ROMA! :)

Just trying to get some notes down while things are fresh...
I am typing on a computer smaller then my hand that I have checked out from the hostel so if there are any typos I appologize ahead of time and will clean this up later!
Our hostel is really cool and clean.. my friends and I basically have a private room with the girls I am with plus one random man from Belgium. He is really nice and respectful- we love him but I am sure he hates us since we got up at 730 am and had 5 blow dryers going. Last night was Winnies birthday so we went out to a somewhat nice dinner and had fantastic chianti wine. All of the food here is amazing especially after Barcelona's wierd meat.
Also last night at the hostel they had free beer pong to make it look like a cool place because a photographer from the NY Times was coming to take pictures and promote this hostel in the travel section. he took about 800 pictures of just me and one was mid winning shot.. so keep your eyes out for me in the ny times.. he said it should also be online.
Yesterday we went to the old city... It was fantastic!
Today we went to the Vatican City I was actually a little disappointed because my expectations were so high and we just walked in a HUGE HERD of people through the whole thing. The artwork was amazing though and I took a ton of great pictures We also went to the spanish steps and the pantheon! It was unreal I felt like I was on a movie set
The weather has been fabulous-- 70s and breezy
I absolutely love Rome and cant wait for the rest of this trip also :)

day 88 (3.30.09) last catching up

The day Chris left Annie and Rachel came. Their plane had landed before Chris' took off. I had about a 15 minute waiting period between the two, it worked out perfectly. It was a wierd feeling becauuse I was sad to see Chris go and really excited to see my friends and I had only slept for 4 hours so I was really emotional and drained. The first night we went to one of my favorite bars, the second night I went to my homestay because I had a final the next morning, and after that we went out the rest of the week to bars and night clubs. I showed them Apollo, the nightclub I took Chris too and we also went to Opium a night club on the beach. Some of our best pictures came from the Ice Bar we went to where everything including the bar, the glasses, the walls, the seats, was made out of ice! It was expensive and freezing so although it was really cool we didnt stay long. I got to wear the really ugly camo coat!!! wooo!! I think the girls had a lot of fun and they got to see a lot around the city as well they went to the Picasso Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Barceloneta, La Pedrera, Park Guell, La Segrada Familia, Arc de Triumf, Parc Cituadella, Port Olimpic, and Placa Espanya. It actually worked out perfectly because I have class every afternoon from 3-5 and during that time annie and rachel were able to go see art museums and other sight seeing that I did not want to repeat for the 10th time. Unfortunately they did not get the same exceptional weather that Chris had when he was here. It was pleasant and sunny every day but the air was colder and it was windy. They both packed lots of shorts and skirts which stayed in their suitcases for the most part. It was tons of fun and I
miss my friends already!! But, I dont miss sleeping on a couch in their hotel room that was half my size! Their hotel was really cool in a cool area of the city "L'Eixample" but the man who worked at the front desk was evil and hated us. I dont really know why.. Oh and Rachel broke a glass in the room, as well as the pully hard blind curtain things outside the window. Hopefully the girls dont get charged for that! Oh, and the funny picture of Rachel in different colored socks is her modeling the latest fashion trend here.. we call them "diaper pants"

day 88 (3.30.09) more catching up

My boyfriend Chris came for a week starting on the 15th. It was a lot of fun. I took him to my favorite club, apollo on Monday where we met tons of random Spanish people, (notice the picture of chris and 3 random drunk spaniards!) and the rest of the week I showed him some of my favorite bars like Ovella Negra, Chupitos, George Payne, and others.. We went to the light show in Placa Espanya on Friday night (his last night) which was really convenient because it was across from the hotel. The hotel was called "Hotel B" and he got a great deal. It was an amazing hotel with a cool pool and lounge on the roof. Being with Chris in Spain was really funny because he is always hungry and the portions here are very small. We were constantly going to the grocery for snacks and stopping and the kebab places on the street. Chris randomly ran into some of his frat brothers at an irish pub on St. Patricks Day! It was pretty cool. He really like the beach, and overall I think Barcelona really impressed him. He got to see almost everything and he got lucky with perfect weather the entire time!

day 88 (3.30.09)

So much has happened since I last wrote. These past few weeks have been absolutely crazy. First thing that happened was the wine tour. CIEE took a group of us to Penedes (a wine region close to Barcelona) to the Torres vineyard. It was really fun, we were able to tour the vineyards in a cool trolly and see the cellars and learn all about how the wine was made. Afterwards we did a wine tasting-- which was basically the same technique that we learned when we did the beer tasting at the Estrella Damm factory in Barcelona. It was a really fun trip but there wasn't much to see since the grapes werent on the vines. We did see 5 porsches in the parking lot though.