The End of Junior Year and the Start of Summer

Entrace to the park/garden in Bologna after my rough morning
Trevi
Our B&B
My bike with no brakes
A fairy tale picture... Its San G
Tuscan Vineyard
Me in the Tuscan country
Sam, Alex, Lauren, David
Park on the first day
The two towers on the right are leaning so far that they need cables to keep them up. They also lean more than the leaning tower of Pizza and are one of the few towers left standing in Bologna which were built by wealthy families as sort of a competition back in the day.
Certaldo the town


Last Week of CIEE:

This was my last week in the program. I studied all Sunday and Monday for my huge test in International Econ. We were tested on some ultra confusing number problems, which turned out to not work out, but the teacher would not admit it. He wanted us to do the problems anyway. We also had six essay/theory questions, which he said there would only be one. However, I probably got most of my points from that. Anyway class was over and now its SUMMER!!!. I met my friend Emily coming in from Paris, France. She was on her way to Lisbon and I only saw her for about an hour. She said that the France school system is on strike because Nicolas Sarkozy (the president) wants to change the school system to the American school system and the people of France raised some opposition. Thus, she has been denied from going to school and has actually had secret class meetings for some of her classes. That night I went to Anti-Karaoke and Nasty Mondays that night to celebrate. It was a lot of fun, but I was beat afterwards. Tuesday I slept in and got a haircut. I also hung out with Laura and Marta. Then I had dinner with Paco and we watched the movie Babel. Really good movie. On Wednesday, I went to the Barcelonetta beach with Jon Korngold, Victoria, Chris Varga, Michelle, a Pen State kid, Vin Jeffery, Jackie, Brain and another one of their friends. The weather was nice, the water was freezing, and the beach was super dirty. I came back looking like a construction worker. I then took a shower and headed to our end of the year party near ESCI. It was fun but people were sad to leave though. There was a photo contest as well and I won the most artistic category with the picture of the "crying" swan. I won a calendar of Barcelona! Then Chris Varga, Matt, Frankie and I went to finish some vodka they had in the Residencia Mar. Here we met some more Spanish kids who were going to Apollo. We were going to Universal for an ESCI party. We took the metro to where we thought it was... turns out we were far away and kept walking for like 45 mins. We finally arrived and enjoyed that party. I was ready to leave the party and some people, things, and social situations/encounters I was getting tired of. I am so glad I have another month here to enjoy the European culture and hopefully improve my Spanish. Thursday, I woke up with a huge headache. I could not move until Laura picked me up and her friend Audri, Laura, and I went to Sitges. We were driving in the small streets of Sitges and almost crashed the car a few times. Audri and Laura where bickering at each other in Catalan. This was funny to me. We ended up on the first beach of the nine beaches of Sitges. It was an awesome beach and typical of Costa Brava (sorry no pictures). We tanned for a little and then headed home. I had some dinner with Paco and got ready for Italy.


Italy:

On Friday, I was nervous about getting to the airport since it was in Gerona and I had to take a bus there. In the end, it all worked out well and I got there. Gerona airport is like a bus station and Ryan Air feels like a fake airline. They were selling lottery tickets, real food, and the flight attendants were saying horrible jokes in Spanish and English and for some reason everyone thought it was funny. I also was sitting straight up right and my knees were right on the back of the seat in front of me. Good thing the seats could not lean backwards. I slept most of the flight and in the weirdest positions and was happy to land. I took the bus to Bologna train station to meet my cousin Lauren Claps. It is weird not being able to communicate to anyone and luckily again people spoke English. I arrived in Bologna and Lauren took me to see the town and her place. Bologna is a students city but also one that really has not been ruined by international tourism. It is truly Italy. We walked through markets, ate Gelato (as good as I remember it), walked through a park, saw the main plazas and church, and met her roommates. Lauren is fluent in Italian and has a more immersed experience than me. I am kind of jealous. She also has a whole slew of Italian friends, including bar owners. She is not used to paying for drinks haha. Oh I also ate a spicy salami sandwich...sooo good. I am not used to anything spicy since the Spanish hate/do not have spicy food. After our full day of catching up and checking out the city, we relaxed for a little in her place and I asked her how to say things in Italian. Like Portuguese, Italian is very close to Spanish besides pronunciation. I also learned a saying in Italian "the beauty of doing nothing". We got ready for the night and got Aperitivo, which is getting any drink you want for 7 euro, and can eat as much as you want from a huge typical buffet of Italian food (amazing peppers, olives, olive bread, brochette, mushrooms in a cream sauce, couscous, anti-pasta, parmesan cheese (out of a huge block/bowl of parmesan cheese that you had to break from the bowl shape and eat), and some good tomatoes too!). Yes I eat tomatoes now too, not like an apple but you know. Then we went to have dinner with Lauren’s American friends and we brought the wine. I met Alex, David, and Sam, and another kid. The names I mentioned, Lauren, and I decided we wanted to go to Tuscany and ride bikes. So we booked it during dinner. Then after dinner Lauren I went out met her friend Alex James (a different Alex) and his Italian roommates who were always asking him what to say in English to me. It was funny but appreciated. We went to some bar and called it a night.

