Mexico v. SA

World Cup started. It is so fun to be in a country where soccer is such a major part of their culture. And with the World Cup happening, the city seems to be more alive than ever.

The week after our break, we made a trip to the 1 Mexican food restaurant in Florence to watch the Mexicans battle with the host country, South Africa. The restaurant was packed full with some of the Florentine Mexican population, and us. But our buddy Armando represented our US neighbors well.


The game was exciting, and the crowd was great. We enjoyed some nachos and had a blast cheering.

Giorno numero quattro

The next morning we woke up and spent the beginning of the day on shore. Because the boat was scheduled to leave in the afternoon, we only had a few hours to enjoy on land. We stayed close to the port, and decided to explore the area. The water and rocks were gorgeous near the lighthouse. The water was irresistible and the next thing we knew, a few of us had jumped in. We had fun exploring, jumping off rocks, and wandering around.



Eventually it was time to head back, and the rest of the day we spent relaxing by the pool, playing board games, and simply enjoying the last day of the trip.
We loved the cruise, and at 6am that next morning, we were off to the airport in an effort to make our Monday afternoon classes!

Day 3 at Sea

Mi dispiace, non ho scritto ultimamente. Ma, ero molto occupato.

I have been super busy lately with school, but for a little study break, i thought it might be smart to update this blog of mine.

The third day of our cruise was spent primarily on the boat because we were in route to Ibiza, Spain. Great opportunity to take advantage of all the on deck entertainment right? We had a great breakfast, and caught some sun by the pool. We also explored the rock climbing wall and minigolf courses! It was a great relaxing day, but still occupied with plenty of activities!


One of the day's highlights was when Eric was entered into a poolside male "bullfighter" contest. Men were gathered, each representing a different country, and were instructed to perform a dance/routine for judges. Eric was great, he earned loud cheers, whooops and hollers. And the judges named him "macho bull!"

We arrived in Ibiza at around 5 that evening, after grabbing a nice dinner, we all started to prepare for our evening on the Island. Ibiza is known for its "over the top" nightlife. Listening to suggestions from friends who have visited, we decided to spend our evening at a nightclub called Privilege, The biggest nightclub in the world. If you only have one night there, I guess we have to "go big or go home" right? The night was successful. It was great getting to see the venue, and music. We all had a great time, and were even home before sunrise!

Day 2 of the Weekend on a Boat

Morning time: time to wake up, step out on the balcony and enjoy the breeze of the Mediterranean. Next stop: Omelets. Having not enjoyed a hot breakfast for a month or so, the breakfast buffet, with made to order omelets was a huge hit. The boat had been traveling during the night, so after breakfast we were able to step ashore in the south of France. We visited a small port town across from Toulin, walked the streets, visited the market and got a small taste of the French lifestyle. The town was small, and very cute, full of colorful buildings and a friendly atmosphere. The port filled with sailboats was beautiful. I especially loved the environment of the town because of its laid back attitude.

(haha, don't ask what I was doing in this one, WHO KNOWS)

We spent several hours on shore enjoying the afternoon sun, and new culture. Deciding to take advantage of our free lunch waiting on the ship, some of us returned to the boat an hour or so early to grab some grub and enjoy the pools on deck.



The second night on the boat was "Formal Dinner". Time to dress up! We all showered after our sunshine filled day, and went down a few floors to our designated dining room table. Professional photos were taken of each group as they entered the dining room...

And of course we took some pictures of our own as well. We especially loved dinner time, not just because of the amazing plate selection, but we shared a table with a family of three from England. They were very "delightful" to sit with each night, and their 4 year old daughter was darling. It was fun to talk with them, and I think they equally enjoyed our presence. They were always eager to hear about our day, and what we had been up to.

After our formal dinner we spent the rest of the evening at a dance show as well as a short time at Jesters. The boat left France early that evening, expecting to arrive in Ibiza, Spain the next afternoon.

