I am so proud of myself. Today I went for a run (even though it was rainy, foggy and getting dark) and I made it all the way down and up the switchbacks. From OGC to the switchbacks is about 3 minutes then I ran down three switchbacks only to run up about five (12 minutes worth- they are pretty long and steep) and I did it without walking or stopping. This may not sound like a huge thing, I mean basically I ran 15 minutes without stopping, but it was with a crazy incline. That was my running goal for here so I think I will do it for the rest of the week and then I will move to a new goal. Maybe it will be run 20 minutes straight with the switchbacks. That will have to happen after Croatia though.
I can't believe we are already going to Croatia next week. This program is going by so quickly. We have the rest of this week, Croatia, two art days, two analysis days, and independent projects. Then we clean up and head out. I mean there are still four more weeks left but tomorrow is already October. Crazy stuff, crazy stuff.
During class today we went out and gathered soil samples from two different areas, about 30 minutes apart. The areas both grow the same kind of grapes but the wine coming out of the different areas tastes very different. The theory is that the soils (one is more siliceous while the other has more carbonate) are what changes the taste. However, another theory is that the micro-climate change is what makes the difference (one area is surrounded by mountains and tends to be slightly colder while the other one has more access to the sea so it is warmer and wetter). I finally have a different partner and he has taken the Luther soils class and I know some about soils so I think this should be a good time. Tomorrow we are putting our samples in the washing machine (not really sure how that is going to work out but that is not really my problem) to wash out all of the clay. Just in looking at our samples as we took them I have a feeling there is going to be lots of clay water exiting the machine tomorrow. It should be fun.
Time to go check on how the Packers are doing on this lovely evening and then go the bed. I am so tired. Good night!

Oh life. You are a hoot. Yesterday was art day and is was pretty awesome. We drew landscapes. Some people chose to get their landscape from a photo but I chose to go outside and use the landscape in front of me. It was pretty great and everyone had a good picture by the end of the day. We also shared our ideas for our final projects. I am going to do a cave painting on a piece or limestone that I found in the field (no, I am not going to try to take it home. The rock is probably 100 pounds) but I am going to do it with spray paint, in a graffiti style to show art, then and now. It should turn out pretty cool, if I can get the graffiti part to look right.
Today we did an introduction to soils and we went to an archeology museum. The museum was cool except that Sandro had brought in one of his friends to show us around but the friend only spoke Italian so half the time we were bored out of our minds because we had no idea what was happening. It also didn't help that, even though the artifacts were interesting, most (if not all) of us have almost no deep interest in the things that we were seeing. An in depth history and explanation was not really what we needed. Eventually, Sandro kinda figured this out (after half of us had wandered ahead) and let us look at things and then we came back for a quick run through of things. For lunch we went up to Monte Conero where there is a map carved into a rock face and had a picnic. The map is probably 10x20 and was really interesting. It was there that we also had our introductory lecture on soils. We headed back early because it is St. Michael's day (patron saint of OGC) and the priest was coming and we had mass. The priest was from Nigeria and spoke some English as well as Italian so he tried to do a little bit of both so that we could follow along. Afterwards it was snack time! Some of the home owners who came in yesterday had brought velveta and salsa so they made queso. The had also brought candy (it was gone in a matter of minutes), peanut butter and half and half nutella (half white half chocolate. weird but good). The night ended with some bocce shenanigans and girl talk. Which, of course, are the ways every good day should end.

It is the weekend!! Ok, well we have one day off but one day was all I needed to go see Assisi. Assisi is a medieval town (very touristy) of about 20,000. It is the birth place of St. Francis and has a bunch of churches. Once David, Neto and I got to Assisi (after about an hour and a half on the train) we took the bus all the way to the top of the town (it is up on a good sized hill). W could see the entire region. It was amazing. We sent the entire day just walking down the hill and around the town. It was a nice and relaxing day and is was great to get out and do a bunch of walking. The first church that we stopped at was really cool. The frescos and stained glass were beautiful. When we were looking to stop for lunch we found this cute little place that sold sandwiches made of all organic (or as they say, biological) ingredients. The sandwiches were amazing. During the afternoon we visited the church of St Francis (it was HUGE), got gelato and went into some stores. While we were at St Francis's church we went into the church gift shop (such a weird concept) just to check it out. The gift shop was twice the size of a normal sized gas station. It was ginormous. They sold everything from rosaries to chocolate, honey and tea. It was pretty crazy. We got over the hugeness pretty quick and went on our way to do more exploring. The day went very quickly but it was a very tiring day so I am sorry if this post is kinda all over the place or not as good as others because, well, I am about to fall asleep on my computer. I think It was a good idea to go to Assisi today rather than just sitting around like everyone else did today.

