…Do as the
Romans do. Definitely used that phrase to justify a lot of things this past
weekend in Rome. From the food, to the two-a-day gelato trips, to the miles of
walking every day. I loved Rome so much. Italy is beautiful and what I saw blew
me away. I’m amazed at how beautiful this world is and how much of the world I
have yet to see.
Jason and I
met around 5:30pm Thursday afternoon to take the metro and bus to the airport.
Didn’t realize we could take it all the way there – good to know for future
reference so I don’t have to pay for a cab every time. Emily, I know I told you
to take a shuttle, but I will just come pick you up at the airport and bring
you back on public transport. It will be much easier to do it that way and way
less expensive! We’ll talk more about it closer to May!! So we got to the
airport and Jason and I were walking around for a while trying to figure out
where the departure place was; we even walked outside and asked someone and
they just pointed back inside to where we were. I didn’t realize that arrivals
were on the first floor and departures were on the second floor… small airport.
We checked in really quickly… they didn’t even check our passports and then we
headed to the gate area. Our gate number hadn’t been announced yet, so we went
up another set of stairs to where all the restaurants were and found Amanda and
Caitlin up there. We hung out for a little until our gate was announced and
then headed to our gate. We had to get on a bus that took us straight over to
our flight and then it was a free-for-all mad house run for the plane to get
the best seats. Like, are you kidding me? Amanda got out of the bus the
quickest and ended up a few people in front of us, so she ended up saving us
four seats all together toward the front which was nice. Some lady in the front
row was having some medical issues, so she ended up having to get off the plane
with the rest of her family. After that, they had to recheck all our bags as a
safety precaution. We ended up leaving almost an hour later than we should
have, but it wasn’t a huge deal. The flight was only an hour and twenty
minutes. We got to Rome and I pulled out some euros from the ATM. We found a
taxi to take us to our hotel and hopped in after confirming the price. Oh my
Lord I have never been more scared in my life. This taxi driver was insane.
Weaving in and out of cars, driving incredibly fast, and only breaking at the
last minute when he thought he needed to. I was praying that I’d survive that
car ride. How lame would it be if I only got to spend ten minutes in Rome?
We turned
the corner in the taxi, all looked at this huge lit up beautiful building to
our right, all got quiet, looked at each other, looked back at the building and
were just in awe. We were all like… “is that the colosseum?” Indeed it was. We
couldn’t believe it. That officially made it settle in that we were finally in
Rome! We got to our hotel and we were staying in a four bedroom (one double bed
and one bunk bed). I slept on the bottom bunk, Jason on top bunk, and Amanda
and Caitlin in the double bed. Lena was the lady who checked us in and I ended
up calling her momma Lena all weekend; she was so adorable and wanted to talk
to us whenever we came back home! She was great! It was around 11pm after we
checked in and got our stuff in our room and we decided to walk around Rome for
a little to explore the area around our hotel. We were a little bit outside of
where all the major attractions were, so we just walked a little ways, found
some food, and then went back to our hotel. We were exhausted and ended up
passing out around 12:30.
Friday
morning we got up around 9am and started our day! We had a busy day ahead of us
to see the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum. We walked about 2.5 miles
to get to that area of Rome and found out that the ticket gate at Palatine Hill
sold a combined ticket for all three attractions. Score! We waited in line for
about forty minutes, which wasn’t too bad and we finally got in. Palatine hill is one of the most ancient parts of the city and recent excavations show that people had lived there since 1000BC. Here are a few pictures I took from Palatine Hill:
After
walking around Palatine hill for a while and taking in all the ruins, we
decided to head to the Colosseum. On our way to Palatine Hill there was a huge
line for the Colosseum, but now that we had our ticket for all three
attractions, we got to skip the line and walk straight in. I was seriously in
shock. I couldn’t believe I was standing in the Colosseum. I mean, I thought
the Coliseum was cool, but it doesn’t even get close to how incredible the
Roman Colosseum is. We walked all the way around and took it all in. We stayed
there for a while and kept saying we could literally just stand here and look
around the colosseum forever.
