2 more weeks!!

Well it's offically less than two days and I'll be back on American soil and I couldn't be more excited! My mom and I have already discussed what my first meal back in America will be and after she said no to my idea of One roll of sushi, a salad from California Pizza Kitchen, Queso from a Mexican Restaurant, and BBQ we decided upon one of our classic Pulli family recipes (we settled on having a roll of sushi though!) I also told Justin how all he has to do is be standing there at the airport with a Starbucks and I'll be the happiest girl in the world to see two of my favorite things!

Since my last blog we really have not had much happening in our courses except the usual classes and daily field trips to small towns. We did get to go to the beach after going to the Sicily/Rome American Cemetary in Anzio. Apparently after American forces landed in Anzio in order to help allied forces, the Germans found out and attacked and killed thousands of Americans. The site was absoloutely breathtaking with crosses to represent each American that was killed and beautiful gardens. There was a book listing all the names of soldiers killed and I found 4 Berryman's so I made sure to say a prayer for my fellow Berryman's who died.

After the cemetary we were able to go to the beach which was only about 5 minutes away. After only 3 hours at the beach and seeing many of naked kids (apparently in Italy/Europe it's okay to have your kids run around naked...even though they're 5) all of us were burnt to a crisp and ready to head back to the Palace. Myself, along with 8 other girls got ready quick and headed to the airport for our three day weekend in Barcelona. We had such great expectations about Barcelona since the other half of our group had went a month earlier. It ended up being the weekend from hell and ended with one girl getting pick pocketed on the metro and having her wallett with all credit cards and her passport stolen. Needless to say she spent all weekend at the US Embassy and Police Station and was finally given a temporary passport only an hour before we had to leave for the aiport. Barcelona was not all bad though, they did have a beautiful beach and an amazing KFC and McDonalds that we ate at 3 out of our 9 meals. Oh how I miss mashed potatoes and fried chicken :) The stress of constantly making sure my purse was in front of me and zipped and that two girls missed our bus to the aiport and almost missed our flight contributed to the fact of why I did not go to Budapest this weekend.

Last week we also had the chance to go to an Opera. I was very excited and the main reason I wanted to go was to finally get the chance to dress up and wear one of my fancy dresses. Well, after all of us dressed to the nines our bus pulls up to a theater that's outside and we were the most fancy out of everyone. As my mother always taught me, it's better to be the most dressed up than the least so I was fine with it. But four hours later and after 2, 45 minute intermissions there were 3 girls asleep and I was almost one of them. We knew the plot of the story, but it was a rather gruesome one....it ended with all the characters dead and held true to the statement, "it's not over until the fat lady sings." I am glad I went just to say I have been to an opera, but I told Justin he should be glad I went because now I'll never beg for him to take me to one! I did get a beautiful picture of the sunset though which made it all worth going!

This weekend has been so great. I stayed back in Ariccia with 11 of my closest friends and we've just been finishing our 10 page paper that's due next week and bonding over card games and cheap wine. I also accomplished packing one suitcase and getting all my last minute souvenirs together. This week is going to be so exciting and since our classes are coming to an end, our director decided to make our daily events very fun. Tomorrow we have a cooking class with a great chef, Tuesday we have classes, Wednesday we have a pool party and cookout at one of our teacher's house, Thursday we have a field trip to a beach, and Friday we have more than half of the day off! Now that my paper is completed I enjoy every event to the fullest and not have that procrastinating feeling hanging over my head like I normally do!

14 more days and counting...... :)

See you all soon!

-Rach

...And I'm Back!!!!

