Gondolas, Glaciers, and Goulash: The many joys of Innsbruck!

My trip to the Alps starts and ends with an 8 hour bus ride. We left on Thursday afternoon after school and arrived at the hostel in Innsbruck, Austria around 11pm. It was too bad that our drive into the Alps was in the dark, but we got to see our fill of the mountains during the weekend and on the drive back to Florence.

Friday morning I got up at 7am (a normal wake-up time for a ski day) and had breakfast in the hostel, they had Smacks cereal, yummy! Left the hostel at 8am and went to the rental place. The rentals were pretty cheap. I got skis, boots, poles, pants, and goggles for 2 days for 56 euros, not too bad. But the boots HURT so bad. I have never been in that much pain from skiing before. I tried to loosen the boots to make them more comfortable but that was really hard on my ankles. The skis were also too short. Nevertheless, it was all completely worth it, because I skied the ALPS! Anyways, it took about 2 hours for all 80 people to get their rentals and we had to leave together to get the mountain even though we were in two buses. Finally we made it to the mountain and got to ski! It was so much fun! I can’t imagine many things that would have been better than skiing. I felt so bad for all the kids on the program who never learned how to ski or snowboard so they either didn’t go on the trip to Austria or went but couldn’t ski. The mountain we went to that day was Axamer Lizum, and it was used during the 1964 Winter Olympics. Pretty sweet!

Had to take a picture of this before skiing down my first run.

I conquered that!

Snowbunny pose!



Innsbruck, home of the 1964 Winter Olympics, and here's the sign to prove it!

Friday night Peter (he is the travel director for Gonzaga-in-Florence and about the greatest person I know) arranged a group dinner for all of us that included Tyrolean dancers. The dancers were fantastic! The men wore lederhosen and the women had these beautiful dresses with full skirts that spun out as they twirled round. They danced so much! I do not know how they did not get tired! The girls spun around and never got dizzy and the men clapped and clopped and did some amazing high kicks! At one point they brought out a log, two axes and saw for the “Song of the Woodchopper.” The food at dinner was absolutely delicious too! And, it turns out that Innsbruck is Peter’s hometown. He was so happy during the dinner, and he really enjoyed showing us Innsbruck.

Peter said this was the song of the millers, hence the white hats and aprons.

Apple strudel!

Saturday there were two options, we could either go to Kitzbuhel to watch the World Cup Ski Race or go with Peter to Stubaier Gletscher, a 10,000 foot glacier for a second day of skiing. I went to the glacier and it was amazing! We had to take the public ski bus there so it took a long time to get there, but that was just part of the fun. It took almost 3 hours to get there because we had to make stops at other places and change buses once. The bus took us by the landing spot for paragliding. That was certainly a sight to see! Once we got to the glacier and rode the gondola up to the top it was like being on top of the world. All you could see for miles and miles and miles in every direction is mountains; it seems like they just go on forever. I’ve never seen anything like that before. The second day of skiing was so much better the first. We were completely above the tree line though, which is not at all like the skiing back home. I guess in the Alps it’s rare to ski below the tree line. But the snow was great; the runs were so fun and even though the dang rental boots hurt like heck, I was so happy to be there. Also, because of the ski race, there was almost no one on the mountain. Both days we almost never waited for a chairlift. I also had a pretty sweet wipeout that included a face plant into the snow and the “hike of shame” to get the ski that popped off 10 feet up the mountain!

Riding the gondola higher and higher.


This guy knows what's up.
On top of the glacier. It was the highest mountain around that area we all felt on top of the world from there.


After my sweet crash!

