The Halloween Festivities Continue

Monday: For my job, I recorded an event where some people from the company, Boeing, came to talk to our school. I learned some valuable things that big companies look for, and that includes great leadership and great communication skills. Confidence really goes a long way, so that helps as well.
Tuesday: I didn't have my broadcasting class because we were having a work day, so that was awesome because then I was able to both focus on my project and study for my test the next day.
Wednesday: The Giants won the world series! It's been a trend that they have been winning every other year!
Thursday: Our apartment cafe handed out free hot dogs and chips! It was amazing. I also went to our school's favorite Karaoke bar and dressed up as Minnie Mouse and danced the night away! I think my favorite part was the classic 90's/early 2000's songs that they played, such as "Hey Juliet" and "Hit Me Baby One More Time".

Friday: Tonight was Halloween, I dressed up as Mrs. George, otherwise known as the cool mom from Mean Girls. It was fun when people would recognize my costume and laugh. (I'm on the far right). Also...I have another story about Friday night, but you'll have to get to the bottom to read that...

Saturday: Saturday I dressed up as Cruella Deville. I actually got a fantastic response from people regarding my costume! People were like "wow! you're killing it! you look awesome!"  My roommate sprayed my hair half black, and I had a dalmatian shawl thing around my shoulders. I went to the bar and talked to some students I don't normally talk to, which can be intimidating, but I've found that a lot of students at my school are really friendly and welcome to conversation. I was able to hang out with friends that I hadn't seen a while as well and so that was nice to do.

Sunday: I was finally able to relax from the party-filled weekend. It was so much fun, and even though I'm a senior in college, it made me SO excited to think of ideas for next year! I definitely want to make a habit of thinking of creative costumes and going all out just because of how fun it is! No matter where I am next year, I'm sure I can find friends to party with.

Can you tell I love Halloween?

But not all good things happen on Halloween...in fact, people tend to be even more riled up than ever.

...So about Friday night...I left my keys under the cushion of a seat at a party I was at, and of course I didn't realize that. So when we went to the bar, I realized that I had completely forgotten not only my ID to get INTO the bar, but my keys to get back to my apartment! What a mess. So as my friends and I started to walk back (because fortunately for me, another friend of mine forgot his ID), someone in a car made a cat-call comment to my friend. Thinking that the people in the car were just at a stop light and were going to drive away, I said something along the lines of, "do not talk to her like that. She is not a display for you to look at" (not the exact words, but you get the point). Little did I know that both my saying something (and my other friend said something as well....a little cruder but yeah...) would cause one of the females in the car to get out. She came up and said "what's going on?", to which I said, "I don't like the way your friend spoke to my friend." And being a female, she said that she completely understood and got back into the car. So we thought it was over. False. The male who made the ORIGINAl cat call comment started to follow my friends and me. He got into my male friend's face, and the female from the car also came back, but this time, she was armed (which I didn't know until later in the night). Fortunately for us, no one was seriously injured (I wasn't touched at all), but my friends got hurt a bit (not going to go into detail), but it definitely could have been worse.

However, this situation really got personal for me because even though they were the ones who started the catcalling, my friend and I were the ones who spoke up. If we hadn't have done that, we probably wouldn't have put ourselves into danger. What gets me the most is that I cannot stand to be silent. But I now understand that speaking up in that situation wouldn't have done a thing; it wouldn't have made the guy go, "oh you're right, I'm sorry for objectifying your friend." There is a time and a place for this conversation, and that was not it. After much contemplation, I do realize that it wasn't totally my fault, I mean, I did the right thing for speaking up, but it was stupid, and I hope to not do it again. It's incredibly frustrating when you want to fight for a voice, but instead you put yourself and others on the line. At this point, I still don't know what I would have done differently except for to stay silent, and that just doesn't sit well with me. I just wish people were more respectful of others and didn't feel an obligation to comment on my female friends' appearance. They should be able to wear whatever they want without getting someone gross to say something or honk their horn.

What frustrates me even more is when some people didn't stand by our side when we told them our story. Like I said, I understand what I did was stupid, but that's all some people said about it. They just said it was stupid. I'd like to think it was more than that, (perhaps brave...) but I'm not sure, maybe it was just idiotic. Some of my friends understood though and supported me because they knew I felt badly about speaking up. They understood that I KNEW that it was dumb, so they didn't need to lecture me or anything. I felt like that was the best support.

I'm not exactly sure how to end this, so I'll just say this. I've learned that sometimes we need to be less impulsive on our actions. Assess the situation. Will speaking up to this person make a difference? Will speaking up to this person probably instigate an altercation? If so, it's not worth it. But there WILL be a time and a place where you can say what you want and make a difference. There will be a time and a place where your argument will matter and have influence.

Getting Ready for Halloween

So I've been trying as much as I can to jump into doing more projects. This is definitely part of my goals for this year. I really want to strive to be the hardworking, driven person that employers seek in the professional world. I've been learning more about editing programs, and my camera, and I offered to help someone with their video, and I think I'm going to have a couple more opportunities in the future to be more creative so I'm excited about that!

I kinda want to post the new foods that I'm trying. I really like to try new things, especially food, and I  get all of my recipes off of Pinterest to do that. Recently, I stumbled on to recipes that contained quinoa.  I think I cooked it wrong first? Because I was NOT a fan, but it's been growing on me! I think that mostly has to do with the yummy things that I'm mixing with it, though. This week's quinoa bowl includes avocado, bacon, tomatoes. Sounds simple but it's quite yummy! I add a little bit of garlic and salt to make it more flavorful.

For now, I'm gonna leave out the food, but perhaps in the future if the week happens to be slow.

