Well I was supposed to be writing you tonight after eating Belgian chocolate and waffles all weekend, but sadly our plans didn’t quite work out as planned. First though, I’ll do a recap of the week.
Monday, like normal, I didn’t have any classes so I spent the day going to the grocery store, preparing food for the week, doing a little bit more homework, running and just enjoying a day of recuperating after a whirlwind weekend in Portugal. Its really nice to have that day in place where I know I can come back and relax before starting classes again. My roommates also hosted a party in our room that night which I wasn’t took excited about at first, but turned out to be really fun. It was a lot of people that I don’t usually hang out with so it was nice to see them and just be able to chill out in the comfort of my own apartment. Tuesday I had my usual two classes and lunch with my tandem partner. I had an hour and a half to kill between my first class and lunch so I walked all around the city to trying and get more of my bearings set. I am never forced to leave the main street because my apartment, classes and friends all are located off of that street. It was nice to see what else is around, although its really not much more than little shops and cafes up and down the streets. It was still fun to wander around though. Hopefully I’ll get even better at navigation in the city as time progresses.
Wednesday we went to the world’s least entertaining museum for class with probably one of the world’s most long-winded professors ever. This was all for our History of Parma class and could not have bored me any more. It turned out to be more a Latin lesson on how to read people’s tomb stones than actually learning anything about the city. At least the grading in the class is supposed to be easy. I also had cultural diversity which is still very intriguing and definitely my favorite class here. It is even making me strongly consider changing my minor to sociology when I get back to BC. And by that I mean I am almost 100% sure that is what I want to do. I had never taken a sociology course before now and am realizing that a lot of my passions align with the sociology classroom, so that’s a great discovery! Wednesday night I spent hanging out at the villa with friends and playing cards. Jeff made sangria for us that night which was interesting, lots of good fruit! Thursday is still many my hell day of 3 classes spread out over the entire day. I kept to my routine of going to the fake library in-between classes and getting my work done which is always a bonus. Thursday night I just had a chill night because I was getting up at 5 am to go to the train station on Friday.
So here come the events that constituted my very not-to-plan weekend. I woke up at 5 am to make it to the train station by 6:30. We were going super early because we had heard there was a train strike planned for that day so we wanted to ensure that we would make it to Pisa for our 12:30 flight. Only to find out that the strike was cancelled and we were at the train station an hour and a half early. Despite that, we made it to Pisa (after 3 trains) with just enough time and ran into the terminal to check-in. Upon entering we looked up at the display screen and see that CANCELLED is written next to our flight to Brussels. Not exactly what you want to see after 6 hours of traveling. We immediately head to the customer service area and stand in line for a few minutes. Once it becomes our turn to talk to the representative she immediately rushes away telling us she has a “mandatory break” and points us in the direction of the other terminal. We then stand in line there for an hour and a half waiting to talk to someone, only to find out that they have no other flights to put us on and that we will be refunded for this flight (if we send them a letter or fax. What century are we living in?) but not our return flight on Sunday. We were all quite annoyed so we decided to head to Florence to see if we could figure out a way to get to Brussels from there, but were unsuccessful. Some of the kids stayed in Florence that night because they were tired of traveling that day, but Kristin and I were tired of Florence after living there for 3 week so we decided to come back. We met the most adorable man on the train from Florence to Bologna though! Seriously, it was the only saving grace that day. We discussed religion, politics, where he’s lived, Italian men, food and traveling. It was great! We got back to Parma around 6:30 pm (a full 12 hours of traveling from the last time we were at that station) and headed to dinner. Then we just had a relaxing night and planned our activities for the next day.
Saturday we got up late because we were exhausted from the day before and headed to Lake Como. Unfortunately there was no sign of George Clooney, but it was really pretty. We took a bus ride along the coast to the middle of the lake and walked around at that city, Bellagio, for an hour or so before starting the treck back home. It was a nice and relaxing day. Como was on my list of things to see while I was here so I’m glad we made it there even though it wasn’t in the best of situations.
Today I just had a very relaxing day of cleaning the entire apartment, watching the SNL skits, watching the Office, grocery shopping and cooking dinner for some friends. I love cooking here, but never take the time to make really good things because I am usually just cooking for myself so it was a nice change to cook something good. I felt like a true Italian because I was cooking in small increments all day so I wouldn’t have to do it all once everyone got here. I think I’m finally getting used to this less-strict lifestyle.
This week should be pretty much the same and then I am headed to Barcelona on Thursday!! I am so excited for it because Kristin and I are staying with a mutual friend, Chiara, so we will have a personal tour guide to show us all the great things. It should be a lot of fun.
Hope you guys are doing well!! Keep the updates coming.
Love,
E
1 comment:
ahh you're visiting chiara!!!
I'M SO JEALOUS!
say hi to her for me and give her a big hug.
aww, i love her. and i love you.
ps: i'm glad you're keeping up on the office.
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