Brief update

Ciao Friends!

So I have made it back from Greek Week (our spring break trip in Greece!). Kelsey, Amy, Tasha, Erica and I went for 10 days and went to Crete, Mykonos then Athens. It was a greattttt week and a half!! However that will have to wait! I currently am 'working' on my final papers and we have finals starting soon!! SO slowly but surely I will put up posts about Greece and Sicily. ANDD Gretchen is coming to play!! YAYYY We so excited!! She'll be here right at the end of finals so thats the most wonderful thing ever!

I do have a few quick things to tell though! Before Sicily, was culture week in Rome so Kelsey and I took advantage of the free-ish museums to go do some undone sight-seeing. We took Kelsey, Francesca's best friend from school, to Castle Sant' Angelo and then I went to the Capitoline Museums on my own. It was a beautiful day and once in the castle, you have great view of Rome including the Vatican! It's usually 8 euro but we got in fo free! Win. It was lovely going because it's not quite a top hot spot so there weren't to many tourists up there. It was originally built as Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum but was used as a safe place for the popes when the city was in danger like in a fire or under siege. And the statues on the bridge that lead straight up to it are all Berninis.

Afterwards, my Kelsey went back to nap and Francesca's Kelsey went to meet Francesca at the Colosseum and I went on to the Capitoline Museums. They were a gift to the city by a pope a long time ago I can't remember exactly when but I want to say the 1700's. It houses mostly statues that are important to the Roman heritage like those of emperors, gods, goddesses and philosophers. There is also the famous Lupa statue as well. She's the she wolf that it was said saved Romulus and Remus as infants until a farmer came along to raise them. Romulus went on to found the city of Rome in 735 BC.

Constantine

Hall of Statues

Augustus

Hall of the Philosophers

Original Equestrian Marcus Aurelius statue from the courtyard

Hadrian

Lupa

That has basically been all that I have been doing since I haven't been in Rome much in the past 3 weeks. I'm looking forward to my last few weeks here and going to make sure that they are full of the essentials (pizza pasta gelato). Minimal amount of school work ;)

Pizza tour of Naples, funded by Arcadia (aka class trip to Naples)

Follow up from the Ravenna post: I wanted to make a note to all readers as to the proper pronunciation of "Janing".  Jan, the name, is a soft 'j', as most will know from the Anchorman reference when he goes for a jog, also with the soft 'j' use. This however is legitimate in that Jan is Belgian and is actually a soft 'j'. Thus it it janing with a soft 'j'. It adds to the ambiance of the term. Moving on.

Last weekend I went to Naples on another class trip. This time was much better then last time when I was there for a grand total of maybe 4 hours, most of which was spent in the train station. For those that have not been there, it is kinda gross there, especially when you walk out of the train station. It's all clearly illegal immigrants that are selling the knock off stuff left and right and are rather creepy individuals. Anyway. I started out with low expectations even knowing this was going to be better then last time. I was with 4 other students, Kelsey, Jack, Natasha and Alex from my class (there are only 6 of us and our professor but Lily couldn't go). Our professor's name is Alex and he is german and a red head. The man is a gem if there ever was one. He often dresses as if he walked out of a crayola crayon box; He once wore bright yellow pants, a candy apple red sweater with a blue and white striped button-down shirt. If his lectures make us drowsy, his outfits are there to wake us up. When not worn together, there is often one of these fine articles of clothing represented at every class. Anyway, his wardrobe was not the purpose of our trip.

Alex in the flesh. 

We started with a museum, the Naples National Archaeological Museum, which houses part of the Farnese collection (we visited the other half here in Rome) and tons and tons of things they found in Pompeii. They were some pretty cool things, though I think alot of it was closed off because we went through all of it rather fast. They had some cool mosaics though from the floors and walls of Pompeii houses. (They had alot of Roman statues. We all know that I don't get tired of that stuff so I have more pictures of those.. Im getting really good at identifying people without looking at the name plates. Win).

