Ceilings, Germans, and Fireworks

So let’s just say that this was an eventful weekend. Even before I left to go to Germany something crazy happened: I sliced my head open. Well, it wasn’t really sliced open; it was more blunt force trauma; which in turn split my head open. I was running down the stairs, well I was more prancing then running, but because of the slight hop in my step I, due to my abnormally tall physique, slammed my head into the ceiling. I had been currently unaware of the apparent “lowness” of the ceiling before this time, but I sure know now. I was literally thrown backwards onto the steps, bruising my butt in the process, and I just laid there on the ground holding my head. I didn’t realize that I had got anything other then a bump on the head, until Martin exclaimed, “Blood!” I touched my head and I felt it. Then the floodgates opened up and the blood began to really flow. It dripped all over the ground, and I felt the little rivers of blood snake across my face. It was intense, but amazingly it didn’t hurt that badly. I had a mild headache the rest of the day. Even when they cleaned it up a little, it didn’t even sting. They rushed me to the “Pronto Soccorso” (Urgent Care) and I had three sutures put in. It wasn’t bad, but they had to shave a large circle in the middle of my head. I looked, and still look, ridiculous. I had to wear a bandage for 11 days after that. Anyways, some good came from it. I got to take my history test, which I missed while getting sutures, later and I got more time to study. I definitely did better on it then I would have. That night, after getting the sutures, Adam, Sarah, and I left for Germany. We took a night train to Munich, watched the first half of the Extended Edition of the Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (So good!), and then we took another train to Heidelberg. We got in about 10:00 am and had some breakfast at the house. I was visiting my friend David and his Dad was visiting him, so I went off and spent the day with them. We visited the castle and walked around Heidelberg. Then we had a nice dinner at a restaurant that I don’t remember the name of. After that we chilled at the Germany house and watched the newest episode of Lost. There is a Pepperdine overseas program in Germany as well and so we got to stay there for free. It was sweet. The next day we walked around Heidelberg and got some delicious bratwurst. Yummy! We took this trail called the Philosopher’s Walk, which overlooked the whole city, and it was absolutely amazing. We went shopping in the markets, where I bought a sweet mug, and we climbed the church tower. The day was really nice and I had a great time visiting with David and his Dad. That night Adam, Sarah, and I had to leave at 5:00 pm to catch our train back to Florence to spend Easter with everyone. After getting home on Sunday, a bunch of us from the Villa went down to the Duomo. They had a huge wooden thing with wheels (I’m not sure what to call it), which they launched fireworks off of before mass. It was really cool and really crowded. I started to take pictures, but then my camera died right before the fireworks went off. They were so loud. They sounded like a machine gun was going off. Then everyone that went to the Duomo, came back to the house, and we cooked a huge breakfast. We made a huge bowl of scrambled eggs with bell peppers, cheese, and other goodies. We had bacon, sausage, croissants, and a fruit salad. It was one of the best meals ever and it was really fun making it. That night we all hung out and had a nice Easter praise at 9:00 pm. It was a great weekend, even if it did start off with a little bump. ;)

