"I love Americans, but let me tell you what's wrong with America"

Enlighten me, please.

I thought spending the weekend in an English speaking country would be similar to a slice of home (well, in many ways it was). Ironically I've never been more acutely aware of the fact that I was an American in a foreign country. The title of this post is a direct quote from a conversation I had with a British guy while waiting in a line to get into a club. He then proceeded to tell me what was wrong with America. Apparently we're a consumer driven society (pot calling the kettle black, pumpkin) and our government is manipulating us and we don't even know it (If we're speaking frankly he looked like he could be in the British version of Reefer Madness. Hey if he's gonna stereotype Americans I get to stereotype dreadlocked-paranoid-conspiracy theory believing strangers). He then started ranting about how he couldn't believe George W. Bush was elected president and how could Americans allow this to happen (for such a trendy city, he was way behind on the trends. Bush rants went out of style years ago...duh!). About two minutes into his rant my friend Jen says "you know he isn't president anymore, right? You know he hasn't been for two years, right?" Then he proceeded to lecture us about our political system, which he seemed to have no real grasp of (at this point I struck up a conversation with someone else less critical of my homeland). He ended his rant, quite earnestly, with "I want to visit America so badly though! Where should I go?" So, yeah, that was interesting. We also met a girl at our hostel and when she found out we were American she said, direct quote, "Wow, you're real life Americans?" Like maybe Americans were unicorns and she thought we didn't exist. Then she wondered aloud why Americans would come to England because British people hate Americans...Well, I guess I missed that memo. All the Brits I knew before my trip to London are delightful, and I'm pretty sure they like me. My new friend from the club seems to be the exception.

These experience in no way detracted from my experience in London, in fact I think they almost enhanced it. The rest of the weekend was amazing! London is a great city. So big and full of excitement and life. It's a little reminiscent of New York, but not quite.  

Kelly, Laura and I (my traveling posse) flew into Heathrow on Thursday night. Heathrow is such a nice airport. So clean! So efficient! Take note, Fiumicino. We made it through passport control, and 15 questions about my life and visit to London, and we were off to the hostel. We took the tube. Also so clean! And efficient! And no homeless person peeing in the corner! Take note, New York. We made it to our hostel around 11:30. We were sharing 15 bed room with a bunch of strangers. It was not as sketchy as I thought, but the room was tiny. I crawled up to the top of the triple bunk bed I was assigned to sleep in and tried to sleep. I wasn't very successful. It's hard to sleep in a room with that many people. The next morning we headed for the London Eye, which was visible from our hostel. It wasn't too far away and because we knew nothing about London we didn't realize how close we really were to all the sights. I took about 45 pictures of Big Ben in from various angles and close ups.

Big Ben!

So majestic!

London Eye

We also took a ride on the London Eye. It's a giant ferris wheel with great views of London. It's also very tall and every time it shook a little I had a mild panic attack. I also had to sit towards the top of the wheel and I couldn't look down without getting queasy. Heights are not my thing.

view of parliament and Big Ben from the Eye

Laura, me and Kelly on the London Eye

After our adventure on the London Eye, we were ravenous. So we picked a Random restaurant and ordered fish and chips. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a picture. It was not what I expected. I thought it would be fried fish sticks, but alas it was an entire fried fish sans head or tail. It was really good though! And I usually don't like fish, so I was pleased.

My friend Jen who also goes to Villanova and is in my sorority is studying in London this semester so she met up with us at the restaurant and hung out with us for most of the weekend. It was so great to have someone who kind of knew their way around. It made a huge difference in quality of experience. We didn't know what we were looking for in Brussels so we just wandered around, but in London we had someone who knew exactly where to go.


After we finished our fish and chips we headed to Buckingham Palace to say hi to the Queen. The Palace is gorgeous. I would love to see the inside of it. I don't know if that's even possible, but it would be awesome.

Hey Liz!

I waved, he was clearly waving back with his eyes

We spent the rest of the day just wandering around London. We went to Piccadilly Circus, which is kind of like the Times Square of London, except much smaller. We visited a souvenir shop that had all things Britain, England, London and everything in between. I bought myself a Prince William shot glass (they didn't have Harry, I looked). I was also tempted to buy a William and Kate commemorative item, just because of the sheer absurdity of it, but I couldn't decide between a plate, coffee mug, teaspoon or ash tray. But I did find the most amazing hat ever! (don't worry mom, I'm fiscally responsible and didn't buy it).

