Last Week in Rome!

The beginning of this week has been great! Things at school are slowly winding down because it's our last week. Monday's are always hard because we get home so late but we all made it through the day. Tuesday went really well, I reminded the kids that my last day was going to be Thursday and two of the girls started whispering then they turned to me and said, "Do not go, we decided we like you." Haha glad to see I have their approval. It was really sweet though I would get hugs throughout the day on Tuesday because we weren't coming to school Wednesday so we could go see the Pope, so they knew I only had one more day.

Monday is our "Market Monday" so we always run to the market and do some errands for the week. We all need a relaxing afternoon to recuperate. We went back to Dar Poeta (the pizza place with the nutella calzones nommm) and I had the best pizza of my life. I will never look at pizza the same way. I had pizza with potatoes, pesto, mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes. My mouth is watering just thinking about it again! And of course we had the nutella calzone, on top of the gelato after school. I think I'm going a little overload on the sugar intake.

Tuesday afternoon I sat down with Max for about 3 hours hashing out the details for when my mom and her friend Gigi visit. We have soooo much planned and you'll here about it all soon! They arrive Monday morning, and I can't wait! Tuesday night we went back to Scholar's pub. Our professors came with us and hung out for a while until the karaoke started. This time allll of us were there for karaoke and we took over the stage. Some of the girls sang a few times and it was so much fun to watch. I only sang once and whipped out my rapping skillz for "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls with Logan and MK. It was such a fun night and we knew it was one of our last times all together.

Wednesday morning we woke up around 9 and met at 9:45 to go out into St. Peter's Square to meet the Pope! He does an outdoor mini-mass every Wednesday at 10:30. You have to reserve a free ticket but there were a tonnn of seats. We knew we should sit close to the side because the Pope rides around in his Pope mobile/Bat mobile. It was really hot out. The sun was beating down on us and I got a nice burn on my back in the most awkward shape from my shirt. Apparently everyone else was feeling the heat also, an older woman in front of me starting throwing up and passed out for a second or two. Before we knew it we were helping Vatican City police officers and nurses and people from her big group move chairs out of the way for the wheelchair to get in. It was actually really scary but apparently it happens all the time because you're sitting outside in the heat for so long. They wheeled her off and some of the people from her group went off with them. It was really interesting to hear all the people speaking different languages around us. The Pope drove around and we got so many pictures up close. He was less than 10 feet away from us. After he got up on stage different Cardinals took turns speaking different languages to welcome us and say a little prayer. Then they did shout outs for big groups from different schools and churches then the Pope did the Our Father in 6 different languages and blessed the crowd. He said all of our friends and family back home are now blessed as well! Your welcome :)

View from our seats, check out those matching hats!

Beautiful view of the sky and the top of the Vatican

He's coming!!

Pretty sure we made eye contact. Pope Benedict XVI

We spent the rest of Wednesday walking around different parts of Rome. Kelly, Dana, MK and I went back to Piazza Navona and grabbed lunch, then headed to the Pantheon to go to this famous coffee shop. They have incredible iced coffee and cappuccino's, but its veryyy different than what you would imagine. It was like a cappuccino frosty. Incredible! We then met up with the group at this apperitivo place near our bus stop to school. It wasn't the best but still a fun experience! You buy a drink for 10 euro then you have unlimited appetizers, sweet deal! After that we came home for an early night.

Ordered a side salad with my lunch...got a head of lettuce.

The iced cappuccino!

