Real Quick

Hello all! So I will not be posting about spring break in Dublin and Venice for a little while because it is gonna take a while to write and I am still waiting on getting pictures from people. Also I leave tomorrow for Paris until Sunday so I will not be able to use a computer for a few days. So eventually I will have one post dedicated to Dublin, one for Venice, and one for Paris. Juuuuust so everyone knows what to expect soon!

This month has been so crazy! I have gone somewhere every weekend, had to deal with midterms, and another million other things in between those that have made this month very hard and also exciting to deal with. It has been interesting traveling. Especially over spring break because by the end of it I felt like, "okay I was on vacation, now I am gonna go back home to Belleville." But no, I am going back home to Tuscania. It is a weird mindset to be in. I whole-heartedly feel like Tuscania is home now though. By the end of every trip I have taken I just wanna get back to my apartment in my small, tiny little town of Tuscania. I love that I live in a town that is not full of tourists all the time and everyone knows everyone and you can get to anywhere you need within a 15 minutes walk. It is nice to leave our small little town and go on a break somewhere else, but it is even better to come back to.

It really hit me today that my time here is almost up. The teachers are talking about our final projects and papers and what will be on the finals already. I only have one full month and a few days of another left here. It blows my mind! I am excited to get back home and spend time with all my family and friends and catch up with them, but at the same time I am not ready to leave here yet. I am not ready to leave Tuscania. I am not ready to leave my new friends. I am not ready to leave my new home and my new family. It is gonna be a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. Everyone that I have met here really has become a part of me and we are all already talking about reuniting in like 5 years and renting a villa here in Tuscania for a few weeks in the summer time. We are also planning on visiting each other all over the US when we get back too. Leaving here, these people, is gonna be one of the hardest things I will ever have to do. I usually don't get emotional about leaving people because I am so used to leaving and moving, but then again, I have never had this much of a connection with people before. It is gonna be hard, but then again it is a good thing. I know for a fact I will keep in touch with all of these people and I will see them again.

I am so glad that I got the chance to study abroad. I am so glad my parents supported me in going. I am even more glad that I chose Tuscania as my city to study in. You really feel apart of the Italian culture here. When I go to other major cities like Rome, and Venice, I really appreciate the fact that I live in Tuscania. It is the stereotype of Italy. All the other cities are very Americanized and would not have given me the same experience. I am still amazed every day by all of the beauty that I am surrounded with here. It never gets old.

(well that wasn't sappy at all!) I just went on a little rant there....but anyways...I will be doing other posts for my trips when I get back from Paris.

Until next time...ciao!

Cheese, Wine, and Midterms

I know, its been a while….my bad! I’ve been super busy and stressed out over finals and haven’t really had much time or motivation to do this. (don’t worry, it wont be super long!) This will also be my last post for a while because I leave for spring break tomorrow morning. I will be in Dublin, Ireland for the first half and Venice, Italy for the second half. I am so excited and stoked to be in Dublin for St. Patty’s day!! It’s gonna be a blast!! I will be gone from March 17^th-March 24^th .

Anyways….here’s the update…

Wednesday and Thursday (the 7^th and 8^th) I went on field trips. The first was the cheese factory. It was a very short field trip actually. Once we got there we went inside the store area and they had a window where you could stand and watch them make the cheese (buffalo mozzarella).

 Since we are a class of 11, they said that was too many people for us to actually go inside the factory part of it. It was very small and only 2-3 people working in there. So we stood there for maybe 20 minutes while our teacher (we call him Franci…pronounced fron-chee) told us what they were doing and the process of it and the different types being made. Then we went out back and got to see the buffalo for all of 10 minutes. 

Then the field trip was over! Just like that! Haha so Franci took us out for some gelato out by the lake, which was kind of nice I guess.

 On the way to and from the cheese factory me, Jenny, Sara, and Amy all rode in Franci’s car cause I mean, let’s be real, Franci is a good time. We also wanted to ride with him cause we had a quiz to take over fish and meat when we got back from the field trip so we wanted to ask him questions and to help us out with the quiz. So we hounded him with questions the whole time. That is, when he wasn’t boppin his head to the strange techno music and combin his hair with his fingers every 10 seconds. Then we arrived at school and he handed out the quiz. We were all a bit worried cause, let’s be real, none of us really read the material that we were supposed to read cause there was just so much of it and we had other classes to worry about! He told us to ask if we had any questions so we took that to heart. We asked him the exact questions on the quiz and he basically just told us the answer to all of them. He said he really wasn’t concerned about us reading the material he is more interested in our actual cooking which is what our midterm would be next class. So needless to say, the quiz went well! A+ for me!

