Tunisia- fotos

The Great Mosque

The Star Wars Village

me and the Sahara

Sahara sunrise

our camp site

Me in the dunes
Me and Tarzone
hehe isn't he cute!

Me, Tim, and Bess

Katherine, Bridget, and I being ourselves

The Tunisia Colosseum!

When Tunisia and Rome unite

our first hotel and the Mediterrainian Sea

Ho sentito il piove in Africa! (Tunisia)

Allora... for my spring break I went to Tunisia from March 5th to the 14th. And all you really need to know is that it was AMAZING! So great that it has taken me this long to recover and to soak it all in to write about it, haha. I will do a little day by day entry now and then to follow will be an entry just of photos! This was a school trip so it was me and about 70 other students from my school. Where do I begin...

3/5- We flew from Rome to the captial Tunis, Tunisia and as soon as we landed we went to the American Embassy for a briefing on the country and it's relations with the US. One of the things we learned was how profressive Tunisia is compared to other muslim countries. The country speaks an arabic dialect and almost eveyone speaks french...so my italian was pretty much useless. After we checked into our fabulous hotel right along the Mediterrainian Sea, I had a balcony that overlooked the water, it was gorgeous! Our hotel had an amazing buffet, I anticipated eating fried crikets or some foriegn insect of some kind but I was very well fed and no insects yah! Later that night a bunch of us went to a hookah bar and in Tunisia hookah (they call it shee-sha) is a very social activity.

3/6- In the morning we had a guest speaker who informed of issues among Arab states and then we meet with Tunisian law students for lunch. They all spoke very good english and I was able to chat with one of the coolest people EVER- Afef. She is 25 years old and is from Tunisia and she keeps it real!!! She went shopping with me after in the market and helped me bargain with people in arabic, she was super fiesty, honest, so now her and I keep in contact on facebook. Her and I were comparing the mentality of women in the US and in Tunisia, she had some really interesting things to say. Shopping in the markets was an experience in itself, the men that work there speak so many languages and it if so funny how they try to draw you in their store. My favorite was, "your face is so enchanting I must see it from much closer" haha please.... but one guy guessed that I was mexican and I got so happy I bought something from him! After the market I went to a large catholic church for mass, which was in french....interesting.

3/7 This day we left Tunis for Carthage where we went to a museum full of Roman ruins...go figure. Then we had lunch along the beach, visited a mosque, an ancient Tunisian cemetary and an anciet Roman bath house. We also went to the only American cemetary in Africa of soliders that died in World War II. The cemetary beautifully honored everyone and I felt very fortunate to visit it for a general reason and not a personal one. Later we continued on to the city of Sousse where we stayed for the night.

3/8 In the morning we left for the city of El Jem where we saw more Roman ruins, a colosseum wanna-be, which was really cool! So...since going to Tunisia was a 21rst birthday present from my parents I wanted to celebrate my bday there....so I told everyone that today was my birthday haha! Anway we also went to a spice market, a couple site-seeing spots including a bar where they filmed a scene in Star Wars!! Apparently a lot of star wars was filmed in Tunisia (i'll demo w. photos) but at the bar everyone sang happy bday and bought me beer which was so funny!

3/9 Today was the best day of the trip!! We left for the city of Douz and along the way we stopped at some beautiful sites as we entered the Sahara Desert. We did a group camel ride but then we split into little groups and I got to be with my friend Tim who is soo fun and another girl Bess. Our camels names were Tarzone, Tim's was Sheba, and Bess's Jimi. I could go on and on about the camel ride, the whole time it felt so unreal! After the camel ride we went off roading to our camping site in jeeps in the middle of no where! The jeep ride felt like an Indian Jones ride, it was so crazy and hectic and great! I have some really great videos of all of us screaming. We got to the camp site like I said in the middle of no where!! It was GORGEOUS! We were just surrounded by dunes and soft Sahara sand. My friends and I sat on the highest dune around and watched the sunset and then we all gathered up for dinner- which was suprisingly really good! Our tents however... haha were pretty much blankets hanging from pieces of wood. But after dinner we had belly dancers peform and live traditional music and we all sang and danced around a huge camp fire....it was incredible to say the least. I barley got any sleep cuz I was so fired up and I could not close my eyes from the beautiful sky, you have never seen so many stars untill you go there!