Thursday was such a bittersweet day. I was excited to see the kids again but I knew it was going to be my last time seeing these kids probably forever. Well, as soon as I got to school I found out my teacher broke two of her toes during karate, and she wouldn't be back for the rest of the year. My TA Tanya was taking over the class and a sub would come into the classroom to take over her role. I felt so bad, and I was so upset I couldn't say bye. Tanya and I made a game plan in the morning as to what we needed to do that day. We had singing practice with the other kindergarten class for the kindergarten graduation and I videotaped a few of the songs since I won't get to see the graduation, which breaks my heart. The 4th grade was putting on their big singing and dancing performance and all elementary school grades got to go. They put the kindergartners on the floor in front which wasn't the best idea. They are so wiggly and can't sit still and this performance was an hour and half. We took them out early to recess and left the performance because it was becoming so difficult to control them. The performance was precious, it was a global theme and they sang Waka Waka and a bunch of other songs! After recess we had library and PE then came back for lunch. The day was flying by. After lunch I had recess duty so I was outside with them. The kids are just so clever. Alex loves airplanes and his mom used to be a flight attendant so he was pretending I was on Egyptian Air flight 719. He had all these details in his head and then the plane caught on fire but it was okay because he was a firefighter. I miss having that type of creativity. Francesca kept braiding my hair and playing with me, she's been one of the students that seems to be the most attached to me, and she kind of reminds me of myself at that age. We did one last animal walk back to class where we acted out lion, T-Rex, and tiger. We had our math workshop which I was in charge of. We were learning about 3D shapes so I read them a book about shapes and spotting them in everyday life. Then we had 3 stations, one with a scavenger hunt in the room finding cones, spheres, cubes, and pyramids. The other table had a worksheet where they had to find as many shapes as they could, then the table I was running had a bag with the 3D shapes in them and they had to reach in and feel one then describe it to the rest of the table and we had to guess what it was. It was a great way to end the day on top of my special snack for the class! I brought in ice cream sandwiches for the kids to eat and we also had lemonade from the lemonade sale EC 1 was running. Ms. Tanya had the class toast to me and thank me for helping in the class. They all said, "cin cin!" Which is how you say cheers in Italy. Then all the kids brought me these handmade cards they made in class. There were drawings on all of them, then inside was a drawing of me with the child and a little note. I started getting teary-eyed it was so sweet. One boy drew a picture of himself with huge muscles and me holding guns haha. Oh how I'll miss this class.

The kids singing ABC in Motion!

Part of my classroom!

Both the kindergarten classes practicing songs

The 4th grade performance!

When the other girls and I were meeting outside to head back to the bus stop I ran into a few of my boys leaving with their parents. They started whispering and I asked what they were whispering about, then they counted 3...2...1...and all dove onto me for a big hug. It was precious. I got down on my knees to give them a better hug. Kelly tried snagging a picture of this moment but they move like lightning. I told the kids I would try to come back to visit next Friday with my mom so hopefully we have the chance! We jumped off the bus early on the way home to stop at this popular bakery. I had a Napoleon and a fruit tart. Hands down, the best dessert I've had here. I don't think the food can get any better but it keeps topping itself! I was also covered from head to toe in powdered sugar after eating it, but it was worth it! After the bakery Kelly and I bought some swatch watches! We've been talking about it the entire trip and I got a new watch for my summer camp, its bright yellow and waterproof which will be so much fun for the summer.

Dolce Maniera, the bakery we went to. It was sort of underground which made it even cooler!

MK, Kelly, Lori, and Laura eating their sweet treats :)

Mariel with her cannoli and me with my Napoleon!

Thursday night we had our last group dinner at this restaurant down the street. It was mouth watering and looked beautiful! We started off with this artichoke, cheese, fried potato creation with a raspberry sauce. Then we had pasta and risotto with more artichoke. And for dessert we had this amaretto ice cream creation, it was like ice cream but not as icey if that makes any since. After being stuffed we headed out to this summer disco Max planned for us. Kyle escorted us there then lead us inside. It was like out of a movie I've never seen anything like this before. It was outside and there were stages and seating around it was hugeee there was a massive dance floor in the middle and a pool to one side. I felt like a movie star! We also happened to be there on circus night so all of the staff was dressed as clowns or ring masters. The band was even dressed up! Then some weirddd creatures started coming out onto stage to dance. We had a guy doing bike tricks and a girl on skates going around the dance floor, there was an acrobat doing some crazy things on a swing, there were two guys who looked like they were from America's best dance crew doing some isolation dance moves, there were 2 drag queens who came out onto stage to dance one was a ballerina and the other was dressed up in a corset and a red mohawk, there were two girls in leather dancing around on stage, there were at least 4 people dressed as clowns who had dance routines on stage, and someone came out dressed as Jim Carey from the movie the Mask (I still don't get that one). This was like nothing I've ever seen before. I never imagined myself in a place like this but I had a good time. They sang and played a bunch of American songs so us girls had a great time! We left around 1 and headed back home for the night.

Girl on the swing...so strange

Even stranger clown dance with balloons?

Clown Band...Toto, I'm not in America anymore

No words...

Today we're going to any last places in Rome we want to visit! Some people who are leaving early tomorrow morning are going to the Vatican tonight, the rest of us are probably just going to hang out with one another to have some final bonding time!

Able Was I, Ere, I Saw Elba

And our last weekend excursion began!

