welcome to london-the best city in the world.

i can not believe that i am finding a place and time to update my blog, but i was so excited to document all that i have done so far in london. we got in around 5 pm last night, but waited in customs for an hour or so. for some reason, england has been the only customs that has drilled us with questions and taken forever to get through. we made it into the city pretty late and got checked into our hostel. we were not so excited about staying in a hostel, but the price was right and we thought we needed to try it at least once in our lives. oh what an experience it is.

we are in a super nice hostel actually-there is a lounge, bar, restaurant and 15 or so rooms i think? in our room there are 12 girl beds, but only 9 are being slept in tonight including us three. there is no curfew in this hostel, so people came in at all times of the night. it wasnt too bad though because everyone respects each others space for the most part. each bed has a cute curtain that goes all the way around the bed for privacy, and each bed has a little night lamp too. i layed in my cubicle and read while journaling for quite a while last night. the girl that slept on the top bunk above me was from poland and she kept rolling around in her sleep and was pretty loud. but she is gone tonight.

today we had a jammed packed day. i couldnt sleep so i woke up at 6:30 and did some research on the computers for paris on tuesday...just trying to find the cheapest way to get around and get in museums. im pretty excited. ashley and i went to hillsong church this morning! who knew i would come to europe to see two of my favorite christian bands? the worship in the church was CRAZY! it was in a theatre with awesome lights and the entire band jumped around. it was cool.

after church ashley and i met up with marissa in piccadilly circus to grab some lunch. we ended up grabbing sandwiches and eating on a bench. it was so cute. we walked around after lunch before stopping by the national art gallery-the pictures were awesome. then we navigated to the tower of london. marissa wanted to tour the tower, and ash and i didnt have the money, so we went to the london bridge and took some crazy awesome pictures while marissa toured the tower. we were suprised to find that the london bridge IS nothing more than a bridge. its not the bridge you are thinking of in the pictures, that is the tower of london. the london bridge is just a plain jane bridge and the only way you know its the london bridge is because it has a little plaque on it. lameee...

the tower of london was ABSOLUTELY beautiful. i have pictures but will have to wait until i get home to post them on here.

we met up with marissa a few hours later and ventured to the london eye. it is the huge ferris wheel that looks over the thames river and onto big ben and westminister. it was amazing. serioulsy huge, so big that each car holds 24 people. the colors on the eye changed every minute or so and it was quite the site to see. we didnt go on it though, it was pretty expensive for one ride-17£.

we walked through the city a little more once it got dark. we really wanted to see westminister abbey and big ben all lit up. i have never seen anything like it. westminister is the largest church in europe-i hope to tour it tomorrow, but am not sure how much it costs...bummer. we ventured back to our hostel area to find some fish and chips for dinner. we found a cute little place that was showing some NFL football-so we ate there and got a little american fix too.

now here i am, in the lobby of the hostel. i only have 4 more minutes on the computer-you have to sign up for 30 minute time slots-so i better get running.

tomorrow morning we are meeting up with a few girls from one of my classes in italy who happen to also be staying in our hostel. we are going to buy tickets for wicked on broadway tomorrow night! we figured we would save our money these past few days and have a good dinner and a show tomorrow. im so excited. also in store for tomorrow? abbey road! i am so excited for this. i CAN NOT wait to go see it...supposedly its pretty crazy how many people attempt to walk across it. haha. that will be me. we are going to see the changing of the guards at buckingham palace tomorrow morning as well. that will be an incredible experience.

our time here is so short...we leave tuesday afternoon for paris for the next 6 days. there is so much to do in paris-i am so thankful that we have much more time there.

ok, got to go. more to come later. probably not until i get home on november 1st!

did i mention how excited i am to see my mom on november 2? and we are going to rome. me my mom her best friend and one of my best friends. does it get any better? i think not. woop woop :)

fall break has finally arrived!

it is 12:36 and i am still not packed for my fall break trip which starts tomorrow-as a matter of fact, i have spent about an hour drying jeans with a hairdryer. haha.