Then the next day we went on a field trip to a winery! It was so cool! But, to start off I must mention that March 8^th is Festa Della Donna (International holiday for women) and it is a bigger deal here in Italy than Valentine’s day is! One of my roommates, Jenny, surprised us in the morning with a muffin, flowers (mimosa is the traditional flower given on this day), and a card! She is the sweetest! 

Then when I get to school one of the guys here, Connor, bought every girl a flower too! He is so nice! This is the same guy that gave every girl a chocolate on Valentine’s day too! Then our wine teacher got here and bought each girl in our class a bouquet of flowers! He is adorable! I just love him! Then we were on our way to the winery. It was in the same town and area as the cheese factory was. It was a lot smaller (from the outside) than I expected. Then we get to go inside. It was decorated so cute! Bottles and corks everywhere with all bright colored walls of yellow and orange with dark wood furniture and flowers all over. It was beautiful!

 Then we were lead downstairs to the cellar where the wine is kept in barrels. I felt like I was in the goonies! (fun fact: speaking of the goonies, I just recently watched that movie after the field trip and the bad guys speak Italian in the movie and I actually understood them! Yay me!) It looked like a cave with rock walls and old bottles of wine were sitting at the top near the ceiling and were covered in a thick layer of dust. It was really cool to see actually. They had open light fixtures hanging from the ceiling, it was just really cool to be down there. You felt legit like the goonies and you just found all the treasure!

 After that we were taken to a room for wine tasting. We tasted 3 wines. We had 2 whites and 1 red wine, complete with a plate of food and bowls of bread. Then since it was Festa Della Donna, the lady at the winery let us have another sparkling wine and cake. That wine was amazing! It was moscato and it was very sweet. It was delicious! So, by the time we left, I bought 2 bottles of the moscato to enjoy back at the apartment!

On our way back we got word that one of the girls in our program was leaving to go back home to New York. We found out it was Francine (she is the one that went to the park and played her guitar and sang for us that I mentioned in a past post). I was completely heart broken. She is such an amazing woman and such a sweetheart. She always puts a smile on your face and she was the last person I expected to leave us and go back home. I guess she was not having a good time here. She was very homesick to the point where she would wake up in the middle of the night and bawl her eyes out and have panic attacks. It probable didn’t help that she never left Tuscania the whole time she was here cause she was sick with bronchitis the majority of the time, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Every single one of us surprised her that night at her apartment with some pastries to say good-bye to her cause she would be leaving in the morning. She played us one last song before she left that she wrote herself and we were all in tears. I used to make fun of people like on the show Real World when they would cry at the end when they would leave and say things like “we are like a family” but now I completely understand. I am not one to cry easily, especially in front of other people but I was bawling. It is weird how close you get to everyone in such a small amount of time here. I feel closer to these people than I do with even some of my best friends at home. I honestly felt like one of my family members was leaving me behind for good. It was a hard night. Francine, if you read this, I miss you and I hope you are enjoying home!

Later that night a church around the corner was having a little party for Festa Della Donna and we got invited by Amy. It was a bunch of men and women in their 60’s and 70’s. They are my favorite people in Tuscania! They know how to have a good time, let me tell you! They had 4 tables filled with food, 2 tables of different drinks (mostly wine), and another table of just dessert! They were all so nice and made a toast to the women and then a toast to the Americans! Haha then they turned on some music and they all started to bust a move! They were doin the waltz and the tango and conga lines. Then some of the men would come over to us young girls and grab our hands and dance with us! It was so amazing! I danced with 3 different men, probable 70 years old each and I waltzed all night with them and even joined in a conga line or two! One of my friends here, Carly, even got dipped by one of the old men! It was hilarious! It was so much fun and I would definitely go back there again!

Not much happened over the weekend really. Friday morning we got up early so that we could see Francine off and say one last goodbye and give one last hug. Then we went to the market and I bought red pants (score!!). Then it was pretty lazy around here. We just kinda laid around. Then we wanted to go out. Sara, one of my roommates, really wanted to go out and have a good time to get her mind off of things. She did not have the best week, none of us really did, especially with Francine leaving. Sara hardly ever goes out too so we all took like 2 hours getting ready and were all set for a good night.

 We went out and it was such a bust!!! No one came out that night. No Italians, and no Americans. We were pretty upset with the Americans cause they live right next to one of the bars, like literally 10 steps and we had to walk for 15 minutes to get there, just like every time we go out and they said that they were too tired to come out even though they said they would. Whatever, we stayed out for a while but went home after like an hour and a half or two hours. It was a major bust! Then Saturday we literally did nothing. She stayed in our PJs all day and never left the apartment. We didn’t feel like having a repeat of last night so we just stayed in. It was kind of nice though not doing anything. Then Sunday we went out for a little just walking around to get out of the house and the rest of the day was spent studying for midterms this week. I spent the majority of my time on my cinema class for studying. What a pain in my butt!!