The journey, including a walk, train, bus, boat, and van took about 6 hours. Whew. I think we hit all the means of transportation except for plane and unicycle. It was a longg day but we arrived in Elba around noon. (Do the math, we had to leave at 6 am bleh) Max was leading this trip because his family actually owns the resort we were staying at in Elba.

The view as we were coming in on the boat!

We walked up to the resort, Cala di Mola and it was absolutely gorgeous! The pool faced the Bay of Mola which leads to the Tyrrhenian sea. We got to our room which was wayyy up the hill, the whole island is basically a mountain, then we immediately changed into our bathing suits. The resort served us lunch and dinner everyday which was incredible! Lots of fish and pork options...I can't wait to eat chicken when I get home, never thought I'd say that.

The pool! It was actually a salt water pool and it was so easy to swim which was helpful for my doggie paddle :)

Looking up at the resort from the pool, it goes way back into the trees!

After we waited around a bit hoping the weather would clear up but it stayed consistently cloudy. Nevertheless, we piled into our three cars and drove towards a supermarket Max was taking us to, to buy towels. None of us had packed them and we ended up buying the cheapest ones we could find. I ended up getting one with a whale on it with a sneaky little smile. I also got sun tan lotion for 12.50 euros...redonkulous. We got to the first beach around 4:00, a lot later than expected, and I was completely thrown into an foreign land. Every man I saw was wearing a speedo, there were topless women everywhere, and naked babies and toddlers and adolescents running around. I couldn't stop giggling. I might've taken a few pics of a man tossing his naked child around...then I just felt creepy. The sun never really came out so we snuggled up on our towels and we all passed out. I got in the water at one point with Lori and it was freeeezing. I had to do it though, I can't stand going to the beach and not getting in the water.

We headed back to the resort to shower and get ready for dinner. On our way home we stopped at these cute little stands all along the roads selling wine. We picked up about 10 bottles for the group for the weekend to go with our dinners because it was cheaper than buying wine from the resort. We all were feeling pretty tired but Max had a whole night planned for us visiting a village and going to a disco tech with some of his friends so I bucked up and went with a smaller group of girls. We walked around this one village, which I can't remember the name of but I'll find out, which was really cute. I met the largest dog in the world who was drooling uncontrollably. What shocked me the most was how many children were out this late at night. There were kids playing soccer in the street at midnight. We met up with the people that actually worked at the resort and headed to a real Italian disco tech! It wasn't very crowded because it's the off season for Elba. Truthfully, the whole island wasn't crowded because it is the offseason. It ended up being a lot of fun! They played a lot of American music which we could sing a long and dance to. It was such a funny situation though because all of his friends didn't speak very much English, and none of us spoke very much Italian. Lots of awkward silences and attempted hand gestures.

One of the views on the way to the first beach!

The view on the way to the second beach!

The next morning we woke up around 8 to grab breakfast which was served by the resort. After we left for a different beach which we were told was one of the most beautiful beaches in Elba, which turned out to be so true! Again it was a very cloudy morning but that never stopped us. We laid our towels down and a few of us immediately headed towards the rocks we saw off in the distance. Adventure was calling! We climbed barefoot and barehanded across tons and tons of large rocks. As MK said, we felt so true to ourselves and nature because we were barefoot climbing rocks! Argh! I am woman hear me roar! This was by far one of my favorite things we did this weekend. We stayed out there for over an hour just climbing from spot to spot exploring. We met a guy also climbing the rocks who we called mountain man. He also had a colander with him...not sure why he wanted pasta out in the ocean. We joked that he was like Tom Hanks in Castaway and the colander was his Wilson hahaha. We even sat on top of the tallest rock we could climb to and sang the Circle of Life while looking out over the horizon. (Em I was thinking of you!) We eventually climbed back down to the beach and walked over to the bar on the beach. I had a Bellini and a Strawberry Daiquiri and I felt so exotic and posh! Again there were tonsss of speedos and nakey people. There was one naked toddler who was all over the place. His mom was holding him at one point and he literally pooped on his mom...that may be one reason your kid should wear pants. We left the beach around 4:30 or so and relaxed by the pool at the hotel for a bit. After we showered and got ready for dinner again. We had appertivo's at Max's parents restaurant which was right down the road from the resort...as you can tell he's kinda rich. The restaurant was right on the water and it was incredible. His dad also designed the building and it was so cool, there was an indoor part, a huge outdoor part, and a night club in the basement. We were there on a Saturday night though and it was completely deserted, I hope it was just because it's not peak season at Elba. We headed back to the resort for dinner which was delicious then we headed to another village. June 2nd is actually Italy's independence day so there was a huge festival going on at Porto Azzuro, the village, and it seemed that the symbol of independence day was flowers and hearts because they were everywhere. It was lovely! We walked around a bit from vendor to vendor and store to store then ended up staying sitting outside listening to some live music. We headed back to the resort pretty late but it was a fun night overall.