3/10- We woke up bright and early to watch the sunrise and then we headed out on our jeeps again to Tamerza and along the way we stopped at a water fall, a salt lake and some other beautiful nature places. Then we finally got to our hotel to shower from all the sand. The Sahara sand is so fine, it get everywhere! I am still finiding it all over my room. Our hotel had a great view of some Saharan terrain!

3/11- We left the hotel in our jeeps and continued off roading in the desert for a couple hours. SO FUN!! it was literally a 2 hour disneyland ride with amazing views all around you. At one point we were driving right along the Algerian border! We went to the Star Wars village, where more scenes were shot and over some crazy big dunes and palm tree gardens. Then we went to see some Roman ruins in the city of Sbeitla.

3/12- This day we went to Tunisia's holiest city- Kairouan and we went to the 3rd most important Mosque in the world. We also went to a few other signifigant muslim buildings. We then headed to Hammet a large city near Tunis and this hotel that we stayed out felt like a cruise ship, you did not have to leave for anything and it had a beach entrance to the Meditterainian Sea. There was a hookah lounge there and after we went to a local discoteca. FYI Tunisia has amazing music!!! A lot of great house and techno sounds mixed in with their cultural tunes....I bought 2 cd's when I was there I liked it so much!

3/13- Our last full day was in Hammet and we finally got a free day so of course we went shopping and to the beach. At the markets I usually spoke italian, one to practise and to hopefully get a better deal! So I started talking to a vendor in italian and he was like "you speak italian like a mexican, you must be from Mexico, I think Guadalajara." I almost died!! Because you know my mamma is from there, it was the first time in my life someone had ever guessed that about me...I almost cried. Haha so I bought something from him too! On the way back we walked along the beach, it was lovely.... Then that night we went to the biggest discoteca in Tunisia, it was three stories, and soo much fun! We meet a ton of cool people, who thought we were the prettiest most interesting people ever! And I am keeping in contact with a few of them on facebook!

3/14- Sadly we had to leave Tunisia...back to Rome, I know right what a rough life. Sorry this entry is so long but I did not even scratch the surface on describing Tunisia or it's people. You have to go there for yourself to know and I highly suggest it, heck I will go with you so I can do it again! The entire trip I roomed with two chikas Katherine and Bridget who made everything even better they are sOOO fun and I will always remember our memories together ;)

Io Sono Nicky Hilton e sono en Milano

My midterms are over!! So now I have time to catch up on my latest trip... to MILANO!! As usual no planning other than our flight and hotel happened before hand as usual...things worked out perfectly! Right before we left I checked out a book from our library a Forbes the top 25 places in Milan and that book was a life savor. It told us all the do's and don'ts and we pretty much followed those and found a couple other cool spots that some locals suggested. We left EARLY Friday morning caught 2 trains to the airport and took our hour flight. Security within Italy is scarily relaxed- didn't take my shoes off, brought on liquids... so different from LAX.

We got to our hostel checked in, got diva'd out, did I mention we went during fashion week!? I wish I had time and money to prepare my wardrobe for this weekend but I did the best I could. Our hotel was really nice, we had a balcony over the street and it was close to the metro and Via Buenos Aires which is known for good shopping. Our first stop was the Duomo which was incredible...I think it is more impressive than the Vatican. We hung out in the Piazza, people watched a little bit, went inside the church, and then walked the 25o steep stairs to the top of the church. We window shopped in the Victor Emmanuel Arch indoor shopping center, explored the surrounding area, then went to a suggested restaurant for appertivo. I am obsessed with appertivo such a good deal, 10 euro's for a drink and all you an eat appetizers. The place we went was super chic and glamorous and we had our own VIP section....duh.

