Procrastinating on midterm studying? This entry is for you!

Well...I guess this entry is for me then, considering I am doing such right now.

The last two weeks have been pretty quiet for me. This is mostly on account of said midterms. I've been hanging out with friends, hitting the bars, and doing a little bit of shopping here and there. Last Friday, I went to Eurochocolate with my Food & Wine Pairing class. It is Europe's biggest chocolate festival, and is held in the lovely city of Perugia. I was definitely chocolated-out by the end of the day, but it was a really cool experience to be a part of. Plus, I had a bomb.com/yourmom crepe.


My midterms have been okay. The two I thought were going to be my hardest weren't too bad, and then the one that should've been my easier I think I bombed. Blah. I still have two more, and they more than likely WILL be my hardest: Food and Wine Pairing and Italian. Yes, you read the first one correctly. So messed up, right?

But once I hand in my Italian midterm, Fall Break 2010 commences! Not gonna lie, the next two weeks are probably going to be the best of my whole trip here (never say never, though). Here is what my traveling schedule is looking like, and also so you can know "Where in the world is Kara?"

• On Friday, I take a train to Rome, where I will be boarding a plane to Ireland! I am going to be staying with my friend Eadaoin Moore, who I met over the summer at Knott's. She and about 12 other Irish students came to California this summer to find jobs and have the time of their lives (which is kind of a contradiction, since they worked at Knott's. Kidding). They all lived in Huntington Beach, so I would occasionally give them rides home so they could avoid HB's TERRIBLE public transportation system. One day, I was giving Eadaoin (pronounced Ay-Dean) a ride home, and jokingly suggested that I could come stay with her in Ireland when I am in Europe. And she actually said yes!!! So now I am going to stay with her and her family in Dublin for five days. We are going to rendezvous with all of the other former Knott's employees, and have a reunion of sorts by doing what the Irish do best: partying! Throughout my time there, we will be visiting Galway, the Cliffs of Moor, and the Guinness Factory! I'm so excited to hang out with Eadaoin, and getting to experience Ireland with actual Irish people :)

• I return to Florence the following Wednesday, where I will be greeted by my parents! I'm so excited for them to come, and I get to be their official tour guide of Florence! Together, we will probably go to the Tuscany area, including Chianti. There might even be a little Rome trip in the works :) And I am of course just plain excited to see my parents! I get little boughts of homesickness here and there, so seeing them will be the perfect cure.

• My parents will be leaving the following Thursday, and so will I...but this time, I'm going to England to visit my old softball buddy, Jenny Driver! Jenny is studying abroad for a whole YEAR (Lucky duck) in Bristol. So I will fly into Bristol to meet up with her, and she will give me the grand tour of her study abroad experience. We are probably going to go see Stonehenge as well. And then on Saturday and Sunday, we are embarking on a little weekend excursion to London!!! Aaaaah! I can't wait to explore London with Jenny, and it will be wonderful to see a familiar face. This was a total spur-of-the-moment trip, but I have a feeling it's going to be pretty dang amazing. And then Jenny is going to come visit me in Florence in December!

Phew! These next two weeks are going to be amazing, and I just have to survive two more midterms to get to it! I also plan on going to Vienna, and then my two of my friends and I are going to plan a trip to PARIS the first weekend in December! (pending that potential terrorist attacks and airplane strikes don't hold us back.)

I processed the other day that I have less than two months left in Florence. This is kind of depressing, because it is going to fly by so quickly. I don't want to have any regrets about this trip, and want to live it up to the fullest. So with that, I bring you:

Confession Time

There was one thing here that I kind of let become my focus during the first month of studying abroad. I'm going to let the situation remain ambiguous, but this became my FAVORITE aspect about being in Florence, and I was convinced it was going to be the hardest to leave. However, the situation turned in to a total letdown. However, for those of you who know what I'm talking about, I'm NOT going to let it be a problem anymore. It was not worth my time and energy, and just ended up hurting me in the end. But no more of this! I am better than that. And something tells me that 5 days in Ireland, time with mommy and daddy, and a little weekend getaway to England will be just the thing I need :)

I promise to take lots of pictures, and to take extensive notes on how the Irish party in Ireland. I saw how the do it in California, so I can't wait to see them in their natural habitat ;)

I love you all!

Love,
Your favorite European explorer,
Kara