Belgium!

It's been awhile since my last post, and since then a lot has happened!

Once we landed in Belgium, 6 very tired roommates were told that there was a train that would take them from the airport, to the city center (where our hotel was) as these boys walked off the plane, into the lobby, and out the front doors... They soon found out there was no such thing, and that you could either take a charter bus for 10 euro that takes over an hour to get to the city center, or pay a taxi an absurd amount of money to arrive at the same place.  Of course these tired roommates took the hour + long bus ride to Brussels, Belgium....

Before we all landed in Belgium we were told by our teachers and friends that there wasn't anything to do in Brussels or Hassle.  They were all completely wrong!  I mean come on when your city has a random HUGE horn in the middle of the streets... It's got to be legit!

After some funny pictures taken here, we head to our hotel to drop our bags off and take a quick nap.  Brussels is a very long and confusing neighborhood when you don't know your way around, it took us about an hour?  To find our hotel tucked back behind an enormous building, as we approached the building all of us thought the same thing, "We are so screwed!"  The front of this hotel looked like it was  was from the ancient Rome area, it was covered in black...gunk, the windows had bars on them as if this place use to be a prison, and there were homeless people just sleeping outside on benches near our place.  We were all soon shocked as we walked into the hotel to see the room open up like a show was about to begin.  The building was newly painted and smelt great inside.  Still a little confused we walked up to the front desk to check in.  We were greeted nicely and then headed to our rooms.  Spencer, Aaron and I were sharing one room while Ron, Erik, and Mike were in the other room directly one floor above us.  To our surprise the room was enormous, the room had three huge beds, a massive TV (which came in useful so we could hear what was going on in Japan during the earthquake) and we all had a ton of room to throw our cloths around.  

We napped for a few hours to catch up, around three or four o'clock we head to the main square of Brussels.  One thing that Belgium is famous for is their Belgium Waffles.  Well another thing you might not know is that Brussels holds the statue of the little kid holding his... yah and peeing?? If you've seen this is other peoples front yards or what not, it came from here and this is the original one!  The only weird thing about it, is that it's a tiny statue, you'd think that it would be massive but it's not at all!

Right after we were finished taking more pictures, I ran straight to the nearest waffle stand and ordered myself this!

Trust me when I say that, this was the greatest desert EVER!  I also had a selection from these...

Shortly after that, Ron and I ran across the other side of the street one again to stuff our faces with some fresh home-made Belgium Chocolate.

See Mom and Dad, I told you I was putting my money to good use, HEHE!

For the next few days we spent our time in Brussels, we were still waiting for Saturday to come so we could make our way to Hassles to go to Sensation.  But before we left for Hassle we spend the first two nights bar hopping in Brussels.  The night life was great there, lots of Irish Pubs, regular bars, etc.  They all loved americans (which was a huge relief) and we all had a great time!  One of my favorite things about Brussels is on a nice day you could get a good book, bottle of wine and prop yourself down in the square and enjoy the amazing church and buildings. (No I didn't do this or had the desire to, it's just what everyone was doing there)

Day trip to Naples

The day started off at 7:30 AM, when Ben and I headed towards our campus to catch the bus.  By the time we reached the streets from our apartment, we thought that we would have enough time to go ahead and try a new route.  This lead to us getting lost in our own neighborhood and close to being late to catch the bus.  But, we show up around five minuets late and surprisingly we are the first ones on the bus for once.  After about a thirty minuet wait for everyone is on the bus and we head about two hours south to Naples, the third largest city in Rome.  

Before we arrived to Naples I knew little about it, all I heard were stories about how amazing the pizza is.  For those of you who don't know Naples is known for the best pizza in the world.... I would have to agree on this one!

Once we arrive to Naples, we meet up with our, once again SHORT tour guide.  From there we are taken all over Naples, I wish we were able to take pictures of the places we went into, but I'm slowly finding out that Rome is one of the only places in Europe you can take pictures almost anywhere.  From there we were taken to a few museums and walk around for close to an hour.

Later in the afternoon our tour guide says goodbye to all of us, the CEA guides took us to what was suppose to be one of the most famous pizza places in Napoli.  