After a
while, we walked out of the Colosseum and decided to get lunch on a hill behind
the Colosseum. We went to a small Italian family-owned restaurant that was really
good. I just got some vegetable soup, while the other three got the daily
special that included lasagna, gnocchi, and one other pasta that I can’t
remember. After lunch, we headed back down to see the Forum but by this time it
was already getting close to the time of it closing, but we didn’t realize it.
We had seen the Forum from Palatine Hill, and took many pictures of it but just
hadn’t walked through it. It was a lot like Palatine Hill – just a bunch of
ruins, so since we weren’t able to get in, we weren’t too bummed out. We took
pictures from the outside and pretty much could see everything; we just weren’t
able to walk around it. The Roman Forum is now ruins of what used to be
government buildings. Here are some pictures of The Forum:
After seeing
the Roman Forum from outside the gates, we decided to go on a journey for our
first Italian gelato. We used a trip advisor app to help us look up some
places, and then we went on a long walk to find it. On our way we stumbled upon this massive, beautiful building and couldn't resist snapping a couple of pics:
We seriously couldn’t find
it anywhere, but on our way to find what was the best gelato place in Rome, we
ran into another place that looked really good! We just decided to stop there
and it was super overwhelming! There were people lined up and looking at all
the flavors. It was hard to see all the flavors and decide what I wanted to
get. I normally wouldn’t have gelato, but “when in Rome…” So I ended up getting
some gelato and it was incredible! I loved it. It’s a bit icier than ice cream,
but not too much. So yummy! I got a raspberry flavor and a chocolate flavor.
Delicious! After we sat and had our gelato, we ended up going back to the hotel
to drop off our stuff and chill for a little while. The three I was with wanted
to find some Italian pizza for dinner and we ended up going to a stone fire
pizza place that was really good. I got bruschetta with tomatoes and olive oil - so yummy! I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it was. I guess it was a good thing because my dinner was just some grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, peppers, lettuce). I thought it was delicious. My friends got huge pizzas that looked delectable, too! They said they were delicious! After dinner we walked around the area we were in and were possibly going to stop into a bar, but nothing was really hoppin'! Nightlife in Rome isn't the same as Budapest. A lot of the bars were pretty empty. We ended up just going back to our hotel and calling it a night; we were all really exhausted anyway.
Saturday morning we woke up early again. We had a long day ahead of us and got the day going. Saturday was all about the Vatican city. This was probably one of my favorite days. I was constantly in awe and shock the whole day. Everything I saw was amazing! We took public transportation this time, so we didn't have to walk as much as we did on Friday (we guessed we probably walked around seven or eight miles on Friday). We got off the bus and it was raining a little bit; we were a bit bummed that the day we were doing Vatican city it was raining. We could either see St. Peter's Basilica church first or go to the Vatican museums and see the Sistine Chapel. Jason was meeting a friend he knew from USC who was visiting Rome, so they planned to meet at the Basilica at 11am. Amanda, Caitlin, and I wanted to do the Vatican museums first so we split up and were going to meet later in the day. The line was not long at all to see the Vatican museums and we got to pay the student fee, which we weren't really allowed to do because we didn't have the European international student card, but the guy let us which was really nice! It was only 8 euro instead of 16. The Vatican museum was magnificent - there were sculptures, art, and artifacts collected from way back in the day. Reading about all the different stuff in the museum was fun. My favorite room was the one with all the drawings of maps - I'll show you some pictures of that room:
