Ciao...

So I have been many places since I wrote last. I am lucky to have been able to go to Naples, Rome, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, Pompei, Rome, Lucca and the Cinque Terre. They were all really sweet, but I was definitely looking forward to coming home from Florence. Rome was a cool mix of past and present. It was interesting walking around this modern city that had ancient ruins uncovered. Pompei is made up of ancient ruins from the town that was destroyed from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Naples was as I have heard pretty dirty and we were not allowed to leave a certain area because of safety reasons. Capri was beautiful and they had tons of pictures of famous people who visit there. It might have been better if we did not have bad weather. The Amalfi Coast was awesome. We went into this small town both nights and it had a very local feeling. Lucca is also small, but it is pleasant. It is a medieval town that is surrounded by a wall that we walked on and after we ate some good food. The Cinque Terre is a whole different experience. You hike from town to town. Each town is small and pretty authentically Italian. We met really nice people there and I bet it is so much fun in the summer when you can lie on the beach. On top of all of this both my parents, my aunt, and her friend have been here visiting. It is nice and strange at the same time to see a familiar face after having been here without them for so long. It is really good to have them here and I think seeing them will help ease my transition into coming home.

Jessica
Study Abroad in Florence, Italy

Dedicated to Italy...

So I am dedicating the month of April to traveling within Italy. And it has begun with my trip to Sicily this weekend. It was a long journey there and when we arrived there was thunder and lengthening. I did not mind this though because I like thunder storms. So we sat inside enjoying some pizza, and then had a delicious cannoli... amazing. The next few days were fun, we went to Siracusa and spent some time looking at the Catacombs and the Dolomite's. The next day we laid on the beach and went to where the cyclops "lived." Sicily is amazingly beautiful with palm trees and volcanoes. It is so much different than northern Italy. I noticed there were only men out as we rarely saw any females. This was pretty creepy to say the least, but I was told this is due to the Arab influence. All the men were wearing really flashy clothes and sparkling sneakers. It was more of what I had imagined Italy would be like. When I got home I had to write a 12 page paper and then my friend Rebekah came so now I am going to show her all the glory of Florence, and first we will get gelato.

Jessica
Abroad in Florence, Italy

Spring Break...Euro style

Last week, aka the last ten days were composed of my spring break. I went to Portugal and then to Spain. It was nothing short of amazing. First Elena, Katelyn and I set off on our way to Portugal. It ended up taking us around 21 hours to get there so by the time we arrived we were very worn out and at the end of our nerves basically. We got to our hotel in Alvor and the man at the desk told us we would not be staying there. At that moment we were so close to just breaking down when the man followed up by saying that instead we would be staying at the five star hotel down the road. The hotel was phenomenal, it was right on the beach and had an amazing balcony with a bed from which you could see the entire beach and the ocean. It was so crazy, they even had flower pedals in the toilet. We were in absolute shock and excitement. It was a really solid vacation and the first few days were sunny so we laid out and my entire back side burnt and is in fact still burnt. The next couple days were not as nice so we went into the town of Alvor and explored. This area of Portugal is called Algarve and it is basically made up of several little fishing villages really close to each other, all on the beach. This town was so cute and way cheap. We ended up meeting a Portuguese local who pretended to speak English. We hung out with him for a few nights, meeting friends of his and even his cousin. We also met some really sweet people when we accidentally wondered into a bar when looking for the market. We stayed, hung out, watched futbol, played darts, and by the end of the week we basically were locals. For me people are what really make traveling amazing. It is incomparable when you meet people from completely different backgrounds, cultures, and sometimes language and yet you can still find a common ground to be friends. I am always pleasantly surprised and delighted by the genuine nice people I have met. Needless to say I was really sad to leave and I could definitely see myself going back there. After arriving in Spain we had a really good time there. Barcelona is in one word crazy. Everything about it, the people, the nightlife, the street vendors, everything. We stayed in a hostel there and met people from all over the world. The 15 year old high school boys from Michigan were hilarious to watch as they enjoyed there time in wonderland. I was really impressed they were there. One of my favorite places we went was Parc Guell. It is a park up in the hill of Barcelona where you can see the entire city. It took me 11 seconds to completely scan the city with my eyes. It definitely helps to put things in perspective. All in all this glorious 10 day spring break I had went by so fast. I do not know if I will ever be able to top it, but I am happy with where the bar is set.