Lausanne, Switzerland

This weekend, the 14^th through the 16^th of March, I went to
the house for the Switzerland Program. Pepperdine has a few houses all over Europe and I decided that I wanted to see this one. I went with a couple friends, Jillian and Lauren. It was just the three of us, but it was really fun. We left Friday morning, ate at Café Liberta, and jumped on a train to Milan. From Milan we took another train to Switzerland. It was only about 7 hours on a train, so it wasn’t that bad. It gave me plenty of time to write and catch up on all my blogs. We arrived at the train station around 4:00 pm and it was an amazingly gorgeous day. We saw some fellow Pepperdine students walking in the road, so we talked to them, and they told us how to get to the house. The Lausanne house is a hotel and up until this last semester it still had guests coming and staying in it. We arrived, changed into some less warm clothes, and wandered around the city. It got cold pretty fast and I was in board shorts, flip flops, and a t-shirt, so I was a little bit chilly. We started walking back to house to get some warm clothes, but we ran into some more students that were heading to dinner. We didn’t know any place to get good food, so we just followed them to dinner, without getting warm clothes. We went to a place called Manora and I got a good filet. It was delicious. We were there talking and having a great time for about 3 hours. It was fun. This weekend was full of fun conversation and good memories. The train ride there even had intense, serious conversation about Christianity. It was really good. Then we went back to the house that night, I went out and got an ice-cream bar with a guy named A.J., and the girls went to bed. The next day we slept in a little bit, ate some breakfast at the house, and then jumped on a train to the Matterhorn. It took us about three hours to get there and it was worth it. The Matterhorn is located in the Alps, in a town called Zermatt. It was a cool skiing town and if Jillian skied or if we knew we could have gone skiing, we would have. :) We spent a few hours wandering around the snow and the countryside, got yummy bratwurst, and went shopping. The girls bought Swiss Army Knives, and we all drooled at the chocolate. Then we took the train back to the house, ate at Manora again, and then I met up with a friend that I knew from freshman year, while the girls checked the internet. I talked with my friend, Josh, and his friends in his room for about two hours. It was so fun and the conversations were full of laughter and ridiculousness. Then the girls came back and wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast. We went up to their room to watch it, but Lauren fell asleep almost instantly and Jillian was almost asleep when we stopped it. So we called it a night, even though we had only watched about 30 minutes of the movie. :) The next day we had breakfast with the people at the house, and jumped on a train back to Florence. It was a great weekend and it was fun visiting another program. I have never visited one before, so it was fun and it was cool that we got to stay in the house itself. Overall, it was another great weekend, full of fun, laughter, and friends.

Greece and Romania (Transylvania)

