Trips Galore!

It's been a busy few weeks! I do go to classes, I swear, though it made not seem like it sometimes :-)

About two weeks ago, on January 31, we went to Venice with the whole school to participate in Carnevale, which is a huge citywide (countrywide in Italy, actually) party that is famous throughout the world. It was just a day trip, and it was a little bit before the actual festivities began, so it wasn't quite as crowded as I was expecting, especially after experiencing it at New Years! But it was a lot of fun to see the people roaming around in costumes. There were lots of masks, full-body costumes, and painted faces. My friends and I had our faces painted with pretty colors and lots of sparkles, so that we would blend in. We saw the Basilica, spent some time feeding those wild pigeons in Piazza San Marco, and just enjoyed some time walking around the city. It is so beautiful, and was no less so on my second trip there than the first.

The next big thing then was this past weekend when I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain with three of my girl friends from school. It was my second time visiting the city (I went there over the summer when I studied in Spain), and I loved it just as much this time. It is such a fun city, with the amazing architecture (Antonio Gaudi, a very unique modern architect who created a lot of interesting buildings in the city), like Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia and La Casa Mila, a really cool park where we watched the sunset, and a beautiful harbor. There were lots of people everywhere, especially on the main pedestrian street, Las Ramblas. The weather was beautiful, we got to see a few museums, and have some great Spanish food. It made me realize that I really really love Spain. It is definitely a place I want to go back to in the future, and I want to learn to speak Spanish better! One language at a time, though. So altogether, it was a successful weekend.

The last few days have just been a blur of classes. Today though, we had another fun trip: to these thermal baths in a tiny town called Rapolano. There were natural hot springs there. We spent an afternoon just relaxing in the warm water. It was nice to relax, because in a few days we have finals coming up! Real school: it's hard to focus on it when you're surrounded by so many things to see and places to go!

Wish me luck on the tests. I'll put up pictures from Venice and Barcelona on the Picasa Album. Oh, and one more thing: Happy Valentine's Day!