Monday wasn’t eventful either. Went to school, had my Italian and sketch class. Sketch was really nice cause we had class in the park and did water colors. It was really relaxing. My midterm in sketch consisted of looking at all of the work I have done so far and seeing if I had any improvements, so another easy A for this chick! Then it was time for cinema! The midterm was not as hard as I was expecting but I am still unsure of how I did since she is such a hard grader on me. It was 30 questions and the majority were multiple choice, but the choices were all very similar to each other so it was hard sometimes to differentiate the difference between them, but we will see how I did after spring break!

Then on Tuesday, I had a lazy morning since its my day off, but then I went on a hike at about 3 in the afternoon. Yes, I said hike. I, Sydney, Beener, hiked. I have ran a few time here and now I am hiking. I am moving up in this world, I know! Anyways, we hiked to this place called Abbey San Giusto. It was so beautiful! When I eventually get married, this is where I want it to happen. 

It was beautiful. The grass seemed greener, the flowers more in bloom, and the sun was brighter. There was this old building that was just like a small castle and they host events there, such as weddings!! There were arches of all sizes, everything was concrete, but it didn’t feel like concrete. You know how when you are around concrete you get this cold feeling? Well you didn’t get that from this. They had beautiful white table settings and parts of the floor were glass so that you could see below where tombs used to be. It was gorgeous! It took my breathe away. It reminded me of a fairytale!

 It was about 2 miles to get there and another 2 to get back so I definitely got my exercise in for the day! It makes up for the many lazy days I’ve been having lately! Afterwards the rest of the day was spent studying for more midterms for the next day.

Wednesday I had 2 midterms. I had Italian and my cooking midterm. I felt really good before going into my Italian midterm. I studied. I made a study guide for myself (well, Jenny made them actually, but I still had one!). Sara quizzed us. I was ready. Then we got the exam and now I don’t feel so great about it. I didn’t fail, but I definitely didn’t ace it either. We will see I suppose.

Then in between my finals I had about an 8 hour break so I sat with Caroline to figure out plans to go to Paris at the end of March. It is so stressful planning trips!! I can’t even handle it! We are getting it slowly but surely though, so that is good! Speaking of planning trips, I talked with my parents and we got the plans for my brother to come visit me all straightened out!! I am so excited for him to come!! He will be here from April 19^th-26^th, so it is gonna be awesome!! I gotta work out some smaller details for when he is here, but that will all work out perfectly fine! Okay, now back on track….

My cooking midterm was next. I LOVE my cooking class. I LOVE Franci! Our midterm consisted of 4 multiple choice and 8 open answer questions and we had to cook something with a partner. He treated our midterm just like our quiz. When we didn’t understand or didn’t know the answer we asked him and he would say “Well a good answer to write for this question would be…” It was great! Haha Then I was partners with Sara and we made chicken cacciatore for our recipe! It was really delicious and I am going to make it for everyone when I get home! Delicious!

 Other recipes made from other groups were cannelloni, risotto, and ravioli. I only liked the chicken but they all looked pretty! We all did a great job on the food he says so that’s good. I am not worried about this class at all! 

Later that night was stressful trying to book things for Paris, but it all worked out eventually so it’s okay! It has been a stressful week and everything is piling up and I am just so ready for spring break it is ridiculous!

Thursday I had my last midterm. It was for my wine class. I was a little worried going into this midterm. There is just so much information for only 30 multiple choice questions and he doesn’t tell you what to focus on for the test. Once I got in the room he asked us how we were feeling and I told him I was nervous and he comes over and pinches my cheek and tells me “oh sweetie, no need. No need.” So then he tells all of us to skip the questions we are not sure of and come back to them later. So, okay, just like every other test Ive ever taken. No biggie. Welp! He went over all the questions and gave us all the answers! It was kind of perfect! Another A+ for me!! We also had to taste a wine on the exam but he said we all got it right cause it is mostly opinion anyway! It went so well! I loved it!

Also on thurday (this is random) one of the advisors, Mei told me that I looked sexy haha!!! She said I was dressed very feminine and that I should “flaunt what I got more often”….did you hear that Dad?! All I was wearing was a pair of jeans with a camie and a long sleeved sweater over it. I don’t get why that is sexy, but hey, I will take the compliment! Haha it was hilarious!

