pottery, pasta, and pretty views.

About 2 weeks ago, we took an overnight field trip to the Umbria region.  In the Bruno program, we usually have class Monday and Wednesday and travel Tuesday and Thursday to the places we learned about on the other days.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  But we did a bit of a switcherroo just to spice things up.  We packed our bags…in which I am becoming increasingly good at…piled onto our party bus and headed about 2 hours north of Rome.  Umbria is actually smack dap in the middle or Rome and Florence.  This region is known for the beautiful, unique ceramics known as majolica we see in stores like our very own Pottery Barn and Bromberg’s.  Our teaches surprised us with a visit and personal tour of the famous Ditta G. Grazia and Company that supplies the U.S. and other countries with beautiful hand crafted and painted ceramics situated in the Umbrian town of Deruta.  The owner, who is the grandson of the man who started the business gave us the grand tour.  I think they guys were less than thrilled about his tour, but every girl had enough stars in their eyes for ourselves and our jealous mothers back home. 

On the tour with the owner.

They have won many awards form companies like
William Sonoma and Pottery Barn for their wonderful pieces.

Ta-Da!

Growing up in the Hendry home, you can’t help but have a slight appreciation for dishes and ceramic pottery.  But this brought it to an entirely new level.  Mother, you would be so proud!  I even started questioning my life ambitions because I think I want to make pottery now.  I mean you can just pick that kind of stuff up right? 

In any case, the tour ended in the in house museum with some of their oldest ceramics and their infamous guest book.  People like Laura Bush and the Beatles had signed after their visit so we were very excited to have our names put in the same book.  Very neat experience!  Some of the signatures dated back to the early 1900’s! 

Look closely...you can see Paul McCartney's signature. 

After the tour we got to go to their very small gift shop.  They don’t have a big selection because they do the bulk of their orders by shipping home and internationally.  I guess they are not used to cheap college kids just wanting a 10 euro hand crafted vase.  They do not exist, or so we quickly found out.  But 8 euro ash trays sure do.  We promptly made our way into the “seconds” room, which is where they sell pieces that are messed up in some way.  So yes.  I purchased what I’m pretty sure is a messed up ceramic ash tray…but it is going to be the most beautiful ashtray you have ever seen.  Mark my words and it can just double as a ring tray by my sink.

After Ms. Linda and Cinzia literally peeled us away and we chased after the boys who high-tailed it outta there long ago, we made our way to Assisi.  Assisi is home of the Basilica of St. Francis.  Many Catholics each year treat Assisi as some sort of pilgrimage to come and pay respects to St. Francis.  His bones are buried in the very bottom so he gets lots of visitors.  St. Frances is known for starting the first monastery, or being the first monk.  He is so well respected and is the patron saint of Italy because actually walked in the footsteps of Jesus.  Mom, if Simon were Catholic, he woud pray to St. Francis.  He is also the patron saint of animals.  So if any of you are looking to baptize your dog in he future, he is yo man!  Back to business, he is said to have sold all he had and devoted his entire life to prayer and devotion to the life of Christ.  Apparently he is the first recorded person to have borne the stigmata (the wounds of Christ; nail hole in hands a feet with a stab wound in the side).  It is not a self-inflicted wound, which is why he is so revered.  Also, in case you were wondering, during my time in Italy I have earned an extra minor in Catholicism studies.  I have currently visited every church from south of Rome to north of Florence and they may or may not all look the same.  # BOOM #catholicsrule

St. Francis Basilica

What a view!  I guess if you had to be a monk,
it would be too terrible to live here!

Assisi was just all in all a rally cool town.  Not only did it have the best gelato and salad I have had all summer, but it was beautifully decorated with colorful ceramics everywhere.  If one city describes the quintessential Italy, it would be Assisi.  It was set perfectly up on a hill that looked over quaint vineyards and farms.  And little monks were running around.  And who doesn’t love a good monk?

A thunder storm coming in over the valley.