Hello Everyone! So I'm very sorry for having not written in a long time...it's been a VERY crazy 3 weeks with lots of airports and living out of suitcases. Well hmmm...where should I begin? I think I'll start in Milan! Well as we all know Milan is the fashion capitol in Italy and rivals Paris for the fashion capital of Europe. What use to be a four day long field trip for our program, though, unfortunately got cut down to only two days in Milan because of the almost "unbearable" heat of summer. Well, as it turns out, it wasn't too hot at all and we spent our two days in Milan focusing on interior design while attending art exhibitions and light/chair stores while getting only1 hour of free time in those two days! Needless to say the teachers could sense our distress and took us to appertivos one night. Let's just say appertivos are the best idea ever thought up by mankind (at least in my opinion)! The whole idea is you pay for one drink (7 Euros) than get free food all night. They line the bar with different types of appetizers: bruschetta, cheeses, olives, pizzas, salads and are constantly changing out the foods with different types. Our group stayed until at least 1 am and took full advantage of the free food and eventually free cocktails that they gave to our group.
After Milan was the day I had been looking forward to for a very long time...the day I flew to San Sebastian to finally see Justin! We had a lot of bumps along the way (paying an insane amount of money to RyanAir for excessive luggage weight, dealing with a stubborn Spanish guy at the front desk, and a missing phone) but it was the best weekend I have had yet! I got to meet all of his friends the first night and the second day I was there we explored all of San Sebastian and he played tour guide and translator and did a fantastic job. We also had the BEST dinner I have ever had and I think he would agree. San Sebastian is known for having the best food in Europe and restaurants like this are why...it was a four course tasting menu with some of the strangest combinations put together in such a delicious way! Let's just say we kept our eyes on the door for the waiter to come out with our next course and seriously considered ordering the menu again after our desert settled!
I then, very sadly, flew back to Italy after a short day and a half in San Sebastian. Thank the Lord I was meeting my parents there or else that would be a tough plane ride home! I met my parents in Rome and we had a fantastic week in Orvieto, Cortona, Florence, & Venice. Although I think we all agree Rome was our favorite, we had a bunch of great memories made "discovering" new parts of towns that I lead us too after I accidently tooks us on a wrong turn! I was extremely sad to see them leave but lucky for me when I flew back to Rome that day I knew Justin would be there waiting!
The Saturday I left Venice, I flew into Rome and met Justin and got to reverse roles so I could be the tour guide/translator and show him around my town. I showed him all the major sites, Piazza Novana, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, etc. and we had an extremely romantic night eating a candlelight dinner overlooking the Pantheon. We then were supposed to meet his parents in Rome the next day but after a long day for them at the airport (lost luggage, rental car dilema) they decided just to meet us in Ariccia. They didn't end up getting their luggage until the next day, but thank God they at least got it because while they were there they heard horror stories of other people not getting their luggage for days! I can't even imagine! So they went off to explore Tuscany for the week as I got dropped off at class...how sad!
Luckily I only had class until Thursday, when they came to pick me up that night and take me to Rome. Unbeknownst to all of us, Rome has just as bad as traffic as New York City at rush hour, not to mention it was hailing the size of pinballs! They luckily made it there and back to Rome safe and I got to show them around Rome just like I had Justin and my parents...somehow Rome never gets old to me. There's just so much history there it's hard not to get chills thinking about how they built those structures thousands of years ago with no machinery that we have today, yet you don't see us making anything that remarkable.
Justin and I left the next day for The Netherlands and never expected the city of Amsterdam to be that beautiful! The people were so friendly at every restaurant & museum we went to and everyone spoke english is was wonderful! The down is layed out so perfectly it would be very hard to get lost, and the canals and townhomes lining them are so beautiful we would just sit on benches beside them and relax. It was such a wonderful weekend and it was so hard to leave Justin that Monday morning when he flew back to America. Only 3 more weeks here though and I'll be back too!
Hope everyone is doing great and miss you guys!!
-Rach

Deruta & Assisi

Soo very sorry I haven't written in a while! We really have had nothing but class so there's really nothing much to say but on Friday we woke up at 5:30 and left for Orvieto at 6:30. Either the roads in Italy need to be spruced up a bit or our bus needs new a new antilock break system because I think all of us can back with whiplash! Our driver also drives in the middle of two lanes and tends to cut people off so I've found a new home in the last row of the bus so I don't get anxiety watching his driving in the front row! We arrived at Deruta 2 hours ahead of schedule so we got there pretty early. Most of the shopkeepers knew we were coming though and opened there stores especially for us! Deruta is a tiny town in the region of Umbria that is known for their highly famous ceramics and pottery that ships out their pottery every year to William-Sonoma. The designs on the pottery is just absoloutely amazing and the owners of the shop make all the pottery and designs themselves. I think the best one I saw was a guitar that was ceramic & painted in the most beautiful designs. There's only 5 in the world and the man's son in the picture below designs them and sells them for a hefty amount (12,000 Euro's).

