I figured I would just put my excuses for not posting anything new for such a long time in the title. Yes it is midterm time, I just finished my last one of those this morning though so that shouldn't get in my way now. I do however have 3 papers that are supposed to be 10 pages each due in the next week and those are going to take some time. I also have bronchitis, which is more a reason why I haven't done anything recently not so much why I won't be doing anything for a little while. I will say that being sick while away from home is not fun, especially when it makes it so that your roommates and friends get to go to Ireland and you get to sit in a cold, unfriendly apartment by yourself for a weekend with a high fever (after you had already paid for the plane ticket and hostel). My friends Colleen and Kaisa were around though and did their good friend duty of bringing me orange juice to make popsicles and doing my pasta dishes (that is right, no soup when you are sick, just pasta). They have an American doctor over here though so I got my antibiotics and hopefully the worst is behind me. Now the only discomfort I should have left are these papers. I hope to get a new fun video up soon but I just wanted to let everyone know why I might not for a bit.

I am a little behind on my blogs about weekend trips and I would like any family that reads this to know it is because I have been doing sooo much homework. Three weeks ago I went to Interlaken, Switzerland with a group of friends. Interlaken is world famous as one of the top places to do extreme outdoor activities. While some of my friends went sky diving my mom had informed me before leaving that she would not help me with this trip if I did that or bungee jumped. She did not think about paragliding so by 10 a.m. Friday morning Liz, my roommate, and I were headed up the side of a mountain to paraglide.

Andrea and Colleen decided that they would go skiing in the Alps instead of run off the side of a cliff with a parachute attached to their backs. I felt like I had no options though because I am a bad Washingtonian and do not know how to ski.

I did not fly alone though, it was a tandem flight so Stefan, my pilot, hooked me into all of the gear and we got ready for take-off.
Once we were all hooked into the parachute all we had to do was just run and lean forward and eventually we would just be running though the air. After Stefan told me this he asked if I was ready, I lied and said yes, and then we started running. He was telling the truth we ran, leaned, and before I knew it we were flying.

Once we were in the air I felt completley relaxed. It was the most amazing thing to just be soaring through the air. It is something everyone should experience. We landed just fine and Stefan went up and did three more flights that day. How great of a life would that be?

For those of you at home wanting to experience paragliding for yourselves which I highly recommend (or for any family or friends who would like to go with me when I get back...I have a birthday in September), I looked up some places in Washington state that do tandem flights, the links aren't in any order so check them out and see which one looks best.
Paraglide Washington
Discover Paragliding
Fun to Fly

While many bars that cater to American students threw Mardi Gras parties last night here in Florence the locals celebrated Carnevale. In the video you can see that all of the people that are dressed up are adults. There were traditional, modern, simple, and elaborate costumes. I got a ton of ideas for Halloween next year. All of the video was shot between 11 and 12 at night and the party in the streets kept going for a long time after we headed back to the apartment. Everyone was just out to have a good time as you will see and many of them were armed with bags of confetti and cans of silly string. I think my friend Andrea put it best when she said "This is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen." I would just add bizarre in a good way.

CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO OF CARNEVALE IN FLORENCE

I have received many questions from home regarding the protest that happened in Vicenza over the weekend. Click here for more on the protest. There was a notice posted at school that warned Americans not to venture into the city of Vicenza and I was not planning on it so my plans stayed the same. I had a quiet weekend in Florence. Sunday my friend Colleen came over and said there was a parade going on. So we walked out to the Piazza De la Republica (about a minute away from my apartment) and made it just in time for the start of the parade that lasted for at least a half an hour. I asked around and the parade related to Carnevale. Children were dressed up just like they do for Halloween in America and threw confetti at everybody. I have been seeing children dressed up like this for the last couple of weeks in honor of Carnevale but this was by far the greatest number I have seen at once. The children were either watching the parade or in it. The groups that went by represented many nations ranging from Sweden to Peru to China. Most participants dressed in traditional wear and there was normally traditional music accompanied with each group. So no need to worry at home, Florence had no protests and I felt no different in the city, but I did get to watch an amazing parade that topped off my weekend.

CLICK HERE FOR A GLIMPSE OF THE PARADE.mov

Venice was our big, weekend long field trip during orientation in Siena. It was postcard perfect, but freezing cold. We stayed in a 500 year old building that used to be a monastery, I would like to say I wasn’t creeped out at night, but I was. We did not ride in a gondola because it ran an average of 80 euro for one ride. We took art tours and did the normal tourists things; St. Mark’s Cathedral was amazing. For most of the trip we were completely grossed out by all of the pigeons. In front of St. Mark’s Cathedral there were vendors selling seed to give the pigeons. Watch the video to see what it was like.

CLICK HERE FOR VENICE VIDEO.mov

During orientation, we got to do a bunch of different little field trips, but this meant that huge tour busses had to come into Siena to pick us up and then drive us out. The video shows just one trip out and some of the problems that we encountered. But at the end you can see how great it was once we got out of the city walls. P.S. this video has nothing to do with pigeons, sorry to get your hopes up.

Italy-Pigeons-H.264 300Kbps Streaming.mov

Ok so I realize that it has been a long time since I have been able to get on the internet, but we actually made it to Italy. It only took us 28 hours, yes we had a 5 hour layover in Washington DC and then in Munich. Because we had so much time we were able to adjust our sleeping habits during travel making jet lag almost nonexistant which I guess is one plus to a gruelling travel experience.

I have so much to put up but I will try and space it out. I spent three weeks in Siena, Italy for orientation and an "intensive" language course (I can order things in a bar now and tell people where I am from). Now I am living in an apartment smack in the center of Florence, Italy a city of half a million, much more than what I am used to in Puyallup. I live with Becca, a friend from Pacific Lutheran University and Liz a student at Babson College in Boston. So not only do I have a bunch of stories about the difference between home and Italy but about home and the East Coast.

Well I am about to embark on a four month journey to study in Italy. But right now it is 2:40 in the morning, I am on a bed next to my mom in the Best Western in Sea-Tac (thanks to the snow), my friend Andrea, who s coming with me is on the ground sleeping, and my other friend Becca, also coming with me is eating the leftovers from dinner on the chair by the bed. Luggage for three girls getting ready to live in a foreign country for four months is sprawled al over the place. Our wake up call to get ready for the 4 a.m. shuttle is in 20 minutes. At least we have made it this far without the snow being a problem, hopefully there won't be any delays, but even if there aren't we have more than 24 hours of airport time ahead of us...but then Rome! so I guess it might be worth it.