After much thought....

Well "After much thought....."

I have decided to only briefly recap what has occured, so as to get to the good stuff.....what's happening now.....

So, the first week I got here it was SO hot!!! I loved it :) It's like being in the desert....when you are completely and totally surrounded by heat, and when you breathe in you can feel it, that's the type of heat it was.....

I made friends quickly......when i'm in a new environment i become incredibly extroverted, even though I would typically consider myself pretty introverted. Katya, Brie and I became close and decided to look for an apartment together. After searching for an entire day, we found one we really loved: It's on the 2nd floor (but in the State's it'd be considered the 3rd....they call the first floor- the zero floor), it has 3 bedrooms, a fireplace, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and some storage closets. My room is the smallest, we actually call it the "prison" due to lack of light and bars over the tiny window :) But I like it.....it's cozy and warmer than the rest of the apartment....

My first trip was to Croatia....I had a mission to go see Plitvice Lakes and it was the most amazing place I have ever seen. I felt at peace there, I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the outdoors until recent years...but hiking around crystal clear lakes that had waterfalls leading into each other was something I will never forget. On the way to Croatia, I met some kids at the Bologna train station where I spent the night before my ferry, got propositioned by a man from Kosovo and chilled with a couple Aussie chicks on the ferry. My last night in Croatia was in Zadar. There I met a bunch of guys from Leeds and stayed up with them all night drinking and partying with the security guy in our hostel :)

Soon after, I took a trip to Barcelona with Brie and Katya. That city is phenomenal. I cried when I went into Gaudi's Casa Batillo. Modernist art and architecture really seems to define the city, it gives it life. Oh yea, sangria is my new best friend. ahha.....I had a day there on my own since I don't have class on mondays but the girls do...I spent HOURS just walking around the narrow streets and exploring the city.

I am so grateful to have met Kaitlin at the San Francisco consulate while applying for my Visa. She goes to school in Oregon and is studying in Florence this semester. Her and her roommate Ashley have become such great friends...we have a tradition of going to a Mexican restaurant named Tijuana and trying every flavor margarita :) So far we have had strawberry, amarillo, and classico! About 10 more to go! can't wait!

The Leeds Boys came to visit in Florence. Joe and Jake are graffiti artists travelling around Europe seeing different graffiti and doing their own along the way. Duncan also stayed at the apartment, he's from Perth and a funny ass guy when he's drunk. Then we all met up again in Milan....

I ended up in the emergency room in Milan. I was jumping over a medieval fence with Joe at the time and sliced my elbow open. Yea, that shit went all the way to the bone and I had to get 4 layers of stitches, 15 on the surface layer. But I didn't pay one cent for it, including the ambulance ride. I fully support socialized health care.

I've also made trips to Perugia for the Chocolate festival and Siena with Brie and Kat.

So this was a pretty long post, but missed many details.....will do my best in the future to keep updates.

For now, gotta study for the 5 midterms I have this week.....

Ciao!