Pancakes and Waffles for Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving trip was a little bittersweet. I loved all the places I went to and everything I was able to see and do. (I even found STARBUCKS at the airport in Amsterdam!) The bitter part is that I lost my camera. Somehow I left it on the plane.

The seats had this really awesome green and blue hippy pattern so I wanted to take a picture of them. I thought I put my camera back in my purse, but I guess I didn’t or it fell out or something. My friends even said they saw me put it back in purse! (Oh! I was on the trip with my room mate Sayuri and our friend Katie, by the way.) I am hoping to be able to get it back from the airline or the airport. But I was able to console myself because unlike credit cards or my passport, a camera is more replaceable. But it was a new camera and my Mom bought it for me to take to Europe. So it was a sad day. But I was determined not to let this get me down. Even I lost something very important to me I was still in Amsterdam and I might never go back there again so it was in my best interest to move on with life and enjoy my trip.

We got to Amsterdam Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning. We took the train from the airport to the central station. On the train there was a total creeper who kept touching me. I was about to punch him in the face but the train arrived at the station. First he walked by and touched me on the jaw. It could almost have been an accident, but I could tell it was on purpose. When he walked by me he was going to get his accordion…

He stood in front of us and played for a while. We didn’t look at him, but stared intently out the window. Eventually he tapped me on the shoulder and walked away when we still wouldn’t acknowledge him. When the train was nearing the station he walked by again and pulled on my hair. Yes, I know I have curly hair, and I think some men in Europe must have never seen curly hair before. They like to touch it. Please stop. Even some of my friends with straight hair like to boing my curls, but I don’t mind them so much as the random creepy strangers on the train.

Ok moving on. We got to the hostel without further incident and checked into our room. Our hostel in Amsterdam was pretty cool. It was a hotel turned hostel so the rooms were hotel rooms but with bunk beds so you can put six people in what was a two person room. It also came with free breakfast. The breakfast was exciting because it had butter (not olive oil) to put on the bread. I’d almost forgotten about putting butter on bread.

After checking into the hostel we went out and explored the town. First things first, we found some food. On trips we all seem to forget to eat after breakfast until like 5pm because we get so excited to be traveling in new places. When we finally ate, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. Delicious! We did some shopping after eating; there are a lot of cool stores in Amsterdam. I found these really cute boots and I almost spend 150€ on them. Luckily though I was able to walk away with my euros still in my wallet, but it was a close call.

For Thanksgiving dinner (which we ate at about 10pm when we were finally hungry again) we went to the Hard Rock Café Amsterdam. First I had a salad that came with salad dressing! I was so excited to have salad dressing. I do love the oil and vinegar salads we get in Italy, but that blue cheese was some of the best I’ve ever had. We were all so excited about the food, I’m pretty sure the waiter thought we were completely nuts. Then I had a sandwich that came with fries. On the fries I had HEINZ ketchup. It was such good ketchup. The ketchup we get here is kind of weird.

After dinner we explored more of Amsterdam before going back and getting to bed. We were mostly around Liedseplein, a really great square. There were street performers and so much cool stuff to see. Amsterdam is such a cool city! I loved it. The atmosphere there is just relaxed and laidback. Plus the city is beautiful! The canals make the streets look so picturesque, plus all the trees. I really wanted to see a windmill and there was one in town that we passed by a lot riding the tram from our hostel into downtown

A canal in Amsterdam. I love it! So beautiful!

Friday morning Sayuri and I got up early to go see the museums. Katie had already been to Amsterdam so she slept in. There are three really great museums and we went to all of them. First was Anne Frank’s House where the family lived in the annex. We got to go in all the rooms except the attic. The decorations Anne put on the wall are there. In one of the rooms downstairs there was a display that had a yellow star that the Jews had to wear. The staircases in the house were so steep; you almost bang your knees walking up them. The bookcase that hid the stairs up to annex is there, so you have to get up there like Anne and the family did, there’s a really big step up and you have duck considerably at the same time to get through the doorway. It was so weird that the Holocaust came to a place like Amsterdam; it really doesn’t fit with the city at all and the general attitudes of the people that live there.

After Anne Frank we headed over to the art museums. Both the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on located on the well-named Museumplein. We went to the Rijks first, it was amazing! It is a great collection of Dutch masterpieces. Lots of Rembrandts and Vermeer, I have decided that Vermeer is probably my favorite Dutch painter. It was interesting to me that at the Rijksmuseum all the walls were painted black and there wasn’t a lot of light. But over at the Van Gogh all the walls were white or yellow and there were tons of windows, it was so bright a cheery. And yet, Van Gogh spent time in an institution, cut off part of his ear, and eventually

committed suicide. I felt like the brightness went with the color schemes of his painting, but not who he was. The Van Gogh Museum had so many great paintings, even though the most famous things are at The Lourve, it had the painting of the sunflowers, the self portrait of him in a hat, and the sailboats. I don’t know if you guys know the paintings I’m talking about, but there were a lot I have seen before in school and on magnets or what have you.

After we finished with the museums late in the afternoon. We missed lunchtime because of our museum going. But we had some Greek food as a late lunch. Amsterdam has tons of restaurants with foods from all over the world. We did some more shopping and I bought a purse on sale for only 7.99€! I was very excited about that find. Some of our other friends from school came to Amsterdam that day and we met up with them. For dinner we went to Pancake Corner. The pancakes were more like a crepe and were so good! I loved it! I got mine with chicken in it and ate it with maple syrup. There’s whole list of toppings to you can get on the pancake.

This is Leidsplein. You can see Pancake Corner on the left if you look hard enough.

