1 week down. 11 to go.

I cannot believe we have been here our first week!  The time is flying by!  I am trying to savor every moment and document everything.  This may end up being the most documented 3 months of my entire life, but I'm down with that.  I think we could stay in the Lazio Region the entire summer and still not get to see everything.  I keep walking around thinking about how lame everything back home is going to look.  Everything here is so old and rich.  At home, when we think old, we think of the apartment complex across the street that was built in the 80's.  America is such a baby!

For those of you who have been requesting pics of the Palace...here yah go!  This is our comfy little den

THis is looking into our classroom.  My bedroom is actually off to the left.

Thursday we got to take our first field trip.  We do school Mondays and Wednesdays, then on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have travel days.  This Thursday we toured the Lazio Region.  We got to hike part of the Roman Road to a lookout that spanned the entire Lazio Region or Castelli Romani area as some call it.  It would be equivalent to going on a tour of all the areas in Birmingham like Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Homewood, and Hoover...except nothing like that at all.  But you get the idea.  Birmingham would be the Lazio Region and all the areas we drove to would be smaller areas in Birmingham like Vestavia.  Got it? :)

Finally making it up the Roman Road

HTis is looking out to the Castelli Romani.  Ariccia is smack dab in the middle of this picture.
Right between the two lakes

AOII takes Italy!

Travel days make for long days.  Very packed and overwhelming.  We were all like kids at a circus though.  Everywhere we went we could not help but take tons of pictures.  After our hike we stopped first at Montecavo where I got to see my first Greek Orthodox church.  So ornate and just simply jaw dropping.

Frescati was our next stop.  It was a fun little town.  More populated than what we have been used to seeing.  We hung out at this fun candy/coffee/pastry/bar shop and got our first conollis.  Ann Burgwin ordered a conolli and somehow ended up with a gin and coke with a nice lemon on top.  We laughed so hard!  It wasn't even noon yet!  Every town is known for something.  So our experts of the day, a student who has researched the area, tells us about the town.  Frescati is famous for the three breasted lady.  They even make cookies for her.  One breast for wine and two for milk.  Interesting to say the least.

Behind Kelsey, Carolyn and MAry Caylor is the Frescati Party House.  Not to shabby.

Thumbs up for Italy!

The Tripple Breasted Woman of Frescati...as a cookie.

Laughing over Ann Burgwin's mistake.  AB's face is priceless.  So confused!

America's Next Top Model hits Italy!

Next we stopping in Nemi and got our first Italian pizza!  Pizza is like water here.  I spent 2 euro on pizza and a drink.  They practically hand it out!  It may have been the best pizza I have eaten in my life.  And I consider myself quite the pizza connoisseur.

Nemi is famous for their home grown mini strawberries.  Packed with flavor, these little treats make for great desserts!  I was obsessed with them and gave them their own little photo shoot.  Nemi look over Lake Genzano which was absolutely beautiful.  We all know I'm a sucker for a good view.  A girl can't complain when she is eating the best man made pizza, drinking a Cola Light (puts diet coke to shame...sorry Mom), poppin' back the best little fruits for dessert while gazing at one of Italy's finest views.  Made for a great afternoon!

So itty bitty

Travel day was not over yet.  Through many a windy road we keep on trucking.  We only have a few get sick, so we did decide Dramamine would be a good investment before our next field trip.  We saw Genzano where a world famous flower festival is held every year and passed through Castel Gandolfo where the Pope has his summer residence.  We also go to do our first bit of souvenir shopping.  Us girls got excited about the Italian scarfs.   

After we had seen about all we could see, they drug us all back to the palace where we all crashed.  I am going to have to work on my stamina for the summer because there is no time to waste and Italy is not for the weak.  I may or may not have woken up sore from our hike up the Roman Road.  Needless to say, I was looking forward to having a class day on Friday. 

I really like our classes.  We started the morning with our first Italian lesson and we are all well on our way to being great little Italian conversationalists.  Our teachers finally settled on calling this class 'survival Italian' instead of 'conversational Italian', because let's be real, we really do just need to survive.  I am just interested in learning to say 'food' and 'how much'.  :)  We also learned some Italian hand gestures.  I still have no idea why they have or need a hand gesture to tell someone their spouse is cheating on them.  Maybe it happens often.  

Proud to be in Italy

Our wonderful Expert of the the Day

We got to get a short tour of more of the Chigi Palace as well Friday morning.  I was sitting in the back so I had the pleasure of getting to watch everyone's heads nod off.  It is a bit hard to pay attention when the guy talking speaks really broken English and your stomach is literally echoing against the giant stone walls.  We did get to meet the mayor of Ariccia though.  We felt like some pretty high rollers.  Side note, the mayor is a woman and she was wearing jeans and a bedazzled shirt.  Eh, to each his own.

