TRAVELOGUE.jesswrites.com

It’s my mom’s birthday today!!! Happy Birthday, I love you!!

It’s also a beautiful day in Rome today… we went to a photography exhibit for my photography class, and then my professor took us to his cute park in the hills to take pictures. There were fountains, palm trees, sculptures, and walkways everywhere. They also had a caged in area with ducks, and peacocks. I love going to pretty parks like that on such nice days. I’ve lucked out with always having nice weather when I go. (I’m going to go back to the Villa Borghese soon to take a boat ride…)

My roommates, Nikki, Lauren, Lauren, and I made a big dinner last night for Valentines Day… we had spinach noodles in a white wine and garlic sauce, Greek salad, crackers with cheese and salami, garlic bread, and lots of wine… and then tiramisu for dessert. Yum yum. It was a nice evening.

And then I dyed my hair black…
Not on purpose, of course. I was trying to dye it dark brown but apparently you can’t trust the hair color shown in the picture on Italian hair coloring kits.
It’s okay… I’ve never been one to get too paranoid about my hair.. and besides, I know it will fade really quickly and be dark brown in no time. Maybe I’ll take a picture of myself today so you all can laugh at me… although, my roommates told me that such a dark color brings out my eyes… haha.

MY BIRTHDAY is on Friday! I’m going to be ringing in my 20s in Venice… my 20s. That sounds so weird.

Our weekend was great. I was really proud of Katie and Amanda for being able to get up early enough to catch the 7:00 am train to Sienna b/c they usually sleep in pretty late. We got to Sienna around 10:30 (we had to take a slow train) and we were there for about 5 hours. The city was very cute. We walked around and saw the Tower of Sienna and the Duomo in Sienna. After lunch we went to the city centre to get gelato and lay in the sun. It was so relaxing.

The train to Florence only took an hour and a half, and we got there around 5:30. We didn’t realize how close our hostel was to the train station and ended up spending 45 minutes on a bus trying to find it… it turned out to only be a 10-minute walk away. It was a cute place though, and our room had a TV in it! So after going out for the most delicious dinner I have had in Italy, we watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics in our room. We went to bed before midnight because we were all so exhausted from the long day.

The next morning we got up, went to breakfast, and then started to explore Florence. We had another gorgeous, sunny day. We went into three famous museums and saw the David sculpture, the “Birth of Venus” painting, and “La Primavera.” Those were the three most famous, but there were also a lot of other pretty famous paintings and sculptures there because Florence is famous for art.

I loved it there. It was clean, not too crowded and chaotic like Rome, and they had amazing shopping. It was really difficult to keep myself from buying anything… especially in the markets. Florence is famous for its leather and jewelry…. now I know why.

We went into the huge cathedral in Florence that is known for its huge dome… a.k.a. Duomo. We didn’t realize when we bought our tickets that we were going to have to walk up nearly 500 steps. We just thought we were going to walk around the church… but instead we got to see the entire city of Florence from the sky. Gorgeous. You’ll see the pictures… even though they don’t do the sight justice.

Everything about this weekend was wonderful. Even the train ride home was fun because we kept to our new tradition of cheap wine, bread, and chocolate. =)

Sunday was very relaxing because we all slept in really late, made a big brunch when we finally did get up, and then watched movies and cleaned the house. I also got some laundry done which I had been putting off for ages.

Nikki and I pretty much finished booking everything for our trip in May today. We have hostels booked for all the cities, as well as flights and trains to get to most of the places we are going. It’s a big relief because we’ve noticed the prices going up lately and we didn’t want to have to pay more than we had to.

Valentines Day is tomorrow. Have a great one everyone!!!

My mom’s birthday is Wednesday!!!! XOXOXO

and…. my birthday is Friday!! I can’t wait! Especially because I get to spend it in Venice…

So another week of classes has gone by, and we are getting ready for our trip to Tuscany this weekend! We leave early tomorrow morning and we are going to spend most of the day in Sienna. Then we will head over to Florence in the evening to grab dinner and see the city at night. We booked a hostel for that night so that we can get up in the morning and spend as much time in Florence as we want before we take a train back to Rome. I’m excited… it’s my first overnight trip, and I’ve always heard about how beautiful Tuscany is! There’s five of us going: Nikki, Jenny, Amanda, Katie, and me. I’s going to be so much fun.

