just a little comparison

saturday!

well anyway, yesterday i watched step up and hung out around the apartment and then went to the birthday party at this kind of clubhouse/pool place that could be rented out. i went early with liz, bethany, and sarah to help decorate and set up. there were these two italian girls there (no one knows exactly who they were/why they were there) but they were giving us the evil from the first second we arrived. i wasn't having it! so the guy in charge was asking us where we were from etc, and when we responded in italian, the girls were laughing at us! and later, when more people were there, one italian guy was saying that we were all pretty and the girls said, "oh tehy're not that pretty..." okay, first of all, everyone knows the word bella. second of all, american sounds PRETTY much the same as americana, soooo it's not rocket science, girls, we know what you're saying... anyway, they finally left and the birthday party was fun. we just hung out, ate, danced, etc. we left around 12ish and piled 10 or more people into one taxi. oh and lest we forget, the taxi driver WAS a creeper. my friend and i were sitting in the front seat and mr taxi driver kept telling me to sing and dance to the radio. alas, it still cost us each 5 euro after the 15 minute drive...

this morning i slept in til around 11 and headed to the market to pick up some fruit and souvenirs. i made pasta again for lunch and then around 2, my roommates and i met some friends at the rocks. it was a beautiful day out at the rocks and the water felt SO good! i went snorkeling for a little bit and saw a good-sized crab down in the rocks.

tonight i'm just staying in and going to sleep early because my stomach has been hurting ever since i left the rocks this afternoon... :-/ hopefully it'll be better tomorrow. idk what i'll do tomorrow, it being sunday and everything closed and all. then it's the school week and then HOME. i can't believe it's almost here. i still have a lot of things i need to get though before i come home. well, i'm going to read my book and then probably try to go to sleep.

love.

thursday, part two

tonight was SO fun. it might be one of the most fun nights i've had here. first of all, i made fettuccini alfredo for dinner which was GREAT. i'll prob make it again tomorrow just because it's DIFFERENT than the usual and i still have all the leftover ingredients. then, i got ready to go out with two of my friends i've met here. one goes to UNT and one goes to U of H. we went to this place called zen which is a beautiful outdoor discoteca/bar/restaurant sort of thing. lots of people had been before, but it was my first time to go. we met up with some italian guy friends they had met and hung out with them there for the night. we got to do some dancing and chatting. one guy actual works for an italian company that partners with exxon mobil. i was telling him (in italian, very slowly of course haha) about how my dad works for an oil company in houston too, and mid-sentence he goes, "i speak english." hahaha ooooh okay then. anyway, now i'm back at the apartment, hot and gross from being outside, but nevertheless it was fun. tomorrow, market perhaps (if i get up in time) and rest during the day until doing something in the evening i suppose.

thursdayyyy

after sleeping practically all day yesterday, I thought I was going to be up all night, but I watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas with my roommates and then went to sleep decently early. I woke up a couple of times during the night, but other than that, I got a good night's rest. I'm still sleepy though and am thinking about taking a nap... Mom says I must be getting back on Houston time lol.

So, I bought this shirt yesterday... it's completely goofy but it looks just like tanner with his out of control hair haha! and it was only 3 euro! :) 7 more days til I get to see him! and everybody! for class this morning, we watched La Vita e' Bella and then had to answer some questions about it after lunch. That movie is still so good, even though I've seen it at least 4 times now. I hadn't seen it in so long, though, so it was good to see it again.

i went to the rocks this afternoon, but after 45 minutes, i couldn't take the heat anymore so i came back to the apartment (not that it's really any cooler, but it's not in the direct sunlight!) and have been doing my laundry. i went through all my stuff in my room and sorted out the trash and gifts and such. i'm ready to pack! haha.

i'm not sure what the plans are for tonight or the weekend. tomorrow evening there is a birthday party, but other than that, i don't really know besides souvenir shopping. well, i guess i'm gonna read my book for Welcome Week, BLUE HOLE back home. It's pretty good so far. I'm about halfway through with it now.

Until later, Heather

i guess i needed some sleep!

wow... i didn't wake up today until 2:30 PM... I always hate the feeling when you wake up and the day is half gone, but it was alright today, since I have nothing I need to do. i guess i really needed some sleep! i think i'm going to go buy some art supplies - i've really been feeling like doing soem sketching, and considering the lack of things to do... it seems like a good idea haha. i just watched the movie The Life of David Gale and it was SO good. Probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I'm not sure what the plan is for this evening, but I'll prob end up sticking around here. Nothing too exciting, I'd imagine.

the week is pretty much done...

