SPRING BREAK! 2010! days before LEAVING!!! part #1

Spring Break Blog part #1!!!

NIGHTS BEFORE WE LEFT FOR SPRING BREAK!

Okay, soooo Spring break was kind of a long time ago… but I am going to try my best to get all the details into this blog and hopefully get a laugh out of it. Mickis friend Lauren Ann Banahan came to visit Micki and I in Torino to join us on our adventure through Sicily for Spring break. Laurens parents joined her in Torino on the on that Wednesday before the break started and when they arrived they wanted to take Micki and I to dinner, so when we finally got out of class and trucked our way to their hotel we arrived late (Italian time) and finally got to meet the family. We walked around Torino showing them the major piazzas and streets that I fell in love with when I got to Torino. We finally reached a restaurant that was one of Micki and my first ever in Torino, and it still kept its hype. After entering the bar tender knew that we were Americans and poured us all vodka shots… bottoms up… of course as the shot goes into my mouth half of it goes the proper direction and the other goes down the wrong pipe… wonderful! I start coughing up a storm… good first impression, my excuse to Laurens dad… sorry I never drink here…! It got him to smile. We finally sat down and had a wonderful dinner with starter and wine and a main dish. Staying out till almost 1am, we got back to the hotel and picked up Laurens stuff she said her goodbyes to her parents and she was ALLLLL ours! Dum dum dum dummmm!!!! That night we get to murphys (an irish pub) to meet up with my roommates and friends. We sat around talking and laughing but by Laurens face I knew that it was time to go home. We called it a night after a drink and went home and slept. The next day Lauren and I went to the Mole (famous film museum in Torino) and spent the day together, I had class so I had to take her home while I went to my night class…. After that micki and I went on a WORLD WIND adventure to meet a doctor that was carrying precious cargo… so we had to take this bus, like out to the MIDDLE of NO WHERE and wait for this lady, it was freezing! But we managed to make it funny! Of course! She finally got what she needed and we went inside this HUGE mall and went to the grocery store and bought dinner for Lauren micki and I. when we got home the boyzzz (Giovanni and Fabrizio) texted me wanting to go out… no after a long day sightseeing school and yet another classic adventure I was EXHAUSTED! But they came over and got us drunk… and yes, we went out! The club is called BIG and yes classy all the way! We danced all night and Lauren micki and I took over the dance floor with our sweet moves from David Guetta and fell in love with one of the dancers with the rockin bod.. and SEXY dance moves… he saw us staring at him and pointed at us and we all went weak in the knees. The boyzzz got alittle jealous considering we didn’t pay them any attention after the curtains opened and revealed my Italian HOT dancer! Ahh! Still get chills!
After being drunk and sweaty and thinking about the dishes I have to clean when I get home… I was ready to kick it! We left the club and I cleaned up the apartment, and went to bed in my empty apartment… ahh! LOVE IT! The next morning I woke up later… ☺ and cleaned the apartment… went to the store with micki and Lauren, and prepped for the night. I had invited all my Italian friends over to have dinner (again!) and meet mickis friends. Lauren as you know was already in town but her other friend Christel had gotten into Torino late afternoon. Micki and Laurent went and picked her up. I was chopping and dicing and cleaning and washing before the girls came over. We were running around my LACK of a kitch for like 2 hours.. rolling gnocci, getting sauses ready, it was a MAD HOUSE! But it was fun! I had music going and candles lit so no one would freak out (and to make the apartment smell good) Christel and I mashed the potatoes making sure there were NO lumps.. while we drank our wine! It was perfect! Micki and Lauren worked in the kitchen making something else… like 4 things at once.. but the apartment smelt soooooo good! We finished everything and had DOWN TIME before anyone had arrived.. it was a miracle! When everyone got there we had prepared eggplant casserole with red sauce and parmesan cheese… mmm and then pasta with clams, home made gnocci with white sause, and bruschetta for an appetizer and wine wine wine wine! Ohh yes and we DRANK! So much so that we yet again whipped out the maskes from Venice and put them on and continued our photo shoot!... ohh but wait.. some GENIUS decided we should play POWER HOUR! Now for all of you that don’t know how to play this wonderful game it goes alittle something like this… you take a shot of beer every minute for one hour.. you think it sounds easy.. ya no! we had some beer in my apartment so we started with that and then when the beer was GONE some other GENIUS whips out the VODKA… mixed shots of course… but picture 4 girls all from cali… then 4 Italians and one guy from our program ALL with masks on playing this game! LAUGHING and making fun of each other… the Italians thinking they are sly talking Italian and making fun of us… HA HA HA I know what your saying RETARDSS! SOOO much fun! Then it was time to go out! After the masks were put away and everyone was gathering up, I am running all over the house making sure the oven is off the gas is off, everything is shut and locked… im pretty sure I tripped a couple times.. freaking power hour… and as soon as I had everything done everyone had LEFT! I was like what the EFF!! Then I turn off all the lights and run downstairs and Fabrizio is standing there with the car door open for me, “cmon!” ran into the car and the music began to BUMB!
We got to the club, RITONDA! It was PACKED with Italians… now I know that if you are reading this you probably know that I am OBSESSED with dancing, well you SHOULD… but when we walked into this club NO ONE was dancing… it was like 1am, and everyone was just standing around looking at each other sipping their drinks… I was like OHH HELLL NOO! Lauren micki and I TOOK OVER! We jumped right on that empty dance floor and danced… of course bringing everyone else out of there slumber sleep to DANCE! I was sooo funn! When everyone caught on the dance floor was PACKED… Italians all up on the cali girls and Micki of course finding higher ground so that she see everything that is going on as well as dance! Now I don’t really remember a lot about this club because of our pre-party SESH but it was AMAZING! Leaving the club was a different story.. it was like 4am at this point and we had to catch a bus at 9am… hmmm so we left the club and went home. Walked in to my apartment… SHIT EVERYWHERE! Was like nooo!!! I managed to clean everything with the help of Micki and Lauren everyone else was too drunk… GREAT! Finished around 5am… and debated whether or not to fall asleep. Everyone left so it was me, Giovanni, Fabrizio, and Andrew, mickis president of her fraternity in Chico all under the same roof! The apartment was clean to my drunk eyes.. I was packed and ready to go except for my toiletries…. I dozed off… the morning of travel day… stay tuned!
……… this blog will be in several parts… stay with me!