After dinner we went to the Red Light District. It was an interesting experience and it certainly is a sight to see if/when you go to Amsterdam, but you don’t need to spend more than about 20 minutes there. Its just one street down both sides of a canal so you walk down one side, cross a bridge and walk back down the other side. Most of the girls in the windows looked bored to be there and were just waiting around for a customer, some where trying to work it a little but. We did see one of the women rope in a customer. That was entertaining for us. The men who stand on the street try to sell you crack. Hard drugs are illegal in Amsterdam; they do have some laws there. We just walked down without talking to anyone or making eye contact. There’s also these clubs that have live shows and guys stand outside trying to get people to go in. We declined. Also in the Red Light District do not even try to take a picture. Prostitution is a legitimate job for these women and they don’t want to be photographed like a tourist attraction. If you try, the police will come after you.

I was sort of glad when we left the Red Light District, I felt so sketchy being there. For the rest of the evening we just hung out around town. Our last night in Amsterdam was really fun, we went to a few bars and such, pretty low-key.

The next morning we got up early and took a train to Brussels, Belgium. Brussels was really cool! Such a beautiful city! But we really only needed a day there. There are only 2 things to really see: Grand Place and Mannekin Pis. The Grand Place is so beautiful! There’s a market in the square in front of it and there was a Christmas Tree so that made me really happy. Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing, quite the thing to see. For the rest of our time in Belgium we had some amazing waffles, incredible cheese and delicious chocolates. We also tried some Belgian beer, and it was really good. If I had more time in Belgium I would have liked to go see Bruges and Waterloo.

In Brussels we stayed in a really nice hotel. We booked at the last minute and got a really good deal on a hotel room, it was cheaper than staying in a hostel. So we had a super nice bathroom and really comfortable beds. Heavenly. Also the main language there was French, something I do not speak at all. So getting around was a little difficult. We mostly had to stick to the tourist places where they speak some English. Amsterdam had more English speakers, though we heard a lot of Dutch.

This is the Grand Place in Brussels, its on all four sides of the Grote Market Square, so you cant get it all in a picture.

Here's a view at night. It was night time when we saw it, and it was so beautiful all lit up!

Sunday we again had to get up early; I got up early everyday of my vacation. This time we were up early to go back home. We had to take a taxi from our hotel to the train station and then a bus to Charleroi airport. The budget airlines like to use the secondary airports that are far away from town. We got back to Florence safely once again and with no new stamps in the passport! They really don’t stamp passports like they used to.

Of all the things I saw while on this trip, one of my favorite was on the flight back to Italy. We flew over the Alps and it was incredible! I stole this picture from google images, but it gives you an idea of what the alps look like from an airplane. If you even have a flight that takes you over the alps, pray for a window seat and a clear day.

These pictures have all been taken from friends and the google searching.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Jessica's favorite Thanksgiving foods:
green bean casserole
yams
leftover turkey sandwiches


What Jessica will be having for Thanksgiving:
pancakes in Amsterdam
waffles in Belgium


I hope you all have a GREAT Thanksgiving! I am so thankful to all of you for reading my blogs! I really love getting e-mails and comments about what's going on with all of you. I miss you all terribly! Oh! and if anyone has Skype, my Mom is sending me a headset and I downloaded it onto my computer, so if you want to talk to me, my Skype name is just jessica.minor

I really can't believe how fast November has gone by! It's almost over! A month from tomorrow will be my 21st Birthday and we will be on the way to China for Christmas tour! For Christmas we are going to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong on a 10 day adventure around China. I'm really excited to go see that part of the world, but also very worried. We had a speaker come talk to our class about what to expect in China. She told us a lot of things we can't do (drink the water, talk about politics, bring books or movies about Taiwan, stick your chopsticks straight down into the bowl, eat from street vendors, and flush toilet paper). It's going to be a very interesting trip to say the least.

Angie + Ravenna (!) + Pisa #2

In my last blog you learned that I went to Rome to visit Angela. This past weekend (November 16-18) she came to Florence to visit me!

On Friday Angie went around Florence by herself. (It was a make-up day from the Bosnia trip for me.) She had a very productive day! Good job Ange! Since it’s the off-season, the lines and such around Florence are a lot shorter for the major landmarks. I like to call the things to see landmarks, not “tourist attractions.” My management and operations classes (same teacher, my devoted blog readers will remember that I do not like the professor) had a field trip. The field trip was to a winery to see the operations of making wine and olive oil. Also for the management class we were supposed to learn the organizational hierarchy of the winery. The tour of the wine production would have been really fun if my professor had not been there. We also had a wine tasting afterward, which was sort of awkward as a school activity. We only got to sample 2 types of wine and then some olive oil. The wine and oil were pretty good, but I was antsy to get back into town and meet back up with Angie.

Friday night Professor Batterman, one of the Italian teachers, organized a Tuscan dinner at a restaurant downtown. About 35 people from school went to the dinner and I was able to take Angie with me, so she got to experience Tuscan food and wine. I was excited for the dinner because I took it as an opportunity to wear the new shoes I bought this week. They are so cute! Thanks so much to my Mom for letting me buy shoes!! I love shoes!!

At dinner:

After dinner I showed Angie some Florence night life. But we couldn’t have too much fun because we had to get up super early in the morning…

Day Trip to Ravenna:

Professor Batterman and Student Life offered a day trip to Ravenna to see the mosaics from when Ravenna was capital of the Eastern Empire as a weekend activity. Ravenna wasn’t capital of Byzantium for very long though. Constantinople (now Istanbul) became capital, but they continued to make amazing mosaics in Ravenna.