This week was fine. Nothing to exciting… mostly class, hanging out with my roommates, and a lot of delcious dinners. (We’ve all been taking turns cooking dinner for everyone each night… so much better (and cheaper!) than eating out or buying sandwiches on the way home from school.)

I’m still in touch with Danilo, so maybe I will end up hanging out with him again. That would be fun b/c he is adorable and such a sweetheart.

That’s about all the updates I have for now, but I’m sure I will have a lot to say and a lot of pictures to show after the weekend!

XOXO,
Jess

P.S. Mom & Dad - A smart car is one of those tiny little european cars that you always see in the movies. Go to google.com and look it up. You’ll recognize them, i’m sure. =)

What a fun weekend, and I didn’t even leave Rome.

I was just going to veg for most of the day on Sunday because I had homework and I was tired… My roommates were all going to the Colosseum and I stayed back because I have already been to it several times. But they didn’t even make it all the way down our street before they met five guys from Boston (where Amanda and Katie are from) who all wanted to hang out. So they all (my roommates and the guys) came back to the apartment so Katie could change her shoes, and to invite me to go to dinner with them all. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The boys bought drinks for us. They tried to pay for our dinner too but we didn’t let them. I ate fajitas and they were wonderful… there was an American man sitting at a table alone next to us, and we apologized about being so loud. (There were 10 of us.) The boys told him that it was their first night in Rome and they were celebrating… so that man bought all 10 of us a round. It was very generous of him considering how much beer costs in Rome.

While we were still at Hard Rock, I got a text message from Danilo (the cute boy I met on Thursday night) saying that he wanted to meet up later that night if I was available. I should have gone straight home to do calculus homework…. but hanging out with an incrediably cute italian boy sounded much more appealing. So after dinner I went out on what you could call a date, I guess, with Danilo who is the cutest Italian boy in Rome. (well… at least that I’ve seen. haha.) We met up in Campo dei Fiori and then went to a little outdoor cafe and talked. I spoke Italian, he spoke English. It was good practice for both of us. But honestly, despite our limited abilities to speak eachothers languages, we communicated just fine. In fact, it was probably the best and longest conversation in Italian that I have ever had… so I can tell that I am improving.

There weren’t a lot of places open after midnight on a Sunday night… (except a few bars playing the superbowl which were crowded beyond belief) so he drove me all around Rome in his SmartCar!! It was the first time I had ever gone around Rome in an actual car instead of a bus, train, or taxi. Very fun.

I got home around 2:15… I had to get up at 8:00 am this morning for class. I’m pretty tired right now to say the least. But it was worth it. (Even if I never hang out with him again… at least I got my ride around Rome in a SmartCar… now I just need a ride on a Vespa! haha.)

Cin Cin!

-Jess

So it’s only Saturday afternoon and I’ve had a great weekend so far. We didn’t end up going on any day trips, but it’s probably for the best because the weather isn’t particularily beautiful for going to botanical gardens.

All of my roommates, Nikki and three of her roommates, and I all went out to dinner at this Irish Pub that is near my apartment. We had the most amazing Greek Salad in the world there and it completely hit the spot because I had been craving vegetables for like a week. Then we headed over to Campo Dei Fiori where I met yet another adorable Italian boy. His name is Danelo and he is a soldier. He has a motorcycle and a Smartcar (two things that I desperately have wanted to ride around in Rome on/in) and we’re suppose to hang out again sometime very soon. I’ll post a picture of him on Monday. =) But anyway, it was a fun night out with the girls.

Yesterday we slept in very late and then I ended up meeting Nikki and her Texan roommates at the Pantheon. We went to McDonalds and I caved and bought a cheeseburger. It was amazing… I’ve been craving the meat. Then we wandered over to Via del Corso to try and find the movie theater that played movies in English. We found it and Nikki and I went and saw Match Point. The cinema was really cool. The seats were amazing and every theater had its own bathroom. Halfway through the movie, and right in the middle of a scene, the movie stopped and the lights went on… we were like, uhhh??? Turns out, Italians like to have intermissions during their movies. Weird, eh? It was kinda nice though, because it gives you the chance to get up and use the bathroom or buy a drink or whatever. The movie was very stressful because it was a suspence movie, and by the end my entire body was completely tense. Haha.