PiZzA in NAPOLI! and the AMALFI COAST!!!

BLOG!! Naples, Sorrento, and Capri

Well… yes I had yet another train experience… night train… yes mom, but it was WAY better than the last. There was six of us so we took up an entire cart, but it was squishy. All six of us woke up early Thursday morning and went to Porta Nuova Station to go and book our tickets. Micki and I have our Eurrail passes so all we had to do was reserve seats. So to get all the way to Naples it only coast Micki and I only 6 euro. So after booking our tickets we went to school all day. I was sooo antsy and gittery all day, I couldn’t wait to just get away and be! So when we got back to our apartment the girls and I did some last minute packing, checked our emails, and then zipped upped our back packs and walked to the bus stop! Ahhh! Got on the train and got comfy! Now with six girls in the same cart… it can get pretty loud! We played games, and read magazines, and told stories, it was our first sleep over all together. We were whinding down and we all decided to “get comfy” and fall asleep. There was a lot of cabin shift and everyone couldn’t get comfy… hahah it was sooo great! I was debating whether or not to get up and get my Tylenol PM out of my bag, but looking a the distance from my head to the over head rack with my back pack just seemed to far… plus, I would have to take Mickis leg and kellys feet off me just o get the pills…. Not worth waking everyone up. We finally got to Naples and we walked off the train and it was exactly like everyone described it… dirty, poor, and I’ll say it again.. unclean! But we were jus there for a couple hours before we left for the Amalfi Coast. We heard about this AMAZING pizza place that we got recommended so we decided to hunt for it. We got in from the train at 9am, so we had to wander for an hour until it opened… but that wasn’t a problem for us because of course we got lost, ended up in china town… Naples? We finally got back on track and found the PIZZA PLACE! Ahhh we opened the place up.. We walked in and it was this whole in the wall place with marble tables and wood chairs, charming little place. We sit down and see a picture of Julia Roberts… uhhh does she come here often?? We were tripping out! I was asking the cooks… sooo where did she sit? And can I use the same plate..? there was only 2 pizzas to choose from mozzarella and and double mozzarella basically margarita pizza. We all ordered the same pizza and it came out soooo fast. By the time we got our pizza the place was packed with people. 10am Grandmas ordering a pizza and a beer… hahah if they can do it so can we! I got a HUGE pizza and a beer for 5.50… umm yes I’ll have another ☺ kidding!
After breakfast/ lunch we walked around Naples and looked at all the knock off stuff that people were selling, I bought a pair of knock off sunglasses… LOVE IT!! Then we ran to the train to get to Sorrento.. needed to get out of Naples before it got dark. Taking the train to our hostel… and it was the cutest beachy hostel… the town in itself was soooo cute! It rememinded me of home soooo much! The beachy cottages and all the birds and the sound of the ocean.. I was dying! I kept putting my nose in the air just to smell the air. We put our stuff down and took 20 minutes to collect ourselves and then went to go explore the town. Sorrento is known for their lemons, so they are obviously known for their limoncello so I had to buy a bottle ☺! We went and walked around and took pictures by the coast and we all just stared at the water. You could hear all of sighing and humming, we all had our sunglasses on just staring off at the horizon. With my eyes closed and listening to the water hit the rocks, the sound of the seagulls chant and flying over head all I was thinking about was home… I never wanted to leave. We left the cliff and walked down one of the major shopping streets… ☺ we walked into the shops and LOVED what we saw. Even though it was off season so half the store were closed… good thing… I just got lemon flavored sorbet and walked around. Ahhh it felt like summer! I was wearing a light sweater for the first time since November.. and god did that feel good!! We got to this irish bar hahha and sat in the back booth.. all six of us and had a beer. The owner of the place loved us, chanting