The place was amazing, but the only problem was that we were ordering for 30 people.  Meaning that the quality of the pizza wasn't the best, but still amazing!

We all were given our own personal margarita pizza and a choice of a drink, I worked at an Italian Pizza place for a second, there is nothing like a true Italian pizza!

After pizza we received a gift from CEA and headed back to the bus.  From there we went back to Rome to enjoy the rest of our weekend!

There was a lot I like about Naples, but at the same time the town was really small and pretty sketchy.  There were stories floating around on how easy it was to pick-pocket you.  All of us were on our toes and at one point there was a time we thought a guy on a scooter was going to attempt it.  Naples all together is really dirty, there was graffiti all over ancient statues and churches.  Something that Rome does not have at all.  There was almost zero respect for the city all together. 

Now that I can cross Naples off my list, I never plan on going back there! 

Bloody Hell It's London Babbby YaHH!!

 Just before I start everyone should re-watch the Austin Powers movies... Just saying
ALSO MY PICTURES FOR SOME REASON WILL NOT DRAG WHERE I WANT THEM TO, I'LL FIX IT A BIT LATER...

London,

I hate waking up early more than anything in the world; I really hate waking up early and hearing your roommate say, “I need to shower and pack still”.  Those were Ron’s exact words at 7:30 AM the day we were suppose to leave for London.  Knowing he was going to do this would have been great to know the night before.  Right off the bat I was grumpy and off to a semi bad start.  Our plan was to be out of the apartment by 7:45 to catch the Metro that would take us to the train station… Well we left our apartment around 8:15 AM and rushed to the Metro.  When we arrived to the waiting dock it looked China town, it was so crowded and busy, everyone was trying to rush to work at the same time we are trying to rush to the airport.  As the train arrives Ron and I notice two things, 1) The train is already packed full of people in every single cart, 2) no one is getting off and there are probably close to another 50-70 people trying to get on.  Ron managed to squeeze his way on to the train, I didn't have the same luck, while trying to force myself on, some huge Italian with a PaulyD haircut freak, with braces shoved me off the train as the doors were shutting.  Great this day is really starting off bad, now I had to wait around five minuets for the other train, and Ron had no idea I was shoved off.  There is no reception to call Ron underground, so the hell with it time to roll with the punches.  Once I arrived at Termini, Ron was waiting for me at the exit, I didn't even try and explain how PaulyD shoved me off the train, and we sprinted up stairs to the trains, but on our way up there we thought it would be a good idea just to pay to take a taxi.  In Rome, most cabs will have a fixed rate when you are going to the two airports in Rome.  We pay the cab driver 30 euro to take us to the first airport, Ciampino.
We get to the airport with no bordering passes printed out, and about… 45 minuets to spare before we have to board our plane.  We stand in line for about 10 minuets before I walked around the corner and saw a bright orange sign that read “Easy Jet help desk”.  I walk over and ask the lady a few questions.  She spits Italian at me so fast I just gave her a blank stare like I just might have crapped my pants.  I run back to line and grab Ron to talk to her.  After they start conversing I catch a phrase from her saying “you’re the wrong airport” and my heart drops, along with all the color in Ron’s face.  This day is really starting off well.  We spring outside to the taxi corner and tell the driver we need to make it to the other airport within 30 minuets and we will tip him extra if he does (in Italy you don’t tip cab drivers, waiters, etc. I love it) he says he will try and off we go.
About two miles into the trip I see him turn off the meter, I mention it to Ron, without a minuet hesitation Ron snaps on the guy asking him why he turned it off.  Long story short the driver said “Because you asked me to hurry you have to pay 70 Euros” At that point I told him to pull the damn cab over and I’ll pay him 5 Euros for the trouble.  But we stayed in the cab, we didn't really have a back up plan if we really got out of the cab.  While I was threatening the cab driver if we didn’t make it there in time I wasn’t paying him a cent, he casually laughed at me and never looked back at me... Oh not to mention that Ron has zero cash on him and he was planning on paying me back when we got to London… Thank god I had enough on me because when we go to the airport we had 10 minuets before the plane left, the driver did his job.  In two cab rides I’ve dropped 100 euro and we haven’t even made it to London yet!
We sprint towards the check in desk and notice that there is no line to check in, but the security line is huge, right away I gave up, I knew there was no way we were going to get in.  Ron insisted we try so I let him have a go out at it.  The lady behind the desk laughed at us and told us we missed the flight and there was nothing else we could do besides by another ticket.  Ron and I with our heads held low and tails between our legs make our way to the customer help desk and asked how much a one way to London was and when the next flight was.  The lady was a total sweet heart, and thank god for Ron’s sake, I’ve never missed a flight before, I just spent a ton of money, and I was grumpy from this morning… Not a good start to the day.  Everything though worked it’s way out, the one way ticket was 70 euro, Ron paid for mine while taking all the responsibility of going to the wrong airport so this too helped me calm down quite a bit.
Finally at 3:00 PM we are on our flight heading to London.  We arrived in the Gatwick airport in London around 5:40 PM and headed straight to the “London Eye”.