Story within a story: Not so Scary Theme Park Adventures

Last week I went to a theme park nearby, which was completely decked out for Halloween. I wrote a little about the experience last post, but I wanted to elaborate a little more on the experience. I was actually curious as to how I would react with the park. The last time I had been in a "haunted house" (aside from Disney's Haunted Mansion) was when I was little and I HATED it. I know that when it comes to scary movies I don't get scared, but I think this has to do with me distancing myself from the movie, not allowing myself to BE scared. I'll think about how the movies are made and how funny it would be to act out this scene of being dragged my a possessed demon, silly things like that. The whole park was going to have characters who would try to scare you, and not knowing what the experience and atmosphere would be like, I was hoping that I would distance myself just as I had with the movies. My doubts stemmed from my friends telling me of their experiences at the theme park. I got texts saying, "IT'S TOO SCARY" "It's horrid. Not worth it unless you like scary things". So I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for this disastrous trap that I'd gotten myself into. We get to the park and my bones tense up, not knowing what is going to happen when we enter the gates. At first, we just see some park employees, no big deal. I then spot our first "zombie". He didn't even try to scare us, really. He just kinda roamed around and approached people, but not even that aggressively. It was from that moment where I was pretty confident that I was going to be okay.
My friend and I knew characters popped out at us every now and then, so we were actually pretty well prepared and consciously aware of our surroundings at all times. However, we could not for the life of us find the roller coasters. We walked up to a security guard and asked where we could find the rides. He told us "yeah, no problem, all you have to do is go straight that way and go through clown town and it'll be right after that." Clown town. Oh. Good. Clowns. LOVELY.
Well the clowns turned out to actually be nicer than I was expecting. Having gained confidence from talking to zombies and creepy dolls that approached us like it was no big deal, I decided to say "what's up?" to a clown and "i like your makeup!!" No problems in clown town. Score. We actually later had to go through it again and I had a pleasant conversation with one of the clowns who directed us to a haunted house we were looking for.
But anyways, we really enjoyed the roller coasters that we were able to go on. One of them went backwards specifically for this Halloween event, and let me tell you, going backwards on a big drop is weird. I don't exactly know how to explain it (which you would think I could considering I'm WRITING A BLOG), but it's a very strange sensation. We also went on one of those drop rides, which was MUCH taller than I was expecting. Going up felt like forever, and the way the ride is made, there are obviously no people out in front of you, so it just feels like you're not connected to much except for what you're holding on to, and the higher you climb the more you start to regret getting on that ride...until the unexpected click and a big long drop. In a matter of seconds it was over, but oh man. Also, I tend to make a really weird, uncontrollable face when I do big drops like that. I'm just glad no picture was taken.
We ended up going in two haunted houses. There was one haunted experience that was 45 minutes long, and was essentially this long train ride where you have to like fight off zombies. We found out about that one a little later, so we weren't able to go on it, but how cool does that sound?! The first haunted house we went to was like a "rave" theme? And we had these 3D classes that made the house super trippy. Because this was my first haunted house since I was a kid, I decided to be a wuss and not put on the glasses, also it was hard to keep them on my small head (but we know the real reason I didn't have them on...). There was rave music going on for the entire time so I was actually having a GREAT time dancing and going around the house. I had this man in front of me, so I think I also felt a sense of security behind him hahah. The thing about haunted houses is that you can hear the people in front of you screaming, so you know something is coming up....so it kinda loses its scariness when you know something is about to pop out. The ending was absolutely insane, though. Essentially there was this walkway that we were on, and there were lights that made the room look like it was spinning, and I guess with those two combined I could NOT keep my balance. I still have no idea if the walkway was slanted or moving or what, but I had to hold on to the railing and just could not get it together. I can't even imagine what it must have been like WITH the glasses on! Overall, it was fun!
However, our second haunted house had a more...gruesome theme. It was called "Blood Bayou", so you know they're not playing around. For this one, I was feeling a bit more anxious in line and told my friend that I would basically be holding on to her for the entire time. We get inside and the room is just incredibly overdone with decorations. I said this then, and I'll say it again now, I felt like we were inside the Indiana Jones' ride at Disneyland, but just like a spookier version. Needless to say, it was not spooky. However, we were still in line, so surely it must be worse inside. Nah. See, the people in our group, who went ahead of us, probably had the best reactions we could have asked for in a group. Not only were they ahead, but they screamed and flailed a ton. Essentially, they were asking to be the targets of all the actors, which means that no one even tried to scare us. I could see clearly the entire time, so I think that maybe if it were harder to see, it might have been scarier, but if you don't get scared of actors popping out at you (and I didn't) then it was just not scary at all. No complaints on my end, though, because I do not like being scared! It was actually really fun getting to walk behind the screaming people and enjoy their reactions.
We ended our night going into a cafe and grabbing some hot chocolate, as it was getting really cold at this point. As we were leaving the park, we bumped into a zombie who attempted to scare us with his dinosaur like noises, but we asked for a selfie and went on our way! I posted the selfie on my last post, so be sure to check that out!

One highlight I forgot to mention was that at various times throughout the night, at a certain location, some of the zombies would come around and do the thriller dance! Here's a video of it below. Really crap quality, but you get the point.

Monday: We didn't have school, so I was able to relax. Normally, this late in October the weather is pretty drowsy, but it was 70 today! It felt so nice to walk outside and not have to wear a jacket! Also, the photography tumblr is doing fairly well, slowly but steadily, so I'm appreciative of that because it's something that I care about. My sister and I hung out for a while. I took a picture of her Harry Potter themed pumpkin and we ate popcorn and watched Bob's Burgers and Gravity Falls. It was a nice break.

Tuesday: I hung out with my sister (again) and made lasagna with her. So. Good.
Wednesday: Honestly, my outfit was on point today. My green army jacket, black lace dress, tights, and boots.

Thursday: My Journalism teacher told me that I was a really good writer and that I should consider looking more into it. This really meant a lot to me because I actually think that a lot of my writing is way too casual (as you can tell on here) and unorganized. I really enjoy writing and I think I put a lot of my personality into it, so it felt incredibly encouraging.

Friday: I didn't do a gosh darn thing today and it felt so good. I am going to work on being more productive this weekend, though, or else I know it will creep up on me and pile up. But I woke up late, went to the Halloween store with my sister and grabbed some Harry Potter gear for her costume, we then watched Bob's Burgers and Gravity Falls (again), and later on I hung out with my friends. We watched the end of the world championships of League of Legends (which I think happened a week or so ago?), and then I played Epic Mickey for a little bit! It was nice just hanging out with friends and chilling.

Saturday:  I skyped my friend, Allison, and we talked about graduate school and I helped her a little bit with her essay that she was working on. It's always nice being able to talk to a friend. She's actually the one who turned me on to looking into Myers Briggs stuff, so we talk about that a lot, which is super fun!

Sunday: I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time today. I actually liked it! I don't think I would show it to my kids as it definitely would have been too creepy for me as a child, but overall I loved how clever Sally's character was. She always had a plan and that continued to impress me throughout the movie because we rarely see that in female characters. I wish I had seen a bit more chemistry between Jack and Sally or at least a history of them because the ending was a bit abrupt when it came to their relationship. Anyways, overall, really enjoyed it!
I also went with my friends to get a basketball ticket for our first game of the season! I hope to go to a lot of the games since it's my last year.