We went to our first wine tasting that night.  Umbria is known for its production of white wine, so what better to do than tour one of their finer wineries of the region.   After our tour of the property, I decided I don’t think I would complain if that were my life.  At first glance, owning a vineyard seems like a very relaxing, chill, and swanky lifestyle.  Everyone loves people who own vineyards because that means they get free wine.  And when you give people free wine, you have lots of friends.  So I would be living this swanky, chill life with lots of friends.  I could totally get on that level.

Aside from my delusional grape growing dreams, owning a vineyard is a lot of work, and a lot of it…ok all of it depends on the weather.  Talk about stress!  I could be living a swanky life, but I would be living a swanky zit faced life because of all the stress.  So take away the friends cool friends from the equation above.   I would probably be a lonely zit faced chick with lots of wine I would be driven to drink because of all the stress.  So bottom line, I think ill keep the fun grape growing business to the experts…the Italians.  We all know they do it best anyway. 

The evening was fun, relaxing, educational, and not to mention very interesting.  We even got a diploma saying we are now certified wine tasters!  The rain thankfully waited on our tour to finish.  After the rain, God just decided to send a little happy to let us know he is thinking about us and I got to experience my first full rainbow.  What a sweet way to end such a happy day!  I know I will never forget my trip to Assisi and the good times had.  I love small happies like that.  God you rock!

Real life.  I bet skittles were at the end.

Goodnight Assisi.  Sleep sweet.

The next morning I did something a little risky.  Brace yourselves…I wore a skort.  Girls, if you are acting right now like you have no idea what I am talking about you are lying to yourself and to your creator.  You know you wore them and you know you loved them.  I bought my first skort since I was about 8 years old in Rome about three weeks ago, and I decided today was the day it needed to make its début.  Gosh, my skort and I had so much fun!  It’s like a backwards mullet…party in the front, business in the back.  You can run, and look sassy doing so.  (Please humor me by picturing a backwards mullet on your dad.  Hiiiilaaaarious.)

Yay for jean skorts! 

I won’t bore you all with the details, but we visited Civita di Bagnoregio, also known as the ‘Dying City’.  Top notch view my friends.  Top notch.  It looked like an Olan Mills photo shoot…minus the cheesy part of Olan Mills.  The dying city looks like the castle Repunzel lived in.  Sadly no one even remotely Repunzels age live here.  There are only about 15 full time residents who live on the hill and they all are over the age of 85.  The city almost looked suspended in the air.  The rock on which it once sat is eroding in the weather leaving the city “dying”.  You can only get to it by walking across the long bridge.  Personally I skipped, but that was just because I was wearing a skort and people who wear skorts have more fun.  And I’m blond, so there’s that. 

There's the little city on a hill. 

What a view.  Nature's neat.

The city was the most boring thing I have ever seen…because there were 2 stores and I could have taken about 20 giant leaps to get from one end to the other.  I know I have long legs, but that is just disheartening.  We came, we saw, we bought an ice cream cone, and peaced out.  Done and done.

Our next adventure was the cute little town of Orvieto which was super fabulous because we got to eat lunch at this stop.  Every place we attend where I take part in a meal will always hold a special place in my heart…just because it always will.  I need not explain.  We visited a church…duh.  But my favorite part of this last stop was St. Patrick’s well.  Designed like a DNA, two path ways with almost 250 steps never cross from the bottom to the top so that carts could go retrieve water and get back up with out running into another cart.  What a genius little Roman work that was!

ANOTHER CHURCH ANOTHER CHURCH ANOTHER CHURCH...
and we are excited!

At the bottom of the well.

That about sums up our trip around Assisi.  I like field trips with the whole gang.  I like when we are all together.  Our group has a lot of fun together.  I think there are maybe 2 or 3 people who were really good friends before this trip, (minus Steven and Lauren who have been dating for 3 years; I assume they knew each other decently well), and we all get along so well and love being with each other.  That is probably why we go on weekend trip in groups of 15!  I am thankful for the new friendships made on this trip and am even more thankful I am making all these memories with such wonderful people.  Who needs a winery to make friends when you can just travel the world and make friends along the way.  Much more fun, and a lot less stressful!

