The Starting Line

Well, July is here, and it is going to be a crazy month! In a lot of ways I feel like I have spent the last several months, since getting back from Rome, just keeping myself busy and playing (probably because I have been). Now, that July is here, that is all going to change. Everything in my life is going to be crazy busy. I haven't even made it through the 1st weekend of July and I am pretty sure there is something on my calendar for every weekend between now and November 1. Whether is it school, work, or social I am really excited that my life is about to take off!

This month one of my best friends will get married, I will wrap up my internship with the FYE Office, and I will start my Graduate Assisitantship with the Office of Greek Life. Everything about this month is a huge blessing.

Though things have been crazy with the planning of Megan and Justin's wedding I am very excited and honored to stand next to Megan in less that 30 days as she and Justin become man and wife. Megan and her mom have worked so hard on planing the big day and I can't wait to see the results. (I heard a rumor about pool tables and Wii) Megan and Justin will be a wonderful family and I can't wait to see them become wonderful parents when Elizabeth Amalia Boeving arrives in November. But between now and then there are lots of showers and party's for attending and hosting. Including there Battle of the Sexes Shower at Fast Lanes next week.  Just for fun here is a link to Megan and Justin's Engagement Video and a Picture of the cute couple at Megan's Graduation about 24 hours before Justin proposed.

July should be exciting in FYE as well. We just finished up New Student Orientation, and Parent and Family Orientation. Over the month of June the office welcomed over 3500 students and their families to campus in an effort to help them prepare for the transition to college and life at the University of Arkansas. It has been a very educational and fun experience learning about the ins and outs of putting on an orientation program of this scale. The rest of my internship will be spent helping the office prepare for projects that will take place later in the summer and evaluating the work we have done over the past month.

My Graduate Assistantship with the Office of Greek Life is, by far, what I am most exited about this coming month. This job is truly a gift from God, and seeing his faithfulness in the process has truly been a blessing. (If you want to here more about this story, just let me know. I would love to share.) On July 19th, I will begin working as the GA in the Office of Greek Life. This position should compliment my academic studies very well. I will have the opportunity to work with lots of students in many different ways. It will be hard work at times, but it will also be fun and challenging. To say I am looking forward to it would be an understatement.

So July...
On your mark, get set, GO!

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!

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!

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!

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.

Im Excited!

I haven't blogged much this week because it has been a pretty boring week with this whole design workshop thing. Since I am not participating I have slept late and begun gathering some stuff for Grad School. In other words not an exciting week but a fairly productive one.

Yesterday, we found out that class on Monday is canceled because our professor is still recovering form surgery. This means I have a little extra time on my hand so I decided to see if I could find somewhere to go. I looked into Venice because I have feeling I am going to want more time there than what I will get when I go with my class. I decided against it because it was just going to be more than I was willing to spend for 48 hours.

Then I began looking for cooking classes I have been thinking about taking a cooking class for several weeks. So with my moms help I was able to find what looks like a very good cooking class. They only do them on Fridays so I won't be doing it until Dec. 11th. That is the last Friday before finals so it will be a very nice way to end my semester. It is crazy to think that, that was my only free Friday between now and then. Between now and my cooking class I will spend 4 days in Athens, 5 days in Northern Italy, and if all goes as planned 3 days in Salzburg. Oh yea I still have class 4 days a week and several Friday field trips planned as well. Basicly this last half of the semester is going fly by (Wednesday marked the official half way point)!

Good Start

This week has started off very well, and appears to be shaping up into a very nice and relaxing week.

On Sunday I went to church on the internet. It was really cool. No it isn't as good as the real thing but for a student who is studying abroad it gets the job done and is a huge blessing. For those of you wondering what kind of crazy stuff goes on at internet church, this is how it works. The church I go to in North West Arkansas, Church at Pinnacle Hills, started an online worship ministry. Since I was in Rome on Sunday I thought I would try it out. To attend you go www.crossoverworship.com Just before the service time the online minister will launch the broadcast and come on his webcam to welcome everyone. You can log into the chat portion of the website before the service if you wish. Then when the service starts it plays on your screen. During the offering, Chirs, the online minister stops the broadcast and comes to you via his webcam to tell you how you can tithe online and asks you till fill out a connection card online just as if you were at church for real. Then he sends it back to service. During the invitation at the end of the service Christ comes back on and speeks to us one last time. No, it wasn't real church but it was very nice to come together with a group of believers for worship.