Friday we got up and went to Viterbo to do some last minute shopping. Some girls didn’t have anything green for St. Patrick’s day so that is mainly why we went. Then it was all about frantic packing. It is really hard to pack really tiny for a whole week. Some how I managed to do it though!

So I head off in the morning (Saturday March 17^th….St. Patrick’s Day!!) for Dublin, Ireland! Then on the 21^st I am off to Venice and come back to Tuscania on the 25^th. I am so excited for this spring break! Dublin is gonna be so crazy on St. Patty’s day and it has always been a dream of mine to go there! I won’t be doing any updates while I am there so expect a really long post next time to catch you up on it!

Until next time….ciao! 

Happy?? Birthday To Me...

(this is gonna be another long one! Sorry guys!!) I am not even sure on where to start to describe this weekend. I guess you can just say that it was an interesting trip. Here it goes…

We left Friday morning at 7:30AM. We had no issues with the plane ride there. We used RyanAir to get there. They are super strict on their luggage policies! We all just took a bookbag and it has to weigh a max of 22 pounds (which wasn’t hard to deal with) and they are very very strict on the size of the bag. Thankfully we didn’t have a problem cause we all used bookbags but we saw many people that had to pay an extra 50 euro cause their bag didn’t fit. Your carry-on bag also has to include your purse, so you have to be able to fit ur purse inside of your carry-on bag. It’s a little bit ridiculous, but whatever, we made it work just fine. On the plane one girl that came with us (Morgan) made friends with a Greek couple. They took us under their wing! They lived right next to our hotel so they took us with them to get there. They were so very nice! She kept calling us her children and she seemed to know a lot of people in the town. She was like a little tour guide on the bus ride to the hotel telling us all about each building and cheap places to shop and eat and when we would pass a store she would say “oh! Sorry, I need to call my friend I think I just saw them in that store!” or “I know that owner, let me call them really quick!” She did this many many times, it was so cute! She was also telling us that we always need to be cautious with our bags while we are here because there is a problem with pick-pocketing in the town. We had already heard this many times before leaving from friends, family, and the school advisors so I was already paranoid about it and then it made me realize how important it was if a local was even telling you do watch your stuff. Needless to say, I was very protective and paranoid about my bag and purse the whole trip! It was a little nerve-racking on the bus ride because of what we saw out the windows too. This was not the stereotypical Greece trip that I was imagining at all. No white buildings with blue roofs like in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and no beach. Instead we were in the ghetto. It was real sketchy looking. People living in shacks on the side of the road, graffiti everywhere, and we saw entire families dumpster diving the whole trip! I know that Greece’s economy is pretty much in the toilet right now and I expected to see a little bit of that but this was the ENTIRE TOWN. Everything looked terrible and we were gonna sleep right in the middle of it all in our hotel room. I was a little worried and I could see in everyone elses face that they were a little scared too, but we were gonna make the most of it!

We got to our hotel and the lady we met who was with her husband on the plan (we called her Mrs. Sabrina) helped up with getting our room straightened out with the front desk. Everyone at that hotel was very nice and welcoming and very accommodating to all of us! They were so helpful! They always had cookies, fresh coffee, fresh tea, and bottled water for us 24/7 too. We really liked our hotel there despite its location! 

After we got all settled we decided to go get some lunch. Mrs. Sabrina had told us about a place that serves giant gyros for a cheap price right up the street from our hotel so we decided to go there. Thank goodness we did cause it was delicious!! I find myself craving them now! They had all types of gyros! I got the pork gyro and I asked for them to put lettuce on it and then I saw that the gyro came with fries so I was expecting a plate of fries with them too…nope! The fries go ON the gyro!! It was genius! It was so good! We got that and a soda all for only 4 euro. It was so delicious and filling! I loved it! 

After having a few food babies in our tummies, we decided to walk around the town to see what there was to do so that we can decide how we wanted to spend our day on Saturday. As we kept walking and got closer to the water we noticed that the town was getting a little nicer. It started to not look so ghetto-like! It was actually really beautiful down by the water. And by the time we got there the sun was setting and it was gorgeous to look out at the sea with the sky in shades of orange, pink, and purple. It was so pretty. 

We noticed that they had a lot of nice shops and restaurants and decided it was definitely worth coming back to the next day. We called it an early night and just hung out at the hotel the rest of the night and took advantage of the free cookies and coffee and just stayed up to chat for a while. It was a nice chill night.