At the end of the Vatican museums, we got to head into the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is the official residence of the Pope in the Vatican City. Well, while we were there, there was no official pope, but hey, that's his residence when there is actually a pope! Inside the chapel there were security guards constantly hushing people to be quiet and we were not allowed to take any pictures. I snapped a few on my phone, but none on my big camera. I was too afraid. A security guard actually came over to me and asked me to put the lens cap on my camera to make sure I wouldn't take any pictures. I just enjoyed the silence and artwork done by Michelangelo all over the ceiling and walls. It was just amazing; I couldn't believe what I was actually seeing. We stood in there for a long time just looking at all the artwork on the ceiling and on the walls. Definitely the best part of the Vatican museums! Here's the one picture I was able to take on my phone:
We got lunch at a quick salad/panini shop near the Vatican museums and ate it outside on some concrete benches. The rainy weather from the morning burned off and it was finally sunny!! Perfect for our afternoon at the Basilica. We tried to find wifi to tell Jason that we would be going to do the basilica first, so we walked around to some restaurants until we found some. We ended up getting a message from him saying that his friend never met him, so he ended up trying to find us in the Vatican museums and did the museums so he could do the basilica with us afterward! Good thinking. He told us he was at some cafe and it ended up being the same one we found wifi at so we looked around the cafe and eventually found him! He came with us in the afternoon to see the Vatican square and St. Peter's Basilica. This was probably my favorite part of the entire trip! We waited in line to get tickets for the basilica and it cost 5 euro to climb the steps, or 7 euro to take the elevator. Of course we were climbing all 500ish steps to the top of the basilica! We played a few games on the way up, like the picnic game, which Jason still hasn't figured out what he's bringing to the picnic. Guess he never went to camp before... haha. The stairs on the way up were not made for someone who likes a lot of food, as my mother would have me put it. It was also not for those who are claustrophobic. The stairs were fine at first but when it got closer to the top the stairs were tiny and the walls started caving in... and at one point, I was getting extremely dizzy climbing stairs in a circle but I just kept thinking how beautiful it was going to be at the top! As soon as we reached the top, I looked out onto all of Rome and tears started swelling in my eyes. It was the most amazing view I'd ever seen! We stayed up there for a while just taking it all in. We took pictures and just stared out onto the city of Rome! We loved it up there.. it was a bit windy, but the sun was out and it was gorgeous!
Here's some pictures at the top of the Basilica:
Almost to the top - view from midway!
Jason taking pictures of me on top of the basilica!
There was a mirror-like window on the top of the Basilica, so Jason and I started taking pictures in it! Little did we know until a little later that there were two security guards on the other side of the mirror. We couldn't see them at first, but then they started holding up water bottles and banging on the mirror to mess with us and then we noticed them! We took about 12 of these pictures, somewhat to mess with the security guards - so we were laughing on both sides of the window!
After
climbing up to the top of the Basilica, we took the endless stairs back down and
then went inside of the church. Gorgeous! It just kept getting better and
better as the day went on. Pictures speak louder than my words can so here are
some pictures:
This section was open for prayer, so Amanda, Caitlin, and me went inside, knelt down, and prayed in St. Peter's Basilica! How neat!
We
left the church and took some pictures from the outside. Here are a few:
We were on
our way to head out and find some gelato when we realized we missed the famous
Michelangelo sculpture inside the basilica. How we missed it? We have no idea,
but we had to go back! Before going back though, I stopped at a stand and
bought a few postcards with Rome on the front. I may have said it before, but I’m
collecting post cards from every place I visit. Thought it would be a cheap way
to get souvenirs from all the places I’ll travel to. We saw the sculpture,
called La Pieta, as soon as we walked in the next time! It’s of Mary holding
Jesus after the crucifixion and is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.