We get a lot of free time.  So I took the liberty of taking a nap, naturally.  I woke up craving Mexican food.  So I looked up plane tickets to Madrid.  Who are we kidding?  I am not above paying 120 euros for a plane ticket to get some Mexican food. Not above it at all.  

We also learned about the train and bus system to get around to Rome and such later that afternoon.  If I can figure this out, I have full confidence in my ability to figure out the train and bus system next year in Philadelphia.  At least I'll have one thing going for me there...English.

Dinner last night was fun.  We have a fun group.  I laughed so hard I cried.  Our bill was 230 euros...so obviously I am going to not eat this weekend.  Very much worth it.  But nothing like some good pizza, wine, and friends to spend a Friday night with!  Maybe next time we won't get the appetizers though.  oops.  The rest of our evening was just spent soaking up all things Italian.  Beautiful way to start a weekend!

Ciao peeps!

we have got to learn Italian y'all.

Are those plane tickets and passports i see?  Why, yes it is!  Bon voyage y'all!

On the plane!  Ann Burgwin likes to keep things real by not actually getting to the gate until just before take off.  So, we were all very glad she arrive, as out of breath as she was.

And we are here!  10 hours in the air and we have arrived!  Glad to have my feet firmly plated back on the ground again.

So a very successful first day in the beautiful country of Italy.  Breathtaking doesn’t even describe the feeling I had when I first laid eyes on this country.  Tears may or may not have welled up in my eyes at my first glance. 

We arrived in Rome safe and sound…barely.  10 hours on a cramped airplane is enough to about do a girl in, but regardless we have arrived.  Customs was a bit disappointing, only because they fell a few fries short of a happy meal complete with a grunt and not even a stamp in my passport.  I almost ran back to get him to stamp it, and would have had I known the language.  Italy is a fascinating country.  I am going to have to get used to long, lingering stares and feeling like a complete and totally idiot.  I have got to learn Italian, y’all!

Sunrise over the ocean.  Hands down best wake up call I have ever had!

Fun fact: If you so chose to mot walk around on the plane during your flight, you must endure the unavoidable prospect that you will have kankles.  I mean, our ankles had rolls.

Welcome to Rome!  Delirium and all!

So.  Our first venture out, of course, had to be an adventure.  We were trying to fill the time by not going to sleep even though it was about 3am our time but about noon in Italy.  So we walked a little ways down the road across the bridge into the small sleepy town of Ariccia.  It was a scene straight form a movie.  A scene complete with window boxes, kids playing Barbie in the fountains, dogs patiently waiting for their friends to finish lunch outside the café, and friendly Italian greetings from the locals.  So we continued on in the illusion of this being an easy task of finding a simple cup of coffee.  But, we may as well have been wearing an American flag cape around town.  We stuck out like a boy in a sorority chapter meeting.  Struggle.  Im sure lots of people in Rome know English, but there is not a soul in tis small town who knows a lick of English…and somehow I thought I could make it by with one word, ‘ciao’.  Oops.

Because we were such over achievers, we got to Rome a day early.  But never fear, we just had to stay in tis cute little thing for a night.

Well, as you can probably tell, it is about 3am our bodies time.  But this was our first look at our new home in Ariccia.

Ciao Italy!  I will be gracing you with my presence this entire summer!

We wondered into the small café where we thought we had struck gold.  Keep in mind, this is the first time we had really tried to communicate with the people.  Trying to be as friendly and as non American as possible, we ordered 3 lattes.  Lattes, right?  Pretty standard.  False.  Big difference between a latte and a café latte.  The woman working spoke literally no English so it was kind of like ordering coffee from my dog, but no big deal.  She looked kinda confused when we said we wanted a latte and then asked if we wanted it hot or cold.  I assumed this was some weird Italian thing because I have never had a cold latte.  So naturally we said hot would be fabulous.  She begins to prepare the dinks.  All we see her add is milk.  She steams the milk, then proceeds to add the nice touch of some chocolate syrup on top.  Wha La!  A latte!  What we really ended up getting was some warm milk.  If you have ever been really tired, so tired that you could curl up in the middle of the road and take a serious power nap, you will understand when I tell you that warm milk was less than conducive to our current, delierious state.  We laughed at our mistake later and mentally noted that next time, in order to get come caffeine in our system, we must order a ‘café latte’.  We paid for our milk, gave up on trying to stay awake, and drug our tired little booties back to the hotel.  A nap was just bound to happen.  We stopped trying to fight it.