this week went by crazy fast...it was midterm week! i actually got a lot of studying done and think i did really well on all of them, except for the first one, which i blogged about last time. other than midterms, studying and just hanging around the apartment this week, not much of anything else went on. it was kind of nice just relaxing.

i finally went to the doctor for my cold/flu that i had last weekend. diagnosis: bronchitis. blah. so i have been on a prescription medicine for a few days now, and it actually worked. no more coughing!

today, melissa's mom arrived! it was so exciting to see people from back home. we ate dinner and made brownies! (her mom brought us brownie mix :) ) after dinner, her mom treated me, ash, ryan and melissa to grom...as you know, our favorite gelato place. ummm ummm.

last night ryan and i went out with some friends from class who go to bentley. it was really chill. one of the girls parents were in town, so we went and hung out with them and the rest of the bentley crew-there are 16 of them! it was a lot of fun...so much fun that today shannon and chris came over and cooked lunch with ryan and i. it was pretty cool :)

tonight i talked to my mom for the last time until she is here on november 1! i can not tell you how excited i am to see her-but most importantly to share this experience with her! its so weird to think that she is coming to italy and I, yes I, am her tour guide. it will be awesome taking her to my favorite places around town and stuff. and i kind of have most of our time planned out, which is exciting. me, her, terri and ashley are going to rome for 3 nights before packing our bags for a trip to venice. both cities i have waited to visit with mom, so it will be a new experience for all of us. i can not wait!

tomorrow morning we are finally leaving for london and paris. this trip has been planned since the second week we have been here, but we never anticipated that time would fly by so fast. we are over half way done here-that makes me want to cry.

but anyways, we are spending three nights in london before heading to paris to meet up with 5 other girls from nc state and enjoy 5 nights there! i am so excited for this-the two places i have ALWAYS wanted to go-and i get to spend a lot of time there. in london we are staying at a really nice hostel...and convienently, some friends from my classes are also staying there :) in paris, ashley and i have our own hotel room next to marissa and laura. the rest of the clan is staying at a hostel.

well, i better attempt to fit 8 days worth of clothes into my carry on. this should be interesting...

be back next week! ciao!

one F down. 4 A's to go!

a study break in the russel-standahl-wanke-thornton household includes a lot of bundling up and layering of clothes.

woop woop! one exam down-and failed-only 4 more to go before london and paris :)

sickly child.

i have been so sick. like sick as a dog sick. blah. its been terrible. seriously. i woke up yesterday with the flu i think. actually im pretty sure. i had a high fever all day, ached all over, and spent most of the day in bed. thats what most of our apartment did all day. it was so nice. and relaxing. i loved it. i probably shouldnt admit this on my blog, but we all stayed in our Pj's all day-and none of us showered. haha. it was aweeesoommeee. last night we watched my sisters keeper and cried. go figure. but i love that movie.

today im actually doing hard core work. we have midterms this week and they are no joke over here. so its only 1 and i have already made one outline and showered. wooo! im on a roll! for a study break, we are going to our favorite pizza place for dinner! so naturally im pretty excited.

i never dream, but last night i had a weird dream. i was running down the driveway of my dads old work in ohio. and i was running so fast that no one could keep up with me. if you know how i run, thats a pretty unrealistic dream. hum...i wonder what it means?

well, i better stop this little study break that i have started and continue reading. booooo.

the no name post.

so lately i have been rocking out to some rebecca st. james and taylor swift. weird combo huh? well...here is the conclusions i have drawn from listening to a combo of both ( sorry if this is crossing the line for "blog talk" but hey, im just being honest. )

for one:

i am a HOPELESS romantic. i mean, completely hopeless. like, think of the most cliche thing possible, and i guarantee that i want to do it too. hahaha. its kinda funny. i would rather a guy come to my work and give me flowers, or leave a note under my windshield, than him spend any amount of money on me.

secondly:

taylor swift lyrics are the lyrics of my life. haha. seriously-i think that when she made her songs, she was singing to me. i can honestly relate to EVERY song. and for this reason, i wish taylor swift was my sister.