Today was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. We spent the morning identifying and analyzing our samples. We looked at things like roundness, sphericity and rock type. I got through my half of the samples pretty quickly so I ended up doing a quarter of my partner's samples as well. That was my first indication that the afternoon may not go quite as smoothly as the morning had. We entered our data into the spreadsheet and headed to lunch. We started our presentation after lunch but we could only do about half of it because there was still data that needed to be entered into the spreadsheet. We were working on our separate computers (because, otherwise, we wouldn't finish on time and one of us would just be sitting there watching the other work on the computer) and my partner said something to the effect of hey can you stop working on other parts of the project because I feel like you are doing work and not letting me see it. I basically said that if we both didn't work on different things there is no way we were going to finish on time but she was welcome to look at things and edit whatever she felt needed work (I kinda felt like she didn't trust my work and wanted to basically hold my hand through the whole process. Just because I am not a geology major doesn't mean that I do not know what I am talking about). Then she got flustered and told me that she works better if only one thing is being worked on at once. I work better if I can actually do work rather than sit there. Great. So we work best in two completely different ways. We ended up deciding to split the work but take some time for me to explain things after I finished parts. I am fine with that. It cuts down on the amount of time that this project will take.
Tonight was pizza and wine sampling night. Basically, it was pizza night for me. The pizza was good but the way everything was happening I kinda felt left out but I guess that happens. Tonight was my first night where I actually felt slightly homesick.
Tomorrow is another day but if it anything like any of the other paper writing days it is going to suck. I would be very surprised if everything went smoothly and the words "I just don't get it" or "I'm confused" never get mentioned. I think that would make it a good day. Another good run may not hurt either.

Oh man, today was a long day. At first it was going well and quickly. Then when we were putting our data together we realized that some of our measurements from our map were off. As we looked more into it we realized that the number length that we were originally looking at was off. That was the first frustrating thing today. The number that I was basing my measurements off of (the one that our professor gave us) was off by quite a few meters which threw everything else off. Luckily, at this point, I was good and quick with my measurements so it went quickly. The next step was to sort the sample by rock size. This was the easy part. We just put our samples in a stack of sieves where the mesh got smaller and smaller. Everything went great until we put the sample in the oven to dry. We had labeled everything in Sharpie figuring that was the best thing. Yeah, not so much. The Sharpie burned off. It took us probably two hours to figure out what went where. It sucked. Partly, also, because there were only four of us actually working while everyone else just sat and watched youtube videos. Really not fun or fair but the work had to get done and they weren't going to do it.
After all of that it was the end of our day which was a darn good thing. Next step? Something fun. A movie- The Borne Supremacy. A way to make the night any better? Burger night! A not so hot day and   a good night? Could be worse. Tomorrow will probably be worse but I guess you never know.

On to a new project! Today we actually started our next project. We started at the beginning of a river and took samples of the sediment. We worked our way down river, taking samples along the way, all the way to the Adriatic. Of course, we can't go to the sea without jumping in. So, with all of the Italians looking at us like we were crazy (we probably are but that is not the point), we jumped in and played in the waves. It was amazing to follow a river from its origins all the way to where it dumps into the sea. We could see how much things changed. It went from a dry river bed to a stream easily jumped over to a river that is 20-25 feet across. I will understand more about the river tomorrow after looking at the samples but it was cool just to observe the natural habitat. When we got back Sandro told us to go play peach-ball (baseball with peaches). There were probably a hundred or more peaches that had fallen from the trees before they could be picked and Sandro didn't want them rotting all over the place. So, being the good students we are, we grabbed all of the peaches we could and began to throw them at someone who was in the field ready to smack them with a large rolling pin. When I say large I am talking like the length of a baseball bat, at least. Everyone who wanted to took some swings. Of course, the baseball players had a WAY better hitting average but they have had way more practice. People went off to clean up for dinner and as I was waiting for the dinner bell Nils came through, after saying goodnight to his dad, and said that he wanted a big hug from me. Who am I to deny something like that to a two year old? It was a great hug :D Dinner was great, as usual. I just wish I still had more chocolate to end the day with..... Then it would be a great day rather than just a pretty darn good day.