So it’s Spring Break and I’m off to Greece. My friend Martin and I decided that we wanted to not join the whole house in spending over $1,000 in going to Egypt and we would instead take a much cheaper trip to Greece. We left on a Friday the 29^th of February. We were one of the first to leave and we actually were the last ones to come home as well. Martin and I got up really early, ate at Café Liberta, and then jumped on our 6:30 train. It was a three and a half hour train to Milan. We were flying out of Malpensa, which is a town right outside of Milan. We arrived late to Milan and that was when we started to freak out. We had about an hour to get to Malpensa before our check-in closed and it was an hour by bus. We found the bus right away and so we weren’t too worried, but then the bus just sat there for half an hour. Other buses going to the airport left and ours just sat there waiting for more people to get on. We had already paid for our tickets and put our stuff under the bus, so there was nothing we could do. Also we didn’t want to pay the 100 euro cab ride, so we waited and prayed. It was the most nerve-racking bus ride ever. Martin doesn’t do well on buses anyways and the stress on top of that was making him sick. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, while I tried not to cry. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I even began to pray in Italian. I asked God for just five minutes. Guess what happened? He gave us five minutes. I ran out of the bus, Martin started throwing people’s luggage everywhere to get to ours, and I frantically searched for the check-in desk. I found it, checked in, but Martin had my bag. The lady told me that I had two minutes to find Martin and give her my bag. I ran around trying to find him, and when I did, I grabbed my bag and ran to the desk. We had made it. It was so relieving. I would have been so bummed if it we had missed our flight and had to buy a new ticket, and possibly wait another day. Anyways, we got on the flight, arrived in Athens, took the hour long bus ride to the center of the city, and then checked in the hotel. It was pretty nice place and they actually gave us a four person room all to ourselves for the same price. The guy was really nice, but whenever he talked to us he wouldn’t stop for at least a half hour. :) That night we ate peanut-butter sandwiches in the room, watched Star Wars Episode 1, and walked around the Acropolis. We took some fun night photos and then called it a night. The next day we got up and headed to see the Acropolis during the day. It was simply amazing. The temples and the history there was awesome. The view of the city was breathtaking. We met up with some people from the Pepperdine Germany program and we went to lunch. We found a place that gave us 10 different entrees, water, sodas, bread, and dessert for only 12 euro. It was sweet and really delicious. The Greek salad was so amazing. The cheese was fabulous and I even enjoyed the tomatoes. They were so sweet and delicious. After that we walked around the city, saw the Temple of Zeus and walked through the National Gardens. We met a cool dog at the parks and we saw some cool animals (including a peacock). That night we went to a little restaurant for dinner, and then tried to escape the little kids and their batons. There was a sort of Carnivale going on and all the little kids had batons. They would smack your butt as you walked by. Also there were random dance parties all over the streets and it was fun. We stayed out for a little while then we called it a night because we had to get up early to catch a ferry to the island of Paros. The ferry was huge. It was a cruise ship, with rooms, a bar, and tons of food. It was really cool. We arrived in Paros, after four and a half hours, at noon. It was picturesque Greece. It had the white buildings with the stripes of blue and the Grecian flag flying everywhere. We stayed in the giant cove and hung out that night. The German guys came too, but they stayed on the other side of the island, so we said goodbye to them then. We hung out at the beach, ate some gyros, waited until it was dark to take night photos, ate more gyros, and then started Star Wars Episode 2. We got up the next morning, took the ferry back to Athens, took another ferry to Aegina, and this was our home for the next few days. We stayed on a part of the island called Aegina Marina. We had the whole place to ourselves. We laid out that afternoon, got gyros for dinner, got some cake, and watched another Star Wars. The next day we slept in, and then chilled on the beach all day. I read on the sand, and met some more dogs. We ate gyros for lunch and then wandered around the coast. We got more gyros for dinner that night and then took more night photos. I love my night photos. :) The next day we got up, visited an ancient temple, and then ran to catch a ferry so that we could get on our flight back to Milan. We thought we would just catch the metro to the airport, but Athens decided it would be best to close the metro for the three hours that we needed to take it. That meant we had to find a bus to the airport and then we had to make sure we got there on time. There was major traffic in Athens and the bus was a half hour late, so we started to freak out again, but things worked out well, and we made our flight. We arrived in Milan around 6:00 pm on Wednesday night and we didn’t have our flight until the next day at 1:00 p.m. This meant that we was going to be sleeping in the airport. It was cool. I brushed my teeth in the bathroom, and I had a book, so I was good. I finished my book, while Martin slept. I read East of Eden by Steinbeck and it was simply amazing. It was really good, really good. I recommend it. :) Then I slept while Martin finished his book: Into the Wild. I wound up reading that next. Around 11:00 am the next day Sam showed up. She was going to come to Romania with us. We got on our flight to Bucharest and we arrived there with no problems. The ride to the hostel was horrible because it was really crowded in the bus, really hot, and there was a lot of traffic. They dropped us off in the middle of the city and I already knew that I didn’t like it. It was really dirty and it was really sketch. We found our hostel and we dropped our stuff off. The door wouldn’t lock, so we were hesitant to leave and get dinner, but we did anyways. We went to Pizza Hut and it was simply delicious. That night we barricaded our door with a bunk bed so we would feel safe as we slept. It was a good thing we did because some guy tried to get into our room as we slept. We only heard him because the bunk bed was creeping loudly. They couldn’t get it open because the bed was really heavy. That morning we took an early train to Sigisoara. We were so happy to get out of Bucharest. The Romanian countryside was so much better than the city. It had snow capped mountains, rolling hills, and tons of funny looking stray dogs. We arrived around 1:00 pm and then we walked around the city. It wasn’t as cool as it was at night. It was creepy and fun at night, but it was still fun to be in Transylvania. We made peanut-butter sandwiches and took a nap. That night we ran around and pretended to be vampires. The next day we took a train to Sibiu. We had to stop for a few hours in the most boring town ever: Medias. There was nothing to do. We got some hot chocolate and then waited in the train station for our train. Sibiu was absolutely gorgeous though. It was a really cool city. We got hot dogs, ate ice-cream, wandered the city, and played cards in a café. It was International Woman’s Day, so there were flowers everywhere and Sam got a flower given to her at the café. That night we took a night train back to Bucharest. We got in at 5 in the morning. We ate some McDonald’s and played cards for a few hours, and then we decided to go to the airport. That was a disaster. We tried to find our bus, but everyone kept telling us different answers about which bus to take to get to the airport. The cab drivers kept hassling us to take cabs to the airport and they wouldn’t leave us alone. We finally got on a bus and it took us to the middle of nowhere. There were a few dingy, gross buses and the people said they would take us to the airport, but we had no money and the mini buses were really sketchy. We had tickets left over, unused, from the ride to the center, so we tried to find that bus. We finally wound up going to a hotel to ask someone, because no one spoke English. We finally found it, waited an hour for it, and then got to the airport at 10:30 a.m. It took us about two and a half hours to get to the airport. We checked in at 11, and then took the flight home. It was late a half hour or so, so we couldn’t catch the first train back to Florence, but made the next one. We didn’t have seats because they were sold out, so we just sat on the ground. We got back to the house, starving, around 7ish that night. We were wiped and we hadn’t eaten all day. Jillian was nice enough to give us her pizza and it was delicious. That night we relaxed at 9:00 o’clock praise, I talked to my family, and then went to bed. It was a great Spring Break and I had a lot of fun. This is a trip I will never forget. :)

