Easter!

Well, what better place to be for Easter than Rome?! It was quite a holy week for me!

For Holy Thursday there is an Italian tradition of visiting churches. So, Holy Thursday we went to mass at school and then father paid for us to take cabs downtown to Via del Corso. This is the really famous shopping street, but it also apparently has a lot of churches on it :-). Odd... Anyways, so we went to 8 different churches! It was a really amazing experience, the coolest thing probably being that there were so many Italians doing the exact same thing! We really felt like we were apart of things. Plus, all the churches were set up for the evening with special chapels and candles. We ended around midnight and decided to head to Pizza Buffeto with about 10 of us, and of course Father Chandler! We kept him out pretty late and we went through 2 liters of wine!

Friday was a gorgeous day and the girls and solo guy Dave headed out to the beach! We are acutally only about an hour in from the coast, so after walking-bus-metro A- metro B- ostia train- more walking we eventually got there. The beach itself was a little neglected but the water was beautifully blue and the sun was hot! As always I got quite a few interesting tan lines, plus they had a McDonalds! Never thought I's see the day when McDonalds made me so happy. But I gotta say, McDonalds in foreign countries are a little more high class and in Italy they have pastries and caprese salad! But yeah, ice cream cones on the beach, not a bad way to go. I could have stayed laying out all day, but we had to get back for the Stations of the Cross. Talk about a crazy night! There was something like 100,000 people at the Colosseum that night with the pope to do the stations. They said each station in like 5 languages, and everyone had candles. It was crazy to see that many people and hear nothing but the stations and stories being read. Sooo moving, but one of the coolest things is that we were a little late, and we were standing on the hill in the back, all of these motorcycles and police cars came racing by on the road behind us and so we walked down to check it out, and it was the pope!! His car stopped right in front of us, and he was waving, but when we all came down he told the guy to pop the convertible top! It was craziness! We were all like, did that just really happen?

Saturday was a day off from holiness, so we went shopping and then out for some more pizza! I am not going to want carbs in my life ever again! Sunday was Easter. It was very odd not to be at home, and I gotta say a little part of me was still hoping that the Easter bunny would still find me, but no such luck. We had a lovely mass at Loyola and then we all headed down to St. Peter's Square for the blessing. It was completely insane how many people were there! But it was really fun to be a part of things, and I mean c'mon... the pope, easter sunday at the vatican! Pretty sweet! After the blessing Father took some of us out for pie and wine- great easter brunch. Then I took a really long nap and a group of us went out for a dinner at one of the nice places in Monte Mario.

All in all, not a bad way to spend the holiday! Now today is wed, so that means 1 more day of school!!!!! Then exams, then Greece, and back to the States on May 5!

Sorrento, Capri, and Almalfi



This weekend was a go with the flow wonderful relaxing trip in Paradise... which pretty much means we winged the whole thing, got lucky, and it was awesome! Unfortunately we had school on Friday, really who does that?, so we couldn't leave til Friday afternoon. We headed to the train station- no tickets, and picked up the next train to Napoli (Naples). Apparently that is a very popular destination because the train was freakin packed! Lucky for us we stole a spot on the floor, ahhh the high life. Eventually people did get off and we got some seats. Now, Naples is notorious as the unsafe area of Italy, mafia, pickpockets, etc., but those are just stereotypes.... So seriously about two stops before Naples this pack of men gets on the train in pinstripe black suites, greasy hair, gold chains, and they are smoking..on the train. I mean come on! You can say what you want, but we've seen the mafia and you can't convince us otherwise. Wonderful trenitalia arrived in Napoli about an hour late, and we caught one of the last trains to Sorrento and the coast! Yeah Mediterranean ocean! We also ran into another group from school who caught our same train, their hostel was like right next to the train station, we had to take a bus to ours... so we cancelled ours and got a room there: Hotel Nice. Random. But it worked out well, we had dinner with them, some lovely Neapolitan ravioli!