What I've Learned About My Personality

Good things that happened this week:
Monday: I forgot to do an assignment, but my teacher let me email it to him, so all was well there.
Tuesday: I made a funny icon for my twitter account. Here's the picture of it.

Wednesday: I discovered the fun of snapchatting Kevin Jonas.
Thursday: Despite things being stressful on this day, things seemed to work out really well for me this day. For my journalism class, I didn't HAVE to attend, so I studied for my test that was for the next class, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (THANK GOD), and then for a snack I had a salami and cheese sandwich, which sounds pathetic but it was actually amazing.
Friday: I went to Scarywood, a theme park that normally goes by Silverwood, but it transforms itself during Halloween time. It was super fun! Check out my new zombie boyfriend!

Saturday: I went out to an LGBTQ friendly bar with an awesome dance floor and danced to my heart's content.

Sunday: I helped edit someone's scholarship video. He told me that he and his family really liked it, which made me really happy because we can all be our own worst critic, so it was comforting knowing other people appreciates my work. Speaking of which, I've been putting up pictures on my photography tumblr, and 6 people liked/reblogged one of my pictures! This doesn't seem like a big deal, but I've been really doubting my skills recently and just to have only a couple people like and share my work really touched me. Sometimes it can seem like there are so many talented people out there and that I could never compare to them. But I think it's important to keep in mind that if you can have one person appreciate something that you've created, that's pretty awesome. 

Like I said last post, I'm really trying to work on finishing things that I've started. Recently, I've been super invested in reading up on the Myer's Briggs Personality types. I'm the kind of person who loves taking Buzzfeed quizzes and learning about myself and reading the results and saying "wow! that's SO me!" So it comes to no surprise when I started digging around the good old Myers Briggs pages. For a while, I've been so conflicted with deciding between two personality types, and for some reason I NEEDED to know. These two types were basically both spot on, but just a couple details didn't really fit, and I felt lost. How could I not fit either perfectly?! I decided to go with ENFP, but just minus the detail that they're always late (because I am ALWAYS on time, and very very insistent on that). I decided to label myself as a "disciplined" ENFP.

I noticed, though, that I desperately was looking for a label, and was so frustrated when I didn't have one! I love taking Buzzfeed quizzes because they "tell me who I am", and this was no different. Once I DID identify with ENFP (finally, like honestly it took like weeks for me to do this), and read up as much as I could about it, I would notice things about myself that the description said. I would start to say to people, "oh yeah, I'm the kind of person who_____". But then I started to notice the flaws stated in the description. "ENFPs have a tendency to not finish things that they've started" oh god. That's me! Honestly, my family has told me this and I haven't ever done anything about it. But once it's written in words as part of my label, I wanted no part of it. I did not want this to be my downfall in my career! That's why I decided to make a change. It doesn't mean that my personality will change (although I've heard it's possible), it just means that I don't want to let my personal weaknesses have control over me.

I don't know why it's hard for me to follow through, but it just is. But I am working on it. Just this weekend I helped a kid make a video for his scholarship. And it was cool to just do it all right away and have it be done and successful. But the difference is that this was his idea, and I just executed it. That's way easier than having and creating an idea and following through. When you have your own idea, it becomes your baby, and you don't want anyone to tell you that your baby is worthless. I get scared of putting my ideas out there, so I make plans for them to happen, and then I don't for various reasons. Obviously this isn't going to be easy to get over, but it's a work in progress!

Going off of that, once I discovered my flaw, I decided to pile on a bunch of expectations for myself. I've been eating healthy, and that's awesome, but I decided that I wanted to turn it up a notch. I wanted to work out every weekday morning. Um. That's unrealistic, especially since I'd have to walk there, it'd be in the morning (a time when I'm the most lethargic and miserable), AND since winter is coming, I'd have to walk in the snow...to the gym. That's just not going to happen. I tried asking my sister to go with me, because I know for a fact I can motivate myself as long as others are there, but going by myself? Yeah, that's out of the question. I have discipline, but walking through the cold to go to the gym is just not even remotely motivating. So I've already set up myself for failure on that one (typical). The next one was to continue this blog. A long time commitment? Oh good. My favorite. I do want to continue this, though, as I think it will help me with my writing as well as just sorting out my thoughts all together. Who knows? This could be fun. My next goal was to finish the projects that I have pending and to not browse the internet or do anything pointlessly fun until they were done......well it's a good goal to have....I just, you know, gotta make it happen. Maybe now that I've written it here, it will happen.

It's just so frustrating because this past summer I told myself I was going to work a ton on projects and I just ended up working two jobs and going to summer classes. But now is the best time, more than ever, to just get creative. Why? Because "if not now, when?" (holla at my girl, Emma Watson).

I think that's a good place to end.

Following Through

Recently, I've had to tackle on more than I wanted to and that has caused a great deal of over thinking and stress. It's not that I can't handle it, because I absolutely can! It's just that I get stressed when things aren't going as well as planned and it a larger amount of time than anticipated to get things done. That's when I get frustrated and just want to give up. This, along with other things, leads to my tendency to not finish things that I started, a trend that I want to stop immediately. That's why I have awoken my blog from it's slumber of 6 months. It's been half of a year since I've written anything! And it's not like I was done with my Europe documentation...so what gives? Well this is me putting my foot down and trying to create a change in my mindset, because I firmly that people can change. So, the goal (uh-oh, time for the "new years"-like aspiration that will (hopefully not) inevitably fail) is to write something good that happened each day. Now, I won't be posting one each day because honestly that would be a waste of space for this blog, so it will be weekly. But I want to be able to have a list of good things that happened each day (as small or big as they are) for the week and then maybe a post of thoughts that I had, etc. We'll see how this goes! I'm going to aim for EITHER Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, whichever day is the least busiest.

And so we start...

----Break From Study Abroad...Where I'm at Now---

Hey there. So obviously I haven't finished documenting my study abroad adventures, but fear not! They will be definitely going up here at some point! The past few months have been packed full of the rest of my journey of Europe, being back home working two jobs and school, and going back to Europe! I'm in my final year of college currently, but I definitely plan on bringing back this whole writing thing. Not only is it therapeutic, but it helps me practice my writing and just gets the brain going!