We got goin on Saturday by 9AM. Before we left we asked the front desk at the hotel how far the beach was and they looked at us very confused and said “We do not have beach here” and our souls were a tad crushed when we heard this but we brushed it off and went on our way. We went down to the nice part of town and did a little shopping. We found some great little stores that were pretty cheap. I got an awesome gold and bright red scarf for only 5 euro that probably would have been like 40 bucks at home so I was pretty excited about that! I never wear scarves at home but ever since I left I just love wearing them! Then we heard about a local market so we went over there. It was a little scary! It was really crowded so we were paranoid about our purses and they were obviously all speaking Greek and the little bit of English that they knew was really creepy to hear like “come here American babies” and things of that nature….not very comforting to hear especially that early in the morning! So needless to say we did not stay at the market very long! Then we saw a giant soccer bus with lots of soccer players there. I think it might have been the pro soccer team there and they were having things set up for little kids to come play and they were bumpin music so it was fun to walk through. Then we noticed that there was a boardwalk a little ways up so we decided to venture on over there.

 They had really cool bench recliner things too. They were wavy and kind of looked like cartoon mustaches. They were comfy too! 

Then on our way back we found this cute little tourist-souvenir shop and we got some post cards and magnets and what not for pretty cheap, so that was nice.

We were starting to get hungry too. Everywhere you walk there it seemed to have a different scent of a different kind of food. One minute you smell gyro and then you smell pastries, then you smell fruit. It was great! So that made us starving and we kept seeing lots of American places like Applebees, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, and Pizza Hut and we figured since we had greek for lunch the day before that we can get a good cheeseburger so we went to Goody’s for lunch. It was delicious! It was really cool inside too. They decorated it really nice. The chairs were neon green and purple plastic and stainless steel everywhere with bright colored and patterned walls. It was awesome and the food was delicious! After buying our souvenirs earlier we realized that Thessalonik was famous for ‘The White Tower’ so we definitely had to go see it! 

It was really beautiful! It was just one lone tower that looked very castle-y.  As we were getting closer a man approached us. Now all over this town (even here in Tuscania every now and then) there are these Nigerian/Jamaican men that are always trying to sell things. I expected that, we all did and we had seen them before in other places and have been able to brush them off. Well, this one guy was very determined. He came up to me and started to tie a bracelet on my wrist. It was one of those bracelets that you make on your own from books (friendship bracelets). I was moving my arm away and saying “sorry, no money. No thank you,” but he continued to tie it and at this point it was tied pretty tight on my wrist. I was literally yanking my wrist away and telling him that I had no money and he looks at me and says “No, no, no you don’t understand ‘tis from my heart!” I continued to tell him no and he continued to repeat himself. This went on for about 30-40 seconds, then he says “you don’t understand lady, ‘tis from my heart!” and I said “Free?? Sorry no money I need to go,” and he says “from my heart and you give me something from your heart!” it was getting really annoying and finally Morgan came over and started to grab the guys hand away so that I could untie it and we booked it out of there to get away from him haha. It was nuts! Then finally we got to the tower!

 We wanted to go to the top and when we asked how much it was they said it was free if we were students, so…SCORE! Gotta love free things! It was really cool to look at everything inside. It was a giant spiral stair case going up to the top and every so often they had rooms with displays in them.

 One of the rooms reminded me of the movie Tron so I just had to do an epic pose in there! It was awesome!

 Then when we got to the top the view was absolutely breath-taking! We could see for miles! On one side you could see the sea and on the other you saw miles and miles of buildings! It was an amazing sight to see! I couldn’t believe how many buildings there were! It was astonishing to see!

After doing a little more shopping (and finding another pair of boots!! Yay me!), we went back to the hotel to take a little bit of a break and rest before we went out to dinner. They have a lot more American TV in Greece. Just Shoot Me was on, and Tuckeverlasting was on! It was kind of nice! We all got ready and went out to eat after about 2 hours. Before heading down there, we stopped at a bar across the street from our hotel and I ordered the most amazing drink ever! I got a white hot chocolate! Oh my gosh!! It was so good! So rick and creamy and yummy! I want one just thinking about it! 

Then it was time for food! We were trying to look for a Greek restaurant to eat at but there was no where to go. It was unbelievable! Everything was just a bar with drinks and snacks. We needed a meal! So as much as we wanted to avoid American food again, we had no other choice so we went to TGI Friday’s. Which I was totally fine with! I got another cheeseburger cause I knew I would be missing those when we came back to Tuscania. It was weird to, to be able to order margaritas and appletini’s in an American restaurant and not get carded for it or anything. They were delicious by the way! Then my friend Carly told our waitress that it was my birthday and they came and sang ‘Happy Birthday” to me in Greek and gave me a giant ice cream! It was a good dinner out with everyone!