The next morning was bright and early- ready to go by 8am. We caught a ferry to Capri! This island was a popular vacation destination for the fab rich and famous of ancient Rome. Tiberius was one famous emperor to hold a residence there. It is by far one of the most beautiful places ever! The water is soooo blue, and soo clear that ou can see straight through to the bottom, and the fish! We were walking around in bathing suits and sipping granitas- essentially lemon ice, Capri is famous for their lemons and the famous italian liquor limoncello. We hiked up a private road in the mountainous island until we could go no further, then we took a boat tour around the island. Now, the highlight of the boat tour is something called the blue grotto, and we were told we could not go in because of the waves and the tide, but we went on the tour anyway. But when we got to the grotto, people were going in! So the blue grotto is this cave inside the island accesible by rowboat through about a 3ft entrance. Oh but that day, the entrance was about a foot high and kept getting blocked entirely by waves! We went anyways. Sarah, Emily, and I got into this tiny rowboat and the guy was like: lay down! and we were like: I don't think so, this boat is a mess! Then we saw the entrance up close and we were like: shit! okay we are laying down already! There was a chain attached with one end on the outside of the cave and one end on the inside, and when a wave subsided he pulled us inside! Wow, was it worth it though. Inside, the light from the opening reflects off the bottom and the entire thing illuminates in a deep royal blue. Awesome!

After our three hour trip around Capri, we headed back out to the beach and laid on some rocks for a while. Yup, I got burnt, but it was worth it! Italians apparently do not need sunscreen, because they don't sell it anywhere. Late afternoon, we sailed back to Sorrento. We got some Neopolitan pizza, which is much thicker than Roman pizza- mine with frute del mare- seafood! And just to be healthy we doused everything in olive oil, because it is soooooooo amazing there! Then we wandered about Sorrento which is the cutest little vacation town, and had a great girls night of Italian MTV, mango face masks from the market, and a 4 euro Cosmo (the magazine not the drink).

Sunday Emily and jumped on a public bus and headed up the Almalfi coast, which if you've ever been to California, is like driving up highway 1. It is a beautiful coastal drive that is also freakishly scary. Seriously, Italians need to learn to build roads big enough for 2 cars, one going each direction, it would make life a lot safer. We ended in Almalfi, had a picnic of paninis and granitas by the sea, and headed back again. Life is rough in the Mediterranean islands.... can't believe I have to leave in 3 weeks!!!

Rome Center Fun

Tara and Sarah at Old Bridge Gelato

Tara and Angela with 1 liter steins and what was a pizza.....

Tuscany

Friday morning, 30 super cool JFRC students (7 guys- thanks loyola ratio) and our dean of students hoped on a bus and headed out to Tuscany. With visions of Under the Tuscan Sun in our heads, we were not to be disappointed. Our first stop was Tenuta Torciano, a family owned winery in the Chianti region. There, the owner himself proceeded to educate us naive American teenagers on the true skills of wine selecting, tasting, and respect. You must respect the wine in order for it to respect you back :-). So, I can now taste wine properly, with horribly unattractive mouth movements hand gestures and all. We also were treated to homemade traditional tuscan cusine: homemade lasagne (for the carnivores) and ribolita. Ribolita is kind of like tuscan stuffing, it is essentially old bread that is boiled with cabbage for hours, then mixed with vegetables and soaked in olive oil. Okay, it sounds really gross and the picture isn't too appealing either, but it tasted absolutely amazing!! And by the way the olive oil is the greatest in all of Italy. We tasted about six or seven wines, all with the Chianti classico guarentee. Fyi, any wine that is officially from the tuscan region must have a black rooster on the label, anything else, as he described, is pee pee.
After such a pleasant afternoon, we explored some towns along the road back to Siena, and just enjoyed luxurious driving through the wineries and olive groves. We also hit up some educational touring of course, this travel stuff is not all fun and games ;-).
The next morning we headed to tour a terracotta factory. A completely handcrafted business, we saw the dirt the clay came from, the pouring of tiles, the furnace, and some finished masterpieces. It takes a lot of skill, patience, talent, and money to produce those little red shingles you see on tuscan rooftops! For lunch we stopped in a small town with a market and wandered about for a couple hours just soaking in the enviroment. After, we headed to one of our Professor's friend's houses. Oh yeah, he lives in a castle! He and his wife had us up to their castle, which was once the last Florentinian fortress before Sienna territroy (Sienna and Florence have an age old rivalry). We sat on the terrace of the castle, with the most amazing view ever of the rolling hills of wineries and olive trees, and discussed history and had some good times for about four hours, while we ate some toasted bread soaked in tuscan olive oil, and drank dessert wine with almond biscotti. That is pretty much my favorite sentence ever! So you know after that we checked out some Etruscan tombs, and yet another town, and headed back for the night.
Our last day we explored Sienna itself. This is the most major town in the area. We got to exlore a lot about St. Catherine of Sienna, who just happens to be my confirmation namesake, so that was pretty neat. We saw where she lived, her shrine, and oh yeah- her head. Really could have done without that last one. Something about these italians, they love to save parts of dead people and display them. Then, more churches, museums, Michelangelos, 13th century alterpieces, and of course gelato. Oh yes, and we had to climb something, because that is just what you do in evey city, climb some damn tower to get to the breathtaking view. So we climbed the arch above Sienna. A great end to a fantastic trip!