Tash and Kelsey with Hercules

Marcus Aurelius 

This was the cover of one of books for my Ancient Rome class.. WILD

Famous floor that's on the covers of lots of text books

Since there wasn't too much of interest other then typical museum (read: old) things I'll move on to what really matters: pizza. We successfully convinced Alex (our professor. yes it is confusing with Girl Alex in the class and professor Alex, who we just call Alex, as well as another BOY Alex in our program. Fortunately he has a plethora of nick names: Dusty, Jerry, Boy Alex etc) to take us to get pizza for lunch at a famous pizza place that Kelsey and Natasha went when they came earlier in the semester. (I'm sorry that was rather long winded and confusing sentence. I like to use parentheses). It was called Gino Sorbillo's and I think it was the best pizza I've EVER had. I was frazzled when I had to order so I just got a margherita pizza (which is straight tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil). Which is the greatest rush decision ever. I'm pretty sure that there was ricotta cheese on there too and probably some crack as well because it was amazing. And the dough. Its just SO GOOD THERE IS NOTHING BAD ABOUT NAPLES PIZZA. except the location. I have also been informed that the water in Naples is what makes the crust great. (which means there is a high chance that there is crack in it. But i'll save the mafia for an upcoming post :) ) We were all very satisfied with our pizza and very full. So yummy.

We then took the tram thing they have in Naples to the top of one of the mountains that surrounds Naples, to this monastery that has been turned into a museum. It was pretty cool. The church attached was the most busy I've ever seen, in terms of the decorations. All of the marble was colored marble and thus made it a very chaotic sight. It wasn't bad but it clearly showed how much money they had because the colored marble is rather pricy. You know, as marble goes.... But we walked through the courtyard and took some absurd pictures with skulls that were decorations (....weird) and were only able to see one level of the museum. Side note: This was the beginning of culture week, which I think may be a nationwide thing because this was free as well as most things in Rome this week. So the first floor of the museum was closed because they could because it was also free. I don't get it but I stopped questioning Southern Europe ways of life... They make things much more complicated then need be.

So given that we were on top of the mountain it had fantastic views of Naples and the ocean (its on the western coast, south of Rome, but right on the water). It was lovely. We walked down and it was the same view but obviously slightly different as we went farther down.. Nonetheless, lots of pictures were taken.

the gang

Alex in the Monastery Garden. 

We went back to our hostel since we were out of time to go to the last place we were supposed. This was the biggest difference between this trip and the one with Jan. Jan would not let us talk him into going to get pizza for lunch and taking 2 and half extra hours out of our schedule to go to a famous pizza place. Or walk at our own pace. And god forbid we miss seeing something. Alex walked at our speed, stopped to see things not on our list and obvi stopped for pizza. Anyway, we got back to our hostel and had a chance to rest before going to eat again. Our hostel though was the greatest place ever. It was all neon colors and it was super fun. There was a little bar and a massive flat screen tv with about 200 movies (some in english, some not), a wii, and washer and dryer. It was super!! Our room for the 5 of us (teacher Alex got his own room, which was neon blue and had his own bathroom) was neon green and had a cute little balcony with a pretty sweet view of the city. I'm not a fan of Naples but if you go, go here. It is actually the best thing beside the pizza to have happened that weekend.
http://www.hostelnapoli.com/languages/english/

So. Then it was time to eat again and we went to another famous pizzeria that I can't remember the name of. It started with a T, but I couldn't even begin to guess to google it. It was a little bit of a walk from the hostel, but we were all still pretty full from lunch that walking more was going to make room for more pizza, which is all that matters on a pizza tour of Naples. I got a white margherita, which means that instead of tomato sauce, its fresh cherry tomatoes cut up on top of the cheese, still with basil. Still pretty solid. I couldn't finish mine because I was so full and we had beer but it was wonderful. There was so much bonding at the dinner table. So cute. We came back after and hung out for a little before we went to bed.

The next day we were up somewhat early to get breakfast and go to Pompeii (They had peanut butter and nutella for on toast. good start to the morning)!  We took a bus to Pompeii, where we got a tour guide and Natasha's family joined us (they were visiting so they came down with us for part of it). It was pretty cool. We saw the theaters that they used as well as the places that the gladiators were kept in their little cells. We walked through the streets which was fun and we saw a place that was a bakery and a pizza place. nom nom nom. We couldn't go in the bath complex because it was closed for renovations but there are worse things. It was a beautifullll day; so sunny and not a cloud in the sky and just enough of a breeze. We saw the forum and they also had a display of all the things that they found. They had the plaster casts of the people that were made as well. The way that they made them was when the drilled down and found an empty cavity, they filled it with plaster then took out the mold. The body had long decayed and turned into dust and so they were able to make the casts. wild.

our tour guide

We got gelato at this point. not bad.