(The Milano Duomo)

(View from the Duomo roof)

(Milano skyline)

(Gabby and I at the V.E. Arch)

The entire weekend we all took on celebrity alter-ego's I was Nicky Hilton, and my crew consisted of Wynonna Rider, Keanue Reeves, Katy Perry, and Kristen Stewart. So even though we were all on tight budgets we just walked around knowing we were fabulous and pretended we were loaded, we even convinced someone that I really was Nicky haha so cruel but so fun! Anyway... Saturday we found a street market / swap meet type place where I scored some good deals and added a few lovely pieces to my wardrobe. After we went to THE design museum which had a lot of cool funky pieces we walked to a carnival and a castle near by then headed back towards the hotel for some more shopping.

(Bridget and I at the castle)

Sunday we went to THE shopping street Quaderno de Oro with all the big designers and we stopped in Armani and tried their amazing chocolate!! I window shopped awhile but no big purchases were made (don't worry mom). After we went to Santa Marie delle Grazie where the original Last Super is. Apparently we needed a reservation two weeks in advance but I don't take no for an answer. So I asked the sweet old man working, do you really not have anymore tickets because we leave tomorrow morning (all with a sad pouty face) in the best italian I could. He told us to hold on, made a phone call, and we got a reservation!! The painting was not what I expected, it was huge and painted on the wall inside of the church. After we went to another chic restaurant Le Biciclete for appertivo, which was the best appertivo I have ever had and then we had gelato which was also the best I had ever had!

(Santa Maria delle Grazie)

Milan is a very different from Roma. It is more modern and industrial and there is a lot less history and historical sites. They do however have the best public transportation. All the Milanese people we meet were so nice and helpful, honestly I think people here just appreciate when you attempt to speak Italian. Other than being fabulous and going to fabulous places we got into site-seeing and kind of forgot about the fashion week scene. It was more that we just wanted to say we had been to Milan for fashion week haha. All in all a successful, super fun, and amazing trip, except for the 3AM wake up call to catch our flight back. Ciao for a week because I will be on spring break in Tunisia!

(Katy, Nicky, and Keanue)

Ciao Budapest!

Where to begin on this one...well my travel buddy, Katarina and I left for Budapest last Thursday night to meet up with Casey McKinnon (who is studying abroad in Dublin) and we were all staying with Anabel Cassady who is studying abroad in Budapest. Anabel and Casey are my amazing friends whom I met at USF, this whole trip it felt so unreal to be there together and having Katarina there just made it even crazier! The public transit in Budapest is legit and the whole weekend we were able to go places with no problem, thanks to Anabel and her Hungarian roomie Linda. Katarina and I rolled up with no phone only Anabel's number and address so when we were on her street the first person we met spoke english and let us use his phone, incidents like these keep happening to me! It's like the least prepared you are the better luck you have, I am diggin it!

On Friday we went the Parliament building which is massive and so detailed and gorgeous! Then we walked across the chain bridge to something else really cool...haha I think it use to be the kings house or something. Anyway it sits on a hill on the Buda side and overlooks the beautiful city view. It was extremely foggy so we had to imagine the view a little, we went inside the beautiful building which has a fun art museum and there was a live opera singing as we walked around, so epic! Fun fact I did not know Buda and Pest are two different cities and they are separated by the Danube river, Anabel lives and her school is on the Pest side.

( Walking up to the Palace? with the Chain Bridge and St. Stephens in the back)

(St. Stephen's)
The same day we explored St. Stephen's Basilica which was just as epic as any Roma basilica and they have on display St. Stephen's right hand...kinda creepy kinda cool. We went to a Hungarian restaurant for a traditional meal thats was BOMB! Goulosh is their famous soup and we had breaded chicken with dumplings and a crepe-ish thing for dessert...so good! We went back to Anabel's awaiting Casey's arrival and after she came we went to a cool ecclectic bar 'Simpla'. We were there when the clock struck midnight and it was Casey's twenty-first bday and with the group of people we had we were able to tell her happy birthday in 7 languages! I was the italian one of course!
( yummy in my tummy)