Our band album cover haha, MK, Laura, Katie, Dana, and me!

Me by the water!

All us girls playing in the water :)

A sign that was hanging in the second village, Porto Azzuro haha. No pooping allowed!

The next day we were just going to stay by the pool and relax because we were leaving around 2. Again...a cloudy morning. We were laying out for a bit and I attempted to read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I'm still on the first chapter haha, I just can't get into it especially with all the beautiful scenery around us. So Dana, Kelly and I got some of the kayaks from the resort and took them out for ride! This was my second favorite part of the weekend. We were fighting the current for a while and eventually made it to this big boulder on the side of the water. All of my practice at Northern Neck during the summers gave me some great arm strength for those bad boys. We got out and lifted our kayaks onto the rock and emptied out some of the water that had gotten in from the waves. We sat there for a bit amongst some glass and trash but it didn't matter because the view was breathtaking. We could see the horizon along with the mountains and little villages and houses in the trees. It's the most lush island I've ever seen...not that I've been to too many islands in my day.

Our time on Elba came to a close and we got all our stuff together and packed into the vans to repeat our 6 hour trip. From van, to boat, to bus, to train, to foot we made it back home around 10:20 or so. It was a long beautiful weekend but a great last excursion for our group.

Viva bella

Well again I've waited too long to catch up on blogs so here I go attempted to cover 5 days of activities.

Wednesday night we stayed in and made ourselves dinner then ended up going to an Irish pub we had heard about called Scholars. It was the least Italian place we've been to so far! It was pretty empty when we walked in but we knew it would fill up later seeing that it was karaoke night. But I'll get to that in a minute.

We ordered some cider beer which I'd never really had before and it was deliciousss. I had talked earlier in the day with an Student Ambassador Alum Manu who was going to be in Rome that night! He was meeting up with another SA alum, Stevie, so I told them that the girls and I were heading to the pub and they should meet up. Manu and Stevie got there a little before karaoke started so naturally we all signed up.

I've only done karaoke maybe once before in my life on a cruise ship...Mom you remember how that one went. Jessie's Girl will never sound the same to me again haha. Well Manu and I signed up for a duet and the book of songs was massive. We found a Maroon 5 song featuring Rihanna, "If I Never See Your Face Again" and signed on up. Welp, little did we know we were second to go. The crowd had gotten pretty big by this time and my friends were in the front with the video camera at the ready. There was a TV screen behind us with the lyrics and a TV on the opposite wall for us to look at. I thought I knew this song a lot better than I actually did so I had to toss in a few awkward pauses letting Manu take over. By the way Manu did acapella at JMU so he was carrying this team. I threw in some dance moves, the staples such as the hip thrust the wobble the moonwalk. I think I showed Italy what America's all about the white girl way. It was such a rush getting up there that my friends and I signed up later on for one more song. We had to pay our homage to the queen herself, Whitney Houston. We sang "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". The song has literally been stuck in my head since and I don't hate it haha.

Me and Manu!

It was such a fun night and the next day at school actually flew on by. Some funny anecdotes from Thursday at school:

Ucheoma and I walk at the end of the line whenever the class needs to go anywhere. I stay at the back to keep all the kids in line and have them follow Ms. Tanya, the TA. Ucheoma is assigned to the back because he can't control his body and needs to be at the end so he can flail around a bit. At least that's why I think he's assigned to the back. He always grabs my arms and wraps them around him and we kind of waddle together sometimes. One time we were waddling away and he started singing, "Walk this wayyyy, walk this wayyyy." I asked him how he knew that song, and he's like, "What song?" I swear he was singing it the same exact way as Aerosmith.

Again, another love connection blossoms in Kindergarten. It was quiet time and I was alone in the room with the kids. During quiet time they can sit wherever they want and they can read and draw. Ucheoma and Maria-Cecilia were sitting behind the bookshelf on pillows reading a book and I walked around the room checking on everyone else. I walked around again and peeked over the shelf, there was no longer a book in sight. The pillows were pushed together and there was Ucheoma and Maria-Cecilia spooning. Her head was on his chest and his arm was around her. I watched as he leaned over and kissed her. Oh and her skirt was up. Coincidence? Dear goodness I hope so. I ran over and told them to separate and pick up a book. Naturally I stood by them basically for the rest of quiet time making sure they were keeping to their own personal space.