On Saturday, Lauren and I slept through 2 alarms. We rushed to the bus station to get to the train station. I thought we were not going to make it, but it turns out we had to take a different train and we left later so we made it. We were exhausted and could not sleep on the first train to Florence since we only had standing seats. So we went to the bar car got some food, talked, and watched the beautiful train ride scenery. My ears would pop every 2 minutes too, because the train would go under mountains and the pressure was hard on my ears. We arrived in Florence and ran into Lauren’s friend and her family. We all took the same train towards our final destination (not Lauren's friends and family) Certaldo. An amazing small little Italian town. It was beautiful. The train station looked like a villa. We got picked up by Christiano and taken outside the city to the B&B Pianigiano. Such a cool villa and very homey. We were welcomed with some typical and Amazing Red Orange Juice!!! Then we got our bikes, which came free with our stay, and we headed up to San Gemigniano (same place Moira has been too) 9 miles away up hill. After adjusting our bikes and realizing they suck, we started our journey and stopped in town of Certaldo for an amazing lunch. I had tortellini!!! Then we biked through the Tuscan vineyards and had amazing views. It was also on a dangerous road where motorcycles would pass us going way too fast but looked like a lot of fun. We also stopped at a Vineyard that looked like the house in Gladiator. So Cool! Then once we passed the most difficult part of the up hill stretch it was a joy ride of amazing and almost fairy tale looking views of the Tuscan countryside. We arrived in the city of San Germingiano tired but energized because we made it. This city is surprisingly packed with people and had near 5 churches in its small radius. We enjoyed walking around and took in the culture and vibe. We wanted to head back soon though so we were not biking at night and stopped to get some food before the journey home. I had some spicy Italian pizza. Food is amazing here and cheaper than Barcelona. We biked back down but my brakes were broken so it took me like 2 hours to get down (I had to walk at points). On the trip my necklace broke and I lost the seashell that was attached to it. Oh well. Finally we got back and took showers. We were dead tired since we biked 18 miles. Ordered in Pizza including a spicy Italian Pizza and a dessert of Nuetella Pizza (delicious)! Then Christriano’s mother made us some amazing espresso. It was a great dinner. We finalized the night with watching How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days because Alex looks exactly like Mathew McConaughay. Alex also lived in Italy for three years and is completely fluent.

I awoke to an amazing break fast of Biscotti, croissants, omelets, and coffee. It was raining so we left the place by one and took the trains back home. Lauren and I had a great meal that we brought back to her place. It was some great meat with some greens and cheese in pita sandwich. We also put sundried tomatoes in it. I had a desert pastry that I could not finish. Later that day Lauren and I took about a 4-hour nap and watched some of the new Office episodes. We got ready to go out and went to a restaurant. We ended up closing the restaurant down given it was a Sunday and we had a late start. Then we went to her favorite bar called Irish, where she was a friend with everyone. I could pick up on some Italian they were saying but could not converse. It was cool to try and follow along though. We had some beers until the place closed and called it a night.

I woke up the next morning to get ready for my train ride. I took a shower and somehow broke it. The water would not turn off. They had to turn off the water to the entire apartment. Then I was rushed to get to the bus station to get to the 11:00 train to Rome. The bus never came so I started to run to the train station. I made it there in time and had to wait for this guy in front of me on the automatic ticket machine. I picked the wrong guy to wait behind. I get up to buy my ticket and I have three mins to buy the ticket and get to the platform. I decided not to buy it so I tried to buy the next train ticket. The next 3 or 4 were sold out. Keep in mind I was sweating profusely at this time as well. I finally purchase my ticket and go and sit outside to cool off. I sit down outside the train station and bird poops right next to me. Luckily, it did not hit me but I was sitting under the only wire that happened to have birds on it. If it hit me I would have for sure put a post on FML haha; however, I was in Italy so there was no need for FML. Then I just wanted something to be familiar and work correctly so I went to McDonald’s to buy a McChicken combo. I used some Italian that I picked up to order it. Turns out I ordered the only thing in McDonald’s that was not ready. I had to wait for almost 20 mins (no joke). Which is ridiculous for McDonalds. They guy kept telling me to stop sweating it out (I was still sweating because I had to run from the bus station which never came to a train that I never got on). He thought I was freaking out because it was not coming fast enough. So I had to wait and assure him for 20 mins I was okay. After McDonalds I strolled over to the Gardens/Park of Bologna to take some pictures and kill some time before the train. The Park was really cool, but was not well manicured. It was sort of dirty, had construction, and a lot of graffiti. The entrance was beautiful though. I finally got on my train and fell asleep and read some of El Prinicipito (The Little Prince). Once I got to Rome surprisingly not that many people at the train station spoke English. I had to decipher where to find the bus to the small Airport that Ryan Air flew out of. Once I found it and got the schedule, I hit the town. Rome was about to get a huge storm and it was extremely windy. There was so much dirt and random things in the air, which got into my eyes. I still trucked through it and managed to see the Trevi fountain, some churches including a cool Basilica, and some government buildings all before the torrential downpour occurred. After my eyes recovered I grabbed some delicious gelato, met a man briefly from Atlanta and walked around for a little until I got on the bus to the Airport. On my way back I had an exit row, which is huge compared to any other seat on Ryan air. We arrived in Gerona I hopped on the bus back to Barcelona feeling tired and sick of traveling. At the bus stop I saw some Asian guy almost get his backpack stolen. In the metro some guys tried to pull a ploy on me. It did not work. I think I have learned my lesson from before. I got home Paco made me a great dinner and I hit the hay to get ready for Mom and Dad’s visit!