Another day, another post. Yesterday was wine making day! For most of the day we just hung out but at four things started to get crazy. We were handed sheers and told collect all of the grapes we could find. There were people on each other's shoulders, climbing up poles, and falling grapes everywhere. We ended up with ten to fifteen gallons of red grapes and the same of white. It was time to step in. We took turns and began squishing the grapes with our feet. It was so much fun to watch people's faces as they stepped in. Once everything was well pressed the mush went through a series of filters and were squeezed through each one. The juice was put into a container and set aside for later. Then we moved on to the ~400 peaches that covered our kitchen table. They had to be peeled sliced and canned. At first  Joe, Rachel, two of the women from the town and I peeled and sliced. It would have been easier to do if the peaches hadn't been cling peaches (the kind where the flesh sticks to the pit). Two hours later, the jars that we had were full and we still had 100 or so peaches left. What do you do with that many peaches? Well you take half and make a huge cobbler for 30 people. It was pretty darn amazing.
Today, we were back to work. However, in the morning we ended up learning how to make arrow heads and other stone tools. Yeah, it is a rough life here but what can you do? This afternoon we are heading out to the river to look at its deposites. Finally, no more hard geology. We are turning more to the environment rather than just how something was deposited.

It is Fall Break! I just got back from a trip to Belgium- Brussels and Brugge. It was pretty darn awesome and much chocolate was consumed. The first day our flight came in 55 minutes early... Nice try RyanAir. I am pretty sure they add time onto how long the flight it supposed to take so that they can say that 98% of their flights are on time (our flight today came in 30 minutes early). We then headed toward our hostel. The location was awesome. It was right in the center of town. We passed it once because the place looked condemned because there was a bunch of construction (it looked like there had been a fire).  However, the inside was great. Everything was new and comfortable. I can't complain  too much about it. After settling in we decided to walk around and check things out. Apparently there was a festival going on because in the square there was a stage set up and a Mexican band was playing and there were a bunch of tents set up all around. The others got some mexican food but I was not feeling it so I went and looked around for some cheap eats. I ended up getting a waffle which was pretty darn good, a little sweet though. We walked around and stumbled across the peeing boy. He is life sized which means that he is actually pretty small. Of course, we had to stop and get some chocolate to end our day so we stopped at the place that supplies the King and Queen. The woman there was so nice. She gave me free chocolate :). We headed back to our hostel to plan our day in Brugges. It was only 9:30 but the lights in our room were already off and people were sleeping so we went down to the kitchen to plan our lives for the next 24 hours.
The beds at the hostel were amazing! They were so comfortable and warm. It was great. We got up and  had breakfast at a cafe (chocolate croissant) and headed to the train station. We played a mean game of cribbage on the train and showed up in Brugge just as the game finished. The town is so beautiful. It is the classic old european town. We walked around during the morning, bought chocolate and other such goodies and had a health-filled lunch of french fries (they were super good- more potato than fried-ness). We then went up the Belfry which was pretty amazing. You could see all of the bells and the entire city. We spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around. I bought some loose leaf green tea which made me super happy. I also took money out from the ATM for the first time. I guess it was good timing since the semester is half over (wait really? CRAZY!). The trip back was nice and quick. We grabbed a nighttime chocolate and headed back to the room. The lights were on! It was great.
We decided to sleep in a little for our day in Brussels. Mainly because nothing opened until nine or ten, but that's beside the point. We made the pilgrimage of two blocks to the Chocolate museum. Best 4 euro spent ever! We learned about how chocolate is made and the history of chocolate. Oh, and there was free chocolate at the end. It is hard to beat free chocolate. From there we traveled on foot to some churches and the palace. It was pretty sweet. We stopped for lunch and got some fresh, good, healthy food and walked around the city some more. As we circled back we decided to visit the city museum. It was very interesting. They had the costumes that the peeing boy has worn through the years and they had the history of the city. Both were very interesting. It was fun to see all of the random things that the boy has worn. This statue has over 800 costumes. Everything from an Elvis costume to a Japanese warrior to an astronaut costume and just about everything in between. The history portion of the museum was cool too because we were able to see and learn about the areas where we had been earlier that day. After a quick nap and chat with some of the people in our room at the hostel we headed back out to see the Atomium. It is basically a big atom that they built for the world's fair. We were too late to walk up and in it but the light was nice so we took some pictures and found dinner (three bites of a nasty "gyro" and fries). There was a very nice park nearby so we ate there and headed back to the Atom because we heard that it lights up at night. it was pretty darn cool. I think the lights were supposed to be the electrons. The way they lit up was not correct according to what we know now but the thing was built in the 50s so they probably didn't know how, exactly, the electrons moved. We headed back to the hostel and talked with some of our roommates and headed to bed.
 When we went to bed there were only four of the eight people back so we left the light on. Two came back not too long after we went to sleep. I woke up at three and looked over and the boys were still not back. At five am there was some very persistent knocking on the door. I was just about to get up when the Australian girl that I had been talking to got up to get it. In walks the two boys. They were quiet and quickly changed and got into bed but then one of them began to snore. It was ridiculous how loud he was. I was wearing ear plugs and it still sounded like a loud snore sounds without earplugs. I am pretty sure one of the girls threw something at him and told him to turn over. I'm not really 100% sure what happened but he quieted down for a while. We got up about an hour later to catch our bus to the airport. I think we woke up snoring man with the light from the bathroom but I didn't really feel to bad. Other than that today has been pretty calm. our flight went well and when we got back, around 1:30, we grabbed some of the ripe peaches from the trees growing behind our apartment and didn't leave our room until we had to re-heat some left-overs. We were going to walk into town to get fresh food but it was raining so left-overs were very acceptable to us. Tomorrow we will probably go to the store and go through our many photos.