I didn’t know a lot about the history of London, I only really knew about Shakespeare, a little bit about the Parliament, and the London Bridge off of the top of my head.  Speaking of that the famous “London Bridge” it is no longer in London… Dang thing is in Arizona, so that song growing up now makes so much more sense… that was dumb, but anyways….
The London Eye was amazing, you walk up to this ferry wheel type of machine and when it’s your turn, you walk from this plat form into this huge… bubble? And surrounding you is a pexy glass shield, there are little note cards stands placed throughout the bubble that explain different buildings as you go higher and higher.

  My favorite thing I saw when we were at the peak was Parliament.  The Big Ben and Parliament stood out more than anything else did in London without a doubt, I placed myself in the corner where the Parliament was wasn't ready to move any time soon.

After the London eye Ron and I made our way to his friends apartment where we jumped on the “tube”, going off track here for a second, I only wish that all metro or trains were called the tube!  It was really funny saying I’m riding the tube, or meet you at the tube…. Just a little fun fact.
That night we were told we were going to one of the nicer clubs in London, so Ron and I threw on our party pants and hit the town, not going to lie we were looking good!  The club was similar to most clubs in Europe, but you weren’t aloud to take pictures inside which I found kind of stange?  That very night they had a few special guests hanging out in the back…. American Porn stars, it was really funny actually watching them pose for pictures and do little lame photo shoots (none of them were naked) but!! The club was fun we were all dancing for awhile and getting a good laugh out of the photo shoot going on behind us.  After a few hours of that though Ron and I were spent from a long stress full day so we made our way back to the apartment with everyone around 3:30 AM and crashed square on the floor.
The next morning we woke up around 9:00 AM and were out the door with Kelsey, Alex, Ron and I around 10:30 AM.  First that day we went to the Victoria and Albert museum (Albert is the main character in the Kings Speech) we spent around 2 1/2 hours there, We skipped more than half of it and explored in the modern art more than anything. There we saw Raphael’s art work.  I was shocked at these paintings and art work, I've only seen pictures of this place and here it was the real deal right in front of me.  I wasn’t suppose to take this picture but guess what… I did it!

  
After the museum we went to a well-known pub that serves the best fish n’ chips in London.  It was the first time I’ve ever had fish n’ chips, and I won’t lie… I really liked it!  It’s been a long time coming but I’m really coming around to liking fish, so this summer I’m busting my butt to start liking fish so I can work off this pasta gut that is slowly developing day by day.  After we finished our Guinness and fish n’ chips we walked through a park and made our way to my girlfriend’s house.  Buckingham Palace!

 
  As we walked up to the golden gates we noticed that the flag was raised as high as it could go up the pole, meaning that the queen was inside, waiting for me to come pay her a visit!  We took a few pictures and spent about 20-30 minuets walking around the gates and looking at the huge sculpture in front of the palace.  The Buckingham Palace is awesome, hands down one of the coolest thing I saw in all of London.

