Oh God...My Mother's Here

Monday morning Mariel and I got a ride over to the FCO airport in a town car, it was quite a luxurious ride compared to what we had before. The driver at one point was going 140 miles per hour...I repeat, 140 miles per hour. I thought it would be my last car ride ever. Well we made it okay, and he dropped me off at arrivals where I was going to meet my mom. Her flight was supposed to get in at 8:30 so I anxiously awaited by the gates till 9:15 and she still hadn't arrived. Gigi was supposed to get there around 9:30 and the driver was supposed to be there at 9:20. Lots of supposed to's. Well my mom got there at 9:20, the driver never showed, and Gigi never showed. We were thrown quite a curve ball. Seeing as we didn't have a phone, didn't have the drivers number, and we used a pay phone and tried calling Gigi and it went straight to the answering message, we didn't know what to do. We stayed until 11 then ended up getting a shuttle home. It cost more than the driver was supposed to, and took longer because there were two other families going to two other hotels. Oh did I mention we had to be back for a tour of the Colosseum by 1:30? Curve ball.

Well we made it back a little past 12 and my mom and I got settled. We immediately checked our email and went to the office to see if we heard anything from Gigi. She had emailed me letting me know she missed her connecting flight because of security and wouldn't get there till 12:15. Well it was a little bit past 12:15 but she didn't have her luggage because it was on the flight she was supposed to be on. Another curve ball.

We had to leave for the tour, but we left a room key for her across the street at Bar Danielle, where Max knew the owners, because the Residence office was closed from 1-3. Can you say curveball? Well we left her an envelope and I explained where her ticket was to get to the colosseum and I wrote to take a cab there and we'd try to find her. Well we called her from Kyle's cell phone, and she was still at the airport because they couldn't find her bag. So we started the tour. It was interesting to hear all of the information about the colosseum, the forum, and the palatine hill again because I was more awake for this tour than the last time. Frederica tried to adjust the tour seeing as MK, Kyle, and I had heard all of the information before. She managed to give some new information as well as the important things so our families could hear.

Mom and I at the Colosseum!

Mom in the Colosseum

The Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum

Mom and I managed to find a lot of hebrew today on relics and in the Vatican, we even managed to find a menorah!

I hummed the Rocky theme as she mastered these steps

Mom made me take a picture of these men who sat near us because "they look so Italian".

MK has her mom and dad visiting, and Kyle has his parents and his sister, and I have my mom and her friend Gigi. It's a lot of fun getting the chance to share our experience with all of our families! The tour took about 4 hours then we headed back home to see if Gigi had arrived. She made it there fine and actually went to the colosseum and walked around herself. We went back to Hosteria Pizzeria for dinner so I could show them how amazing their food is. We sat outside and were serenaded by a guitar and accordion player. We walked back and stopped at Old Bridge on the way. They agreed its the best gelato out there! We sat in St. Peter's square for a little while finishing our gelato and taking in the view. We headed home and they both passed out, they had both been up for over 24 hours! We needed to get some sleep seeing as we had an early start the next morning! I have quite the itinerary planned for this week thanks to a lot of help from Max and Kyle! Stay tuned!

Bittersweet Ending

Friday we woke up and grabbed some lunch down by Risorgimento, where we catch our bus to school. We went to this fantastic panini place called 200 degrees. It was wonderful, I had turkey for the first time in over a month! We walked around a market for a while down by the river. There were tons of little vendors set up selling all sorts of things. I bought a few more gifts and myself some earrings. It was getting realllyyy hot outside so we headed home for a bit to relax.

The group that went to the market by the water!

We were planning on meeting up with some of the girls teachers at an apertivo place near the Olympic stadium, where we switch buses on our way to school. Well, the bus never showed up so we ended up taking another bus, realized we were going in the wrong direction, hopped off, grabbed a cab to the stadium, realized the restaurant was down the street, walked down the street, ran across a busy road and found the restaurant. Whew. Once we got there we sat with two teachers who were actually married, they're moving to China this fall to teach at an international school there. And Lauren's teacher who is from New York. We sat and chatted for a while and the place was hopping. It seemed to be a popular place for young people. I sound like a grandma when I say that haha. You order a drink for 10 euro then get unlimited appetizers. I had two Bellini's, my new favorite, and ate more nuts and crackers than I thought I could consume.