The internet has now been out for 3 days. On to other news, though. Today a group of us decided to go on a hike down into a gorge. It was amazing and incredibly beautiful. We parked up by a monastery and walked down into it. There was a perfectly clear river/creek running through. As we walked up-stream we crossed parts of the creek. Unfortunately, while crossing one I lost my balance, fell in and got some nice gashes in my legs (they are cleaned up now and I had bandaids so I didn't bleed out or anything). That would not have been that bad if I hadn't been taking pictures just before crossing. Yeah, I had my camera around my neck and it got nice and wet. I just about cried and I still might. It was off and the sun shield took the most of the impact so that should help. We took as much of it apart as we could right away and dried off what we could but the lens still has two small drops of water in it and I haven't tried to turn it on yet. Right now, it is sitting on the table downstairs in a container of rice which should dry things out but even if it does dry out it is hard to know if it will work. At this point all I can do is wait and hope. I will probably check on it tomorrow evening and if it still wet (I'm probably screwed) I will be taking the camera and the rice in a bag to the dolomites with us. God, please let it be ok.

Later, when I picked up my computer and I heard something moving around in my computer my heart just dropped. The computer still worked but odd noise is not usually good. So, I took off the back and moved the computer back and forth to see what was moving. That was when I saw a 5 cent South African coin in the CD drive. It ended up coming right out and now I can play DVDs again! I guess this means I'm batting a .500 with electronics today. Not a great number but could be worse...I guess. I will keep you updated as much as possible on the camera front. Hopefully there will be no break downs tomorrow....

Sept. 8- I tried my camera and I think it is done for. Today a group of people are going into town to get internet so hopefully I can get a ride and go get a relatively cheap camera. That way if my camera really just needs more time to dry then it can have as much time as it wants and I won't be out a huge chunk of change. If it is completely dead then I will at least have something to take photos with, even if they won't be quite as good. -later- Well, I am down 140 euros but I have something to take photos with and I guess that is worth it. It is your basic point and shoot. I could have bought a AA powered camera for less but those are a pain in the butt and there was a different rechargeable for 30 less but I could tell that the quality of the photo was not as good and if I am going to buy a camera in Italy there is no way I am buying a bright pink camera. In case you want to know exactly what I bought it is a panasonic lumix dmc-fs28. I have no idea how good it is but since I have had no internet I will have no idea until I mess around with it. My knee really hurts from the fall, a mix of bruises and cuts/scrapes. In fact it is kinda throbing just as I am laying here. It has been cleaned and treated so it should be ok.

