Messed up Internet...

Ok, I am sorry, but you will have to be a bit more patient with me and my blogging this next leg of my trip. the Internet was wonderful in Oxford and its proving to be a bit of a problem here. we loose it for hours and a time and then eventually we may have a small window to post stuff, pictures are especially hard to get on. sorry, i hope to have it up and running soon, but i am well and alive:) dont worry:)

Day 3: al mercato? to the market?

May 31, 2008
Today we got woken up by the beautiful sun shining in through our balcony. i got up at 9am and we walked into the town (Scandicci) and went to their saturday market. it was so awesome, they had everything from food, to produce, to clothes and purses to kids toys... it was a mixture of everything. We were told to get Bomboloni, which is a very large, thick elephant ear type food with sugar and of course Nutella:) we also went and got Pescas, Peaches, they were juicy and good. there is nothing like eating a juicy peach, while sitting in the sun at a farmers market in Italy... nothing compares:) it was a good morning. and you all will be so proud of me... every time i ordered anything, i did it in italian, like "costa pescas", or "uno bomboloni con Nutella" I was so happy that i was starting to use my Italian, "gratzie, prego, ciao". i am working on it:)

we grabbed a quick lunch and bought groceries and went back to the house. we watched a movie and napped on a sunny, warm Italian saturday in May. when i woke up i painted some and then we went to dinner. At dinner, everything was of course in italian, so we just ordered, but it all was amazing. the whole day the internet was down and all of us were very sad and upset because its our only form of communication to our family and friends. so sorry this post may be a few days late.

Duomo in Florence

We Climbed up AND down 463 steps to get this amazing and well worth every step view!

Bella Italia, Day 2

Today was such a beautiful experience! There was so much to do and see. We woke up early and had another great meal, my favorite were the chocolate croissants. After breakfast we caught a train into Florence and walked strait to The Duomo... it was sooooo huge and amazing. The paintings, and especially the view! We climbed up, AND down 463 steps... pretty tough, but well worth the view of the amazing city below. we stayed at the top in the rain just loving everything about the city for about 30 minutes. we took tons of pictures and video.

After the climb we went to the main town Plaza and got lunch, very good also, pizza, what else:) then we all went and got our first Italian Gelato. We went to the leather shops and picked out some cheap, cute stuff. We were all exhausted and rode the bus home to another amazing dinner of Rosas:)

The Italians are very helpful and friendly. its a good place to be. i am just excited to see the sun in the next few days. we might take a trip over to the beach this weekend.

oh, also, i am keeping a running list of my Gelato flavors... i am going for a different one every time:
Nutella
Chocolate Mint
Chocolate Chip (and yes, all in one day so far, but one of them was two scoops, so only two times today)
and the most recent... Salty Chocolate

P.S. these are not the only pictures i will post, it just takes so long and we have such a short window for internet that i will just keep adding them as i can.

Ciao! I am in Italy!!!

Ciao, hello from the Tuscan Countryside. we are now here in Scandicci, a town near Florence. its raining, of course:) but its warm and beautiful!!!! we are staying at the most beautiful villa and the accommodations are wonderful!!! i already love it.

Rosa is our cook for the four weeks and she is amazing! she cooked us pasta, pork and salad for dinner when we got here and then the best part... this strawberry dessert with these great cookies covered in chocolate on top and fresh whipped cream... ahhhh, it was soooo good! We all learned, 'that was very good' in Italian, "e mulo buono"... and it was.

Anyway, after we met our directors, Dave and Debbie (who are awesome by the way, they have moved here from searcy, AR) they gave us a run down of the place and told us the general ins and outs, then we got all set up. I will post pictures ASAP, i promise, i have taken a few, but i mainly need to take some around the house to show you.

Alright, i guess i will be writing soon to tell you more. be looking for pictures, they will be up soon, maybe even later tonight, we'll see.

Day 16: Goodbye My Oxford!

Well, in just 12 hours or so i will be on a plane headed for a new country, a new language and a new culture to live in for the next four and a half weeks. It has been good being here... AMAZING being here! I love it and it really has become a favorite place of mine! I will miss it! Just about the only thing i wont miss is how expensive everything is! I will miss the flower shops everywhere, walking into old bookshops where there are 150 year old books, the amazing and ancient architecture, having tea time everyday and hearing that wonderful British accent while waking to get my groceries.