The trip started at 6:45am when we had to meet at the train station. That is really early. We took a one car train and headed northeast to Ravenna. It was about a 3 hour train ride. In Ravenna we had a guide to show us around to the churches and explain the mosaics to us. They were amazing! San Vitale has the famous mosaics of Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora, they are on covers of books a lot and I have seen those in history and art classes. Being able to see in person all the things I’ve only seen slides of is just incredible!

Also in Ravenna we saw the tomb of Dante. I’ve been learning a lot about Dante and the characters in The Comedy that I really feel like I should read it. Being a Florentine, Dante put a lot of people I’ve learned about in my Intro to Florence class in Hell

Theodora:

Justinian:

On the way home from Ravenna, the train had a switchover in Faenza, a city famous for ceramics. We had some time to walk around Faenza and the ceramic stores had really beautiful things, but way out of my price range! I could only admire from afar.

Back in Florence I took Angie to get a kebab for dinner. For some reason nearly everyone at my school has become practically obsessed with kebabs. They are not food on a stick, but a wrap. I get chicken, lettuce, cabbage, onion, humus, spicy sauce, and yogurt sauce; everything but tomato. Its only 4€, delicious and really filling. Most of us get them every Sunday when we get back to Florence from traveling.

Sunday we again were up early! Angie made appointment at the Uffizi (best museum in Florence) for 9:45am and wanted to see the Medici chapels before that. We got the Medici Chapels right at 8:15am when it opened. We used a Rick Steeves guide book to point out all the things to see in there. The Rick Steeves books are good, but when you use them you have to remember that it’s a travel book and he doesn’t have expertise in art or history. So there’s always much more to the story than Rick Steeves tells you. Nevertheless, it was pretty cool to see all the artwork created for Medici tombs. But that’s the Medici for you!

The Uffizi was AMAZING! It has so much great artwork, especially from the Renaissance to see. I bought the guidebook to the Uffizi for 16€ and I almost bought one for 29€ because it had slightly bigger pictures. There was another book I really wanted but I decided it was too expensive and I might be able to find it online for cheaper. (Note I did find it on Amazon and Amazon UK, but I don’t know how that works exactly.)

I took Angie to Vivoli’s for gelato. Most people say Vivoli’s is their favorite gelato. But mine is Vestri’s. My room mate and I found Vestri’s not too long ago. It’s not a real gelato place, but a chocolate shop. Vestri’s gelato was basically the best thing that’s ever been in my mouth. Vestri’s doesn’t have very extensive hours, making it difficult to get the gelato. Anyways, Angie had the 2^nd best gelato in Florence.

We headed over to the train station to go to Pisa for the afternoon. Ange wanted to complete her life goal of visiting the leaning tower of Pisa. We even paid the 15€ to climb it. When we first stepped into the tower I took me off balance! The floor had quite a tilt! There was a cool view of Pisa from the top, it’s a bigger city than I had thought! We also explored the Pisa Cathedral. It is quite big and the crest of the Medici family is everywhere! It was also interesting for me because the cathedral had both Gothic (pointed) arches and Romanesque (rounded) arches.

Me on top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

We got back to the train station and Angie took a train to Rome and I took one back to Florence. See you in April Angie Pie!

Roma! the Eternal City

My best friend from back home (Angela/Angie/Ange) is on study abroad in Rome for Fall Quarter. Last weekend I was had the chance to take a train down to Rome and have my own personal tour guide for all the sights in the city.

Thursday afternoon I left for Rome after classes and lunch. The train was a bit crowded, but it only takes less than 2 hours to get there, so I have no complaints. I arrived in Rome and had to wait at the train station for Angie to come meet me, I had no idea how to get around in Rome! It was so exciting to see her again and in Italy no less!

The first place we went to was my hostel to check in. I stayed at Chianti hostel. It was really cheap (13€/night) but I don’t recommend it. It wasn’t too sketchy, I felt safe there and all, I just didn’t really like being there. The other people staying in the hostel weren’t very friendly, the showers were really cold, the bathroom had no counter space, and my room was so cramped! On one night they overbooked the hostel and people were sleeping on the floor in the hallway! But the staff was nice and I shouldn’t diss on the place too much.

Anyways, Thursday night we walked around town for a while. Went to the Trevi Fountain (I threw two coins in, so I will return to Rome and fall in love.)

We found a really good place for dinner that was fairly cheap. Ange wanted white wine, and I am starting to appreciate the white wine more and more these days. I went to Angie’s apartment and met her host mom. Then we went out to meet up with some people from Ange’s school for a drink. We didn’t stay out too late though. I actually didn’t go out that much in Rome. But I think it is a good thing, cause I had to get up so early every morning to get to all the places I wanted to see before they closed! And I wasn’t too tired to enjoy them!

Friday there was a strike on all public transit in Italy. It sucked. We had to walk everywhere and not that I am against walking at all, just that it takes so very long time to get to the places I wanted to see when all I have is my own feet. All we could get to before it closing (most have last entry at 3:30pm) was the Borghese Gallery. But it was amazing, great, great art work! On the way there we climbed the Spanish Steps, saw several fountains (Rome as a LOT of those) and explored this really cool park. You have to have an appointment for the Borghese so we had some time before our appointment to see the park. It was really cool and didn’t have tourists in it, which was great.

That night we went to the Pantheon after dinner (it’s open late). The Pantheon is incredible! It was first built in the B.C.s and is completely intact, though much changed throughout the years and is now a Catholic church/tourist attraction. I remember learning about the Pantheon from Fr. Maher (my History 101 professor). He told if we learn just two things in his class it should be:

1. How to pronounce forte, and

2. That the Parthenon is in Athens and the Pantheon is in Rome.

Now I need to go to Athens and see the Parthenon to completely understand where these two structures are. After the Pantheon we got some excellent gelato!

