KKG reunion in Amsterdam!!!

Last weekend we had a Kappa Abroad Reunion in Amsterdam!!! It was so good to see all of the girls abroad (there’s 12 of us but only seven made it to AMS), especially one of my best and closest friends at CSU, Andrea Thompson. While we were there, we visited the Rijks Museum, which held a lot of Renaissance paintings, including a collection of dollhouses from the 1600’s (Nancy- you would love this, I definitely thought of you!) and some of Rembrandt’s work as well; we also went to the Van Gough Museum – not very many of Van Gough’s famous works as we imagined but it was still neat and it did have a few Monet’s too. Nicole and I barely squeezed in the Anne Frank House on our last day there between all the socializing we did, it was very neat but very much lingered with a solemn feel. I definitely fell in love with Amsterdam’s gothic and Renaissance inspired architecture. The “Red Light District” was – we’ll just say interesting. And it was so odd to see everyone just smoking joints in public… everywhere smelled of weed. The main event of the weekend though was a 30,000-person rave in Utrecht. It took place in the Jarburs event center (kind of like a convention center). Basically, we danced to crazy techno music for seven hours, when we finally left and caught the 6am train back to Amsterdam – it was a very long, but surprisingly very fun night!! Nicole and I developed a new love/appreciation for techno! The weekend was definitely a success, but I found it hard to say goodbye to my friends when it was time to go!

February 22 - 25, 2008

When in Rome!!!

A couple of weekends ago Nicole and I traveled to Rome via train to visit our friend Tony Macias, a Pi Kappa Phi at CSU, and of course to see all of the wonders… one word: amazing!! To start, the train was really neat and I felt kind of like I was from Harry Potter. The first day we did the Vatican and I am pretty much obsessed, as it is something that I have seen pictures of and learned about my entire life, we didn’t make it to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, but we decided that we need to plan a trip back to squeeze that part in. But we did climb Michelangelo’s Cupola, which is the highest point in all of Rome, all 400 and something steps – tiring but well worth it. We also visited the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain that day. We threw coins into the fountain so we will see if the superstition comes true (that one day you will return to Rome)!!! The second day we saw all of ancient Rome (the Colleseum, the Roman Forums etc.) that was amazing too. We stayed with Tony in his apartment of 8 guys – they were all so much fun and a blast to go out with! Both nights we went out and had a ton of fun. Both of the nights that we stayed there we went out with the boys. The second night was so much fun! We went to an Irish pub called Scholars and danced the night away to oldies! Overall, I’d say that with all of the sights topped off with the great company, this was the most fun I’ve had in one weekend since I’ve been here! We are already planning a trip back to Rome to see all of the things we missed!!

February 15 - 17, 2008

Carnivale - Viareggio

Nicole Jackson, Janelle McHenry (my two KKG/CSU roommates) took a day trip a couple of weeks ago to Viareggio, a small town on the west coast of Italy. It is where the Italian and now all of Europe festival Carnivale began. Think Mardi Gras (minus the alcohol) + a crazy cartoon inspired floats + a five year old’s birthday party + Halloween = Carnivale, one very interesting experience. That’s the only way I can really describe it, oh and you get sprayed with silly string and this foam stuff all day long, I was the main target I feel with my long, blonde hair.. shoot. We only stayed during the day events as the crowds definitely wore us out. I've heard it gets pretty crazy at night but we opted to take the bus home with the group that we came with. We ended up being stuck in traffic for a good 3 hours :( but it definitely exemplified the massive amounts of people that came in for the event.

February 10, 2008

Life in Florence <3

Dear Family and Friends!!

I just created this blog so that I can more easily keep you all posted on my adventures! I'll email you as I continually update this!


Let me start off by this, I miss you all so much!! I wish I could just Fed-Ex you all here asap to live in the lovely city with me! I think that that has been the hardest transition, to find a new circle of people that I have mutual trust with (which of course only comes with time and what not…) but it truly does make me appreciate all of you!

First off, I live in an apartment with five other girls, two of which are part of my Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority at CSU and are great and I absolutely love them. Although, I think maybe not having them here may have made me step out of my comfort zone and make more friends though through my classes, but I’m still trying. The other three roommates are best friends from U. of New Hampshire… let’s just say it’s been an interesting experience and I think we are here for different reasons (aka they bring home Italian men at 4 in the morning? Not quite sure if that’s safe…to say the least) but they are very nice girls and were working on getting along better with them! So anyways, my apartment is pretty big, we have three bedrooms, two girls to a room and three bathrooms! I have the best and biggest room that I share with one of the girls from New Hampshire, ironically her name is Laura Taylor. It’s been very interesting living by myself (aka not having my lovely mother or the amazing Chef Cher to provide well balanced meals for me!) But you will be happy to know that I am learning to cook for myself and my roommates next year in Fort Collins will never be pasta sauce deprived or panini deprived for that matter. That’s basically all we eat, so thank goodness we walk absolutely everywhere! One weird thing is that our power goes out ALL the time – and we have to walk down our five flights of stone stairs to flip it back on, but it usually goes out again about ten minutes later; so it’s an ongoing process!

The city is amazing. The historic center, where I live, is pretty small you can walk from one side to another in 30-35 minutes, and we have stayed in the city center thus far. School is about a mile walk, but its not bad at all, I really enjoy all the walking. There is a huge cathedral in the middle of the historic center called the Duomo, it was designed and built by Brunellschi (spl?) and is absolutely gorgeous. We went to church inside of it a couple of weeks ago, let’s just say it was a little chilly and the priest had to talk very, very slow b/c the microphone was echoing throughout the massive thing, but it was really neat. My school is right next to Santa Croce, another cathedral that is also breathtaking, and finally there is the third main and large cathedral, Santa Maria Novella that I have not yet been inside but the façade is pretty great and that’s on the other side of town by the train station. My apartment is located across the Arno river, which is away from the majority of the city and about a mile from school. We live right by Palazzo Pitti (the home of the Medici Family during the Renaissance) behind the Palace is the Boboli Gardens, which I’m waiting till spring to visit since there’s not excessive vegetation right now.

My classes are going really well!! I really like the majority of my teachers, especially my fashion marketing teacher and my Italian teacher (which I keep calling my Spanish class and then continually keep speaking Spanish in… You would think after 8 years of taking Spanish, I would have decided to go to Spain?) It’s great though and I’m learing a ton. My other favorite class is my cooking class! I feel like I’m being domesticated… good thing I guess. This past week we made Seafood Paella and Tortilla Espanola, each were amazing!

Next... my weekend adventures so far!