We walked to a villa that was just outside the forum and then more outside the city itself to another villa. I don't really know much about it but in the first villa I may or may not have taken another rock. :) Sorry I'm not sorry. We saw the famous frescoes in the villa outside the city which were awesome because they were so vibrant and well preserved.

At this point we had concluded our tour of Pompeii so we all went back to the city to get MORE PIZZA! Teacher Alex claimed he didnt want anymore pizza but he would sit with us. So we went to da Michele! (That's the place that I went the last time I was in Naples, the place where Eat, Pray, Love was filmed). We waited for awhile and were finally seated. Alex got a pizza. Like you could pass up pizza in Naples. That's the only reason I would go back. Ever. 

Buona Pasqua!!

That means Happy Easter/Passover in Italian! They have the same word for both holidays. I thought I should update briefly before I leave for spring break!! I could technically say that I am now on spring break because im going to be missing my class tomorrow FOR GREEECEEEE AOINGAEIURGA;JFJGNIWLBRGWRNGB IM SO EXCITED.

We leave before the sun comes up tomorrow to fly to Athens, then take a (9 hour) ferry to Crete where we are staying in an all inclusive resort!! Were there for about 2 and half days and then were taking a ferry to Mykonos for 3 or 4 days! Then we end in Athens where we will get to go to the Acropolis!!!! WAHHHHH ITS GOING TO BE AWESOME. Im travelling with Erica, Natasha, Kelsey, and Amy and we're meeting alot of our friends in Mykonos. It's going to be fantastic. Sun SUn Sun Sun! (i just got sunscreen and it is so expensive here!! i spent 20 euro. its the cheapest that they had. rip off).

I have started blog posts for Naples and Pompeii, and Sicily (I was there last weekend on a trip with school about the mafia, it was so awesome!! promise ill write about it eventually) but they will not be finished before i leave. I am really struggling in the packing area because i have to take a carry on for 9 days!!! HOW am i supposed to pack that much in my vera. absurd. but i dont want to pay to check it. yobs. its going to be packed to the brim.

So last night I went to a seder that my program hosted at a pretty nice restaurant for those that were interested. It was free so obviously I went and i love my jew friends. ;) It was pretty good we had pasta which caused a hub bub because your not supposed to eat leavened stuff but apparently it wasnt but i dont know. it was good i ate it all. we had a alot of free wine too which was awesome. At the end of the meal, true to tradition they hid the afikoman, the matzah in the napkin, somewhere in the restaurant and I found it!!! YAY winning! So they told me to come to the office to pick up my prize and this is what i got!!!

This is to scale. It is actually that big

Super excited to have all this chocolate. And milk chocolate nonetheless. and a green wrapper!! so great. These giant eggs are all over here and I guess all the kids get them. I dont care. I love it. Its going to be a great welcome home goodie when im all depressed about having to leave greece.

Some of you might not know quite how epic this is going to be. I love ancient Roman history almost as much as I love ancient Greek history. You know how i teared up in the Colosseum? Repeat Acropolis style. It's going to be so amazing. IM JUST SO EXCITED. In Crete we are right on a nice sandy beach and in Mykonos were going to go scootering around the island!! 

Hope everyone has a great break!! Buona Pasqua!!

Janing in Ravenna

Janing: speed walking for the purpose of historical sightseeing.
Last weekend, I went on a class trip to Ravenna with our professor, Jan. He's Belgian and walks fast. This was of some concern because I don't walk fast. Yes we did create a verb out of his name. The 7 of us and Jan walked around Ravenna in circles seeing things in chronological order. I think we saw all of the churches in Ravenna in 24 hours. Actually only 24 hours. Maybe 26. I think the final count of churches was 14? I'm not sure but we won't go through all of them, just the highlights of the trip.
First, for Francesca's sake, I saw Dante's grave. Since living with her I have learned everything about him possible, as I'm sure i've mentioned. Dante is buried in Ravenna, instead of Florence where he spent most of his life, because he died in Ravenna in exile. Florence has been trying to get his remains back but Ravenna refuses. Because we had a strict schedule to keep to, we couldn't go in but don't worry I saw the outside. twice.