Update on Francesca and Alexanders love life: we were watching videos from Disney's Fantasia (which is really good by the way I forgot how much I liked it!) and there was a scene where a hippo was lifting up another hippo dancing ballet and Alex goes, "I could do that with Francesca." Hahaha and he stood up and I swear was about to try and pick her up and swing her around like a ballerina.


Thursday night we had a group dinner at the coolest restaurant I've been to so far. It was such a hole in the wall place that Max had told us about. We followed the lead of Tour Gyle (what we call Kyle when he's leading us around, get it tour guide...tour gyle) Anywho, we ended up at this little place where they were awaiting us. They welcomed us announcing that this was a legit Roman restaurant with Roman food and music and drinks. We sat down at two long tables in the dim lighting. There were pieces of paper covering the walls with notes left by tons and tons of people who have come to the restaurant as well as some Roman mementos and memorabilia. The music was pretty loud but it was so much fun and upbeat, the waiters would start clapping to the songs and we all joined in too! I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. MK even got the name of some of the songs so we could look them up later. I felt like we ate an entire pig this night, sorry Babe. We had like 3 different types of antipasti's that were different types of pork. We also had one that was sheep intestines. Well, you only live in Rome once! I tried it. At first I put it in my mouth then spat it out because I got scared. But I was determined so I chewed it up quick along with a cherry tomato. I don't think I'll be doing that nonsense again. We then got a course of some pastas that were absolutely mouth watering. Then we got a round of tiramisu which I have had multiple times this trip and am now in love with, including the gelato flavor. After dinner they gave us free lemonchello shots, they drink them a lot here as digestives after dinner.

My table at dinner!

We walked over to the Spanish Steps which we've been meaning to see for a while. Well, I got a little distracted because there were 4 horse and buggies nearby and the horses looked so sweet. I took a little detour to pet them all and speak to them in Italian as best as I could. After my horse whisperer moment I turned to the Spanish Steps which are apparently the widest steps in Europe. They were hugeeee and so many people were sitting on them. I ran up humming the rocky song with Dana and we took a seat on a step to look at the view. While we were sitting one of the many street vendors came up to me and gave me a rose. Well obviously he wanted some money and he had handed it to me so I had to give him something so I gave him all the change I had...22 cents. Then we ran away back down the stairs and I tried to see if the horse buggy men would let me feed the rose to the horses, they didn't think it was the best idea. I ended up giving the rose to an older woman walking down the street on our way home. It was actually a really beautiful moment, she kept saying "no you are young, you take it" in a thick italian accent, but I insisted, then she said something along the lines of "Viva bella", which translates to live beautiful or beautiful life. I almost cried. It was a beautiful evening and I took some mental images I think I'll have for a long time. And of course we ended the night with Old Bridge gelato. Wouldn't have been complete without it :)

Me and Kelly in front of the Spanish Steps!

Me with the Italian horse!

Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!

So the past 6 school days I’ve been working on my lesson plan. We started out by reading “The Three Little Pigs and other Stories” like I mentioned in my earlier post.

Day one of the lesson we read the story then started acting it out with our voices and bodies. We were out in the hall so the kids were able to move around a bit more. One of the groups with the higher reading level had the Three Little Pigs. This group has the three girls and two boys; it was a battle to be whichever pig they thought was cooler. And this version of the story was a little gruesome, the first two pigs were eaten and the wolf was boiled to death in a vat. Well…we changed the story a bit haha. The girls didn’t want to die and the wolf wanted to be friends in the end so we somewhat adjusted the plot. Oops. The second group had the Little Red Hen. They each loved the character they got in this story, which cut me a break thank goodness. The third group had Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Unfortunately this group had 4 boys and there was nooo way one of them was going to be Mommy bear, so we changed it to brother bear. And I’m not sure if they ever realized Goldilocks was a girl cause they fought to be her…

Day two I had them color in puppets I had drawn for them. They colored them in really well, I mean we had a green bear but he was a good-looking green bear! This took up the whole rotation time but we had some extra time where I threw together an old box to make a puppet stage.