Afterwards we went to the subway station to catch the metro back to Nikki’s place, but all of the A line subways were closed for cleaning. So instead we caught a bus that was going to Piazza Repubblica…. but on the way there it was going through the rich neighborhood that I stayed in when I was in Rome with my Italian class, so we got off the bus to explore. I took Nikki to the hotel that we stayed in and gave her a tour, and then I took her to my favorite restaurant in Rome which was only a block away. (Not to eat… just to look.) On our way back to the bus stop, a waiter from this little tiny restaurant came out to the street and immediately asked us what state we were from. Then he started talking about all of his favorite sports teams and players… including the Red Wings. Nikki was excited because she’s from the Detroit area. He invited us into the restaurant to meet the whole staff, and inside there were a bunch of Americans who all told us how much they loved the place…. the man loved Nikki and I so much that he insisted he take a picture with us and made us promise that we would come back and eat there sometime. Haha… Italians. =)

About 3 buses later, we got back to Nikki’s apartment to meet up with the Texan girls, and then went to a little irish pub called Elliots that was right down the street. It was a really cool place. We ordered three bowls of french fries which we inhaled, and a couple glasses of a beer I had never heard of before. Not bad though.

I ended up staying the night at Nikki’s apartment because I didn’t really want to walk a half an hour back to my place by myself at 3:00 am. (I’m sure my mom is happy to hear me say that. haha.) I slept in Jaci’s bed b/c she wasn’t here last night. As gross as it is, I’m still over here wearing the same clothes as yesterday because I haven’t worked up the motivation to walk back home yet. And… I think Jaci is making fried chicken for dinner and she invited me to stay. =) Yay American food! (I never thought I’d say that while I was in Italy…)

To wrap it up, we sort of finalized our itinerary for our 2 weeks of travling Europe. We sat down, booked some hostels, checked out the train prices, decided how long we would stay at each place, and made a budget breakdown sheet for the entire trip. We are going to start out in Barcelona and stay there for two nights. Then we will take a train to Nice and we are going to stay at a bed and breakfast for two nights and spend the days enjoying the beach. (Nice is in the south of france…. beautiful!!) We also want to take a day trip to Monaco while we are there. Then we will go up to Paris for three days. Then we are going to get a very cheap flight to Dublin and stay there for 2 nights, and then finally we will get to London on the 22nd and stay there for the rest of the time. I fly back to Rome on the 25th. It will be the most amazing two weeks ever. I can’t wait!! And I feel good about having a lot of it planned out b/c now we can make sure to have all the hostels booked in advance, as well as any flights that we will take, so we can get the cheapest rates. We booked a few already, actually.

I took a lot of pictures this weekend and I’ll post them on Monday when I’m at school. I hope you all are having a nice February! I miss you guys!!

XOXO,

Jess

We have had wonderful wonderful weather this week. Everyone that is from Rome says that this weather is what we are suppose to be having and last week was very unseasonably cold. It has been sunny (not a cloud in the sky) and in the high 50s and low 60s all week. When I’m walking around outside with just a light jacket and sunglasses, it’s hard to believe that it’s February!

Yesterday I had my first on-site photography class. We went to the Villa Borghese which is basically the “Central Park of Rome.” It’s breathtaking… especially on a day like yesterday. Near the entrance of the park, there is a pond where you can rent out row boats for only 3 euro. There are statues and fountains everywhere… and the park is filled with palm trees! I was walking around taking pictures and eating popcorn for about 3 hours yesterday. I couldn’t get enough of it… I will definately be spending a lot of time there this spring. Amanda (who is in photography with me) had another class afterwards and had to take the subway back to school, but I wanted to walk. There were two other girls in my class who decided to walk with me and we strolled along the streets of Rome for about 2 hours. We got gelato at my favorite gelato place by Campo dei Fiori… and then wandered around Piazza Navona where there was a live polka band surrounded by several old couples dancing. How cute!!! I made a video of it on my digital camera.

There are so many random little things about Rome that make me smile. Yesterday there was a very old man walking through Villa Borghese listening to a walkman and he was singing the words and bobbing his head along with the music. Then today there was an old lady who was wearing a full length fur coat who was driving around on a motor scooter! The old people here are so cute.