Long Weekend on a Boat

Before I start to post about my most recent weekend, I should say that it was incredible. Never before have I really imagined myself aboard a cruise ship, especially not one with 5 friends in the Mediterranean Sea. Well, crazy things happen. As our long weekend approached, students in the house juggled their studies with booking travel reservations for our one extended weekend. Where will you go? For how long? How will you get there? Who will come with you? What will you do? etc etc etc. Now, it might not seem THAT difficult, but when juggling your plans and ideas with several other students who have just as much to say about it...it can get stressful. So, after talk of Paris, Croatia, Portugal, and various others destinations, a friend found a 4 day cruise... for $250. Welp, that sounds pretty good to me, after wanting to pull my hair out trying figure out destinations, lodging and travel methods, a cruise, with predetermined destinations, and provided lodging, food and travel sounded amazing. Especially for such a great price! The plus: The cruise left from Barcelona and visited Toulin, France and Ibiza, Spain before returning to Bacelona! I have always wanted to visit Spain, especially Barcelona and Ibiza, so the trip couldn't get more appealing. It was my first cruise, and a great one at that! Travel was booked to and from Barcelona, and I was ready to board on Thursday. We arrived in Barcelona on Thursday morning, and got to wander the streets and experience a bit of the city before boarding the ship. The few hours that i spent in the city definitely gave me a travel bug to come back, the atmosphere and culture were truly enjoyable.

We had booked three two person rooms, all inside cabins, to keep the cost low. But, after arriving on Thursday, we found that our rooms had been upgraded to balcony rooms! We were blessed with waking up to the mediterranean sea out our back door for the next four mornings :)

A few hours after boarding the cruise, and exploring its 14 decks, we enjoyed our first of 4 delicious 3 course meals. The dinner took place in a formal three level dining room. I was already feeling very spoiled!

We spent the remainder of our evening exploring the boat and its various nighttime entertainment. We stopped by a Welcoming Musical performance, and visited a few bars as well as the on deck club, "Jesters". It was really funny to see the atmosphere of the cruise, we quickly realized that besides children under the age of 15, we were younger than most passengers by at least 10 years...if not 50! The club was especially entertaining, with music from our generation playing in a loud and busy atmosphere, we were shocked to find many dancers on the floor were older than our parents. Despite the strange demographic, we had fun, and were definitely entertained!

OOO Pretty Pisa

With previous travel plans suddenly canceled due to a train strike, my weekend plans were now free! I am sure that we could have rallied some troops and gotten ourselves extra awesome, but then we realized midterms were coming.... This weekend was not to be fun fun fun, but instead focused on studying and memorizing dozens and dozens and dozens of artworks, artists and eras. This IS why we are here right?
Well, we spent a good, relaxing weekend catching up on sleep, studying and enjoying Florence for what it is. Come Saturday afternoon, JJ, Armando and I were a little antsy, so we picked up and visited the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. We had been warned that the town of Pisa was not the most entertaining place, but arriving at the square right off the train, Pisa seemed like a ghost town! We set out towards the Tower, exploring the streets as we paved our own route to get there.
Well, we found all the people of Pisa, they were allllll at the tower. Surprise Surprise. Time to join the crowd and get creative with our photography skills. The three of us took about 45 minutes worth of pictures. Different poses, different angles, different people, etc etc. This one might be one of the best... clearly we are professionals right?

Welp, got that checked off the tourist list! Back to the train station for the hour long ride back to the study sessions.

Good 'ole Heidelberg

It might be nice if i finished up telling you about the weekend in Germany, at least before I tell more recent stories.

After arriving in Heidelberg Friday night we made our way to the Pepperdine house. The Heidelberg house is Pepperdine's oldest abroad program/facility. We got the whole house to ourselves since the existing summer students were all traveling elsewhere. We took our jolly time in the morning, making sure to catch up on sleep, before adventuring into town. I loved Heidelberg's atmosphere, it is much quieter than Florence or Munich, and I couldnt help but feel reminded of certain parts of the Disneyland Park. We spent time wandering the streets and visiting the Old Bridge. What a pretty city!


We then visited the old castle. It is crazy to think that the walls of the castle were once full of activity and operation. The Pepperdine house is just a couple minutes walking distance to the Castle, and it is incredible to see how much life occurs right outside its empty walls. We had a great time taking pictures, and exploring the castle grounds. It definitely took me back to those fabulous history books. We were able to walk around in the Moat, as well as climb on the exterior walls.