For dinner a group of us went downtown to a restaurant by the Golden Roof. (The Golden Roof is the most famous sight in Innsbruck, built by the Hapsburgs.) The dinner was again great. I had beef goulash with dumplings; along with a locally brewed beer. I wish this trip hadn’t been so short, we only got to see Innsbruck itself in the dark, and it was such a cool town. People from all over the world go to Innsbruck to ski and snowboard. I also think Dad and Nick would have loved it there, I so wish you guys could have been in Austria with me! I mean there was no one to make the hardboiled eggs that we need for skiing, right Dad? I did, however, out of habit have a candy bar in my pocket to let is freeze while I skied. But since we were getting to the mountain so late everyday I didn’t really need that 10:30 candy on the chairlift before lunch.

The Golden Roof



Enjoying my goulash and beer at the restaurant in downtown Innsbruck.

Sunday morning it was unfortunately time to pack up and head back to Florence. The drive through the mountains was absolutely breathtaking. All the little houses nestled up on the hills, it was like Heidi (sort of).

The bus ride was more eventful than normal. We had to stop in some town in northern Italy because a girl on the bus had to go to the hospital (she is okay now) and Federica from Student Life had to get off with her so it was just us and the bus driver for the second part of the trip. We also watched ConAir to fill up time.

I have decided that global warming sucks. All the postcards and pictures show snow in Innsbruck. There was none in town for us though. We had to go to such high elevations to get to the snow, even though it is January! I have heard that Europe is getting warmer more so than other places. But Dad told me that Oregon is having a really good snow year, so that is good news for us Oregonians!

Next weekend I am going to Venice for Carnevale!

I am pretty open this semester travel wise. Does anyone have any good suggestions for places that are not expensive to travel to? I want to go to Scotland. I am also hoping for Copenhagen, Denmark and maybe Switzerland or Munich. I also am going with my school to Southern France and Vienna, but I have a lot of open weekends right now.

Thoughts on Travel....

I found a copy of the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die in my Pensione. I looked through the book to see all the places I’ve been so far:

Before this trip:

1. Grand Canyon, Arizona
2. Red Rocks, Sedona, Arizona
3. Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
4. Pacific Coast Highway, California
5. Cable Cars, San Francisco, California
6. South Beach, Florida
7. Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida
8. Maui, Hawaii
9. Oahi, Hawaii
10. Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
11. Las Vegas, Nevada
12. Route 66, Albuquerque, New Mexico
13. New York City
14. Oregon Coast
15. Lewis and Clark Trail (Columbia River Gorge), Oregon
16. Crater Lake, Oregon
17. Willamette Valley, Oregon
18. Nashville, Tennessee
19. Park City, Utah
20. Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington
21. Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (I think I was like 6 or something and we were only in Chicago for like a few hours, but I remember we went up in the tall building and went to see the painting with the pitchforks.
    

During this trip:

22. La Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium
23. Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany
24. Capri, Italy
25. Pompeii, Italy
26. Amalfi Coast, Italy
27. Quadrilatero, Bologna, Italy
28. Ravenna, Italy
29. Rome, Italy
30. Sistene Chapel, Vatican City
31. Cinque Terre, Italy
32. Florence, Italy
33. Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
34. Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, Netherlands
35. Red Light District, Amsterdam, Netherlands
36. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
37. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
38. La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
39. Picasso Museum, Barcelona, Spain
40. Castle District, Prague, Czech Republic
41. Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic
42. Old Town Square, Prague, Czech Republic
43. Rynek Glowny, Krakow, Poland
44. Wavel Hill, Krakow, Poland
45. Beijing Restaurants (Peking Duck), Beijing, China
46. Forbidden City, Beijing, China
47. Great Wall of China
48. Victoria Harbor and Peak, Hong Kong, China
    
    

But a good lesson I have learned this year is to never let a book or magazine tell you what you want to see in the world. Yes, Rick Steves has some good suggestions, but have to take charge of your own travels and see the world on your terms. But many of the places I have been are not on this list of the 1000 Places. For example, the Isle of Elba is still one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been and hiking up Monte Capanne was one of my favorite experiences of this whole year. But I have never seen Elba in a single travel guide. Also, the visit to Auschwitz during Opening Tour chilled me to the core, I would think a place that has such an effect on a person should be included on the list of 1000 Places. And also, Bosnia is such a beautiful country and Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast is breathtaking. There is no replacement for talking to people in person about the places they have been, that is the best travel advice you can get, and it’s free too.