.... as far as school goes, at least. wednesday (tomorrow) we don't have class because there is a field trip to Catania and Thursday we're watching a movie (probably my fav: La vita e' bella). I'm opting to just sleep in tomorrow instead and do some cleaning and getting ready to head back home instead. i was planning on going to the rocks tomorrow but i got a little burned today, soooo looks like a no. anyway, today was basically a normal day: coffee and croissant, class, lunch break at panino shop (got told i'm always sad- as usual), class, home, rocks, watched a movie on my computer (Closer- sad, but good). then! i skyped with jj! haha. and i got to skype with tammy yesterday which was good :) then we went to dinner at Spizzica down by the water, which was good. i've already been three times, so it wasn't anything new, but still good. afterward, we came back to our apartment for a bit before going to jeff's place and then going on to giuffa where we just hung out for a while. i started getting tired and there weren't any tables left, so after about an hour, i came back home. so now i'm here and just wanted to put in a quick update before going to sleep.

9 more days!

lack of bloggage due to lack of computer

wow, 11 more days and I come home! this weekend in Florence was fantastic and went by so fast! The first day there, we arrived in the evening and walked around town. We saw ponte vecchio and ate at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the Arno river. the food was quite good :) i had minestrone soup and a salad. the people in Florence were also really nice. after that, we went back to the hotel and watched some ridiculous american tv. all of the channels were over the top evangelical shows, so not very interesting but made for some good laughs. the next day we went out to the market which was great! there was so much to see and i ended up buying most souvenirs there because they were actually worth it haha. i still have some things to get here in Sicily though! i bought a mini computer that morning, but after many failed attempts to change the default language back to English (by both me and the computer store (for the WHOLE day)) I ended up having to return it and get my money back... then, we went out to see more of Florence and walked around. For dinner, we went up to Piazza di Michaelangelo. We had to hike up there a ways, but the view was worth it! The sun was setting over the city and was beautiful! We ate at a restaurant up there that was really not good, mainly a touristy place, but oh well. the view was good... on our way back, we stopped and got some popsicles (there was this neat place that sold these popsicles that were 100% fruit, and some that were actually ice cream) liz got grapefruit and i got an ice cream one with sprinkles. we kept walking and stumbled upon a caurosel, so we went for a ride. haha. then, right before we arrived at our hotel, there was an Italian man putting on a street magic show. i started filming it with my camera and then all of a sudden, he was pulling me out in to the middle of this huge crowd to assist him with his magic... crazy! it was ridiculous, and then, after i was finally done, liz and i went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. we had to get up early for our Special Day in Tuscany Tour.

The next day started off really early with breakfast on the rooftop terrace at the hotel. It had barely opened when we got there. we headed downstairs to the lobby to wait for the tour and when it finally got there (italian time, here...) we got into a little bus shuttle that took us to the bus station where we got on a big coach bus and waited to depart. our first stop was Pisa! i was really excited about this one! it took about an hour to get there, but it was worth it. we stayed there for a little bit and then continued on to Chianti for lunch and wine tasting (About another two hours drive...) the lunch was over-hyped and i think they gave us the leftovers, but we got to eat some good soup that is typical of the region... then, we went to two other regions of Toscana: Siena and San Gimelgnano (?) where we walked around and visited Cathedrals. In Siena, there is this horse race that takes place, so we got to see where that happens. Also, we tried teh "Worlds Best Gelato" (although, personally, i dont think it was much different than any other gelato...). after that, we headed back to Florence, where Liz and I stopped at McDonalds before walking back to our hotel. We watched some more Gina D and made plans for our departure in the morning... Yesterday we slept in a bit, ate breakfast, packed up, walked around the city a bit more. (stopped for grapefruit popsicles) and checked out of the hotel. after a bus, airplane, bus, bus, bus we got back to Ortigia and had chinese food for dinner.

now im back at school, waiting for class to start in a bit, ready to get the week started and have one last weekend in ortigia before the last week of school and then HOME!

i miss you all and cant wait to see you :) ill probably load more pics after class this afternoon!