Duces.

Leigh 

One. Uno. Una. Un. Een. Eins. God.

I’m still alive! Since your last visit with me, I have been in 3 countries, slept in 7 different beds, taken well over 20 bus, train, or taxi rides, and even hang glided over the Alps!  Needles to say, I have been going 100mph so my apologies for the lull in writing.   Have yah missed me?!  I have a lot to write about, but I’m just going to post in small segments…kinda like ‘One Tree Hill’.  I’ll keep yah hangin’!  (Don’t act like you are shocked I threw that reference in there. Abbs, that was for you.)

First off, I just want to say what a creative, good humored, and big God we serve!  Seriously y’all.  And he did it all in 6 days!  One time I tried to write my final thesis paper in a class in 6 days, and let’s just say it didn’t turn out nearly as beautiful as this world we live in did. 

Humbled.  That is the word I will use to describe myself right now.  I am humbled by the powerfulness of such a big God and how He cares about little ol’ me. He cares about me finding my place in His creation.  He has been faithful to humble me.   

Do you now how many people there are in the world?  Over 7 billion to be exact.  And did you know that there are also over 1,000 languages spoken around the world?  Those are just official languages.  Studies show that there could be up to 5,000 different languages all with different dialects.  Also, there are so many ethnicities represented around the world toady that experts can’t even put a number on it.  Spread out between the 180 countries around the world, there could be well over 4,000 different ethnicities.  These numbers are changing everyday, due to things like globalization and cultural diffusion.  Eureka!  I have good news!  There is one number that is the most consistent stat out there; in fact it has never changed.  Not once.  One God created all 7 billion people, one God gave all 7 billion of them different tongues, and one God created them all in His image.  Gosh, how good is that?!  God knew it was good.  He even said so (Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”). 

Recap on my adventures.  I left you packing for Spain, right?  So, Barcelona, Spain.  You were so very good to me.  I thank you for that, senor.  Barcelona is for sure on my “Dude, if I don’t make it back to that city before I die I’ll cry” list.  That list is not very long so that is saying a lot.  We didn’t arrive to the city until around 8:00pm, but luckily B-Town is a city that never sleeps.  My Facebook album is appropriately titled, ‘Planes, Trains, and Autobuses’, because that is literally how we had to get there.  We were beat, but then the big blue public bus we were on makes a sharp right and then we saw it.  Angels descended with trumpets from the skies singing the most beautiful song ever sung.  There it was.  In all its glory.  Starbucks.  Yes, yes you heard me correctly people.  We practically skipped inside, I ordered my grande iced chi latte and inhaled that heavenly nectar so fast Im shocked I didn’t get sick.  The odds were definitely in our favor for this trip.  You try going a month with out a decent cup of Starbucks, and you see how you react!  B. Price…I know you are feelin’ me girl.

We had a little scare and almost missed our flight.  But...we made it.
A little out of breath, but we were there.

I told you.  Angels.

With a new pep in our step, we found our hostel and a fun restaurant.  We didn’t finish dinner until 1:00am and people were still rolling in the door.  They. Never. Sleep.

I had researched the city some and knew some of the best ways to get around, so we purchased our T-10 pass to get around the Metro all weekend and headed to the port.  If you are one of those people who has to have every detail of your trip planed out…you need to not be one of those people on the ASAP or you will miss out.  Or, if you are so type A that it hurts, you need to pick a lower letter of the alphabet to be for the weekend and go sometime to a fun city with just a map in your pocket…and a camera of course.  Just try it.  Basically that is what we did and the day turned out so great!  We knocked around the port for a bit and watched rowers and other such aquatic athletics happening around.  We got Starbucks for the second time that morning, then walked La Rambla.  La Rambla is their famous street full of markets, vendors, street performers, florist shops, animals, all kinds of foods, and it stretched about a mile from the port up into the city.  We spent about an hour there just people watching…and not spending a dime!  NOT!  Who do you think I am?!

Daniel found her fanny pack. 

