Passport Nightmare!!!

So...for those of you havent heard the story or are wondering what is up withthe strange facebook post here it is. As you all know I was supose to head to Athens this morning. I packed last night and got up at 7 this morning. I gave myself and 30 minute window in case something went wrong, and I got out of the house 15 minutes earlier than I planned (and that is about where the good morning ended). I got to the elevator adn relized I forgot to grab my passport, no problem I thought I will just run back in a get it (I also thought man I am glad I relized that now). So I went back in the apartment and my passport was not where I kept it. I proceeded to turn my apartment upside down looking everywhere. Eventually I gave up on finding it and pulled out the photocopy of my passport and called my mom (it was Mid-night in the states mind you) to see if she thought I would be okay. We both thought/ hoped that the copy as well as my American Driver license would be enough since I was staying in the EU. So i proceed to catch the bus that took we to catch that the train that took me to the airport. I got through security no problem and to my gate. As i was proceed to board the plane the sweet lady at the desk looked at my documents and asked me if a I had a letter from the police stating I had reported the passport lost or stolen, I told her know I just lost it this morning. She talked to the man and the next counter and they said therewasno way they could let me on. At this point I was holding back tears as I continue to talk to kind man at the other counter abotu what i neeeded to do.

After talking to him I called my wonderful mother who had told me to call her when I got the airport with an update (at this point it is 3am in the us mind you). Sometime between my dad answering the phone and my mom getting on the line I just lost it and was bawling in the middle of the airport. She told me not to worry, go back to my apartment and look at getting a new flight. So I did. I was able to calm myself down and regain my compsure as I sat on the train and listened to my iPod. It real is amazing just how amazingly soothing a train ride is. I think it must be like what babies feel like when you put them in there car seat in the car and they fall asleep.

I got back to my apartment and began putting my apartment back together and thinking about just what I could have done with my passport. And the I remembered. I had put it in my coat pocket in Milan last week. Sure enough there it was in my coat pocket! After finding my passport I sent my mom a text telling her I had found it, and I began to look at new flights.

I am flying easy jet one of these cheapo discount airlines and they dont do refunds so I had to buy a whole new ticket to Athens. I made the purchase and 200 UDS later I will depart for Athens in the morning. I am trying to just look at this morning as apractice run. A dry run as my teacher Mrs. Smith use to call it in high school. She use to tell us about how growing up hermom would make them do dry runs of the first day of school before each school year started. I guess God just felt I needed a dry run on my Athens trip.

I should have known my mom wasnt sleeping last night because she called my 7 am Memphis time to see how things were goign and if I had found a flight. She really is amazing and I love her a lot!

With me in town there were 4 of us who didnt have family in town for the Holiday so my roomate who loves to cook tried to cook something that resembled Thanksgiving Dinner. We had Turckey and a fresh vegtible medly. It was very yummy and then we had Ice cream and Fresh Fruit Tort that I bought form my favorite pastry shop. I have been looking for a reason to buy one all semester and this seemed like as good as reason as any. After dinner we walked up to Piazza Nevona to see a Christmas Festival that we thought started today but apparently it doesn't kick off until tommarrow but it runs through Christmas so we will check it out again later.

Though the day started out pretty aweful it ended up being very nice. Plus, I will still be able to enjoy the weekend in Athens.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am so greatful for so many things at this point in my life that I could right a whole blog on nothing but that and perhaps I will later next week. To all my friends and family you mean the world to me and I miss you dearly. I cant wait to get back to the states and celebrate Chirstmas with each of you. I am bless to have learned so much about myself this year. Once again Happy Tanksgiving to you all.

PS I am using the computer in the apartment again and the speel check doesnt work so pleas forgive the spelling errors. In case you didnt know by now there are many things in life you can count on me for, but one of them is terrible spelling and another is that with out fail I will loose something. Luckly, though, I have gotten better about both of these habits with age. Perhaps if I live to be 100 I will out grow one or both of them!

Update

So not much has happened the last few days but I figure I will just give a short update anyway, if for no other reason than to stay in the habit of blogging.

This weekend was quite and low key. My roommates have there pre-final review today so they were stressing out all weekend. I had a few assignments to work on my self so to avoid the stress and tension that surrounded them I spent much of the weekend watching movies and studying in my room. Not the most exciting weekend ever but sometimes you have to get the non-fun stuff done so that you can play.

Speaking of playing, I am very excited to be headed to Athens, Greece on Thursday. It is going to be an amazing trip. I doubt I will find a Turkey dinner, but I do here they have a T.G.I. Fridays! I think I might check it out. They are one of my favorite chain restaurants back home and at least would be an American meal for t-day. Other than that I am going to sample all the Greek food I can and take in as may sights as one girl can 3.5 days.

Northern Italy was AMAZING!!!!

So if you are wondering why you havent heard from me the last few days it is because I have been on a trip through northern Italy and it was amazing. It was a class trip so I traveled with the 9 other people in my program and a professor. We were gone for 5 days and saw 4 cities Venice, Verona, Trento, and Milan.

We spent a day in a half in Venice. It was nice, but the weather was gray and nasty so I would like to go back one day and get a better feel for the place. It was very neat to be in a place that didn't have any cars or streets, just rivers (or canals) and boats. I didn't have time to go to the island of Morano to see the glass blowing as I had hoped, but I did get to buy some beautiful glass while I was there. Because of time and other people on the trips tight budgets we opted for a short cheap gondola ride across the canal instead of a nice, long, expensive ride around the city. It is nice to say I had the gondola experience, but I would have much preferred the nice gondola ride. Ours felt more like an overloaded canoe with a driver in a stripped shirt.

