Chocolate can solve all our problems

Robin and I exploring the city
Chocolate!
Me being photographed without my knowledge
I'm milking a giant inflatable cow! Probably one of my favorite pictures

Some people have commented that I don't post frequently enough, so I'll try to work on that.  This is for Lana and Rachel.   

 This weekend I went to the annual Chocolate Festival in Perugia which is a town about two hours from Florence.  It is an outdoor festival with rows and rows of booths selling all kinds of chocolate.  I had a chocolate covered apple and a piece of chocolate cake.  We spent the day walking around the festival and the city.  It was a really cute town and I found a bunch of fun shops down side streets.  

  Other than the festival it was pretty uneventful weekend.  It was nice to relax since the next three weekends are going to be so busy.  This coming weekend is Halloween and one of my best friends from high school, Amelia, who is studying in Spain is coming to visit.  I'm so excited to see her and be a tour guide.  The following weekend I will be in Switzerland to see Weeg and Lana and after that I'm going to Ireland.  I'm really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

On a side note I just checked the exchange rate and 1 euro=$1.25 which is an all time low! That is so exciting.  

Soccer, voting, reading

Clockwise: Me, Abby and Chloe at the stadium
The game!

The soccer game I went to on Saturday was so much fun.  Italians are way into soccer and the stadium was packed.  We were the in cheap bleacher seats so we weren't sitting with the die hard fans.  The fans with season tickets were one the opposite side and they spend the entire game cheering, sing, waving flags or making noise of some sort.  We won the game 3-0 so everyone was happy.

I tried to take care of my absentee ballot today.  The only reason I failed is because I went after the consulate had closed.  I however didn't know this and went up to check the hours and one second after my foot hit the pavement outside the U.S. consulate a policeman was asking me what I was doing.  He was not very sympathetic to my attempt to be involved in the democratic process and just told me to come back tomorrow.  So I will try again tomorrow and hope for better results.  

I do have to say that Pennsylvania is slow and I never received my absentee ballot in the mail so instead I had to print out one from the internet.  I am happy though to be voting in Pennsylvania which is always a swing state.

   

Nothing much exciting is going on, the week is pretty boring just doing school and whatnot.  This weekend I'm going to to Perugia which is a town about two hours away for its annual chocolate festival.  I'm so excited, apparently its just a bunch of people selling and enjoying chocolate.  

On a side note, I finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte today which I really enjoyed.  It has to be one of the best classical literature books I've read.  My next book is The Island of the Day before by Umberto Eco.  I don't really know anything about it just that it was written by an Italian professor, it has a pretty cover and that the Sunday Times said "No comparable book has ever existed."  Basically I just stumbled upon it in the book store but I'm excited to read it.  I'll let you know my thoughts.

  Continuing on the side note, in finishing Wuthering Heights I have already beaten my record from last year of reading 22 books.  I'm shooting for 30 by the end of the year but I think that may be optimistic.

  

Calcio

  Yesterday I started my job of babysitting/ teaching English to a six year old girl named Martina.  Every Thursday I will pick her up from school and walk with her to her house which is about 5 minutes away.  She is super cute, yesterday we played with Barbies, colored and played a board game.  She is learning English in school and knows some colors, numbers and some other nouns like animals.  Even though she is only six her Italian is way better than mine and there were several times that I had no idea what she was saying.  Overall it was really fun and it will be nice to have a change of pace one a week.  Also getting paid isn't bad either.

  Last night I also got to talk to my brother Weeg on skype who is in India right now.  It was really nice to talk to him and his trip sounds amazing.  You should check out his pictures.  My skype name is lkealey28 for anyone who has it.  Its a really great program, I've been able to videochat with my Mom a bunch of times and the best part is that it is free.  

Tomorrow I'm going to a soccer game to see the Fiorentina play.  Soccer is Italian culture 101.  Everyone here is obsessed with it  and even though the team isn't that good they are all died hard fans.  I'm really excited to go to the game and see everyone being crazy.  Also the ticket price for girls is cheaper which is so funny and awesome.  I'll post some pictures from the game in the next couple of days.

A Day at the Beach

This weekend turned out to be beautiful.  Everyday was 80 and sunny, so we decided to go to the beach yesterday.  We went to Viareggio, which is about a 2 hour train ride.  Being from Pennsylvania where the closest beach is about 10 hours away I think being able to go to the beach for a day trip is amazing.  It was so nice just to sit in the sand and relax.  

On a different note I've been realizing more and more that I am definitely my parents' child.  I had this startling realization when I bought a pumpkin decoration at the dollar store and found my self thinking, well since it is a pumpkin it isn't strictly a halloween decoration, it can also be used for fall in general.  If that isn't my mother's voice in my head...but at least I only bought one decoration and not 500.  My dad like personalities have been coming out too.  I'm also the last person done at museums because I read almost all the signs and plaques.  For trips I'm always the one looking up activities to do like the castle we went to in Germany.  When we got to the Castle I was the one telling everyone about the history because I had looked it up before we went.  Of course I like being similar to my parents but when I start decorating in patriotic themes or wearing bright yellow ski jackets I'll know its gone too far.  

More pictures from Germany

The hofbrau tent which is huge.  You can only see part of it in this picture.
Robin and I.
Robin and I at the castle.
All my girlfriends and I at the castle. 
All of my girlfriends and I at Oktoberfest.

Germany- Oktoberfest and the Neuschwanstein Castle

The view from the top of the mountain where the castle is looking down on the village.
The beautiful castle!

The castle again.

One liter of beer!

My friend Yvonne and I, aka the blondies.