Typical La Rambla.  These women paid for this...

The day was really from them on just full of taking turns and seeing what we saw.  There is not bad place to end up!  Everything was so different and fun to see.  Gauti is the famous artist that designed a lot of parks and buildings in the city.  It is from there that we get the term, ‘gaughty’.  Good fact. Bettcha didn’t know that!

A famous house by Gauti.
Supposed to look like a dragon with scales.

At the Parc Guell, the mosaic park designed by Gauti

That night may have been one of my most favorite nights of the trip.  As you know, I love food.  I like to consider myself a food protégé, or a food critic in training.  I researched fun restaurants and found one right on the beach called ‘Aqua’.  Made reservations for 12 people about a week before we left.  I may go to foreign countries with out a plan, but I will not be left in the dust when it comes to meals.  Priorities people.

On the shore at sunset.

Oh it was so fun!  We ordered sangria which Spain is known for, watched the sun set on the beach while I ate, hands down, the best steak in all the land.  It was a perfect way to end a perfect day!  This was just my début to the city.  Hasta luego Barcelona!

This is just episode 1 of a few.  I have about 2 weeks to catch up on, so bare with me!  This summer really is proving to be one of the, if not the most wonderful experience of my life!  Ok, let’s be real.  I’m 22, so some of you out there are like, “Poor girl, she thinks she has lived a lot of life.  She is just getting started.”  I am.  I am just getting stared.  And how cool is it that I am just getting stared with all of these experiences in my pocket.  I understand I am young.  But this trip is teaching me more about myself in 3 months than most people don’t even get in a lifetime.  I am so very thankful for that.  I am humbled by the life I have been blessed with, and the parents who have taught me to be independent and who have not only shown me, but taught me that leaning on my Savior is the only thing worth doing in this tricky, sticky, icky, beautiful world.  One God.  There are many ways to say one, and there is only one way to say God.  And to do anything but see Him when you look around the world, no matter were you are, is impossible.

peace. 

leigh

True life.  I am in the middle of packing for a weekend trip to Barcelona, Spain...say whaaaaat?!

I just want to say that as many times as I can while I can so that in about 4 months when I have my nose buried in a book for 3 straight days, I can think back to how unreal of a summer I had flying from country to country on a whim.

This week of school was much slower than last week.  For starters, my feet are not cracked and bleeding. I was walking on my tip toes for a good 3 days last week because of all my Roman adventures.   This week, got got to learn more about the people of Italy...which is totally my jam.  I have been waiting to pick the brain of someone and learn all about Italian life, everything from their culture right down to their favorite Nicolas Sparks novel.

Wednesday we got to go on a trip to the Ariccia's elementary and high school.  I fell in love with the big brown eyes kids at the elementary.  Gosh they were cute!  They were looking at us with those big brown eyes like we were Justin Bieber himself.  They were so excited to show the Americans their art work and sing us songs.  They were so proud!  We were in a 5 year old class room, and watched them do a math word problem.  I'm pretty sure when I was five I was making finger puppets and eating glue.  Not only were they solving math problems, they could speak basic english and their drawings would put Picasso to shame.

When we came up to the school, my mind went to the crummy Guatemala schools with dirt floors.  It was nothing great to look at on the outside, so I and others selfishly thought, "man, they are so lucky they get to have American students come help them for the day!"  I guess I walked into this day thinking I was going to some third world country school where the kids don't have shoes and are playing with rocks.  Shows you how clueless and American I am.  I wasn't the only one.  We were all surprised at how the kids in the elementary school were so well behaved, smart, and loved.  I guess us haughty Americans think everyone else in the world is sub par to our education.  We may have the best looking schools, but like I said.  Sometimes not much is happening inside the school except feasting on glue.

Next, we went to the high school.  It was YoungLife all over again, except the kids were looking at us like they wanted to BBQ us for lunch and we couldn't understand what they were saying.  It was their break and all the kids were circled up in their prospective cliques smoking...and staring.  I'm positive they were saying, "Who are the strange dressing new kids?!" There was for sure no hiding how uncomfortable we all were feeling either.