A couple things to note:

• My spring break trip in Ireland (one of the best weeks I've ever had) was written in a journal....that I left in my room at home, so once I get ahold of that, the study abroad posts will continue! 
• The posts that I will be publishing in the following weeks will include details of my summer and up to the present! 

Essentially I wanted to start writing again because it's a fantastic skill set to have, and it includes keeping up and following through with something that I've started. I've had a lot of things on my mind recently that I think are worth discussing here, and I also have some stories that I want to include as well! This blog is meant to be an essence of myself, both fun (silly) and serious (discussing deep topics). I hope to look back on these posts and laugh at the memories I've made during my 20's, and also think deeply about the thoughts I've developed. I think that's all I wanted to get at for now, but here's to my last year of college! I had never imagined of being at this point in my life, and I want to be able to look back at the memories I've made. I've had a great 3 years at my University, and I certainly look forward to this last year. 

Wine, wine, and more wine...

Beep boop. Another late post! What else is new?

So a couple weekends ago...the last weekend in February, I decided to stay in Florence for the weekend again. Europe has really made me appreciate and become accustomed to wine, as their cheap wine would be considered expensive in the United States. I feel like I'm just going to come home and be this pretentious wine fiend. Although I still don't know the names of them, so I guess I can't be that bad!

I'm going to make this post short as I don't exactly remember what happened this weekend as it was a month ago. On thursday night, I believe, some friends from my pensione and I went to this restaurant called "Dante's" where they give students UNLIMITED free wine (with the purchase of a meal). It was fun! My friend's friend was visiting town so it was nice to meet yet another person.

Friday, I am very certain I did absolutely nothing, which I quite enjoyed. Some days it's great to relax and not worry about anything! That night, we went out to dinner again to celebrate my friend's birthday at this nice place where about 8 of us sat at this HUGE table that looked like it was made to serve a giant! We ended up going out that night to a couple bars and a club (aimed for Americans). It was my first club experience and actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! Many girls had told me about bad experiences, but I think because I was with a group of people and we isolated ourselves in a corner, we were fine. I met another one of my friend's friends, one from Italy and another from Norway. They were very interesting to talk to, and it's cool getting to know people from different countries! They also taught us what the typical dance was like when they were at clubs and then my friends and I had to mimic them, it was so goofy but really funny!

On Saturday, I met back with my friends and their friends visiting to do a Chianti wine tour. Before we went on our tour, we stopped at Piazza Michelangelo, which has a fantastic view of the city of Florence.

 The food was AMAZING! It was simply just salami, prosciutto, cheese, and a plate of pasta, but it was so. good. and so fresh!

 I don't normally like salami, but I'll take it in Italy, yum yum! At one point we went into a butcher shop (which I almost had to leave because it looked and smelled disgusting, I swear I almost became in those couple minutes I was in there) and I tasted a piece of bread with olive oil, and I could absolutely tell the difference between good quality olive oil and not. It was such a nice, beautiful, tasteful day and weekend!

A Time for Reflection and Relaxation

This past weekend has been the first weekend in 5 weeks that I have stayed in Florence. From all the chaos that has been surrounding me with traveling, work, and school, it was something I definitely needed. At first I was concerned because I would not only be spending this weekend but next weekend as well. What was I going to do?! If I'm already having a problem staying in for a weekend in FLORENCE FREAKING ITALY, then we're going to have some big problems when I get back to the states. Boredom to the max. I was thinking about this concept this past week and how although I didn't experience culture shock when coming here, I know for a fact that I will encounter reverse culture shock. What am I going to do every weekend (if I'm not working, which I probably will be)? Then some people came up with a couple ideas. Before, we never considered to find cheap flights and do day trips around the United States. I can't believe I'm already thinking about this trip ending (with 2ish more months ahead of me) but I am. Once this study abroad journey ends though, our thirst for travel doesn't need to. Keeping money on my mind, if I can do trips to different countries during the weekend, why can't I do that with different states or cities? This may be something I'm going to have to keep in mind for the future.

So on Thursday night I got to stay in Florence! I didn't have to, I got to! I went with some friends from my pensione (which is where we live. I don't know what it means, it's just what we call it) to dinner. It turned out to be a really nice evening, so it was nice getting to walk around the part of Florence that wasn't my typical route to school. We crossed the bridge across the river (beautiful, of course) and made our way to a nice, quiet plaza where we enjoyed dinner and talked mainly about our childhood. It was not only a new memory created, but nostalgia at the same time. Afterwards we got some gelato and strolled back home for a quiet weekend.

Oh yeah, random thought that included this week: On Tuesdays people in our program always go out because their classes are later (I don't usually because my first class is at 9 and I like sleep), but this past Tuesday I went out to a place that had a Beatles cover band. They were actually pretty good!

Back to my weekend...

On Friday I went with a group from my school on a pilgrimage to Assisi, where St. Francis came from. Although we did a bit of walking, the trip didn't feel chaotic because it was a journey for peace and reflection. I talked a lot with my friends, but the entire trip itself felt very quiet and calm. This was such a nice change from the crazy "go go go mode" that I'm always on during the weekends. I think what I loved most about Assisi was how green the grass was and just how beautiful and serene the city felt.

We had a couple questions on the bus ride there to reflect about. What I thought about most were two things: not letting jealousy or anger get in the way and to treat my body right. Two very different things, but both having to do with making myself a better person. 

The first thought has to do with considering other people's successes as my own failures. These do not and should not correlate, yet many people do. We grow up constantly comparing ourselves to others, and some of our parents may do the same. "Well, I bet ___ has a job. Why don't you?" It's the lingering thoughts that other people are succeeding that nag at our feelings of failure. Although this may motivate some people, it may feel like defeat to others. Sometimes it's best to take a step back, take a deep breath, and do your absolute best to focus on the best version of yourself that you would like to be.

This goes onto the other point that I was reflecting on. First, mind and soul, now body. We only have one of them, so why the hell do we treat them so poorly? As a possible addict of the internet (admitting is the first step haha), a sedentary lifestyle comes with that, and that is not good. Exercise, as strenuous and tiring as it may feel, is good for us. When we treat our bodies the way they should be treated, we feel a lot better. I know people who were on a "paelo" diet, which is essentially eating meats, fruit, vegetables, and non-processed food. As a result from this, she said that she physically felt a lot better. It's just something we need to all think about. 