The day continued in regular fashion as we ventured out later that day to get some dinner.  I’m pretty sure the entire city knows the Americans from Auburn have arrived.  It took about 10 Italian-speaking men to help us find a “pizza store” as they called it.  As valiant as their efforts were, we were yet again a few fries short.  We ended up at this hole in the wall restaurant and we were pumped that it was at least open.  We waltzed our way in and tried to explain to the woman up front with a nice little game of charades that we were hungry by rubbing our stomachs and just looking excessively pitiful.  We realized later on that the restaurant was probably not open, but who could refuse 3 cute American girls playing charades with you?  They probably just wanted to see what other dumb things we could do.  Adds a bit of comic relief to your hum drum working day, and so we accepted where our meal was about to come from.  Note, no one speaks English.  And we do not speak Italian.  Problem.  Comical…no…hilarious.  We sit down and before we knew it, so Guido looking dude yells for us to come upstairs and starts showing us all these kinds of meats and cheeses.  We thought we asked for a menu, but whatever.  The actual kitchen works too.  So we point to the things we like/ just nod to the things he is holding up because we have not clue what he is saying.  For all we know, he was probably holding cow tongue but we just rubbed our belies and said yummy to anything he held up.  When in Rome, right? We were just going with it.  We go back outside and sit down.  The food just starts coming, and the wine keeps being poured.  In the back of my head in thinking that this is going to cost a fortune, but on some level I was hoping they just waned to clean out their refrigerator on us.  Hey, I am not above charity people.  They were loving us and we were about to puke.  If there is one thing I am going to come away with I this summer is the ability to fake an entire conversation when I have no idea what the other party is saying.  So, before we knew it, we had taken over two entire tables with plates of food.  They even gave us an on the house bottle of red wine.  I was beginning to grow more and more concerned about how much this meal was about to cost me.  But what could I do?  We had already eaten it and I didn’t know how I was going to explain the check to him.  We sat and tried to chomp our way thought all the great cheeses, meats, pastries, breads, wine, and some unmentionables that I don’t really want to find out what it was.  At one point we are sitting there eating and we hear Neos’- ‘Baby Let Me Love You’ almost as an anthem playing over head.  We were dying of laughter and also thought I may die of over eating.  You see, it is rude to leave food on your plate.  So mom, you would have been so proud!  On some level I think we may have offended them because we left a lot of food, but you could have fed 2 medium sized families with the amount of garb covering our table.

The check was brought to the grand totally of 50 euros.  Umm, nope.  So, I worked my mad, blond skills with the Italian waiter and got it lowered to 32 euros.  Much better.  We paid and were on our way.  I’m pretty sure the entire city of Ariccia is well aware of the arrival of Auburn University students.  We have made our mark, but needless to say, we have got to learn Italian, y'all! 

Andiamo! (Let's go!)

 Let's be real people.  Who really travels with out food.  No one cool does.  #fatgirlprobzz

Hmmm.  For the record, both my bags are under 50lbs.  Guess who is bringing home lots of souvenirs?!  This girls is!

You know you have those moments sometimes where you just feel like the world is completely at your feet?  Literally, the world is completely at my feet at this very moment.  Literally.  My bags are packed.  My carry on is full of food (as it always should be).  Good-byes have been said.  Mom has cried.  And believe it or not, the time has finally come people.  I AM GOING TO ITALY!  Never thought I would finally get to hear those beautiful words.  It is happening.  And I could not be more ready.  I need some serious fresh air!  And well deserved fresh air after packing up everything I own in AUburn and hauling it back to the B.ham crib.  Whew.  I'm way over packing and unpacking.

 Pre packing up the beloved Apt. #1102...it had so much spunk.  I kinda liked it being my home.

I would compare this room to an empty jar of peanut butter.  Kinda makes you want to cry a little.

The past week has been one full of so many emotions.  I moved out of  my apartment and moved out of being roommates with quite possiblely the two most incredible human being on the planet.  Packed to leave the country for 3 months.  Said good-bye to my YoungLife girls.  Walked around Auburn's breathtakingly beautiful campus at night for the last time. Took my last college exams.  And said good-bye to some of the most stunning, loving, caring, fun group of friends any girl could ask for.  Needless to say, emotions were running high.  And we all know how I deal with emotions…like a champ.  Same kind of emotions I am sure a lot of you have experienced at least once in your lifetime.  That feeling of complete and utter heartbreak.  The feeling of knowing that the moments and time just spent and are having to part with may very well be some of the sweetest times, laughs, and memories ever to look back on.  College.  Man, seriously did that just happen?