  
  We headed back to apartment to shower and get ready for dinner. Kelsey and Josh took Ron I to a sketchy ally where we were suppose to find some of the best Indian food in London.  Josh started bargaining with some random dude at the corner to get a deal on dinner.  We walked into an Indian restaurant and for 7 pounds each we had a great filling meal and two drinks of your choice!  There’s a way to do that here in Rome, but we are at a disadvantage when you can't speak the language fluently; it's not even fun to try and and attempt it.  but Josh nailed this dude to a deal like no other!  Instead of going out that night we all decided to take it easy and head to one of the local pubs that was close by their apartment.  Ron and I each had two beers and were about to fall head first onto the table we were so tired.
Next day around the same time from the morning before we head for Parliament, there we met up with Josh again for a grand tour.  Josh works next door to the Parliament, and from their Josh took us on a “FREE” tour of the Parliament.  Josh you did one hell of a job, not only did he take us on a tour of it all for free, he told us what really goes on in the court rooms, for his job he prepares speeches, writes arguments, etc for his boss.  When it all comes down, his boss all argue in the Parliament office and do all their work in there.  It’s to bad that they don’t let you take pictures inside the Parliament because the place was amazing!!  It made me want to watch V for Vendetta one more time because of that!

 
After the Parliament we made our way to St. Paul's church.  Again you weren't aloud to take pictures inside the building.  It really is to bad because as you walk into the church you are blown away from all aspect in the room.  You are surrounded by gold, sculptures, tombs, and thousands of people.  We pay for a audio guide of the church and begin our journey.  There are 5 main things you have to do when you go to St. Paul's 1) you walk around the main lobby area, here you see amazing paintings on the walls, paintings of all the saints that protect the church are painted in order to surround you, it makes you feel like you're always being watched.  2) You climb a flight of stairs and go to the "whispering hall" where you sit against a wall and you whisper anything you want into this tiny hole, and from more than 100 yards away if the other person is leaning against the wall they can hear what you are saying. 3) you climb more stairs and come outside, here you see a great deal of London and the buildings surrounding it. 4) you climb more stairs, and remember you have to come down still too, it was one hell of a work out.  But you go to the top of St. Pauls' and from here you see double from what you just saw moments ago.  5) you return to the main lobby and head to the basement where Prince Albert himself is buried and his tomb rests high on a solid marble base.  Before we left, I was able to catch the tail end of mass.  I was the only catholic out of the group of friends I was with and asked them if we could just stay for a few more moments... Made me feel like a good Catholic!
    

After St. Pauls we head to a little sushi joint across the street to relax and get our legs back before we headed to the Globe Theater.  At the Globe Theater you get to see the stage where Shakespeare himself once acted and directed his plays.  We were lucky enough to watch the rehearsals of Hamlet; we were only able to watch I think five minutes of it.  As we stood up to leave the Globe, I really didn’t want to leave, we were all ready to tell everyone to “piss off” so we could watch the rest of rehearsals but there was no way around it.  Shortly after we left the theater, the guided showed us the way out.  Sadly we were rushed out of the Globe.

After the Globe we jumped onto the TUBE (hehe) and make our way into the heart of the city once again.  We walked down the street and through a few alleys before we came across a sign that read

That's right we went on a tour through Benjamin Franklin's house!  We were so stoked thinking that this house was going to be massive or have all sorts of gadgets laying about... We were very mistaken.  As you walk into the house they seat you in a tiny room to watch a 5 minuet video about Ben.  From there you are escorted by a lady that is dressed up like they did in the days of Ben.  This lady played a roll of Ben's best friend growing up and possibly his mistress, she took us room to room explain what happened in each room.  But after I think it was third room, we all noticed how bad she hated her job and how miserable she was.  Showing people empty rooms and watching short little clips a day had to get old after awhile.  This tour took around 45 minuets and we were all starving once again!  Ron and I asked Kelsey what the plans were for dinner and with a big smile she yelled "China Town".  Finally!  Food that isn't pasta or pizza, not to mention I miss Chinese food a lot!

After dinner, we made our way to a theater where we had bought tickets before dinner to see Million Dollar Quartet…. I won’t lie; this was still hand down one of the coolest plays/shows/anything I’ve witnessed on a stage!  I remember growing up being a huge fan of Elvis, Jonny Cash, Jerry Lewis and Carl Perkins, this show was one of a million.  You will have to go look it up to see more about it cause I could write for days about this show.  I loved every minuet of it.  I suggest everyone see it, great music, great dancing, and great entertainment!