Sooo, this week has been quite exciting. Tuesday Lindsay, Nick, and I headed out for a little jazz, and later that night I recieved a phone call from Andy, Mari's bf, to say he was in Rome! So we spent quite an awesome two days together checking out the major sights and bonding over missing Mari and Sam and studying abroad. Thanks to Andy again for a great time :-). Thursday night we unfortunately couldn't hang out because I was going to the Opera with the good ol'JFRC. It was good times. For one thing we all got very pretty which is quite the uncommon occurence. It was quite fun to see everyone looking so fancy! The opera was Maria Stuarda, and it was about Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scotts. It was a bit hard to follow since there was no scrolling English subtitles, but it was still very well done and the singers were phenomenol. Afterwards, Loyola paid for our taxis to the Hilton, the only 5 star hotel in Rome. Then they paid for us all to have 15euro cocktails! That's like $20 a piece!! So of course I went all out and got an Alexander: congac with creme and chocolate--- wow. We had quite a cultured night, followed by a cultured weekend: Tuscany.

See what I did!

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Interlaken, Switzerland: A Tale of Ups and Downs

So, on Friday morning Sarah, Olenka, Will, and I headed off to the Swiss Alps! We flew into Geneva and then jumped on a three hour train into Interlaken. Nestled at the base of the alps near the lakes, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth and the extreme sports capital of the world! When we arrived however it was a little cloudy and rainy. We were very worried that we wouldn’t get a good view of the mountains and that we wouldn’t be able to pursue our grand plan: skydiving!!! We arrived at our hostel: B&B Rugenpark, and were amazed! A cute little b&b owned by Chris an American and his Swiss wife Ursula; it was super cute, with an amazing view, and Swiss chocolates on the pillow. Plus, they had a dog: Monty- sooooo cute. He was also amazing; he could open the doors all on his own. We had quite a good time with him. Anyways, Chris and Ursula were super nice and gave us tons of advice.

We explored the town of Interlaken, and then as the day was ending things began to clear up. We headed up to this tiny village in the mountains to check out the view. The sheer size and beauty of the Alps was unlike anything I could have possibly imagined. Note, though it was very warm at the base in Interlaken, up in the mountains it was pretty frickin cold. So to warm ourselves up we headed to a traditional Swiss fondue dinner. We had potato soup and cheese fondue. Now, I’ve had fondue in the states, but this was completely different. The cheese was super thick and sharp, plus Chris warned us that the Swiss eat in the winter because then you get this huge ball of cheese in your stomach and it takes a lot of work to get rid of it so it keeps you really warm. I didn’t really believe it, but yes, that night- huge ball of cheese in my stomach! I know, it’s very attractive. We also got Kirsch, Swiss cherry liquor, which is supposed to help digest the cheese, but I didn’t really feel it working.

