Sunday, May 25

The Kids.....PICS


The story is below...here are the kids and their Dad that I talk about when telling about Cinque Terre!

Nights out Cinque Terre

our nights out were limited to one bar (after dinner) and we had an awesome time :) I'm going to repeat this for all the picture pages, but read below to get the full story of the weekend so the pics have some sort of explanation :)











Our Little Town PICS

Riomaggiore was the town we stayed in, one of five in Cinque Terre.

Here are pics of the town. It was breathtaking! Read below to get the full scoop on our Cinque Terre Weekend :)




Cinque Terra Beach PICS

Not technically Cinque Terre, one town north called Levanto. Read my big post below to get the details of our Cinque Terre weekend.





Hiking PICS *more*

These are going to trickle in since I am reading as I'm doing this, also...read the blog post about the weekend before the pics, they will make sense and I am not posting them in proper time line order :)




Cinque Terre HIKE

These are going to trickle in since I am reading as I'm doing this, also...read the blog post about the weekend before the pics, they will make sense and I am not posting them in proper timeline order :)




We are back and alive!!!

...before I forget, Jaunessa (Pat's wife) has now joined us for a little over a week :) so she was here for all of this.

The Cinque Terre trip was a huge success :)

A QUICK breakdown of what Cinque Terre is....it is a series of Five Towns (IE..Cinque Terre) on the north west coast of Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea. They are small towns, only one has a sand beach, the furthest north, Monterosso. We stayed in the furthest south town called Riomaggiore. There is a train that goes about every 30 mins that stops at all the towns, which is really convenient.

Here is the day by day run down, we left thursday and just got back.

Thursday:
BJ and I went early because we have earlier classes, so we headed straight for the train station. The trip was somewhat annoying because of delayed trains and the simple fact that Bj and I have never been there before so we were constantly on edge that maybe we got the wrong train, or that we would miss one of the stations we had to get off and connect with a new train, etc. PLUS it was a three hour trek so, for it being our first time it seemed to take forever! There was none of that familiarity that can make a trip seem faster because you know where you are.
We got there, checked in, got our apartment. It was small as expected, NICE, but small for us 2 and the six that were about four hours behind us. Oh yeah...the shower was almost unusable because of how it was set up, it was at a complete angle, so you either had to squat or brace yourself or you would slide and fall. It was so strange. That, combined with the fact that our toilet back that fills with water for your flush took almost an hour to refill after the flush. So with us eight, we had to use the bidet when we went number one and when we were all in the apartment at once, most of us (minus BJ and some late night sneakers) went to a nearby market's bathroom for number twos. TMI, I know.
So we all get there, BJ and I couldn't wait to eat dinner so we have this great meal. We all go out that night to the only bar in the town we were in, it was really fun though. Everyone spoke english, we met some california guy who was in from Spain in a band. The girls got creeped on by some old local that was super weird, pat took a picture of him and like grabbed at pat to steal his digital camera away from him. But we were all fine, the locals all knew him and said to just 'shoo him away' lol oh well.

Friday:
The next day we slowly got up and worked our way down to this beach in an outlying town. Just one town north out of Cinque Terre. They were supposed to have the best beaches, they did....a big sand beach with bars on it. The boys rocked out the speedos and the girls got their sun tan lotion and towels out....unfortunately no one thought to rock out the sun screen. :( Poor BJ and I. Oh well, we had a blast. All the guys and some of the girls went swimming in the Sea...it was cool to be able to say I swam in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was great once you got in, the waves were perfect too!
That night we went out and met up with professors who were in town too and had a great dinner. We all went back to that same Centrale Bar, made some new friends, had drinks and went home.