Day three we acted out the puppets with the stage. I reread the story to them to remind them of how it went and they then acted the story out the way it went, then I let them change the story. Wow. I could not believe some of the plots these kiddos were coming up with. The Three Pigs group had Ali who was the man who sold straw, sticks, and bricks. (I had to add this character so there were enough parts for people). He would say, “Give me all your money!” Every time someone asked him if they could buy something. He also decided to run from house to house warning the pigs the wolf was coming. The pigs fought back and the wolf whimpered but then Maria Cecilia, the little drama queen she is, was the wolf and had a whole dramatic scene where the wolf died then came back to life as an angel. The Little Red Hen group cracked me up too, the boys in this group have somewhat of a language barrier and instead of saying, “Not I!” they would shout, “Me no!” “Me no!” and then “Me yes!” Hahaha I’m going to miss these accents so much back in Amurica. Goldilocks group had a great time acting out the different voices like Daddy’s big voice, and the baby’s voice. They actually stuck to the plot really well until the bears came home and ate Goldilocks. She got what was coming.

Also Thursday was the Crowning of Mary ceremony. All the kids brought in a flower to place near the statue of Mary and they all had practiced songs to sing for the ceremony. It was precious. EC 1 and 2 (3 and 4 year olds) and Kindergarten all did the ceremony together. Here are some pictures! The songs are still stuck in my head…

Most of the group in front of Mary's statue, Preschoolers and Kindergarten!

The fourth day we practiced the plays again then actually performed them for the class! My teacher took videos and I will get them as soon as I can and hopefully post them on here. I was helping the kids on the side if they forgot any part of the plot but they had it down, they were fantastic! We used a table instead of the stage because the stage got in the way as the kids were fighting over it. They’re all divas fighting for stage time. When practicing I reminded them to take turns speaking and I made sure they could identify the beginning middle and end of the story. I really think my teacher was impressed by how well they did and that made me feel so proud.

The fifth day we started a writing prompt where they were to retell the story in writing rather than puppets. They each had a different part of the story and had to write 1 or 2 sentences (depending on which group it was) and draw a picture to go with it. Kyle came in to observe me teaching this lesson. Thankfully, he got to see my highest group who are angels. With every other group there’s so much behavioral management that goes into everything. We had a debriefing afterwards and he said I did really well! Now that my lessons over it really feels like this trip is almost over.

Today I really had to put my foot down with the kids. I have recess duty two times a week and lunch duty once and a day off. Well today was recess duty and they seriously are the most touchy feely bunch and when I was trying to get them to line up they were pushing all over the place, climbing on playground equipment, yelling across the playground, kissing, you name it, it happened. I rang the chime (one of the management techniques) and they did nothing. I raised my voice, which I really try not to do but they weren’t listening. I finally wrangled them into a line and we started walking inside. As soon as we reached the hallway all the high schoolers were walking through the hall…it was chaos. I lost all the youngins in the bunch and had to stop and wait for them. As soon as the high schoolers passed I whipped those kids into shape. I was calling the kids out who weren’t lined up. I rang the chime, I told them they would have to put their head down on their desks when they got inside (which always works like a charm) and I started giving them the talk that they were almost 1^st graders and they had to act like 1^st graders and respect the teacher and themselves. When we got to the room you could hear a pin drop. I gave them another little talk then asked why we were sitting with our heads down. They all gave the right answers and were eager to respond. I then asked what they could have done better next time and they all groaned, “Listennnn”. Well I think I did my job for the day. I really don't plan on teaching kindergarten haha.

We're heading to Elba this weekend and I'll definitely have updates about the island soon!

That's Amore

On Friday we left the good ol' Roma and headed for Venice!

We woke up at the crack of dawn again and headed to the train station to catch our 8 o'clock train. It was a lot easier this time than the trip to Florence, we got the right train and we each had a seat. I sat next to Jo-Elle and we literally had the worst seat on the train. Right in front of us was a group of two women and a man and 3 children. The oldest were two girls who looked about 5 and a 1 year old. They. did. not. stop. talking. The girls were wandering around the aisle the entire time and the baby wasn't necessarily crying but making noises the wholeee 3 and a half hours we were on the train. I kept giving the dad dirty looks like, "Control your children sir!". Then I finally gave in and realized they were actually really cute kids even though I couldn't tell what they were saying at all (spoke very fast Italian). I even tickled the youngin's belly at one point when he was walking by. What can I say I'm a softy at heart.