The nice weather has put me in such a great mood. But being outside so much has been wearing me out too. I have been getting tired so early each night! But my roommates and I sit around until 1 or 2 am each night talking and telling stories… we’re getting to know eachother very well and it’s great. I definately lucked out as far as my roommate situation goes. There are several other people that I know who don’t even talk to their roommates here…

I’m not sure if I’m going anywhere this weekend or not. It one of the few weekends that I don’t already have completely planned out. I think we might take a day trip to the Tivoli gardens which are right outside of Rome… or maybe we will just take in more of the city this weekend.

We’ve booked a lot of trips this week. We bought tickets for the Olympics in Torino on the 25th of February… we are going to see the 3rd and 4th runs of bobsledding! (We’re going to root for Jamaica!) We also booked a trip to Venice for Feb 17th and 18th for my birthday!!! Spending my birthday in Venice will make up for having such an icky birthday last year.

Anyway, I’m starving so I need to go get a sandwich. Enjoy the new pictures that I posted of the Villa Borghese!

On Saturday, Nikki, Jaci, Toby, and I took a very early train to Naples for only 10 euro. It took about 2 hours and we all slept the entire way. When we got there, the city looked kinda scary… so we didn’t even leave the train station and instead got right onto another train to Pompei.

If you don’t know anything about Pompei, don’t feel bad because I didn’t either until I got there. But it is one of the cities that was completely covered by the Volcano Mt. Vesuvius thousands of years ago. The city had no warning about the eruption and so everyone was killed instantly and all of Pompei was covered in volcanic ash. But now archeologists are working on uncovering and restoring the city so that we can see the ancient city exactly as it was thousands of years ago. It is amazing how much is still intact. You can even see the frescos and the mosaics that were in some of the homes. There was also an exhibit of the actual corpses of some of the people who died, frozen in the positions they were in when the volcano suddenly erupted. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it was incredible to see it all. Pompei is probably the coolest place I have seen in Europe thus far. There was a dog that followed us around most of the day and we named him Poncho. He was our own personal tour guide!!

We spent most of the day in Pompei exploring the ruins until our feet started hurting and we had a craving for gelato. By the way, I’m completely obsessed with gelato. It makes up for not having Coldstone over here.

We went back to Naples for dinner and then shopped around for an hour or so before our train home. We bought junk food and cheap wine for the train, which made the two and a half hours fly by. We sat next to this adorable Italian boy named Lorenzo. We all exchanged numbers with him b/c he wants us to go out some night with him and his friends. I videotaped everything…. Pompei, the train ride, Lorenzo… I can’t wait to show it to all of you.

The whole day was perfect. We had so much fun and everything went so smoothly. And the weather was so great! It was like 65 degrees in Pompei and partly sunny. I didn’t have to wear my jacket at all.

Seriously, I love Italy.

So I’ve nearly finished my first week of classes…. with only one to go. I got my schedule all figured out now. I dropped that cinema class and now I am taking calculus. *ugghhhhh* But it was basically the only class that would work in my schedule that would also transfer back to GVSU as something I need. At least if I take it here I only need to get a C or better.

It’s suppose to rain all weekend, but we decided that we would probably go to Naples anyway (not Tuscany as I earlier mentioned) because at least its warmer down there. Besides, the weather report for Rome is generally wrong… so hopefully it will end up being sunny and beautiful.

So I feel like I pretty much have my bearings here now. I have all my books, my schedule is set, I know where all my classes are, I’ve become a regular at the “Cafe Good” b/c its close to JCU and has wireless and amazing cappuccino, I know where all the grocery stores are around my apartment, and I can get around Rome without using a map. (The last thing is probably my biggest accomplishment… considering how huge Rome is.)

I have a cold right now. So does Amanda. I’ve been trying to go to bed early (like at 10) because I’ve had 9am classes all week. It hasn’t gone away yet, but I haven’t been miserable. I’m glad I threw in that box of Sudafed before I left.