On Saturday, I slept in because I haven't done that in AGES, and it was nice! I didn't really do anything that day, but for dinner I went out with a group of us from my pensione and that was a lot of fun, because it was kind of a group that I may not have hung out with had we not been living together, which is awesome! That's what I love about this program, is the fact that I have gotten to meet so many people that I may not have met otherwise. At dinner we had the idea of using the unicef app at dinner so we wouldn't be on our phones and we would be helping people in need! If you don't know what the app is, basically you go to a website where as long as you don't touch your phone, every 10 minutes donates a day of water to a person in need from a sponsor. It was really great because we all had our phones down and we all really engaged in conversation! 

Sunday was more or less a study day, but this weekend overall was so beneficial and I'm glad I stayed and I looked forward to next weekend. 

Miss New Buda

I've realized that I am absolutely terrible at starting blog posts, and I'm probably going to have to get better at some point but I'm just going to jump in on this one! Swiss airlines is so boss. They serve chocolate on (almost) every flight, and the chocolate is way better than what you're going to get in the United States. Fact. 

We landed in Budapest around night time, and luckily our school itineraries had a map and multiple ways of transportation to get to the hotel. Trying to be economically conscious and learn the typical ways of transportation, we decided to do the cheapest way, bus...and then the underground. Surprisingly, we were able to navigate our way just perfectly fine (with only maybe just a couple bumps along the way) and we were pros in no time! 

Once we arrived to where our hotel was we looked at the AMAZING view that Budapest had provided us. We couldn't imagine if the city was this mesmerizing at night, how much of a great time we would have during the day! The pictures that I took in no way do it justice, but here is one so you can generally get an idea:

For dinner we went into this English pub that had both Hungarian dishes and English dishes, but being in Hungary we decided to try the Hungarian food. I went with goulash (yummy!) and a couple of my friends tried Wiener Schnitzel. Overall it was a good, cheap meal! 

Another thing we could not possibly prepare ourselves for: the hotel. but specifically....the hotel breakfast. *cue in angels singing*

I wish I had taken a picture of the breakfast area because it was so freaking extensive! There was cereal, fruit, yogurt, pancakes, biscuits, omelets, pastries, bacon, sausage and so much more. There were multiple choices for EVERYTHING! 

The hotel also had probably the best towels I've ever felt when it came to shower towels. It was as if God himself had made them. So soft. So magical. 

Hesitating, as we could have eaten all day at the breakfast bar, we walked outside (where it was extremely windy) and took a tour around the Pest side of Budapest. I actually didn't know that there were two sides...Buda and Pest! It was a great tour, but a little hazy as I didn't know much of the history coming into Budapest so it was hard to retain. We visited a Jewish temple, the "tree of life", and a jewish museum. After our tour we ended at a church and a couple of friends and I walked and walked and walked all the way up to the top. The view, of course, was gorgeous. 

It was lunch time and although we were in a place with different food, we decided that we were craving Thai food. Best decision of the trip, in my opinion. We entered this place that was cheap, but it seemed really popular. I can't even describe to you how good that pad Thai was. I honestly just wish I was eating right now so I could be experiencing culinary excellence (typical of this blog to maybe possibly be exaggerated).

After that out of body experience, we met with the school group again to go to the Terror Museum. At first when I heard the title of this museum, I for some reason thought it was going to be like a scary movie type museum. Not exactly scary movies, but just scary things. Well, the museum was a bit scary, but for a different reason. Hungary had been affected by World War II, and so at this museum were things in relation to that. Throughout the museum there were many videos of people talking about their experiences. Although I didn't really, truly understand, just seeing their faces so distraught and sad was enough to make anyone feel their pain. 

For dinner, we, once again, went to the English pub and then headed back to the hotel to just simply hang out and talk and share each other's favorite songs, it was a really nice, relaxing evening. 

The next morning some of us woke up early (like 5 am early) to visit the Thermal baths. While everyone else went to go swimming (which now I regret I didn't do) I went to take pictures. That worked out fine though because since everyone else was wet, they needed someone to take their pictures! Once we were done with that, we went to our haven of the Hotel Breakfast and then took a much needed, but not nearly long enough nap. 

Apparently, at the hotel, you could order special pillows such as a Vitamin E pillow, a pillow for your back, or a pillow with horse hair. I didn't try any of these, but a couple of my friends did and they claimed they slept like a baby. So I guess if you have a chance, try it out!

Our next venture was another tour around Budapest. We visited the market, which I guess was famous for its pickles, and then we visited the Buda side of Budapest. This is said to be the nicer side, and I could see that because we went to a CASTLE! My fav. Can't get enough of those. 

I was still exhausted from the early morning tour, so I took another nap, but, thinking ahead, I set my alarm to a couple minutes before the sun was setting and I woke up just in time to enjoy the breathtaking view and of course...take some pictures! The image loader is making the colors all funky for the picture I wanted to upload, but again, you can see it better here. 

Our last part of the school trip included a cooking class, the thing I was looking forward to the most! My group's task was to make meatloaf and a cream pea sauce thing. The first step was to cut the onions and then cook them in oil for a bit. Well, we messed up on the very first step. Classic. We cut the onions! Buttttt we forgot to cook them in oil! Woops! The head chef later tried our pea sauce thing (still don't know what it was, also I have to add that I was not part of the making of said thing) and made a bad face. I think that's when our group felt a BIT defeated and our chef supervisor decided to just take over. I think that was probably best for everyone. Of course, I later managed to burn my hand from boiling soup when I was ladling it out, and that kinda ended the dinner for me. This was over a week ago and one of my fingers is looking pretty grody, but we carry on! 

It's odd to think that I've been in Europe for almost 2 months and I've already visited 6 countries (including Italy). The time is going by insanely fast and I need it to slow down! I want to appreciate every bit of this experience that I have and be able to document it at the same time so I don't forget anything. My worst fear (which I'm afraid may come true) is that I'll arrive home in an instant and be gone from all of this. It will still be something that I have done, but it would be just that....done. 

On a happy note, I've still got a couple trips left and I'm excited for those! :)

A Very Harry Potter Weekend

My trip to London has probably been my most chaotic and dysfunctional trip yet! It hadn’t even started and my friends and I were already a hot mess. Firstly, getting onto the bus was a bit harder than we thought. We knew we were pressing for time because the busses come every however many minutes, so we scrambled to get our tickets and realized we didn’t actually know where the bus picked us up from. As we ran outside with only minutes to spare, my friend decided to step onto the street where a bus was just inches away from doing what it did to Regina George!