Jessica
Study Abroad in Florence, Italy

So I just got home from my weekend in Dublin this morning and as the Irish would say it was craic. That is their word for fun... not drugs. Ireland was an amazing place and it actually reminded me a lot of Western Washington. It was very green, gray, and rainy, but still beautiful. Elena and I went for St. Patricks Day, and to say the least it was wild. Our trip started out well when I met a really interesting person on the plane. His name was Marshall and he is a refugee for Nigeria. It was a really refreshing experience because he is one of those people who legitimately want to make the world a better place and help people. This can be rare and I learned a lot from my conversation with him. I knew I liked Dublin as soon as we got there. It felt good to be around people who speak English again and with sweet accents. We stayed in a hostel the first night and I was so appalled by the girls who were in our room. They were so blatantly disrespectful for no reason and I was really shocked. I cannot help, but be angry when I meet people like that because they just feed into negative stereotypes of Americans, which are not always true. The second night we luckily did not have to stay at the hostel so we dropped off our stuff at the new place and headed to the Guinness storehouse. It was pouring down rain, but once we got there it was so worth it. The tour was cool and they were giving out a bunch of free samples for Patty's Day weekend. They had performers and a bear hoollah hooped. The next day we toured the country side and it was gorgeous. So many sheep. Finally, on our last day we put on our green and went to watch the Patty's Day Parade. The streets were packed and everyone was dressed all crazy. It was awesome. After it all I was very sad to leave, but I needed to be home for my midterms. We got into Italy and to the train station only to find that no more trains were going to Florence. So now we were stuck in Bologna for the second time. The first we had to spend the night in what I call the "bum cage." It is a huge warm room surrounded by glass where Bologna's bum population sleeps. It is nice they have somewhere to go, but at four in the morning it smells like everything nasty multiplied by 802. I can almost still smell it. The point is we were horrified. So I called my Italian friend Silvia, who I had met briefly on the train back from Vienna. Without hesitation she invited us to come sleep at her house. She meet us running down the street in her pajamas and took us to her house. She is so cute, she had a bed and tea ready and waiting for us. We met her room mates and listened to them talk in Italian. I had no clue what they were saying so I had a ridiculous smile the whole time. We then woke up at 430 and got on the train making it back to Florence so I could take my midterm at 9 this morning. Train travel is always hectic and I have come to accept that I have to expect it will never go as expected.


Jessica
Florence, Italy

Aaahhh Paris... glorious.

I would like to say it is everything you imagine, but my first impression was a bit unexpected. My friends and I booked our hotel last minute from a web site and when we got there we realized we were in the red light district... Pigalle. There was store after store after store of sex shops, and then we saw the Moulin Rouge. It was pretty entertaining, however, and we definitely got to see a "different" Paris crowd. Later that night we went and saw the Eiffel Tower when it was all lit up and ate delicious food. We also went to the Louvre where we ended up being in music video. Some guys were filming and asked me and my friends to come sing the chorus and dance. I am sure it is ridiculously embarrassing, but it was really fun. Paris was beautiful and the French people we met were for the most part nicer than their stereotype. We went to a bar and if I ever really wanted to use the word cool, I would use it to describe this bar. It had red walls and a very "cool" ambiance. We stayed for awhile until there was a vicious dog attack down stairs. Someone had their huge brown dog and it attacked one of the bar tenders. We spent most of our time enjoying delicious duck and deserts and I was really sad to leave. Paris is definitely a place you could stay for a long period of time and not see everything. If I could do that I definitely would, and enjoy a crepe every single day!