Saturday we saw the Vatican Museum. So I went to a whole other country! No passport stamp though. The museum is only open from 10am to 1:45pm. We got in line about 9am and the line was four blocks from the entrance! But it was worth every minute waiting and every penny on the entrance fee. They didn’t accept the Roma Pass (maybe because it’s another country?) but I did get a student discount. The Museum has art and artifacts from ancient Egypt all the way up to Modern Religious Art. My favorite part was the Rafael Rooms because of the history. In my Jesuit education at Gonzaga we cover The School of Athens extensively and this was my chance to see the real thing! Amazing! The Vatican Museum is HUGE! The hall of tapestries was incredible, the tapestries had all the detail of an oil painting and the map room was really cool to look at. The ceilings were decorated so ornately, it was too cool! The crowning glory, however, is the Sistine Chapel. Everyone says it’s smaller than you think, so I was expecting tiny, and it was a lot bigger than I imaged. I guess I think small. No pictures allowed in there and the guards yell at you to be quiet. It was so crowded! But I finally got to see those fresco panels from Genesis that I’ve studied and seen in school for years.

Once we finished at the Vatican we booked it over to the Coliseum. That was so much fun! We tried to imagine what it was like to be there in Roman times and see the Gladiators. Then, we then went across the street to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Palatine Hill was a residential area and it had a lot of gardens in its ruins. I think we all learned about The Forum at some point in school. It was so weird that I was at the Forum, where Caesar and the greats once were! When you go to the Forum you get to see the ground level of ancient Rome. Its about 20 feet (I estimate) below current Rome, everything just gets built on top of each other.

Close to the Forum is Bocca Della Verita (mouth of truth). Those of you who’ve seen Roman Holiday know about it, and those who haven’t seen that Audrey Hepburn masterpiece need to get on it! At the Bocca there are two men who stand there and try to push the line along by only letting you take one picture each.

That night I had dinner at Ange’s place with her host Mom. She doesn’t speak any English and my Italian is very limited so I didn’t understand her very much. But she was very nice to me. The food she made was delicious. She made zucchini on homemade pastry-type crust with smoked mozzarella cheese! Delicious! She even gave us some sweets for dessert!

Sundays at noon the Pope gives a blessing and says a Homily. Couldn’t miss that! But first I went back over to Ange’s place and she made me a “cappuccino” for breakfast. Thanks love! I took the rosary I bought in Bosnia to the blessing to have it blessed. Most everything he said was in Italian so I didn’t really have a clue what was going on. But I have been blessed by the Pope! He also said something in several languages at the end: French, English, German, Spanish, and Italian (I think that’s all). It was about a Cardinal in Argentina. But the Homily and Blessing were Italian.

The POPE!!!!!!!!

Pieta!

After the blessing we went into St. Peters. It is one massive church. We started at the Tombs of the Popes. It was a sacred place and quite eerie to be walking amongst all the tombs. Most of the ones there are from way long ago and were not there. Most of the more recent popes are there, including Pope John Paul II. There were a lot of people gathering around his tomb to pray.

After the tombs we went into the basilica. Michelangelo’s Pieta is kept behind bullet proof glass. It’s another work of art I have learned about in school and I tried my best to get a good picture of it. Also in the basilica a Mass was going on. It barely took up one corner of one transept of St. Peters. In pretty much any other church I have been to the Mass would have filled up the place! St. Peters is really stunning, it does not rely on just its size and grandeur, it really is beautiful.

All too soon it was time for me to head back to the station and hop on a train back to Florence. But I love Florence! I hope you all (my blog readers) know how much I love this city. And this weekend, Angela is coming here to Florence! So I get to tour guide her around my city!

Side bar: power just went out in my Pensione! (and not for the first or even second time…). Its all just part of the experience, I wouldn’t have it any other way. So I won’t be able to post this just yet.

Bridge over the Tiber.

Short FYI

Hey all, just to let you know there are more pictures from Bosnia on my shutterfly account

http://jessgiveup.shutterfly.com

Also, please note that for any picture I post on here you can click on it to see it bigger.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia: My life on the bus

For starters here's a map of Bosnia and Croatia for your reference:

Overall I am so happy that I went to Bosnia and Croatia! Those countries are truly beautiful. I loved Bosnia because I got to see trees again! Florence doesn’t have much in the way of trees, and being from the Northwest I really love trees.

The history of the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia is not very happy. During my time in Bosnia I learned a lot about the war there and how the people and landscapes have been affected. You may remember some years ago during the Clinton administration when America went to Bosnia and it was quite a controversy. Let me tell you that the people of Bosnia are quite fond of Clinton and what he did for them.

The journey to Bosnia began on Wednesday (October 31^st) afternoon with a 5 hour bus ride from Florence to the port in Ancona. We took an overnight ferry to Split, Croatia. The overnight ferry was not very fun, it was difficult to sleep because the lights were on and it was pretty noisy. A lot of people slept on the floor because the chairs were not very conducive to sleeping. After the ferry arrived in the morning we drove on the buses another 4 hours to Medjugorje (Med-u-gor-ia) Bosnia. You may want to look at the map of Bosnia and Croatia to see the places I’m talking about. This drive was incredible! We drove along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia which is gorgeous! It was also scary because the bus was so close to the cliffs the whole time! We also went through the Bosnian countryside which was very rocky and the trees were all changing colors for Fall.

