On the Road to Venezia

Hey everyone!

Right now I'm on the bus on the way to Venezia. It's really cool that I have this internet stick so I can be connected right now! I think we're almost to Bologna but the Appennini Mountains were pretty cool. Everything is snow covered right now. Apparently it's going to be really cold in Venezia, almost cold enough to snow, which is crazy! Luckily I am prepared for the cold.

Great news though! Praise God! Yesterday morning, one of the guys at the breakfast table told me about this camera store by the Duomo I should check out, so yesterday afternoon I went to that store. I started looking around at the wall displays and didn't see any chargers that would work for the battery. So reluctantly, I looked at new cameras. When I asked the clerk how much a Sony camera was, he came over to open the display case. As he was doing that, I got out my camera and took out the battery and explained how I had left my charger at home and didn't see any on the walls that would fit it. Well, he took the battery from my hand, looked at it, and started going through this storage drawers I hadn't seen. Then, he pulled out a box, put it on the counter, took out the charger and popped the battery right in! So now the camera battery is all charged and ready to go to take pictures in Venezia! Forgetting the charger at home wasn't a cheap mistake (the new charger cost 39,90 euro) but it at least wasn't as costly as I had originally thought!

Now that I have more reliable internet, I'll be trying to update the blog more regularly and now I can get back to taking pictures as well.

Well, that's about it for now. Love and miss you all!

Daniel

Three Days of Class Down

I just got done with the third day of class. So far, pretty boring. There are some people in there that barely know any Italian. I know I'm not at the intermediate level yet, but some of this people should be in a lower level, I feel. Anyways, I just had an academic meeting (everyone was split into two groups) so the Director could give us some information and now the course registrations are official and I'm in all the ones I wanted, which I was already sure of.

Yesterday was a day-excursion to Pisa. The Cathedral, baptistery building and the Leaning Tower are all so beautiful and impressive! I knew the tower leans, but I wasn't expecting the angle to be so great. It's amazing it never fell over in the past. The tour guide told us that water is not allowed to be extracted from the ground in the area because it would cause it to lean more. The weather yesterday though was terrible. It was freezing cold (well, not literally, but super close) and it was raining. It was nice to see the buildings, but after that, everyone on the excursion was ready to leave. I am going to steal some pictures from people I was with and of course, I did the stereotypical picture pretending to hold up the tower. I'll post that when I get it.

On a completely different note, my Econ 113 grade from last semester was fixed as it should have been. The F I was given because of a miscommunication with the original teacher was changed to an A- so I am very happy about that!

Well, there is a gallery visit in a bit I signed up to go on so I'll post more soon!

Love y'all!

Tired Feet

I have never walked so much in my life! Except maybe in Disneyland. I just got back from our walk around Firenze to be shown where our study center is, along with the place to buy our book for the 2 week intensive course, and some of the major sites. I really wish I had a camera! But I still have a 2 weeks to take pictures. (For those of you Mom hasn't told, when packing, I completely wasn't thinking that the camera Melissa gave me has a square battery that requires a charger. I had it in my mind that it ran off double A batteries. So the first day in Firenze, the camera died. I have asked around if any one else has a charger that works for the battery, but it's a Pentax, very uncommon brand. It looks like I will have to end up buying a camera. Huge bummer.)

The previous post shows some pictures of the main sites in London. The tour wasn't bad and the sites were impressive, but I am a lot happier to be in Italy. In London, the cars were awesome! So many nice Audis, BMWs, Porsches, Land Rovers, Bentleys, and Jaguars. But it's just an indication on how focused Brits are on work. Everything seemed about status. The weather was awful, cold, and wet as well. Some clouds moved in overhead here in Firenze, and it still is very cold, but at least it's been mostly sunny.

This morning I had my Italian placement test and I placed into ITAL 104 Elementary Italian II, which is what I had originally signed up for, so the test supported that decision. This means I'll be taking ITAL 211 Intermediate Italian I once I start classes in Rome. At lunch today, I used Italian in a real, non-prompted situation for the first time. I forgot how to ask for the bill, so instead, I said, "Paghiamo per i nostri cibi," which means "Pay for our food." I just need to keep working on the vocab and I'll have it down.

