Heading to Europe: I'll Italia 'bout it later: I've been here for more then two months?!

It's crazy crazy crazy to think that I've been abroad for longer then two months (ten weeks to be exact). The longest I've ever been away from home is less then a month when I'm up at school which is only an hour away, but now I'm separated from home by 7 different time zones! But for some reason it doesn't really seem that far away, probably a little help from the internet.

Since I haven't posted on here since my weekend trip to Rome, which was way back in February I thought I would do a quick re-cap since then and talk about my spring break week in the next post!

The week after my Rome trip was pretty laid back, which was a nice change. But exciting things were happening in Arezzo that weekend! On Friday, February 15th Arezzo celebrates the Madonna Conforto (Mary of Comfort) where they have a big festival mainly around the Duomo and inside. Businesses donate flowers and line the interior cathedral with big flower arrangements, which makes the church smell amazing! The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, drinking coffee, and probably studying ;)

On Tuesday I was ready to expect Aubrey from the train station after my Italian class! She got into town in the afternoon and I gave her a walking tour before my meeting at 4:30. Afterwards we cooked a typical Italian dinner of pasta, cheese, bread, and wine. The next day we headed off to Florence for our first art history class trip in the morning where we saw Michelangelo and Galateo's tombs! And also Masaccio's Trinity in the Santa Maria Novella Church. The art historian in me was freaking out by this point.

The next day Aubrey and I took a noon train to Rome for the weekend! On Thursday we hit up all of the monuments: colosseum, piazza novana, pantheon, and trevi fountain. This time I got to go inside of the Pantheon and see the Trevi fountain at night. I highly recommend seeing the fountain at night, so pretty! The next morning we got in line early to go to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel! The line went by pretty quickly with great people watching to keep us entertained. I could not wait till the end to see the Sistine Chapel so we went there first instead of last. Every time I saw a sign directing us to the chapel I got more and more excited and then finally we were there! We probably spent about a half hour just inside the chapel, just gawking at how incredible it is. Tears were probably shed not gonna lie. After spending time in there we fought an uphill battle against the crowd to get to the rest of the museum where we spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon in. The rest of the day consisted of pizza eating, walking around Rome, and ending the night by seeing the Colosseum at night! On Saturday we were pretty exhausted, but we snuck one more church in to see Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Again, more art history freak outs for me.

On Monday I was saying goodbye to Aubrey at the train station, which always stinks. But that night we played Italians vs. Americans at a game of volleyball. Let's just say that I'm out of practice... The rest of the week was pretty chill and I stayed in Arezzo for the weekend because the Antique Market was in town, which meant lots of great people watching!

By this time we are in the first week of March and that weekend was my trip to London! Katie and I left Arezzo at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning to catch a plane out of Rome and landed in London at 2 p.m.! We met a really nice girl from Florence that helped us get into the city center of London at half the time! Around 4 p.m. Katie checked into her hotel and we met up with Hilary! I was so excited to see a familiar face. She took us to Chipotle since we haven't had mexican food since January. It. Was. Delicious! And we finished that night by seeing Wicked!

The next morning while Hilary was in class her friend, Kelsey took Katie and I around London to see St. Paul's cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, and Abbey Road! That afternoon we met back up with Hilary and Jackie to head to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I could literally write an entire blog post just about that, but I will keep it brief :) The tour started with us being in an auditorium where we watched a brief clip about the tour, the screen rose, and there was the Great Hall Doors. THE GREAT HALL DOORS. By this time I was flipping out. The doors opened and I walked into the great hall, the actually one they filmed! Total fangirl moment. The rest of the tour was amazing to, every time I turned around I saw something that made me freak out. I probably looked like a fool. Halfway through the tour you could get a drink of butterbeer. SO GOOD. Then the rest of tour consisted of the more detailed work that went into the making of the movies. Including the actual Hogwarts that they filmed! This thing was huge, which ensued more freak-out moments. Afterwards we ate at a cheap place called Hunger Inn where I had my first burger since I've been abroad! Not as good as what I can get in the States, but it'll do until May.

Saturday was total tourist day! Hilary took me around to all of the big monuments and landmarks in London. For lunch we had a traditional fish and chips along with Apple Cider :) For dinner we had another go at Chipotle, why not! And then met up with more of her friends at the Metropolitan Bar then finished the night by seeing Parliament and the Eye lit up at night! It was a perfect weekend in London!

On Sunday I met back up with Katie where it took us several tube, train, and plane rides to finally get back to Arezzo! It's always so nice getting back home, but reality hit whenever I had to start studying for midterms :( I won't go into that.

This brings us up to Spring Break where my mom and sister made the journey to come see me! Here are some pictures of this past month to entertain you while I work on my next post about spring break!