Home

It is good to be home! I made it home yesterday and was greeted by my parents brother and Tammy who rushed out of a final and made the trip straight to Memphis. We then met my Grandparents at Huey's. My flight was uneventful and it was a nice evening to relax and be with family.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

All good things must come to an end and so the time has come for my adventrues here in Rome to end. I presented my last project of the semester today. It was by far the hardest project I have ever done, but I think I did okay. I have also turned in my keys and they have given me back deposit. I have a driver coming to pick me up at 3:30am in the morning to take me to the air port. I fly through Amstadam and scheduled a little bit longer lay over so that I can go see Ann Frank's house assuming everything is running on time.

I have really enjoyed my experiance here in Rome! I have learned a lot about my sell as well as I have seen and experianced many great things. I am greatful to have had the experiance to travel around to a lot of different cities and several countries. I was counting it up the other day and I think I have been to over 20 cities this semester. If that isn't a lot of travel and taking advantage of the situation the I dont know what is. I would recomend study abroad to everyone.

The next time I blog it will be from America! I can't wai to see everyone!

So Close!

I am getting very close to going home and I can't wait. I have been studying for finals and working on end of the semester projects almost none stop since Thursday. It has been hard but worth it. This is really the first time I have had to do school work since I got here so I can't complain to much. I can't believe I will in the USA this time next week. I am very excited about getting home not only to Memphis but Fayetteville as well! I am looking forward to eating at all my favorite restaurants, and eating all the American dishes I have missed to so much. I am also looking forward to celebrating Christmas with my family and New Years with my friends in Memphis. Hopefully we will also be celebrating a Hogs Liberty Bowl victory on Jan. 2nd. I am so glad they made it to a "big" bowl game this year. I have missed watching football over the last for moths and it makes me happy to think about watching the Hogs play when I get back.

Salzburg...Finally

So I just realized I haven't blogged about Salzburg. I hit the ground running as soon as I returned on Sunday and doubt I will slow down until on get on the plane next Wednesday. Yes you heard me right NEXT Wednesday. This time next week I will be in an airplane and only 4 hours from touching down in the land of the delta blues! I will be honest. At this point it cant come soon enough. I have way to much work do between now and the end of the semester and cant wait to have it behind me. This is by far the most stressful finals week I have ever experience. 2 Oral Presentation, 1 Final, 2 Paper, and 3 Perfect Drawing. I will make it though! I am just keeping my eye on the prize... MEMPHIS HOME on the 16th and Fayetteville HOME on the 19th!

Enough about my awful finals. Salzburg was amazing. It was super fun and relaxing trip. Our hotel was a very nice 4 star hotel with big comfy beds and an American Breakfast buffet ever morning. Ok, they were actually twin beds but considering the bed in my apartment in closer to a cot than a bed (lets just say my bed in Rome makes the beds at Kamp look plush) they felt huge and they were defiantly comfy with there big down comforters.

Salzburg is a fun quaint little city of 150,000. It is full of charm and even in the cold it is a joy to walk around. The Sound of Music Tour lived up to Catherine and I expected. We saw all the big sites and had a blast. We also saw the birth place, home and church of Mozart. It was pretty cool too!

Salzburg Snow

Well Catherine and I arrived safetly in Salzburg at 6:57 this morning. We went straight to our hotel hopeing to be able to put our stuff down and come back latter to check-in. We figured there was no way our room would be ready, but to our suprise it was. We went up to our room and took a little nap. We fell asleep to the Sound of Music (SoM) Channel. On this channel they play one of 3 things. SoM in English, SoM in Duetch, or the clips of the differnt SoM soungs. We are now getting ready to head out for the day and see a few sights. It should be a blast. MOre updates soon.!

Less than 14 Days

Yes, it is official. I am inside the 2 week mark! This time next week I will be over half way home. I haven't started packing yet, but I have started to think about how I am going to get all of my stuff home. I have bought a lot of cool stuff while over here and it is defiantly going to require me to purchase another bag to get it all home.

