Pisa!

These past few days have really been great. On Friday morning we left really early for Pisa and explored the town and did some window-shopping before we headed over to the historical area. We saw the Baptistery, the Cathedral, the cemetery, and the Campanile (the meaning tower). It was a group of four so it was really relaxing and we didn’t really have to worry about losing people and dealing with a big group. We made a ruckus in the Duomo Museum taking photos and we got yelled at (in Italian) for getting on the grass in the cemetery. We’re troublemakers in Italy apparently.

Pisa was gorgeous. Everyone told us that it wasn't really worth a weekend trip because there wasn't much to do, but we were glad we went. It was a good introduction to weekend traveling for us. Now we know the low-down on hostels and stuff like that.

Speaking of hostels... ours was GREAT! We booked on hostelworld.com and I was pretty nervous because all you hear is horror stories from people. I read the reviews and felt pretty confident that it wasn't going to be absolutely horrible. Our room was a private one and not dorm style which is what people always here about. It was like a small hotel room with four beds crammed inside. They had a computer that we could use and WiFi (which is more than we can say for the internet here at Santa Chiara). So first experience in a hostel was overall pretty awesome. No complaints except that our window opened up to Piazza Garibaldi and it was pretty noisy in the room. We survived though!

One thing that we found kind of obnoxious in Pisa was the vendors. And I don't mean have a cart and try and get you to come and look at their stuff kind of vendors. I mean these African guys that have arm-fulls of things and will follow you down the street trying to get you to buy their crap. They are insistent! It's so annoying! Ugh. We all were pretty unanimous that they were our least favorite part of Pisa.

We came back to Castig in the early afternoon. On the train ride back we had a stop in Florence to change trains and in the train station me and one of the other girls stopped to get lunch… at McDonalds. I know… I know… but comforts of home are great to have! And it was the first time that I've had something other than pasta or pizza for a main part of the meal in weeks. We savored every bite!

The rest of Saturday was pretty low-key. Just hung out and did some reading. And of course we had another lazy Sunday. That seems to be how it goes here, at least the four of us in our room. Things will change though when we get to doing some serious weekend traveling.

Things that I've started to miss from home:

-Peanut Butter. Apparently they use Nutella as a substitute, because they sell it absolutely everywhere and they put it on and in everything.

-Queso. My family and friends can totally understand this one.

-Diet Pepsi. Although they have it here, it tastes a lot different. They also have Mexican Coke here instead of American Coke, so everyone really loves that here.

-Hot breakfasts. I would pay a lot to have a hot breakfast. Something like scrambled eggs or an omelet or something. The only thing I have had for breakfast these past three weeks are croissants and random pastries. There is one place that we know for sure serves hot breakfast but they are shut down right now (we think the owner is in the hospital, but we're not sure).

-Aggie sporting events. I miss basketball a lot. The girls are doing so well this year too, it kind of sucks that I am missing their amazing season. Thankfully I can somewhat regularly check on scores and stuff.

-Reliable internet. Enough said.

And of course I miss my friends and my family. I have refused to get homesick yet. I keep telling myself that it is FAR too early because I still have a long time here to go. I refuse to leave the "honeymoon" stage of adjustment and into the "resentment" stage where I am angry and want to go home. I am keeping myself busy mentally and physically so I don't fall into a rut and get homesick. It isn't hard to keep myself busy though cause I am in Italy and there is always something to do, and since I'm living with 80 some-odd other students, there is always someone to hang out with.