April 6, 2008 I woke up too early this morning, and not because I wasn’t tired, because I was exhausted, but 2 of the girls staying in our room were getting ready and were loud, the woman staying was snoring, and there was a dog running up and down the room above us. Not fun! When the girls finally left, Katie and I were able to get ready, go to breakfast, and checkout. The only problem was we had 2 hours to kill before we went to get the bus to the airport. We walked around Ostia, checked out a market, [View Full Entry]

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April 5, 2008 After eating breakfast, we felt confident enough to walk to the train station. We got on the train and then the metro without any problems! We headed towards the Colosseum for our first stop of the day. There were people walking around trying to get us to sign up for a tour. We knew we wanted to a tour of the Rome area, so we signed up. We went into the Colosseum and learned all about it. It was very interesting to hear everything that happened there, including sea battles. The Colosseum was huge and very cool. We [View Full Entry]

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April 4, 2008 Katie and I woke up, got ready, and went to the complimentary breakfast the hostel offers. It was very good, as most breakfasts seem to be over here. We needed to figure out how to get into Rome since we are staying in Ostia, technically, which is right outside of Rome. The lady at the reception desk told us what to do. We went outside to pick up the bus. This ended up being a special one to the school, so the bus driver took us back. He stopped right in front of the bus we needed so [View Full Entry]

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April 3, 2008 Finally, time for ROME! After waking up at the right time, because earlier in the morning I woke up because I was so excited to leave, I got ready, packed some last minute things, ate breakfast, and headed to meet Katie to take the city buses- my first time. As soon as Katie got there, the bus arrived and dropped us off close to where we would catch the bus to the airport. The airport buses run on: 45s and: 15s, but the 10:15 never showed. Thankfully the 10:45 came so we wouldn’t have to take a super [View Full Entry]

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March 30, 2008 Today started off with breakfast in the hotel. Then we went on a walk to the Plaza Mayor de España. It consists of shops and restaurants, but during important government events, they use the big open area. Afterwards, we made our way to the Palacio Real de Madrid, where the King and the Queen of Spain used to live. It looked really big from the outside, but once we were inside, it was a whole other place. Our tour guide told us there were 800 rooms in the Palace, and we saw about 25. It is amazing the [View Full Entry]

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March 29, 2008 I decided walking to Santa Justa, the train station, would be easier/faster/cheaper than a bus or taxi. I had never been through, so I had no idea how long it would take, so I got up at 5, left at 6, and made it to the train station at 6:30, an hour early! It was finally time for our train, which was amazing- super nice and smooth! I watched parts of Stranger than Fiction and slept til we arrived in Madrid. We took taxis to the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and went to the Museo del Prado. [View Full Entry]

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March 23, 2008 Easter Sunday. It just isn’t the same in Spain as it is at home. The Spanish people don’t really celebrate Easter as a big deal like people in the US, so Julie and I tried to make it as good as possible. The main Easter mass at the Cathedral was this morning at 10, so we had to wake up a lot earlier than normal. When I came back to my room after showering, there was a note and some candy on my bed from the Conejo de Pascua (aka Julie). She gave me some of her chocolate [View Full Entry]

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March 22, 2008 Julie and I wanted to see more pasos today, so we made our way to another street. We got there pretty early, so we went to a new ice cream place since the fruit hasn’t been cutting the “postre” business. Then we went to find Calle Orfila. There were supposed to be 2 processions to pass through, so we found a spot to wait. We noticed something different about the first procession to pass- there were people in their cofradias or carrying crosses without shoes on. Neither of us knows the significance to this, but we’re guessing it [View Full Entry]

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March 21, 2008 My intercambio told me last week that his church would be having a procession today at 5 close to school. So after watching the procession from a distance last night, Julie and I decided we would head over a little early to get a close seat. We made our way over, an hour or so before, and there were still a ton of people. We went farther down the street and were able to get a spot on the curb. I went to go get some ice cream while Julie staked out our territory. A little bit after [View Full Entry]

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March 20, 2008 The first day of spring seemed like it was going to be quite an unwelcomed day. When I woke up this morning it was really gray and gloomy outside, and rain seemed eminent. But it just stayed blah for awhile, until it finally started to rain. Last night I had asked Julie if it had ever thunder stormed during the day while we had been here. And it hadn’t, only once at night. I think I jinxed us. Because it started to storm, complete with thunder and lightening. I was actually pretty excited because I believe if it [View Full Entry]

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