Eyes Wide Open: June 2013

Ciao! I can't believe we're starting our second week of school tomorrow and have midterms on friday ALREADY. The time has been going by way too fast and I would really like if it would slow down a bit. For art history last week on wednesday we spent the day at Santa Croce which is the place where Michael Angelo's tomb lies so that was really cool to see. Thursday Mr. Dicus (my junior english teacher) was in town for the senior trip for Chaparral and I went to lunch with him and the other teachers on the trip. It was so crazy being back in Florence with him and seeing all the kids that had just graduated. That night we ran into all of them at the Old Stove and had a drink with everyone. Its official that the european night life it so different than in the U.S. The bars/clubs don't even get going until 2 a.m, it almost feels like were still on arizona time at some points. Luckily we have a nice gap in between classes which serves as a perfect nap time. Friday me and my roommate Chelsea decided we had adjust enough and it was time to stop being lazy and get some exercise in. We decided to run from the river to the top of the San Miniato al Monte which happens to have the most beautiful view of the city. So the run up the couple hundred stairs was totally worth it. Saturday morning we woke up and met for our day trip to Sienna and Chianti that was included in our trip. We had lunch in the Piazza del Campo and people watched. Afterwards we headed to the Torre del Mangia where we climbed to the top of the belle tower. 400 steps later we got to the top (seriously my butt is going to look great after all these stairs) where again saw one of the most beautiful sites ever. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel going home to the desert after being around all this green. After we got back down we all decided that we deserved a gelato after our little work out and headed back to the bus. We arrived at Dievole Winery where our wine tasting was all set up. They had different appetizers set up for us to try with each type of wine in each room we went to. It was awesome to learn about the different wines and how they took flavors when you paired them with different foods. After we got back that night all four of us girls (my roommates and I) decided to meet up with most of the guys from our program at the Lions Fountain which is an Irish pub. The hawks game was on so I was a VERY happy person. Two of the guys from my program are from Chicago to it was great watching most the game with them. We only caught the first and second periods before we took off to try a new club called SPACE. But dont worry once I got the "Hawks Win!!!" text we had a Blackhawks cheers with everyone. Thank goodness for all the boys and being our personal body guards because Italian men are fricken creepy. They all have pretty much figured out all the girls save me looks and will swoop in and pull us away if needed, which 99% of the time is. We got to go into a VIP area because the boys worked a little magic and there we could dance with all our friends and didn't have to worry about any creepers. We stayed and danced for a solid 5 hours before going home. Today we slept in and then the four of us worked on homework together. We decided we needed a little break from studying and Italian food so we walked to the little american diner that we found the other day and we had some burgers and fries. Pretty much the rest of the day laughing and being ridiculous while we did laundry and wrote our art history papers. Who knew doing homework could be so much fun? I absolutely got so lucky with the girls that I live with and how well we get along. We legitimately laughed for at least half the day which is not something I can remember doing in who knows how long. Ciao!