I cant believe that i will get to experience a whole new place so soon! Today, to celebrate our last day, me and three other girls walked into town and had tea at out favorite tea cafe in the covered market. then we splurged and got ourselves some amazing pastries from a shop nearby that reminds us of the movie Chocolate. After that our Oxford director took us all out to a nice dinner at this great pizza place in an old, restored church, it was really yummy!

All in all this trip has been so much more than i ever thought! i have gotten to be apart of something different for the last three weeks and i have loved it!

day 15: London calling

Today was spent in London. We left here early and caught a train. as soon as we arrived we went to the British museum. there we saw a lot of cool Egyptian mummies and i even got to see the Rosetta stone...it was pretty sweet. After our 1st museum we ate lunch at an AMAZING sandwich place across the street. i had a panini with mozzarella, asparagus and prechuto. it was wonderful. then we went to Starbucks and i ate a lemon poppy seed muffin for dessert... SO GOOD, i highly recommend it:)

after that good, memorable lunch, we moved on and went to the British Tate museum... not so great, i was disappointed, not to mention unbelievably tired! after the museum and few of us girls thought since it was only 5pm, we should take advantage of a nice, warm day in London, so we found some stuff to do.

We went and found piccadilly circus (which is the London time square) and we found such a great, very cute tea room that we ate dinner at. I had Earl Gray tea and it is by far the best pot of tea i have ever had! (today was a good food day), anyway, it was so good! and our waiter was so sweet and kind. after dinner, we went to Harrods (a very expensive and large department store). we took some pictures, admired the woman's bathroom, which by the way had real hand towels and someone assisting you... it was pretty cool:) anyway then we went back to oxford and i am tired! it was a pretty good day though.

so i realized the funniest thing today, i have been thinking and reading in a british accent... isnt that funny? i was reading a sign on the underground and i realized i was thinking in a british accent. i just thought that was soooo cool!

Day 14: Yay for Painting!!!

I am finally getting watercolor... and not a moment to soon, i leave for Italy in 3 days and that means we move onto oil painting and leave watercolor behind. For some odd reason, i became incredibly motivated to sit down and pop out 3 good watercolors. i have posted two of them. they aren't the best things in the world, but i am at least learning and really begining to enjoy it! oh and sorry about the picture quality too:)

The weather is horrible here today, pouring rain and cold. we had class inside today, lots of photography critique and painting critiques. after class let out it was lunch time, so i made my self a quick sandwich then went right to work. since it was too gross outside to paint, i painted from pictures i had previously taken (on beautiful, sunny days i might add). so anyway i sat down and painted for a good 3 hours and listened to a lot of music.

after that i started packing up everything again to move to Italy in a few days. (for all of you... ABI... that are thinking 'why are you packing when you dont leave until thursday', well i do have a reason:) ) we are going into London tomorrow for another strand of museuming... yes i just made up a new word i think:)... any way, we will be there all day and then wed we have our final day of painting as well as a trip to blenheim palace for the afternoon, then Ron Morgan (the head of study abroad here in oxford) is taking us all out for a nice goodbye dinner that night. then thursday morning we head off at about 7:45am.

Day 13: Church and Girly Mud Masks

Today we woke up and toughed the weather walking 25 minutes to church in the POURING rain. it was so wet and i was soaked through, my pants, shoes, socks and coat... all wet, oh well. Church was interesting, i did have my first real bread and wine communion and i had some wonderful moments with the lord and singing... I really needed that! Other than that, the service was very political, a lot to do with abortion and gay adoption. i didn't like the service like i thought i would, but i did manage to get what i needed out of it. I REALLY missed my East County today! i cried cause i wished i was there this afternoon.

after church, we came back and dried off. our director of studies here in oxford saw the two of us that braved the weather walking back and invited us to eat in his flat in house 9 with some of his californian friends that were visiting. we had a wonderful meal!

then we relaxed and watched movies all day:) while we watched movies we did girly mud masks, it was a lot of fun:) the best part of the night was everyone that came back from trips to all over. we had people come back from Paris, Ireland, Scotland and Bath. we sat in the common room and shared fun stories all night of amazing trips. it was cool!

Day 12: 5 mile walk in oxford

I woke up this morning, had some breakfast then me and my friend Leriam walked all around town to the covered market, around to the oxford canal and we even made a stop at an all-american institution to get our fix:) Yummmmy! american fatty foods:) then we walked to the Thames river and there were boat races going on all day, so it was fun to sit in the sun and enjoy watching the boats and large crowds of people. all together we figured out we walked about 5 miles total. then we came back and rested for the afternoon. we even watched "My fair lady"





Today i wanted to make a list of funny things that British people say or do that are very different and some that are hard to get used to...

