I'm not really sure why I say brief because everyone knows that once I get started, they end up way longer than I originally planned. So my birthday was Friday and that was exciting! The PE Department had a little bday party for me with a cake and some cards and I have a new Wales keychain for my keys now. I went out for my birthday and then yesterday we had lax games but it was in Reading which is near London and the bus got lost so it ended up taking us about 3 hrs to get there and then didn't even get back here until about 7:15pm soo it was a very long day for only about an hour and a half of games. On the way back I was on the bus with the U14, 13, and 12 and they drove me crazy. I might even go as far as saying they make me second guess having kids. I have never been asked so many questions in my life! Miss Provance what time will we be in Newport? What time will we be back at school? Where are we? Can I use the bathroom? Every 10 minutes. And then my favorite..Miss Provance, are we on the Severn Bridge now? I looked at her and said "Well, you may be able to see if you look out the window and see the same view that I have up here." And she sat down haha. I couldn't believe how many questions they could ask and how looooud they could be. Then they were harassing the bus driver about going faster and getting back quicker and where we were and asking what speed he was going and when we'd be back and blah blah blah.
People here told me they do not celebrate birthdays like we do because on November 1st, I was like it's my birthday month!!! And then last Monday..It's my birthday week!!! They were like yeah I think birthdays are bigger in America and I was like well I looove my birthday so I am not how a typical American would react to it being their birthday ha. Thank you everyone for all of the great birthday wishes and cards and gifts:-)
Ali gets here in 15 days! That is so crazy that she will be here in 2 weeks and we are in school that whole week so she will have to guest blog about my life here and let you know what it's like. Funny she will get to meet all the kids. They will be in awe of another American. I still have kids looking at me when I talk and then go "oh my god I looove your accent!" It makes me laugh but I'm flattered of course haha. So she will be here December 8th and then school ends December 12th, we go to London December 13th-16th and then fly out of Heathrow to Baltimore!!! I cannot wait to be home for Christmas and am very sad about missing Thanksgiving but I guess it's all a part of growing up which is what people are telling me and expecting that to make it better- it's not. Well the dinner bell just went off so I better get going. I told Lisa that one day and she said "there's an actual bell?" haha it sounds like a bell for changing classes but it goes off when it's time for a meal which is good because sometimes I lose track of time. I will think of if there is anything else to update you on and maybe add another one tonight. I started reading Twilight today and already love it. Love you all and miss you! See you soon!!
Danielle
x
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
LINK TO MY PICTURES!
Hey, here is the link to my snapfish with some pics. I also have some others on Facebook of Italy but here is my link. Miss you all! x
http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/photolibrary/owned_view=owned_2008/t_=149683675
http://www3.snapfish.co.uk/photolibrary/owned_view=owned_2008/t_=149683675
Monday, November 3, 2008
Arrivederci:-)
So here I am back from my long vaca away from Monmouth and the duties of a PE teacher and lax coach. I am completely exhausted and sore from all the walking I did in London and then around Italy. Also, I had a lifeguarding course today with all the PE teachers and my arms hurt to touch they are so sore. Tomorrow I am going to wake up not able to move-I am getting old! I got back from Italy yesterday afternoon after taking a 6am flight out of Rome and going to the airport with another girl on my flight the night before. I never want to spend the night in the airport again! Also, I learned that it is not fun having a small bladder because places in Europe make you pay to use the bathroom-how bizarre is that?! I should have added how much I spent on that. It was a running joke that I was the 5 yr old in the group because whenever we were going somewhere, they would make me "try" to go to the bathroom even if I said that I didn't need to haha. And then whenever we would see one, they'd say ok Danielle, go in and try at least. Sure enough, I always went!
