Lie in our graves - Dave Matthews Band

So what has passed already? Oh, Saint Patrick's Day haha that was a blast. Although I didn't go to ireland I still had an amazing time with... canadians haha. Oh well it was fun. Anyway Laura and Lisa come in on Saturday! YAY! It's gonna be so fun! After Becky and My escapade to Ikea they better respect these beds we bought them haha. Jk it was a good time trying to get to Ikea so whatever. Peri and Tom left today for Barcelona. Those poor people their plans just completely fell through yesterday and they were scrounging for tickets to get there... and i think they found a way which is good. Oh tonight we are going to Loonees to meet up with those soccer guys we met last week. So that will be fun, they were super nice guys and apparently their band is pretty good so I am excited for that. About an hour ago Christina and I were laying on the Ponte Trinita bridge it was fun! We did Italian homework... listened to music... almost fell in the Arno... good times haha. Ok my wrist is starting to hurt haha we'll chat some more later
Pace e amore

Roll to me - Del Amitri

So I decided to just name the next few posts whatever song I am listening to at the time. I think that this one should be an apology for not blogging ever. So in the words of the great Dwight Schrute "I state my regret." I actually just got a little annoyed over it. This is just a blog guys, so whatever is on my mind is what I am going to talk about.
So I don't remember where I left off so we'll begin where I am now
I am currently living in Florence, Italy
it is fantastic
My Italian has really picked up it's pace and I am now holding full conversations with pretty much anyone. I have a group of Italian friends. They're pretty cool. Well my main friend is Marco, and then in another group there's Damiano. They're so fun! We're hanging out again tomorrow it will be fun! wow. its 2 Am. um tomorrow i promise I will wake up and blog for a while because I want to procrastinate on this paper. But just for a reference I am alive and living more than well in Florence.

pace e amo,
Andrea

They say it's your birthday!?

Oh Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... Happy Birthday, me! So today I woke up with a bit of a headache, results from the festivities last night, and a gorgeous view of Florence. It's my third day here and I already have a pretty good idea of the area. Yesterday we did some serious birthday celebrating. My friend Alicia has the exact same birthday as I do and since it was a saturday... haha. So this is what we did, AIFS (my organization) forced us to wake up super early for a pointless meeting about finding your way around florence and also introduced us to this "psychologist" who explain to us that sometimes we might "get sad" and "homesick" and may need to talk to someone about it. OMG NO WAY! I HAD NO IDEA! SHE IS SUCH A GENIUS PSYCHOLOGIST! haha soooo u know. Then after that we decided to go get some food because we were starving, hung over, and so tired. We ended up walking by a SUSHI place! So being american and totally Olive-oiled out we decided to fill up on raw fish. This place was so cool too. It was one of those sushi restaurants where there is like a little conveyor belt of sushi moving throughout the room and you just pick what you want. mmm so delicious. Ahh so good I can still taste that awesome miso soup mmmmmmm. Ok so to get past the boring details we then had to go to the school to get our meal vouchers and stuff and since Alicia and I both wanted to do some birthday shopping we walked to like the ponte vecchio bridge area and there is like CRAZY amounts of stores there. It's like off the Vecchio and to the left, which i think is Via Santo Spirito. We both wanted outfits for the night so we, embarrassingly, went to H&M. BUT this was one of those rare massive European H&Ms. You know, the ones where everyone buys their euro-trash outfits? Yeah, one of those. But I did end up buying a shirt, a dress, leggings, and some jewelry. Then after that we went to this big department store which is a lot like bloomingdales but only with European brands. Anyway I ended up getting a pea coat. It's SOOOOOO cute! I love it! I think there are some pics of it on facebook so check it out. So then after that I headed back to my place and took a nap to get ready for the rockin night. So that night we went to this mexican food restaurant and got these AMAZING margaritas! They were unbelievable. We also met these italian guys who were taking these flaming shots haha. Soooo they bought us some lol. They were Kahlua and tequila... it was sooo weird. But also hilarious, and don't forget free! haha um after the mexican restaurant we went to this irish pub called Lions. It was awesome and packed and we got so many different kinds of drinks. omg. So many drinks so much fun. Oh and one of my roommates recognized some guys from her school in America who were also study abroad (small world!) So we went to my friend Alicia and Christina's place to play kings and just chill out with free drinks. It was so much fun! Then the clock rolls around to 3:30 AM and we called a cab to take us back to our place. And that is pretty much how we made it back. Um and for today we're getting dinner, some birthday cake, and maybe some spumante. haha. K time to go. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Ciao!

