i cant believe its halfway over

It has been a very busy past few days!

My birthday was wonderful, although I did miss all of you. Right after I finished blogging on my class break, I went back to class and they surprised me with candles on a cake and everyone sang to me again! Tiramisu and a chocolate cake...which we all shared using gelatto spoons...and bubbles, which we proceeded to blow throughout the rest of class. Nonetheless, it wasnt all that productive!

After class we went to this cute restaurant by the open air market and then to the beach for a few hours. Then everyone got all dressed up and we went to dinner, where the restaurant owner had flowers for me! After dinner we went down to this cafe where we often meet with Toma in the evenings and had a drink...and Toma and his girlfriend Dijana gave me a present...a little mesh and jeweled box. It was so sweet! The card from them said "Here's a little house to keep all your hopes and dreams for a wonderful future." It made me so happy! Then we did go down to the cool bar where you sit on little pads on the rocks, and there are lights in the water. It was cool...and we finished the night at Zanzibar, this bar with cool African-like lounging areas. We got to dance there, too! It was a very fun birthday! I went to bed by like 1:30 though because I knew we had two very busy days ahead of us!

Friday we had our second big class trip and went tons of places as usual...traveling for about 12 hours total. We started in Trieste, Italy at a WWII victim memorial. It was called Riciera, and many Jews, Communists, etc. were held there before being shipped off to concentration camps. Some were also killed and cremated...the remains of the crematorium floor were there, and the "death chamber" and the little prison cells. It was a very moving experience. They also had a little museum of historical items from the victims, including things the Nazis confiscated from Jews, concentration camp registration cards, the uniforms they wore, etc. After the Riciera we took a walking tour of Trieste....then we went to a group lunch at this restaurant up on the mountain. We got HUGE dishes of spaghetti with giant mussels and vegetable spaghetti...which were both amazing and everyone ate way too much! Also wine, which is traditional with Italian lunches, we found out by the end of the weekend! Then we went up to this thing called a Foiba, which is a natural limestone pit. It was used throughout many wars to put bodies in by a lot of different groups, most recently the communists put the fascists in it. We visited the Riciera and the Foiba to see the divided memory of different groups in times of war...how both groups honor victims and their courage, and don't mention the horrible things they've done. That's not a very good explanation, but we did a huge reading on it in class and discussed it a lot and I don't have time to explain it more! After the Foiba we went to Castle Miramar, which King Maximillian built for his wife Charlotte as a memorial to their love. It was RIGHT on the water, and had all these beautiful gardens around it. We took a tour of the whole castle, which was amazing. Then (yes, this is all still the same day!) we drove to Montevun, a city in Croatia up atop a mountain with this amazing view...to visit the home/gallery of a retired professor. He talked to us about witchcraft, shamanism and art. He does geometric abstract art based on images he sees in trances. It was pretty cool...and his deck faces the beautiful view from the city, you can even see the ocean from there, which is like 10 miles away. Then we went to this little shop where you could buy truffles and wine and all kinds of stuff....truffles are big there. I have tried truffles here, in pasta and decided I didn't like them so much. I didn't not like them, they just have such a specific weird taste that I couldn't eat a lot of them. It was pretty cool, though. Then we finally went home...got to the restaurant for dinner around 9 p.m. and all crashed into bed as soon as possible.

We got up REALLY early to catch the 6:30 boat to Venice on Saturday, which was about 3 hours and involved NO seasickness!!! We took 3 boat tours -- one a gondola, which were all awesome. We also spent an hour and a half or so poking around the little streets around St. Marks Square, and we had a big tourist lunch at this little cafe (free wine again!). Venice was absolutely gorgeous...we saw Elton John's house in Venice, which was not all that impressive but has 200 meters of garden behind it, which is apparently a sign of wealth in Venice. Check out the pictures...we had gelatto, again...and saw all the famous glasswork and masks in the little shops. It was a very memorable trip, and it was fun that we all went as a big group together. The thing I thought was really funny about it was that people still hang their laundry out the windows on ropes, even though down below is water! Hope nothing falls off =) haha.

Its been a low-key day today, late breakfast and talked to my parents on Skype...but at 5:30 we're all meeting at the fountain to go watch the first European Cup soccer game Croatia is playing in. I'm wearing red so I'm ready to cheer them on...although I don't think I've ever watched a soccer game on TV ever before! It should be a lot of fun...

Sorry I can't label the pictures or turn them...its rather time consuming so I hope you can either figure it out or wait until I return! The ones I loaded on this entry are of Trieste -- the Riciera and the square, the water --, Montevun, the Foiba, my apartment I'm staying in and the views from it, Venice, and some from my birthday. Enjoy!

Until later....
<3 Brescia

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