I am happy that Oregon had several spots on the top 1000 Places, but having lived there for basically my whole life, I know there is so much more to Oregon and it shouldn’t matter that only 4 of Oregon’s treasures on the list. I would still take Mt. Hood over pretty much anything. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, I don’t care that I probably will never see most of those places the guide books tell you to go. That’s someone else’s list. I have my own.

Taste of China

This is a long one guys, a day by day look at my trip to China, with pictures!

Dec 22: I called Mom and Dad in the morning and then my brother. I haven’t talked to Nick the whole time I’ve been gone, so it was really nice to be able to talk to him on my birthday. I’ve never been away from my family on my birthday before and I never in my wildest dreams thought my 21^st birthday would be on an overnight plane to China. It was a very uneventful birthday, as far as 21 runs go. The only drink I had was the glass of wine on the plane with dinner. But I can’t complain about it. I feel so lucky to be able to live in Italy this year and travel to places like China, so sometimes if I get the short end of the stick (like missing my birthday) I just have to roll with it.

Dec 23: Landed in Beijing in the morning and even though we all were completely exhausted the tour guides took us to lunch before going to the hotel. Our first meal in Cina was good. We never ate anything too weird on the trip. Most of the meals were provided on the trip and so someone else chose what was served to us. (I discovered that I like peppers now.) At the hotel we had about an hour to rest and then went to the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was our first time seeing tradition Chinese architecture, so it was very enjoyable. There was a big park area where retired people go to exercise. There’s also the temple part, travelers aren’t allowed in it, but we could look through the windows. A lot of the places we went in Beijing were like that (blocked to the tourists) and after a while all the architecture started to look the same: red buildings with dragons on the roofs, red for good luck and fortune! Most were one store, except the temples, those were three. After the Temple of Heaven we had a little more time to rest and then had dinner at the hotel. One of the memorable dishes from that dinner was duck fat in a pumpkin. No one really ate that one. I had a piece of cake later on and called it my birthday cake. No candles or singing though.

Temple of Heaven:

Dec 24: Went first to the Forbidden City. It was where the emperor lived with his entourage (including 1000s of concubines), so the normal people were forbidden from going in. There was a really sweet moat around it too, and really high walls. We walked all the way through it, which took us through several corridors, squares, temples, bedrooms, old trees, and more. In one of the squares it had bricks layered 8 feet deep because the emperor was afraid of people tunneling under and coming after him. He was a bit paranoid I think. It was also very, very cold that day. Well, it was pretty cold most everyday we were in Beijing. On the other side of the Forbidden City is Tian An Men Square. It’s a very large square, but there wasn’t a lot to see there, except the GIANT picture of Mao. All the tour guides in China referred to 1949 as “liberation.” I guess when you start with imperialiam, communism could be liberation. We walked across the square and then went to lunch. On this trip it seemed like it was always time to eat. We would go somewhere and then eat and repeat that pattern for days on end. After lunch we went to the Summer Palace. It was most impressive and was situated right on a lake. We were there on a foggy winter day so it wasn’t as great as it could have been. Before dinner we had planned to go to mass, but the church was already completely full half an hour before it was set to start. So we left and went to our dinner of Peking Duck. After dinner Fr. Paul have mass at the hotel for us. In our hotel rooms everyone found a panda bear from Linda, the trip organizer as a Christmas present. It was very sweet.

Mr. Mao from Tian An Men Square

Forbidden City. There were tons of sqaures and literally hundreds of buildings that looked like this one.



Imaging my life at the Summer Palace. (Side note: Angie thats the scarf you gave me for my birthday, I love you!)



