A dollar 10 cent Euros

SO, I have finally left Rome to continue on with the next 5 weeks of my study abroad program in Salamanca Spain. The night we were leaving Rome, everyone decided to go out and have a great time together. I of course was mingling with everyone, bouncing back and forth between groups of people since many of my friends are in different clicks, when Sam decided she was incredibly intoxicated and needed to cleanse her body for lack of a better word. So we rush to the bathroom, cut all the other girls on the line and she begins to throw up. She manages to scratch her eye on something and insists her contact is in her eye. So she begins scratching and poking at it, throws up a couple times on the way home and ends up in the bathroom sick to her stomach for most of the night. She manages to sleep for about 30 minutes but then it was time for us to get on the bus and leave and she throws up on the bus also. The goodbyes were sad im not going to lie, i miss all the kids that i bonded with going to Paris, Chris Denz, Chelsea Rath, Robert Kunicki, and Greg Kortez, but i know this will not be the last time i see them since i grew close with them quickly. The journey to Salamanca was a horrible one, a plane ride for 2 hours then a 2 hour bus ride then a walk to our residence house. Me and Sam live on the 4th floor in room 320, the furthest room from everything and everyone, but i kind of like it. Our room was not clean when we first got here but the cleaning ladies managed to get it done quickly. They then took us for pizza what seemed miles away. We were all starving so we dug in quickly. After that Mike and Ryan decided to go to the store, and i tagged along.... so we ended up lost for about 2 hours and finally made it back to the residence. That night we decided to check out the night life and i had my first absinthe shot, Diablo Verde. SHIT BURNS GOING DOWN but you get pretty warm inside. Yesterday morning we had orientation, got to see where my classes are and all that jazz and realized i have to do 2 hours of service a week. I will be teaching english to spanish speaking people. I am honestly very excited to be working with people teaching them english. I go on Mondays and Tuesdays. My classes here are spanish and ethics... im excited and anxious about my classes but we will see what the future holds for them. So last night we went out to get a few drinks. Me and Eunice downed 2 shots of Absinthe, a liter of sangria, and then went and got free champagne from the club promoter. The music was great techno beats and everyone was just dancing up on one another. It was nice no one was really fighting or arguing, no tension or anything... really a great night. At about 3 am we decided to leave the Club and we went to get Schwarma, almost like Kebab, but BETTER.... an awesome end to a great official first night in Spain <3

WHEN IN ROME

so... i have been here a bout 3 weeks and i have been slacking on updating this blog with my life... so thats is what i am going to do......

where to begin... wow so much new stuff has happened to me over here its kind of insane. I love everything about living here except the fact that we have to pay for laundry... thats kind of a bummer... but i love everything else.

The St. John's staff is a great team. Domenico is the nicest Italian guy i have ever met. He is extremely helpful with anything and everything. Always trying to make sure we are all acclimating well and if we are doing ok. The building is beautiful also we have nice bathrooms decent bedrooms, everything is in close proximity and lastly we are not living in the ghetto ... so its great!

Eating here is a different kind of adventure. Pizza is "Pizza a taglio" where they cut the pizza into a desired size and then cut it in half again and give you to eat like a sandwhich.... it is a little wierd for us at first but we all got accustomed to it. I have noticed in my past few weeks here that there is a serious lack of protein in the diets of italians. The meals here are mostly pasta, bread, and pizza... and if you go out to order a meal, you have to order the carbs separate from the meats and side dishes... which ends up being rather expensive. .. and we all know we as college kids are not made of money honey!

The gelato here is my favorite thing thus far that i have experienced.... my rolling count is

STRAWBERRY

CONOLLI CREAM

BISCOTTI COOKIE

ALMOND

WALNUT

HAZLENUT

CREAM

COOKIES

CHERRY

VANILLA

PLAIN VANILLA... idk what the difference is but whatevskies

and more will eventually come also

As far as the men.... well i must say me and Samantha are a huge hit in Italy with the boys. we have the largest egos here it is not even funny.

so far the hookups have been

Andea-29 who both me and samantha shared a kiss with... i know i know.... wtf but its hilarious actually looking back on it now/ MEET AT PASTARITO

Franz- 24 y.o from Netherlands... HOT AS BALLS... great makeout session for about 30 mins lol/SCHOLARS

Claudio-27 y.o. shared a kiss and bagged the 7s ... never called him but saw him another night.. ugh/SCHOLARS

Alex- 24 y.o shared a hot makeout session in the bathroom... no spekkie ingelseee... fml /SCHOLARS

Gianluca- 31 y.o. Alex's friend and translator... hooked up in the bathroom also.. right after Alex/SCHOLARS

Alessandro-27 y.o guy who is breaking my heart... he is GORGEOUS AND I AM FREAKING SOOOO IN LOVE lol but he is heartbroken... which is a major turnoff right now.... Dave the bartenders friend from Drunken Ship..../SCHOLARS

Raphael- 27 y.o. Brazilian guy... living in Rome hooked up quickly... end of story lol/ SCHOLARS

and the list keeps on going yes....

Traveling so far i have been to Florence, Pisa and on Thursday i am going to BUDAPEST with mike!!!!

Pisa so far is my favorite... Florence was great but we had shitty weather lived in the Ghetto,,, and didn't really like the people there too much... kinda shady place ya know. But once we began touring inside the city it was gorgeous. The Duomo was AMAZING i was in shock at how beautiful and intricate everything was . Really amazing!!!

Today im doing my laundry and studying for class... its kinda cold out but i am also planning things for Budapest with Mike should be an interesting week and weekend ahead!!!

CIAO BELLA!

- Nicole