Weekend Update...

Weekend update time!...yay! okay, so I just have been busy and been tired so I haven’t updated all weekend…sorry! The majority of my time this weekend has been spent snuggled up in layers and layers of clothing trying to stay warm in my apartment! It has been snowing here non stop (which still isn’t very much compared to at home) and they haven’t had snow fall here since like the 80’s or something crazy like that!! So naturally, it waits until I am here, but I’m not letting is damper my time here!

 Currently I am wearing 2 pairs of socks, leggings, shorts, AND sweatpants, 3 shirts, a zip up hoodie, AND a regular hoodie on top of that WITH the hood up. Yeah, it is freezing. I did not come equipped for this weather and they only put the heat on for a few hours a day because energy and heat is so expensive here. You know it’s gotta be cold, if I am complaining about the temperature! Anyway, here is my weekend…

Friday:

So we were supposed to go to the town of Viterbo but because of the snow all of the busses were shut down. So after learning we couldn’t go there we were gonna go to the local farmers market that they have every Friday morning. As we were about to leave my roommate Jenny said it was not worth to leave because there were hardly any vendors there and the weather was just absolutely freezing and terrible between the wind and the snow combined. So we stayed huddled up in the apartment all day instead. We were really bummed about Viterbo being cancled because I guess they have a mall there and other good stores, but we will venture out there eventually on our own. No big deal!

Basically all we did was hang around and yell at our internet because the connection absolutely sucks!!! It seems to work really well at night time for some reason even if all 4 of us are on it at the same time. It is really weird and really frustrating. I got some of my homework done too which was good. Then we started to get bored. So we decided we should clean the apartment! I cleaned mine and Caroline’s bathroom, Caroline and Sara cleaned the kitchen, and Jenny was in charge of sweeping and mopping the house. It was all pretty equally split up and everything was all sparkly and fresh smelling, so that was nice! Later on we decided that we would venture out and brave the cold. A friend of ours (Francine, from NY) was going to sing at a local bar called San Marco and we really wanted to go support her. Well we found out about 20 minutes before she was going to go on and it takes about 15 minutes for us to walk there so we didn’t get dressed up or anything, basically just put on jeans and put my hair up with my glasses on and left. It was a chill night. Well we got to San Marco and no one was there and finally people showed up, but Francine wasn’t feeling well so she never came out. We ended up leaving San Marco to go to Café Del Duomo (of course!) instead. It was so much better there! The usual crowd of the locals and the Americans showed up and we all had a good time. Met a new player on the volleyball team too and we never pronounced his name right so we just call him Valle (pronounced val-ay)! Haha We just give nicknames to everyone here! It was a good time as usual! Oh! And we made Valle and Alessio (not bar guy, volleyball guy) make snow angels with us on the cobblestone streets! It was hilarious!

Saturday:

Another freezing day spent cooped up in the apartment…well only for the first half of the day. We braved the cold for a little while and went shopping. First to the supermarket because we were all low on food, then we went for a little retail shopping! I bought 2 pairs of earrings for about 10 euro and …wait for it…my first pair of boots!!!! I was so extremely excited to finally find boots that fit me!! The box said that they were 20.90 euro, but the lady only charged me 15 euro! SCORE!!! I am still super excited over these boots! So, naturally I wanted to show them off that night! So we decided to go to Duomo…..of course! Duomo is just always a good time!

The usual bartenders weren’t working but Arianna and Alessio came to hang out as customers that night instead of working. The bar was doing “Sambuca Flambe” shots. Basically they were shots of something…on fire! Okay so here is what you do: pour the shot, light it on fire, then put ur hand on top of it (flat and straight) until it suctions to your hand, then you keep hitting it up and down until it unsuctions and you drink the shot then take a straw and suck up the gas from the empty shot glass. It is intense…wow! The initial taste is really bad but the after taste was really good. It kind of tasted like black licorice, but it was good.

It was a lot of fun to hang with Alessio when he wasn’t working and he was going around taking lots of pictures of everyone there too so it will be fun to see those when he posts them. Of course the volleyball guys were there (Alessio (a different one),  Valle, Simone, and Claudio) so they were fun as always! We were there for a pretty long time, and it was totally worth walking in the snow to get there! I know I say this a lot, but I just love all the people here. They are all just so kind and nice…of course I can’t understand half of what they are saying so they could be making fun of us, but they seem nice! Haha The locals are all nice and all the people that are studying here too for school! It is great! I was also feeling really good with my new boots on too! J

Sunday:

Another freezing day. Had lots of homework to catch up on so did lots of reading most of the day. I was able to skype my dad and one of my best friends Alyssa for a little bit today. It is always nice to see familiar faces! Then did some more homework and just hung out with the roomies all day. Then late at night Caroline and I went to Carly and Abby’s apartment to plan some trips. We have a group of 8 that is going to Greece from March 2-4 (perfect place to celebrate my birthday!!!!) and then a group of 5 of us to go to Dublin on St. Patty’s day for a few days and then going to Venice for 4 days and that will take up our spring break. I am so pumped for these trips!! The flights and hotels are all booked and it is official!!! It is going to be so epic! A few of us might make a day trip to Paris too sometime. Basically ride a train there and back in a 24-30 hour period and just sleep on the train. It will be a long day but that way we can go to Paris without it costing tons of money. It will be so much fun!

We are trying to live stream the superbowl right now too (this is being written on Sunday night if you can’t tell) but our internet sucks! I am currently typing this on Word because we are trying to give all the internet to our roommate Sara because she is from NY and is a huge Giants fan! The streaming isn’t working so well so she is on Facetime with her mom and she has is pointed at the TV! Haha not the best quality but it is better than nothing! So all of this is being written now (Sunday) but will not be posted until Monday. It is weird because on Word I can see just how long this post is…..super long…sorry bout that! Haha We also got a call from school today that our Italian class at 9AM is cancled for tomorrow because our professor can’t get here because of the snow in neighboring towns. It is fun that we don’t have to wake up early, but now we will have to make up our missed class probably on a Friday which is a bummer, but oh well, I can deal! Oh! And today was also national Nutella day, and I am officially addicted to it now…it is really good on potato chips! Perfect salty/sweet snack! Love it! You have to try it! We can’t keep Nutella in our house! It is absolutely nuts! Oh, and fun fact…they don’t have commercials here on TV shows. Like, they play the whole episode pretty much and after the show is over, they play the commercials, it is really nice and convenient actually. I think the US should consider this idea for sure. Okay, that was random and didn’t have anything to do with what I was talking about but that was my fun/random fact of the day. I should probably go before I keep rambling though and I am super exhausted! Sorry for such a long post!!

Until next time…Ciao! 

PS ....Monday real quick....class cancled....finalized Greece/Ireland/Venice plans! yay! and watching a weird movie in Cinema class...I will let you know how that goes! Still freezing too!.....whoop-dee-doo...