Yesterday and today

So, I just thought I would tell you all a little story about what happened to me yesterday. My roommate Anne and I were walking to the cell phone store and we passes by a little fruit shop they had the most beautiful strawberries and plums that I have ever seen in my life. There was a petite older woman sitting next to the doorway reading the Firenze newspaper so I excused myself and asked her how much the strawberries were and it got us to talking a bit. She picked out the fruit that I asked for and as she was ringing me up, I looked on her wall by the register and I saw that it was filled with dollar bills from different countries. It was very cool and as I was standing there looking at the Canadian bill I realized that I had American dollars in my wallet so after I paid my fee in Euros I asked her "Parle Inglese?" She "No 'un po'". So I pulled out my dollar and I told her to add it to her wall. She asked "It is for me?" I said "Si si!" She got so excited she grabbed tape right there and hung it up and she tells me to hold on and wait there. She runs over, grabs a banana and throws it in my bag and says "For you". Haha it was so cute! So that was just a really cool thing I don't know. I passed by her shop this morning on a walk and said boungiorno and she seemed excited to see me. It is those little moments out here that are the most fulfilling. Anyway, just wanted to share that with you guys. I am leaving at 4pm here for Barcelona with a couple friends so I won't be back here until Tuesday. I'm sure I'll have more stories by then. Bouna sera!

A lil somethin extra!

Ok so since I was unable to post some videos, I will be posting them on youtube. It takes a little while, but much easier than on this blog. Maybe I'm just getting used to this blog thing, but the uploading takes too long. So, if you go to youtube type in jibberishj and my videos should come up. I believe I will be naming them by number so you know what order to watch them in. Alrighty well I am off to class and you are all in bed I would assume. So for you, bonenotte! (i think i spelt that wrongggg lol)

Back from Venice

Ok well first off, let me apologize to everyone back home who has been waiting for my next blog. It is very busy out here I think today is the first day off from everything that I have had in over a week. I am definitely enjoying it. But, I am back again and I think I will give you a few more pics than last time. 

Let me think let me think. I'm not sure where I left off, but let me just start with our trip to Sienna and San Gimignano. Both places were beautiful of course and I find it interesting how each city is so distinct. I think it can be like that in California, but for the most part all the communities blend together. Out here a different city can have a different smell, the sun even feels different. I'm not exactly sure how else to explain it, but just trust me when I say it and that it was gorgeous scenery...

Those were all from Sienna it is a beautiful city, but with a lot a lot of hills. Its a rough walk and I'd die of shock if I saw any obese people living there. Once our tour was over we had a lunch break. A few of us wandered over to a small cafe type restaurant that the tour guide told us about and let me tell you it was amazing! We bought a bottle of red table wine to split and I had gnocchi with a creamy spinach sauce that was to die forrrrrrr. By the way just a little side note, I did end up running into Ben and Nicole's friend Jonathon in Sienna. We hadn't planned anything but he just so happened to walk by our tour group while we were looking at the cathedral. I didn't get to have lunch or dinner with him or anything but it was very cool running into him... 

After that we met up with the group, refilled our water bottles in the fountain and headed for San Gimignano. I believe it is a very low populated town but the views are outstanding. And, it just so happens that they have a gellato shop that won the "best ice cream in the world" prize two years in a row...

Then we just kind of wandered around. I bought a couple gifts for some of you back home. Oooooh could it have been for you? I don't know. Yes. No. Maybe... anywhooooo I will say the one thing that really stuck out to me was we walked into this small courtyard full of grape vines and it actually looked like a fort. I climbed up to the top of a small set of stairs and suddenly I was on top of the whole community. It was breath taking. I took some pictures up there and while I was standing there talking to a couple of friends I heard music playing and it was going on before I just suppose I hadn't noticed it. So, I walk back down the stairs and there is a man in the middle of the courtyard, under a tree, playing a harp. I stood and listened to him play for a bit and it was so soothing...