We arrived in Venice and had a 20 minute walk to the hotel through the tiniest streets I've ever seen. I didn't have much time to look around as we were walking in our Madeline lines again. All I know is 20 girls with suitcases does not easily maneuver through the streets of Venice. Our hotel was incredible! Venice is famous for glass and we had two chandeliers in our room which fit 4 people.

Just a view from one of the bridges we crossed on the walk to the hotel...no big deal.

We then headed out to explore, and within 5 minutes Dana and MK were pooped on by a seagull. Another lucky day! Haha, at least I'm not the only one now. There are literally pigeons and seagulls EVERYWHERE in Italy. No squirrels, just pigeons. It's a huge let down for me specifically. We walked around some on our side of the canal which was much less touristy. We worked our way to this little pizzeria with a really pretty garden. While waiting for a table Kyle, one of the professors on the trip, bumped into the window and broke the window curtain. Pretty sure they spat in our food after that one. It's really hard going to restaurants in such a big group, we only had about half of the 20 but we get looks everywhere we go. 

We then went on a hunt trying to find a bakery we passed on our way to our hotel. You should have heard the ooh's and ahh's coming from the 20 girls walking by all these goodies. I saw this little chocolate fudgey thing and immediately asked for it. It had some raspberry flavor in it to my surprise. (Katie I thought of you with this one!) I also got a strawberry meringue which was hugeee and tasted like a lucky charms marshmallow, it was fantastic! We walked around with just a group of 5: me, Kara, MK, Dana, and Kelly. We walked out onto a dock to take in the view of the canal just laying before us. As I sat down I got a splinter in my butt. Dana helped me assess (bada bing!) the situation and we decided to sit on the concrete part instead haha. We sat there for a while then decided to take a gondola across the river for 50 cents. The gondolier (a new term I learned) fell in love with Kara and said, "Karaaa stay with me." Then pretended to kiss up and down her arm. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

We could not pass this place up, they had chocolate sausage!

The strawberry meringue!

We shopped around on the other side of the main canal and went into really cool stores which sold tons of masks, jewelry, basically the same things in every shop though. We found this street painter who had amazing artwork! Then we hopped onto a gondola for a 20-30 minute ride/tour of Venice! It was only 15 euro per person which is pretty good for what i've heard they usually cost. We saw Casanova's old home, Marco Polo's old home, the Rialto Bridge, and tons of old buildings and canals through Venice! It is literally the most interesting city I've ever seen. But most importantly we saw about 10 different couples making out. There is no cultural foe-pa about PDA here. Our gondolier told us that at night we shouldn't ride in the gondola because couples ride them and...well...don't ride a gondola at night unless they've cleaned it recently. Bleh. Not sure if this is completely true but we didn't want to take the chance. 

Our gondolier! He was 40 years old and told us he's lived in Venice his whole life!

Couple #4 making out, get a room!

Such a beautiful view as we rode on the gondola down the small canals

After the ride we started heading back to the hotel. We were stopped at this juice bar handing out free drinks, little did we know it was sangria and strawberry shots....at 5:00. Well it's 5 o'clock somewhere. We kept walking and when we got back we changed for dinner. We ended up just stopping at this little cafe we had passed earlier in a pretty secluded piazza. I had a vegetarian pizza wrap which was delicious and hit the spot. We then had quite a few mini bottles of Bellini's (peach champagne) . I've never had them before and they were everywhere in Venice. We spent like 3 hours just sitting outside this place it was so much fun, then we headed to a Jazz bar we had passed earlier. We found out once we got there it was one of the top rated places in Italy for mixed drinks so I decided to try one...it was very inappropriately named but involved the word Sax. We were only there for a bit then headed home for bed.

The next day I woke up around 7:15 to shower and head out for the day. Kelly MK Kyle and I decided to head to the Doge's Palace. It was only about a 15 minute walk to San Marco's square where the palace was located. It was like stepping into a time machine heading over to this square, after walking through all the tiny streets the whole square opened up to these beautiful marble and stone buildings from century's ago. There was the cathedral, the bell tower, and the palace. It was completely empty at 8 in the morning and we had no line heading into the palace. We walked around without a guide this time just reading the info ourselves. They had a fire in the 1500's which ruined a bunch of paintings in the palace and there were competitions to see who would get to repaint them. It was shocking to find out these were replica's because all the paintings were absolutely gorgeous. It also contains the largest oil painting in the world. It was hugeeee. Every room was covered in gold and very gaudy. Kelly and I tried laying down on the floor in one huge ballroom to look at the ceiling...we were yelled at within 5 seconds. The palace also had a jail attached which we got to walk through, leading to it there is the "bridge of sighs" which got its name from prisoners taking their last look out the window at freedom before entering the prison. There was a room filled with weapons, and rooms filled with absolutely nothing at all with no purpose...wish I had the luxury to have a room dedicated to standing around and twiddling my thumbs.  