We then spent the remainder of our evening downtown for dinner. One of the Germany students had returned from his travels, so he showed us to some of the more "local" spots. We had a GREAT meal at a Schnitzel House, that had over 100 types of Schnitzel!! I was thrilled to find that they would substitute chicken! Each of us ordered such different Schnitzels, but they were tasty! It was a great way to conclude our stay in Germany.

Munich munchin

My first day in Germany continued when we arrived back in Munich. What a beautiful city! I loved the buildings and atmosphere that Munich had. It has a very different feel from Italy, which was a fun change.

Because our morning started so unusually early, we were back in the city by noon which was great! We spent time sightseeing, and were frequently distracted by the bakeries the seemed to be on every corner. Each bakery we stepped into seemed to have even more amazing looking deliciousness than the one before.

Of course, appetites grow when you are constantly walking through bakeries. Stopping into a restaurant in the main square, we got our first taste of the German cuisine. The boys tried out the bratwurst and weinerschnitzel, while the girls stuck with a classic Pretzel. Stomachs satisfied we continued our tour of the city. We discovered a great market near the city center with all sorts of booths and shops. It was so fun to see all of the German collectives, fresh foods, cheeses and such. The city had a great relaxed vibe to it, and it made for a very enjoyable afternoon.
We ended our day in Munich with dinner at the Hofbrauhaus for some good Germanic beer. The place was huge! Im pretty sure there were more than 4 options for where you could eat. Finding ourselves upstairs in one of the more reserved and mellow dining areas, we decided to try again in the main hall downstairs. The atmosphere was so lively, even though we were eating at an awkward time, the large open room was almost full. It was a perfect german beerhouse experience.


After leaving Hofbrauhaus we stopped a few times while heading back to the train station. Three hours later we arrived in Heidelberg!

Dachau

After a stop for happy to be found Starbucks and some hot breakfast, we hopped on train and bus towards the Dachau Concentration Camp.
Although I am not a huge history guru, the holocaust has always interested me. It still amazes me the pain and torture that these innocent people went through. It is crazy to think that a camp such a Dachau (which was one of the first concentration camps) could have been just miles from Munich, yet successfully put innocent people through torture without anyone stoping it.



The weather was cold and damp when we visited the camp, which was perfect considering the damper mood and atmosphere of the grounds. We were able to walk through the museum, barracks, and extermination facilities. Even after studying the holocaust several times in school, I have never been able to fully grasp the horrific reality of it. With each story and testimony there is more pain and suffering to be found.
One particular room that shocked me was in the wash room. Here the men would wash, and some who were "in trouble" with the officers would be picked out and hung from their arms for hours. The hatches in the ceiling beams are still in the building that were used for these "hangings". Their hands would be tied behind there back, and then hung from that hatch on the ceiling causing them to hang in an extremely unnatural manner. While hanging they were beaten, and oftentimes attacked by the officers dogs. Prisoners were known to hang for hours at a time. I find it extremely hard to imagine such torture, especially for such innocent people.

I learned even more as I continued to read the museum walls. The exhibit had newspaper excerpts from the area during that time. Apparently the leaders of the Dachau camp brought in civilians, reporters and other important people from the community to "tour" the camp while it was in operation. They would chose prisoners who looked somewhat healthy, and present a small portion of the camp to the "tourists", creating a false reality of what the camp was about. These "tourists" were told that all prisoners were there for legitimate reason, fed well, and treated humanely.

Over 34,000 people died at the Dachau camp.

How would you get to Munich?

When traveling in Europe, with six other unemployed college students, you have to be wise about how you spend each dollar... or in this case the euro. The fact that the european exchange rate is so poor doesn't really help our cause either. However, we pulled our heads together and figured out some great strategies to save on a trip to Germany. Strategy number 1- Sleeper trains.
Now, if we leave at night, and take a 11 hr sleeper train straight to Munich, Germany, we will get there in the morning, fully rested, and save on the otherwise cost of a hotel. Perfect. So the six of us (Lindsey, Jen, Fabrizio, JJ, Armando and I) grabbed our backpacks and headed out the front door of the Villa. We stopped on our walk to the train station to pick up some necessities for the ride (pizza and wine of course) and eventually climbed aboard around 10:00 pm.
Now, none of us had ever actually been on a sleeper train, but we knew that from movies and pictures it didnt seem bad, and we had a 6 person room reserved for us... so it was going to be great right?! Right. After being yelled at several times in German, we finally found our little room. Emphasis on LITTLE.