Ciao! Come Stai?

So I haven't titled anything in Italian yet, so I hope you guys liked that little bit of Italian. I figured I might as well blog a bit before I leave for VENICE this weekend. Also I received a lot of messages on Facebook today but I was kicked rigth off of the internet and can only sign onto blogger... so this is where I can answer you guys. Um yeah I mean its cool here in Siena and everything and its so cool just so go in and out of languages a lot, but it can get pretty old. I would KILL for a Diet Coke, not coke lite, a DIET COKE! Man, it's a total addiction. Um Siena is mainly covered in Gothic Architecture with a bit of Renissance, but mostly Gothic. You can tell when you look at the frames of doors and if it has a pointed arc then its usually Gothic (I hope that was right? Conor? Was that right?) Anyway its about 45 out everyday and usually gets to 65 mid-afternoon when its not raining. Speaking of rain I need to buy some rain boots for Venice... we'll see if I can find any. Oh and the question about the Italian guys, um there aren't that man hott ones yet. I mean at least not in Siena, but there are enough CREEPY ones!!! I feel like I'll find more in Florence... its a bigger city and probably younger. Well I'm gonna leave it at that because I have a museum tour at 6 and then dinner with the entire group. Oh right I forgot to tell you guys. We were on the news today. For really no reason at all. We're like the only American Students in Siena right now so they wanted to ask us stuff about Barack... idk why haha. But it was pretty sweet! Ok, So time to peace out. I'll talk to you guys later.

A Domani!!!!!

Wait... let's get an AMERICAN FLAG!

mmm kay. This one's gonna be quick but I think it's hilarious. So we went to this bar last night called Cafe Corso... mainly because we were drinking earlier for Barack's Inauguration (and it was at 6 for me so don't think I'm an alcoholic)! And we were still buzzing off of the Spumante we drank so we made our way to Cafe Corso, and stopping at Il Palio on the way there for some dinner and a little more wine. But anyway at Cafe Corso we were scanning the list of drinks and discovered this shot called an American Flag... WHY NOT!?! So they loaded it with some kind of brandy, a cherry looking syrup, and something thats blue. Wow I really should know what is in this drink lol oops. Anyway we took a shot in honor of Barack! TO HISTORY! lol. Um yeah so that's pretty much it. We had a ton of fun last night though and this weekend we are going to Venice! I AM SO EXCITED! I probably won't take my computer with me so I'll update my journal and remember what is going on in Venice and then regurgitate it online later. So I hope you all had a great Inauguration day because I sure did!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!
CIAO!

Obamarama... or lack there of

So the time I decide to live in Italy is the same time I miss the most historic moment in our country's history... oh yeah not to mention the fact that the Steelers are in the Superbowl ON MY BIRTHDAY! Oh well... I guess I'll just brush it off. Nothing too eventful today. Had class all day today, oh and we went to the dollar store during our break and found all of these notebooks that said all of these weird broken english things. Like one said "We are the best friends everywhere. Everywhere are." It was hilarious. I think I'm gonna pick some up as a joke tomorrow. But yeah I am so surprised that no one around here is excited for this new leader of the free world. Oh well, i mean I guess it really doesn't concern them too intensely, but still... its just weird. But after that I went and bought some shampoo (nothing too special just italian garnier fructiesse [sp?]). But i have noticed that my Italian is getting much much better. All we did in class today was try to figure out how to say "that's what she said" but the phrasing is a little too strange to translate literally so i think we're going to ask our teacher... on the last day of class haha.
I know I keep saying this, but I still miss home, not homesick. I just miss my friends and family. I wish they were all here with me, or if they could come and visit me. I just miss the people who get me. I mean my friends here are pretty cool, but they don't understand me yet. Wow that sounds like an obnoxious teenager, but its true. Its just hard to break in new friends. Idk I wish it was just easy. We're all also getting super stir crazy in Siena. Its so small and there's pretty much nothing to do here. But they keep telling us that there will be so much to do in Florence and that we'll probably be culture shocked again. great... thats my favorite part. NOT! Geeze these stupid lights keep flickering on and off in the lobby. So obnoxious! Sorry, just a little stressed out here.
Hopefully tomorrow will be more eventful. But tonight will be fun. We bought three bottles of Spumante for 4 people to celebrate for President Obama! Maybe I can convince everyone to get Pizza to go from Due Porte. We'll see.