After that mess, it turned out that we missed the bus by only seconds (great), but this really nice person who worked at the stop walkie-talkied the driver and had him come get us (BLESS). We were then on our way to the Pisa airport! 

The airport itself was a true breeze; you didn't even need to take off your shoes. After we got through security, we had plenty of time to relax before our plane started to board. However, a couple of our other friends on the same flight had a class that ended later, and they didn't show up until we were boarding! This would only be the first time out of many that we would get to things just barely in time in London. 

We took RyanAir for the first time, wondering why the flights were so cheap! It didn't take us very long to figure that one out....the entire plane ride the flight attendants would announce promotions, and I mean the entire plane ride. Every time the flight attendant spoke, I took out my headphones thinking it was something important. Nope. Just a promotion of Lady Gaga's new CD among other things. You know she didn't do that well if RyanAir is promoting it....just sayinggg. 

Once we flew into London I could not contain my excitement! I had been waiting so many years to come to this city with such a great history of culture....not to mention, I would be going on the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour the next day. 

When we reached our hostel, we were greeted by a very friendly woman. The entrance of the hostel was a cute, humble looking bar, which we didn't get drinks from, but the atmosphere was quite nice. We climbed up the stairs and went into our rooms to find out that (clearly...) our rooms were co-ed. The stink was unbelievable! However, there was a bathroom that was separate from our room, so we didn't have a problem changing there. The hostel itself was pretty great, the staff was incredibly friendly and it seemed to be in good condition (aside from one of the showers didn't drain all the way, so I took a shower in a puddle...blehh). Unfortunately, we were roomed with a creepy Romanian man who kept hitting on my friends. He was fairly harmless, but it was just really annoying. No problem though! We only had to be in the hostel when we slept, so we were out early by morning on our way to venture the wonderful city of London....which was freezing. 

We learned quickly that Oyster cards were the way to go when it came to transportation in London, however it took a couple dirty looks until we finally got it right. I asked a woman what an Oyster card provided and she just flat out didn't understand my question, as if I could be so stupid as to not know what an Oyster card was. We had been planning on getting one eventually, but we just wanted to make our way to Kings Cross station first, and we decided that we would figure the card out later and just pay this once for the bus. Apparently, that was stupidly American of us to do. We decided to pay with our coins to get on the bus and one woman basically condescendingly asked if we were really paying to go to Kings Cross without an Oyster card, and we were pretty much the laughing stock of the bus. Being a little annoyed, I said that we CLEARLY weren't from here, so I asked what the best option was for us to do, which had of course, been the Oyster card. I just felt like if we obviously weren't from the area, it probably would have been helpful to try and help rather than be condescending. It worked out anyways, this was just a bit of a rant. 

We eventually made our way to Kings Cross station where we visited....you guessed it! Platform 9 3/4! My friends and I took pictures there and I bought a wand for my little cousin, and a mug and ticket for myself. It was magical!

Our next stop was the British Museum, which held a lot of cultural history in it, it was cool! Sorry, didn't have much to say on this one...

Now, for the most exciting, yet stressful part of our trip: the Harry Potter Studio Tour

We had been running a bit low on time, and knowing we needed to give ourselves as much time as possible (since we hadn't figured out the transportation system just yet), we started to power walk to Kings Cross station. It was just our luck that the line we needed to take had been closed at Kings Cross, so we were then directed toward a different tube station. Again, we were power walking, but that was just not cutting it for me...we had to do the unthinkable....we had to run. So I started running chanting on my friends like some sort of army officer "LET'S GO LADIES", looking like complete fools running through the streets of London. Thank God I had somehow (probably divine intervention) convinced myself to run because when we reached the station we only had three minutes until our train was departing! Again, we booked it through the station like lunatics! With approximately thirty seconds to spare (not to mention we were now truly hot, sweaty messes) we made it on the train (tube? idk)! We then started to look at what we had to do from there, it said the studio was about a 15 minutes walk (lies) and so we were discussing our plans when a nice lady overheard us and told us there was a bus right outside of the station that would take us to the studio. God bless. Once we got onto the bus we realized that walking would have legitimately impossible. We went on so many roads and even went on a highway, I'm not entirely sure what we were thinking. With triumphant music playing (in our heads) we entered the building that we had been waiting a very long time for: The Warner Brothers Studio. I'm not kidding when I say that I almost started crying. Don't even get me started when the first thing we saw was the staircase. Ugh, emotions. Before the actual start of the tour we were put into a room where we watched a video about the growth of Harry Potter, there were tears. 

Now, I've already done my fair share of picture sharing for the tour, so you can access those on my picture blog here. 

The first place we entered was the Great Hall.

 My sister had gone before, so I knew we were going to encounter this, but I had imagined feeling more like a student at Hogwarts than how I actually felt, which was a fan stepping onto the ground of what was a big part of her childhood. We got to see the sets, big props, and a glimpse as to how they used masks and animatronics for the movies. It was so. cool. There was also a portion of the tour with a green screen area where we could appear as if we were riding the blue flying car and another one where we could appear as if we were riding a broom, it was so fun! All of my childhood dreams were coming true! One of the things I was most excited for, and did not disappoint, was tasting butterbeer! It didn't have alcohol in it (I'll have to attempt to make a recipe at home) but it was soooo good! I don't like whip cream, but whatever cream froth they had on top of it was amazing!

