has been like that for the past 5 weeks. Her loss, though I will not miss the baby-sitting once I'm home). We had dinner that night in Vernazza at a little pirate restraunt owned by two of the funniest Italian brothers. As we were getting ready to pay, the three of the other girls I was staying with and I realized that we HAD to make the train leaving in 5 minutes to get back to the town by us to make the last bus up the mountain, otherwise we'd be hiking up the side of the road in the dark (a non-option in our minds). We paid, then bolted to the train station only to find out our train was 45 mintues late. When it finally did come and we got off, we had less than a minute until our bus was scheduled to leave. I ran like I had everything to lose from the train station to the bus stop and we made it just in time. It was intense, but wow. WOW haha

Sunday was pretty mellow and dominated by traveling. We took a boat out along the coast which was cool, did some shopping, but then spent most of the day getting back to Verona. All in all, a pretty fun weekend.

Today was all about Art History. Andrea gave us the most incredible Italian Art books that we get to keep and bring home with us in the morning, plus we looked at some slides and went over what our test will be like. After lunch, we went over to the Church of San Fermo and these really pretty gardens whose name I will have to look up. It was hot as heck, but beautiful. I'm going to miss that class because in our walks from site to site, Andrea teaches us so much about just Italian life in general that really add to the whole cultural experience of being here. Then this afternoon, I went to a Mexican restraunt with Megan, Krista, and Olga because as much as we love pasta, we were dying for a different flavor in our mouths and it really hit the spot. We hung out in Piazza Erbe for a little while, and now I'm back here at my apartment getting stuff together for Florence. I should probably hit the hay soon because it's already past midnight and we have a 7:15 train tomorrow.

I love you all, miss you tons, and hope to have emails from you when I get back Wednesday night! Only a few more days of this Italian life and then I'm back to the states!

Day #7239 - Test Time

Okay friends and family, here's a thought for you all. Recall, if you will, how difficult it is to study for exams and keep your attention confined to to your notes and worksheets and all that jazz.

Now add the fact that you are in ITALY to the picture.

What do you think I did last night/this morning?

If you guessed that I finished putting up more pictures on facebook and watched Italy play in the EuroCup, you guessed right!

But first, I'll try to fill you all in on what's been going on in my crazy little life the past couple of days. I'll start off with Saturday and Venice. WOW! It was amazing even though it was pouring for most of the time we were there. Seeing how they make glass was really cool and we also got to go to the last remaining hand-made lace school in the city. It was just incredible walking around and seeing all that water! Not that I'm ranking the cities I've visited or anything, but if I were, Venice would be near the top because there's literally nothing else even remotely like it in the world. And then when the sun finally came out right before we left, it managed to get even more beautiful outside!

Sunday was off to Lake Garda which is the largest lake in Italy. Riding up the cable car was really cool - we were so high up that we were actually inside the clouds. When it was clear, the views were amazing and when it started raining, it was just funny because, again, we were inside the clouds. Once we were back down to sea-level, we got to just take some time and explore the differnt towns along the lake's shores. The dinner that night was incredible. I think most of us were expecting more fish and less seafood, but it was still good. The calamari blew my mind. It was kind of bittersweet too, though, because it was our last dinner and trip as a whole group before our going-away dinner the night before we leave.

Monday was our Art History field trip to Padua, which was awesome! We got to see a chapel covered in frescos by the amazing Giotto first and then went over to the University of Padua. There we took a tour and saw the world's first anatomy disection lecture hall, the classroom that Galileo taught in, and his lecture podium. We also got to witness some of the graduation traditions that take place in Padua when a person gets their doctorate from the university there. It pretty much involves getting the graduate really drunk and embarassing them in public, but it's all in good fun. After that, we walked over to St. Anthony's Cathedral which was beautiful. Unfortunately like most of the churches here in Italy, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you have to trust me when I say it was amazing.