Story of the "Monkey King," Superman of ancient China, as told on the Corridor of the Summer Palace.

Dec 25: We went to a university in Beijing and met with some local students and teachers. One professor gave a lecture about calligraphy and it was actually pretty boring. But we had lunch at the university with students studying English which was fun. I talked to a woman named Judy who wants to go to California or Utah to do Chemistry research. Quite the ambitious woman! That afternoon I went to Kung Fu show! It was almost like a musical, there was singing and the show had a plot line and everything. I thought it would be like a demonstration so I was really excited about the show when they started singin. The King Fu was really good, it was almost like a dance. I loved it! Afterwards, they took us to dinner. The dinner was ok, but the best part were the cookies! It’s not Christmas without some cookies after all!

Dec 26: Went to the Great Wall of China! This was definitely a major highlight of the trip! On the drive over we went past some of the Olympic stuff they are building: the Water Cube and Bird’s Nest. The summer Olympics are going to be very interesting. Olympic stuff is all over the place in China, the people here want it so bad, and they got it. But the pollution really will be a problem. At the Great Wall we got to walk along it. The wall runs along the mountains so it’s all stairs, making it more of a climb than a walk. After the wall, they took us to lunch and then gave us the option of going to the Silk Market or to the Ming Tomb. I chose the market. People who went to the tomb said we didn’t really miss anything anyways. The silk market was about 6 floors of people selling fake things. I bought some fake Puma sneakers for 55 yuan (7 yuan - $1). I also bought make-up, chopsticks, and fake Burberry scarves. You have to barter with the people too, and pretend to walk away and then they call you back and you get the good price. It took us a while to learn the process and most everyone got had on the first item.

Video of me Acting out Mulan:

Video Shout-Out to my Asian Friends:

Dec 27: Flew to Shanghai, had really bad food on the plane. In Shanghai the guides took us to the Bund and then Nanjing Road, the main shopping street in all of China. I didn’t buy anything though. But I did get an ice-cream cone from Hagan Daas. Delicious! The hotel we stayed at in Shanghai was the nicest. I’m wearing the hotel slippers from there right now actually.

Dec 28: Another university visit. This one was a lot better than the first one in Beijing. My conversation partner was a really sweet girl named Fannie. She took me around the school on a tour. We also had a basketball match with some guys and a few girls from our program playing against a team from the Shanghai University. Our team won, but that doesn’t mean we were better players. The GiF team was good at getting the ball and made the Chinese team run a lot. But we shot and missed way more than they did. After the basketball we had dinner with the students. Fannie bought me tea as well.

Fannie and me watching the basketball game.

Dec 29: Slept in a little bit and they took us to lunch at Mongolian BBQ, a much appreciated break from Chinese food. It was almost exactly like Chang’s Mongolian Grill in Portland. The Mongolian restaurant was in the same building as a cashmere factory. They did to us a lot, the tour guides would take us to lunch and dinner in a restaurant that was owned by a pearl/silk/cashmere/enamel/embroidery factory, it got pretty old. After lunch we went to the Old City and the Yu Gardens. The Old City had a Starbucks and lots of shopping. The Yu Gardens were so pretty! If I had a lot of money, I would want something like that in my yard: bridges over a peaceful pond with koi fish. After dinner we went to an Acrobatic Show. It was mind blowingly amazingly incredibly awesome! I didn’t know people could seriously do things like that!

Old City

Yu Gardens

Dec 30: We went to a really tall building in the morning. The 4^th highest in the world and next to it they are currently building the next highest in the world. From up on the observatory level we could see the whole city. Shanghai is HUGE! And for anyone who’s seen Mission Impossible III, I saw the tower he jumps from and lands on up close! After the tall building (Jin Mao Tower) we got to ride the Maglev train to the airport. It goes 430km/hr! Fun! The plane landed in Hong Kong in the evening and we had dinner at the hotel. After dinner I went with some people on a walk around the city. We walked pretty far and took the metro back to the hotel. This hotel was actually in a good location, GU usually puts us in weird places, so this was good. Hong Kong metro is really nice too, it even has air conditioning and is super clean! The stations are huge, they have to number the exits so you get out at the right street.

