Florence 1, Erin 0

This past weekend I traveled to Florence, Italy with five other friends here in Rome. We left Saturday morning and came back Monday morning for class that afternoon. We got up bright and early on Saturday and arrived at about 10am. This was my second time in Florence from the last time I visited my sisters 4 years ago, but I was really excited to go back. I really wanted to study in Florence, but I couldn’t get my classes to match up. We walked around all morning and afternoon, scoped out the sites/ markets and figured out exactly what we wanted to see the next day. We took a little catnap until dinner and going out. It was really cool to see all the things I noticed from the last time I was there. The apartment we stayed in was right next to the hotel my parents and I stayed in. The bar we went to that night looked familiar too which was exciting.

The next morning when we got up we made a nice big American breakfast. We went to the market on Saturday so we wouldn’t have to pay for breakfast and lunch. It was really nice, a little home fries, eggs and toast. That Sunday we walked around the city all day. We climbed the Duomo and took lots of pictures once we got to the top. This was the number one thing I wanted to do in Florence. When my family and I did it, it was one of my greatest memories of the entire trip. (Yes Mom I do remember some stuff) We also went to see the David. This is one of Michelangelo’s most famous sculptures; it’s just a very large naked man in a museum. It wasn’t anything too exciting, but its something you can you saw.

That night we went to an American bar watch the New England Patriots win the AFC Championship and a trip the super bowl against the New York Giants. This was an amazing game and although Brady didn’t play his best the defense stepped up big time. The Ravens missed a game tying field goal with seconds left that sealed the game for the Pats. You can say they got a little lucky, but it still would have been decided in overtime. I can’t wait for next Sunday, people will say that it playing the Giants doesn’t mean that much, but that’s bullshit. The Patriots definitely have unfinished business after the Giants ruined their perfect season in 07. I will be extremely upset if they lose to the Giants, probably more upset then any other team they could lose too.

That next morning might have been the highlight of the whole trip. So my friend Erin got really drunk the night before during the Patriots game, but little did she know that it was going to be 4 mile trek the next morning to the train station because the taxis were on strike. She was the first to wake up that morning to begin the purging process. She thought see was all done until I was brushing my teeth and she busted in the bathroom to yack some more. Needless to say that that walk/ train ride was pretty rough for her. I might not seem that funny, but the words coming out of her mouth that morning was pretty hilarious. (Most of them to inappropriate for this PG 13 blog) Since then she has adopted the nickname Yack or my favorite like we call my Australian cousin, Slumppppp.

It is now my third week in Rome and it’s been tons of fun. I do miss home and school a lot, but I try not to really think about it. I feel because I miss my house and school so much that senior year will be that much more enjoyable. This week hasn’t been that eventful. It’s tough coming back from traveling and then having to do school work and go to class though. We don’t do any work all weekend so you really have to cram during the week, which stinks. I’m not really looking forward to next week once we get from Barcelona.

Last night I had dinner at Dr. Abela’s house. He invited the students in his three classes to come over for pizza and we all read Shakespeare’s’ Julius Caesar. It was a lot of fun. He came to Italy for the semester from Catholic with his wife and six beautiful children. The oldest is 14 and the youngest is 3, there all wicked smart and really sweet. I can’t even describe why Dr. Abela is so cool, but he’s just the man. He is super smart and has the coolest life story ever. He was telling us the other day that he had dinner with a prince from Italy, like who gets to do that? Overall, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad he had us over.

It is Friday the 27^th, 10:00 pm and we have just taken off heading to Barcelona for the weekend. When I returned on Monday I will tell you all about it.