CALIFORNIA! There were two guys in the bar when we got there and we invited them to sit with us they were from Brazil… yaaaa boyyii! They were brothers traveling italy for 3 weeks before they have to go back to school. I thought that was sooo cool!! We shared traveling stories and funny moments we all had when we were in Amsterdam… hahah of course! It was great! Then after the pint was empty and we were all ready for dinner. We said goodbye to the Brazilians and left for dinner. We found this CUTE restaurant on the water that we spotted earlier and decided to eat there. We all drank and laughed met people from the USAC program just in other parts of Italy, it was a trippp! One of the girls knew Caitlin Mickis roommate… they took Italian in the states together… and they sat next to each other… is that not the smallest world ever!?!? So we finished dinner… and since the night life doesn’t start until summer.. duhh we decided to walk back to our hotel. On our way back we ran into a mob of Italians on Vespas… hahah OF COURSE! It was sooo funn! They were following us saying, “get on belle!! I will take you home!” we all giggled and kept walking Micki and I of course are like… “heck ya!” this is our chance for the vespas!! Soo I just got on the back of one and sat there.. until he tried to drive away and I quickly jumped off… that was a close one… luckly micki got a couple shots… hahah! Its documented!
We arrived back at our hostel and hung outside to look at the stars and just take in the “warmer” air. Ahhh!! The next day we had to leave Sorrento to catch a ferry to Capri… we took our time getting down to the docks because of course we woke up late for the earliest ferry, so we caught the next one… I wore a LOOONG dress… hahah and flats and it felt SOO good! And of course we get on the ferry and the Italian soccer team get on the boat and of course we all cause a scene… they start chanting and singing songs.. taking pictures with us… and telling all of us how beautiful we are… bla bla bla… Italians… the boat BOOKED it to Capri! We were going sooo fast! I was literally leaning over the boat just trying to get the sea water on me… I felt like a fish that was dying because she needed the water so bad… it was sooo weird! I was literally hanging over the side.. the wind with the combination of the sea water mist and the wind… was INCREDIBLE… like I said.. home! We arrived in Capri and the team invited us to go to their game… but we didn’t want to waste our time going to a game when we only had a full day to spend in Capri. We found our hotel and it was BEAUTIFUL! We got a welcome drink and we all sat and sipped wine before we went up to our rooms. We had two rooms that had balconies that over looked the ocean and we were only one balcony away from each other. We dropped our stuff and went to explore yet another town, Capri is also known for their limoncello (they all being in the same region—the Amalfi Coast) so I bought a bottle, present for my parents ☺! We took the Hotel shuttle into town and walked to the famous coast line with rock formation that will make your jaw drop… one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We sat and had a seafood lunch right on the cliff where we watched the stray cats roam, and the seagulls beg for food!
Taking in the salt water air I couldn’t get enough!! I found myself with my eyes closed just taking in all the sun rays… ahhhh feels soo goooddd!! After our lunch we went down to the rocks where I found 2 heart shaped rocks on the beach.. and I took em ☺! We took pictures on the rocks like Ariel from Little Mermaid. Hahahha! And we tried… the water wasn’t really in our favor! But after we fooled around down there we took the shuttle back to the top and went back to our hotel… we stopped off for some wine, and bread and cheese (of course!) and then headed back to the hotel. In Capri the season doesn’t start until summer… I don’t know if I had mentioned that… we walked around after the sights and then everything was closing.. so we skipped dinner because we had such a late lunch and had our wine and cheese for dinner hahah! The next day we woke up early and had breakfast with EGGS! Ahhh yes the eggs made it into the BLOG because its soooo rare! We knew we had a lonnngg day of seeing the sights as well as traveling home