Yesterday I had the day off from school which was nice. I got to sleep in a little bit and then spent the majority of the day trying to study (aka realizing that I don't know anything) for my Italian final. The sun was out in the afternoon, so I went for a walk around the city, read in the piazza, and bought myself a vest which I had been eyeing all of last week. Megan and Kim who live downstairs came up and we ate dinner together before we met up with Audrey and Krista at a bar to watch EuroCup and cheered Italy on as the beat France! But on our way to the bar, I got pooped on. That's right, folks. We were just walking along and then suddenly there was pigeon-poop in my hair. Yes it was kind of gross but apparently for a bird to poop on you in Italy is a sign from God and is good luck (for those of you who don't believe me, just watch the movie Under the Tuscan Sun). Anyway, we all had a laugh about it so it was all good.

And now that brings us to today. I'm sure that my test will end up being fine, but I'm so glad that this class will be over and that I can just learn the language for more enjoyment than for the grade. But before I forget, picture links!

*Links removed 11/2011*

love you all, miss you tons, can't wait to see you guys, and i've been enjoying all of your emails!! keep 'em coming!

Day #7230 - 3 down, 3 to go

It's incredibly hard to believe that my time here is already halfway done. I'm trying to think back about what's happened and what I've been doing since the last time I wrote here, but Verona life is starting to come pretty routine. Class in the morning, lunch, usually reading in the park in the afternoon, then I'll try to get in touch with people for the evenings, dinner, and bed. This week will probably be much of the same, just add a couple loads of laundry and the fact that I need to start planning out what I'll do the last two weeks I'm here (because we won't have Italian everyday and will therefore have the opportunity for day trips in the middle of the week).

This past weekend I went to Asiago. It was really nice up in the mountains and the complete opposite of Rome the weekend before. Friday after school we took the bus up there, got settled, and had an incredible dinner at the hotel. Saturday we went to see where and how they make Asiago cheese (an extremely long process - I'm now much more appreciative of the cheese cubes we eat as appetizers so often). We also went to a street market and I went hiking around the mountain our hotel was on with Megan. Even though it was raining most of the day, it was still a lot of fun and incredibly beautiful. Yesterday I went hiking with 7 different people which was fun. We started on the same road that I did on Saturday, but we ended up going much higher and actually into the woods. It was a lot of fun, we were feeling extremely adventerous and saw some incredible sights. It was actually sunny, too! We have all come to appreciate the times when the sun comes out in Italy because none of us really packed enough warm clothes for all the wet weather we've had the past three weeks.

I should wrap this up now and get ready for school - hope everyone is doing well! Love you and miss you all so so much!

Day #7225 - Rome wasn't built in a day, but I saw it in 3

This past weekend in Rome had so many ups and downs to it, but mostly I can't believe everything we were able to see just in one long weekend. On the other hand, I kind of wish we had a little more time.

The real adventure started on Friday night while I was packing for the trip. It was around 10:30 at night and decided I was hungry, so right then would be a perfect time to learn how to make pasta by myself. Oy vey. Once one of my roommates came and showed me how to light the stove the old-fashioned way, I proceeded to make enough spaghetti for about 3 people and only heated up enough tomato sauce for a small child. It all tasted good, but needless to say my proportions were a bit off. And since we don't have tupperware here and I was leaving the next day, I ate all of it by myself.

Saturday I woke up at 5:30 to get ready to meet a bunch of the other girls at 6:45 for our 7:15 train to Bologna. However when I called them, they told me that they were already on board a 6:10 train and they had tried calling me but my phone had been off and we don't get voicemail on these phones. Not to worry, though. About 10 other people from the program were on the 7:15 train with me, so all of us got to Bologna and made the same transfer to our train to Rome.

Once we got to the city and found our new hostel (the one we had made reservations for was overbooked, so they moved us someplace else), we had lunch, saw the Trevi Fountain (BEAUTIFUL!!!!!) and did some shopping before our pub crawl that night. This pub crawl was intesne - it's a whole business. They go on the same crawl every night, starting from the Spanish Steps and charge a flat fee that includes cover at all the bars and cost of drinks for the night. I had some vino but mostly just enjoyed being out with the whole Verona group.

