I’m in the process of uploading all of my hundreds and hundreds of travel pics into a gallery on my server. It’s gonna take a bit though, so in the meantime you can head on over to my traveljournal that I kept while studying abroad in Rome. There are lots of photos on there of all my adventures throughout Europe.
I flew back to Rome from London this morning. I had to get up pretty early for the flight (3:30 am) so I’m exhausted right now. But I’m at JCU with Ross right now, and I’ll be back on a plane home within 24 hours!
It rained in Dublin the entire time we were there. It was kind of disappointing, but we still had fun. We went out to Irish Pubs and drank Irish beer… ordered big juicy hamburgers, and we spent a day touring the Guinness Factory. We met some nice guys from the USA who went out with one night. It was fun.
I LOVED London. It was much colder than Barcelona and Paris, but we did get a couple partly sunny days so it was bearable. We took a double decker bus tour all over the city, walked through Kensington Gardens, rode the London Eye, and I went to a Jason Mraz concert! The only bad thing about London was the pound because the exchange rate was sooo horrible for us. Everything was twice as much when converted back to US dollars. I could definately live there someday though… or in England. The people are so friendly and easy going, and I adore the accent.
But anyways, the two weeks of traveling was absolutely amazing. I had such a great time and I will always remember it.
Now I’m just really excited to get back home and see everyone… tomorrow!!! I can’t wait!
Super quick update because I only have 3 minutes left at the internet cafe…
Paris is lovely. I really like it. Its very big though and we’ve had to take the subway everywhere. Yesterday it was beautiful outside and we took a nap under the Eiffel Tower. We also visited Notre Dame and all the other famous sites here. Last night we climbed the Eiffel Tower and overlooked Paris at night… breaktaking! Once we were back down there was a light show which made the Eiffel Tower all glittery and sparkley. I can’t describe to you how pretty that was!
We are hitting up the Louvre tonight, and heading to Dublin tomorrow afternoon. I’ll update again soon when I have more time!
Love to everyone, Jess
Soooooo……
My purse got stolen on the beach this morning. It had my wallet and my digital camera. It really really sucks, but I’m thankful that my passport wasn’t in there… I was just sitting or laying on the beach with my purse right next to me and someone just walked by and picked it up when I wasn’t looking. It’s crazy how easy it is to lose your most important posessions. There one minute, gone the next. Nikki’s helping me out with money until my parents can send me some. And I’ll just take pitures on Nikki’s camera… (we had the same one, anyway.) I’m really bummed out, but I’m not letting this incident ruin my trip.
Besides the theft problem, Barcelona is wonderful. I love it here. It’s HOT and we spent the day at the beach which is really nice. Yesterday we did a lot of sightseeing and I loved everythign that I saw… the park is soooo beautiful! I like it even better than Villa Borghese, which was my favorite place in Rome! There’s a lot more we haven’t seen yet, but we still have two more days here.
I met an adorable English boy yesterday. His name is Ben. I spent most of the evening with him. He’s moving to France next week to be a chef. His accent is so cute, and he has perfect teeth contrary to the stereotype of English people. And, he’s one of the most gorgeous male specimans I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty pleased that I met him. It makes this whole stolen purse thing not seem as bad…
We’re all having a really good time. It worked out really well that we decided to skip Nice… we would have been too rushed here. Spain is so clean and organized, and stunningly beautiful. And things are much cheaper here than in Rome!! Maybe I studied in the wrong city! Lol. No, I’m just kidding, but I’m definately impressed. I hope I like all the other cities just as much.
Hasta Luego!
-Jess
I’m done with the semester! I finished my last exam this morning. It feels great. But at the same time it’s really starting to hit me that this whole experience is pretty much over. My roommate Diana is leaving today… in about an hour. Katie leaves tomorrow. All my other roommates leave on Saturday morning. I’m going to miss my roommates so much.
On the bright side, Emily gets here today. (Nikki’s friend from GVSU) She’s the one who’s traveling around with Nik and I for the next two weeks. So we have two days to show her around Rome, and the weather is suppose to be hot and sunny! Then we leave for Barcelona on Saturday evening. I’m really excited for our trip! I’m actually nearly packed now. I did all my laundry for the trip yesterday and the storage company is coming to pick up my luggage tomorrow morning. One my stuff is gone, it’s really going to feel like the end. I can’t believe this.
But I still have two weeks left… so pray for us to have a safe trip without too many complications! I’ll try to keep you guys updated from internet cafes as much as I can. I don’t know yet if I’ll be able to post pictures… we’ll see.
Oh, by the way… I finally made it to Tivoli! Which, for those of you who don’t know, is a town about 20 miles from Rome known as The Beverly Hills of Rome. There are two huge palaces (villas) there from like 500+ years ago with huge garden complexes. We went to Villa d’Este, which is supposively the prettier one. I posted a few pictures from there.
I love you all, and see you in TWO WEEKS!!!