After we walked with Lauren's teacher to catch the bus back home. Well it was a 20 minute wait so in the mean time we walked over to a wine festival right next to the bus stop. Who knew this 20 minute way to kill time turned into a 3 hour extravanganza! It was such a spur of the moment thing to do and it was so much fun! It cost 20 euro to get in and you got your own wine glass and little wine glass carrying bag to go around your neck. You had 13 tickets to try different wines from 13 booths. This became more like 19 different wines because people weren't taking our tickets haha. We walked from booth to booth attempting to look mature as we sniffed, swirled, sipped, and chugged. I didn't really end up pouring any wine out, I didn't realize you're not always supposed to drink the whole thing. Granted, they weren't full glasses of wine but there was still some there. My favorite was a white wine from a South Africa company. There were some stations with free food so we cleaned those out. Dana ended up buying what we thought was fig marmalade as a gift (the guy didn't speak english so we were trying to figure out what type of food it was made from and that was our first guess). Well turns out it was radishes haha. We didn't get home till about 11 o'clock but it was the best time!

Dana and I sipping our wine and lounging at the outdoor wine festival!

With my wine bag and my first taste! Almost blinking here...

My favorite wine of the night!

Saturday morning we met outside at 8:45 to head over to the Vatican. It was such a nice way to end the program because we'd walked past it everyday on our way to school without ever actually being inside. I felt like we came full circle. It was hard that morning I had to say goodbye to a few of the girls who were leaving. Our group was slowly dwindling down. We walked over to Old Bridge where we met up with Frederica who took us through security and the lines into the Vatican Museum. It was absolutely breathtaking. Everything was gorgeous and gaudy and god-y (bada bing!) I've never seen more religious paintings and statues before in my life! It was really interesting to hear about the Vatican's past. I didn't even know it was it's own country before coming on this trip! It's one of the three neutral countries in the world, who knew? After walking through the museum we ended up in the Sistine Chapel. You weren't allowed to talk, or take pictures, but Frederica talked to us regardless haha. It was incredible to see it in real life. It was also insanely crowded but you definitely take the time to look up and admire the ceiling and all of the walls. After the chapel we headed over to St. Peter's Basilica which is the biggest church in the world. And my goodness was it ever! There were markings on the ground labeling other churches lengths so you could see how other churches fit into the Basilica.

Some of the thousand or so statues in this place!

One of the most famous sculptures at the Vatican

Beautiful ceiling!

Cool 3 dimensional ceiling

One of the Raphael pieces of art in the Raphael rooms. A copy of this painting was actually in our apartment the whole trip and I actually got to see the real thing! I can't remember the name of the painting but I like to call it "Last Supper Pregame".

Another painting by Raphael representing a fire they had

The Pieta by Michaelangelo, its behind bullet proof glass in the Basilica

The bronze canopy above St. Peter's tomb. They actually build the Basilica around the tomb. 

View from the Basilica! I've never seen the square from this angle before!

After walking around we had the option to go up into the Cupola (the top of the dome) for 5 extra euro. MK, Dana, Kaitlyn, Courtney, and myself all made the trek. It was 551 stairs...I repeat 551 stairs. Did I feel like the stair master that day or what! It was the scariest walk of my life. You first had to climb 200 steps that were long and slightly sloped. Piece of cake. You then had to walk across the roof (which had a gift shop) to the next set of stairs. This set of stairs was the rest of the way and you were literally walking in between two walls of the dome. I was too tall and had to tilt my body to fit. You walk along this curved path for what seems like forever. The steps are small and short and steep. It was also insanely hot in there especially when there was a back up of people and we were stuck in traffic. Eventually we made it to the top, and just as I had seen in Florence I saw all of Rome before me. It's a much bigger city but absolutely breathtaking. We even found our apartment while standing on the roof. It was strange, even after living in this city for a month I could barely recognize anything. There were sooo many buildings and so many different places I just could not name. It made me feel especially small in this city and like I didn't have enough time to really get to know it.