Next we went to Verona. The night we arrived in Verona was by far the most fun night I have had this semester. We were staying in a very nice hotel with a really good festival going on down the street. The festival highlighted the different foods from all the regions of Italy. There was a band playing and a booth that was making really amazing sandwiches. We spent the evening listening to the band and enjoying the atmousphere. The next day we toured Verona and saw all the sights including the house that is said to be Juliet's House from Romeo and Juliet.

The next day we went to Trento. Trento is the city where the Council of Trent was signed and the Counter Reformation began. We spent the morning in Trento visiting one of the largest construction sights in Italy. They took very good care of there by providing us with boots and hard hats to wear on the job site, and they gave us free lunch. The project is by world famous architect Renzo Piano. That afternoon we went and saw a few sights around Trento.

We took the train to Milan where we checked into the hotel, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed after a long day of traveling and sight seeing. On the final day of the trip we toured Milan. It was fun to see another city and to get to go on top of the Duomo, but over all I was not just overly impressed with Milan. It just felt like another big city to me. It didn't even really have the historic charm of Rome, though its public transit was much better!

So here I am at Wednesday just now stating my week thanks to my trip. Lucky for me my week ends tomorrow because we don't have classes on Friday. We do however have a regional field trip. I am looking forward to it. My roommates and the other students however are not looking forward to it because they have a review next Tuesday in there studio class and are very stressed. I am extremely grateful that I am not in studio and do not have to worry about it.

A New Outlook

So yesterday I (well my mom actually did the work, thanks again mom) changed my flight from the 22nd to 16th of Dec., and today I had a really good one on one with my professor. In my one on one with Davide, my professor, we went over my exam, which i did well on(he said I needed to watch my spelling surprise surprise), and discussed both of my projects for the end of the semester. The drawing project I wasn't worried about but the research project on the other hand was totally stressing me out. He was very helped me put more direction on my research project and helped me find more sources. I now feel like I can actually do the project and do it well. I am very excited that my flight was changed. I know 6 days isn't that long but there is something about being able to say I go home in 35 days instead of 41 that just makes it seem like my time here is a lot shorter.

Changing my flight combined with the great meeting I had with my professor has given me a whole new outlook on the semester. I know feel like I can make it, have fun and do well. Before today I wasn't so sure most of the time.

I am also very excited about all the things that lie between here and going home. I have no doubt they are going to make the time fly by. I leave on Friday for 5 days in Northern Italy. Next Friday I have a regional field trip. I am going to Athens for 4 days over Thanksgiving. The First weekend in Dec. I will be in Salzburg on a Sound of Music tour, and the last Friday before finals I am signed up to take an amazing 5 hour Italian cooking class. Needless to say the rest of the semester is going to be pretty awesome!

Great Lunch

Since I wasn't traveling this weekend I decided to treat my self to lunch at the fancy restaurant down the street from my apartment. It was Amazing! I had a 4 four course meal (aka way to much food for lunch) and every course was fabulous. I started with a Salmon Salad. It was like tuna salad but with salmon. The I had a fresh fish salad that was very yummy. It had fresh squid and some sort of onion celery crunchy type vegetable with lots of fresh herbs and of course Olive Oil. For the main course I had veal wrapped in ham and boy was it yum-o! The final course was a lemon sorbet with basil, and it was wonderfully tasty. Over all the meal was a great time and I am very glad that I did it!

Just a little update

It has been a pretty low key week here in Rome. My package from home finally got threw customs and arrived on Saturday. It was like Christmas! (Not really but I was very glad to have the stuff inside). We didnt have class on Monday but we did all go to Dinner with Dean Shannon (the Dean of the School of Architecture) It was a really great meal and we had a lot of fun. I really enjoy it when people from the states come to visit. It is a nice breath of fresh air!

Wednesday we had class at the Vatican Museum. It was alot of fun and I kept having these "Oh Yea" Moments. Where I was like "Oh Yea I remember seeing that when I was here in high school" I enjoyed the visit.

Today was Thursday, and well lets just say as usual Thursday class was miserable.

I am here in this Rome this weekend so it should be another relaxing weekend.

Sundays

I really like Sundays here in Rome. For some reason things seem much less touristy and everything is a little bit more chill.

This morning I got up to go see the Pope bless the crowd on St. Peter's Square. He bless the crowd at noon and I got there at about 10 so that I could have a good spot. Well no one was there, except for the 100s of people running the Rome Marathon. Who knew the Rome Marathon and the NYC Marathon were on the same day or that the starting line was St. Pete's Square? Not me! It was a fun little surprise and it was fun to get to be a part of the hustle and bustle. I had planned to grad a quick breakfast on my way to the Vatican, but because of the Marathon and the fact that it was Sunday morning nothing was open. I finally found a place and spent 8 euro (yea, I don't know if you have been following the exchange rate lately but that is like 12 bucks), on a pastry and a drink at one of these tourist trap vendor stands. Everyone and there mother knows not to but stuff from them but it was the only place open. After getting my breakfast I found a place to sit in St. Peters Square and read my book. Come to find out there was no need for me to be early because the crowd doesn't really show up until 11:30 but it was a very nice a relaxing morning.

At noon the Pope made his apprentice in the window of his apartment. He spoke for about 10 minutes in Latin (I think). I did recognize them saying the Hail Mary and one point and then he put his hands out for what I assume was the blessing. He then spent about 15 minutes speaking to the different groups there native tongue. He spoke to English speaking people and told us something about praying for those who have gone before us (I think) and then he spoke to Italians, and Spanish, and Dutch, and Polish. Is accent was so think that I really didn't understand what he was saying even when he was speaking English but it was still pretty cool.

This afternoon I came back and took a nap and went to internet church. Once again I really enjoyed it. If you are ever at home on a Sunday and can't make it to church you should check it out. www.crossoverworship.com Services at at 11am and 8pm central time.