After shopping around on our own, we headed to the most famous factory in Deruta for ceramics and got a personal tour of every step of the ceramic making process. This company was the one that ships to William-Sonoma and we got to see them make the pottery all the way to the 12 people who paint various designs on them. Praises to them for having a steady hand because those designs are so intricate! We found out they go to a 5 year school to learn how to do all the areas of pottery & design. School definitely pays off because those designs were just the most amazing sights ever! I wanted to buy some pottery for our house but they came, once again, at a pretty hefty price, 300 Euros for something really simple as a bowl. So sorry mom, no Italian pottery is going to be arriving at our house this summer! (FYI...I'm going to add more pictures of it to my albums because it takes a long time to load pictures on here!)

So then we continuted on our journey and got back on the bus to head for Assisi. We had a lunch break once we got there and all of us girls who packed our own lunch sat in a litle ally way with the prettiest flowers & ivy

We walked around for about 2 hours and St. Francis must have blessed us because he lead us to the most AMAZING olive wood store! Just walking in, you could smell the aroma of olives and it was obvious this was the real thing! Who would've thought 6 girls in their 20's could spend over an hour in a wood store! I was very picky when it came to picking out if I wanted anything because I don't like when the wood has a lot of imperfections so I ended up picking out a wooden bangle, a olive oil wood ring, and olive oil chapstick all for under 10 euros! Finally, one shopping trip that was in my budget...Thanks St. Francis!! We then headed down to meet our group at the cathedral dedicated to St. Francis. He was a very intersting Saint who gave up his life of wealth and taking over the famiy business to rebuild the church after having a vision from Jesus. He brought back the basics of the church and compltely rebuilt the church by God's vision in just 20 years! It doesn't even look real and I have to admit I laughed the first time I saw my tour guide just because I've never seen a monk before and all over the town the men were dressed in their brown robes with the ropes tied around their waist...it just looked so much like a costume to me! Anyways, he described in details all the fresco's on the walls and lead us down to the tomb of St. Francis where people were all gathered around, saying rosaries and leaving pictures of their love ones who have died. It was all very touching, and I even got to dedicate a candle to my Uncle Charlie who died who's favorite saint was St. Francis. After the tomb, he lead us up to upper church, past the lower cathedral we were in before. The lower one symbolizes St. Francis's life on earth and the upper church with all it's bright colors and heavenly fresco's symbolzes St. Francis's holy characteristics and his life in heaven. The colors were just so beautiful with blues and greens and I'm so sad we didn't get to take any pictures, they were really strict about it and I was too scared to even sneak one! Here's a picture of the outside though!

After our tour we all headed back to our Flintstone's style bus and all prepared for a bumpy ride home, but we were just all so ready to head back to the palace and sleep we didn't care what we rode in! But now we have been preparing all weekend for our overnight field trips all next week to Modena, Mantova, Como, Parma & Milan! I'm so excited and when our field trips are over on Thursday I get to fly to San Sebastian & see Justin then spend the next week with my parents in Italy! I couldn't even ask for a better week! I'll make sure to keep everyone updated and hopefully I'll have wi-fi at our hotels! Ciao everyone!

Orvieto & Todi

Bounasera!

I'm glad everyone likes the blog so much! Now that I have a fan base I'll really have to keep it up to date now ;)

Well today we started off our day early and had to be at our bus at 7:30! Since I sat next to our director of the program (Dr. B) I ended up talking to her the whole time while everyone else dozed off...I'm glad I did though because she's a very interesting person and has traveled the world. She knows almost everything to do in every town and has personally done it herself! After the 2 hour bus ride we arrived in Oriveto, a town in the region of Umbria just north of Lazio (where Rome is) and just south of Tuscany. I was anxious to see the town because this is one of the places on the itinerary when I tour Italy with my family in a week! We first walked through an ancient well with a rather interesting double helix formation on the inside that you would never know about! You would see someone across from you in one of the windows but still somehow never reach them, it's crazy! Here's a picture of the well...