Here are a couple of pictures:
So our long
day in Vatican city was finished! So glad we got to see everything we wanted to
see there! We were so in the mood for gelato, so we decided to find that place
we were searching for the day before. Eventually, after many missed turns, we
found the address. The doors were locked, lights were out, and newspaper
covered the windows. Turns out that the
number one gelato place in Rome was closed… go figure. At this point it’s
already creeping up on six pm, so we decided we should find a place for dinner
and then do gelato afterward. I went into a hotel and asked the reception desk
where the nearest, non-touristy good Italian food restaurant was and she
pointed us in the right direction. We ate outside with heaters and were totally
comfortable! I got a plate of cooked spinach and vegetable soup, and the others
got pasta! My food was delicious; I really enjoyed it! The inside of the restaurant
was pretty big, but definitely looked like the typical Italian restaurant. Lots
of spaghetti and random decorations on the walls. They even had an antipasta
bar that I didn’t know about until after we had eaten. This restaurant, out of
all the restaurants we went to, reminded me most of the Italian restaurants my
dad used to own.
After dinner, we finally got our gelato and then headed back to the hotel afterward. Ah it felt so good to sit down after walking around all day. Caitlin said that her friend who was studying in Rome was going to take us out to a club that night, but when we asked her about it, she said that it would be a late, late night - we'd get home around 5am. I was so tired and starting to feel really sick, so Amanda and I decided to skip out on the clubbing. Jason, Caitlin, and Caitlin's friend went out and ended up getting back around 5:30am. I'm actually really glad I didn't go because I would've felt even more horrible then I felt the next morning. Jason came back and said that Caitlin had left almost an hour before him, but she wasn't back yet. We kind of freaked out and tried calling her, and finally about ten minutes later she walked in the door with her friend! We were getting a little nervous... They said they had a lot of fun but the bar/club scene was way different than that of Budapest. The next morning we got up relatively early.. 10am and Amanda and I were going to go see a church we read about and then come back and get Jason and Caitlin to do the rest we had planned for the next day. Caitlin got up with us though because she wanted to see it, so we ended up making Jason come with us because once we were out of the hotel we wouldn't want to walk the mile or so back to the hotel just to get him. We saw a church called St. Peter in Chains (San Pietro in Vincoli) that houses the chains that bound Saint Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem. Also inside the church is Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses. I forgot my camera on this day so these pictures are from my phone:
After we went to the church, we headed over to the Trevi fountain to make our wish! We got there and were thinking about maybe getting lunch and coming back to do our wish, but then we all realized that we had our wishes in mind. I video recorded myself making a wish - I can't tell you what I wished for, but it was a good one! :) I threw a coin in the fountain over my right shoulder - hopefully it comes true!
After all of us made our wishes at the Trevi fountain, we found a small restaurant nearby off of the main road. This is Jason, Amanda, and Caitlin at our table we sat at outside for lunch! They brought us complementary "Italian bubbly water," but come to find out it was just champagne! ha
After lunch, we wandered over to the Spanish steps. We took a seat and sat there for a while. I ended up taking off my jacket, bunching it up as a pillow, and laying down on one of the steps for a while. I was almost a sleep, but not quite there yet. If we stayed much longer I would have been asleep. It was so sunny out and it felt amazing! While we were sitting there, Amanda pointed out a sign that read it was 22 degrees celsius outside - that's about 72 degrees Fahrenheit! It felt so amazing! Haven't had that much sun in a long time! We finished walking to the top of the steps and then made our way back down.
After the spanish steps we made our way to the Pantheon, which is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome which was built over two thousand years ago.