One we arrived in Medjugorje we checked into our hotels and I took one of the most satisfying showers of my life! After spending the night on the ferry boat and several hours on a bus with 50 other people, I was feeling pretty gross. That afternoon we had a guided hike up Apparition Hill.

This is the view from half way up the hill:

Apparition Hill – Back in the 1980s the Virgin Mary appeared to six local school children. From that point on, they had daily apparitions. Three of them still have daily apparitions, two are once a year, and one is once a month. People come from all over the world on a pilgrimage to Bosnia to climb the hill. A lot of them do it barefoot too. Also, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary on top that people pray in front of.

On the way up Apparition Hill there are relief statues of some of the mysteries. Our guide stopped us at each of them to say the rosary. The walk up the hill isn’t very long, but it is very steep and rocky and takes a while with all the rosary stops. Once we made it to the top I was amazed at all the people! So many of them were praying so hard they were crying. This whole trip got us all thinking about religion in general and Catholicism specifically. I will only briefly tell you my thoughts on this in effort not to spark any debates. It seems to me that people should not feel they have to travel all the way to Bosnia and climb up a rocky hill barefoot for God to listen to their prayers. But if that it what brings peace and happiness to your life than by all means, I support that. Here's a picture of some of the pilgrims:

Also in Medjugorje, there is nothing to do in the town. I really mean that. There is one main street that has a few restaurants, one bar, but there are tourist shops selling rosaries all over! So I guess there is one thing to do in Medjugorje: buy rosaries. Some of us were a little weirded out that this town is building an economy on the apparitions. Before it became a pilgrimage town, it was just a tiny village. Also the apparitions that are daily happen at the exact same time everyday. It was sort of strange. Since we were staying in Medjugorje, we spent a lot of time there and got a pretty good feel of the town.

After the hike up Apparition Hill, we went to talk from former drug addicts who live in a community in Medjugorje. They have been healed from their habits with prayer. Two guys who happened to be from Chicago shared their stories with us. It was very interesting to hear from them. The community was started by an Italian nun and there are now over 50 communities like the one in Bosnia all over the world.

By the time the talk was over I was really hungry! And so were my friends! I went to dinner with Alex, Kathleen and Katie in town. It was really good food and cheap too! We even got dessert of delicious cake for €1!

About money…. Bosnia is on the BAM (Bosnian mark) and it is two marks to one euro. But all over Bosnia they list the prices in euro and want you to pay in euro instead of mark. The ATMs in Bosnia give you marks. Also, most of the places we went to would take any form of currency (euros, marks, Croatian money, even American). It was a little odd.

On Friday we went to Mostar to meet with some local students. My group met with a girl named Riza. She was an interesting one to say the least. We thought we were going to talk about the war and how it’s affected her life and all that, but all she wanted to talk about was our sex lives. Talking to a group of students from mostly religious backgrounds, that sex life is pretty non existent, so I don’t think we were able to enlighten her with our American lives. It was easy to tell that her idea of Americans is from watching MTV. I have some great quotes from our talk with her, but they are a little inappropriate for this.

After our meeting, we went on a tour of Mostar with a more normal girl. She was one of the best tour guides I’ve had in Europe! We learned a lot about the war and the town. In Mostar a lot of the buildings were destroyed and some of them are purposely not restored as a reminder of the devastation of war. Also, there is an old bridge in Mostar. It is on EVERY post card. Here’s a picture of it:

I think it looks straight of a mythological world. I’m half expecting a lady in a gown to ride over it and meet a knight in shining armor. The bridge was built in the 1500s and stood for most of the war, though it was hit really hard. Eventually it fell and was rebuilt to look exactly the same in the late 90s.

In Mostar I had a really great lunch of traditional Bosnian food. We had Cevapi which is a grilled sausage. They say if you’ve been to Bosnia and haven’t have Cevapi, you haven’t been to Bosnia! After that we had some Tufakia (too-fak-i-a) for dessert. It’s an apple soft boiled and sweetened, filled with nuts and cinnamon, then topped with whipped cream and a cherry. It was DELICIOUS! After lunch did a little shopping, I bought a nice scarf and some earrings. The dessert:

That night we had a group dinner in the hotels. The food was really good but the wine was terrible! Pretty sure it was not ready for drinking yet.

Saturday was the trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Dubrovnik was a three hour bus ride away. It’s a really cool town on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The old town is completely surrounded by an old fortress! You can pay to climb up and walk along the fortress walls, but I was too cheap. Dubrovnik, however, is like the Monte Carlo of Croatia. It was so full of tourists! Cruise ships stop there on tours of the Mediterranean and people are everywhere! We wanted to find shops that had more unique things for sale, but everything was so expensive. I bought two small candle holders of handmade glass for $8. (That’s 40 Croatian.) I thought it was a good find. The castle:

We didn’t have much time in Dubrovnik and soon it was time to ride back to Medjugorje. For dinner that night, Alex, Lena, and I had dinner with 2 of the student life staff: Shelley and Peter. Peter is the coolest. He’s from Austria and I’m sure is part Mountain Goat. He’s ALWAYS leading us on hikes and then finishing that up with a hike and then getting up early for a hike. You see what I mean? The man is always hiking! The dinner was really good! I had a great salad and some pizza.

Sunday morning was free time in Medjugorje before getting on the buses to go back to the ferry in Split. I went to see the statue of Jesus that’s behind the church in town and leaks water from its leg. People think it’s a miracle and rub napkins over the water to take some. It struck me as a little strange, but to each his own.

When it was time to leave Bosnia, it was a full 24 hours of travel to get back to our home in Florence! Got here Monday afternoon and have just three days of school this week. Tomorrow (Thursday) I am leaving after classes for Roma to see Miss Angela Chou!