I'll save the Queen!

Jen and I with the Cool Brittania Bear

We went to the main shopping street, the name is slipping my mind, with some of the most amazing shopping I've ever seen in my life. London is such a trendy city. In every store we went into I saw so many great things. We also stopped at Starbucks. I had a latte. It was amazing. Life was grand. I could go back to Italy happy.

American coffee beverages!

After all the walking and shopping we had been doing all day, our feet were killing us. No, I think I was dying because of the pain in my feet. I felt like I had walked the entire length of the British Isles. We went to Chipotle for dinner. Most satisfying Chipotle experience of my life. Except for that one time I dressed up like a burrito and got a free burrito. So, almost the most satisfying Chipotle experience of my life. We limped back to the hostel, threw on some going out clothes and headed to Jen's apartment so we could experience the London nightlife I had seen in all of my friend's Facebook albums who studied abroad last semester. In line for the club is where I met my friend from earlier in the post. When we got to the door, I was carded and when the bouncer saw my California license he made several Arnold Shwarzenegger jokes. I didn't have the heart to tell him he also wasn't in office anymore. Once in the club we danced and danced, then danced some more. It was a blast. Afterward I serenaded the streets of London with my rendition of "What's My Name" by Rihanna and Drake. People seemed to be enjoying it...or laughing at me and screaming obscenities. Either, or. We took a cab back to the London Eye and figured we would walk from there. DAD STOP READING HERE...It was really late at night and we got kind of lost trying to find the hostel, but we knew were in the proper vicinity. It started raining and our feet were throbbing and we were just wandering around in a strange  foreign city. You know, everything your parents tell you not to do. After what seemed like 2 hours (but was actually about 30 minutes) DAD YOU CAN START READING AGAIN...We safely found the hostel. I had no problem sleeping that night.

We woke up the next morning to make it to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. It is quite the ordeal and we didn't get there early enough to get a good spot in front of the Palace to see the actual changing of the guard. We did get to see them march in on foot and on horse.

So much pomp and circumstance

WHERE ARE THE TALL FURRY HATS?!?!?!

After the guards and horses passed we left to go to Harrod's. Which was amazing. It's like a department store on steroids. We were in there for what felt like hours and we didn't even get close to seeing the whole thing. I'll have to go back again someday, when I'm not a broke college student studying abroad. After Harrod's we went back to the hostel for a much needed power nap. Except I couldn't sleep, which would come back to bite me in the ass on Monday morning. And so we headed out again to Jen's apartment and then out to a club with a ridiculous cover charge and the world's most overpriced drinks. But they were playing great music, so we danced and danced and kept dancing. We managed to find the bus that stopped right by our hostel. Again, I had no problems sleeping.

The next morning we were off to Heathrow for our flight home. Customs at Fiumicino was literally a giant clusterfudge of people trying to get through. Goodbye efficiency, it was nice while it lasted. We had to sprint to make our train back to Perugia, but we made it. It felt good to be back in my apartment in my own bed that was not 12 feet off of the ground.

Because it's not London without the red phonebooth

Ciao!

You're Understandable

Another week has come and gone here in Perugia. Time is a weird concept when studying abroad. I measure my time here by the weekends and what I'm doing that weekend. It's not the best way to keep track of the semester as it takes a lot away from it, but the days seem to run together here. When I try to recall an event I have to place it in the context of what was going on the weekend. "Oh, it was the Wednesday before we left for Brussels" or "The day we got back from Florence." I've been in Italy for about 5 weeks now, which is hard to believe. My professors are starting to talk about midterms, which begin in a week. I cannot believe I'm already at the midterm of my semester abroad. I feel like I haven't done anything in any of my classes that I can be tested on. I'm sure this false sense of comfort will bite me in the ass during midterms week, but for now I'm enjoying my (false?) sense of comfort. 

This past week was pretty uneventful. My friend turned 21 so we spent most of the week celebrating. I felt bad because she wanted all the crazy 21st birthday accessories like a light up tiara, sash, flashing button, shot glass necklace, etc. But, unsurprisingly, you cannot find such accessories in Italy. Though a flashing buon compleanno tiara would have been awesome. No one besides the Americans seemed to care that she was turning 21. Again, understandable but I feel like turning 21 is one of those landmarks in every American's life that is over-celebrated. It made me glad I was in the States for my 21st.