and lastly:

i can not wait to get married. seriously. its going to be amazing. and i pray pray pray that my husband waits for me like i have waited for him. cause its going to be awwwweeeesooommmme. bahahah. we always talk about what a night it will be and im not even going to lie, i cant wait.

ok. so moving on.

today we went to eurochocolate festival. it was pretty cool, but not really what we were expecting. we thought it was going to be a crazy amount of FREE chocolate. it wasnt. dont get me wrong, there was a fair amount of free stuff, but not nearly what we were looking forward too. and surprisingly, i didnt spend a single cent on any chocolate. wooo hooo! i figured i better save my money considering i have like NONE left. oh well.

lets see, last night i went with the roomies to get aperitivo's. which is like appetizer foods except in a buffet. but what you do is you pay for one drink and the buffet comes with it. so we all got strawberry daiquiri's and they were phenomenal! seriously, they were delish. we enjoyed just stuffing our faces and chatting for awhile at the restaurant before coming back to our FREEZING apartment. its like an ice box here. and we dont get the heat turned on until november 1st. ugggh. but today our landlord gave us all down comforters, so hopefully tonight i will be able to sleep without my teeth chattering. haha

tomorrow christine's mom arrives! we spent tonight cleaning our filthy apartment and getting ready for guests. its so exciting because everyones family is starting to come. we have midterms next week and then we leave for london and paris for ten days next saturday. we are going to the most romantic city in europe! wooooo! we thought about going to moulin rouge for Halloween night. wouldnt that be cool? just a thought though.

well, gotta get going. christine and i are going to watch the last two episodes of the office to get all caught up on this season. :)

the best weekend of my life. seriously.

i cant even type right now. im shaking. just totally excited, on a high from this weekend. i cant even describe it. i cant put it in words. just incredible. amazing. so lovely. where to start?

woke up on saturday and took a train to pisa with ashley to prepare for our flight to birmingham, uk for the jesus culture concert. we got to the airport rather early...actually like 3 hours early. but it was great because we didnt want to

risk missing our flight! while we were standing in line waiting to board, we met a guy who was one of eight on johnny deeps 150 ft yacht. he was the engineer. we talked to him for a long time about johnny and life on the boat-it was so cool hearing about his job and such. plus his brittish accent was bonus ;)

we finally got on our flight, which was 40 minutes late. we were pretty worried tha

t we would miss the train that we booked from the birmingham airport to harrogate later on that night. we prayed and prayed for our flight, by some miracle, make it on time so we wouldnt have to spend another 50 pounds to get to harrogate. our flight ended up being early-we had plenty of time in birmingham...we had so much time that we got to leave the train station to go get SUBWAY! i wish you could have seen

me running down the street to the subway-i was so excited that people were looking at me like i was crazy!

after grabbing subway, we got on our train to harrogate...it was a long train ride of about 2.5 hours. when we sat on the train, we sat across from a family of four (mom, dad, and two daughters). after listening in on their conversation for awhile, and admiring their brittish accents which are lovely, we put in our ipods and relaxed. with about 1 hour left in the train ride, i looked over at the little girls who were making braclets. i started talking to the one about how pretty her braclet was and we ended up talking for awhile before her mom and dad jumped into the conversation. they happened to be from south africa and had moved to york, uk two years prior to plant a church. they were the cutest, sweetest couple i have ever met. after a long conversation, we figured out they were also going to the Jesus Culture concert the next night! we spent the rest of the train ride talking with them, getting to know them, making braclets with the little girls (the one girl made me one :) )...by the end of the ride, the couple asked us if we wanted to stay with

them for the night and go to their church with them in the morning...sadly, we had to turn it down because we had already booked a night in harrogate. the little girls were only about 4 and 5ish, but they were ON FIRE for god. it was incredible. i cant even describe it to you. i pray that one day i have children that catch the fire like that. it was just totally cool-ashley told rachel (the oldest girl) that she wished she had her cute accent, and the little girl looked at her and said, "god made you the way you are for a reason." it was precious. my heart melted to them. when we got off the train and hugged bye, the little girls ran after u

s in the train station holding our legs because they didnt want to say bye. it was awesome.

