Nothing better than family

Ciao! Sorry again it's taken so long to update, time goes by so much faster than I think!


My lovely lovely lovely cousin Alex came to visit last weekend and we had a fabulous time! I picked her up at the train station at 10pm on Friday night and we walked back to my apartment and got ready to go out. We took her to our favorite beer hall and then a couple bars before turning in for the night. Our goal was to get up super early the next day to do lost of touristy things but we ended up sleeping in until about 2. Oops. We leisurely got ready and headed out to begin our day with our first bagels and locks since arriving in Italy - so good! And also adding in two vanilla iced coffees from an American bar near my apartment :) We set off for the Leather Market, as Alex was determined to find a leather jacket and we haggled with one of the vendors and found a great one for a great price. The vendor was actually super funny and as he was explaining the double zipper on the jacket he said the bottom one was "for when you eat too much spaghetti!". Alex bought a couple masks for carnivale that were very pretty as well. We did a bit more shopping in the afternoon and visited Michelangelo's David before getting ready to meet some of my friends for dinner. We went to a restaurant called "Acqua al Due" which is famous for it's steak, in particular its blueberry steak. Sorry to say none of us actually ordered that steak, but we all ended up with delicious dishes anyways :) That night we pregamed at our apartment again before hitting up the usual bars. We tried to find one of our favorite clubs but it was closed (?) for some reason so we ended up going to a club called Twice. Through some turn of events and perhaps a little luck on our part, we were taken to the VIP section of the club and danced on these blocks that they have against the wall. One of my friends met someone who bought us a couple bottles of the champagne and then we made friends with the DJ, who got us even more champagne. We stayed till about closing time before getting our coats from the coat check and heading back home.

Sunday was kind of a lazy day, aided by the rain that came with it. I've been lucky - it's only rained a few times since I've been here so I wasn't going to complain too much. We got dressed in our best rain attire and set out around lunchtime, stopping for paninis and then making our way to the Ferragamo Museum that Alex had to visit for one of her classes back in Rome. Though I'd already been it was still really interesting to walk around on my own time and check out some of the exhibits that I hadn't looked at in as much detail before. Also, it meant a short escape from the rain, so we took our time and walked around for quite a while. We then went shopping a bit more, how could we resist with everything so closeby? And ended the day with two ice creams from the Ben & Jerry's that faces the Duomo, right at the end of my street. I have to stay, I might prefer gelato by now but it was definitely nice to have a familiar treat! Alex's train left the station around 7:30 and I came home to do a bit of homework before giving up and watching some TV before bed. It was so nice to see her that weekend and spend time just chatting and catching up. Just like when Lauren came to visit earlier this semester, it's nice to see a familiar face, albeit weird in such a different context, and as Alex wrote in her blog, feel grounded here in Italy. I hope to visit Alex in Rome next month too so that will be lots of fun again!

This past week of classes went by really fast... nothing too out of the ordinary. We have midterms next week, which is absolutely insane! I can't believe the semester is almost halfway over! I have a paper due for my sociology class on Monday, my Italian oral exam and International Finance exams on Wednesday and my marketing and Italian written exams on Thursday. It'll be quite a busy week so hopefully next time I'm writing it will all be over and hopefully have gone well! This weekend so far has been lots of studying and getting work started for next week. We went out for aperitivos on Thursday night to a place called Kitsch, it was so crowded we had to stand in the seated section outside for part of the time but the food was delicious! I then went back with my friend Natalie to split some wine and catch up on some TV shows we both watch. Yesterday I reviewed for my marketing midterm all day on campus with one of my friends and then came home to do a bit more homework before heading out last night to a few bars. Today is going to be filled with more homework and laundry - try not to get too jealous - and perhaps hitting up some bars and a club tonight depending on how much I get done :) Tomorrow I have to write my 8-page sociology paper in the library at school, which is closed today, so I'm hoping to get everything else done today!

The week after midterms is spring break, which I am SO pumped for! I am going with three friends to Brussels, London and then Athens! We're going to Brussels to go to Sensation White - a huge rave that is going to be absolutely ridiculous. We arrive in Brussels on Friday night and the rave is Saturday night. We then have Sunday to explore the city and I'll be able to see my roommate, Lauren, from Macalester again, which is exciting! We then leave Monday around lunchtime to fly to London where I have way too much stuff to do to cram into the three days that we'll be there - I have three friends studying abroad in the city and then my best friend from home, Katie, is studying abroad in Norwich and it worked out so she can come visit the city for two of the days we'll be there so I'm totally excited to see her. I'm also planning on visiting my grandma who I haven't seen in several years, which will be really nice to catch up and see how she's doing :). We leave London on the Thursday and fly straight to Athens where we have three days to see the sights and perhaps find a beach somewhere, weather-depending. I've never been to Greece before so I am super super excited and I'm crossing my fingers for some warm weather, even though I've heard it's not quite summer season there.

Hope all is well with everyone reading! I miss home a lot but I'm still so so happy to be here! Ciao for now!