On to a happier subject, we went to a concert tonight that was put on by the kids who practice here. The quote of the night was “Do you realize that we are in Italy, listening to a Green Day cover band (who was amazingly good considering that they were 15), hanging out with the guy who discovered how the dinos died, drinking free beer, and are doing all of this while wearing handlebar mustaches?” (did I mention that the guys are all growing or trying to grow handlebars like our main leader Sandro?) It was pretty darn cool. After about an hour, the first band finished and I was getting really cold but we thought we should stay to support the other band to after a few of there songs about half of us left. I left mainly because I was cold but also because we leave for the dolomites tomorrow (there should be internet) and my roommate and I need to pack. On these big trips we try to pack together so that there are few bags in the back of the vans. She decided to stay at the concert which works out because then I can pack and she can pack her stuff on top. Last time we put three people's worth of clothing but since we are camping this time we need more things, like sleeping bags, so we probably could not fit three sleeping bags plus clothes in my bag.

PS- The first packer game is tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!

Sept. 9- Today was a crazy long car ride. We left OGC at 9am and arrived at the campground around 5:30. We spent probably about an hour outside of the car during the whole ride and that was bathroom breaks and a lunch break. It was a pretty uneventful ride except for a huge backup on the autostrada due to a car crash. Once we got of the highway I felt like we had been transported to the german side of Switzerland. It is truly amazing. There are mountains all around us and all of the buildings have flowers spilling over the balconies and they all are in the same “german” style. On our way up to the campground we passed by a bunch of apple orchards (we did stop and get some). The apple trees were really bizarre looking. The trees looked more like vines because there was more fruit than tree. They were just super skinny and were growing like the grape vines (so growing more 2D than 3D). They were also only 4ft tall. Dinner was awesome and it was served restaurant style rather than family style which was great for portion control because they were actual human sized servings. We are sleeping in tents this week so hopefully it doesn't get too cold.

Sept. 10- I slept maybe 2 hours last night. It was terrible. Luckily, I was able to sleep in the car for a little while on the way to our hike. The hike was really nice and there was an awesome St. Bernard at the place where we stopped for lunch. I realized how high we were during our hike too. The only part that sucked was that I felt really horrible for most of the hike. Do you realize how hard it is to find a place to go to the bathroom above the tree line? Yeah, really hard. We walked through town after class and had another great dinner. Well I am super tired so hopefully I will sleep well tonight. We are going to go see a glacier tomorrow!

Sept. 11- I can not believe that 11 years have gone by since that fateful day. Today we went to the glacier and it was awesome. We took a “gondola” up. The cars were basically a two person metal basket and were slightly sketchy but it was great. When we got to the top (about 2400m) we climbed up a little higher and had class. We talked about the mountain and its glacier. We then were let go to explore and go up to the glacier. It was incredibly fun because as I was going up I could see all of the fossils that were left from back when the mountain was a coral reef. Once we all gathered back up we had another learning session where we talked about global temperature fluctuations, how they impact the ice and what we can tell about the ice that is no longer there. This was probably the most fun days of class so far. When we got back to camp we had our yoga session and dinner. I am hoping to post this when we get back to OGC because I don't really want to pay for more internet.

Sept. 12- Okay, I feel as though I should explain our camping situation. This campground is nothing like the campgrounds in the states. Yes, we are sleeping in tents and yes they are on the ground but that is about where the similarities end. There is a very clean heated bathroom with, wait for it, bidets and a salon style area to dry your hair. Not only that but this place has a spa and an indoor pool. Apparently this is pretty normal for Italian campgrounds. I feel like if an Italian decided that they wanted to go camping in the states they would get there and be like “What the hell is this?”. Yeah, this is barely camping. Today we went out into the field to look at the stratigraphy (layers of rocks in a certain area) in a creek bed. As we were just finishing up it started to rain and rain hard. So we ran back up to a restaurant and had lunch and some hot chocolate. That was when it really started to pour and, of course, that was when we had to head out because the restaurant was filling up. So, we ran back to the cars, getting soaked along the way. We headed back to the campsite where we pretty much grabbed things to entertain ourselves and sat in the internet room and tried to dry off and warm up. We then had a little more class and did all of our usual nightly activities (eating, basically).