San Marco's completely empty, just 2 hours later it was packed with hundreds of people and vendors! And birds of course.

The Bell Tower in the square!

Beautiful, it had rained on our walk over and stopped and started every now and then.

Me standing by the water and the palace!

Inside the courtyard of the palace, as we walked through we walked allll around the building.

Inside the courtyard of the jail portion of the palace

We then walked back to the hotel and got there around 11 or so. Everyone was up and a bunch of girls had already to Murano to check out the Venetian glass. We stopped at one of the markets, which are all over, and grabbed some fresh fruit for lunch. Never realized how much I missed fruit, we rarely have it with any of our meals. We took a water taxi to the island which is famous for glass, there's another island, Burano which is famous for lace. Right when we got off we were pointed in the direction of a glass factory which was showing glass blowing. It was sooo cool. I never actually understood the concept of blowing glass...they literally blow it. This older man started rolling it around then blew on the tube leading to it and within two minutes had a glass vase with intricate detail. Then another guy made a glass horse. Too cool. As their final act they blew a glass bubble and kept blowing it till it shattered with a loud boom scaring the bejesus out of all of us. A little dramatic if you ask me.

The man making the vase!

One of the glass stores with tons of chandeliers

We walked around from shop to shop and I bought a ton of gifts. Everything was so beautiful but every store had the same things. I was starting to get a little warn out with all this shopping and we eventually sat down and grabbed a late lunch. Kyle and I split a hugeee calzone. It was bigger then my head. We took a water taxi back to the mainland and stopped at the hotel before dinner. We had spotted this little seafood place earlier in the week and decided to go back. About 12 of us went and it was fancy shmancy. We had no idea but we walked in and all the waiters were in tuxedo's. I could taste the service charge already. We sat down and they poured us champagne...there was nothing we could do. They then brought us bread and water...another 10 euro gone. I ordered the gnocchi with lobster and it was magnificent. A few of the other girls ordered fish that was, well...disappointing. MK had a mouthful of bones as her first bite. She tried complaining to the waiter when we were done (they barely spoke english by the way). He asked her how it was and she said, "Well, a little boney" and he responded, "Thank you" then walked away. We could only hold our laughter for so long. Then we walked back over to the hotel to a little bar that was right below it. It was pretty americanized and they were playing some Backstreet Boys and some oldies, needless to say we had a bit of a sing a long.

On the island of Murano!

Glass fire oooh

Glass birds by the water, I thought they looked so cool!

Hehe a little glass jewish man, would've boughten it if it wasn't 15 euro

The next morning we got to sleep in a little, check out wasn't until 11. We had heard the day before about this huge kayak event taking place that Sunday down the entire canal. No motor boats were allowed in the morning for all the kayakers. They came from all over the world! There were some themed boats, I saw one where everyone was dressed up as monks, there was some relaxed kayakers, and then there were some with gongs and whistles moving superrr fast. We thought about signing up but it was 100 to rent a kayak and 20 to register...I think I spent enough shopping for gifts haha. We walked around a little more and headed back to San Marco's where we grabbed a panino and people watched. There were the strangest characters I've ever seen in Venice. I guess because it's such a touristy place you really get a motley crew of people. We saw this one woman covered in pigeons...and liking it. We found a garden just along the water and sat there for a bit eating gelato, I felt so Italian! We had just enough time to take our time walking back to the hotel. We left for the train station around 4:20 and trekked back through the eeny weeny streets. It was a lot more depressing heading this direction but it went by a lot quicker. We got onto the train, this time  in the veryyy back of the train away from crying babies. We started out going backwards though and I felt a little queazy but halfway through the ride we switched directions. I sat next to Jo-Elle again on the way back and we were both thankful to have a moment of sleep!

One of the huge teams of rowers! 

Got a pretty good picture of the monks, they gotta be hot in those things

Overall, it was such a beautiful weekend and much more relaxed then any other trips we've had. I absolutely fell in love with the city and the city was filled with love! I can't wait for school this week and for Elba this weekend!