This is going to be a long one so get comfortable, grab whatever water, do whatever you need to do:-)
So we met in the Gatwick Airport in London and flew into Pisa. Couldn't find the hotel when we got there so walked around in the rain for awhile then decided to get a cab. The lady was standing outside waving her arms. Good old Cecilia-bless her. So we figured she was waving us down so we stopped at the house haha. Sure enough, she was looking for us. We had our own house there because no one else was staying in the hostel so that was awesome. We walked around town that night and then just went to bed. We woke up and Cecilia had breakfast for us and some Espresso-yum! We went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa which was pretty amazing to see in person. It almost seemed fake that we were standing right in front of it. So we did all the touristy pictures and actually ran into a couple other girls who were leaving Pisa but were there through out program so it was fun seeing them for a couple hours! Walked around some more and took the train to Venice. The train ride was the most fun I've ever had in transportation haha. We bought loaves of fresh bread, oil, olives, cheese, peppers, chips, and had an amazing feast. Oh and we also bought some bottles of wine. Needless to say we had a fantastic time! We got to the hostel that night and just relaxed and went to bed. Woke up and did St. Mark's Basillica which was beautiful. We paid to walk around and go to the top and take pics and everything of St. Mark's Square. I am officially a peristerophobian. I am completely terrified of pigeons. They will walk across your feet if they need to get somewhere! They would all make fun of me because I would scream and run from them because sometimes I swear they were flying full speed right at me. They are not afraid of humans at all. There was a lady in the middle of St. Mark's Square feeding them with her kids and the pigeons were multiplying around them and I almost had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe because it was so scary. They would fly right in front of your face or above your head and hit your hair. It was soo scary! So I was the girl with the 5 yr old bladder and afraid of pigeons. Then we paid for this ferry and it was like the bus tour in London where you pay for a pass and it takes you to all different stops along the "Canal Grande" and you can get on and off whenever you want. So we did that for awhile and got off at certain places to take pictures. Some old man gave Marcy a statue of Santa Lucia so we carried her with us and she even made it in some pictures. We walked along the Rialto bridge which is historically known for Italy's most vibrant markets (again, from my book). We took the boat to an island called Murano where they make glass. This is something that was soo amazing! We got to watch them make glass and it was so mesmorizing! So cool how they did it and they have the prettiest jewelry from it. We all bought a few rings from there because we couldn't resist-my favorite one broke and I still don't like to talk about it because it makes me sad. So we did that until later at night, had dinner, relaxed and went to bed. The next day we walked alll around Venice and went to the best pizza place in Venice called Arca and had pizza and wine which was fun. I drank more wine on this trip than ever in my life oh and also, the gelato! Sooo good!! I felt ok eating alot though because we walked so many miles a day! So anyyywaayyys...walked around and such that day then took the train to Florence.
Went to bed when we got there that night because we were exhausted. The next day we had tickets to the Uffizi museum which Shantel and I still call the "you-fuzzy" because we could never get how to say it. This was an art gallery with priceless paintings and sculptures from the world's most important collection of Renaissance art. I am copying sentences from my Western Europe book haha:-) The museum's most famous paintings are the Primavera and The Birth of Venus which actually meant nothing to me until I saw them and was like ohhhh yeahhh I know those! ha. Lots of other cool things there and some very famous paintings but I won't bore you with that because I didn't care until I saw them in person to be honest. We walked around Florence some more, hit some markets (well didn't actually hit them), and then went to teh Duomo which was alot cooler than I thought. It's in alot of my pictures. It looks like a 3-D puzzle. There is room inside for 20, 000 people so it's huuuge! It has stained-glass windows that date back to the mid-15th century and are some of Italy's best. We climbed the 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo and I can't even explain the views. I have pictures of it but it is so different seeing it in person. We all got up there and were just speechless. So incredible! Last tidbit: the interior of the dome glitters with Florence's only mosiac cycle, the earliest dating back to 1225. After that we did dinner and wine. We decided to buy a bottle of champagne each at the dollar store so this may have been the most eventful night of the trip. We went to various places, meeting many people, and it was very very fun but it made for a rough morning. We woke up to get to the Accademia which has the original scultpure of David from the story of David and Goliath and yes mom this is "the naked guy." I thought you would know who it was but I guess whatever helps you remember:-) This was really the only thing we looked at in that museum. There were some other neat things but that was the amazing one. We snuck pictures of it and it was neat to hear the history of it. We walked around some more, went to some markets, and then left for our train to Rome!