Sept. 13- It snowed last night! Luckily a group of us were able to sleep on the floor in our professor's hotel room so we stayed nice and warm. It was so beautiful when we woke up, though, because the surrounding mountains were covered in snow. The snow is even below the tree line in many places. Today was our drive back with a stop at a dam on the way. We had a 3 hour tour there. It was the site of a horrific landslide event that killed over 1500 people. They built this dam that was huge and the reservoir behind it held 168 million cubic meters of water. When they started to refill the reservoir they noticed that there was some movement in the mountain on the one side. They kept an eye on it but continued to fill it. There was then a “small” landslide where 750 thousand cubic meters of material fell. It wasn't too big of a deal so they kept an eye on the rest of the mountain. They then realized that as the water level was getting higher the side of the mountain was moving faster. Now, at this point I'm thinking “why the hell wouldn't you stop filling the reservoir?” but of course they were thinking otherwise. Supposedly the idea was to make a controlled landslide happen. It always happens this way doesn't it? Just as the reservoir was filled and they were thinking that they were out of the woods 280 MILLION cubic meters of material fell off the side of this mountain in a solid block at 80-90 km an hour. The resulting wave went 170 meters over the dam and down into the surrounding valley. Apparently, even though the rock walls surrounding the reservoir were weak this was still a perfect spot for a dam. If the walls were stable I would agree because there are three lakes at high altitudes that feed into the dam so the water pressure is incredible. However, because this place had such sucky geology for building a dam the dam should never have gotten past the first inspection of the area. If you can't tell, I feel pretty strongly about this. On the way back, when we were about an hour away from home, the windshield wipers shorted out. It was raining pretty good so we stopped at a mechanic (who was technically closed). The only person who was still there was the front desk person. He knew about cars but when he looked at the problem he had no idea how to fix it. Luckily, Anderson has some ¼ inch rope in his bag because we ended up tying the rope to the wipers. We basically pulled those wipers across the windshield for an hour and a half. It work amazingly well and I got my shoulder work out in (How's your canoe workout dad? :) ). We got back and unpacked everything so that things could dry. 

PS. MY CAMERA WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sept. 14- I woke up to torrents of rain outside my window. Everything that we were trying to dry is inside so it is still “dry” (meaning drier than it would be). Our roof is leaking slightly so I put some bowls under the leaks so, hopefully, things won't get too wet. The leak is just between our beds so nothing but the floor and the top of the night stand are getting wet but I don't really want a stream of water in our room. So I am trying to write my paper and the internet people are working on the internet and what happens? The internet starts working again!

Karaoke night- def: let's get super drunk so we will have to courage to sing in front of each other and then not actually do any singing. Yeah, it was “karaoke” night here. I was the sober one to make sure everyone was ok and such. I was also the sober one because we need someone who is not hung over tomorrow to make breakfast. As much fun as it was to laugh with and at everyone in their different states of drunkenness by the end of the night when there was wine all over the floor and the music was still blasting (some new people just came in today so we tried to keep the door closed so it would be quieter but there is only so much that you can do) and people were getting sick I was just kinda done. Luckily some of the others were starting to sober up a little so that I could go to bed early enough (it is quarter to 2) to get up tomorrow. I kinda hope this “let's get super drunk all the time” passes soon (yeah I know it probably won't but I can hope) because I like hanging out with people both when they are sober and drunk but in the end if people are at least relatively sober then I don't have to worry about if they are going to be ok when they go to bed.

Today was a work day so we just wrote our papers and did our cross sections. A boring but necessary day.

-Next day-

American breakfast went well except that four of the people who said that they would be there ended up going to siena without telling any of us so we had bought food for them that they didn't eat. Oh well, they are missing out. Today is going to be a sit around and watch movies kind of day (it is raining off and on) and tomorrow we are thinking about hiking up a gorge which would be crazy fun. Well, it is movie time!