And for the two days of school we missed for Bosnia we have to have school on two Fridays to make up the missed lessons.

Super Long Post about Barcelona!

Hi everyone!

Since you’ve last heard from me I have been to THREE more countries! Isn’t my life just crazy? I’ll start with my trip to Barcelona, Spain.

We (my room mate Sayuri, our friend Kristen and myself) left last Thursday (October 26^th) after classes. Our other friend, Margaret was supposed to come with us, but her bank refused her credit card transactions or something and so her ticket didn’t go through. And we didn’t find this out until about a half hour before we had to catch the train! Very hectic! From Florence we took the train to the airport in Pisa. Our flight to Spain was delayed, so we didn’t land until after 11pm. Then there was an hour bus ride into town! As you can tell it was very late by this time. We didn’t really know how to get to the hostel since the metro was closed. A girl from Gresham, Oregon (!!!!!) heard us from across the street and came over to help us get a taxi. We got to the hostel at about 1:30am and we were so exhausted!

The Hostel was great! It was very clean and everyone we met there was incredibly friendly. The staff was so helpful the whole time we were there. I would highly recommend the Hostel to anyone going to Barcelona. It was a great location too! Walking distance from just about everything.

Friday morning we got up early and went to the Picasso Museum. On the way there I found STARBUCKS, I was so excited I just about peed my pants. I went 4 times total over the weekend. The museum was great! It didn’t have a lot of his famous stuff (I believe most of that has ended up in France). But there was a lot from his early years, when he lived in Barcelona. The museum itself is in this really cool stone building and we got a great student discount there. Student discounts were pretty good all over Barcelona actually. We had planned to go to the Chocolate Museum next. But we got there and decided it was sort of silly and not worth our euros to see the sculptures of chocolate. Next on our list was to hit up the churches. We went to Santa Maria del Mar first, because it was closest to the museums.

Santa Maria del Mar was spectacular! It was very beautiful inside and out. My favorite part was the giant stained glass “Rose” window. Unlike the churches in Italy I have been too this one didn’t have frescoes, or white washed walls. The walls were plain stone. But the shape was the same. Cross-style with a central nave and smaller alters along the sides. I paid €.90 to light a candle.

After Santa Maria we wanted to see the Barcelona Cathedral. But it was under renovation so the outside was covered up and it was closed for siesta when we got there. Sad day. So we headed over to see La Rambla and eat lunch. There was so much to see on La Rambla! People were selling pet birds and tons of flowers. There were some tourists shops along the street too and a lot of street performers. We walked from top to bottom. It ends at a statue of Christopher Columbus. For lunch we stopped at a little place by an open-air market. At the market we got samples of these really delicious chocolates and I bought some almonds. Yum! We explored more of that area, walked down Rambla del Mar (it’s a continuation of La Rambla over the water, so it’s basically a really big foot bridge) and ended up in a mall of all places. I bought a sweater.

By this time we were really tired so we took the subway back to the hostel and had time to lie down before the next adventure.

We wanted to go see the Magic Fountains so we got directions from the staff and headed out there. It was amazing! The fountain is in front of a palace so that adds to the magic! They show is set to music, including ET, Titanic, and Star Wars themes. The show plays several times a night so we caught the one at 7:30 and were ready for dinner by the time it was over. My friends wanted paella, so we found a place that looked pretty good. I didn’t get the paella, but I tried some of theirs and it was okay, but not something I would order myself. But they loved it. The waiter at the restaurant was kind of mean to us. My friend Sayuri is Japanese and he was saying things to her in Japanese that were very rude. He wanted to take us out to a club after dinner and “get us wasted.” It’s because we told him we were American. American girls have quite the reputation in Europe and my friends and I are not like that so we were pretty offended.

After dinner we went to an Irish Bar where they had live music. It was really relaxed and we got to just chill and drink Sangria. Sangria is delicious and you all need to try some. The only bad thing about the bar is that everywhere in Spain is the smoking section. So my clothes were reeking of smoke after we left.

Saturday we slept in because we went to a lot of places the day before. When we got up, we bought day passes for the metro and headed up to see the Gaudi stuff. We started with Casa Mila. It was designed as an apartment building. We used our student discounts again to go up in it. The roof is the coolest part, it’s like the world of Dr. Seuss up there: all colorful and fun shapes. After that one, we went over to the Sagrada Familia: a church over 100 years in the making. I didn’t think it still took centuries to build a church with all of today’s technology… The Sagrada Familia is most impressive from the outside. In my opinion paying to go inside is overpriced and not worth it (although, it is the admissions that finance the construction). We basically paid to go into a construction site! There was nothing to see on the inside.

We headed over to the beach next. No we didn’t swim in it, it was October! But we did have some really good kebabs for lunch by the beach. We also found a row of hundreds of flag poles and decided it must be from when the Olympics were in Barcelona in 1992, I believe. We did a little more shopping, bought the tourist t-shirts and things like that. We also went to a Medieval market/festival. I bought a giant donut thing because I thought it was cool looking. We heard music and followed it back to the square in front of the Cathedral. There was almost a full orchestra on the steps of the cathedral and people of all ages (older people dominating) dancing. We had heard about this, but didn’t know if we would find it, much less stumble upon it! They dance Sardana, a Catalan (not Spanish) tradition.