The room was about 5 x 6, and with the beds down, had no more than a foot of room between the beds. What a surprise! Clearly this wasnt going to be comfortable to hang out in until we went to sleep, so we took on the challenge of converting the beds to sofas... (supposedly a super easy task).



Well, after the boys struggled and the rest of us blocked the narrow walkway of the moving train for a good 15 minutes, we finally had a couple of small "sofas" to sit on. Luckily we had great spirits about this whole thing, and had a fun time despite the lack of room.


The pizza, wine, and simple exhaustion allowed for us to get a few hours of decent sleep. Woken up by a loud pound on the door, the funny German lady working the train returned our tickets and passports. 6am and the six of us had a no more than 10 minutes to be ready to adventure in Munich!

Rain Rain Rain... GO AWAY

I've been here for 12 days, and if I remember correctly, it has rained 10 of the days! YIKES
When i was packing for Italy, I was told by previous Florence travelers that the weather would be hot! Supposedly I wouldn't even need a sweatshirt? uh.... lets just say its been a LITTLE cold and wet.
One especially rainy day, we decided to invest in a couple umbrellas from a street vendor. cost: 1 euro! Clearly we got a steal right? Well, they did the job for a few hours.






But sometimes what you pay for is what you get... and in the case of these umbrellas... it didnt turn out well!!



Besides dodging raindrops, the week has been full of classes and field trips to local museums and other Florence sights. Today we visited the Uffizi museum in downtown Florence. The museum was full of all sorts of artwork of the Renaissance period. It was pretty neat to be able to see the artwork we are studying in person.

Meanwhile, back in the states things have been busy for my family. My sister had championship swim meets and senior ball last week, and my parents have sold their house! To make things a little crazier Kayley graduates at the beginning of June, and the new home owners want to move in within a couple weeks! It sounds to me like things are crazy, and Im a little curious where we will be living when I come home from Europe!

City of Tortellini

Bologna, Italy.
Although it was raining yet again, this saturday 5 of us hopped on a train and ventured to Bologna, Italy. Home to the oldest university in the Western world, Bologna is one of the most developed cities in Italy and has a much younger italian crowd than what we are used to Florence which is more diverse in age range. However, Bologna is also famous for its culinary tradition. Giving its name to Bolognese sauce, and also very famous for being the tortellini capitol!

Needless to say, we saw lots and lots of scrumptious looking food during our day in Bologna.




I don't think I have ever seen so many types of! tortellini! Everywhere we seemed to go we saw another color, shape or size. Definitely made us hungry.
But we didn't only see food, we got to see a gorgeous Church, and other historical buildings throughout the city. The city layout was more open than that of Florence.


I really loved the atmosphere and the younger energy of the local people. There was a random outdoor rock concert in the courtyard outside the church which was completely unexpected! After walking around and enjoying our afternoon seeing the various sites, we grabbed some tortellini before heading back to Florence in the evening.

The case of the stolen margarita

Would you expect to see a mexican food place in Italy? I definitely didnt!

This past Friday night we ate dinner at TIjuana's Mexican food for JJ's birthday. Making reservations was a battle, and the place was packed when we got there... apparently mexican food is pretty popular this side of the world.

Although it was nothing authentic like you would find in San Diego, or other parts of Cali, the food was delicious and trumped any expectations i had of mexican food in Italy.


The restaurant was super crowded, and tables were real close to each other, making moving around a struggle, and privacy at your table practically impossible. However, the love-birds a few feet to the side of us found themselves in their own world, and took a break from their giant margarita to enjoy some time in each other's eyes. What happened next shocked all of us that saw. Two girls from a table across the room walked over to the kissing couple's table with an empty giant margarita glass. They proceeded to switch straws with the couple, and walk away with the almost full margarita, leaving their empty glass for the occupied couple to find!!! WHATTT. they surely must know the couple, and it surely must have been a joke right? After watching the situation closely, and noting the high-fives that were exchanged back at the girls table, our jaws continued to drop. After coming up from their love exchange, the couple did not seem to notice that their margarita glass was now completely empty. We decided to fill our neighbors in on the recent happenings. The couple was shocked, and confirmed to us that they did not know the girls from across the restaurant.