Yesterday I got all the paper work taken care of to get my package out of customs and today I got the fees payed. Lets just say this package has been a cultural adventure and I will never again look at Cheetos without thinking about Italy.

We started the Roma Tre Workshop today. It will be an easy week for me but a very busy and stressful one for everyone else. I am not participating in the workshop, but have been asked to write an article for it so I will be in and out from time to time at the workshop. Other than that I dont have anything I have to do this week.

After lunch today I went and got gelato. It was the best I have had yet. There was a line out the door the entire time I was at this place and I bet it took me 10 minutes to get my gelato.

The weather has been beautiful here so far this week.

Happy Birthday William!

Today is my cousin William's brithday! He is turning 9 and since it is his special day I wanted to give him a little shout out. He is having an ATV birthday party, which sounds pretty cool to me. Happy Birthday William! I hope you have a great day and a lot of fun at your birthday party!

In other news...
I have survived mid-terms. They werent aweful but they weren't super fun. The best part is that they are behind me. It is rainy here today, but it made for perfect nap. Which was nice since I was up till 3 am working on one of the most rediculous projects ever.

We are headed to Hadrians Villa for the day on Friday. It should be a nice way to end the week and then I will have a quite weekend here back in Rome. I think I might go see UP in Italian. I wont understand what they are saying but the music and the story are so good I dont think that it will matter.

Happy Birthday Nana

So it has been a very busy week here in Rome. It is mid-term week. I have had 4 mid-terms this week 2 for each class. I have finished 3 of them and have 1 left on Thursday.

I went to Cinque Terre the weekend with my friend Catherine. She was a year behind me as St. Agnes and is here for the semester with John Cabot University. She was a wonderful travel buddy. We had a great time. We saw all 4 towns, and completed 3 of the 4 hikes. It was beautiful and the weather was very nice. We stayed in a little town that only had one restaurant. It was so nice to be a a quite tranquil place. You don't realize just how hard the city is on you until you are away from it. The trip was amazing and I hope to post so pictures this weekend after things slow down.

Today is my grandmothers birthday! So Happy Birthday Nana!

Movie Night!

Yesterday was a fun day and today is shaping up to be pretty good as well.

Yesterday class was pretty low key and we got out early. I was suppose to meet a friend at Old Bridge Gelateria in Vatican City for gelato, but her test ran late and she didn't make. I didn't really want gelato any way so I grabbed lunch. As I was walking the Vatican City I saw a place where you can buy 10,000 Rosaries for 60 euro. This made me laugh. 10,000 roeries what is any person going to do with that many rosaries. I am pretty sure that is enough to give 2 to every person I know and will talk to in the next year. Another thing that made me laugh was the couple that sat next to me at lunch. They were from the UK so I understood every word they said. They were on a cruise and had to be back at the boat in just a few hours. She was very worried about getting back on time and convinced her husband was wrong and she was right about where they needed to go. I am pretty sure he was write and that they probably got lost after leaving the restaurant. There exchange at lunch also made me chuckle.

When I got up from my usual afternoon nap, at like 6pm (I didn't go to sleep till like 4 but still) I decided I wanted to make it a movie night. I began going through iTunes looking for a movie to rent. I choose Away We Go and began downloading it. While it was downloading I set out to find popcorn and get dinner. I wanted to make kettle corn and was not sure I would be able to find pop corn kernels but I did. When I got back my movie was done downloading and I made my kettle korn. It turned out really great considering the poor condition of our stove. Movie night was a great success and I am going to have to do it again.

Today my class was canceled because everyone else has mid term reviews. This has allowed me to sleep in and now I can have a lazy day.