For our last dinner in Barcelona we went out for some great tapas. We got the Sangria made from champagne too. We didn’t headed out for dinner until about 10:30pm, so we were totally doing it all the Spanish way! We had chorizo, meatballs, patatas bravas, Spanish omelet, salads, bread, and flan for dessert! Patatas bravas are my favorite! After we finished dinner we went back over the Ramblas area, it was so crowded! We wanted to find a fun bar to hang out at or a discotheque without an expensive cover charge. Didn’t really find those things, ended up at an Australian bar though, it was pretty cool.

Sunday morning we had a flight at 11am so we got up early to take the bus out to the airport. On the way to the bus station Sayuri’s purse got stolen! Some man ripped it right off her body in one of the scariest moments of my life. None of us were able to react from the shock of the situation. It was like 7:30 on a Sunday morning across the street from the bus station!

Some girls from Germany who were living in Barcelona (they must speak several languages, including perfect English) came and helped us call the police. We went to the station and filed a report with the police. They said purse snatching is pretty rare, but pick pocketing is extremely common in Barcelona. We knew about the pick pocketing, and were almost expecting that. But not this, this took us all by surprise. The police said that since her passport was stolen she should still be able to fly with the police report. We learned the hard way that was not the case.

We got the airport and the airline wouldn’t give Sayuri a boarding pass. We didn’t know to do. She was crying and we were all freaking out. The police had given us the phone number of the Japanese consulate in town, so they were our only hope. I decided to stay behind with Sayuri while Kristen took the flight and went back to Florence.

The consulate was closed because it was Sunday. Dang. But Sayuri was able to talk to them on an emergency line. They said her passport could be replaced the next day. So she had her parents fax her birth certificate and so eventually figured out a plan. I bought a plane ticket for a flight to Rome for 7:40am the next morning (Monday) and Sayuri was going to go to the consulate right when it opened and then try to get on the flight at 7:30pm that day. We took the bus back into town and found a place to use internet and sent e-mails to our professors about missing school on Monday. Then we had extra time so we went up to Guell Park, designed by Gaudi. It was a really cool park that has all this amazing tile work. Then we got some dinner and went back to the airport. We had to sleep in the airport because without a passport Sayuri couldn’t stay in a hostel. It was so cold in the airport! But there were actually a lot of people sleeping there too. In the morning I got on my flight (which was delayed) and took the train from Rome to Florence. I got to Florence in time to run to school from the train station and take a test. Luckily I had my text book with me so I had been studying all morning for the test.

Sayuri got her new passport as planned and got on the flight to Rome that night. But she didn’t make it to Florence until the next morning because she got to Rome after the last train had left that night.

All in all it was quite the adventure!

I had tests in Operations Management and Introduction to Florence the next day (Tuesday). And then on Wednesday we didn’t have school for the trip to Bosnia…

Bosnia was so great! I LOVED it! Blog about that soon…

And PS Pictures from Barcelona are on my Shutterfly. Sorry there aren't any in the post this time. If the link doesn't work its http://jessgiveup.shutterfly.com

I feel blogalicious

So lucky you a second blog on the same day! yay!!

Gonzaga-in-Florence (GIF from now on) students are housed in one of seven Pensioni. The one I live in is called Manola’s House. It is amazing here! I’ll be sure to take pictures soon and give like a virtual tour of the place but here’s an overview…

Manola is about 4 or 5 blocks from school, so it’s really close. From outside we ring a bell to be let in the door and then walk up to the second floor of the building. Inside we have a large common room divided into a sitting area and a dining area. All over the walls are works of art and the ceiling is a beautiful fresco! I never thought I could live in someplace so beautiful as a college student! Manola is in charge of the place and her parents cook for us, and they are the best! The food here is INCREDIBLE! For breakfast we just get cereal, toast, coffee, juice, and sometimes fruit. I’ve found a new fruit here that I don’t know what it is, but they are so good! It looks like a plum except its yellow and redish. Big seed in the middle. Ok name that fruit!

At lunch and dinner there is a first plate and a second plate (eating a major event in Italy). The first plate is a pasta dish and the second plate is a meat dish with a vegetable. My favorite meal so far was a lunch this week. We had risotto for the first plate and then chicken with zucchini for the second. I didn’t even know I liked zucchini! One night at dinner we had these really delicious carrots, they just have a way of cooking here in Tuscany.

Ok my room. My room mate and I (Sayuri – she’s from Japan originally) live in the only girls double in Manola. We are upstairs in almost like an attic. But we get our own bathroom and we have huge closets! The bathroom is very interesting to say the least. The shower is just a faucet head on the wall next to the toilet. So when we take showers the whole bathroom gets wet! But we have discovered that if we shower at night, it’s dry by morning.

There about 4 other people that work at Manola letting us in when we ring the bell. There’s no curfew here, but when it gets late you can’t be coming and going all night. Once you are in, you are supposed to be in for the night. Also, it’s against Italian law to have anyone not registered be in a pensione overnight. It’s the law for all hotels/hostels/inns/whatever in Italy. It’s a form of tax evasion here.

Another thing I love about the Pensione is we have a library, most of the books are in Italian, but some are English. And it’s full of travel books that students have left behind. I have taken Rick Steeves Best of Europe 2007 and 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I also found an Italian Phrasebook too, by Rick Steeves. Oh and I took a book on Spain, it’s a few years old, but I figure the buildings are still there! Haha. That one is not Rick Steeves, however I think it will be fine.

There are so many vespas mad scooters here in Florence! It is insane! They are just littering the streets. But what scares me about the streets is that the sidewalks are so narrow and there’s no shoulder, so I’m afraid of getting hit by a bus! And when you want to cross the street, no one stops for you, they don’t care one bit that you are in a crosswalk.