A view of Oktoberfest from the top of the Ferris wheel.

   I had a wonderful time in Germany.  It is a beautiful country! I love being able to travel to a different country for a weekend.  We left on Thursday night and spent all night driving the 8 hours to Munich.  We got to the hostel in the morning, changed and went into the city.  Friday was rainy which made getting into the beer tents impossible.  How Oktoberfest works is that different beer companies sponsor tents where only their beer is sold.  Once the tents are full, which happens at about 10am, they only let people into the tents as others leave.  So since it was raining no one was leaving the warm dry tents.  So instead we went to one of the restaurant tents which only took about 10 minutes of waiting to get in.  I had the most amazing roast chicken (German food is amazing!)  and a Shandy which is a mixture of beer and lemonade.  It sounds like a weird combination but it was delicious.  The drinks only come in one size, a liter.  After eating we hung out in the tent for a while and then walked around the festival.  Despite being known for the beer it is actually very family friendly.  There are a lot of people that bring their children and it is like a fair almost with all the food stands, rides and games.  Robin and I went on the ferris wheel and we were able to see the whole festival which was cool.

 

 Saturday was going to be crazy at Oktoberfest because it was the last weekend and the weekend before had over 1 million visitors.  So instead of braving the crowds we went to the Neuschwanstein castle which is about two hours from Munich.  This is the castle that Walt Disney used for the basis of the Cinderella castle in Orlando. Public transportation is amazing in Europe and it was an easy train ride.  The countryside was beautiful and the town Fussen where the castle is is at the foot of the Alps.  It was a perfect fall day and all the leaves were changing.  I really can't describe how amazing the castle was.  We stopped for lunch in the little village at the bottom of the hill where I enjoyed roast pork and potatoes.  Then we walked 30 minutes uphill to the castle.  In order to get inside the castle you have to take a guided tour which turned out to be great.  The guide was very informative but also short and sweet.  One whole floor of the castle isn't finished because King Ludwig II who ordered the castle to be build died before it was finished.  We of course toured the finished part which was very ornate.  I loved the whole day and would definitely recommend the castle to anyone going to Germany.

Sunday I went back to Oktoberfest.  This time we got into a tent and fortunately found a table that fit my seven friends and I.  On one side was a group of Italians and the other side was some guys from Scotland on a bachlor party trip.  We got some attention being young American girls and had a lot of people either taking pictures of us or asking to be in pictures with us.  Generally everybody was really cool and I had a lot of fun talking to the guys from Scotland.  The atmosphere of the tent is crazy.  There is a lot of singing and standing on benches and tables.  Of course with a tent full of people drinking there are some negatives like one guy who felt the need to relieve himself one table over.  Before leaving I had some bratwurst and chocolate covered strawberries.  We left at 4pm and spent the long bus ride watching movies which made it go by pretty fast.

 Basically it was an amazing weekend and I'm so excited for my next trips.  

More pictures from Milan

A few more pictures from Milan.  The top one is me along a river.  The next one is from the silk factory we went to.  The last one is the Duomo in Milan.  Contrary to popular belief the Duomo is not specific to Florence, but rather is a generic term for the main church or cathedral of a city.  

  I'm leaving for Munich in about an hour.  I'm so excited for Oktoberfest!  I'll be back late on Sunday so I'll try to post pictures on Monday.  

A few pictures from Milan

I know there are only two pictures, but that seems about all blogger wants to let me upload at this point.  The top one is Robin and I in Lake Como.  The bottom one is me outside of the Zenga factory.  More pictures to come hopefully. 

Milan Recap

I left for Milan On Wednesday morning.  The first day we walked around, went to Corso Como, a concept store.  We also saw the Duomo and the main downtown area.  On Thursday we went to Lake Como which was beautiful.  It is an hour outside of the city and the equivalent of the hamptons.  We walked around the town for a bit and then we had a appointment at Montero which is a prestigious silk factory.  First we went to their archives which dates back over 100 years and the designers use it for inspiration.  We also went to their store which is like an outlet because it doesn't have the markup of a retailer.  Then we went to their factory which was amazing.  We got to see the new fabrics for designers such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Prada.  The fabrics were for the Summer 09 line.  On Friday morning we got to go to the headquarters of Armani.  Since it is fashion week in Milan the office was very busy with buyers looking at the Spring lines.  We got to see the stage where they had their fashion shows and the catwalk.  After Armani we went to a vertical wool factory outside the city.  We learned all about the production of wool. On Friday night Robin and I tried to find a Thai restaurant because we needed a break from Italian food but it didn't go well and we ended up at an Italian restaurant.  The good news is that I got the most amazing dessert there.  Saturday was our last day and we went to a trade show.  A trade show is when a bunch of vendors set up booths to display their products and buyers for stores go around and look to see find new merchandise.  The trade show we went to was for women's ready to wear and accessories.  I found the coolest jewelry designer, Tomoko Tokuda.  

We got home on Saturday around 8pm.  I went out that night because it was a friend's birthday.  I proceeded to spend all of Sunday doing nothing and relaxing which was really nice.  

  Tomorrow we are having a potluck for our entire program just to hangout.  Robin and I are making bruschetta to take.  Then tomorrow night at midnight I'm leaving for Munich and Oktoberfest!  I'm really excited to go to Germany since I've never been there.  I'm really looking forward to eating German food and see the festival which gets 6 million visitors a year.  On Saturday I really hoping to go to the Neuschwanstein castle.  

  I've been trying to add some pictures but it isn't working now.  So I'll just post this and see if the pictures work later.