We didn’t want to go home yet and when we left for dinner there were tons of people out so we wanted to experience the night life there. When we got out of the restaurant though it was like we were in a ghost town! It was so strange. No one was outside, everyone had moved inside and since they all were inside everything was super crowded. We found a place outside to sit on couches and order some drinks. It was very chill but it was beautiful and a lot of fun with just the 7 of us. We wanted to stay out until midnight when it was officially my birthday but we were all super tired and went back a little after 11PM. It was a great night though and we all enjoyed it.

Then Sunday happened. Okay so we got up and moving around 9 again and the forum was open for the public and we had about 2 and a half hours until we needed to get to the airport so we went to the forum to explore. It was a lot fun and really cool to see. We pretended to be statues on the old columns and sat in an old amphitheater. It was really neat. 

Then we had to go buy bus tickets and catch a bus to the airport. This is where it gets fun…

Okay, so Caroline (my roommate) forgot to bring extra money with her to Greece so I had been spotting her money while we were there and she was gonna pay me back when we came home. So we go to buy our bus tickets and got that taken care of then we went to wait at the bus stop. When we get on the bus we notice it is super crowded so I move my bookbag in front of me on a ledge and my purse in front of me. Connor (a guy we were with) was validating our tickets for us on the bus and this sketchy lookin man wouldn’t move for him to do them all. Then we noticed this guy movin around the bus, just pushin his way through the crowds of people and we didn’t think anything of it. We just thought he was a strange Greek man. Whatever.  Eventually we all start to get separated because of all the people on the bus then Connor comes over to us and asks if we have Abby’s wallet. I was really confused and asked if she left it at the hotel and he told me that she had it when she bought her bus ticket so I think to myself “okay, I will check my purse just in case she gave it to me and I don’t remember.” I look down at my purse and notice the my zipper is on the other side. I get real confused and lift it up and look inside and my wallet is missing too. By this time the sketchy guy had gotten off the bus and when he got off he was running. I start to shake. Literally my whole body is shaking. Shortly after I realize it’s gone we are at the airport and I start looking everywhere for my wallet. A security officer hears us talking about what happens and takes us to the police station inside the airport. On our way there I immediately call my dad and the first thing I say is “Dad? You need to cancel all my credit cards and debit card right now.” I said it perfect. I got that sentence out and then he asked me if I was okay (back home it was like 4AM when I called him in the states) and as soon as he asked me that I started to bawl my eyes out! He kept asking me what was wrong and I couldn’t answer him. I was such a mess. Finally I was able to tell him that my wallet was taken and that I had to get off the phone to talk to the police and that I would call him back. I hate crying in front of people and was doing my best not to cry. I hate crying. I never do it! There was no stopping this water works though! The police were very nice and telling us to calm down. We still had our passports (and I had all my diabetic stuff still) so everything would be fine. Everything else was replaceable eventually. We talked with the police and then I was a little more calm and the policeman asks “How old are you?” and I start crying again and all I say is “Today is my birthday!” ha! Oh jeez! All the police people start to laugh with that undertone of “awwww” and told me happy birthday. It was kinda funny and strangely comforting at the time. I was finally able to call my dad back and talk to him more in detail. Thank goodness I was able to reach him! He is so good in rough situations. He made me feel so much better and so much more calm. He wasn’t yelling at me, he was reassuring me that everything would be okay and not to worry about it and to just keep him updated on what was going on. He was pretty much my lifesaver that day! Thanks dude! I love you! He made me feel a million times better and I was able to pull myself together!

The police said we did not have enough time to file a report on it and still catch our flight back to Rome so we had to go to the police station in Rome when we got there to file for a report. It did not take long once we were able to communicate with them and tell them what happened. Honestly, there is no way we are ever going to see those wallets again or anything in them but it still had to be reported just in case. I had everything in my wallet. I had about 200 euro, 200 American dollars, credit cards, debit cards, drivers license, military ID, school ID, ISIC card, insurance card, bank card, everything. I even had my SSN written down on a sheet of paper in there. It looks like random numbers to anyone else, but still. After the initial shock of it all and my friends making me feel better I was able to sorta kinda laugh about it. I started to think of the dumb stuff that was in there too like store reward cards and movie stubs and pictures of friends that I can never get back now. Oh, and all my free food vouchers from school were in there and I had about 8 of them! Bummer! Anyways, it was all straightened out eventually and we just wanted to get back.