We were led into the school by a nice guido looking lady and each divided up into groups.  I was so nervous and felt like I was being sent to my death.  I love high school kids, but I really like high school kids who speak my language.  Six of us went to a classroom full of both boys and girls.  When we first walked in, I had an immediate rush of panic wash over me.  I mean, I was being such a baby.  I don't know why it freaks me out so much to be around a group of people who stare at you an uncomfortable amount of time and don't speak "American" as we keep referring to it.

We were each assigned to about 2-3 students.  I was paired with two 16 year old girls who were all smiles when I sat down.  "Ok", I thought.  "this may not be so bad.  I don't think they want to eat me."  The purpose of this assignment was for these high school students to practice their english with someone who cannot help them out by knowing Italian as well.  So, in comes the stupid American's role.  Because unless I could help them out by repeating 'ciao' or 'grazie', I would be no help.  

These were the two girls I got to spend the afternoon with.

Clearly the students were given a list of questions to ask us because the first question they asked me was if I had any siblings.  Eh, I mean I guess we can start there.  They spoke very good english so it was really fun to sit and talk.  When I could tell they ran out of their questions, I started asking a few of my own.  Starting with, when you think about America, what comes to your mind?  They sat a thought for a good while, so I was getting excited about the answer.  After a few moments, they smiled, apparently very proud of their coming answer.  "Fast food and the Statue of Liberty", they stated proudly.   I tried to act really excited that this was their answer, but I couldn't help but be mildly offended.  Fat Americans.

Their favorite American movies are Moulin Rouge' and Silence of the Lambs.  I just nodded trying not to look totally weirded out.  To each his own.  They asked me if I had met Edward Cullen...to which I replied no.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that 1. vampires do not exist, and 2. he is a fictional character.  You gotta leave something for girls to dream about, right?

After being at the high school, I realized kids are kids.  No matter what country they live in.  Looks, boys, gossip, cliques, self image, and Justin Bieber are all important.  We are all made in the image of the one God and that one God saw that it was all good.

That night, we put on an 'apertivo' for the town of Ariccia.  It was part of our classwork and we each had to make an appetizer for 40 people, and we were told to purchase 40 bottles of wine as well.  It was so fun!  All of our professors and directors of the program came and brought heir families and friends.  We invited the kids from the high school as well so we got to hang out with them as well.  Somehow they found us all on facebook and have proceeded to like every move we make and my newsfeed is starting to turn into all Italian!  Everyone came around 7:30 and did not leave until almost 1:00am!  That is the longest appetizer party I have ever been to for sure!  They just love being with each other.  Age doesn't seem to matter in this country either.  Your best friend can be 70 and you're 30.  They love learning from each other and I have loved learning from them.  They take life slow.  One of our professors, Marco, gave us some great life advice.  He said, "The secret to a long and happy life is to enjoy it and laugh often."  Spoken like a true Italian!

I made fresh garlic cheese bread with basil.  Crowd pleaser.

All the girls made such wonderful appetizers!
 Everyone loved all of them!

Enough wine for the entire town! 

Delicious desserts!

If there is one thing I hope to learn during my time here in Italy from the Italian people is the ability to appreciate where I am and who i am with.  Stop moving so fast that I don't love well the ones I am with.  I hope i hold onto that truth forever.

Yummy spread if I do say so myself!

Enjoying the evening with our Cooking professor, Mary Lou.

That's all for now!  See you after Barcelona!
Leigh

when in rome...

(This post was meant for last night, but the internet here has a major attitude...so here yah go.  Today.  My deepest apologies.)

Just hangin.  No responsibility but seeing the world.  I could get used to it.