Ok, so it has been a long time since I last posted but I have a lot to say now. :) About a week ago we had a two day break and a group of us decided to go to Rome. It was a whirlwind but totally worth it. On the first day we stopped outside of the Vatican just to check it out. We didn't go inside, though, mostly because it just was not something that we were willing to wait in line for when there were other things that we wanted to see and do. We then headed to our hostel to drop off bags and have lunch. The hostel was a campground that had platform tents with bunks in them. It was really nice for the price except that it was pretty out of the way, which meant that we had to take the bus to go back and forth. Luckily, we really only had to take it twice so it didn't get too expensive (not that the bus is that expensive). Once we had dropped our stuff off we headed into town where we walked to an apartment of one of our friend's friend, Lucy. We didn't know which apartment number she was so we just yelled up the building. We did that for about five minutes before we gave up and just as we were heading across the bridge we turned around to look back and there she was just heading back to her apartment. It was perfect timing. So, her and her roommate came with us to the Trevi and the Pantheon before they had to head out to meet some other people. We said our goodbyes and headed to the spanish steps where we bought some roses (mine was 40 cents) for good luck and just sat for a little while. Once that got old and we started to get hungry we set out on a search for food. Conveniently, there are a bunch of restaurants in that neighborhood so we grabbed some great food (I had pesto pasta) and continued on our journey. Our next stop was the four rivers fountain which was where we did our big photo shoot. The rest of the group was wanting to head to a bar so we looked around and found one not too far from where we were and while they went and drank one of the other girls and I went back to the square by the fountain. As we were sitting there an old man came and sat at our bench and asked if we minded if he smoked, we said no and continued our conversation. Every so often the man (whose sister lives in Cali so he knew english) would talk to us and by the end of the night we had some great wisdom passed onto us and we were told that we were distinguished young people. We then went back to our friends because we wanted to head back. Three of them wanted to stay but one of the guys was ready to go so we headed back. It was really nice to go back with a guy and he wasn't very drunk so it made us feel much safer and we were able to leave the other guy with the girls so everyone would be safe. It turned out to be a great night. The next morning we headed to the Colosseum for the morning and did the tour witch was nice and then we headed to the forum to eat our lunch before we had to head back to the train station and go home. The next day we left for Tuscany.....

Day 1-

Lots and lots of driving but we stopped at the “fossil” forest. I say “fossil” because the tree stumps are not actually fossilized. They were buried in clay so they did not get a chance to rot or fossilize. It was pretty awesome. We stopped mid-way to stay the night and the place where we stayed had some kittens so everyone was happy.

Day 2-

I woke up early so I went for a walk and met a new kitten who was orange and purred the moment I picked her up. It was hard to let that one go. In the morning we stopped at a thermal hot-spring and our rainy days started. We then headed to the oldest geothermal plant and learned some stuff. Then we drove some more. At one of our bathroom stops we were about to see the leaning tower from afar which was pretty cool. Then we drove some more, got lost, kept driving and eventually we made it to the place where we stayed. We are pretty sure it used to be a monastery or something similar but it was nice and that was really all that mattered. At dinner they served us a ridiculous amount of food including soup which we were all excited about.

Day 3-

9am breakfast!!! Yes, we got to “sleep in” all week. We saw the general geology of the are and at night we had a girl talk time. It was great.

Day 4-

Hot chocolate at breakfast!!! Then we went out into the field and looked at sheering vs. folding and I understood what was happening first. It was pretty great. Lunch time came up and we stopped in an old medieval town where I climbed up to the highest point, that I could get to in the time allowed, and just sat there all alone, which was exactly what I needed at the time. Then we headed to the marble quarry which was amazing and HUGE. It was pretty crazy. I think we were all just dazed and amazed (like my rhyme?). In the afternoon we played ultimate frisbee and I learned the flick, which is a type of throw. I am still working on it but it is way better than the first time I tried. For dinner some of the food that was served was lasagna (so amazing) and fries (which actually tasted like potatoes, who knew?)

Day 5-

On our last day in Tuscany we saw some oceanic crust which was pretty cool because, well, usually it is under water. Around lunch time we hiked down a sketchy wet trail down to a river where we looked at more rocks but these rocks were much more mysterious because no one really knows exactly where they came from. We went back up the hill to have lunch next to an old steam engine train. In the afternoon we went on a hike up to the top of a mountain where we looked at the entire region. It was incredible. On our way back we had a race between the two vans which was great. We were safe about it don't worry. Then we had our final Italian class which was our test. It was super easy and most of the questions said something like put what you remember. After the test we went to the top of the hill and had champagne in celebration. That night I think the group went through 10L of wine and some people even went to the bar afterward. I think our group may have a slight drinking problem......... (don't worry grandma and grandpa I am not included in that generalization)