Jessica
Florence, Italy

Florence, Italy

I arrived home early this morning after a brief trip to Vienna, Austria. I set out by myself so I was not exactly sure how this trip would turn out. On the train ride there I met a really cool Italian student who was going home for the weekend. We talked for several hours about language, Italy, and America. It was good start to my trip. Once I got to Austria I wandered around for several hours. People kept talking to me in German and I would awkwardly have to say I had not a clue what they were talking about. After I was there for a few hours my friend Katelin called me and I went and met up with her and some other students from my school who were there on an academic field trip. She told me about a crazy hail storm they were in earlier and we later found out it was because we were in the midst of hurricane Emma. Never did I think the first hurricane I'd be in would be in Austria. It was crazy, mainly extremely windy. A little later we went to a classical music concert. It was in a small hall that had magnificent chandeliers. We listened to the orchestra, a few opera singers, and watched a couple ballet acts all why sipping some fine Austrian champagne. After the concert we got delicious Kebabs and went to a local pub. They played Bon Jovi and Tom Petty and we hung out with some boys from the states who are studying in Salzburg. The next day we went to the Freud Museum and got delicious chocolate truffle cake. I suggest that anyone who goes to Vienna tries the chocolate cake from Hotel Sacher. It was literally a party in my mouth. I ended up leaving Sunday night and had an interesting train ride. I was in a cabin with three guys from the middle east and a girl from South Korea. The three guys randomly got interrogated by three undercover policemen who came equip with computers to look up the guys files. They talked with the guys for a long time and several hours later another policeman got onto the train and took them all off. They disappeared into the dark train station and we drove off. After that I fell asleep and awoke to the girl from South Korea tickling my feet... that was odd. I ended up being on the train for fourteen hours because the engine broke down to we had to sit there for an extra three hours. Needless to say I was pretty stoked to come home and get into my comfy bed in Firenze. Vienna seems like a city that has much pride in high culture. It is completely understandable since so many influential people came from Vienna. It was fun to experience for a few days and appreciate the workings of Mozart, Freud, and learn about princes and princesses. That being said I am definitely happy to be back in the chaos that is Italy.

Jessica 

A note from Florence...

So I want to start this off by saying that my name is Jessica Bell and I am currently eating a chocolate gelato, writing this at the Internet cafe across from my apartment. I have been here for a month today and more formally I am a junior at WSU who is spending my semester studying here in Florence, Italy. I am here with my friend Elena from WSU and we have made good friends with a girl that goes to Pitt named Kateline. You will probably hear me mention them frequently since they are on this adventure with me. I decided to come here for several reasons, but the main reason was for culture. I came from a town called Snohomish and have never made a trip to Europe. I am taking classes here and they are awesome. My classes includes: international terrorism, conflict management, Italian language, Mediterranean diet, and wine appreciation. All my instructors are Italian so they have cool accents. Besides school the city of Florence is something completely unique compared to what I have experienced. The traffic situation alone is something amazing. Everyone here drives a million miles per hour and there are not many marked streets signs or lines on the road. The most amazing thing about it is that ambulances are way slower than any car or vespa. Besides staying in Italy I have taken a few trips to surrounding countries. My first trip was to Venice where I visited the island of Burano. It looked like it was out of a movie. There were houses painted all different crazy colors like blue, lime green, teal pink, fuchsia, red, etc. It was a short trip and I had my first hostel experience which honestly was not that bad despite the no toilet seats. A few weekends ago I visited Geneva, Switzerland where we met some college students at the university there and got to experience for a day how they live life. Last weekend I went to Rothenburg, Germany. It is a tiny medieval town that still has a wall surrounding it. All in all I am having a great time and learning many things that I could not learn in the US. I hope to experience a lot in the next three months and see as much as I can. I am sure there will be ups and downs, but I have many adventures planned so it should be interesting. This weekend I am heading to Austria so I must say CIAO!

Jessica