The next day we took the train to a cute little town, Szentendre, which is about 40 minutes from

Budapest. This town is adorable...kinda touristy but there were a ton of stores selling traditional Hungarian trinkets. The gang was having Italian food and Katarina and I passed haha duh....I can get the real stuff, so we went somewhere else for some more bomb goulosh soup. The purpose of our visit was to go wine tasting, for Casey's bday, and we got to try 5 different types of Hungairan wine and 2 times of Pulinka which is like lemonciello for Italians. All the wines were delish but the pulinka ...not so much I think it has atleast 85% proof of alcohol. We went back to Budapest and went to our bday dinner reservations at an Eastern Eurpoean restaurant and again we all had amazing meals!! I don't know if we just got lucky or if the Hungarians are just as good at cooking as the Italians. After dinner we went to and "international" club which was SO FUN! It had like 10 different dance floors and everyone there was from all over the place. My two favs were Paolo and Davide from Espana...rawr!

(Me and the Danube River is Szentendre)
(Me, Anabel, & Casey- holla for wine tasting)

Our last day we spent at the thermal baths...you prolly thinking wtf would you go to a pool in the winter in Hungary? The day we went it was beautiful, and going in and out of the pools was not an issue, it was so nice to not be wearing a million layers. Our lunch was again amazing I forgot what we had but it was bomb. Before we left we took another look at the parliament building since the weather was better, that building really doesn't get old. Then it was time say our goodbyes...so sad but Anabel and Linda's hospitality was amazing and it was so fun to learn Hungarian words and travel this beautiful city with old friends ;)(The thermal baths)

(Katarina posing with the epic Parliament building!)

So che e stato un po'

I know it has been awhile....there is way to much too catch up on but I will highlight the main stuff. Last weekend, which feels like forever ago, I went on a school trip to Pompeii. It was a three hour bus ride from our school. The city and the history behind it is super cool. Basically it was completely covered and many of the towns people were killed by a Volcanic eruption a long long time ago like BC status and slowly the town has been excavated. The town is big. we were there for a good part of the day and still did not explore everthing. We were guided by my Art in Rome professor Nicholson who is a genius so I got to learn alot about the town and how they use to live back in the day. My favorite thing about Pompeii was all the dogs everywhere, apparently people adopt them but they live in Pompeii. One dog followed us, mostly me, for our entire tour, made me miss my baby Jewel. Regardless of the long day a few of us went out and met up with some John Cabot kids, another American school in Rome and we caught some Rome carnival activities.

(me and my furry friend exploring the ruins of Pompeii)

Last weekend I also made it to an italian mass in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican!!! There was a long line for security to get in but we made it on time and we got a great seat about 5 rows back from the altar. A bishop gave the mass, I tried my best to follow the readings and what not but my italian just isn't up to par yet. Half of the parishioners were nuns haha and when communion is served all politeness is out the door, people basically run to the front and I was definately pushed by a few nuns. It was just funny to me that in the "holiest" place for Catholics that happened haha whatevs I still got my Jesus bread. That same day I went to the flee market and loaded up on some warm gear for Budapest (my next trip) and some other essentials like a curling iron duh...

(Maia, me, and Louisa illegally posing with ruins)

I did not tutor Edoardo all week because he was sick, which made me sad but gave me some time to catch up on my classes and to chat with people at home. Last week was the first week of my CLC, Christian living community, and I think it went really well!! I tried to base it off the stuff I liked in my USF CLC and my group seemed to dig it so thats good. Tonight we have a pizza class night with my film (extremely good looking) italian teacher so I need to go bust out that curling iron, but later this week I will blog about Budapest which was LEGITTTT!!! so pumped to blog about it, for now CIAO!

(inside and outside the Vatican)

NEVE!

