Part 1: I just drank my weight in milkshake.

Hello lads! It's been a while, again. Or maybe this is just a normal amount of time and I should stop apologizing. Either way.. Here we are.. my back is better although still numb, and we are entering our last 3 weeks of class.

Since our last chat I've spent a lot of time, well, in Siena. Giving my back a chance to rest and spending the last few weekends I have in the town that I have come to call home for the past 4 months.

This past week however was our 'Spring Break' and my two vacation spots were Dublin and London. I was excited about both of these cities not only because I would be able to fully communicate with people but because I have wanted to visit them both for a very long time.

Kelsey, Amanda and I left on Wednesday night. The process to get to Pisa Aeroporto is 3 different trains.

  We made our way to the airport around and boarded our flight for London. Our flight into Dublin did not leave until 6 am, which allowed us enough time to sleep, but not to justify the cost of a hotel room. Alas, we camped out in the Stansted airport also known as 'Camp Stansted' by airport sleeping authorities. We found some food and settled in for a nice long nap.

In this story, 'nice long nap' really means 3 hours of cold, hard, floor with a backpack-pillow. We arose from this most glorious of sleeps, boarded the plane and were on our way to Dublin.

Side effects of said, 'long term nap'

At this point, my level of excitement was off the charts. Ireland has always been a place I wanted to go, and it was finally happening.
We checked into our hostel which was great! Then we set out on a walking tour of the city...which lasted about 3 hours, while our ability to fight off sleep only lasted about 2. We went back to the hostel and took a power nap, got some dinner (hello amazing burger) and were signed up for a pub crawl later that night. Turns out that the pub crawl was cancelled due to good Friday, so we just found a couple places on our own and still managed to have a great time..

The next day we took a bus tour up the north coast. Oh my gosh. The world is such a beautiful place...

Of Course, it was delicious

 After our tour, followed by some Fish N' Chips, we got milkshakes. We made friends with the owner, and sat in his shop for an hour or so. He gave us samples of so many milkshakes. We all felt huge, but so intensely satisfied.

All in all, it was such a great trip. Leaving was hard, but there was much in store for London...

Let's Get Physical?

So, it's been a while. I apologize. Sometimes I don't want to blog with too little to talk about, and other times I fear the 7 hours that blogger will surely take to upload all of my photos.
So let's recap shall we..

On Friday March 25, our Art History class went to Florence to see some of the works we had been studying and review for our upcoming test..Firenze is a fairly americanized city, and while I still prefer Siena, Firenze does offer some amazing history and pieces of artwork.

Midterm week came and went, 6 midterms later my brain was mush and I decided the only cure for it was Paris. Before we could go, our Photo teacher took us on 2 little field trips,  across the street to an abandoned building. It was interesting to say the least, the most random collection of objects gather all together in an old italian building with a gorgeous view. We had clothes and props to fool around with, here are some of the shots I took.

After that, Me, Lauren and Christina packed our 1 allotted carry on bag and headed to Pisa on Thursday night. We checked into our hostel, set our alarms for 3:30 AM, Christina ate some pizza and we attempted to get some sleep on our overly-excited nerves.

330 came way too fast, and we started our 15 minute trek to the airport. After the train, plane, walk, bus and another metro we finally arrived at our Hostel. We checked our stuff into storage and began our love affair with France. We saw Notre Dame, napped by the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Shakespeare's Little bitty book store, had a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens, ate macarons, got starbucks!, and went on a boat cruise.  By Sunday we had all fallen madly in love and did not want to return home to the land of pasta and pane. But alas, responsibility called. Paris is fantastic, so shrug off the next person who tries to tell you the people are rude, or the city is dirty, for they are obviously misled. The people were friendly and helpful, and the city was not in the least bit disappointing.

Yesterday, the girls and I were going out for some gelato, to mail some postcards and enjoy the sunshine. We had made plans for a day trip to Livorno today, but fate had other plans. I fell down the stairs in the apartment and did some serious damage to my back. My most awesomest of friends made an ice pack, helped me back up to my bed. I figured I had just managed to bruise it and that the pain would go away but around 8 pm I, and my dear mother, decided it would be best to go to the hospital. Long story short, I broke nothing, just pinched some nerve endings and will now be spending many hours in bed. The ambulance workers were by far some of the funniest people I have ever met in Italy, and kept me laughing the whole ride to the hospital. They rummaged through my room, mocking my hot sauce and jar of peanut butter...and started singing Lets Get Physical as they lifted me out of my bed...
5 hours later, I finally made it back home, in as much pain as I started, but I am thankful nothing major has happened. All in all, it was interesting experience, one that I shall never forget.
One of the girls from the ambulance autographed my leg, and I just had to take a picture for it was far too memorable of an experience.

I always manage to hurt myself when I am thousands of miles away from home.

Miss you all.
Don't wear flip-flops on slippery stairs while in Italy.


Love love
Liz