Luckily, no fights broke out, and the couple just left angrily. I am still shocked, and next time we are eating at Tijuana's we will be watching our drinks!

Jet-lag Jogging

Like all things in life, you should never be too confident that you have beat jet-lag. Last night i woke up at around 4am with no luck at falling back asleep. Although i knew the rest of the day would be a struggle, but at around 8 i decided to give up on slumber and take a morning jog instead. Running in Florence is a bit nuts, especially since cars and Vespa's don't stop for pedestrians! I took a quick left out of the villa and started my way towards the pontevecchio. Although I have been here for a little over 2 days now, I am still not super familiar with the city grid. <5 minutes into my jog, total downpour began. I was now that american, completely drenched, dodging umbrellas and italians, running through the cobblestone streets. As crazy and nuts as it was, I couldnt have been more content. Knowing full well that I was about to find myself completely lost, I continued my run in the rain ending up at the river eventually. But getting there is the easy part right? After snapping some great photos, I started my journey back towards the Villa. The return distance ended up being about 3x the distance of the way there... but I am now veryyy familiar with the streets of Firenze. Starting my morning with a jog, was a great decision, even if I was completely soaked by the time I found the villa.

Hit the ground running

The past few days have gone by in a blur. It is crazy to me that I have only been here for 3 or 4 days, I feel like i have been here for weeks! After arriving on Saturday, I grabbed my first Italian dinner on the patio of a restaurant in a nearby square. Pepperdine's basketball team happened to be in Florence for a few days, so we spent some time with them and enjoyed and evening out with a larger pepperdine community. Not bad for my first few hours in Italy!!

Sunday afternoon we got the chance to see the championship futbol game between Firenze and Siena. It was great seeing all the of crazy fans, some completely belligerent, and the energy and enthusiasm they carried. The game itself, with an ending score of 1-1 ended up not being super intense, but it was still a blast cheering for the Florence team.

Soccer is truly an amazing sport, the amount of running and intensity that goes on during the game is impressive. But I could not help but get frustrated while watching. Firenze was clearly dominating all aspects of the game, but it did not show in the score. I have a huge respect for the players that are able to keep up their dedication in a game that doesn't always show truth in the scoring. I know other sports are similar in this way, but it seemed to me that soccer was overwhelming in this aspect. How could one team dominate the entire game, with so many shots on goal, and the other team get one shot and tie the game? crazzyyy

48 hrs of chaos

Monday May 3, 2010.

Three days after school is let out for the summer. Two days after Taylor's graduation. One day after running around crazy making last minute purchases. 5 hours until a scheduled group departure to Florence, Italy and a Missing Passport/Visa.... 48 hours of chaos.

Well, as many of you know, Watson's never really allow things to be simple. But you would think that after traveling so much in the last few years, I would have a handle on how to keep track of my passport. I failed at that game. Somewhere between Taylors graduation, a couple stops at CVS, school, some grad parties, and the hotel, my passport went mia. Unfortunately, I did not realize this until I was in route to the airport Monday morning. Then began the frantic search. AFter exploding all my luggage, phone calls were made to various places, and friends and family were asked to search closeby areas. 3 hours later, still no passport. While still making hundreds of phone calls, we began plan B... getting a new passport and visa.

I paid visit to the Federal Passport Service center. A very intimidating building... But somehow after standing in several lines, and taking the most amazingly beautiful passport photos, I was able to get a new passport less than 5 hours later. The things these federal agencies can do when you really need them to.

I made several (about 6) trips to the Italian Consulate [thx Lara for being my chauffeur] and I now have 3 new Italian best buds, as well as a Visa that will be ready Friday morning.

The last couple days were insane to say the least. But I cant think of any way that they could have gone smoother. I somehow made it without getting in any arguments, or becoming a basket-case (well, maybe once). But in addition to that, I was so impressed with my family's attitude. I am so blessed to have parents that will drop their day's agenda to help their daughter who lost her passport and is 300 miles away. I am left in awe of the way they kept composed and efficient, never getting angry. They were able to keep faith that things would work out, and that I would end up where I am supposed to be. God is Good!

So.. in two days, this Friday, I will be leaving for Florence, Italy. I am so stoked to see what kind of adventures lie ahead :)