As for school and my classes:

1. Italian: I am loving learning the language! It is difficult at times though, partly because of the Spanish I took in high school. Italian and Spanish are similar but not the same at all. We have had 2 quizzes in class and I got an A- and an A on them.
2. Operations: I hate it. Mostly I hate my professor. He’s basically making it into an online class and he just wastes our class time talking about nonsense and himself. Last Thursday in class I took a tally of all the times he said “I.” 91.
3. Intro to Florence: It is because of this class that I know my way around the city. But I only know my way around based on the nearest cathedral. Every Wednesday we go on a tour of a historical place in Florence. So far we have been to: Archeological Museum, Santa Trinita, Badia Fiorentina, Santa Maria Novella, and Santa Croce. Also, I am now a tour guide for Santa Maria Novella. How cool is that?! I get to guide tourists around the church and show them the frescoes and things.
4. Management: Taught by the same professor as Operations so I hate it.
5. Global Economics: I love and adore the professor. He’s an Italian man and I call him Andrea because I can’t remember his last name. The class is three hours on Monday nights, which is a long time to do the same activity. But he is just so entertaining that I love it all. Sometimes I sit in the front row and am seriously afraid of being hit in the face because of his use of hand gestures.

This weekend:

Today my room mate and I went to Bologna. GREAT shopping! They have one of the largest outdoor markets in Europe. And it is huge! We kept getting lost actually. Bologna also has a lot of good stores, some the same as in America (H&M for example). We also had a delicious lunch and incredible dessert at a Pasticceria. The main square in Bologna is also home to the 3^rd largest cathedral in the world! And it’s free to go in. Inside I lit a candle for each of my grandmothers. Let me tell you it was gigantic!

Midterms start on Monday so I should spend most of tomorrow studying.

Thursday I am going to Barcelona for the weekend! Very excited about that!!!

Finally….

Things I miss about America:

- Free glasses of water at restaurants

- Ease of doing laundry (costs €3.50/load here to wash)

- Showers where the water doesn’t run out on you

- Public bathrooms that are free and have toilet seats.

- And of course, all of you! J

Italian Coastline, numbero 3

My weekend trip to Southern Italy was so beautiful!! I think I may like Cinque Terre a little better though. Some of the southern italy stuff was overrated, in my opinion.

The trip began with a seven hour bus ride from Florence to Sorrento. It took us what felt like forever to get to Sorrento. Oh and in Sorrento we stayed in cabins at a campground. Almost like summer camp. It was really really cold, so I brought my sleeping bag with me. It was a good inagural use of my bag. We got to the campground late at night, so I just passed out in bed at soon as I could.

Friday morning we took a ferry to the town of Amalfi:


From Amalfi, I took a boat over to the Emerald Grotto. It was really awesome! My pictures didn't come out very well though. The best part was the guides who ran the boats sang for us. So we had such a fun time!

Here I am under a rock! in the grotto!

After the Emerald Grotto we got some lunch and went to the beach. Amalfi didn't have the best of beaches. They are very picturesque, but not that great to hang out at and swim on. There was a sandy beach on the other side of town but you have to pay to use it. Nothing is free in Italy.

The campground was very dark. Thank god I had my headlamp. Friday night we played Uno at the campground after a fun dinner with Father Paul. At dinner Father Paul paid for 2 bottles of wine for our table. Such a nice Jesuit.

Saturday morning we went to Capri! So famous! The ferry to Capri was shorter than the one to Amalfi, so I didnt get to have my ferry nap. From the port where the ferries drop everyone off, we took a bus over to Anacapri to hit up the blue grotto. Whether or not the blue grotto is one of the wonders of the world is still under debate with all 137 Gonzaga students. So the bus over to Anacapri dropped us off on a shopping street. From there you are supposed to take another bus down to the grotto. Not us. We WALKED. It was probably an hour or so from the town to the grotto. It was all downhill so it wasn't that bad, but it took forever. The road was just switchbacks down the hillside for the longest time. When we finally got down to where you get in the rowboats I saw a cat. I named her Misty D'Italia, because she looks almost exactly like the real Misty at home.

The rowboats waiting to get into the blue grotto. You have to lay down in the boat and they take you in. You can only go in on days when the sea is calm enough. Peter (one of the Gonzaga staffers, he's Austrain and I'm sure part mountain goat) told us the next day that they had to close the grotto, so we were lucky to have been there on Saturday.

Inside the grotto. In my opinion it's over rated. The rowboat guides are jerks to you and practically force you to tip them. You only get to be in the grotto for a few minutes and it's not that big. Yes it is GORGEOUS inside, but the total experience is not worth it. I liked the less famous Emerald Grotto much better.

My favorite part of Carpi was taking the chairlift to the top of Monte Solaro. It was the best 7€ I've ever spent. It was so spectatular up there. The lift is about 12 minutes up and you go by yourself in a little chair (sorry you can't see the actual chairs in this picture). People who have gardens under the chairlift build all these little gardens and the views are just too cool.

From the top of the mountain I took this picture looking down over the cliff. The water is perfectly clear, just look at that!!

From up on Monte Solaro you can't tell where the sky and sea meet, it all just blends together somewhere with the clouds.

Oh and there was a cactus.

Sorrento was having a fish festival while we were there. Basically everyone but me enjoyed it. I had to buy bread and cheese from a little store for dinner. But I did take a fun picture with a fish:

POMPEI!!! It was really cool. We all got an audiogiude to walk around the site with. It was cool to wander around and see the ancient city. We went into people's houses and tons of public buildings. We also got to see a lot of the molds made of people who were in town when Vesuvius blew. Like this guy.

The ruins of Pompei. This was baths back before the volcano blew.

Posing in what used to be someone's house in Pompei. Very eerie....