First trip of the semester

Today I'm heading for Belgium for the weekend!  I'm really excited to go because I've heard great things about it and it will be the 10th country I've visited.  I'll be home on Sunday and hopefully post some pictures soon.

Lucca pictures- one week later

Me standing on the city wall.
Bike riding

The Duomo in Lucca.

Old photos

A few of my favorite pictures from when I was little. 

My 6th birthday
My big brother and I.

Sleepyheads.
Kealeys + Benson cousins. 

A few things rolling around in my head

This is a picture from my dashboard weather application.  Rain as far as the eye can see.  Nothing like winter in Italy.  

I can't stop listening to Bon Iver- it is an amazing band that you should check out.

Tomorrow I'm going to give blood and then to an Inauguration party which I'm both very excited about.  I feel that giving blood is an easy act of charity for me since I have no aversion to needles and my blood type is O positive which can be given to any person with positive blood.  The blood drive is in response to Obama's call for charity.  Even though I'm currently an ex-pat I'm glad that there are groups that are organizing these events.  I'm encourage everyone who is able to give blood! You can save up to three lives with one donation.

Other than my mini commercials I have a confession.  I don't care about football.  I know that the steelers are going to the superbowl and everyone is freaking out.  I may be kicked out of the supercool western pa hicks club but I'm ok with that.  I just don't like football.  I've been to more games than I can count with band in high school but I never paid attention.  Even after I learned the rules and can now follow a game I find it boring.  I'm glad I got that off my chest.  At the end of the day I'd much rather watch basketball.  

I want to ride my bicycle!

School started on Monday, this semester I'm taking Sales Management, Workshop in Apparel Merchandising, International Trade, Intercultural Communications and Italian III.  Almost all of my professors seem pretty good so far so thats a good sign.  I don't have class on Fridays again which is nice.  On Thursday we went to Pitti Uomo which is a menswear trade show here in Florence.  A trade show is where all the designers and lines, like Lacoste, Ralph Lauren etc present their lines to buyers.  This trade show was for Fall 09.  The show was huge, there had to be at least 5 different tents.  I wish I had some pictures but they are very strict about the no picture taking policy.

Yesterday I went to Lucca which is a small town about an hour an half away from Florence.  Back in the day all of the towns in Tuscany had walls around them for protection.  Lucca is one of the only towns that has its wall entirely intact.  On top of the wall is a path so we rented bicycles and rode around the city.  It was so much fun!  The view was amazing and it was a really beautiful day for January.  I'd really like to go back and do it again in the Spring.  Its great that we can do fun day trips.  I want to travel more this semester and see as much as Italy as possible. 

You can see the wall that goes around the city and the trees that line the path where we rode our bikes. 

A few pictures from break

Classic sibling behavior
Lana, Weeg, Besty and I
My niece Hazel and I

Christmas highlights

Overall break was great. The best part was being with my family. It was also great to sleep in, not do anything related to school, eat delicious food and enjoy the warm weather. Even though I've only been in Italy for four months a lot of things seemed weird to me. Dollars look so bizzare compared to euros. At the grocery store I kept looking for a scale to weigh the veggies which in Italy you have to do yourself. Also being in a car was weird but thats normal because I don't drive in New York either. Going to target was like heaven!
I left on Thursday morning flying to Atlanta, to Paris and finally back to Florence. It was pretty uneventful and much better than flying home was because I didn't miss any of my flights and its faster flying east which I forgot so that was a nice surprise. I got back to my apartment around noon and planned to take a short nap. I ended up sleeping for five hours only to be woken up by one of my downstairs roommates Abby ringing my door bell. Out of all my roommates only Abby and Chloe are here and it was so nice to see them. I also got to meet Chloe's family who are visiting right now. Abby made me dinner because she's amazing. Today we walked around town and went to two outdoor markets. It was beautiful and sunny and such a great day just walking around. I'm really happy to be back and have another semester here. I also booked two trips today. I'm going to Belgium at the end of the month and to Sweden in April! I found a great deal for Belgium and Sweden was at the top of my list to visit since my family is Swedish so I'm really excited about both of the trips. I'm hoping to see snow in Belgium since we don't get it here in Italy.

Still in Florida

I'm still in the US enjoying the sun for a few more days before heading back to Italy on Thursday. I'm glad I got to stay after all the other guest left because it is much more relaxing. Not that I didn't enjoy all the visitors. I was really happy to see my sister, even if she did leave so she could go running on Christmas Eve. Mostly I've been sleeping, reading, watching tv and movies and generally hanging around the house. Also spending a lot of time with my step sister Janine, her husband Chris and their daughter Hazel. She is six months old and super cute (photos to come). Other highlights of the break have been eating American food and pasta only twice since I've been here and taking my computer to the mac store where it got a few problems fixed and a new battery.
New Years Eve was nothing special, and I've made no new years resolutions because I think they're silly. I do have a goal to read 40 books but I don't think that counts as a resolution. In 2008 I read 31, some of my favorites being Life of Pi, The Golden Compass, Wuthering Heights, The Picture of Dorian Gray and A Prayer for Owen Meany. I'm trying to read a wide variety of books in this coming year so if you have any suggestions let me know.