We woke up on Thursday and paid 20 euros for a guided tour of the Colosseum and the Foro Romano which was the ruins of Ancient Rome. These were both unbelievable and so amazing to be standing in and walking around. The money was definately worth it because otherwise we would have just wandered around not knowing anything about what any of it was. We learned so much about the times back then and their culture and way of life. We also learned what certain things were that we could have just overlooked probably. Later that night, we went out and had another great time just like in Florence. Met lots of new people from everywhere but it made for a rough morning since we woke up at 730am-yuck! We woke up early to do St. Peter's Cathedral, Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican. It was pretty amazing to see these places in person. I felt so holy:-) We wanted to go to Mass in St. Peter's but we would have had to wait like 4 hours and that would have just been too long to sit around in a chapel..even if it was a famous one! St. Peter's is the largest Roman Catholic building in the world, accomodating 60,000 people and has 778 columns, 44 altars, 135 mosaics, and 395 statues. It was absolutely breathtaking and I didn't even know what to take pictures of because everything was just so beautiful everywhere you would turn! We did the audio tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel and I think I could have stayed there for days just listening to everything that each individual sculpture and painting stood for. It just held so much history and it was so amazing to listen to. The Sistine Chapel is something that everyone needs to see in their life. The audio guide told us sooo much stuff about it but I don't wanna bore you:-) So later that afternoon around 2ish me and Marcy got separated and had no map. We decided to wander into shops and bars and restaurants. Had a glass of wine everywhere we went, had a nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine, and walked around some more before finally buying a map and making it back to the hostel at around 10:30pm. It was a very eventful afternoon/night but so fun. Saturday, last day, we woke up and did the Trevi Fountain. This was built in 1762 and has been there since. Oh my god. I just read in my book that you needed to toss TWO coins into the fountain to ensure that you returned. greatttt I'm not going back! That is a downer! ha. Well nothing I can do now I guess...continuing on..
Had dinner at the hostel and then left at like 9pm for the train station to take one to the airport in Rome. Like I said before, never sleeping in an airport again. It was miserable and made for a long day! Still exhausted but I wanted to post this blog for my faithful followers:-) I miss everyone and I will see you in December!!!! If I think of anything else, I will post it on here:-)
DLP
This is going to be a long one so get comfortable, grab whatever water, do whatever you need to do:-)
So we met in the Gatwick Airport in London and flew into Pisa. Couldn't find the hotel when we got there so walked around in the rain for awhile then decided to get a cab. The lady was standing outside waving her arms. Good old Cecilia-bless her. So we figured she was waving us down so we stopped at the house haha. Sure enough, she was looking for us. We had our own house there because no one else was staying in the hostel so that was awesome. We walked around town that night and then just went to bed. We woke up and Cecilia had breakfast for us and some Espresso-yum! We went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa which was pretty amazing to see in person. It almost seemed fake that we were standing right in front of it. So we did all the touristy pictures and actually ran into a couple other girls who were leaving Pisa but were there through out program so it was fun seeing them for a couple hours! Walked around some more and took the train to Venice. The train ride was the most fun I've ever had in transportation haha. We bought loaves of fresh bread, oil, olives, cheese, peppers, chips, and had an amazing feast. Oh and we also bought some bottles of wine. Needless to say we had a fantastic time! We got to the hostel that night and just relaxed and went to bed. Woke up and did St. Mark's Basillica which was beautiful. We paid to walk around and go to the top and take pics and everything of St. Mark's Square. I am officially a peristerophobian. I am completely terrified of pigeons. They will walk across your feet if they need to get somewhere! They would all make fun of me because I would scream and run from them because sometimes I swear they were flying full speed right at me. They are not afraid of humans at all. There was a lady in the middle of St. Mark's Square feeding them with her kids and the pigeons were multiplying around them and I almost had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe because it was so scary. They would fly right in front of your face or above your head and hit your hair. It was soo scary! So I was the girl with the 5 yr old bladder and afraid of pigeons. Then we paid for this ferry and it was like the bus tour in London where you pay for a pass and it takes you to all different stops along the "Canal Grande" and you can get on and off whenever you want. So we did that for awhile and got off at certain places to take pictures. Some old man gave Marcy a statue of Santa Lucia so we carried her with us and she even made it in some pictures. We walked along the Rialto bridge which is historically known for Italy's most vibrant markets (again, from my book). We took the boat to an island called Murano where they make glass. This is something that was soo amazing! We got to watch them make glass and it was so mesmorizing! So cool how they did it and they have the prettiest jewelry from it. We all bought a few rings from there because we couldn't resist-my favorite one broke and I still don't like to talk about it because it makes me sad. So we did that until later at night, had dinner, relaxed and went to bed. The next day we walked alll around Venice and went to the best pizza place in Venice called Arca and had pizza and wine which was fun. I drank more wine on this trip than ever in my life oh and also, the gelato! Sooo good!! I felt ok eating alot though because we walked so many miles a day! So anyyywaayyys...walked around and such that day then took the train to Florence.