Saturday:
So, on Saturday we decided we wanted to try the Monterosso beach but we wanted to do some hiking too. There is a long 5 hour hike between the first town that we stayed at and the fifth town, the one we wanted to go to the beach...well two of the group left and did the walk from the very first town, the rest of us hopped a train and started at the third town, so..to go from 3-5 towns. From those who had done it before, it is really just a simple walk on a concrete path until the third town, then it gets pretty hard.
So we met up with them in town three and all started on the third to fourth town section of the hike, it was pretty hard! Four Kilometers of up and down in the woods, on the cliffs, etc. It was gorgeous though! Took a hair over an hour. We got to the fourth town and we all wanted to just train to the last town and not hike it, for varying reasons. BJ wore not good footwear and was still hurting from the night before and also forgot his hiking pass (yes you have to pay for it), there were rain clouds coming in and some of us didn't want to get stuck on this hike and have it start to pour rain. Plus some were just over it and wanted food and if it stayed nice, to lay on the beach.
So pat and Jaunessa did the last leg together and the rest of us headed towards the last town on the train. We had lunch and looked and some beach shops and they all laid on the beach, I was in the shade because I was a little red from the day before and realized that not only did no one (including me) bring sun block to the beach the day before, no one brought any to Cinque Terre (all left here in Florence). So I sat in the shade and watched and did some school reading :)
BJ, Lindsey and I all left a tad early to get in and get some stuff done in the tiny apartment before the rest of the crew came in. I showered BJ showered Lindsey napped...etc.
The beach was gorgeous, it was creepy though because there were some sketchy ... I want to say Mexican ... guys who were clearly sitting there taking pictures of these study abroad college girls all around, just blatantly zooming in and photographing these girls, some with their boyfriends, it was sick and creepy. Was surprised no boyfriend came over and had a 'chat' with them, but I was not sure if anyone else saw it.
That night we found a great food/horrible service place way up on the cliff in our local town and we had a BJ birthday dinner :) Aside from the lackluster service it was great! Two girls got sick, one head/tired/cough the other threw up (she is thinking she is getting allergic to lobster). So they went home, we grabbed one last goodbye drink from that Centrale bar and went back to the apartment to finish up the 2 euro wine we had there :) We didn't want to bring it all back.
It was HILARIOUS this time when we went to the bar because there were these two young brother and sister...my guess is girl 15/16 boy 13ish....we saw them earlier having a beer in the little piazza out front of our apartment and we thought it was funny, but later that night we saw them at the Centrale bar with their Dad having drinks. It was amazing!!! We overheard the 13yearold boy explaining to his dad what a mojito was "Dad it is like lime, mint and rum combined, I hope they use Bacardi" and the best was when the Dad went to get the drinks the young girl goes "Hey, if they don't have mojitos get me Jack and Coke" BJ almost pissed himself laughing!
We saw that they were carrying american money and talked/dressed just like Americans, so they must have been from usa. It was stunning, remember..no age laws in Italy! very weird moment.
They had mojitos...two rounds of them, they were sauced! We got a pic of them that I will post later when the camera is recharged :)

Sunday:
We woke up, cleaned up, checked out, got on the train....the girls went back to Florence but in a last minute UNPLANNED (make adjustments to your itinerary) moment, we got off at the Pisa train station and walked to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We first debated for about a second if we wanted to do it, and we thought...why the hell not!? We are walking distance from a huge famous building and will likely not be again. So we saw it, got some dorky but necessary pictures that will be posted later too.
**phew**
We are now back, we have a ton of reading to do and pat and I both have a presentation to give tomorrow. So we are preparing for that night now.
I will post the pictures up in a little bit.

See you :)

Wednesday, May 21

and we are off

Three hours we will be heading to Cinque Terre!!!

Correction

The previous post is not entirely true. There were some circumstances that were not explained. But when Sean posts and drinks it is always interesting to see what actually ends up on the page.

OKAY!

So............we are going to Cinque Terre tomorrow....right after class BJ and I have a string of trains to make to be sure we make it to our apartment we are renting at five PM! :)

scary!

So, I know I owe you guys a lot of great stories, like.ummmmmm, last night..when we decided to take our nice dinner for the ladies and hit it up hard with them and the neighboring students from the other law school!!!

------- EDITED FOR CONTENT ------

- BJ, when wasted, asked the girls to paint his toe nails......and they did, in an amazing hot red color, the best part.............no one has polish remover!!!!! hahah, and apparently no one around here sells it, so BJ has awesome toe nails painted slutty red, lmao!!!

- When I reached the point of no return with red wine, I stumble to bed :) :) :)

Pat was good that night, but tonight he is TRASHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did our hike up in the hills around Florence, it was GORGEOUS!!!!! We hiked all over, it was amazing, the following pictures are from our hike, this is the view over and above Florence. awesome!







"Santa Maria Novella"

Pictures of our apartment!! We love it, even BJ with the pull out bed. We have to use the Air Conditioner a lot though, because it gets really warm and we can't open the windows because of the mosquitoes.