One thing Ravenna is known for is it's mosaics. I saw not aware of this but nonetheless they were beautifulll. Fortunately those have been kept in tact. There was one church, the Church of the Holy Apostles I believe, right behind Dante's grave, that had some of the best. There was also the Basilica of San Vitale, which was the last place that we went to, which was phenomenal. The apse and the altar area was 3 stories high of these bright colored mosaics. Also a mausoleum outside San Vitale had some great mosaics as well.

From the ceiling of a Baptistry

The best part about the trip was they pay for our dinner the one night that we were there. He took us to this place that he goes every time he's in Ravenna (which sounds like it's alot actually, he said he's taking 3 more classes there the next 3 weekends..). He got us wine and alot of appetizers and then dinner. I got a great pizza with peppers onions and sausage and traded half of it for Kelsey's pizza which was a white pizza with asparagus and pepperoni. They were both so so so good. All of the noms. Then dessert. Wonderful. I got some lemony creme brulee. I dont know I wasn't paying for it so we went all out and got alot. I mean we did already pay for it with tuition but Im going to make my tuition, that my parents are paying, go as far as I can. I'm a good business major.
Along with free dinner and seeing more churches then should be humanly possible, the weather was beautiful. It was like 65 and sunny and breezy. Pretty freaking great. I would have laid out if I had time... But clearly we didn't. It made the trip alot easier, not that it was awful at all. I had good company with Kelsey, Lily, Jack and Evan, and of course Jan.

Always looking good

If I had a much larger bank account I would make time to go back up because the shopping there was so cute. It was all these great boutique stores that would all look great in my closet.. It was just so cute. We were definitely the only Americans for a while which was cool. We of course got alot of looks not just because we were an awkward mass of students following around this man furiously scribbling down critical notes. It's also really small, given the fact that we walked all of it. 

Fortunately it was only one night because I don't know that I could have handled more walking; I slpet til 3 the next day because I was recovering. 

I have finally caught up on all my blogging that I have been neglecting for so long. Which is good because it's so nice out now that I would never have gotten it done. 

This next weekend I'm going on another class trip to Naples and Pompeii. I am so looking forward to Pompeii. Naples is whatever. But im banking on some good pizza again. nom nom nom

Amsterdam

So the week that was book-ended by Paris and Amsterdam was a wild one, for all 3 days of it. Let me set the stage for you: When I got back from Paris on Monday morning, I got back to my apartment at noon with a one hour turn around time to get some food switch gears and head to my midterm. This is not quite like any other midterm week that I've had, or will have. That's right this was midterms week. When abroad my friends, when abroad. So I made it to my midterm on 5 hours of sleep, 2 of them on the plane and half and hour one one of the buses.. It went fine. (I got an 86 which is just fine with me). I then came home and slept for 17 hrs before i got up to study with Kelsey before what was going to be my hardest exam, and I was obviously concerned. She had a pretty legit study guide compared to my nothing. Nonetheless I took that one and I thought it went relatively well. This is Tuesday. Wednesday was my last of the four. We had Italian the week before because that class schedule is different for some reason.. Anyway I woke up earlier (630) for that class to once again study for my museum exam and that was also relatively easy as well. And then THursday we didn't have class because it was the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Italy's Unification. And St. Patrick's Day, but they don't really celebrate that here... Nonetheless to celebrate all of the above, the whole group went out for a night of dancing at a club and I have to say I think it was a success. (That was Wednesday night) And THursday night Erica, Kelsey left for Amsterdam! So there you go. Quite a week/3 days.

Though it was unfortunate because they were supposed to have fireworks all over and parades on wednesday night but because it was raining it was postponed to thursday night, so we didnt get to see anything. However there is one thing y'all should know about italian "unification", which is that it is used as a loose term. The north and south are completely different areas and there are many that believe that the south should not be a part of Italy. Italy was a mass of small kingdoms that were brought together in 1870 and made into one country. They think of themselves first and foremost based on their region like sicilian. Not everyone even speaks italian either, but they for sure speak the local dialect before they speak italian. now most do but the real old timers don't. Anyway, there's a certain lack of national pride that many Americans are not lacking. It was only about a week before the 150th that we started seeing Italian flags. Sad. Oh well looking forward to 4th of July this summer!!!

