Wouldn't it be loverly?

I am so tired right now, because I ate WAY too much food. For dinner tonight, I went with my friends, the Picconis (which means pigeon in Italian, haha--yes i make fun of them for that) to Fiorellas (the mother, my moms friend) parents house. At dinner were Fiorellas mom, dad, both grandmas, one grandpa, brother and his wife, and us. Excluding us, all of them live in the same house. The idea of community is very important to them. The grandparents have their own little farm and Fiorellas mom and dad take care of them. It is such a cool concept. Anyway, dinner was everything any American could hope for of Italian food and more. The pasta I had was cooked in chicken broth from a chicken that the family raised and killed, eggs from the chicken, homemade pasta, and then homemade flatbread--which was incredible! Fiorellas mom kept pushing food at me and I ate too much of course, but that is the same pattern for the whole week. Fiorella told me that Italian women believe that "a guest has not been treated well if he/she doesnt leave their house having gained weight"!!! Haha, well I am sure I have gained, because the food is so good, there is always a lot of it, and the women "force" you to eat a lot!

This week has been an amazing experience, from the huge grandeur and amazing history of Roma to the more relaxed lifestyle of the country here in Assisi. Today, Emanuele and Fiorella didnt have work (they are both teachers) so they let their daughters, Valeria who is 9, and Martina, 11, skip school (kind of ironic since they are teachers, pretty funny) and we went to Florence (or Firenze). Yeah, its true I actually went to the county of Tuscany--more than I could have hoped for--and spent a day in Florence. The most impressive things I saw there were the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, and the house of Dante. And the beauty of Florence is almost too much.

Tomorrow is my last full day here. The girls have school--oh yeah, in Italy children go to school on Saturday. I told the girls I think that it is a crime to have school on Saturday and they agreed. Anyway, they will leave after school for a small trip with girl scouts, so I will spend the day with Fiorella and Emmanuele and then Sunday afternoon I will take the train to the airport and fly to Madrid, Spain to spend a week with Jana. Too much excitement for me to handle. I must leave.

Wow,what a long day of travelingç I cannot really believe i even made it. After all the connections and methods and forms of travel.

bus--train--bus--airplane--airplane--bus--train--metro--hostel

Walking around our hostel and getting lost did suck, and developing blisters on the feet--I guess that was good to get over. But was so nice. For 8 euros each, Paj Ia and I had past and 2 glasses of white wine (vino bianco)ç we sat outside (and it was warm!) and an old Italin chef brought us each our meal. Can you get more Italian?? No, no for your first attempt in Roma!

I felt kinda tired after dinner, but I knew that Paj Ia and I shoud go out. so we took the metro to see the colloseum at night--BEA-UT-I-FUL! I could believe it though, that we were actually stanidng outside the Colloseum. P. and I went crazy. we skipped around taing pictures and being complete tourists, saw some ancient sites, and just relaxed. Then we found the Vince fountain and ate good gelato there. We were given some roses and took more pictures. We got hit on by 2 differen men--Paj Ia said she was from Thailand and I told a man he couldy buy me pizza if fate brought us together again!

Oh and a lady spiut on Paj If for taking a picture--she was a bitter Italian woman, very unusual. After a couple of buses we made it back, exhausted but we had an amazing night

Wow,what a long day of travelingç I cannot really believe i even made it. After all the connections and methods and forms of travel.

bus--train--bus--airplane--airplane--bus--train--metro--hostel

Walking around our hostel and getting lost did suck, and developing blisters on the feet--I guess that was good to get over. But dinner was so nice. For 8 euros each, Paj Ia and I had past and 2 glasses of white wine (vino bianco)ç we sat outside (and it was warm!) and an old Italian chef brought us each our meal. Can you get more Italian?? No, not for your first attempt in Roma!

I felt kinda tired after dinner, but I knew that Paj Ia and I should go out. So we took the metro to see the colloseum at night--BEA-UT-I-FUL! I couldn't believe it though, that we were actually standing outside the Colloseum. P. and I went crazy. we skipped around taking pictures and being complete tourists, saw some ancient sites, and just relaxed. Then we found the Trevi fountain and ate excellent gelato there. We were given some roses and took more pictures. We got hit on by 2 different men--Paj Ia said she was from Thailand and I told a man he could buy me pizza if fate brought us together again! Yeah, Italian men are too romantic ;)

Oh and a lady spit on Paj Ia for taking a picture--she was a bitter Italian woman, very unusual. After a couple of buses we made it back, exhausted but we had an amazing night.

Here is my schedule (pronounced with a British accent please: shedule) for the people that keep asking me and for anyone else that is curious.

May 5-11: Schladming, Austria with Pamela
May 11-14: Rome--meeting up with study abroad girls (Paj Ia and Pam)
May 14-22: Assisi, Italy--staying with some Italian friends of my family
May 22-28: Madrid, Spain--staying with Jana
May 28-29: London--staying with some Lithuanian friends from LCC
May 30: fly home finally!

A little crazy, I will admit. But quite a good time.

Saturday morning, Pamela and I left with the Tauernhof (name of her bible school here) bus to explore a city close by called Hallstadt. All I knew was that it was a very old city and suppposed to be pretty--well everything is here in the Alps. But no one told me it was on a lake in the mountains. I was in awe. Too incredible to believe.
Pamela, Raheal (one of her close friends--she's Swedish) and I went with the group to the saltmines, supposedly the oldest in the world, over 250 million years old. Then the three of us walked around the little city, the sun was shining, the mountians were in view and the whole city was out because apparently a half-marathon race had just ended. What an experience! I really enjoy Austria.