I am super tired from all the walking and I've been up since 7:30 so I am planning on taking a quick nap before dinner. Starting tomorrow I will be almost continually connected to the internet since I'll have the study center plus an internet usb stick that I bought to use. Hopefully once that happens I can update the blog more often.

I hope everyone is doing well. I love and miss you all!

Daniel

London Pictures

Trafalgar Square

Westminster Abbey

St. Paul's Cathedral

British Police Car

Buckingham Palace

Departing for Italy

It's 5am and we're gathering in the lobby of the hotel to leave for the airport. I hope that once I get to Italy I will be able to write a longer blog entry and add the pictures. It's been hard to do that with only using the free computer. Once I can really access my computer, I will update you all in great detail. Well, the bus is pulling up.

Love you all!

In London!

It is currently 5:17am London time, 9:17pm California time, and I assume I am somewhere over the Arctic Circle. I needed a break from Sudoku (I’ve already complete 12, and got stuck on the 13th puzzle), so I figured I would write an entry about the first 5 hours of my flight.
Due to weather problems earlier in the day, traffic control at SFO ran late so we didn’t board the plan until a little after 4pm local time. Once I stepped on this plane I knew it would be a fun flight! Every seat had a blanket, pillow and a flight packet equipped with socks, a toothbrush, and an eye mask for sleeping and the plane only half full. At 4:45 we finally pushed back from the gate, with takeoff coming at 5:07.
When the tv screens finally allowed for browsing after takeoff, I discovered more options than I thought possible! I began by watching the movie The Ugly Truth, followed by watching a Moto GP race from this past season, and an episode of Two And A Half Men. Then I listened to some Jason Aldean and now I have Public Enemies on the screen. I think next I’m going to watch one of the movies Jessica got for me (thanks again so much Jess!), since some of the other options left from British Airways are not real intriguing right now.
Dinner was actually delicious, I thought, for airplane food. Simple, but good. The main entrée was beef, with mashed potatoes, peas, and carrots. There was some funky concoction that I tried but didn’t find it too appeasing. Not quite sure what it was, but at least I tried it. For dessert was some sort of tart, I imagine. It had blueberries in it and was pretty good. I even had the option of a complimentary individual size bottle of wine to go with the meal. I chose a red wine. Then, after dinner was served, flight attendants came around offering coffee or tea. I went with the coffee. Probably two hours or so later, they offered orange juice or water. Not quite sure when, but at some point a breakfast will be served, probably in a few hours.
All in all, I have to say I am every impressed with British Airways. It certainly has passed my expectations for what I was thinking an overseas flight would be. Well, time to wrap this section up. I’ll be continuing on with this after I arrive in London.

Now it’s 4:10 London time, and in a bit we have a gathering of all the study abroad students. The rest of the flight went well, but I didn’t get much sleep. As I’m trying to write this, the exhaustion is starting to kick in, so this part won’t be as detailed as before.
We landed at 10:51am and getting through customs was a breeze. My roommate at the hotel was on the same flight as me, so after we have been hanging out since we landed. After we dropped off our stuff in our room, we went down to the lobby and found some other students, so we all went to a pub for some food and then afterwards we took a nice long hour and a half stroll through the park that’s in our neighborhood.
I’ll write more when I’m less tired and after we’ve gone on our tour in the morning. Love you all!

Pictures will follow later!

Departing for London

Today has finally arrived. In just 7 hours I will be flying out of San Francisco for London, arriving there tomorrow at 10:30am local time. Just as the holiday season passed by fast, it still doesn't quite feel like today is the day. I will have my camera out and ready to take pictures as soon as I get there, and I will try to get on the internet as soon as possible so I can let everyone know I have made it safe. I love and will miss you all!

Starting Out

On the 19th I will be leaving to study abroad in Rome for the spring semester. I'll be using this blog to post stories about my adventures and pictures of all the awesome sites I see. Follow along!