we finally made it to harrogate around 9m and were not tired at all. we spent about 2 hours walking around the town-it was BEAUTIFUL. i fell in love...it is my favorite place on earth. i cant wait to share it one day with my husband! wooo!! the weather was gorgous too-pretty cold-i was wearing a scarf and gloves. we made it back to the hotel pretty late and we discovered we had booked a SINGLE room-so we had to cram into a twin bed. that was an experience...ashley is a bed and cover hog. haha.

the next morning we woke up and went to church where the concert was going to be that night. after arriving, we realized that Jesus Culture was leading worship that morning too! So, here we were, in a christian church, for the first time since being in america-this band that we flew a thousand miles to see was not only going to be in concert that night, but also led worship for about 100 people that morning. it was incredible. god's presence in that place was indescribable. the people of england have such a longing heart for god. the message was given by banning-a guy who travels with Jesus Culture and just gives the messages. he was so funny and really hit home with his message. i loved it. at the end of the service, banning had all the younger generation pray for the older generation (his m

essage was about aligning the generations for a revival). ashley and i began praying for an older couple-after prayer, we got to talking with them. their names were david and margret, and they were a phenomenal couple. after talking for some time, they invited us to be their guests to the church lunch (they only have it 4 times a year and one of the times was this pas

t sunday!!!). of course we went with them...only to find out that Jesus Culture was there too. so, we ate with this sweet old couple, and JESUS CULTURE! it was awesome. we talked for some time with kim walker, the lead singer of the band...she was incredible.

after lunch, linda and sarah ( a mother and daughter who we also met at lunch ) walked us to the local supermarket, ASDA. it was owned by walmart, and it was HUGE. in italy, the supermarkets are so small, so we were pretty much in heaven. it was great. we walked around for forever and stocked up on peanut butter and orbit gum. crazy story-when i was in 5th grade, i used to trade this kid in my class (chris) my snacks from lunch for these candies that his grandma, who lived in england, would send him. they were called magic stars. I FOUND MAGIC STARS in england!!! wooooooo! so of course, i stocked up on some of those too.

after the market, we walked back to the hotel to nap before going to the concert that night. at the morning service, the lady who was in charge of the concert told us that they were way more crammed than they thought so we would probably have to sit in the overflow room. we spent the afternoon praying that we would get in the main concert hall...when we got to the concert, not only did we get in the main room, we also got two seats on the front row. we were in the front row, for the most incredible worship service i have ever seen. it was LIFE CHANGING. every hand in the room was raised, ever heart open to recieve the fire that night. we kept singing over and over, "fire fall down." it was amazing-i cant even describe that night to anyone. so many things that i had been praying about for a long time were confronted...and so many thoughts and burdens were raised. it was incredible. banning gave the message again-he is great-you should google him. after the concert, the lady who was in charge of the venue gave us band tshirts too.

when we were talking to her after the concert about

a place to eat, a sweet young couple volunteered to drive us into town to get dinner. the people in this place were incredible. their kindness was beyond words-and i loved being called LOVE by everyone :) we ended up getting dinner at the rice bowl-for the second night in a row-and we joked about how we came to england to eat chinese food. but it was good.

sleep came sooner than we thought-we were exhausted from a long day. david and margret found us at the concert to give us their address and phone number-and to invite us to come stay with them another weekend before we came back to the states. seriously? could we have been any more blessed? i dont think so.

we woke up yesterday morning and spent the afternoon exploring harrogate. the town was wonderful. my favorite. i even cried when we had to leave. we found a starbucks in town, and of course enjoyed coffee on a cool day. we went shopping at TK MAXX ( yes, you heard right, not TJ, but TK MAXX). i finally found jeans that i had been searching for for a month now. they were originally 93 pounds, but i only paid 30. another blessing. we walked past a Thornton's chocolate in town, and ashley about had a heartattack because that is her last name. so of course, we took 36172537128 pictures in front of the sign. hahaa. we ended up having to leave harrogate around 4pm for a train to birmingham...we were sad about leaving.