1) instead of 'Roundtrip', its 'Return'

2) i love that they say "thats lovely" all the time:)

3) Cheers or cheersmate are used sometimes WITH thank you and sometimes in REPLACE of thank you and sometimes its just to say goodbye.

4) rubbish means trash

5) a lift is an elevator

6) the tele is the TV

7) a muffin here is what we think of as an English muffin... go figure, right:) then they call a muffin (by our standards) as a bun

8) a Lorry is a truck

9) of course, the loo is the bathroom

10) the watercloset and bathroom are two very different things. here in the house all the toilets are in little closets throughout the house and the bathrooms are just a shower and sink in a separate room

11) trousers are pants

12) french fries are chips and chips are crisps

13) the picture i have of the orange juice is because instead of 'no pulp', it says 'no bits'

Day 11: finally... a break

I tried to sleep in today, but only made it to 8:30:) we had all our classes canceled today so everyone could choose to travel if they wanted. I woke up and ate some breakfast, wrote some postcards, and caught up on my american season finales of my shows on youtube:) then i took a shower, ate some lunch and ordered my B&B room and my flight for vacation... in case you havent heard, i move to italy in 6 days and while we are there we have a four day vacation (12-15th)... well, kyle will be studying in Oxford during that time and we thought it would be fun to see each other in Europe, so i am flying BACK here for the break to see him. I found a very cheap B&B room for me to stay in and a very cheap plane ticket. it worked out perfectly!

later in the afternoon, after getting all my laundry done, kate, Leriam and I walked into town to shop and visit our favorite cafe for tea in a little hidden corner market. we shopped around town and i got a cheap new dress, it was fun and relaxing.

The best part of the day was my amazing American discovery... SKIPPY!!! oh goodness of goodnesses... Peanut butter, the real thing! for anyone who has been over here, you know that englands version of peanut butter is runny, chunky and gross, and you can RARELY find the real thing, but we did:) We saw a sign at a cheese and wine place that said "free samples" so we went in. in the far corner of the room on a shelf in the back was a bunch of betty crocker, peanut butter, jams and other american specialties. we would have never found it if it were not for our need for free stuff:)

Day 10: Painting Breakthrough

Ok, no pictures today, but I am pretty excited cause I did a good painting today, not Great, but good. I was excited not that i made a good painting, but that i am starting to enjoy it and not be so discouraged. So I painted in the warm, beautiful sun this morning, then this afternoon i walked around town by myself. it was odd at one point when I walked in front of a silly picture that three american tourist were taking in front of the eagle and child (C.S. lewis' hangout place) and I thought to myself, silly tourist, taking tourist photos:) (I have no idea why i felt i had a right to think i was NOT a forigner, but it does feel a little like home away from home, its nice). anyway after walking around I came back to the house and visited with everyone staying for the weekend over tea and scones, it was nice. Some of us gals went to a lebineese restaraunt tonight to try something new, it was really good, lamb and chicken. Then we came back and i arranged my trips for the remainder of my time here. this weekend will be super chill:) (in the words of my friend Sarah). Cheersmate!

Bath Time

Leriam, Kate and I went to The Roman Baths in Bath, England and these are our thoughts...

Day 9: Bath time

Today we went to Bath. We hopped on a train and rode it out into the city of Bath. It was a warm and beautiful day! We saw the Roman Baths, which were cool for a few minutes, but my and my two friends saw it and left cause there wasnt much to them... you know, things like that are all hype:) but we did however get to drink a glass of the water from the springs, but we all just took a sip cause it was hot and nasty, it kinda tasted like... well bath water:) ha, ha

after that we ate a lunch we packed to save money, they we bought the most amazing fudge from a little shop where they were so sweet to us and kept giving us samples. it was so good!

after that, we went to a fashion museum through the ages. in my pictures, you can see that we tried on corsets and big hoop skirts... they hurt! my waist was TINY!!! its amazing how those things worked... no room to breath! but it was a lot of fun being silly:)

then we just went shopping for 3 or 4 hours. They have the cutest little shoppes of dress, i almost bought one, but it was just too expensive, but it was soooo fun to hang out with the sweetest girls and have a totally girly day shopping in europe of all places:)