P.S. HAPPY GRADUATION ALLISON!!! AND HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!!! XOXO
First of all, I’m DONE WITH CLASSES!!! All I have left now is 3 exams and my semester will offically be over. Sad, but exciting at the same time.
Second… we are no longer going to Nice and Monaco in the south of France. Train tickets were too expensive and we would have to spend nearly two days just on trains to and from Nice. It wasn’t worth it to us. So now we are spending two extra days in Barcelona, and an extra day in Paris. I’m kinda bummed, but I’m sure this will work out for the best since we won’t be so rushed now. Plus we’ll have a little extra cash as well.
Our end of the semester photography exhibit was tonight. It went well.
All of the girls are gonna go out tonight and celebrate the end of classes.
Hopefully I’ll get to Tivoli this weekend…
So, I’m now in my last week of school. Exams start this Saturday. (Crazy, right?? Why on the weekend?!?) But anyway… after today, I have 11 days left in Rome. This semester went by really really fast. I always knew that it would, but now that I’m actually at the end, I’m realizing it even more. But that’s okay because I’m ready to move on. I’ve seen everything in Rome that I wanted to see…. multiple times, actually. I’ve made some amazing friends, had once in a lifetime experiences, and learned a little bit more about myself along the way. I’ll be sad to see it all come to an end because I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better semester abroad. But I am really excited to see a few new places during our two week Eurotrip after exams. And then I’m even more excited to see my family and friends back in Michigan, because I really truly miss everyone. And then, of course, I’m excited for little things like my mom’s potato salad, Taco Bell, driving, English, the US dollar (cuz the Euros getting really expensive), and TV. It’s funny what being abroad makes you miss. I hardly even watch tv when I am home…. haha.
As long as I don’t fail my finals, I will have managed to pass all my classes. (Not that I expected not to or anything.. but passing is always a small sort of accomplishment for me.) But I’m going to have to do a lot of studying for Italian and my Roman Monuments exams. The others will be a piece of cake. (Oh, that’s another thing I miss… cake.)
Okay, well I have nothing else interesting to say right now. Hope you are all enjoying nice springtime weather.
xoxo,
Jess
I spent the entire past weekend in Rome. Tuesday was Italy’s liberty day so we got it off from school. We had a really good time visiting all of our favorite places in the city. We ate way too much gelato, went to Villa Borghese for a boat ride, got cappuccino at Rome’s number one rated coffee house, took pictures of the Collosseum at night, and went to one of the Roman beaches for a day.
I have to keep myself busy here because I’m starting to get kind of antsy in Rome… I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I’m homesick… just ready to be done. I’m very excited to travel around for the last two weeks with Nikki and Emily. We have so much great stuff planned and it’s going to be the trip of a lifetime. However, Rome is getting so jam packed with tourists now that everything is starting to get on my nerves. I’m going to miss my roommates so much once we leave, though. They have become some of my closest friends.
But anyways, the beach was pretty cool. We didn’t get the sunniest day for it… but it was really warm so it was still nice to lay in the sand. We had to pay 5 euro to get into this beach complex thing, but it was worth it because it had beach volleyball courts, a pool, food, bathrooms, etc. Kind of like a resort except without a hotel.
Also, this weekend a watermane broke on our block. We had no water for more than a day and it was pretty inconvienent. We couldn’t flush our toilets, take showers, brush our teeth without bottled water, cook, was dishes, etc. We were all pretty patient about it though. I think we have gotten used to Italy being inconvenient so things like that don’t phase as much anymore. Luckily it was fixed before Tuesday, though, because they wouldn’t have worked on a holiday!
Ok, well I have class in a few minutes so I’m going to run. We’re hopefully going to go to Tivoli Gardens tomorrow and if we do, I’ll have new pictures to post.
Love to all,
jess
Verena and her family invited me to spend Easter weekend with their family in Germany. I was very happy for the opportunity to see them all again. I was also very glad to be out of Rome for the weekend, because as you can imagine… Rome is quite a popular destination for Easter–particularly the Vatican area where I live.
On Friday afternoon I felt to Hannover (nearly missing my flight because of all the traffic in Rome) and arrived there around 6:00 pm. Verena and her dad were at the airport to meet me. We went straight back to their house where dinner was waiting for us. It was so nice to eat German food after 3 months of nothing but pizza and pasta. And Verena’s mom is an amazing cook. After dinner I went out with Verena to a little music bar along with Mira and her boyfriend, Mira’s brother Toby, and Felix—Verena’s boyfriend. They all spoke pretty good English, which I was thankful for. We were there for a couple of hours before we left and went to Felix’s house to play a couple video games. The game was completely in German, but it was like a gameshow of recognizing music so I could play too… (most of the songs were American anyway.) Funny times.