we arrived in birmingham around 7:30pm-and it was a pretty drastic transition from the high we had been on for the past few days. the town was huge, gloomy, scary, and eery. from the second we got off the train, it was just blah. we were not excited. rather than hiring a sketchy taxi to get us to the hotel, we decided to conquir our fears and walk to the hotel. bad idea. MOM, THIS IS A WARNING-if you dont want to be worried, dont read any more.

we walked down the scariest street i have ever been on. old buildings closed down, prostitues walking around, and we even encountered a man so drunk that he was squating to number 2 on the sidewalk. it was terrifying. i think what was even more scary was the fact that you could FEEL the devils presence. it was almost as if he was trying to push us off this pedistle that we had been put on. it was crazy. we made it to our hotel and discovered why we only paid 25 pounds for the room. it was a nice hotel, but it was going under construction on the rooms, so we got the room that was not yet renivated. it was gross. so we complained to the hotel staff and they gave us a room that cost 150 pounds a night, but we didnt pay a cent more :) yay! we even had a flat screen tv. after feeling much better about our room, we went and found dinner at a greasy old diner like place. i asked the guy if they had french fries and he told me no...so i ordered a burger and "chips." turns out that in england, "chips" are fries. and they were darn good. we spent the night in the room, catching up on american tv and watching wife swap...it was great, and so relaxing.

this morning we woke up for a full day of travel again...went shopping around town for a few hours. they had the best shopping i have seen yet. there was just so much to do in the town...we got on our flight home and just got home a little bit ago...

i know this post is so long, so thanks for hanging on and reading.

so since i have been home, i have just thought about how blessed this trip was. every SINGLE event was blessed. everything. isnt that crazy how god works? i mean, seriously. every person we encountered was a true blessing of the time, but they walked out of our lives after god used them IN our lives. crazy huh? there is this new peace to my spirit that i have been praying for...i have no idea what i am doing tomorrow, or in two years, but for once i dont care! i dont care at all. when we were in worship, i got this vision of me standing in the middle of a city with everything wisking by me at a speed where it was just blurry. god was just telling me how crazy and wrapped up in life i am, that i forget that i am here for his purpose. why have i missed this these past few years? why have i forgotten that he has control and a hand in everything that i do?

i have been praying about my summer. i have nothing holding me back. the sky is the limit. and i want to follow him...i have been praying about summer project, but i dont know where yet. i have been praying about my double major, but dont have an answer yet. but yet i am reminded that he HAS my answer and my plan: psalm 16:11. go read up!

if you have spent the time reading this, spend time googling this band. please. their cd: your love never fails is the best cd...but just listen to a few songs in particular...

-your love never fails

-i exalt thee

-happy day

-beautiful

-you wont relent

and if you feel inclinded to do so, go grab their cd. its amazing. and if you like it enough, come with me in june to see them in atlanta for an east coast tour-it will change your life.

i am so thankful for this weekend. nothing can describe it. it was awesome. he is awesome.

orvieto!

we had to get a good roommate shot in orvieto. it turned our to be our favorite picture of the day :)

today we went to orvieto! it was so much fun! it was about a 2 hour bus ride...riding on those buses freak me out-so i just close my eyes and attempt to sleep. :)

when we got there we went straight for some lunch. it was wonderful. so wonderful. we had wine, bread, pasta with truffle sauce, spaghetti, pork roast, and some dessert. it was an awesome meal. i ate so much that i got cramps from being so full. hahah

we went inside the duomo (church) in orvieto and it was so beautiful. the chapel was quite the site, but unfortunately no pictures allowed (i snuck a few pictures anyways).

after the chapel, we went into the caves of the city. at one time, the city was all caves cause a volcano errupted or something. i dont know why really. i wasnt paying attention really. but it was cool to walk in caves. we saw where and how olive oil was made back in the day. nothing too fancy, but still pretty cool.