 Our last pot-luck dinner all together.  And what kind of get together would it be with out some booty -twirkin' and girl dance circles?  It would be pretty lame.

 I was home alone one night getting nostalgic and made this sad little piece of work.  Freshman formal and Senior formal. (If you guess which one was senior formal wrong, I will drop kick you.)  Love that we literally have 4 years of wonderful memories together ladies.  Let the good times keep on rollin'!  

You know something?  I was thinking the other day about graduation and the whole saying good-bye thing.  Sometimes I feel jealous of the people who only have like one friend.  They are very content with that one friend and you know why?   Because they never have to say good-bye because they never leave.  They never have to experience the heartbreak that comes from saying good-bye to the people to shaped you to be the one you are at this very moment.  But…then it hit me, or well was reminded by a friend.  How great is it that we have been given wonderful people in our lives that make saying good-bye so stinkin’ hard.  How great is it that we can look through the seasons of  our lives and see all the different people who flavored it.  I guess it is pretty great if you ask me.

College could not have been any better.  And saying good-bye to all my friends on Samford lawn dressed in cap and gown could not have been any more of a memorable way to part with the people who are truly the characters in my testimony.  I think the saddest part about everyone going their separate ways is moving on knowing we no longer have the luxury and promises of another year.  High school to college transition was hard, but so full of exciting anticipations.  New friends, sorority (or in my case, getting my booty kicked in swim practice by someone new), football games, dorm life, roommates, independence…the list goes on.  College to real world is a lot less fun and a lot more lonely.  Yes, adventures await each of us, but it is frightening knowing I wont have as many hands to hold while we run.

Acting like freshman since 2008!  I mean WHAAAAAAAT? Are those caps a gowns I see ladies?  eww.  Get those off.  But if there is a way to make those hats and gowns look good, we are doing a fine job I must say!

So.  With that whole world at my feet thing…yeah I really do.  I will be boarding the plane to Rome, Italy at 3:30 eastern time May 6^th and will arrive at my destination at 7:30am Italy time on May 7th.  Weird.  Bon voyage to me! Had some good ol’ American BBQ for dinner tonight.  Gulped down my last sweet tea for a while and said ‘Ciao America! See you in 3 months!’

This is my last post state-side for a while.  Ill be seein’ yah around hommies!  Don’t forget about me.  Yell at me if I don’t update this a lot…I will want it for myself later on so make me just do it.  Nike would be so proud.

Later gators.   

WARNING: This blog has not had a posting in well over a year (my deepest apologies).  Some contents may be shockingly full of bad grammar, bad jokes, and pointless information, but just go with it.  My life is picking up speed and I know some of you would like to keep up with my wild journeys.

As you 'walk with me', lets just take baby steps for a bit.  Let me warm back up to you all.  You see, I am about to embark on what may possibly be one of the greatest adventures of a lifetime.  I will be moving to Ariccia, Italy for the next three months starting May 7th.  I will be studying abroad for the entire summer to finish up my undergrad degree in Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University.  I will write about details of the trip in later posts, so just stay tuned folks!

The daunting task of graduation awaits me upon my arrival to the states come August, so you may have to bare through some cheesy 'my life is over' and 'I miss my friends' kind of posts.  But like I said.  Just walk with me as a travel the world this sumer.    Share with me the funny stories, knowledge gained, and memories made as I venture to step foot into a very unfamiliar but exciting part of the world.  Hmm.  This should be interesting.  Let's do it!

Just to give you an idea of where exactly I will be.  Ariccia is about 45 south of Rome.  Just a short train ride away from one of  the richest cities in the world ripe with history and just all around coolness.

 A picture of the city of Ariccia, Italy.  Small, quaint, and very friendly.  I think I shall like living in this sleepy little town all summer!

Oh you know.  Just my humble abode for the summer.  Life will be tough living in the Chigis Palace, but someone just has to bite the bullet and do it, you know?

So.  That is about all for know.  I will hopefully update every other day so if you are one of those family members itching for news or a serious fan of mine, keep up with me here!  What a grad adventure we are about to have!