After seeing the Pantheon, we wandered over to another area with a bunch of fountains and then eventually made it to Campo de Fiori - an area with a bunch of restaurants and small shops. Every morning there is an amazing farmers market set up in the middle of the square (we went there monday morning!). We shopped around for about an hour and then found some place to eat in Campo de Fiori. When we were shopping, Jason found a very nice upscale men's clothing store so we decided to go in there. It was just us four in the shop and Jason started trying on jackets that he was interested in. After about trying on two jackets, the woman working at the shop went over and blasted the music - Call me Maybe was playing on the radio and Amanda, Caitlin, and I just busted out dancing and singing! The place was jumpin'! She definitely turned up the music to get us excited and to hopefully get Jason to buy a jacket. He actually would've bought one if they had his size, but none really fit him right. Oh well, it was fun dancing around the store while we could! We realized that a lot of stores turned up the music when we went in - I guess they think its a good way to put us in a good mood so we'll ultimately feel more inclined to buy something. Never really experienced that before. It even happened at a small shop at the airport. The restaurant we ate at that night was more modern - not the homey family-owned Italian feel, but it was still good. I ended up getting the eggplant parmigiana. Yes, I know... so not vegan, but hey "when in Rome..." I told you we justified a lot with that saying. It was delicious!! Very very yummy! The eggplant just melted in my mouth. They served us complementary shots of some liquor at the end of the meal and it tasted somewhat like jagermeister, but not sure exactly what it was. After dinner, we walked around Campo some more and met with Jason's friend. She took us to a bar where most international students hung out and we watched the soccer game that Rome was playing in. We had a chance to go to the soccer game, but we weren't sure what time we would finish all our sight-seeing so we ended up not going. All of us wish we had, though, when we were sitting in a bar watching the game! After the game we decided to head over to the Colosseum to see it lit up at night. It was beautiful!
We called it a night and took a bus back to our hotel. Early night for the busy sight-see'ers. Monday morning we got up and got our bags ready to leave later that night. We walked over to Campo de Fiori to see the farmers market, and it was wonderful! I bought an apple because it looked delicious, and it was so crunchy. Let me tell you, I've been desperately deprived of apples since being in Budapest, so finding a good apple was clutch. I ended up buying two more. I also bought some figs and some sun dried tomatoes! yum! After that, Jason met his friend and they ended up spending the day together since Amanda, Caitlin, and I were going to shop around for the day. We ended up shopping around Campo de Fiori and then decided to make our way over to Trestevere. This area was adorable!! It was on the other side of the river, more of a family area and not as many tourists. We loved it! It was a lot quieter and a great break from the busy, noisy, touristy areas of Rome. We grabbed a quick lunch and coffee and walked around for the rest of the day. We went to the top of a hill where there was a park and got another beautiful view of Rome.
I ended up buying a cute genuine leather, made in Italy purse that's navy with a camel strap! Amanda bought a brown one and I ended up loving the exact same purse but in navy. I kept it there though while we walked around a little more, but it continued to stay on my mind. It was only 34 euro, so when we passed the shop again I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I got the purse because it was such a great deal and I'm obsessed! All the leather bags in the other shops were extremely expensive, so I'm glad I found one at a reasonable price! After shopping for the day, we tried a gelato shop and it was delicious! The best we had the entire time we were in Rome! It was so delicious- I got a basil, walnut, and honey flavored scoop and a chocolate, coffee, and hazelnut scoop. Interesting flavors, I know, but it tasted so good! We had about an hour until we were going to eat dinner, so we walked around some more and soaked in the typical Roman neighborhood. There were actual lines of laundry being hung from the windows, bikes locked up the gates, and cute little restaurants and shops all over. I felt the most like I was in Italy while walking around Trestevere! We ate dinner at one of the best restaurants we had eaten at and the prices were phenomenal. After eating there, we realized the food was totally overpriced at all the other restaurants we ate at. We were able to get a pizza for 2 euro, pasta dishes for 5 euro, wine for 2 euro... we were paying probably 13-15 euro a meal before.