we had a little free time to walk around. i bet you cant guess what we did with that time? we found gelato! haha. it was really good-but then again, what gelato isnt great?

got back here a little bit ago and just finished packing for england. we are leaving here at 9 am...so i better head to bed!

im quite excited for this weekend. i get to enjoy some jesus with one of my best friends! woo! oh, and i get starbucks :) they have one at the train station in england! yayayayya!

one dear friend and a great dinner

if you have never heard the live john mayer cd, you need to listen to it asap. seriously. it is the best cd ever. i think i might have become addicted to the man. he can sing, and he is sexy. wooooooooo. ps-his tattoos are HOT :)

today. was. awesome.

i was so not in the mood to go to class, but surprisingly, i got 10 hours of sleep last night!! it was so great. christine and i found a website where we can download american tv, so of course, we got caught up on the office last night. and it was so great. i was totally craving some great tv.

today in class we watched its a beautiful life? i think that is what it was called. haha. it was all in italian, so we watched/read subtitles. blah. but hey, it was nice to watch a movie. it was cool seeing a movie about the jewish people and the holocaust when we have been learning a different perspective of it all. i loved it.

after class, i caved in and bought a coke and dupolo's. so all bets off. i officially suck. but my treats were yummy.

i got all caught up on laundry today too. i felt pretty accomplished. it was great. amanda and i went running over the ponte vecchio today-gosh life is so hard :) she has become such a great friend!

lets see, these past few days:

melissa had a friend over from chapel hill a few nights ago. her name is anna and she is soooo nice. it was pretty cool getting to meet someone who lives here for the semester too but is still close back home! we walked her home pretty late and we were kinda sketched out cause it was just me melissa and ashley. but while we were walking, our soccer friend tom saw us and thought it would be funny to jump on my shoulders when we were in a dark alley. it was not funny. after screaming for a few seconds, tom decided to walk with us so we were safe! wooo! its so sketchy walking around here at night-and anna lived in a creepy place too. but, we made it back ok.

yesterday in my italian culture class ( a class that all 15 of us from state have together on wednesday mornings ) i feel asleep again. and since it is just us state students, people started playing with my hair and texting me so my phone would go off. i didnt know this until i woke up of course. bahahaha. in my art class we went and saw donatello's first statue-it was pretty cool.

last night me ryan melissa lauren and christine went to tijuana's for some mexican food! who knew you could find that in italy? it was better than american mexican too-and it was half price margarita night! woo! we enjoyed a lovely mexican feast-it is going to be a weekly tradition :) after mexican food, we went to a pub for ryans birthday. we just all sat at a table and talked-it was pretty chill but nice to just all hang out.

tonight we had a pot luck dinner for ryans birthday. it was soooo goooood. ashley and i made mexican food. i forgot that i had it last night for dinner too ?? :) and after dinner, of course we had to make a trip to grom for the best gelato in florence.

i talked to one of my favorite people in the world tonight-it made me miss home a little bit. jasmine and i skyped for forever, but i loved it! i miss friends back at home, dearly. it was so nice to catch up!

now here it is, pushing 11 pm and i have a lot to do. we are going to orvieto tomorrow with luca for the day and saturday morning ash and i leave for a 4 day vaca to england. woop woop! so excited.

anyways, better go do my homework for next week and prepare for a great weekend!

ciao!

no more coke. or dupolo's.

the other night we cooked our own pizza! we made the dough and everything! it was delish!

today was the day: i gave up coke. again. and dupolo's (my favorite candy over here). im getting my fat back. that is NOT a good thing.

besides that terrible part of my day, today was great. im battling a cold, along with half of our group...and my nose drips all day, but it was still a great day :) i went to cooking class where we made some banging food-lets see: zucchini wrapped around monzorella cheese topped with bread crumbs and anchovies blended. ummm. then we made bruchetta topped with italian sausage and melted cheese. and to top things off-we fried chicken, mixed with zucchini, peppers, and onions and wrapped it all in dough then cooked it. we pigged out afterwords. it was amazingggg..