So the next day was d-day: yes, we were going to go skydiving!!!!!! After a delicious coffee, nutella, cheese, and fruit breakfast we chilled in our room staring at the amazing (and super clear/sunny!) view of the mountains and played a little phase ten. We were very much freaking out. Will and Olenka made bets about when Sarah was going to cry, and we discussed the idea of wills and goodbye letters. Then we got the call: it was time to go! Alexis picked us up from the b&b, she’s a school teacher from New Jersey who married Steph the owner of the skydiving company and moved to Switzerland. They as well were so sweet to us. We met their daughter Skyler, and talked with them for a while. We decided to do skydiving from a helicopter! Apparently this is not usually available, especially in the states, and is supposed to be a lot cooler. For one thing the helicopter can hover so you don’t have to jump out of a moving object. We went to the hanger in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by mountains, and got trained for our mission. We were going up 12,000 ft, two of us at a time, tandem with Steph and Andy. Olenka and I went up first, I went with Andy. He was very sweet which was good since you know he was completely in control of my life. They were super funny though, talking and laughing with us the whole time. After getting suited up we got strapped to the guys and got in the helicopter. The door to the helicopter, oh yeah, not there! The scariest part was going up, there were these enormous mountains and glaciers right out in front of us! Olenka went first with Steph, they stood on the ledge and then just you know tipped over and fell out! Then it was my turn, ironically it seemed so incredibly unfathomable that those mountains were right there and that I was so high up on the edge of a helicopter that I couldn’t be scared anymore. It was just too unbelievable. Andy asked me if I was ready and all the sudden we were falling! It was the craziest most awesome thing ever. You know that feeling when you do drop zone at PKI and start falling and your stomach just drops? That feeling was completely absent! It didn’t feel scary, it just felt natural and of course pretty damn cold. The view was incredible and you feel like you’re flying not falling! It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done in my life!

After such an incredible experience we decided to have a little victory celebration at… Hooters. Yes Hooters, hey I have been without American food for three months! Plus I am very very broke, and Hooters in Interlaken is super cheap. So yeah, amaretto sours wings and burgers for all! Okay so fish for me, but still! We hung out for a while, grabbed some Swiss chocolate and stopped a crazy festival that was going on. Then it was time for sleeping!

So Sunday turned out to be an unexpectedly eventful day for me. We were heading back to Geneva on a 10am train, so we decided to pay for our lodging before breakfast. So I go to pull out my credit card, and oh yeah, I don’t have my wallet! Shit. Shit. Shit. This was not good. We searched the room, but it was clearly not there. And don’t mistake the severity of the situation. Brilliant person that I am not only does my wallet contain my credit card, it contains my cash, my debit card, my drivers liscense, my student id, and oh yeah my passport. Very very bad. Okay, I thought, so it had to be at Hooters. So it’s like 8am, but I run to Hooters, and apparently Hooters in Interlaken serves quite a hopin breakfast. Nonetheless, the manager wasn’t there and he was the only one that could open the safe, and guess what? He wasn’t showing up until 2. I told the girl I was supposed to leave at 10 but I had lost my wallet with my passport and she said: shit. Helpful. So I run back and check the train schedule, the train that leaves at 2:10 arrives in Geneva at 5:30 and our flight is at 6:10. Not good. So we reconvene and I send the others on to Geneva. Being the amazing friends that they are they offered to stay, but I wasn’t going to make them miss the flight they paid for, and oh by the way we all had exams Monday morning at 9:30. Sooo, Sarah paid for my room, gave me an unsigned credit card and her phone card, and Will gave me 50 bucks, and I headed back to Hooters to hope the manager showed up early. I went in and the same girl saw me, I ordered a hot chocolate and she let me have a table for a couple hours and brought me a free croissant. Seriously, I can understand that the Swiss are neutral; they are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Well, the manager showed at 12:30, but sadly enough he hadn’t found a wallet the night before. I felt really sorry for that girl when she had to tell me. So, I was contemplating how I was going to get to the embassy and call my parents to stop all my credit cards and then pay for a new flight and a hotel, when I passed by the chocolate shop. Hey, I thought, it’s worth a shot at this point- guess what? Did someone find a wallet here? Yeah, is this yours? I have never been so ecstatic in my life, except for maybe the skydiving. I jumped on a train asap and made the flight. It was really an intense trip!!! So, no more of me loosing stuff would be good, but thanks to my awesome friends who got my back. And that is a really long entry so I’m impressed if you made it this far. Buona sera!

Yeah! Victory for Royal Blue!