This week also marked the third time I went to tandem. Tandem is a cultural exchange event where the American students spend time with Italian students and alternate speaking in English and Italian. It's a great way to practice speaking Italian and meet new people. I'm always hesitant to go. I don't know why because every time I've gone has been great and I've met a lot of interesting people. Anyway, this week the people I was talking with told me that my Italian, while not perfect, was understandable! They said if I keep learning vocabulary I'll get even better. It was a great moment in my life. My broken Italian is understandable! Then they made fun of me because I can't roll my R's. But I'll take any victory I can get.

Next weekend I'm going to London! I'm very excited! As much as I'm "understandable" in Italian, it will be nice to be completely understood in English. Also, I realized that they will probably have a Starbucks in London! I don't miss Starbucks that much but I do miss American coffee! For a culture that prides itself on enjoying everything and taking their sweet time, the Italians throw back coffee like it was a shot of tequila. Their coffee dates can last for hours, but the coffee in question will be gone within the first 2 minutes of their conversation. I just want a cup of coffee that takes more than 3 sips to finish. An iced coffee would be appreciated too. My friend Laura and I were joking about what the chances of finding a Dunkin' Donuts in London were. We're dying for Dunkin's iced coffee. I also miss American breakfast. Breakfast in Italy is usually a pastry and a coffee, if even that. First thing I'm eating when I get home (or first breakfast opportunity): eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns with a giant mug of coffee. If you want to join, I'll be at Tomboy's in Manhattan Beach on May 1st. Look for the person in the corner shoveling food into her mouth. Don't expect any conversation or pleasantries.

Well, I'm off to enjoy a lazy Sunday.

Ciao!

Brussels and Hoes

This past weekend I ventured out of Italy for my first international adventure. I spent the weekend in Brussels, Belgium with my friends Kelly and Laura and it was delightful. The decision to spend the weekend in Brussels was a rather impromptu one. One of my roommates had done some research about Brussels and found an article titled "Top 10 Things to do in Brussels Besides Drink Beer" (For the record, drink beer was number 1 on the list). It looked like an interesting city and they have a theme park called Mini Europe which is filled with to scale miniatures of various landmarks around Europe. This sounded like a dream come true for me because I love mini things, especially when scaled in size to the original. Seriously, one of my favorite aisles in Target is the travel toiletries because everything is miniaturized. So, we booked our flights and hostels about a week ago and started to get excited.

Sadly I spent the beginning of last week in bed with some sort of stomach bug. I feel like everything is more glamorous when it's done in a foreign country. It turns out, vomiting is just as awful no matter how beautiful or exotic the locale is. I only missed a day of classes, and it was a mild 24 hour bug, but miserable nonetheless. I self medicated with water and season 5 of Friends and was feeling better in no time.

Our flight left Friday morning out of Rome at 8:45 and there was no way we could make it down there in time so we had to leave Thursday and spend the night in a hostel right by the airport. It was nothing to exciting, just a place to sleep. Friday morning we were up bright and early to catch the bus to the airport. Our flight was delayed a little, but nothing too bad. We flew into an airport 45 minutes outside of Brussels because Ryanair is cheap and doesn't believe in major airports. However there was a coach bus to and from the city, so that was easy enough. We managed to find our hotel successfully. It was a really smooth journey and the hotel was pretty nice for the price (free breakfast!). We put our stuff in the room and set off to explore the city.

The city is gorgeous. It has a very French feel to it, but it has so many different cultures and I heard tons of different languages as we walked around. Every menu is in four languages (French, German, English and Spanish) and there were restaurants with every type of ethnic food. All the waiters, shopkeepers and vendors seemed to speak a minimum of four languages. It made me feel like an idiot for struggling to speak even two languages. I've resolved to improve my Italian, if only so that I don't feel so linguistically inadequate when compared to seemingly all of Europe. It was also very disorienting to hear so many different languages. When I came to Italy it was weird to hear people speak Italian because I wasn't used to hearing it everywhere I went. In Brussels it was disorienting to hear people speaking something other than Italian. I would occasionally overhear some people speaking Italian and I would get weirdly excited. It was a strange comfort. When we would watch TV, it was all in French. To me, French sounds like the same 4 sounds repeated in different patterns. All I wanted to do was speak Italian! It was strange and oddly gratifying to realize how ingrained the Italian language is becoming in my mind. I've decided to rededicate myself to semi-mastering Italian.