Florence

I spent this past weekend in Florence and it was a ton of fun! We left by train on Friday morning and arrived in Florence at about 10 o'clock. We got to see all the big sight including the Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, the Laurentian Library by Michael Angelo, and the brother to Drooling Hog Statue on campus.
I also spent ample time in the leather market and bought lots of really cool Christmas Gifts. The purchase I am most excited about did not come from the leather market, but from a very famous leather shop called Misuri. They are famous for their gilded leather and the purse they designed for the queen. When I was here in high school I bought a belt and have loved it ever since. I was hoping to purchase another buckle for my belt, but they were so friendly and gave me such a good deal that I ended up buying a whole new Belt. Special thanks to Dean Maness from St. Agnes for giving me directions before I left this weekend I would have never found it without her help.
This weeks classes should be pretty low key. We are going to spend a lot of time studying St. Peters, and figuring out what needs to be done to prepare for mid-terms. I probably wont be seeing much of my roommates because they have mid-semester review for studio on Thursday. I am extremely gratefull that I do not have to take studio while here. It is allowing me to enjoy my experience 10 times more than I woudld have if I were in studio.

Update

I figure it has been a few days since my last post so I better update the world on what is going world. It has been an average week here in Rome filled with class site visits, and the first day to sleep-in in about 3 weeks. That great day came today. I slept until 11:00 it was amazing. This afternoon I went to lunch with my friend Mary Beth and then went to class at 4. WE had class at 4 because we did not have class this morning. Things I have setteled into a routine here which is nice. Tomarrow is Thursday which means the worse class of the week. We are meeting out on a construcation site for a new government build wich will be pretty cool. Hopefully the professor isnt planning of also lecturing becasue the site is about an hour away from the class. But this woman is crazy so who knows.

I am looking forward to this weekend. We are headed to Florence. It should be a wonderful time! This week I have also booked my Thanksgiving trip to Athens, and my weekend trip with Catherine to Cinque Terre. Both should be amazing trips. I plan to book the trip to Salzburg next week.

Orvieto

Ahh! It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Orivito is a quite little town, that is allmost 100% car free. The streets are small and a joy to walk. The big must see sites are very few. There are really just 3, the large cathedral, the old cathedral amd the bell tower. It is the little side streets and beautifully average mid-evil and renissance buildings that make you feel like you are on a movie set that really make Orvieto grand. It was an amazing escape from the city! I got to sleep in full size bed which was amazing, esp. considering that my bed here in Rome is a little less than a twin. We couldnt have ordered more amazing weather. Cool and Crisp, perfect for blue jeans and a light sweater.

We also traveled to Perugea for the day. It to was a lovely destination with a movie set feel. The we visited an entruscan well and a museum that contained may regligious art pieces. The day was very enjoyable.

Sunday we visited a few small towns to tour a small museum and see a Roman Theater. Both were very interersting and we returned to Rome mid afternoon. Over all the weekend was very enjoyable and a lot of fun.

This week should be a very nice one. Today we didnt have a tour, but a very interesting lecture. Wednesday our morning class got moved to late afternoon, so I will be able to both sleep in and enjoy lunch with Mary Beth.

We are jet set (more like train set) again this weekend and off to Florence. We are all looking forward to a lot of shopping and word on the street is that there is a Taco Bell in Florence as well.

Just a Short One

Today was another good day in Rome. We went to the EUR, the poriton of Rome build by Musolini, for class. This afternoon I had lunch with my friend Mary Beth. We worked at kamp together the last 2 summers and we love or weekly lunch dates. Tomarrow will most likely be a long day because it is my least favorite class, but as soon as I get it behind me the weekend starts. We are leaving Friday morning for a class field trip to Orvieto. It should be another fun filled weekend.

Oh! And I got Ice Tea again today! How lucky am I, I guess if i were in Arkansas it would be smart for me to play that new lottery?

Movies and Ice Tea

So tonight my roomate Deborah and I we nt on a little adventure. We decided to go to the movies. There are a few theaters here that show movies in English so we went to the The Informant. The movie its self was okay, but it was great to watch something in English and the theater was very nice. I was even more excited about the movie when I relized they had fresh brewed ICE TEA. NOw it was lemon flavored so it was more like an Arnold Palmer (Ice Tea and lemonaid mixed together), but it was still amazing, esp when you consider it is the first thing I have had that resembled ice tea in nearly a month. We had a grea time and will def. do it again.

To all of you who are dying to see pics from Naples I promise they are coming.