Sunday started bright and early at the Colusseum. Four of us decided to take a guided tour which ended up being extremely helpful. After that, we stopped at a caffe for something cool to drink. It was only late morning, but the sun was already brutal. Then we went back and took a tour of the Roman Forum which are all the ruins right in the middle of the city. Again, having a tour guide was really helpful otherwise I would have no earthly idea what I was looking at. It was also at this time that I got the majority of my weekend sunburn haha. After the Forum, Krista and I proceeded off to the Pantheon. I've read all about these different sights in books before and have seen a lot of them in movies, but to see it with your own eyes is just incredible. I was constantly blown away by how BIG it all is. After the Pantheon, we were all exhausted from the late night before, the early morning, and the toll the sun was starting to take on us. We went back to the hostel and took a several-hour nap, after which I felt infinately better. All 10 of us girls then got dressed up, went out to dinner, and headed back to the Trevi Fountain to get some night-time pictures. Again, I was blown away.

Then came Monday, the day I was looking forward to more than any other day for this whole trip. Vatican City. As luck would have it, the weather was completely dreary and after 2 days of the most incredible sunshine, it was raining. We made the best of it though while we stood in line for 2 hours for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel and in the end, it was completely worth it. I also felt like if it had to rain any of the days, Vatican day would be the best one because everything was indoors. It would have been miserable to see the Colusseum like that. Once we finally got inside, I feel like I was just in a complete state of awe. Every inch of that building's ceilings and walls are covered in the most detailed art I have ever seen. The Sistine Chapel was everything people always say it will be and more. After the museum, we walked to St. Peter's Square. Nothing on earth could have prepared me for it. The sight put an instant smile on my face and also moved me to tears - I couldn't believe I was finally seeing this with my own eyes. Being there also gave me a huge sense of belonging as a Catholic because the Church's history is very much a part of my history as well and here was our own seperate nation-state just for Catholics like me. The inside of the Basillica was absolutely astonishing; beautiful doesn't even begin to describe how it looked, but also how it made me feel. As you can see if you looked at the links I posted last night, I took a few pictures =) The only thing that could have made this weekend better would have been to have my family and friends here with me. Don't worry - I prayed for all of you, so it's kind of like you were there.

Anyway! So that was Rome. There's more to be said about the journey home, but I need to close this up for now and get ready for school. Of course because some of us had planned on going back to the pool today, today's weather is looking like a high in the middle 70s and nothing but rain for the next week and a half.

Day #7216 - And Then, The Sun Came Out!

Good morning, Vietnam!

Oh wait, that’s not right….

Good evening, Italy! Today’s weather was SUNNY with temperatures in the low 80s!

Hello hello again, friends and family. I know I haven’t written here since last Wednesday, but I promise I have a super good excuse: it’s ITALY and I just don’t want to miss anything. Life has been incredibly busy as of late.

School is going well. I keep trying, but my mind just does not grasp foreign languages (seeing as it still has issues with English quite a bit of the time). Art History started up last Thursday and is really interesting. We had that class again today and Andre (our teacher) took us to the Roman Ampitheater in Piazza Bra and because we were there for class, we got in for free! A word I love even more now that I’m here due to the exchange rate =)

I had my first outside-Verona experiences this weekend. Friday night, me and 7 other girls took the train down to Lucca, a small town in TUSCANY! It was incredibly beautiful – I felt that the small town setting was much more in line with my personality than a city is (but Verona’s a good compromise because it’s not too big). We had dinner in one of the main piazzas, spent the night in a hostel, and then during the day on Saturday we walked around, did some shopping, climbed an old tower attached to a church, and rented bikes so we could ride around the city walls. It was a busy day, we definitely used our time to the fullest and then rode back to Verona on Saturday night.

Sunday was our first pre-planned trip to the city of Mantua. While we were there, we toured two different palaces (we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the frescos though), had an incredible lunch, and went shopping at an outlet mall. The pickings were kind of slim, however I did buy the most amazing leather jacket and it was such a deal!

That brings us here, to Monday. Had both of my classes today, then went grocery shopping for the second time. There’s a small comfort in walking up and down the aisles and seeing American brand names (even if you can’t read anything else on the label) and hearing music in English over the intercom. They really love music from America here – it’s just kind of funny because we’re here for a cultural experience but keep bumping into English! Oh and good news – I got more bandaids =) though my feet are actually doing much much better in case anyone out there was wondering (but I’m pretty sure you weren’t).