Alright well I think I should move on to Venice because I feel like there is far too much to talk about there. Let me just say first off I have told some people that the trip that Odaliz, Val, and I took to Venezia was like a Harold and Kumar adventure minus Neil Patrick Harris. If Odaliz or Valerie is reading this they are probably thinking "oi Jaclyn you have said this a million times", but in my defense let me just say I haven't told the people who read the blog so I get to say it one more time haha...

So, Saturday morning I woke up a little late and a tinyyyyyy bit hung over from the night before. The whole group went out to dinner and a bar after the night before. Anyway, for all of you...I know mom you are making one of those faces of disappointment lol but hey I'm in Italy alright! Haha... So we are running late to the train station because of me and we get there right on time, but couldn't figure out which train it was and when we finally figured it out the door closed on us and it left. They don't mess around you miss it you miss it oh well... Sooooooo we decided to go and grab a bite to eat while we waited for the next train. It was only an hour wait so it wasn't so bad. 

Well, that was just the beginning of the fun haha. We get to Venice and decide that we have to take a boat taxi or something to our hostel. By the way our hostel was actually a campsite. It was a private tent with three beds. Kind of a mix between a cabin and tent which you will see a lil bit further down the page... So we go and try to grab a taxi when the driver informs us that we actually are staying just outside of Venice in a town called Metzre I believe? Something like that. So he tells us 20 different things we can do and doesn't really help us at all so Val takes out her iPod and turns on her GPS. We decide that the bus is the best idea. We find the bus station and we try to figure out which one we need when we realize that we have to buy a ticket. We spend probably at least 30 minutes standing in line for the tickets and we finally get onto the bus...

Then we get off at the right stop according to the GPS again and I actually had recorded a little video for this part too, but I made a mistake and said something on camera that I wasn't supposed to say. It's nothing baddddddddd just one of those confidential kind of things lol. So anyways we can't seem to figure out which street to turn down. Finally Odaliz says that we should ask a couple of kids our age sitting on a bench where we need to go. At this point I am in dire need of a cigarette so me and Odaliz step off to the side while Valerie talks to them. Well you just have to watch and see what it is she tells us to do lol...

Can you believe that!? Yeah what the heck I think she was probably thinking stupid Americans do anything we tell them. Oh if I saw her again Id give her a piece of my mind let me just say lol... so, then we get off the highway and walk to a hotel on the corner and meet the sweetest old man that unfortunately is on one of the other girls cameras so I can't show you until we all swap pics. But he tells us exactly how to get there and we had to walk down this little street that was actually spray painted on the ground and arrow and "camp jolly". So we walk down the road and into a tunnel with very interesting graffiti...

 

So I'm not sure why my text is underlined right now, but I can't seem to fix it so guess what, we're just gona roll with it and I hope you don't mind lol. So we get through the tunnel and find the wonderful "Camp Jolly"... It was noticeable as soon as we walked in that it was very cute and very clean and I'm thinkin we definitely scored on this for 18 Euro each! So we get to our tent...

We settle in the tent and decide to go in and eat at camp jolly's restaurant. I had my speculations because it was at a campsite but I'll tell you it was very very tasty. They exceeded my expectations for sure. While we were talking to the waiter he asked us what we would be doing that night. We told him that we were talking about going to see Venice at night, but he tells us that they are having a toga party! Toga party!?!? Are you joking?! How could we miss out on that. Who can say that they've gone to a toga party at a campsite in Venice haha. We did! 

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of me in my toga. Darn haha. No, but really I hadn't put mine on yet because I was waiting for the pro at tying togas miss Odalizzzzz. It was truely astounding how she just whipped it together...(is it just me or is the underlining really starting to get annoying?) So and the other picture is Odaliz helping our neighbor with her toga. They were really cool I believe their names were Steve and Nicole. He was from Australia and she was from Canada. It was kind of a cute story he worked at a hostel that she stayed at innnn...umm dang i forgot where it was but they just clicked. Kinda cute I thought...

Anywho moving right along here, we had a blast at the toga party and woke up the next morning to see Venice. We took the bus out there, stopped at a cafe for brunch and then did a little shopping and sight seeing then rode on a gondola...