After the show we once again went back to the apartment, being tired as hell, I bought Kelsey and their roommates a few bottles of wine for being amazing hosts to us and taking such care of us.  That night we cracked a bottle open and before I even took a sip of the 8 pound bottle of wine, I was head nodding in a small awkward half circle red chair.  After my chin smacked my chest I shot straight up, after realizing what I had done still half asleep, I realized how awkward the situation I just caused came about, I looked at everyone and then thanked everyone once again for everything and headed to bed.

The next morning Kelsey walked Ron and I to the Easy Bus stop, from there we said our final good-byes and sat on a tiny bus that took us for an hour bus ride to the airport.  Ron and I made it on time, went through security like a glove and made it to our gate about 15 minuets early.  This worked out perfect because on easy jet you get to pick your seats as you walk on to the plane.  Ron and I placed ourselves on the back of the plane; I dove into my new book (run away jury by John Grisham, this being my 3rd book I’ve read by him since this fall).

As we landed in Rome there was a massive thunderstorm brewing and rain was slowly starting to trickle down.  There was part of me that wanted to go back to London right away, I definitely could settle with a good job and live there for the rest of my life.

Next trip… Not sure yet!

Switzerland

Where do I even try and start to explain this weekend... I guess first a little history on why I want to ski the Swiss Alps so bad... In 4th grade (14 years ago) we learned about Europe and one of the main focus was the Swiss Alps.  Seeing the pictures and learning about the geographics there I was sold right away, from that point on I've read books, magazines, read blogs, dreamed day in and day out about one day skiing the swiss alps... Finally, I did just that!

-February 17th around 5:00 PM my roommates and I made our way to the train station with all of our luggage and excitement in hand.  We met up with a large guy who ran the program named Jeremy in the Termini train station, and two couples that were also studying in Rome as well were coming along with us.  We jumped onto the fast train that took us to Florence (a bus ride is almost 3 hours long, this train took 1 1/2 hours from Rome to Florence), as we arrive to Florence, we waited for almost an hour for our charter bus to arrive to take us to Interlacken.  I talked about it earlier but it's still really strange being on a bus for a long time and it's not for a lacrosse trip, another big difference is that these buses we are taking on these trips don't have any room once so ever, there is no bathroom in the back, no space above you to store a small backpack or anything like that.  We were told that we were going to arrive in Interlacken around 2-3 AM, well good thing we arrived at 5:00 AM and had to wake up at 7:30 AM for breakfast (which was suppose to be all inclusive, all that there was was a loaf of bread and a coffee pot... Thanks euroadventures for really making sure we were fed well). 

-That night I didn't sleep a wink, regarding the fact that I just sat on a bus for over 8 hours and didn't even try and sleep;  I was to excited to ski, I just listened to my iPod waiting for my alarm to go off.  When my alarm finally went off i sprang off the bottom bunk and bounced next door to wake everyone and told them to get a move on, by the time I came into my room Spencer was already getting ready and Aaron was still feeling sick, We all went down stairs and stocked up on bread and coffee, then grabbed our gear from the rooms and made our way to the train station.  But before we even made outside we ran into the biggest St. Bernard I have ever seen, this monster's head was twice the size of mine and weighed double what I do. Everyone meet Splif 

(Erike, Spencer, Mike, Splif, Me)

-Day one crew for skiing was Erik, Mike, Ron, Spencer, and I;  Aaron was throwing up all night the night before once again on another trip.  As my roommates and I jumped on the train to head to the ski resort, we over hear some other people who are staying at the Funny Farm (seriously thats what our hostel was called) talking to a local guy about where to ski and what stop to get off at.  If it weren't for them talking to that guy we never ever would have be able to make it to the resort.  It seemed like we stopped every 10-15 min and there were ski lifts all around us.  When we finally arrived to the top of the mountain we step off of the train and looked ahead of us and this is what we saw.... Now we didn't get to ski this mountain but thats a perspective of what we were dealing with on our side.