Thursday night. We made it to Amsterdam kinda late but that's ok we made it to our hostel which was bumpin for what I thought we were going to be staying at. It was pretty nice there were some pool tables and a bar and place to eat on the first floor and then we stayed in a room on the second floor. We went to Leidseplein Square which was real busy. Its a square that has tons of bars and coffee shops and theres a casino right around the corner. it basically seemed like the center of night life and it was a block from our hostel. We weren't really worried about what time it was. We were walking around and this club promoter invited us in for ladies night which started with a free drink. We accepted. He really had to twist our arm... We left after the free drink and headed to the Irish bar to celebrate St. Patrick's Day for real. Lucky us! We got more free drinks. perks of the double standard. At this point we thought it a good idea to call it a night so we could be up and ready for the next day that we had planned!
On Friday we arrived late to breakfast which was unfortunate. But we got some granola and milk so that was good. We met a tour group that the hostel had a connection with and we walked over to a pretty big square. best part of this upcoming tour? its free. I believe our guys name was Mark? Dave? Something rather generic but he was nice enough. We saw so much; I couldn't tell you all of it because it was a lot.  One thing though is Amsterdam has more canals then Venice does. Surprise!

Some of the more memorable parts of the tour was when we walked through the red light district and there were a wide variety of women standing in their windows. That was not something one sees everyday. haha but he also showed us the china town which is where we went for dinner that night which was a good decision. More later.
When we finished the tour, we were really close to the Anne Frank House, which we had pre purchased tickets for so we went and were able to jump the massively long line. Now I've never read Anne Frank's Diary but I know the story. I had no idea she hid in Amsterdam though. So that was wild to be able to walk through her house and we saw her room where all of the things she put on the walls were still up. That was weird. They also had all her diaries there too which was real intense. Im glad that we went. At this point we decided it was time for a pick me up and headed towards the Heineken factory. Yay! On the way there, we bought hats that said Amsterdam around them. It was cold and you know what it was so worth it. I'm going to wear it all the time! Ha! We also found a bagel place on our way there OMG TALK ABOUT A WIN. They don't really have bagels here in Rome and so it was the greatest thing ever to find real bagels. I got an everything with chive cream cheese. It was the equivalent of about 5 US dollars but it was so worth it. The rain had slowed at this point and that was nice so we kept going trekking to the factory, all wearing our hats. These are one of those things that all the tourists get, all places have them. So we very clearly look like tourists. Some one tried to ask us directions. In Dutch. I dont get it.

Kelsey, Erica and I inside!

In the Brewery, they showed us how they make the beer, obviously and there was one part where we all stood on this platform that moved a little and they sprayed water on us as if we were part of the brewing process, cheesy and fun. Then we got to try a little beer. nom nom nom. That was nice then we walked through more of it and there was more propaganda and then we got to the end and we got 2 more big beers and that was nice too. The tour was 15 euros and it was worth it because its just something you have to do in Amsterdam. I almost got a shirt but I refrained haha. Afterwards we walked all the way to the opposite side of town to get dinner in china town. We ended up getting some really good thai food and I got some great pad thai food. 

On Saturday, it was much prettier which was great because we had planned to ride bikes all day. That is one thing, they ride bikes more then they drive I feel like. We made it to breakfast that morning which was good because it was quite a spread, we took some goodies to go. Then we rented some bikes for the day and rode to Vondel Park which was right across from our hostel. We rode around and it was a beautifulll day! Great day for a bike ride. 

After wards we rode around and saw the flower mart and had a lunch by one of the canals. Later in the afternoon we made our way over to the Van Gogh Museum, which was awesome. It was so cool to see all of his paintings! I wish I could have taken some pictures but unfortunately we weren't allowed to. We were worn out after the long day of riding around that we took a nap and went to the Hard Rock across the street from our hostel for dinner. It was so worth the 20 euro. I got some pulled pork and ribs, just some good american food. It was great. We had to get up super early but it was a great trip. It was much prettier then I thought it was expecting and now all I want to do is find a place to rent bikes here in Rome!