Aha! No more underlines! Ok so after that we went to the art exhibit Beinale...I think that is how you spell it, but I'm not sure. It was the coolest thing ever! There were a couple of pieces that I really fell in love with. It was the coolest experience and it's amazing because these artists were from all over the world and it is fascinating to me how they (we) are all united by the art. Creativity comes from all over. I don't really understand how else to explain it, other than it being incredibly impacting. 

Well other than all of us having to carry our heavy bags all over Venice after check out, it was so much fun. Definitely interesting and no question memorable! Well guys that is all that I have for now. I hope you enjoyed all of this and I'll try to post more sooner than I did this time. Ciao all! Love you! 

p.s... for some reason yet again I'm having problems posting my videos so I'm going to try and post a bunch of videos right now, in the order you are supposed to watch them...ciao!

My first day in Florence...well actually Italia

Ok...so here's the deal. We finally have internet which means videos and pictures yay! I must say I am pretty excited about blogging because I'm not exactly the "blogger" type? I don't know anyway I will try and give you a little play by play of what I can remember (or whatever I think you might find un po (a little) interesting :)  Oh and also while mixing in some pictures and video.

Alright here it goes... Our flight from LAX to London was brutal! The only good thing was that we had our own TV screen so we could pick our own movies. But, let me tell you there was so much turbulence and swaying I felt like we were on a ship. And that being the case I should have just taken a lil cruise out there. But, London to Rome redeemed my first flying excursion because I slept like a baby. I even slept during take off. You might not find that hard to do but going from sweaty palms before take off on the first flight and then passing out I think that's a pretty good sign yes?

We arrive in Rome and take a lovely bus ride to Firenze (Florence if I am confusing any of you lol). A lovely bus ride of 3 and a half hours. I believed I slept most of the way at least up until we stopped at some rest stop/gas station mart. I went in to grab a drink and then I was going to go smoke. I got so scared about speaking or trying to speak Italian with the guy at the register that I just stared at him. I don't recall even making a peep. No sound. I gave him my euros and said uhhhh thank you. Charming...you know what he was thinking? Marrone! Stupid Americano! haha...

...oh I did manage to snag some pictures on the bus after that:

I believe we arrived in Firenze at about 9:00 pm. The taxi took us to our apartment. That was interesting they drive very crazy. Not as bad as the vespas, but that's a whole other issue. You gotta watch out for them or they will side swipe you no joke. They are small, agile, and in a hurry. 

Our apartment is on Via Del Procconsolo... (warning this is not edited and anytime I say I'll be right back, I am either winded from walking up the two flights of stairs to the apartment or... I saw Italians and didn't want to look like a tourist...

Ok so... I messed up I uploaded the wrong video. I believe... if I'm not mistaken it was incredibly shaky and short and not at all interesting to watch. But, I'm not gona lie it takes a long time to upload these videos so I didn't take it off. Would have been more of a waste. So, again here is the apartment tour:

Ok so i can't seem to upload my apartment tour I'll post it on my next blog. I hope you enjoyed the little videos. I will say my favorite is the nun on the bicycle but that's just me. Anyway after we finished getting ready we went on a tour with a very nice and funny German lady whom I can't remember the name of. I feel really bad about that. I tried using what German I could scrounge out of my brain and asked "Wie geht's?" (How are you? - informal) and she replied "Haha lskejfeniflsnelfneilsanfiniegheihfjdkmcriuhgioejifjdihgihieorjsfoijeihgdfjleshirhglinsadiomfcioehsitjsojfdliejhi" (my interpretation of what I heard as opposed to what she actually said.) I had yet another frozen moment and laughed nervously and carried on with the tour. It was amazing. We saw the Duomo which in case you didn't know, it is the largest church in the world. At least I believe that is what I heard over all the people walking and talking and vespas and politzia driving by haha. 

Ok so that is obviously not the Duomo, but I forgot to tell you about the street artist that we saw drawing a Michael Jackson tribute picture in the street. In front of all the people walking by it is insane. And they are fast! But, back to where we were at...

Ok well yada yada yada we finished our tour ate some gelatto and yada yada yada I can't tell all my stories otherwise what will I have to tell when I come home!? I hope you are all doing well I love you and miss you! Ciao!