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