None of us had any idea it was so far down so when we went to glance over the edge when we first walked in THANK GOD I took my sunglasses off the top of my head because they would've been a goner! If you see the tiny dots on the bridge at the bottom of the well those are people, if that helps at all to show how high up we were! The picture below was also kind of risky because one sudden movement in our little archway window and it could've been bad news!

Now mom, good news for you! After we left the scary well we took a lift up to the center of the town and took a tour of the Doumo of Orvieto. It's modeled after the Duomo in Siena which is why it make look familiar but it was really interesting because inside this Doumo there was a relic of a cloth where it is believed that in the breaking of the Eucharist, droplets of Jesus's blood dripped out and onto the cloth. It's strange to me that in all these beautiful churches I've seen across Italy they're so monstrous inside but filled with so much empty space while seating only takes up about 1/4 of the whole church, and in some cases they were just plastic chairs. I asked one of the tour guides about it and she said it was because people don't really attend the churches. Isn't that terrible? They have such historic and beautiful places to attend church every Sunday and they don't go? Strange! Anyways here's a picture of the Duomo

Now here was the interesting part for me....SHOPPING!! Of course on our 1 1/2 hr. off I found the CUTEST jewelry store. All the stuff was handmade and just so funky and different. It was kind of pricy so I just decided to wait and hold off until I came back with my parents (I know you're excited Papa!) But don't worry, they're known for their famous white wine and produce about 85% of all the white wine in Umbria so that can keep you busy in all the wine bars there while we're shopping! We enjoyed a glass of their famous wine with our packed lunch (pb & j sandwiches) on the stairs of a fountain and enjoyed all the people watching. After, I found the coolest thing I have seen yet. It's called pocket espresso or espresso to go...my friend Hilary and I got them and forgoed the gelato this time. It was well worth it - the most AMAZING tasting espresso I have ever had...plus the little straw was so cute I would've spent the .60 euro's just on that!

After an 1 1/2 hr. on our own we departed for a one hour bus ride to the next town of Todi (pronounced toad-ey). Let's just say we had another 1 1/2 hr. on our own but we would have been perfectly fine being done in 15 minutes. We went during the time of the pausa (time when Italians take off for lunch from 1-4 pm) so nothing was open but the town church. There was construction on the inside of the church so we really didn't get to see too much of it. I think what made this town interesting was just cracking all the jokes with the name Todi in it (like what would someone from that town be called?) I don't know..maybe we were just delirious with boredom but that's what got us through that town! Now we're all back and I'm about to already go to bed because I have a migraine.... Not too fun! But hope you all enjoyed and I don't know if I'll be updating it tomorrow because we just have class all day tomorrow so not too much going on to inform everyone about! Hope everything is going well for everyone and give America my hellos!
-Rach

Finally Getting This Started!

Ciao Everyone!
So I know I said that I was going to start a blog so everyone could follow me (and so mom you wouldn't have to get on my facebook anymore!) but unfortunately we didn't have wi-fi where we live but now since we do I decided to start keeping everyone updated! I'm going to try to post a blog at the end of each day but with our stay in Milan next week, than San Sebastian, than touring Italy with my parents I can't always guarantee I'll have wireless! It's kind of funny how much you realize your dependence on wireless once you're without it for long periods of time as in my case. Anyways, I posted a link for my web albums which should be at the top left of the screen. I'm also trying to figure out a way to post my calender on here which shows what we're doing here in Italy day by day in case anyone wants to know! Hope everyone is safe and healthy back in America and just to let everyone know, I'm having an amazing time here and thanks for all the prayers for safety and well wishes!
I miss everyone so much and hopefully this will make you feel more connected!
Ciao!
Rachel