 After the tour we went into the gift shop where I purchased yet another mug. This one I was obsessed with from the beginning as it was a Marauders Map mug! I could not turn that down. It was such a crazy, yet perfect day :)

Part of the reason why I decided to go to London was not only to experience the behind the scenes of Harry Potter, but my dad was also in town on business. However, being in a different country made it quite difficult to get ahold of him. Luckily, my hostel and his hotel had wifi so we were able to rely on that for the time being. I texted him and told him to meet me at the Victoria and Albert Museum at 10:30 and hoped that he would get the text and be able to make it because I wouldn't be able to see any texts once I left the hostel. When we got to the museum (which was awesome by the way), there was a little bit of internet, but inconveniently Viber didn't work for some reason. I spent maybe an hour or more wandering around part of the bottom floor of the museum looking for my dad, while he was on the other side of the bottom floor, until finally he decided to venture over to my side and finally found me! Unfortunately we were only able to spend half a day together, but it was still really nice getting to see him and share a little bit of what I had experienced on my European journey so far. We stayed in the museum for a little bit, and then made our way to Kings Cross so we could buy my little cousin another gift, which was a ticket for Platform 9 3/4. After that, we headed towards Buckingham Palace. At this point, the weather started to get really crappy (both heavy wind and rain), so we only stayed briefly, and got on the tube (which I had mastered at this point....hell yeah) to go towards the other big points such as the London tower (which was closed :( ). Impulsively, we decided to hop onto one of those tour boats that took us along the river to show us the London Eye and the tower that held Big Ben, and (to my surprise and enjoyment), an all guys school which Daniel Radcliffe himself had attended! Wanting to get closer to the sites, my dad and I got off of the boat and attempted to take pictures, however the weather was just so terrible that we left and decided to spend the rest of the evening in Piccadilly Square. We found a nice, really cool looking restaurant, and just spent the rest of the evening at dinner. The atmosphere felt very modern vintage (as cheesy as that sounds, I feel it's pretty accurate), and I think my favorite part of the meal was the lemon meringue dish, which wasn't pie but it was more like a custard delight of heavenly glory (may or may not be exaggerating...who knows, maybe it was just THAT good...it was). 

Again, I had another perfect evening to a great trip! I'd love to visit London again when I'm not broke and when the weather is better, I think it's a fantastic city with much history and I'd really like to come back.  

The Hills are Alive in Austria

Two weekends ago, Jan 30- Feb 2, we made it to Austria! My friends and I were most intrigued by the Sound of Music tour, and I, of course, was dying to see the Neuschwanstein castle which influenced Disney World's Cinderella castle....typical Nicole. Just like Switzerland we took a bus to Austria on Thursday and got to our hotel at 5 in the morning! I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to function yet again on about 3 hours of sleep. On Friday morning we jumped on another bus to start our Sound of Music tour! There, we saw the house that was shot for the Von Trapp mansion in the movie

the famous gazebo for the "Sixteen going on Seventeen" song

 and the church that Maria and the captain were married in.

 At the city where the church was we had AMAZING apple strudel and mulled wine, which, for those who don't know, is warm wine with cinnamon spice mixed it.

 I'm still not quite accustomed to wine, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought. When we went into the church, I think my favorite part was seeing an actual skeleton on this throne at the altar.

 My favorite part of the tour was the view shown down below and when the bus played the songs for us to sing along to. It was nice having a whole bus of people just as enthusiastic to sing their hearts out to a classic musical.

Naturally, coming back from the tour I was exhausted and after I took a (not long enough in my opinion) nap, my friends and I walked down town and climbed a fort that overlooked the city of Salzburg. Luckily, we made it to the last part of the sunset, which made part of the sky blood orange.

Couldn't help myself! But anyways, here's a couple pictures of the amazing view:

Surprisingly, I wasn't dying when I reached the top, so after we got our pictures of the sunset, we were on our way back down and headed over to dinner! Since I was in Austria, I HAD to try Wiener Schnitzel. I didn't actually know what it looked like, so I was very surprised to see that it was essentially fried meet, however it was still very yummy, especially with the cranberry sauce!

 Aaaandd of course I went to bed immediately when I got back....but not after watching the first half of the Sound of Music (which was playing 24/7 at our hotel).

Saturday we went to the Neuschwanstein Castle, and I tried Bratwurst for the first time beforehand. Again, I wasn't sure what it was, so I was surprised to find out that it was pretty much a hot dog....but like way better (I'm not a big fan of hot dogs). Afterwards we made our trek up to the castle, which was awesome of course!

 There was an option to ride a carriage pulled by horses, but my values and ethics were definitely going against that option, so we stuck to being healthy and walking up the hill! I also found it a bit hypocritical of me that I was so concerned about not supporting carriages or Zoos, yet I am still not a vegetarian. I can't really justify that one. (Yes I can----Bacon is yummy).

We then left the castle and made our way to our next hotel in Innsbruck. The city was beautiful, and we were fortunate to walk around a great amount of it. For dinner, we decided that we wanted to go in a group of 8 and try to find a place to eat. Needless to say it was a lot harder than we expected. As the night went on we were getting more tired and hungrier, but eventually started to make our back to our hotel hoping we would find something closer. After at least a good hour an a half we stumbled upon a Greek place with a big table practically glowing and beckoning for us to sit in it. Our tired feet and empty stomachs were relieved when we finally sat down and were able to have a delicious Greek meal. Although it took a while to get there, it was worth it!

The next day was all to ourselves to explore the city of Innsbruck. A couple of my friends and I went around to the main sites closer to our hotel. This included a building with a golden roof (which had an incredibly boring museum inside), a beautiful cathedral, and the clock tower that we were able to climb up on. At first I was a bit hesitant, but the view was absolutely worth the climb up the stairs. We had a lot of time to kill, so we went into a panini place, and then went to a cafe to grab a bit of the famous cake, Sacher Torte and proceeded to talk for about an hour. It was a nice ending to relatively relaxing weekend.

I Waited Too Long and Now I Don't Remember What I Was Going To Write About

Edit: This was supposed to be posted before the Switzerland post, but I forgot, so now it's awkwardly published after. So just know that everything you read was written like a week ago. Okay, carry on...

I know that I've been planning a blog post for this week but now I can't remember what I wanted to say. I know that on Sunday I went to mass for the first time in a long time (aside from Christmas and my grandma's memorial) and it was something that I really needed. Our priest said, and I quote, "there is nothing you can do to make God love you less." Meaning that God loves all people, and gives the same amount of love to everyone, no matter who you are. He, also, and I quote, said, "God has the same amount of love for the Virgin Mary as he did for Hitler." The point is that God loves literally every single person on earth with the same amount of love. And I think that we should too (or at least show the same amount of compassion). There's a certain comfort knowing that you are receive infinite amount of love just for being you and for making mistakes. Obviously some people would take this as being able to do whatever they want because it won't change God's love, but in a way, it makes me want to be an even better person.

Moving on from the cheese...

My roommate and I used to have another roommate here in Florence but she had to go home, so now we have three beds. Naturally, we put all three of them to make the ultimate bed! See below...it's awesome. 