I'm out.
 
leigh

run for roses with a side of cramp.

this weekend was a fun filled weekend full of friends, family and lots of sunshine!

saturday morning was AOIIs annual run for roses to support arthritis research.  i did not run because i would not only have had a side of cramp, i would have had a huge heaping helping of pass out.  (its my goal to run in my senir year run…lets see if that happens)  this day always proves itself to be surprisingly fun.  i don’t know if it’s the free food, the poodles, or panda costume, but i just love it! all the girls wore their new philanthropy shirts for rush and i was so proud!  they looked so sporty!  they even finished the look with the rolled up jean and keds.  we gunna rock rush in those outfits girls! we had over 200 runners and raised over $12,000.  can i get an amen?

and by over i mean we could have raised well over that…so yay for people with arthritis!  Gmo would be proud!  i posted a few pictures of the run.  i just love my friends beautiful smiles.  it shows their beautiful hearts.

tis true.  we do.

we just looked so friendly!

yes, everybody looks so great in their new baseball t's

stella the poodle.

umm.  stop being so cute.

my super intense runners.

stunning.

she just loves life and i love it

supporters near the finish line

katie loves arthritis!

just look at those beautiful smiles as they cross the finish line!

sweet friends

blue eyes beauty

saturday night proved to be not nearly as eventful.  when you find yourself in your bed chatting with the auburn librarian, you know you have hit an altime low.  but sue was nice, so at least i made a friend.  and to all who care, i kicked that research papers sorry behind! 

college.  it’s a funny thing.  i mean think about it.  there are over 24,000 people the same age, living together, with no parents, and no real responsibility.  its such a great concept it should be illegal.  college should be illegal.  i mean literally.  you live with your best friends, study with your best friends, eat with your best friends, clean your house (or dont clean your house) with your best friends, make burgers with your friends (thats for you abby), the list goes on people!

just food for thought though.  marinate in it.  strange concept.

tonight we celebrated on of my dearest friends acceptance to the most ballin internship in the world!  we are so proud of you alex!  he will be working with warner music company in nashville, tn for the summer, so all ive got to say is i smell lots of fun summer roadtrips in my future!  we threw him a surprise congradulatory party and toasted in his successes with a bottle of champaign and a bite or a few bites) of very nicely iced cupcakes.  so proud of him!

on that note.  my friends rock.  you should be jealous because they are pretty sweet.

out. 

why are you cast down, o my soul?

hey long lost bloggers.  leigh here.  no, i did not fall of the face of the earth, but rather what i would like to call, a mini sabbatical, at least from myself.


many things have sparked this post tonight.  the events leading up to this epic night have no been anything out of the ordinary, but rather just life.  life has, well i guess just been life, but i feel like my friends and i are just really getting a big dose of it this year.


so long to the days where we stayed up until 3am roller blading in the quad and watching friends on the dorm room bunk beds.  good riddance to the nights where waffle house at 2am tasted way better than the normal eating hours around 7, and peace out to the social nights spent at the library.  if we are going to make the effort to go, in goes the headphones!


life hit hard this year for a lot of people, and it has been hard to watch and listen to.  but it has been so encouraging to see how these godly women, who i like to call my best friends, have done nothing but bring God the glory in their trials.  their trials are things that only haunt my worst nightmares, yet they have handles it with as much poise and respect than should be expected from any 20 year old.  props to you my friends.


a lot has changed this semester.  my time has been doled out a little differently, for the best i might add.  i started a bible study on tuesdays nights and it has been one of the best things i have done.  we are going through a book called "A Perfect Mess" by Lisa Harper and it is a study of the Psalms.  check it out!  what we studied this week i found particularly applicable.

psalms 42 isnt usually regarded as one of the more happy psalms, but i would argue that it is the most raw and real.  the psalmist is crying out in anger towards god, wondering where he is.  in other words, he is ticked off at god and he doesnt even care.  what is so beautiful about this psalm, is that in the end, even though they feel bitter turmoil in their soul, they are able to look up, and say with confidence, "hope in God; for i shall again praise him, my salvation and my God!"  wow!


even in the middle of his trials, he is able to see the eternal value of his life.  So may time i think we start to think our lives are about good days and bad days.  when we lay our heads down to sleep at night, we go through our good day/ bad day check list.  if it doesnt measure up, the day was a waste!  how selfish is that attitude!


everyday is a beautifully wrapped gift from our heavenly father.  the issue is do we chose to unwrap that gift or not.  are we going to chose to step out of bed that morning with an eternal perspective for the day.  that way, when we lay our heads down at night to sleep, we can ask ourselves, did we do the best with what the lord gave us today.  did we give him all the glory back.  it isnt about good days and bad, its about our savior and praising him for our salvation.


i dont know about you, but any day is a good day when i have that truth to sleep on!


so, to all three of you who follow me, hopefully i will do a better job in the future of updating and keepin gyou posted about little things in my life i find sweet.  and on that note...today was a sweet day!