Arrivederci!

Downtime in Siena

So I apologize for never posting. I know i know having a severe lack of internet is no excuse but really... its impossible to get online. So I think I left you with some info on London. I cannot believe I survived Heathrow, but as I was walking through there all I could think of was Love Actually haha! Anyway, I am sitting here in Hotel Athena in Siena, which is about 3 blocks or 4 blocks away from Il Campo. Google it... its pretty awesome! I actually walk through there every morning to get to class. We've done some pretty cool things, but I feel like I should really brag about my walk to class. So we walk out of our hotel usually around 8:30 and pass by this market with fresh fruit and grapes and 1 euro HUGE bottles of water (bottiglia d'acqua minerale) and our favorite market guy works there, he's this really old cute italian man who speaks little to no English and teaches us italian words for different kinds of fruit. He also sells HUGE bottles of wine for only 4.50 euro... yeah get jealous haha. So anyway we usually get one of those huge bottles of water and a piece of FRESH fruit and head to class and on the way we walk through il campo which looks like this:

So anyway we then go to class which is in the University of Siena and during our break we get the most amazing cappuccino on the face of this earth! IT IS SO AMAZING! Then usually after class, which is around noon, we get lunch like pizza or pasta or something quick so we can get to whatever activity we're doing that day... like going to a little italian town or wine tasting or something. We usually try to eat outside if it's a nice day out, which is pretty usual. It gets to be around 65 degrees F out in the afternoon because the sun shines right on the city, and the warmest is in Il Campo because it is the biggest open space. I love Siena, but it is such a small town. It takes about a week to discover every single area of the town. But there are some cool things about this town. Like they have things called Contradas, which are pretty much little regions within the town. Now, if you know anything about Siena, you are familiar with the horse race in the main square, which is Il Campo. Now each horse that races represents each contrada, and there are 17 different contradas. Each contrada has a flag, colors, and an animal that represents the region. My favorite contrada is the PANTHER CONTRADA! Mainly because its sweet, but there are other ones from the turtle contrada to the dragon contrada... I kinda like the dragon contrada too but their colors are ugly. Anyway these horses race around Il Campo three times and race at different times, and who ever wins receives pretty much a trophy and bragging rights for the year. Its pretty sweet.
So theres the little history lesson on Siena.
Now, update on me:
I'm pretty good. A little homesick at first but I am starting to love it here. I cannot wait for Florence, and my roommates and I wanna get wireless which means more availability of ME! YAY! This is also really good because I am doing this volunteer thing for an online newspaper and I need the internet for that. Its a pretty sweet deal because you are assigned things like seeing movies before their release date (which would still be late compared to the US) and other things that require a press pass. YEAH! SO EXCITED! I have also been making a lot of new friends... but nothing like you guys. But we've been having fun and we've been going to a bunch of different bars and stuff. But our favorites so far have been: The Red Barron, The Galleria (which is not its actual name thats just what we call it) and Cafe Corso. Oh and here's the deal with cafes and bars. Bars here are actually considered places to get coffee... and cafes are places to get food and to drink. So when I say Bar I mean coffee shop and when I say Cafe I mean a bar haha. Um and yeah thats pretty much the update on me. I've been walking my face off and drinking tons of water (because coca-cola lite is SO FREAKING EXPENSIVE). And since its so expensive and nothing like diet coke i had to do the whole forced rehab from diet coke... it was awful. So many headaches and a severe loss of energy, but I feel much much better drinking water constantly. Wow this one is SUPER LONG! So sorry! But yeah so I am now a water addict haha. Anyway I should probably get going but just to some up:
Andrea now drinks Wine more often than she should
she also chooses water over diet coke (how did that happen?)
walks her freaking face off everyday
probably losing tons of weight, but who knows with all these carbs i've been eating
Misses American Television (mainly the office)
Misses everyone in the states
realized shes been speaking tons of italian and referring to the US as the "states"
and wants to but a pair for Florentine Boots
and a purse
and many many things
haha
k love you all

CIAO!