Anyway, hopefully I will get my camera battery today so I can take lots of pictures on our weekend excursion… Naples or wherever. If not, I’ll steal Nikki’s camera (since she has the exact same one as me) and take pictures with it using my own memory card. But in case you haven’t noticed, I did upload two pictures of me and a couple of my roommates and friends that I got off Katie’s facebook. So now you can finally put some faces with the names I keep mentioning.

Love til later,

Jess

I thought everything about my schedule was perfect and exactly how I had requested, until I got to my Italian Cinema class yesterday to find that the registrars office had made a mistake because Italian Cinema isn’t offered this semester. Instead, the class was Intro to Cinema which has nearly the same syllabus as a class I took at GVSU first semester of my freshman year. So I’m pretty sure I have to drop it now and find something else to take. But JCU does everything by hand so I had to take a number to do any dropping/adding and there are about 200 numbers before me. So in the meantime, I’m emailing back and forth with my advisors at GVSU to figure out what I should do. I really don’t want this one class to set me back, but it might as it was a class that I really needed. I’m pretty annoyed about it all.

But anyway, yesterday was cold. Today is cold too. So much for high 50s. But I think it is suppose to warm up again soon. I might be going to Toscany with Nikki this weekend… plans aren’t definite, but they are in the works.

I realized this morning as I was walking to school that since I’ve gotten to Italy, I have been surviving almost entirely on pasta and pizza. The only other thing I’ve eaten here is cereal and fruit… oh, and I made a grilled cheese yesterday evening. But seriously… I eat pasta and pizza pretty much every single day for every meal. I’m not sick of it yet because that stuff is beyond amazing over here, but then again… I’ve only been here for one week. I guess it’s a good thing that we have a Chinese restaraunt across from our apartment… and a McDonalds about a five minute walk away.

I’m going to learn a lot and improve a lot in my Italian class. I can already tell. And my Roman Monuments class is going to be a really fun class as well. Every week we meet at a different part of the city to study all the monuments and temples in that area… pretty cool. JCU even pays for all the entrance fees. There are still two classes I haven’t been to yet… philosophy which I have later today, and my Rome Portfolio Photography class which is tomorrow.

Yesterday between classes Nikki and I discovered a cute little cafe that is only a two minute walk from campus that has wireless internet and cappuccino for 80 cents. I think I am going to be spending a lot of time there. JCU has wireless too but the student lounges and computer labs are always so crowded with students that its hard to find a place to sit down.

I dont’t really have any other news for now, so I’m gonna head back to my apartment in just a minute to make… some pasta.

Love until later,

Jess

We went to the biggest flea market in Rome this morning. There was so much junk, but a lot of really cook jewelry, tapestries, clothes, shoes, and antiques. On the way home we stopped by JCU so I could use the internet quickly.

But anyway, everything is great over here. All of the roommates in my apartment are quickly becoming friends. We’ve been doing a lot together. On Friday we all went out to an Irish Pub where we had the most adorable waiter in all of Rome. I was the only one at our table that knew any Italian so I talked to him a lot, and he asked me for my number before we left. He said he’d call me sometime Sunday (which is today) so hopefully he does. After the pub, we went to this huge dance club in Rome and were only able to get in because my roommate Diana knew one of the bouncers. There were over a hundred people trying to get in with no luck, so we felt pretty special. We stayed there and danced until my feet were numb… and then we stayed for another hour after that. I was actually pretty miserable by the end, but the whole night was a really fun time. The Italian guys are so funny. They love American girls and they won’t take no for an answer. The only way I can get them to leave me alone is if I tell them that “Ho un ragozzo.” which means “I have a boyfriend.” But even that doesn’t always work.

Yesterday afternoon/evening I went out with 3 of my roommates to Via del Corso which is a huge shopping street that goes right by the Trevi Fountain and up to the Spanish Steps. It was packed so we eventually used the tiny little side roads to get away from the crowd. But it was a beautful night and it was so relaxing to just stroll down the streets of Rome. We ended up at Piazza Navona before we caught a bus home, which is gorgeous at night because the three fountains are completely lit up. (I’ll take lots of pictures as soon as I get my camera battery in the mail… I promise.)

Classes start tomorrow morning… 9 am sharp. I’m excited though. I got all of the classes I requested and at the times I requested too. I think it will be a really interesting and fun semester.

I hope everyone back home is doing well!! I miss you!

XOXO,

Jess