back to Torino. After breakfast we went on a mad hunt for this chair lift that takes you all the way to the top of the Island… and let me tell you… ITS HIIIIIGH! I had sweaty palms and I think I was debating whether or not to go… because it’s a one seater chair that goes super slow.. and I still don’t trust the Italian machinery… but I went anyways… and I am SOOOO happy I did!! The views on the way up the mountain were incredible… you could see EVERYTHING! At the top of this lift we were sooo high up that from the top looking down (now I am holding on for dear life!) the white seagulls were flying in a circular motion wayyyy far down.. if anyone has seen AVATAR… micki and I kept say… OH MY GOD.. welcome to PANDORA! It was incredible! It was one of the most breath taking sights, and if you looked out to the horizon it was like it was a pastel painting that was smeared at the horizon… ah I hope that decribes exactly what I was looking at… it was amazing! But let me tell you something else.. boy was it WINDY! I felt like if I leaned slightly over the railing that it was going to blow me over! We got to the other side of the flat on top… and decided to have a photo shoot.. duh! The view and the fact that we were sooo high up made the pictures look absolutely incredible!
On our way down I listened to slow music on my ipod… because you don’t have anyone to talk too… but it was sooo peaceful… I will never in my life forget that day. We made it back into town and got our luggage from the hotel and caught a ferry and headed back to Naples to catch our train. After the hour ferry ride we arrived in Naples… in the DARK! Now I wanted to take a cab from the port to the Station because Naples IS NOT safe at night… but everyone else wanted to walk… so we huddled together and walked like 2km to the station… SCARY people! As ew were all walking fast at one point I noticed that we were all at a light jog, trying to get to the station as fast as possible… men yelling and whistling at us… uhhh keep moving!!! We got to the station and we all took a deep breath. We got there early enough to see if we could change our train to an earlier train. We got to the front all of us crossing our fingers hoping the guy speaks English… ahh alittle… crap. We were trying to explain to him that we want to move our tickets up another train and not wait for another 2 hours… but then he proceeds to tell us something we were not ready to hear… when we bought our tickets the guy made them for coming home on the 28th INSTEAD of the 1st of March… OMG! I was like NO NO NO!! 6 girls yelling at the poor guy, and all he keeps saying over and over again, no cash, no refund! We missed our train without even knowing it! OMG! We all just stood there like what do we do??? Luckily micki and I only had to reserve seats so it was only 3 euro but for the other girls it cost them 45 more euro to come home… not to metion paying 102 euro round trip to begin with… THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!! At first I started raising hell because I thought that I was going to have to buy an actual ticket.. and I was like HELL NOO!!! But then micki explained to me that “weeeee” don’t have to pay… they do… oops! So the girls were pissed but there was nothing they could do… so they paid the man and got on the train… pissed. Sooo we all got on the train and more or less were up for only an hour before everyone started passing out… hahaha! We left at 7pm and didn’t get to Torino till Monday at 6am…. Needless to say I went home and slept till 10:15 and got up and got changed for my class at 11:15… traveling can take you to points of exhaustion! But if you want to see the world.. these are the sacrifices you have to take…. ☺!

This coming weekend Micki me and her two friends from chico (Lauren, and Christel) will be embarking on an adventure of a lifetime… (like this studying abroad experience isn’t enough) we are traveling SICILY by car!!!! Now Christel mickis friend knows how to drive a stick… but with Michaela and I not having a good sense of direction… more on my part.. and Lauren coming in blind sighted… should be a whorl win of FUN!!!! Stay tuned… this is going to get FUNNY!!!!!

I love and miss you all!!! The end is approaching… and I cant believe that this experience is already coming to an end… ☹