Family Visit

So this is where I get to tell you about the amazing time that I had when my family came to visit me. My Mom, my Dad, and Chase were able to come, but unfortunately Drew couldn’t come. They arrived on Friday the 15^th of February. Their plane was running late, so I had to wait at the airport for them. I was so excited to see them and to show them around town. I’m quite proud of Florence. I think I have this attachment to it like I do to Thousand Oaks. It’s my city and I couldn’t wait to be the tour guide. So I picked them up, I took them to their hotel, and then we headed to the Duomo, so they could get a look at the grandeur of the dome. We walked to the Ponte Vecchio, walked through Piazza della Republica, and then I took them to dinner. We went to my favorite pizza place, called Sperra, and it was so good. Then they had to go to sleep because they were so tired. The next day we did all of Florence. We climbed into the Cupola of the Duomo, we saw the David in the Academia, and we visited the Uffizi. Then we took a little break, took a nap, and then we went to dinner with Elizabeth (the Florence Program Director). We went to a restaurant called Perseus and it is really famous for its Bisteca Fiorentina. It was absolutely amazing. The meat is really rare, but it is really flavorful. The next day we took a very early train to Venice. We saw St. Mark’s Church and gazed upon the beautiful canals. It was a great day and it was nice and warm. We got some delicious sandwiches and then just wandered and enjoyed the scenery. It was a short trip because we had to get back, so I could go to school the next day. That night we enjoyed a wonderful evening at 9:00 o’clock praise. It was a really good night and the praise was amazing. I’m so glad that my family was able to experience it. This whole experience has really been great for my faith in the Lord and it was really neat to experience that with my family as well. Then Monday I took them to the Ponte Vecchio during the day, the Boboli Gardens (we got in for free because it was a holiday), and we visited Santa Croce. It was a fun time. The next day my family left for Rome. I stayed behind because I couldn’t skip school and I had a test. Then on Wednesday my friend Chase and I skipped school to go see Rome. The last time that I went I didn’t get to climb the cupola of St. Peter’s or see the Colloseum, so that is what we did. We met them at the train station, and then we headed straight for the Colloseum. After that we ate some ok sandwiches and headed to St. Peter’s. The climb was long, but it was worth it. It was a spectacular view of the Square and the Vatican Gardens. We took a little break at the hotel and then we went to Hard Rock Café. It was so good! I got a huge burger, I ate tons of onion rings, devoured chicken wings, and slurped up a bunch of soda. Carrie Farwell (fellow Oaks Christian graduate) came and met us and it was just a great night. Chase and I went home. The next day I went to school, and just had a normal day, but on Friday we left bright and early and headed to Rome, again. We, almost the entire house, were on our way to Napoli to see Pompeii when we picked up my family in Rome, and they joined us. It was a school trip to Napoli, Sorrento, Pompeii, and Herculaneum. The first thing we did was take a bus to Mt. Vesuvius. This was so awesome! We got to climb up on the side of the mountain. The view was spectacular and the huge crater was intense. There had once been a huge explosion out of the middle of the hole. That was fun and the fog made it really eerie. Pompeii was next and that was really cool as well. I was astounded by the corpses and how big Pompeii is. It was so fun to be walking around in such a famous piece of history. Then we went to Herculaneum. This city is lot better preserved because it was covered in mud and not ash. It was smaller and not as important, but it was still cool. The city that it was in was a really small and dumpy city. I didn’t feel safe at all. We had to find lunch on our own and there was nothing to get. Luckily we found a store that sold Panini. They were so good, but it was hard to talk to the people in Italian because they all spoke so quietly and they gave me weird looks when I knew that I was speaking correctly. This all happened over the course of Friday and Saturday, but on Saturday afternoon we left to come back to Florence. We had our final dinner at Sperra again (I got a yummy calzone) and then we said goodbye. They left the next morning very early, so there was no way that I was going to get up for that. I was so tired from parading around Italy with them and trying to remember everything that I have learned. I loved having them here and it was wonderful being able to show them my Florence.