hello there blog world

since i'm totally behind on the updates i'll just catch up a bit and start from now...

last i left off i was going to rome with my program. it was nice to stay in a nicer hotel, even though those of us in triples (me) were still in triples. it was nice cause we got to be with our roomates so it wasn't awkward or anything. i had been to rome before so it wasn't suuuuper exciting for me, but i definitely liked it a lot better this time than last! i was told not to write about food so i'll only say this briefly: they have yummy pizza in rome. and last time i went to italy with my grandmother (hi gram if you're reading this!) she was obsessed with the spinach. i thought she was really strange and didn't understand at all, but now i do. for some reason i love spinach all of a sudden?

okay thats enough for the food. part of rome kinda sucked cause we had class each day (including saturday...boo) and our teachers kinda crazy so we litterally stood still in the back rooms of churches listening to him ramble on about who knows what for a good hour at each place. needless to say our feet hurt a lot! we also never got to the point of understanding the buses (and we're kinda cheap haha) so we walked the whole city. i know from places like paris it doesn't seem very big, but coming from Siena, Rome is gigantic! the coolest things we did were probably: eating at this tiny little restaurant where the guys there made us stay longer (not in a creepy way) and gave us a free bottle of champagne and going to see the Pope speak on Sunday afternoon. I felt kinda guilty cause the two other Jewish girls on the program went to the famous Jewish Temple that morning, but I really wanted to sleep in and ended up seeing the (Catholic) Pope instead. oh well! it was very cool getting to see how many people were there! he didn't talk for very long and i only understood a bit of it, but he seemed cute and nice. he gives shout outs too in all different languages! it was so funny. like "id like to welcome St. Andrew's School from Buffalo, NY" in each language and the groups he mentioned would yell. so i can say that i got blessed by the pope :) that's pretty neat.

we were only back for a few days before we left for Pisa/BARCELONA! on thursday March 15 we left in the afternoon to stay overnight in Pisa in order to catch a 8am flight to spain. we took advantage of the early time and got to pisa with enough time to eat and see the tower (which i'd never seen before). i think pisa was really nice. apparently a lot of people think it's kinda dissapointing, but i thought it was a cute little city. kind of a combination of siena and florence. i tried to take the must-take-tourist-photo where it looks like you're holding up the tower, but it was dark so i'm not sure how it came out. we went to bed (our hotel was litterally a block from the train station, so that was really night) and got up the next morning at the good hour of 5:20am to go to the airport.

now i'm sitting in the computer room at the CET center, trying to rip la dolce vita onto my computer but its not working :( i think ill give up and go back home cause im pretty hungry. dinner at 8ish at the mensa, the cafeteria thats free! oh and i was told to write more about how i feel about being here. so...i really like siena. i love being in europe, i think i just love things that are different. i get too bored in the same place for a while. it's weird, part of me really likes staying put and the other hates it. hmmm. but sienas a really good home base i think. its cute and nice and there's enough to do, but not so much that you feel like you're missing out by traveling. i could definitely be doing more day trips, but it's like i came alllllll this way to europe i want to take advantage of it. this weekend i'm not traveling, so maybe i'll end up going somewhere closeby in tuscany for the afternoon? it also costs soooo much here. i can't believe it. the exchange rates awful and things are more expensive in general. va bene! i'll live. i figure i'm only here once so i want to experience as much as is feasible. i'm going to Capri and Sorrento (southern italy) in two weekends and then the week after that is spring break! i'm so excited. for spring break i'm going to Germany (munich/bavaria), Czech Republic (prague), and Hungary (budapest)! i have to buy some more train tickets and fill in the gaps but it's mostly planned. i'm so excited.

anyway i'll write more soon and maybe more pictures. the site i use takes a while, so that's why i haven't put as many. i'll talk about barcelona pt II next time!