Skiing the first day was kind of rough needless to say, the locals on the train told us that Switzerland hadn't see any snow for over a month (January 11th, was the last snow fall) and it had been really warm the past few weeks.  It really showed, there were parts where we were skiing on grass and branches.  It had the atmosphere of spring skiing in Utah or Idaho, but i wasn't complaining at all, all I could think about was getting to the top of the hill and finally ski the swiss alps.  

- When we made our final runs of the day it was around 4-5 PM and I had a sick feeling in my stomach because we couldn't find Erik or Spencer anywhere on the mountain.  Ron and Mike headed back down to the rental shop to see if they had maybe found a different route home while I stayed back and tried to find them.  It was kind of nice and relaxing jumping on a few lifts alone and just enjoying the weather and the fact that I was finally accomplishing a dream of mine.  But a few hours passed and I decided that I better head down the mountain too before the rental shop closed and I couldn't get my shoes back, and in the  back of my mind I still didn't want to leave until I knew that Spence and Erik were back.  Come to my surprise Erike and Spencer had found an amazing trail that took them to the bottom of the mountain and right to a train station as well.  So after hearing the good news when I arrived to the rental shop we all headed back to the Funny Farm to relax and grab a drink.

That night we were all so tired we could barely get out of our ski gear and knew that we had to get to sleep soon so we were well rested for skiing tomorrow.  We went to Hooters and had the most expensive Hooters meal ever, even though it was just a few wings the cheapest thing on the menu was a small salad for 12 Franks.  We were all so hungry we all devoured our food before the waitress came back to even check up on us.  It was nice being in Switzerland because everyone there also speaks English as well, so it was a nice break from having to try and butcher Italian every time.  After dinner, we walked back to the hostel and the temperature had dropped so much we wanted to sprit back but we were to sore and full to even move.  As we walked into the funny farm we sat in the lobby and chatted for a bit with a few of the other people who were staying in the funny farm and shared a beer or two.  Around 11 PM we made our way to bed and rest for tomorrows full day of skiing.

Day two skiing the Swiss Alps

- The night went a lot like the night before, I laid there waiting for my alarm to go off just listening to music until it was time to go wake everyone up and head to the mountain.  

Once we got to the top of the resort, Aaron was able to come with us and we finally had all six of us at once ready to take on Switerland.  There was a huge difference in this days skiing than the day before.  The sun came out extra early this day and there were no clouds surrounding it either, meaning that the sun was beating down on the ice all morning and softening the snow minute by minute.  All six of us were having the time of our lives each run was becoming more and more fun, each run had new scenery, each moment was never dull, there's no way it could ever be boring or non enjoyable when you are skiing and get to look at things like this!

  

This picture was the last picture I took on the hill, I was tearing up as I was skiing the last run on the Swiss Alps, after 14 years of dreaming and talking about it, it was time to call it a day and enjoy the memories.  

Day 3 in Switzerland

My alarm goes off at 8:00 AM, I pop up and couldn't remember why it was going off, but Spencer was already up looking out the window, he spread open the blinds and outside it was PISSING rain but PISSING snow at the canyon swing/ ski resort we had been skiing the past two days... Then it hit me, the canyon swing was this morning!  If this rain keeps us from doing it I'm going to freak out!  Spencer, Mike and I made our way down stairs to sign up for the swing.  After eating our bread and drinking our coffee we make our way back to the rooms to see if anyone want to come last minute, but of course everyone remained in bed.  We made our way back down stairs to prepare ourselves to jump off of a 300+ foot cliff.... for no reason!  The ride over there was building anticipation and excitement in all of us.  All everyone could talk about was what they were going to when they jumped off of the platform, and all I could think about was why the hell was it snowing so hard the day I wasn't skiing and the day I was leaving.

The van ride took us about 20-30 minuets upon arrival, and then another 20-30 minuet walk to the top of the canyon.  Spencer and I were wearing vans and by the time we walked 5 minuets they were soaked and lost all feeling in our toes.  Although the walk was all worth it, the fact that it was snowing like crazy made the view's incredible! 