we had another soccer game tonight. it was pretty crazy. i scored a goal, and got a super huge strawberry on my right thigh from the turf-you would think i would know better than to slide tackle on turf, but i cant seem to hold back. but, after going into PK's in the end when it was tied, we lost :( sadddd...

fortunately, that is not the end of the season. we play every wednesday night-but we are eliminated from the tournament now. tomorrow night we have a soccer party at the lyons club! woo hoo! they are doing some awards and prizes and such.

i spent the past hour or so with ryan trading music on itunes-now my library is filling back up. its great. so im pretty pumped about that-and about the fact that i found an app that can control my computer when im not at it. i love apple.

lets see, whats new around here? not too much else. trying to make it through this week for a weekend vacation. it was ryans birthday yesterday, but we arn't celebrating until thursday...dinner and dancing! woo! friday we are going to orvieto at the crack of dawn. and saturday ashley and i leave for england until tuesday! yay!

time sure is flying by over here. we are already 1/3 of the way done-that stinks! its been so awesome here in italy. truly life changing.

i am semi-learning how to cook. considering my roommates staged an intervention with me concerning the fact that i can only eat oreo's, corn flakes, and hamburgers. haha. so tonight i whipped up something of my own-and it was GOOD. i sauteed zucchini and onions, mixed them in a tomato sauce sprinkled with oregano and salt, and put it all over noodles. ummm ummm. tomorrow night the soccer clan will be going to Gusta pizza (that best place i was telling you about) for dinner before our awards ceremony thingy.

well, i guess i will try to get to bed for tonight. seems like i cant sleep. blahhh. thats what not feeling well will do to you! i finally finished my presentation that i have to present in the morning-i actually did some homework! yay!

goodnight!

its a great day to be

one night-after going to grom (the BEST gelato place in florence), Laura and i passed by mc donalds. we didnt even have to say anything, but we knew we both wanted it. haha. so, we ate gelato, a cheeseburger, and fries :)

welp, its saturday afternoon and not much is going on around here. its pretty nice. since my last post, we played some more soccer-our team made it to the semi finals on monday. we had our soccer friends over a couple nights in a row now. they are SO nice. yesterday we didnt do too much-but our roommates told us about this amazing pizza place across the river. so last night, ash and i walked and got pizza there. we took the pizza to the bridge on the river and ate it with a beautiful lit up view of the ponte vecchio. if that is not awesome, i dont know what is. it was AWEEESSOMMME pizza. i think it def beat Milan's. as a matter of fact, i think some of us are going again tonight :)

we went out to space club last night. it was super trippy-no but seriously, it looked like space. it was pretty cool. everyone had a good time i think-its so fun dancing to grease and oldies!

woke up today feeling pretty sickly in the throat. i think everyone is getting a cold right about now and passing it to each other. i do need to get better though before this crazy weekend in england that im about to have.

we just got back from a LONGGGG walk to the supermarket. its kinda weird how they do grocery shopping around here. they shop like everyday instead of doing one big weekly shop...so, all the markets (el centro) are very small and pricey. but not too far from our apartment is a HUGE supermarket...kinda like food lion. the prices there are half of the regular markets in town. so we hit that place up today. its so overwhelming though because they have a million kinds of everything. i caved in and bought coke, hamburger meat, and oreos. haha. can you tell im missing some american food?

i think the rest of today will be spent doing some homework and hanging out around here. we discovered we can rent movies to watch on itunes-all of us are missing some tv. so i think tonight a movie is awaiting us :)

better get going!

soccer and friends

we had some crazy soccer games this past week-like CRAZY. we won 4, lost 1 and tied 1. woop woop! now here it is the weekend, my homework is done, and our soccer guys are coming over to hang out on our terrace :) its our first company at our apartment! yay!

i have gotten addicted to these cookies and milk...aparently christine (my roommate) has too :)