We realized it was 7:05pm toward the end of our meal, and we planned to meet Jason at the hotel around 7:15 in order to catch our flight. We quickly finished our meal, got our check, and ran to catch a cab. We got back around 7:30 and Jason didn't get back until 7:45. There was a bus headed to the airport that was leaving at 7:52 so we rushed out of there and tried to make it! Apparently it had come a lot earlier than 7:52 and the next one wouldn't come until 8:30. We thought it would be pushing it to leave that late, so we ended up taking another cab. Scariest moment of the trip, besides the cab ride to our hotel Thursday night. I had my back pack in my lap and my purse on my lap with me. For the flight I could only have one bag, so I had to stuff my purse into my backpack. I decided to do that when we were almost to the airport, but I took out a little purse thing that held my passport, boarding pass, and all my hungarian money that I didn't need while in Rome. I put that on my lap, stuffed my purse in my backpack, and was ready to go. From the time I got out of the cab until someone mentioned if we had everything, I realized that I left that little purse thing in the cab. I was freaking out. The cab already took off. I didn't know if it was going to stop to pick up someone else. I was doomed. Something told me to run, so I listened to that inner voice. I sprinted toward the cab, the whole time praying that he'd be close by. I finally found him with his cab parked standing outside of the cab. He was holding my bag, thank God! He told me he only opened it to see what was inside. I checked to make sure my passport and boarding pass were there because that's all I cared about. I said thank you and started to turn away, and then he yelled for me. He held out his hand and gave me back the hungarian coins that he had taken from the bag. I think he thought they were euros, so he tried to steal them and realized he couldn't do anything with a lousy 300 forint ($1.50). I was a little irritated that he would have tried to steal, but honestly I didn't really care as long as I had my passport and boarding pass back. I don't know what I would've done. My heart was pounding well after an hour of being at the airport. I couldn't stop thinking how scary it was to lose that. We made it through security quickly, got to our gate, and waited to get on the flight. Again, free for all for the seats, but this time we didn't have to take a bus. We got seats in the middle of the plane and as soon as we took off, we were all out. The flight went so quick because we literally slept the entire way. I was sad to leave Rome, but was ready to get back to Budapest to sleep in my own bed!
On Monday morning, I woke up with my eye crusted over like pink eye symptoms and my eye was really red. It is still sort of red right now and I scheduled a doctors appointment for tomorrow. I read that pink eye can be caused by a common cold bacteria, so if you do have cold symptoms, you can get antibiotics for the pink eye and for the cold! I'm definitely going to talk to a doctor about getting two types of antibiotics. I've been sick pretty much the whole trip and I just need to knock this cold away.
In all, Rome was fantastic. Absolutely gorgeous, stunningly beautiful, and breathtaking! I also forgot to mention that there were fountains all over the city that were just running with fresh water that was totally drinkable. We all carried around water bottles and just filled up at the fountains all day instead of having to buy water everywhere we went! Loved that Rome had those fountains! At most of the restaurants, they charge you a service fee for sitting down. Usually its about 2 euro per person, but then there is no tax and no tip required so it evens out to about what a bill is in the United States. There are also a lot of American students studying abroad in Rome, so it was a lot different walking around the city and hearing a bunch of students speaking perfect English. That doesn't really happen a lot here in Budapest, which I actually really like! Another thing I noticed, is that most of the public toilets did not have toilet seats. I guess that's a good way to keep things sanitary - there's really no seat for anyone to sit on, so everyone has to squat to go to the bathroom. Also the water in the sinks - to turn it on there is a little foot pedal that you step on to get the water to start. At first, I had no idea how the sinks worked. I couldn't find a knob to turn and I thought it may be automatic and after like five minutes of swinging my soapy hands under the faucet, I realized the pedal on the ground. I stepped on it and it was a miracle! Water came out of the faucet!
I loved Rome and had such a great time there! Would not change a thing about the trip!
I came home last night to a facebook message from a former camper, now leader, at the summer camp
I work at; she wanted to send me a picture of her and three girls sleeping in the
room I lived in for eight weeks last summer. Rome took my mind off of missing out on being at camp with everyone over the weekend for staff/leader training, but I still insanely
miss camp. Bunkie, aren’t you jealous that Hannah and Amber slept in our bunk?
And how much do you wish we were in that bunk right now taking pictures of each
other and yelling until Fraunces tells us it’s 1:30 in the morning?