After the walk up the canyon we finally arrive to our platform where we will be jumping off a 300+ foot cliff... Say that to yourself and see if it makes any sense to you, it still doesn't to me but it was worth every second and I cant wait to do it again!  After we are all fitted into our harness and march over to the platform Mike, Spencer, and I all thought we were going to be some of the last to go because we were the last ones that came under the tent, we were way wrong!  They picked Mike to go second and Me to go third, Spencer followed behind me at 4th in order to jump off a 300+ foot cliff... It still doesn't make any sense ha ha.  The rules were not to jump forward because there's a chance that the slack could wrap around your neck and.. yah you know the rest.  And after a good 10 minuet lecture on how not to jump the idiot that went first... went head first and the instructor, I thought he was going to jump after him and ring his neck himself.  But after the line was re-attached it was Mike's turn to jump 

 (Mike)
After hearing Mike yell and scream, there was silence and my heart started to race!  I was next and all I could think about was why the hell am I doing this?  I love heights, I love thrills, but this is just dumb haha, but I bit my tongue and gave the camera lady and the instructors a shot they said they have never seen anyone do when jumping off the cliff.

Then as the line tightened and the chain came back to the top it was my turn to link up and jump into the abyss.  I walked over to the edge, put my toes over and looked straight down, then looked over at Spencer and tried to make words out but all that came out was gibberish.  As the instructor counted down I took a step back and then lunged forward to get as far out as possible and did whatever came to my mind first and this is what came out.  I've gone skydiving twice now and this was hands the scariest thing I've ever done in my life!  No doubt though I can't wait to bungee jump and even possible do this again, there is only 3 canyon swings in the world so maybe I'll try and do them all? 

After I finished it was Spencer's turn to jump, and to his credit he screamed the whole way down, screams of cheering and fist pumping.  We all were so excited we wanted to run up the canyon and do it again before everyone finished.

(Here's Spencer's jump)

This concluded a trip that I know will go down in the record books for ages.  I will never forget this weekend and have few things now to figure out.  

Now that I have accomplished the number one goal in my life, what do I move to?  I mean this was more than half of my life dreaming and thinking about doing this and now it's happened, where do I go from here?

One of my roommates said it best, it's a lot like retirement, you spend your whole life going to school, studying for tests, cramming for exams, interviews, jumping from job to job, making money, loosing money, etc.  Then one day you no longer have to wake up in the early mornings, you don't have to give orders or take orders anymore, you're done working.  And you now need something to fill that space in, so now the question is what am I going to fill this empty space with?  I have a lot time to think about it and now I feel so much better finally getting the chance with great company and a great dream to finally come true!  

This weekend I'm heading to London with the roommate Ron, post cards should be coming soon!

Until Next Time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93RWs_EAarI

Here's my jump if you guys want to see it! 

Siena

Early Friday morning the roommates and I (minus Ron and Mike) headed to our campus where we were suppose to meet our group at 8:30 am... So of course we showed up at 9:15am.  I can't stress enough how luck we are that we are so close to campus or we would have been left for sure.
It was a weird feeling getting on a charter bus and not seeing a bunch of lacrosse sticks and bags laying around, not to mention the great odor wafting off 20+ dudes that just played a lax game... I miss it won't lie, and my boys in Boise take on BYU today... Good luck fellas can't wait to hear all about!

The trip from Rome to Siena is around 2 1/2 hours depending if you stop or not and a great view the whole way there.  We stopped at San Gimigano, a medieval city that sits on top of huge hills that are over taken by vineyards and small crop farming (small grain and berries).  After wondering around San Gimigano we stopped at this little pizza shack and enjoyed a waffle-gelato-sandwich?  It's hard to see in this picture, I'll have to see if anyone else that came with us took a picture of just the sandwich thingy but hands down one of the best deserts I've ever ate in my life.

After a few hours we all head back to the bus and make our way to Siena, my stomach was wasn't feeling to well after blasting it with ice cream, cheese, etc... Doesn't help that I'm lactose and tolerant.  Luckily that San Gimigano is only 20 min to Siena.

We arrive shortly to Siena, as we gather into our rooms with 3 hours to kill until our group dinner (which was not the best), Matt and I walked around until we found a discounted pizza, gelato, and liquor store... so we got one of each!