In Mission Impossible III, Tom Cruise jumps off the biulding with the red dot to the one with the slanty roof.

Posing with the Skyline at the harbor.

Dec 31: The tour guides took us over to Hong Kong Island to visit the Stanley Market, Aberdeen and Victoria Peak. I bought a Rubik’s Cube at the Stanley Market for really cheap, a lot cheaper than in the US or Europe. Aberdeen was a supposed to be a fishing village, but it was more of a tourist spot. People were out on the beaches in swimsuits! It was that warm in Hong Kong! I still wore like a sweatshirt, but I felt plenty warm. Our final stop at Hong Kong Island was riding the tram up Victoria Peak where we could see the island the peninsula on the other side. Back at the hotel I did not feel well at all, so instead of celebrating New Year’s, I went to bed. Oh, woe is me!

The Aberdeen Fishing Village on Hong Kong Island.

View from restaurant at the top of Victoria Peak.

Jan 1: I went shopping like Angie told me to! I walked all over the place and it was great. I went to the Jade Market and the Ladies’ Market. I walked along Nathan and Canton Roads, the main streets for shopping. I didn’t really buy that much stuff though. It was a lot cheaper in Beijing and they don’t bargain as much in Hong Kong. Compared to Beijing, Hong Kong was more like Las Vegas than China. In Hong Kong everyone has air conditioning (even though it’s January) and in most of Beijing and Shanghai they don’t even use a dryer to dry clothes. I wonder what the global impact would be if those 15 million people in Beijing and 20 million in Shanghai bought dryers. So thanks for the global warming Hong Kong! (JK, its mostly America’s fault) In Hong Kong, kids from my school were all so excited to eat at places like Outback Steakhouse and see so many Starbucks (which I had my fair share of hazelnut lattes). The only American chain we have in Florence is McDonalds, and there’s very few of them. I do find it a bit odd that China is more like America than Europe. Thank you British people for colonizing Hong Kong!

Jan 2: Came back to Florence. The plane ride from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, Germany was over 11 hours! Easily the longest plane ride of my life! But I have realized that fighting jet lag is easier going West than East, so I’ll be ready when its time to come home to the Portland!

Chinese words I leared:

Hello: Ni Hao

Yes: Sur

No: Bu

Thank you: Shi Shi

and I can write/draw exit.

Also, there's a TON more pictures (ok, 88 more) on Shutterfly. So you can enjoy even more of my trip to China!

http://jessgiveup.shutterfly.com

I'm Going to China?? No Way!

Last night Manola had a Christmas Party for us here at the Pensione. She is so great to us and we all love her! It’s the closest thing to a parent or anything like that we get. (Mom and Dad you are going to love it when you meet her! Since you are coming a day earlier, I think you should be able to eat lunch in the Pensione on Thursday the 17^th)

All the rooms here got a Christmas present for Manola, but since most of the rooms are triples and quads, Sayuri and I teamed up with the other boys double (it’s also an attic) to get a gift. Meaning, I did the shopping and the boys just signed the card and gave me money. Sayuri was frantically trying to get ready to home yesterday and barely had time to breathe so I was alone in the gift getting.

I went to Vestri’s and bought €10 worth of chocolate. Vestri’s is an amazing chocolate shop! They have the best gelato, and you can get the gelato with hot chocolate over it, which is good and bad. Good because it is freaking delicious, but bad because the gelato melts and the texture of gelato is one its many fine qualities.