The next morning the whole family at e breakfast together and then Verena had to leave for work. The rest of us went into Brenswick to go shopping. I didn’t have much money or space in my backpack, so I didn’t buy anything. But it was nice to walk around the city and the mall because it was such a different atmosphere compared to the cities in Italy. I don’t know why, but I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the house so I took a nap before dinner. When I woke up, Verena was back from work and we sat down at the table for some cake and tea. Not to much later, we had a huge salmon dinner which was one of the best meals I’ve had in months. I was still tired and really didn’t feel like going out anywhere, but Verena wanted to go play pool with some of her friends for a little while so I went. None of the people we met up with spoke any English so I just kind of sat there most of the time. We didn’t stay long though, and I got to go to bed early.
Easter morning was fun because I woke up to the table set for breakfast and Verena’s mom had put little chocolate bunnies and candies on everyone’s plates. Then everyone gave gifts to each other for Easter. I was given socks, lipgloss, a purse, a travel guide of Italy, and a few other little random things. It was very sweet and unexpected. After breakfast we got ready and then went into Wolfsburg to see the newest exhibit at the city museum. It was about architecture and sculpture. It was very interesting to see because there were models of different buildings from all over the world. Some of them I have seen in the past couple of months, and others I will get to see during my two weeks of backpacking in May. After that, we all went to the Wolfsburg Castle to have coffee and cake. (Which, apparently is a daily thing in Germany.) I felt like the entire weekend revolved around eating. We ate like every 2 hours or so. Shortly after getting home from the castle, we had tea and truffles… and a big Easter dinner came soon after that. All the food was so good though, so I ended up stuffing myself at every meal. I took a nap after dinner because I knew I wasn’t going to get much sleep that night before my flight. There was a big Easter bon fire that the entire village went to. We were there until about 2:30 am talking to all of Verena’s friends, family, neighbors, etc. I had a really good time. Unfortunately for me, though, I had a 7 am flight. We had to leave the house at 5:00 am to get there on time… so I was pretty exhausted all day on Monday. I slept a little bit on the planes, but each flight was so short that it didn’t help very much.
It was a really fun weekend though. It was so nice to spend a few days with a family and not have to see thousands of tourists like I do everyday in Rome. It was really refreshing… although it made me miss home a little bit more.
I just can’t believe that we are down to the last 3 or so weeks here. It’s going to be so weird to finish school and then move out of my apartment and not see my roommates anymore. They’ve grown to be some of my closest friends. Then I have two weeks of traveling which I know will fly by too. I’ll be home before I know it. But I’m happy about that because I miss everyone a lot.
I love you all,
Jess
Katie, Lauren, Amanda, and I had an amazing weekend in southern Italy. Amanda went with her mom and stayed in a nice hotel, so we didn’t see as much of her. But the other three of us stayed in a little cabin at a camp ground in Sorrento. The campground had a beautiful view of the city. Sorrento is a very cute, charming town on the coast. There is great food, beautiful views, and easy access to other places on the coast of southern Italy. We spent the first day (Friday) walking around the town. Katie and Lauren got their hair cut. We checked into the campground, and then later met up with Amanda and her mom for a delcious dinner at one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in Italy.
On Saturday we got up very early and took a trip to the island of Capri which was sponsored by our campground. The boat picked us up at 8:30 am, gave us a tour from the boat around Capri, and then dropped us off at a small marina to explore the island for 6 hours. The boat ride was really fun because we got to see the island from the water. As soon as we were dropped off we went to this little cabana-like smoothie place and soaked up the sun in lounge chairs. It was fabulous. Then we took a bus into the city centre to explore the shops, grab some lunch, and take pictures at the lookout point. After a few hours of that, we went right back to the marina and ordered cocktails from the smoothie place and layed out for another 2 hours. That was my favorite place on the island. We got back to our campground around 6:00… took a nap… and then went into Sorrento for dinner. We went back to the same restaurant because it was so yummy the night before. They waiters liked us so much that they gave us free dessert!
The morning after that (Sunday) we got up early again to check out and then take a bus to the Amalfi Coast. It took an hour and a half to get there, but it was the most incredible bus ride of my life. The views were absolutely amazing. You will see in my pictures when I post them. The water was so blue. We were literally driving up and down a mountain and very close the the edge of the cliffs. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but so beautiful that I didn’t mind. I gave me digital camera a workout. Once we got to Amalfi, we went straight to the beach and layed ou in the sun for 3 hours. I got really tan… I would have stayed out even longer, but Katie and Lauren were getting burnt. We went to lunch and had wonderful Capri Salad at a restaraunt right on the beach. Afterwards, we went walking around the town and browsed through shops. Of course, since it was so hot, we got gelato and then sat on the stairs at the duomo while we ate it. I was a wonderful day at the beach. We didn’t want to leave at all. But at 4:00, we caught a bus back to Sorrento, got on a train to Naples, and then caught another train back to Rome.
Southern Italy is by far my favorite place that I’ve been to since I’ve been here. The towns were just so quaint and charming, that it was impossible not to love them. Capri and Amalfi reminded me a lot of the Greek Islands… maybe even prettier, actually. But either way, I’m very glad we were able to go down there. That was my last trip in Italy. After I go to Germany this weekend, I will be in Rome for an entire month before I come back home.
Much love to all,
Jess