Since being in Italy, my life seems to have taken a turn…to simplicity…as strange as it may seem.  I think I am beginning to adopt the slow, easy, life loving lifestyle of the Italians.  My life needed some of that.  When I first arrived here, I think I was still spinning 100 mph from the close of school, moving, graduation, good-byes…and the fact that I was preparing to be living internationally for the next 3 months of my life.   A lot was dumped on me at once, and I am finally beginning to see through the fog.  I think my emotions are settling and I am able to really stand in awe of where I am.  Like really stand in awe and take in the wonderfulness that is surrounding me every moment.  Isn’t that a cool feeling to have wonderfulness surrounding you at all times?  I’m not sure that my emotions knew how to react to everything I was seeing for about the first week.  But my body and mind are settling in and I am officially falling in love with Italy.  When I finally put down my camera, I was able to see the beauty without the lense.  (Sometimes I do put down my camera people.)

You know all those cute things you hear about Rome?  The pizza, the dogs, the cafes, the cute restaurants around every corner, gelato, accordions playing in the streets amidst the Roman solders who wonder around protecting the people…quintessential Italian things.  Come to find out, they are all very true.  Well, all except the Roman soldier thing.  I had to pay 3 euros after I took a picture with one.  Poser.

Like, how cute is she?

One of my favorite pictures thus far.
I would literally have to roll the window down and stick a leg out.

He made me place my hand there.  I promise.

Sunday was my first day into Rome.  It started early, 7:00 am to be exact, with a brisk walk to catch the train from Albano.  “Why were you catching a train so early?”, you may be asking.  CHURCH!  Duh people.  (parents you should be very proud of your very religiously devout daughters.)   We found an English speaking church in the middle of Rome called Rome Baptist so we thought we would try it out.  Funny…The pastor of the church is Jason Smith.  I’m acting like I know him.  I don’t. But he is with campus crusade.  So hey, there yah go.

We follow Captain Anna Davidson through the train station and Metro.  She had her map in hand and was a lady on a mission.  I just took a backseat and followed.  We could not have navigated through all of it without her.  It is about a 40-minute train ride to Rome from Acriccia/Albano.  The train stops at Termini and from there you can purchase a Metro ticket for only 1 euro.  Anna had it all figured out from which line we needed to get on to get to the church to which stare case was the closest to use.  So we hopped on line A and before we knew it, we popped out right by the Spanish Steps.  There we were.  In Rome.  Complete with horse drown carriages near the bottom of the steps and Fendi straight ahead.  It was like one of those dreams where you kinda know it’s fake and you just pray you can keep sleeping because it is just so dreamy.  But this was no dream, and yes…I just said ‘dreamy’.

At the Spanish Steps

The church was just around the corner from the steps so we went ahead and made our way over there.  I did my typical one hand grasping the person’s purse strap in front of me as not to get lost while I stare at the amazing things all around me.  (Mom, Dad…you know the drill).   We had time to spare so we went next door once we found the church and got a quick cappuccino because we were all a wee bit tired.  Then off to church we went.

So I am not really the emotional type.  But for some reason the service just moved me (please read as if you are a big African American woman who wears a hat to church and fans herself the entire time).  As we sang the first song, I looked around at the people in the room.  The ‘band’ was Indian, the choir was Asian, the 2 deacons who prayed were black, and the pastor was white.  As we sang "Oh Ancient of Days" tears began to well up in my eyes.  I am in Rome, worshiping with people from all around the world.  Worshiping the same God who I have worshiped my entire life, but for some reason it was different on Sunday.  It put the body of Christ in an entirely new perspective for me.  He is the God of the nations!  Do we really know what that means?  He is the God to every tongue and every tribe.  One day, all the saints, black, white, Asian, Indian, Roman, and American will be worshiping our king together.  There is so much power in that.

Revelations 7:9…”After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nations, from all the tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

He is talking about us, and about all the people who were worshiping in that same room with me from Singapore, Hungry, and Ireland, and Arizona.  It gave me straight up chills, y’all!  Gosh, our God is so big!

Sunday was fun because we had no idea what we were doing.  At all.  We were literally roaming around Rome.  Luckily, Americans stick together.  We found some girls our same age who had been there since January studying who pointed us in the ‘general’ direction of some good stuff.  I say generally very lightly because the roads make zero sense.  It isn’t like a, ‘2 blocks this way then 3 blocks that way’ kind of a city.  It’s more like a, ‘go down this side street until you see this giant monument than follow those ruins until you get to that statue’, kind of a city.  No sense at all.  Like I said, we roamed.