Although I am very close to being done I have got to stay focused on the task at hand. I have a lot of work to get done between now and Dec. 16th. I have 2 finals and 3 large assignments for my too classes that I must finish before I go home. I am trying to get as much done before leaving for Salzburg Thursday night, and will have to really work my back side off net week. I feel like I will get it all don't though. Thankfully I have Christmas music from WRVR and Ben Rectors new Christmas CD to work too.

On a music note iTunes has good Christmas songs as there free download this week.
1. Katherine McPhee- I'll be home for Christmas
2. Darius Rucker- Candy Cane Christmas
Both are good and work the download, esp since they are free!

A is for Athens

As you all know I was in Athens this past weekend and I really enjoyed it. It was probably my favorite place I have traveled to thus far. Athens is clean, friendly and fun. All of the people are very nice. They dont all speak a lot of English but they try to speak as much as they can to help you out.

Athens is also a foodies dream! I ate lots of kebabs and meat on skewer. For breakfast each morning I bought very large fresh doughnuts from vendors on the street. The first night I was there I ate a this locally owned family restaurant where the wait staff reminded me of the family out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I even saw a guy carrying around a bottle of Windex. When they learned it was my first time in Athens they brought be a free dessert of yogurt and honey. I also got to visit the Athens Central Market. It is a large market that is made up of there smaller markets; meat market, seafood market, and the vegetable market. Now, the market is not for those with a weak stomach or for those who don't like to think about where there food comes from but it is a really cool experience. There were whole animals skinned and gutted hanging up, pigs heads, the biggest pigs fee you have ever seen, whole livers, chopped livers, pork, and steaks. You name it and it was there. The fish market was neat too. It had all kinds of fresh and frozen fish. Squid, lobster, salmon, grouper, sardines, clams, oysters or sea bass; if it once swam you could buy it there. It was very fun and enjoyable to walk through the market and observe the commotion. I went back to the market later that day to have lunch in one of the restaurants located in side the market and had an amazing meal! There were no menus in this restaurant and the place was full of locals. I was the only American or tourist in the place. The waiter quickly realized I didn't speak Greek or know anything about what they served so he took me up to the counter, showed me what they had, asked me what I wanted and sent me back my table. When in 2-3 minutes I had a wonderful bowl of soup and a whole snapper (minus the head guts thankfully). All of this cost me only 7.80 Euro. I would highly recommend a meal in the market to anyone traveling to Greece.

Shopping! Why no one talks about the shopping in Athens in beyond me?!? I would put the shopping in Athens up against any city in the world. Seriously, New York Milan Chicago Dallas Atlanta, Athens has them all beat in my book. It doesn't matter if you want couture, designer knock, affordable shopping, touristy stuff, antiques or junk for a flea market, you can find it all in Athens. Sundays are by far the best day for fun and random shopping, none of the legitimate stores open, but all of the tourist shops are open and literally the entire city center turns into a flea market with everything from from antiques to knock of hand bags. These are the best knock offs I have ever seen too.

Oh Yea! Athens has lots or really great historical sites too and they are very affordable. As a student it only cost 6 Euro for me to see all 6 archeological sites and the new acropolis museum. They were all very interesting and I enjoyed them a lot more than the sites here in Rome. From a historical preservation stand point there has been a lot more reconstruction and intervention than you find in Rome. We can debate for hours as to whether or not this is good or bad, but I really appreciate the way they have preserved the sites.

On Sunday, I went to the Byzantine Art Museum. My visit was not so much about seeing the Byzantine Art, though it was nice, but about seeing the special Andy Warhol Exhibit they were having. It was very interesting.

I also got to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown solider twice. Once on Saturday and then again for the formal changing of the guard at 11 am on Sunday where there are more guards, a band, and people laying wreaths.

Despite my rocky start to the trip I had a WONDERFUL time is Athens. It was a blast and I would go back in a heart beat!

PS It is hard to believe but I will be home 2 weeks from Tomorrow.