We had to wait for our ride from the Rome airport and while we did Morgan bought me and Abby food and drinks without even asking us if we wanted anything cause she knew we didn’t have any money on us. It was really nice of her to do that and we definitely appreciated it. Then they all took me out for dinner for my birthday and cause I couldn’t afford anything anymore. I am completely broke right now. I have absolutely nothing with me.  But before dinner we went to our apartment to drop our stuff off and take a breather. When I got there my roommates surprised me with an apple pie with candles in it and sang happy birthday to me! It was so nice!! I love my roommates, I definitely lucked out on them!! It was great! It was also my first pie I have ever had in my whole life! It was delicious! Then we went for pizza. This pizza place was amazing! Every pizza you order comes out on 2…count them 2….plates cause they are so huge! We each got our own and had no problem finishing the whole thing by myself! It was so good! I just got the regular margarita pizza, always a good choice! It was so good and pretty cheap. My pizza was only 5 euro for that giant thing! Definitely going back there again!

So all in all it was an interesting birthday. Definitely won’t forget this one that’s for sure!

Next day at school on Monday I told the advisors what happened. They were so nice and helpful about it! They replaced all 8 of my food vouchers and gave me 4 more. They also gave me 100 euro loan to take in the mean time while I figure everything out. They were so gracious about it and making me feel better. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring people here! It is such a blessing and I am so thankful for all of them! I am getting things figured out with replacing things. I have been talking with my mom and dad and making things work. I have a replacement debit card on the way in the mail and will be able to get money again. All of my IDs are replaceable eventually too so I feel much better bout the situation and can now look back and laugh and joke about it. It was a learning experience. Of course it would happen to me though! I was so paranoid about it. I keep thinking back wondering if I felt anything weird or noticed anything strange and I can’t. There is nothing else I could have done to avoid it and I need to stop thinking about what could have happened if I had noticed earlier. There is no point in wasting my time thinking of that. This whole experience just makes me that much more appreciative of everything that I DO have. It is nice to be back in Tuscania where I do not have to worry about things like that anymore!

Other than what happened, the weekend was really fun…not what I was expecting but it was still fun to go to Greece! And now I can say that I was in both Greece and Italy on my 20^th Birthday! So I guess that is pretty cool. Monday classes went fine. I actually enjoyed the movie in cinema class. It is called “Rocco and His Brothers” and in sketch we went outside since it was nice out. Things are looking up and it feels good. Today was my day off so I had a little break from everything and tomorrow I have a field trip to the cheese factory and Thursday I go to a winery. Things are definitely looking up!

So that was my birthday adventure in Greece and my recovery afterwards! Sorry it was another annoyingly long post!

Until next time…ciao! 

Good Times

Such a good week! Nothing too exciting happened, but that is also kind of what made it nice...if that makes any sense? Anyways here it goes........oh wait! here are a few funny pictures from last weekend that I found that I forgot to post! One is of me and Jenny and her friend Callie at Duomo... Jenny (in the middle) looks priceless! haha and then the second one is Caroline blow drying our wall....awkward. haha she made scuff marks and then to get it off she wet it down with water and tried to dry it....now we have a spot on our wall forever, good job caroline!

Monday was probably the longest day ever! I had my usual 3 classes and then also a make up class for cooking! I was at school for about 12 hours that day.........way too long! Italian was good that day, we played alot of games so that is always fun haha then in sketch glass we are on ink drawings and I suck at those! Last week we were focusing on charcoal and I really enjoyed it. We had to sketch a white sheet that he had set up so it had a lot of different values and shadows and it was really intimidating to work on. You wouldn't think that hearing "we are gonna sketch a sheet" would be hard, but then you start to look at it then you think to yourself "oh crap, how do I begin to draw this?!" It was pretty difficult but I must say, I was pretty proud of myself! I will have to take a picture of all the drawings I did for it! But I am not a fan of this week. Not only do I hate working with ink pens, but we had to draw leaves, and I hate drawing leaves. I find them to be very complicated to draw and with ink you can't blend for shadows like you can with charcoal so it was really frustrating, but thank goodness it's over now!
Then in my Cinema class we got our quizzes back and I got a B which I guess I am pretty proud of considering she hates all of my homework assignments I turn in, but whatever! I will take my B! I also got a B on that weeks homework, so maybe she is warming up to me? I dont know. I really enjoyed this weeks movie though. It was called 'Divorce Italian Style' and was set in Sicily in 1961. It is black and white with subtitles, but it was a comedy and it was really entertaining. It was still illegal back then to get divorced so it was all about how this guy could make his wife dishonor him so that he would have motive to kill her and get less than 3 years in jail. It sounds like a drama now that I think about it, but it really was a comedy. I recommend it!
Then we had our cooking class! It was our first quiz and seafood night! So it was not that great of a night for me to start out with haha. The quiz was interesting....well okay, the whole class was interesting that night. I think everyone was very slap-happy and our professor was acting like he was on drugs or something that night. It was highly entertaining actually. He kept leaving the room during the quiz and so we would all ask each other for help and then he would come back in and wouldn't care that we were totally cheating right in front of him. Then when he was reading us the recipes he kept repeating the same thing like 3 times in a row and laughing at random things that didn't make sense. It was nuts but hilarious. Like he was telling us ingredients to a seafood risotto and then in the middle he says "6 people" and sense we were slap happy we laughed and said you have to put 6 people into the food?? and then he started to crack up and was like "no no no is for 6 people the recipe!" Then I was freaking out about the seafood cause I just cant handle it haha I mean I had no problem cooking it but I really didnt want to eat any of it and he asked who didnt like seafood and I raised my hand and he says "you gonna eat it" and I said no and then he says "but why you no try it?" and I said I didnt want to and that I have had bad experiences with fish and he says "i dont care, you eat it tonight. you try!" haha i was a little taken back but it was hilarious.....and i didnt eat any of it by the way! I got away with it....I couldnt handle it! We made a seafood risotto with all kinds of nasty stuff in it like calimari, octopus, shrimp and other gross fish things. That was actually the dish that I helped to make cause I wanted to touch the fish and stuff I just didnt want to eat it!