Went to bed when we got there that night because we were exhausted. The next day we had tickets to the Uffizi museum which Shantel and I still call the "you-fuzzy" because we could never get how to say it. This was an art gallery with priceless paintings and sculptures from the world's most important collection of Renaissance art. I am copying sentences from my Western Europe book haha:-) The museum's most famous paintings are the Primavera and The Birth of Venus which actually meant nothing to me until I saw them and was like ohhhh yeahhh I know those! ha. Lots of other cool things there and some very famous paintings but I won't bore you with that because I didn't care until I saw them in person to be honest. We walked around Florence some more, hit some markets (well didn't actually hit them), and then went to teh Duomo which was alot cooler than I thought. It's in alot of my pictures. It looks like a 3-D puzzle. There is room inside for 20, 000 people so it's huuuge! It has stained-glass windows that date back to the mid-15th century and are some of Italy's best. We climbed the 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo and I can't even explain the views. I have pictures of it but it is so different seeing it in person. We all got up there and were just speechless. So incredible! Last tidbit: the interior of the dome glitters with Florence's only mosiac cycle, the earliest dating back to 1225. After that we did dinner and wine. We decided to buy a bottle of champagne each at the dollar store so this may have been the most eventful night of the trip. We went to various places, meeting many people, and it was very very fun but it made for a rough morning. We woke up to get to the Accademia which has the original scultpure of David from the story of David and Goliath and yes mom this is "the naked guy." I thought you would know who it was but I guess whatever helps you remember:-) This was really the only thing we looked at in that museum. There were some other neat things but that was the amazing one. We snuck pictures of it and it was neat to hear the history of it. We walked around some more, went to some markets, and then left for our train to Rome!
We woke up on Thursday and paid 20 euros for a guided tour of the Colosseum and the Foro Romano which was the ruins of Ancient Rome. These were both unbelievable and so amazing to be standing in and walking around. The money was definately worth it because otherwise we would have just wandered around not knowing anything about what any of it was. We learned so much about the times back then and their culture and way of life. We also learned what certain things were that we could have just overlooked probably. Later that night, we went out and had another great time just like in Florence. Met lots of new people from everywhere but it made for a rough morning since we woke up at 730am-yuck! We woke up early to do St. Peter's Cathedral, Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican. It was pretty amazing to see these places in person. I felt so holy:-) We wanted to go to Mass in St. Peter's but we would have had to wait like 4 hours and that would have just been too long to sit around in a chapel..even if it was a famous one! St. Peter's is the largest Roman Catholic building in the world, accomodating 60,000 people and has 778 columns, 44 altars, 135 mosaics, and 395 statues. It was absolutely breathtaking and I didn't even know what to take pictures of because everything was just so beautiful everywhere you would turn! We did the audio tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel and I think I could have stayed there for days just listening to everything that each individual sculpture and painting stood for. It just held so much history and it was so amazing to listen to. The Sistine Chapel is something that everyone needs to see in their life. The audio guide told us sooo much stuff about it but I don't wanna bore you:-) So later that afternoon around 2ish me and Marcy got separated and had no map. We decided to wander into shops and bars and restaurants. Had a glass of wine everywhere we went, had a nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine, and walked around some more before finally buying a map and making it back to the hostel at around 10:30pm. It was a very eventful afternoon/night but so fun. Saturday, last day, we woke up and did the Trevi Fountain. This was built in 1762 and has been there since. Oh my god. I just read in my book that you needed to toss TWO coins into the fountain to ensure that you returned. greatttt I'm not going back! That is a downer! ha. Well nothing I can do now I guess...continuing on..
Had dinner at the hostel and then left at like 9pm for the train station to take one to the airport in Rome. Like I said before, never sleeping in an airport again. It was miserable and made for a long day! Still exhausted but I wanted to post this blog for my faithful followers:-) I miss everyone and I will see you in December!!!! If I think of anything else, I will post it on here:-)
DLP
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