After I bought the chocolates I went to a wine store (I think it’s called Zanobini and they also do a wine appertivo) to buy a €10 bottle. I really didn’t have any idea what to get, so I picked one that was missing a lot from the shelf and assumed it was good. When Manola opened it she turned to Brady (one of the guys in on our present) and was like “Someone must have told you! How did you know? This is like heaven in a bottle!” So I guess I picked a good one! I hope I can find that same bottle again at the store, because now I want some for myself!

The boys’ quad downstairs got Manola a Santa suit AND we got her to put it on! We also took our Pensione picture, but one of the guys was late, so he’s not in my picture. We are losing seven people at semester and only getting five new people.

My room mate left at 5:40 this morning, I got up with her and helped get her suitcases and stuff downstairs to her taxi. Then she left. I started crying, of course and have been crying on and off ever since. She was just a great room mate. She made me laugh so much! We are also both heavy sleepers and we both kind of snore, so it worked out perfectly for us! (I hope my new room mate is a heavy sleeper!) Sayuri left me a card and I opened it a cried. Later after I took a shower I went to do my hair and I saw that she left me her hairspray and I cried.

Ionly have today and tomorrow to get all ready for China! I haven’t even done laundry or though about what to bring. I live such a different lifestyle over here. Because we travel so much, there isn’t a lot of anticipation and build up for trips, it’s just something we do. If I was in the U.S. about to go to China for 10 days I would be flipping out completely! Instead, it just seems natural to go on a trip. I think next semester I will be traveling less often, but going further away on trips.

But here’s the plan for China:

Dec. 22: (aka my 21^st birthday!) leave from school at noon for the airport, layover in Frankfurt

Dec. 23: Arrive in Beijing at 9:25am (so I guess my birthday doesn’t really exist

Afternoon: orientation of the city, Temple of Heaven

Dec 24: Full day tour, Tian An Men Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace. Christmas Eve Mass, Beijing duck for dinner.

Dec 25: Visit with University students, including volleyball match. Free afternoon.

Dec 26: All day at the Great Wall and Holy Road including a Ming Tomb. In the evening we are going to a discotheque.

Dec 27: Fly to Shanghai. Visit Nanjing Road, The Bund

Dec 28: Meet with University students, play basketball. Free afternoon, discotheque in the evening

Dec 29: More of Shanghai, Yu Garderns, Jade Buddha Monastery, Old City, in the evening we have an Acrobatic Show

Dec 30: Free time in the morning, visit tallest building in Asia, fly to Honk Kong

Dec 31: tour of Hong Kong Island, Aberdeen fishing village, Victory Peak

Jan 1: free day! (ANGELA AND NAOMI WHAT SHOULD I DO???)

Jan 2: go back to Italy, again with a layover in Frankfurt

So that’s my birthday, Christmas, and New Years. This will be the first year Dad doesn’t wake me up on my birthday, no Honey baked Ham, no family gift exchange, no Christmas tree, no Christmas lights, none of that. It makes me really homesick to think about. But this semester has gone by do fast and I know next semester will be even faster and Mom and Dad will be here before I know it and then I’ll be back home.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I miss you all so much! You guys should get skype on your computers so we can call for free! Ok? (I got my Mom to use it, you can do it too!!)

My Pensione (minus one, and that's Manola and her Mom Bruna in the front.)
Manola dressed up like Santa posing with Sayuri and I.

Anyone have an idea?

Hi everyone!

So I hope that all my blog readers know I am going to be a college Senior in college!!! (Yes, scary I know.) And also that I am an Accounting major. I have been looking for internships for this Summer, but it's hard because I don't get very much Internet time here and I am in Italy until April, so I can't really do interviews. Anyone have an idea? I though about just going on the fall back (making parts packs at the factory and hanging out with my Dad). But a friend of mine pointed out to me that I am about to be a Senior in college, I need to do something with myself! Something I can put on a resume, something that will let me learn some skills related to my major. So I thought I could try out my network, which is you people, and see if someone know about an internship or a job I can do. I do have to take 6 credits of Summer school, but they are online classes, so I don't have to live in Spokane! But I might anyways.