The people in Siena I thought were a lot kinder towards the locals loved telling us about their heritage and history of their lives.  In my "Living in Italy" class we learned that the people in Siena live in a community or a contrada, which is represented by an animal and has it's own boundary and district identify.  It would be like if the Yankees and Red Sox were in the same state and there was nothing separating them at all.

The night life wasn't... anything special we ended up just going out to an Irish Pub with the CEA group and needles to say we all had a good time! After we left the pub, Matt and I ran into some girls that were from New York and Colorado and some how I convinced one of them to buy me a netulla pizza... (BTW today is national Nutella day) not going to lie though I wasn't a fan of the thick hazelnut pizza.

The next morning I was so tired that I couldn't stop rubbing my eyes. I went to get breakfast in my sweatshirt, lacrosse shorts, and no shoes... I found out that not wearing shoes and going around an "Italian" building is really looked down upon.  I'm just use to wearing such attire while being on lacrosse trips.  After we ate and checked out we went on a 4 hour tour of Siena, the towers, churches, buildings, etc were amazing! The only thing I had a problem with was one of the churches had a mummified head just chillin for everyone to see... Not for me...

2 weeks until Switzerland...

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from this weekend!

(this is the gross netulla pizza)

hmmm

After going to a few museums in the past week or so now, I've taken well over 5oo pictures... I really want to get a professional camera just for personal use, I love my camera I have now and all, but living in Rome has really brought out the photographic side of me... When I get home that's the first thing I'm saving up for!  It'll be fun to have a camera like that just for fun, or other trips in the future.  In the mean time while I write this, I'm waiting for this sketchy guy to fix our hot water, the electricity in the kitchen, heaters through out the apartment (I sleep either in nothing but underwear/boxers or lacrosse shorts normally) But since the first week I've been sleeping in sweatshirts and sweat pants.  It's almost like desert weather.... During the day it's beautiful!  Warm sun, sweatshirt and shorts work out perfect... But at night, it's a whole new story.  This place gets so cold (not as cold as Boise right now) but it's uncomfortable to what I'm use to... Oh well time to roll with the punches.
Switzerland just got hit with a massive snow storm and is suppose to continue to get snow throughout next week, which is perfect cause that storm will move out and I'll be swooping right in to what is sure going to be the best vacation this semester.  Just kind of weird that a lot was suppose to happen on top of this mountain that I know will never happen...

Cookin away

Tuesday night I learned how to make my own pasta from scratch in a class at CEA (my school here in Italy).  Since then I have had the cravings to cook, cook, and cook! So, last night Ben and i went to the store and bought some ingredients to make my own bomb pasta sauce.  What I thought would been a cheap quick trip to the store, ended up being a kitchen stuffer for the house.  Thanks to Ben, we were able to bring enough food home to last us until we all leave for Siena this weekend.  
Since being in Italy I've had the itch to cook more than just breakfast, pasta, steaks, etc.  I wanted to cook something from scratch the Italian style.

So I decided to slowly boil a pot of water for the pasta (had to buy the pasta from the store, I don't have all the tools needed to make the pasta here yet) then in a separate pan I laid down some butter and then in chunks of FRESH sausage, it's makes all the difference in the world when you get fresh meat from the market!  Then chopped up some onions, garlic, bits of red pepper, and mushrooms.  Then topped it off with some salt and pepper with a splash of red wine.  After letting that sit for a bit and the onions started to show a little color I added the tomato sauce.  In Italy, when you buy tomato sauce you are strictly buying just tomatoes, there are no added spices, cheese, etc.  It's great if you like to create your own meals at home. 

The rest is history, added the sauce the pasta and served it up, all the roommates seemed to like it.  Erik even said it was the best pasta he's had in Italy so far.... SOoooo I'm pretty stoked about that!  I'm really excited to learn about cooking more now that I have this Italian food and wine class... 

6 of the roommates and I are heading to Siena tomorrow with our school at 8:30 am.. Not excited about getting up that early but whatever, it should be pretty fun for a day trip.  Other wise I'm booking my trip to Switzerland today no matter what, I'm done putting it off waiting for everyone to figure their stuff out.  

Here are a few pictures of the final product of the pasta, it doesn't look that great from the pictures but it tasted sooooo good!! 

PEACE!