Just Roaming around

As you just casually roam Rome, big historic things like the Pantheon for instance, will just sneak attack you sometimes.  You will be all like, “Oh my gosh, look at this cute little pasta restaurant with small dogs sitting outside and the coffee shop tucked inside this little cobblestone lane…BAM!  PANTHEON!  It reminds me of one of those dunking tanks at carnivals.  You never know when it’s going to come, but when it does, you are instantly soaked.  Rome is a little bit like a carnival…of history.  (Gosh, my analogies rock.)

The Pantheon in all its glory!

I could go into all the details of what we saw, but you would probably be better off just googling the info.  The whole day really was just spent feeling like I was on a really rockin’ movie set.  While we were looking at the ancient ruins of what was once an emperors palace, I just kept getting this feeling that Indiana Jones was going to come out and do a show or something.  It really is unreal the history that is packed in this city.  You could spend years here and never fully know all about it.

This week, class and field trips have been great!  We watch these videos from the History Channel about the rise and fall of Rome, learn about all the buildings, and explore the reigns of emperors.  I could seriously watch those videos all day.  Mmmm.  Just give me a bean-bag and some pop-corn and I’m good to go.  What is really cool about the program is Monday we learn, Tuesday we go.  Monday we studied about the Grand Tour.  The Grand Tour was when the aristocratic English men traveled around France, down through the Alps and then finished going all the way down Italy.  They said no education is complete with out experiencing Italy.  So yay me!  After this summer, according to 400-year-old hoity-toity English men, my education will be complete.

We finished up the Grand Tour and got to see one of the most beautiful views I have seen in my lifetime.  We went to the top to the Medici Palace and from the balcony, could see the entire span of Rome.  It was quite breath-taking actually.  I even posed for a selfie.  I am becoming quite fond of them.

I also got to experience my first pick pocket interaction.  It was rather thrilling, and made for a good laugh.  I know, most of you are thinking how twisted I must have become here.  No, you would laugh too if the pick-pocketer pocketed your friend’s McDonald’s chicken nugget box.  Funny story, she wasn’t going to take any of that pick-pocketing business.  This is how the story goes.  We were a bit smooshed in the metro, and before she knew it, she felt something move in her purse.  She looked down just in time to see a hand go back in a pocket.  So naturally, she reached back into this man’s pocket to get the stolen goods back out.  Hah oh but Mr. Pick- Pocket was no fan of that so he hit her.  She hit him back.  The metro begins to slow and it is about 24 to 1 at this point.  He knew he was the under-dog so he decided to make his exit, but not with out throwing the lovely F bomb at her before he made his escape.  Well my friend, who shall remain nameless due to this next point, decided she would return the favor by shouting it right back at him.  So, the little joust ended clearly in her favor, and yes, she did get her chicken nuggets back.  So crisis averted.

At the train station...about 5 minutes before the scene.

Tomorrow we go back to Rome to see the essential Rome spots.  They are the must-sees of Rome (apparently).  I dunno what all the hype is about the Coliseum, but I shall report to you tomorrow.

Just a little sneek peek of the fun times had

Selfie at the Colosseum!

In other news, I have booked flights to Barcelona as well as a flight to Switzerland.  Tomorrow we are booking Paris, and Mollie and I are booking London and Ireland as well.  I think I may frame the page in my calendar with all of these eventful weekends to remind myself of how cool my life was for like 2 months.  For real, the mid-term break portion on my calendar reads, and I quote, “Fly to London Monday, Fly to Ireland Wednesday, Fly to Rome Saturday”.  Is this real life?

Well, that’s all for now folks.  I am going to bed, which is weird because it is only about 4:00pm most of your times.  But never the less, buona notte!!!

Sunset over Ariccia.  Home sweet, sweet home.