Hello.

To Re-read:

1) Charlotte’s Web

2) The Hobbit

3) To Kill a Mockingbird

4) The Great Gatsby

To sum it up….

The internet for the last week of the trip was non-existent and started working A LOT! So finally here are some of the pics from Spain and Florence!

I got back 4 weeks ago and miss Med Roots every day. Best summer of my life!

Med Roots 12: Studying and Spanish Steps (June 25th and 26th)

June 25^th- Boring day! I literally left the convent only to go to our regular pizza place for lunch. There are no tables and the café next to us won’t let us use their tables so we have a special place on the curb that we eat our pizza. For the rest of the day I studied for our test and worked on my paper.

June 26- At 9 we had our test. Savellos was later because his bus was later so we were all itching in our seats until 9:20. The test was the same format as the first and wasn’t too hard. Hopefully I can pull another A! Right after the test we got our usually pizza on the curb and headed to the bus stop to take us to the Coliseum. Take 2 was much more successful than the first time around. The line was pretty long to get in, but we entertained ourselves by singing 90’s songs…”wasn’t me.” It was cool to see the inside of the coliseum, but there really isn’t too much to see and it was hot 102 degrees and sunny.

When we got home I cracked down and finished my essay. It was due the next evening and some people still hadn’t started. But my motivation was that the Rome trip (which Mindy is on) invited us to the Spanish Steps bar crawl and I wanted to finish my work to go. 

By dinner we discovered our essays weren’t due the next day…long story! So nobody had an excuse to skip the Spanish Steps bar crawl!

Med Roots 12: Vatican (June 24th)

The last Sunday of every month the Vatican and Vatican museum are free to enter. Every guide book I have read says don’t go on the last Sunday because it is mobbed! But Savellos wanted to save some money so we decided to go on Sunday. We woke up bright and early in order that we could try and avoid the worst of the line. A bunch of us left at 7:30 and took the bus over to the Vatican. Because the buses stink we got there around 8:30 and the line was already about 3 blocks long to get into the museum. There were lots of sales people coming up to us saying we could skip the line if we joined their “tour.” We decided to just wait. Considering how long the line looked, it went decently fast. It wasn’t scorching hot yet either so it wasn’t too bad.

After about an hour we got into the museum. It was mobbed! It was really hard to appreciate any of the artwork or artifacts. The museum was huge and the final destination was the Sistine Chapel. After we saw the chapel we left for the square because at 12:30 the pope was appearing and reading a parable. Right at 12:30 his head popped out of a small, little window and the crowd went crazy. For some reason I thought he would speak in English, haha that was stupid of me. We then went into Basilica, which was breathtaking. By this point it was later in the afternoon and we were pooped. So we decided to stop in McDonalds and get some lunch! The McD’s here are so much nicer than ours. They have a whole McCafe on the bottom floor with really yummy looking desserts. After McDonalds we found a bus and headed back to the Centro.

That night most of us went to dinner at a restaurant a few blocks away. I had mushroom fettuccine and really good homemade tiramisu. After dinner I attempted to work on my essay, but Italy won their soccer game and people were going crazy. Honking horns, screaming people, not good conditions for writing an essay or sleeping.

Med Roots 12: A more successful day in Rome (June 23)

Today was a more successful day! We had class in the morning which was pretty dull and then we were taking a group trip to San Clemente Basilica. As with any of our group trips it takes forever to get anywhere and I feel like we are wandering through random streets. We almost couldn’t enter the church because none of us realized that their was a dress code and we were all in short shorts. I think they let us in just because their were 23 of us and that is a lot of money! The upstairs part of the church was beautiful, but we really came to see the basement where the Cult of Mirtha had their rituals. It was so scary, almost like a dungeon. It was like a maze downstairs. It was dark and damp and there were creepy paintings on the wall. I felt like someone was going to jump out and murder me. Unfortunately no pics were allowed! 

After the dungeon we broke off into smaller groups because some of the girls were going to get tattoos. Mom and Dad should be so proud that I didn’t fall under peer pressure and get tattoos like have the other people on the trip. Savellos wanted to take us to another church where he swear we could get. We walk a couple blocks to this church and on the door says a sign “dress with dignity.” Greattttt…we’re all in cut off shorts and tank tops. We try to be quiet and sneak in, didn’t work too well. We got about a 20 second look before some security guard points at our legs and then points to the exit. Oh well. Here is us waiting outside the church.

Next we want to see all the touristy stuff so we get on a subway and head toward the Spanish steps. They were cool, but not as impressive as I thought. I guess in the spring time is when all the flowers are out and planted, so that means I’ll have to come back in the spring! Next we walk to the Trevi Fountain! We all make our wish properly, just like Lizzie McGuire taught us—hold the coin in your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder. We get dinner and then take the long trip back to the convent for the night.

Med Roots 12: Fail (June 22)

Skipped breakfast, I was not feeling too well from the night before.. Class was so painful. I got up to use the bathroom and got locked in the bathroom for a solid 45 minutes. The freakin door knob fell off so I couldn’t get out. After class pretty much everyone napped. But I wasn’t going to let my hangover ruin my day in Rome. Lexi, Kim, Lisa, Kaitlin and I decided to head downtown and see the Coliseum. However, luck was not with us. We walked around the whole Coliseum trying to figure out how to get in, before this nice, cute Canadian boy Kevin told us it was closed for the day because the people were on strike. Here are some pics from the outside. 

So we decided to take the subway to the Trevi fountain. I have wanted to see this fountain since the Lizzie McGuire movie came out back when I was in third grade. We take the subway to Terini where we are suppose to transfer lines, only to find out we can’t get on line A that day because they are doing construction. By this point 3 hours has passed and all we accomplished was lunch. So we’re all exhausted and have homework to do so we wait for the bus to come. We wait and wait and wait for about 45 minutes and finally we get home. Thank goodness we went home when we did because the busses went on strike about 2 hours later. OMG these Europeans and their strikes!