my weekend so far...

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So Friday night the Marines had a TGIF happy hour at their place. They have a really nice place where all of them live, just on the other side of the wall from the consulate. It was fun and nice to socialize with people from work outside of work. One thing I reallylike about the group at this consulate is that it is a pretty close group, everyone is really friendly, knows everyone, and is really helpful. The CG's secretary, Debra, is always telling Laura (the other intern) and I that if we need anything to just let her know because she knows how hard it is moving to another country all alone. So it was fun. The Marines do this happy hour every Friday to raise money for the Marine Core Ball, which I guess they do overseas also, I didn't know that.So I think we will stop by after work every wekk for awhile.
After that Laura and Patrick and I went to teh Navigli, which is the old canal here in Milan, and actually really close to my house, for apertivi. It was reallu fun because the Navigli area is really pretty and there are all these really unique restaurants there. We sat outside by the river and had cocktails and apertivi, which is like cheese, meat, olives, just sort of a snack. Then we walked around the area a bit (its sort of the place to be afer work in the evenings) and Gabe, one of the Marines, met up with us. We all went to dinner at a pizzeria then. It was so fun to just hang out with people my age.I've realized (a long time ago) that traveling alone is ust not fun at all. I used to think I needed to do it to prove to myself I could do it, that I was independent and strong enough to do things like that on my own, but then I realized it was just lonely, I CAN do it but there's really no reason to. So I am really happy to have other people here, especially Laura because we get along really well. She is 20, from Washington D.C. adn she goes to the University of Virginia. Her boyfriend is Bulgarian and she is completely in love with him soit is cute to hear about their relationship. But we just get along really well, we actually have a lot more in common than I thought we would, being that we come from really different backgrounds. But yesterday we planned out all of our weekend trips for the summer. Next weekend I am going to Florence, then the following weekend we are going to these crazy horseraces down in Siena (which is close to Florence)....I'm imagining Pamplona and the bull run in Spain....then we're going to spend a day and a half in Bologna becuase I've never been there and its supposed to be a really cool city. The following weekend is the 4th of July, and we have a big party to go to at the CG's house, and then we have Monday off for the 4th, so we decided to do a local trip and go through Como for a couple of hours and then spend the night up in Lugano, which is just across the border in Switzerland. I've been tehre once before and it is just a beautiful city! I love Switzerland anyway, but Lugano has a really beautiful lake and it very serene. So that will be a nice local weekend trip. Then we are going down to Brindisi which is the very heel of the boot of Italy, in Puglia (the region), for a long weekend. The beaches there are supposed to be all white sand and really clear water. Laura flatmate is from that area so she recommended it. I think it is one of the areas of Italy that has not really been made touristy and I think it will be a totally different expereience.
That is all we planned because she has a friend she has plans with a few weekends and I have a friend in Switzerland that I want to go see one weekend. We mayb try to all meet up in Slovakia at teh end of the summer but I also really want tot go back to Ireland, so we will see. We also alotted that we may be exhausted and borke by the end of all this, so we may want some weekends off. Milan is a fun city,but I think its good to get out of the city sometimes. Its such a beautiful region here, I want to explore!
Yesterday Laura and I walked through the Saturday swapmeet in Navigli. A lot of normal swapmeet stuff but I got some reallyold prints of Milan from like 80 years ago....they're neat andI think Ill frame them in my house. Last night was La Notte Bianca, which was fun. It was Laura and me and Patrick and Nick, another intern who is up in Turin working on security for the Olympics (he's actually from san diego too!) and we walked around, listenend to some concerts, has a drink at the top of the Duomo (really beautiful view!) and got home around 2. The whole city had stuff going on until 6 am! We went to this photography museum that was really neat. It was a fun ngiht because there was such a variety of things to do. We walked over to the castle here in town and there was bands and a fake beach that they actually just put in (strange beign so far from the beach but not a bad spot) etc. I enjoyed it but I was thinking, what if you were the head person in charge of planning this thing?!?! You'd have to be really organized! So that was a fun night out and I think tonight we are going for apertivi for Stefano's birthday. I am basically melting for the day since the humidity and heat that I kept hearing about finally arrived! It was seriously 83 degrees in my house when I got home at MIDNIGHT the other night! I can't belive it but I guess you just sweat a lot in teh summer here! SO now I am off to the air-conditioned gym at my work where maybe I can be cool for a little bit. I am now more excited to be here because I have weekend trips to look forward to! And a friend that I really like. Its so much more fun traveling with a girlfriend whose company you acutally enjoy! But I think at the end of the summer I am going to need to go home for a couple years and really evaulate this whole living abroad thing. I need to be settled and see what I really want to do with myself after I graduate. But there is time for that. Right now I'm soaking up Italy...which is GREAT!
Off ot the gym! Love you and miss you all!
Ciao!
p.s., i will post pictures this week of all these people and places i keep talking about!

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