We've also been super paranoid because we have been told about bed bugs recently because there has been quite an epidemic and they are a REAL THING. One night I found a couple bug bites on my shoulder and I started scratching even though they didn't feel itchy, I just knew they were there so I was always thinking about them. Then I would look around my bed, in my sheets, and under my mattress just constantly searching for bed bugs, but seeing nothing, but also not entirely sure what I was looking for. So both my roommate and I were freaking out, totally joking about it, but just unsettled. Fortunately (and you know bed bugs are bad when I say what I'm about to say) we found that we had a mosquito in our room! yesssss

Again, wasn't sure what I was going to write about before. I think I was going to talk about classes. Some of them are good. English is great because we started out by reading Greek mythology and it's so interesting! All of the Gods are completely ridiculous and horny buttt it makes the stories entertaining for sure! 

Sorry this post is boring, but Switzerland and Rome are much more interesting. Read those! Or read a book! Why are you reading this anyways? 

Chocolate!!!!!!!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to visit Switzerland, the chocolate capital of the world. That's all you need to know really.

Literally the entire weekend I felt like the character from Spongebob that freaks out about chocolate. See picture below.

No exaggeration.

Let's back up a bit though to travel day. On Thursday night we were supposed to leave for Switzerland from Florence at 6:30 pm, but the schedule got moved back to 8:15 because the bus was coming from Rome and for some reason they were late. No problem. However, we didn't actually get on the bus until almost 10 at night, and we still had to stop for dinner. I was also told that the bus got lost (not sure if this was true) so we arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland at 6am. But with a curse comes a blessing! The program that we went on is called "Florence for Fun". The people who were coming from Rome on the bus were on a different program called "Euro Adventures". Our program felt so bad about the delays that they offered to give us a 50% discount to a trip to the Venice Carnival. Hell. Yeah. So I will most definitely be taking advantage of that! Both program leaders were very nice, but the people who were attending Euro Adventures on our bus were probably the most obnoxious, rude people we've encountered in a while. I won't go into detail, but there is definitely a difference between the people who attend the Florence for Fun program and the Euro Adventure program. It's no wonder they have the reputation that they do. 

Okay, just needed to get that boring stuff out of the way so we could move on to the good stuff!!

So after sleeping for two hours (we woke up at 8), we went downstairs so some of my friends could sign up for Canyon jumping! I didn't sign up as it wasn't on my list of things to do and not exactly in my price range. However, for those who did do it, it seemed absolutely worth it because Interlaken is one out of two places in the entire world where people can Canyon jump. Incredible! 

Friday was a pretty relaxed day. We walked to Lake Brienz (again, pictures below), and the view was stunning. Even on the walk there, I could not stop thinking about how beautiful Switzerland is. It felt unreal. I had never seen water so blue and never felt air so fresh. Coming from Florence, known for its pollution, being able to breathe absolute pure freshness was well....a breath of fresh air. I don't think I've said the word "fresh" enough times. 

Oh yeah, I promised you pictures...

Unreal, right?!

Later that night we went to what we had all came to Switzerland for...the Swiss chocolate tasting. Oh yessss.

It was all amazing of course. I also learned that the more chocolate snaps when it breaks, rather than bends or folds (I'm looking at you, Hershey), the better the chocolate is. At the end, we tried an alcoholic chocolate piece that you bite into and then down like a shot. It was very minimal, of course, but still fun to do! I have a video of me doing so, but the Internet is so poor here, I won't be able to share it until after I get back from "studying" abroad. 

As I said, Friday was very relaxed as we were all very tired. We turned in early, after eating at this great Irish pub with our AWESOME waiter named Sheppy (or that's what his friends called him) from New Zealand. 

Saturday morning, during breakfast (which consisted of jam and bread) I noticed a man with pink satin bell bottom pants. Later on we started to notice more people with the same outfit and painted faces. It was odd....but more on that later. So we headed off to the federal city of Switzerland (whatever that means, kinda like a capital), Bern. The view overlooking the town was absolutely gorgeous. I didn't take very good pictures but just Google image it. In Bern we passed this stand that was serving free melted Swiss cheese on warm bread. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! It was so yummy!! My tour guide also bought this warm wine with cinnamon, it sounded like the perfect winter drink! I didn't get a chance to try it, but I'd really like to some time (but actually, friends...let's try it sometime!). There wasn't as much to do in Bern as I thought there would be, but it was still cool walking around a city we had never been to before. However, Switzerland's pricing is high! There was a Starbucks in Bern and the price for a grande was 9 Swiss franc which is basically the same currency as the US dollar. I don't buy Starbucks often anyways, but there was no way in hell I was trying any this time! Oddly enough, I think my favorite part of Bern, aside from the cheese and bread, was watching this street performer play bagpipes. I'm not sure what it was, but I just really enjoyed hearing music that we don't get to listen to often in the United States. 

After we got back to Interlaken, we were exhausted so a few of us decided to take a nap while the others decided to go out. We had the room key, so we just left the door cracked open for the others when they came back. Well, that idea backfired. The nap was unsuccessful to say the least. Remember those people with the weird pink outfits and face paint I was talking about earlier? Well, there were over a hundred of them staying in our hostel with absolutely ridiculous outfits, each with different themes. We saw tiger costumes, jesters, outer space theme, and even outfits with lights on them! It almost felt like we were the ones out of place. Apparently they go from place to place playing their drum line music, which is not at all quiet. During our nap we heard someone attempting to play the trumpet and then all of a sudden just a ton of drums outside out window. That didn't last too long so fortunately we started to drift off again. But just as I was drifting off, (half asleep, half awake) in my dream someone had screamed, which then caused me to scream....but instead of screaming in my dream, I actually screamed. Sooooo I woke up my roommates again! For our third round of drifting off we started to hear whistling. "Well, that's fine", we thought. It's just someone passing our door in the hallway! But the whistling was louder than we expected. We then remembered that we had left the door cracked open, so our reasoning was that it was just louder because the door was open. Nope. Two guys from the drum line crazy outfit party had decided to enter our room. They were being difficult and claimed that they had used their room key to get in our room but we knew that we had kept the door open, but long story short, after some yelling and shoving them out they eventually went away and our night continued nicely!

After all of that we went to dinner and then back to our Irish pub where we saw Sheppy again! It was nice to just sit at a table and drink, again, just keeping it relaxed. We had a stressful day!

On Sunday, a couple of my friends hadn't been to the lake that we went to on Friday, so we revisited that and took some gorgeous pictures and then we left back for Florence (but not before buying some chocolate first!)