That pretty much sums it up for now. I’m going to do my Italian homework really quick, and then most of our group is planning on getting together to hang out tonight.

Before I forget, here are links to some pictures I’ve taken so far:

Italy Part 1 – *link removed 11/2011*
Italy Part 2 (mostly pictures from Tuscany) – *link removed 11/2011*

Hope all is well back in the good ol’ USA – love you and miss you all!

Day #7198 - But it's also Day#1!

Hey Family!

It’s currently 4am here in Verona and thanks to that little buddy I like to call jet lag, I can’t sleep. I actually managed to sleep on the plane, but then when it came time to go to bed for real, my body got all sorts of confused because it’s 9pm back in the US. Therefore in an attempt to tire myself out because I need to wake up in a couple hours, I’ll take this time now to describe what has happened so far.

The first flight from O’Hare to Frankfurt wasn’t that bad. Like I said, I managed to get a couple hours sleep and there were individual tv screens at each seat where we got to select from a bunch of different movies and start playing them whenever we wanted. Very cool – I watched 27 Dresses. The layover in Germany was fine – not exactly the most eventful 3 hours of my life. Very weird how they did it there – we had to actually go through customs after the first flight and leave the terminal and then go through security again and go to a different terminal. I also got my first airport “pat-down” which was something terribly awkward, let me tell you. Apparently German security does not like the metal button on my jeans, but I got wanded and such. So that was Germany.

The second flight from Frankfurt to Verona was incredibly short – just over an hour. At this point though, to my body it was some awkward time and I fell asleep for most of this trip. Italy customs was completely different. Some people’s luggage had to go through an x-ray machine, but most didn’t. Then you just mosey through the doors and that’s it – Welcome to Italy. Then the real fun began. We landed just before 1900 and our resident director Claudio was supposed to come pick us up at the airport to take us to our apartments. We waited for about 20 minutes to a half hour and he still didn’t show. We figured this was just because “everything’s slower in Italy,” but then looking at our original iternerary, I pointed out to everyone that on the schedule he sent us he didn’t think we’d be landing until 2240 (almost 4 hours later). We found his cell phone number, called and told him we were here, and then he called the bus company to get us an earlier ride from the airport. So instead of waiting 4 hours, we only had to wait 2.

I got to meet one of my roommates last night when I got to the apartment. Her name starts with an “n” I think and Claudio doesn’t know if these girls are Chinese or Japanese. Anyway, she doesn’t speak very much English at all, but Claudio said that the rest of the girls who live here are coming later today and speak much more English than this girl does. I unpacked, made my bed, and then went out to get food last night with two other U of I girls who are in my building, Megan and Kim. We went down the street to a little pizzeria and had pizza and wine. Soooo good! Very different from the Chicago deep dish that we’re used to, but still tasted incredible. After we ate and came home, I got to embark on the many adventures I will have trying to figure out this apartment. Lesson number one – no toilet paper and bidets are just plain weird. Lesson number two – there’s a special yarn-like thing that must be held in order to get the tub to drain otherwise it doesn’t. Lesson number three – locking the door to the apartment and unlocking it is the goofiest process ever. You have to turn the key in the lock 5 times before the door can open. Hopefully it won’t take me the whole 6 weeks to get used to that.

I realize that I haven’t described my room yet. Well, it’s less than half the size of my room at ISR. There is no closet – instead there’s a sort of thing to hang some clothes on next to one wall and shelves like we have in the garage on the other. My bed is a twin tall, but skinnier. I’m getting very well aquainted with the wall. I do have a door that goes out to the balcony, but I can’t really use it because my desk is in the way. I’m not doing a very good job describing this place – have no fear, I’ll take pictures. Though the apartment isn’t exactly fabuloso, it’s not bad either. It’ll just take some adjusting. At least I get a nice view – the building is across the street from a beautiful old church with a high steeple.

Well I should probably try to get back to sleep now. It’s going to take me a couple nights at least to get used to this new bed and room – I’m just hoping that the next two days or so leave me completely exhausted that way I’ll have to sleep at night. I miss you all so so much. I’m really scared about letting you guys down, but I’m going to try to take as many pictures as possible and remember as many stories as I can. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you soon!