Anyway, we spent most of Friday just wandering the city and taking pictures. The weather was pretty miserable. Cloudy, drizzly and windy all weekend but I've lived in worse.

Center Place - The Main town Square

More of the Main Square

The best part of the city was the main square called Center Place. It couldn't get a photo of the entire square because it was too big for my camera, but these are some of the pictures I managed to take. The detail on the buildings is crazy. In the summer there are tables outside of all the cafes and flowers everywhere. It was still pretty in the freezing rain though.

Saturday we woke up pretty early so we could venture over to Mini Europe for a few hours of comical pictures with miniature landmarks. The buildings might be miniature, but my excitement was ginormous. We took the metro, managed to not get lost and we were at Mini Europe!

Only problem, IT WAS CLOSED UNTIL MID MARCH! I'm still recovering from the grief I experienced. This was pretty much the entire reason I came to Brussels and it was CLOSED.

Mini Europe - OF LIES

You can't see my face, but I'm crying a little bit

My world felt shattered, hope seemed lost but there was a small silver lining to this miserable, dark cloud. The Atomium! It's outer-space looking contraption that was built for the World's Fair.

The Atomium

The mini adventure that could have been

We went in and rode an elevator the the top where we got some great views of the city and of Mini Europe (of LIES).

The photos don't do the city Justice

There were also some cool exhibits in the Atomium about the World Fair and Space. It was really cool, but the only thing that could mend my broken heart was a Belgian waffle (A.K.A. the other reason I wanted to visit Brussels).

With chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream

It doesn't know what's about to happen

Mmmm, tastes like adult onset diabetes!

It was amazing! I felt like I was going to toss my waffle after I finished, but it delicious. The whipped cream was fresh and the chocolate was warm and the waffle soaked it up like a sponge. The strawberries are fruit, so obviously it was a light, healthy snack!

It was a waffle massacre

I didn't manage to finish the whipped cream, but I ate the entire waffle and stopped short of licking the container it came in.








After Waffle-fest '11, I needed to move because if I sat still I feared I would fall into a sugar coma and never wake up. We had read about a family operated brewery nearby that had self-guided tours that ended with a beer tasting (A.K.A. the other, other reason I wanted to visit Brussels). The Brewery was very interesting. I learned a lot about how beer is made. This Brewery specialized in making a type of beer called lambic that is low in carbonation and has a sour taste to it.

The bouquet was a bit robust...oh, wrong alchohol

After we finished the tour we got to try two different types of beer. The first type was a standard lambic beer. It had a sour taste. It wasn't disgusting, but I won't be buying bottles of it anytime soon.

Cherry-flavored-sour-beer.

The second beer was a lambic that was flavored with cherries. It was unlike any beverage I have ever consumed, let alone beer. It had a fruity sour taste to it. It didn't taste like any beer I've ever tried. Again, not gross but I'm not dying to drink it again.





After our brewery adventure we shopped for Belgium chocolate (not a reason I went to Brussels, but a delightful addition). We stopped at the hotel for a quick break from all the walking, grabbed a quick dinner and then head off to find a pub where we could try more beer. I guess Belgium is knows for their light beers (I could be making that up) but I prefer light beer so I was interested in trying some different versions. TripAdvisor (don't judge me! It's my new favorite website!) kept talking about this pub with a name I cannot pronounce or spell. We tried twice to find a table, but had no success so I guess it's popular for a reason. We ended up walking across the street to another pub that looked popular. It was filled with a bunch of people from various parts of The UK watching a soccer game and yelling. So we grabbed a table and ordered two blonde beers and a sweet amber beer. I liked the amber beer best.

After a few drinks we headed back to the hotel because we had a long day of traveling ahead. The trip back to Italy went smoothly (It was wonderful to hear Italian again!). It was 65 degrees in Rome and absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could have stayed and enjoyed it. The only hitch in the entire weekend (besides the Mini Europe travesty) was that our train broke down on the way to Perugia so we ended up getting back about 2 hours later than intended. But we made it back safely and with most of our sanity in tact, so I can't complain.

I know this post is long, but it was a great experience and I just wanted to share as much of it as possible. I've decided I'm going to try and blog more frequently, even if it's just a short blurb about my day or an experience I have. Not every day can be an epic multi-country adventure (no matter how much I wish that was the case).

Stay tuned for more adventures! I'll be heading to London in about two weeks!

Ciao!