View of the inside of the Basilica as we were up in the dome!

View from the Cupola

Rome <3

Dana and I at the top!

We went grabbed some sandwiches from the same shop as the day before, then walked back home. I took a much needed 3 hour nap then woke up and watched the tail end of a movie with Dana, Kara, and Katie. The rest of the group who was still in Rome met up outside and we headed back to our favorite restaurant, the Hosteria Pizzeria with the killer carbonara. This was my third time eating there and Kyle's seventh! They knew us well and brought us an appetizer platter as well as a huge portion of carbonara to share. I ordered the penne with salmone which did not disappoint. After we stopped off at the Dolce Maniera again where I bought another Napoleon. Then we went by Old Bridge and get some more gelato. It made me so sad that this was the last gelato we'd get all together. We were walking home and stopped in St. Peter's Square realizing that would be the last time we all walked through it together. We asked this old man to take the picture and he barely got us all in but got a lot of the Vatican in the background haha. It was one of those mental picture moments and I tried to soak it all in.

St. Peter's square at night

The next morning everyone left but me, Mariel, and Courtney. I woke up early and showered, creeped out by being alone in my apartment. I had to move all my stuff to a bigger apartment in the next section where my mom, her friend Gigi, and I would be staying for the next week. Mariel, Courtney, and I went to see the Pope again. On Sunday's at 12 he pokes his head out of his window and says a little hello and a short prayer in a few languages. I had never seen the square more packed with people. We made our way through the crowd and started our adventure to a market that only occurs on Sunday's that Mariel's teacher told her about. Well, it took us an hour to end up exactly where we started so we ended up grabbing a cab haha. The market wasn't really all it was chalked up to be, it was crowded, and dirty, and there were a tonnn of people. We started heading back the way the cab took us and stopped at this little restaurant to eat. It's always weird on Sunday's because so many places are closed. But it ended up being really good, I had some weird pasta I've never heard of that looked like worms with broccoli and olives yummm. We grabbed a cab back home, because we weren't going to waste another hour, and I relaxed, napped, and watched a movie.

At 7 Mariel and I met up again to grab some dinner. We went back to the place we had our group dinner together on Thursday with all the artichoke. When we walked in, the place was pretty empty except for the people who work there. They were all crowded around the big screen TV in the restaurant watching the Italy vs. Spain soccer game. Well the hostess came over and took our order, then she told the cook who was pissed he had to stop watching the game as it was almost over. We could hear him from the kitchen shouting, "Mamma mia!" Every time something happened with the game. Luckily Italy scored while he was cooking, otherwise we were afraid what was going to happen to our food haha. He brought it out really quickly, probably due to the fact he wanted to watch the game. We had the same artichoke appetizer with the fried potato and cheese as well as assorted bruschetta. It was deliciousss. We also split a bottle of white wine between ourselves. It was really fun sitting there talking and watching some of the game as the staff yelled at the TV.

After we were finished and paid, we heard singing coming from the streets, the staff and us walked out to see a group of people walking down the street. Not just a regular group of people though, there were alter boys, priests, nuns, carabinieri, and a whole slew of other people. We asked the restaurant staff what it was, and they said in english what we call a procession. And they had no idea what for. The chef joked that we could join them if we liked haha. We walked along to Old Bridge where Mariel had her final gelato. While walking over we stopped to take a picture with the Vatican guards who are dressed up in the funniest of clothes. Mariel was trying to wave a car past as we were trying to walk towards the guard, and she waved her hand at them three times and they didn't move, the guard responded, "Senora, Senora...iz red". And we looked to see in fact the light was red and the car couldn't move. Hahaha it was too funny. Regardless, we got our picture and our gelato. We sat in St. Peter's Square for a while just people watching and taking the view then we headed home. We didn't stay up much longer because we were both heading to the airport at 7 the next morning. She had to catch her flight, and I had to catch my mom!

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!