Allora..... so this morning I woke up and before I jumped in the shower I was like hmmm I should look outside and see if it is raining again today, and to my surprise it was SNOWING!! I literally froze in front of my window, it was so prettttttty! I believe I have only seen falling snow once before in DC on a family vacation when we wound up in a blizzard! I had to meet my friend Ryan about 20 minutes away so we could go to the refugee center and that was a mission! The bus drivers didn't know what to do so our bus just stopped and we had to walk another 20 minutes to the metro. We made it to the center but let me tell you that was dedication! Ryan is from Missouri and goes to school in Chicago so he wasn't phased at all but I was looking around taking pictures and just loving it.
(on my walk to the bus stop)

This week for my art in Rome class we visited 3 chiese (churches) which were gorgeous, I thought St. Ignatius was ridiculous and it is but man... these churches are something else and they are soo old!

(Mass in a side chapel of S. Maria Maggiore)
(Altar of S. Prassede)

This Wednesday with Edoardo was interesting. I picked him up from school and we did our usual thing and I let him play in the school yard with his friends for a few minutes but of course it had just rained and he fell in the BIGGEST puddle of mud! He was bawling actually he was wailing and I did know what to do so I just ran to him and held him and then I got all muddy but I just couldn't stand how sad he was. Anyway... the school is smart and makes the kids bring an extra pair of clothes so we changed, went home and it was all good from then on. But what an ordeal... all the moms and grandmas were watching me and probably judging me...Italians are good at that. Speaking of Italians Edoardo is definitely my favorite Itlalian haha but I will comment on Italian culture, lifestlye, and the country in general in a later (soon) entry.

Venezia per Carnivale!

Ciao a tutti! Wow so I have finally recovered from a crazy beautiful weekend in Venice. All in all my first trip outside of Roma was extremely successful. We rolled out with about 10-15 students (sometimes we lost a few drunk members) we took a night train Friday night which took 7 hours and got us there at 6AM! Our hostel was only a 5 minute walk from the train station and we were able to check in right away and crash for a little nap. We got 2 rooms but only one was ready so we crammed in there to nap, me and 2 others shared a twin, good times! Regardless the hostel was nice, safe, and didnt care that we had more people than beds haha.

From the hostel it was about 20-30 minute bus ride to the main island of Venice. Once we got there everybody was buying masks, I had already bought this riduculous headdress because I didnt want to cover my face haha I mean what for?? Venice..... I don't even know where to begin, has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. We walked around the little streets, over little bridges, and into little stores and restaurants. We finally made our way to St. Mark's square which was FILLED with people and a big stage for all the carnivale activities.

(me, in my head dress along the Rinalto bridge)
People dress in more than masks but like completely decked OUT in old school Renissance outfits, wigs, men in tights, the whole shabam! And then there were some people not dressed so much haha which was cool too. A few of us joined a parade with some brazilians which was wild and soo fun! We got lost alot, which is typical for us, but it really didnt matter because wherever you went lead you somewhere beautiful! For example, we got lost in a really dark plaza and found a pretty door so i tried to open it and it lead us right next to the Rinalto bridge!
(two couples decked out in Renassance gear)
At night there was a huge outdoor discoteca and dj but it didnt last as long as we wanted it too...which was probably a good thing since we were all exhausted. We made it back to the hostel then wokeup the next day and headed back to the main island. We had a more organized sightseeing day we went to the Jewish Ghetto, the beautiful Basillica, and covered all 4ish islands. BUT the BEST part was our gondola ride. Sunday was beautiful and sunny and our gondola went along the Rinalto bridge and around the Gran Canal... I had one of my sappy I love my life kinda moments, it was great!
(Louisa and I relaxing on the gondola)
The city is very small and do-able in 2 days so by the time we had to catch our other night train at 11:30pm we were ready to go. There was some drama on the train regarding out seats on the way there AND on the way back but I am not gonna waste time on that. We all made it back to Roma at 7am and I made it right on time to freshen up and start a full day of class and tutoring at 9:30am! haha. All in all a fabulous weekend and first (self-planned) trip outside of Roma.