Italia--

Hello everyone,

I just returned from a Friday-Monday trip to Rome with my study abroad program! It was absolutely incredible and I definitely want to return to Italy at some point in the future, since everything I did in Rome was so rushed this weekend to fit it all in. This is going to be a reaaaaallly long post, sorry, but there are a lot of pictures! :)

The Pantheon, Friday night

Viernes/Friday

We did not get to our hotel (we took a plane, and then a bus from the airport) until around 5 or 6 p.m., so there was not time to go to any tours or anything the first night. So what we did was walk around and explore! We went to the Piazza Navona, a famous plaza that is near the Roma nightlife and a ton of restaurants. Then, I had an absolutely amazing dinner at this little restaurant, and my whole dish of pasta was only 6.50 euro!

Spaghetti a la carbonara (it has eggs, bacon and cheese in it and is delightful) with Chianti wine

After dinner, we of course got gelato (the best invention in the world), and then we strolled over to the beautiful Trevi Fountain. This is the fountain that you drop a coin in to ensure you'll return to Rome.

My friend Sarah and I throwing our coins in

Trevi Fountain :)

We tried to find the Roman nightlife, but everything closes pretty early and we never found a bar or anything to go to. So I just spent the rest of the night hanging out at our hotel and at the hotel of an Irish couple we met that was also vacationing in Rome, Jessika and T.

Sábado/Saturday
Saturday was the crazy-busy day of my Rome trip. It was the only full day I had in Rome, so my friend Sarah and went to the Colosseum, the Imperial Forums/Palatine Hill, the Vatican, and even to Mass at St. Peter's Basilica all before collapsing of tiredness! :)

Me inside the Colosseum

View from outside of the Colosseum

A very small part of the Roman Forum, where there is sooo much history and old buildings!

Just one of the many absolutely breathtaking paintings in the Vatican Museums. Even the ceilings were awe-inspiring, and I'm not really even an art person. The Sistine Chapel was beautiful, too, with the work of Michelangelo covering the ceiling. However, you're not allowed to take photos in the Sistine Chapel so you'll just have to trust me that it was awesome!

St. Peter's Basilica, in the area where they hold Mass. It was so huge (the largest in the world) that there was no way to photograph all of it. I went to Mass, and it was in Italian with a really great choir. It was an awesome experience to say the least.

After our insane day of sightseeing, I went to a couple of bars with my friends (we finally found some, although they were really overpriced) and then called it a night.

Left to right: Sarah, Shannon, Claire, Carol, me, Jessika

Domingo/ Sunday

Sunday was wonderful, I went on a day trip by bus to Pompeii with two friends. We got picked up from our hotel and then taken to Naples then Pompeii on a charter bus, and were given a two-hour tour of the Pompeii ruins (if you forgot your history, Pompeii was an ancient city where everyone died from asphyxiation after Mt. Vesuvius erupted, but it was really well preserved under the ashes).

The bodies were decomposed when found, but they poured concrete in the holes in the ashes and were able to recreate what many of the people looked like when they died. You can see that this man was trying not to inhale. There was also a pregnant lady and a dog, it was the saddest part for me.

The city was absolutely phenomenal- I knew it was an actual city, but to see and be able to go inside the houses, the bar (below), the bakery, the jail, even the brothel, was fascinating!

Can I get you a drink?

Finally, we returned to Roma and met up with some API friends for our last dinner- pizza at a famous place that we somehow showed up at when there was no line, and then of course a gelato to finish off the night. This was essentially the end of our Roma trip, since we had to leave our hotel at 7 a.m. on Monday to catch our flight back to Spain!

My pizza had a fried egg in the middle, and sausage, artichoke hearts, mushrooms.. YUM 

GELATO=love
I had two flavors together, the one on the top left (blackberry with cream) and the top middle (cream with NUTELLA). So delicious, and only 2 euro!

<3 Haley

Small changes in plans

I decided that I don't have enough money to do Greece the way it should be done, so I changed the Greece trip to Lisbon, Portugal with three friends! I'm planning to return to Greece in a few years when I can really spend the money to go to the islands, Athens, and see everything! I'm really excited to see Lisbon; it's not really a place that sticks out as a must-see, but I have heard tons and tons of amazing things about it, and the best part is I already purchased my flight and hostel and it adds up to less than 100 euros!
Roma tomorrow, I'll be in touch next week :]
<3Haley

La Playa (the beach) and travel plans

I had the most fantastic day yesterday! My friends Elle, Sarah and I ventured to Almuñecar, a beach about an hour and a half away from Granada by bus.  With a couple of transportation mishaps (we are now experts!), we arrived at Almuñecar by about 11:15 a.m. We walked down by the beach to find our perfect laying out location, and happened upon a couple of restaurants with outdoor seating right on the beach! So of course we stopped for a bloody mary in the sunshine, and then proceeded to stake out our spot with our towels.

It was about 65 degrees and sunny, so it was perfect to lay out and soak up the sun (don't worry, I wore sunscreen!). I dipped my toes in the water, just to say that I touched the MEDITERRANEAN SEA, but it was freezing- the actual swimming will have to wait another month.

By about 4:30 p.m., it was starting to get a little chilly in just our bathing suits, so we covered back up and went in a couple of shops, walked around, and got some ice cream before heading back on the 8 p.m. bus to Granada.

This cross was so cool, and the birds make the picture awesome! You can see it from where we were laying on the beach, and then we walked all the way up to it in the late afternoon.


[Travel Plans]
Well, I think I have spent all the money I can, so my travel schedule is about finalized! If you're interested, here is where I'm planning to go:
- February: Rome (with API), Parque Nacional Cabañeros (camping trip with my geography class)
- March: Dublin (with five friends), Parque Natural de las Lagunas de Ruidera (camping trip with my geography class)
- April: Spring Break (Zurich Switzerland, Freiburg Germany and Paris France), Athens Greece (with a couple friends on a long weekend from school)
- May: Cádiz (a Spanish city with API), After-program travel (to Paris and London with Brianna)

If anyone has been to any of these locations and has any suggestions to share, I would love to hear about them! Especially Rome, because my friends and I have to do all of the historical visit-planning ourselves and it is quite overwhelming!

Love, Haley

An update on the Spanish life

Hey, everyone!

                                                                        [View from my bedroom window]

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post, I can never decide what I want to write about!!
Here's a general overview of what's been happening in my vida since you last heard from me:

Escuela (School)
Classes started on Monday, so I've been to each one twice so far. I'm only taking four classes this semester, a break from the five I would normally be taking, which is great! I'm taking P.O.E. (a general Spanish class where you practice writing and speaking, etc), Spanish Theatre, Regional Geography of Spain, and English to Spanish Translation. I LOVE my translation class so far, we are already learning a lot and I know it will be really useful. The rest of them are... boring. But I'll get through it! Especially since I only have about an hour and half's worth of homework for the entire weekend!
Mondays and Wednesdays I start class at 8:30 a.m., which I am not a fan of at all. But at least the walk is pretty and it's a lot less cold of a walk than if I had an 8:30 a.m. at GV!

                                                                           [Visiting the Alhambra with API]

¡Que bella! (How beautiful)
I am learning more about Granada, this beautiful city that I live in, each day and loving it more and more. I can now successfully get myself to the API (my study abroad program) office, the CLM (where my classes are), the post office, the supermarket, and all of the good shopping, without taking out my map! My friends and I have designated our favorite tapas bar and we now frequent it every Thursday night!