Today I went over to Corvinus to meet with a group to write our case study analysis that's due tomorrow and I ended up running into a few people on my way. I didn't realize it, but I genuinely missed my friends here in Budapest. I saw Rafael, Henrik, and Anthony and just gave them all big hugs and we caught up on each other's weekends! Anna-Lena was waiting on Anthony and I to work on the project so we had to go meet with her. We ended up making copies of the case from the textbook in the library and then assigned parts. It was so sunny out today that Anthony and I decided to hike the mountain across from our school! This is the cross about half way up the mountain, and below is Anthony being a goof.
We climbed up and down the mountain not really on the normal paths, but that made it fun. We climbed the steep, unpaved parts and I slipped a lot but laughed along the way! We sat up at the top and shared an orange that Anthony had brought in his bag and then made our way back down. We stopped at the soup place by our school called Leves (pronounced Levish, I think). This place is awesome! It's a small little restaurant that changes their soup menu every day. They serve four soups daily and four different sandwiches. The soups are poured into cups, and then they put a spoon and lid on top of it. The soups are so good, and super cheap! I paid about $2.25 for a huge cup of soup! It's almost like the cool thing to carry around here - if you have a Leves cup in your hand, you're considered cool. It's like Starbucks in the United States - carrying a starbucks cup gives you some sort of status. Well, so does Leves. And it's so good that whenever you see someone carrying it, you're reminded to go get some later that day. It's right across the street from campus and there is always a long line of students outside the door waiting to get their soup and sandwiches. Okay, long tangent on Leves, but it's fantastic. I had the pumpkin soup with coconut milk - the only soup they make that I can eat so whenever they have it, I'm so down to get it! Anthony and I ate our soup in the sun and then headed over to try to get our internet to work on our phones at the tech support place at our school. They ended up being closed but we ran into some more friends outside - Chloe, Lara, and Niels. Chloe and Lara ended up having to leave, but Niels stayed to chat. I wore my sweat pants and sweat shirt today because I was tired and not really planning on seeing many people. Let's be honest, I was bummin' it. I was also wearing my tennis shoes, not converses, tennis shoes. Europeans aren't used to that "bummin' it" style. Niels (from Holland) made it a point to tell me how much he liked my outfit. I told him I could model it for him.
I stayed at the library until it closed around 8pm working on the case study and trying to plan a trip to Greece with Mary, Carolyn, and Andie - all friends from high school. We all happen to be in Europe at the same time, so we are trying to coordinate a trip to see each other! We thought Greece would be amazing, but it may be too expensive! We'll see.
I came home and tried to figure out my insurance. I thought I wasn't insured while abroad because I couldn't print the health insurance I thought I had been signed up for. Turns out, I was signed up for a different health insurance so I drove my dad crazy trying to work things out with the insurance company. Sorry dad, but I do appreciate you calling for me! I ended up making a call to the insurance office closest to me which is in London. Oh the British accents get me every time! They just had me give them some information and tell them my symptoms and then they told me that they would call the doctors around me and schedule an appointment. I was shocked that they were going to do all the work, but they just said they'd call me in the morning with the information! Sounds good to me! Now that it's 2:30 in the morning, though, and it has taken me FOREVER to write this long blog, I am going to get some sleep! Thanks for keeping up.
I'm headed to Slovenia on Friday morning to spend the weekend there through an ESN organized group - there are about 150 of us going! I encourage all of you to google image search the following places I'll be going to see because I don't think I can even begin to describe how beautiful it is:
the castle in Bled, Slovenia (breathtaking!)
Skocjan caves in Slovenia
Ljubljana, Slovenia
I so cannot wait to go!! It'll be a great trip! After this weekend, I'll have a weekend at home to enjoy Budapest and study for midterms coming up the week after. I can't believe it's already mid semester time. The weeks are flying by here!
I will most likely post after the Slovenia trip! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!
Wishing I had some gelato right now...
xoxo