Now, I need to go back to to studying for my Finals! I have Italian and Art History on Friday, and Economics on Monday. Plus an Operations project and a essay for Management on Monday. It's going to be a fun weekend! :)

My Family is the best EVER

Today I got a package from my Mom. She sent me lots of cool things, including peanut butter, school supplies, and a copy of National Enquirer (why...?)

But the best part was the cards everyone signed! I assume one of the little cousins drew the Birthday Cake and Christmas Tree on them. I am so happy that everyone did that for me! I really means a lot! Thank you so much! You guys are the best!!! I'm so excited for more family functions when I get home.

In boring news, Finals start at the end of this week. Not exciting. I have two on Friday and one on Monday. But in less than two weeks I will be in CHINA! It is still so weird to me that I am about to go to China! Christmas is going to be very different this year. Instead of opening presents on Christmas morning while eating muffins and drinking eggnog, I will be visiting the Great Wall of China. Student Life has school has told us that it will be a Christmas completely different from what we are used to.

Foods of the World - in one weekend

This weekend I stayed in Florence. The school had a trip to Rome, but I was just there, and I didn’t plan anything else to do, so I was here. On Friday, I slept in really late and decided to go to the gym when I got up. I was walking down the street when I ran into Katie and Kathleen. They were going to Ari’s for American Brunch. I decided to join them. Brunch was SO GOOD! I haven’t had food like that in a really long time! There are two restaurants in Florence that offer American style brunch, but I have never really had a chance to go before. I had an omelet with turkey bacon, onions, and cheddar cheese. Man, cheddar cheese is delicious! It also came with some potatoes and toast. For the toast they gave me the best jam I believe I have ever had. I think it was huckleberry. I put as much on the toast as could possibly fit. We all ordered an “American Coffee” too. The coffee comes in a big mug (which is what I think makes it American) and they give you a spoonful of homemade chocolate chips to put in it. Brunch ended up taking over two hours because we just sat there and talked for a long time. But they never brought us the check, even after two hours we had to ask for it!

Dinner was another fun time. I went to a Mexican restaurant (Tijuana’s). I had enchiladas and a peach daiquiri. The daiquiri was really good; it has chunks of fresh peach in it. After dinner we went to Finnegan’s (an Irish bar). At Finnegan’s the news was on and it was showing breaking coverage about Hilary Clinton’s campaign office in New Hampshire. I rarely hear about news from back home. We were also the only people in the bar at 11:00 on a Friday night! We didn’t stay very long though. Back at my pensione I worked on a paper for a few hours before going to bed.

Saturday morning I got up sort of early and went to a really boring museum. I went as research for a paper I am working on, so it was good in that sense. It was deserted; I was the only person there. It was a topography museum and I guess Florentines don’t like to look at maps as much as I do. Anyways, after the museum, I walked around town because I wanted to find the Christmas markets (there should be three this weekend). But I could only find the German themed one. It was really cute, but I didn’t buy anything. For lunch I for a kebab! Kebabs have become one of my most favorite foods. Then for dinner I went to Chinese food. Chinese food here is sort of bland, I think Safeway has better.

Today I haven’t really done anything. After I finish writing this little blog I am going to do some readings for school. My group for economics is meeting tonight to work on our presentations (Economics of the Olympics).

I did go shopping and I bought a dress to wear to the school Christmas party. Our Christmas party is on Tuesday. They wanted to have the party before Finals. I really can’t believe that this semester is almost over! It feels like I just got here. But in just a few weeks I will in China for Christmas!

We are leaving for China on my birthday, which is exciting but it sort of sucks for me. It’s an overnight flight, so it will be over before we get there. The school split us up into 2 groups, one flies from Florence and the other has to take a bus to Rome and fly through there. I am in the Florence group and for our flight we have a layover in Frankfurt so it will be my birthday in three countries!

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!