 Then a group made Tuna steaks with some type of lemon sauce on top of it.

 Then there were fish balls. It was like tuna mashed up and breaded then fried with some bright green pea sauce. It looked pretty at least!

Nothing Happened on Tuesday, it was my day off and 2 of my roommates had a field trip to Rome and the other had class all day so I was able to chill at home by myself and take advantage of being the only one on our internet that day so it worked pretty well for it. I layed in bed all day and it was amazing! Then Wednesday our Italian class was canceled cause our teacher was sick so we got to sleep in then we had our regular cooking class later that night! (nothing happened during the day again, lazy again!) We got our quizzes back and I got a 100%!! Yay!! Then it was meat night. He wasn't acting like he was on drugs this night haha but he was still a little weird and goofy, but more normal. He is hilarious anyway so it is always a fun class! He opened a drawer to show us a recipe and when he did I was standing next to him and noticed a book in there that had writing all over it and I just busted out laughing cause it said "Are we going on a 'walk' tonight? Y/N" and the Y was circled. Then he stepped away and I went back into the drawer and laid it on his cookbook for when he got back and he started laughing super hard! It was hilarious! There is a story behind that but he didnt tell it to us haha. Anyway we made 2 dishes. I helped with the beef dish. (i really should get out of bed when im typing this so that i can tell you the proper name for all of these dishes but i am way too lazy to do that, but i am making a cook book when I am done with the class and can make copies for everyone if you want!) this dish was a type of T-Bone steak I think and we made a sauce with lemon, chili pepper, onion, and garlic and butter for it. It was pretty good. I was impressed with it!

Then the other dish was chicken. Again I dont know the name of it, but it had a cream sauce on it with similar ingredients as the beef and it looks absolutely disgusting and does not photograph well, but actually it was really good! I liked it a lot better than the beef surprisingly. It was very off putting looking though, kinda looks a little pukey but it was actually really yummy. I was surprisingly satisfied with it!

Oh! and my roommate Jenny learned to flip food instead of mixing it with a utensil and I totally got the perfect action shot of her doing it! I was proud of both of us! haha

Then today we had to make up our Italian class since it was canceled yesterday so we had to get up kind of early for that. It was sucky cause I stayed up pretty late on wednesday night to skype my two friend Lauren and Leah from back home at school which normally would be fine since I usually don't have Italian the next morning but I didnt want to cancel on them cause I miss them and wanted to talk to them, So I was up until about 3AM but that's okay, it was worth it! Class was okay, then I had my wine class and it was all on special wines. Which means sparkling wines. They were all pretty good this week. We did have some red wine though actually which was super extra dry so it wasnt very good, but I was please with the other ones. I find that class to be so interesting! I am really loving it!

I leave in the morning for Greece!!! I am so excited! There are 7 of us total going. There were supposed to be 8 but Francine is still sick with bronchitis so she cant go, but we will still have fun! It is gonna be so amazing! At least I hope so! Dont worry our advisors gave us the talk about the riots and protests going on in Greece right now, but the majority of that is going on in Athens and we are going to Thesoliniki (im not sure how to spell it but thats what it sounds like! I would google it but my internet is really slow right now!) which is like 4 hours from Athens. This will be the perfect way to celebrate my birthday this weekend! I can say that my last few days as a teenager will be spent in Greece! That absolutely blows my mind! We will be right at the coast so hopefully the weather cooperates with us and we can spend most of our time at the beach. It is gonna be great no matter what though! I am so pumped for it! Anyways, I have to get up in a few hours to get the airport so I should probably wrap this up, so.....

Until next time...Ciao!