The girls in the pictures are the ones that live on level below us and also go to GU Law :)

Also, please note the bidet picture with Pat and I! He was very excited, but we never really use it....just an extra step that we are not accustomed to.





phew....

Finished up with classes, they went surprisingly well, considering last night!

BJ and I are off to grab some lunch

Today at 4PM we are doing a hike in the hills around florence and then having a dinner with the school.

When I get home I will post more pictures and put in a pretty long blog about how things are here !

Tuesday, May 20

"Good" Morning

So, I woke up this morning and did not remember coming home last night! BUT it is not my fault :) After we did the big dinner with the girls we all met up with our other neighbors, study abroad students from another school that joined us at the GU program. They are fun.....

So, we did a little red wine beer pong. Then for some reason we headed to some club, thank the Gods I did not have my wallet, so I could buy any drinks or pay for anything!! BJ stayed outside and smoked a cuban cigar he bought. Pat came in and partied it up.

Florence is amazing, the weather is finally nice......so far! It changes fast.


I will write more later, heading to class! :)

So.............

So, tonight was AMAZING! we had the girls up from GU in our apartment complex, I (sean) made them a huge dinner....my dad would be impressed :)
I did a pesto pasta, but in the pesto sauce I grilled up some prosciutto and also added the rine of an old Parmesan cheese wheel we had, to flavor the sauce :)

We had a huge mixed green lemon vinaigrette salad and also tomatoes and mozzarella cheese!!! Oh yeah, and some home made mini toasts :)

To top it all off, and really impress the girls.........I melted some chocolate bars in a homemade double boiler and dipped market fresh strawberries in it! :) then while they settled, I got the homemade double boiler back rolling and melted some chocolate with nuts in them and drizzled that all over the original strawberries!!!

it was a super big hit!

The girls are on for dinner next Tuesday.

Now we are having VINO with the girls and also our neighbors who are from the University of Florida Law School!

Got all our reading done for tomorrow and also have had some great times! I love it.

PS.......................Pat got his back, chest, upper legs and stomach waxed today for 85 Euro!!!!!!!! ouch and ouch!!!! glad I'm not hairy!

Then again, his wife is coming into town in the next couple days!!!!

okay, will post pics from tonight's dinner/gathering tomorrow.

love you all

Health...

So, we are about six days in and this is our health report.

PAT: Covered in mosquito bites and extremely tired (has not had a good night sleep since he has been here) His month long cold/sickness is almost all the way gone

BRIAN: Covered in mosquito bites, finally got his first good night sleep last night.

SEAN: Covered in mosquito bites, got something during the traveling, at first thought it was allergies because like 75% of the people here are dying from the allergies, but I think it is a cold.

BUT..besides that, things are great. Maybe to stay healthy BJ and I should have bought the 3euro umbrellas today that we were offered about 34 times as we walked here for fifteen minutes, unprotected in a huge rain storm!

yeah ... dumb

Monday, May 19

Tonight...

So tonight was fun, we all did our reading after our dinner...which consisted of pesto pasta with grated parmesan cheese and diced prosciutto, a mixed green salad with olive oil-balsamic vinaigrette-lemon juice-parmesan cheese dressing I made from scratch! Also we had a mozzarella and tomato appetizer :)
Staying in cooking is so much cheaper!!!

I do not know if I had mentioned, but in our apartment complex/housing complex (this are way more than apartments)....we have four girls living below us from GU law that we know and love and we realized next door are four students from University of Florida Barry Law School....which is the visiting law school in this program! So that is amazing! They are always down for studying or having some vino! :)

We are having a great time with our 3 buddy group and also with our extended family in our apartment complex!!

By the way...........we found 1 1/2 liter bottles of awesome red wine for 3.75 Euro!!!! Awesome :)

The Reason ....

If you look at another post below you will see that I posted VATICAN pics and said that Pat was sleeping the whole day away back at the hostel, this is the reason why.....this was taken about 2AM of Pat trying to make it across Rome back to our Hostel! This is the night I had to talk to the cops because he was 'relieving' himself on the streets! LOL

Vatican Pics

While PAT slept the whole day, to recover from the night before, BJ and I went to the Vatican a few days ago, here are the pics :)

it is okay though, he has been to the Vatican!





Going to Market

Going to market now, to pick up some food for our kitchen and some basic supplies, toilet paper...etc.

Fall Class Registration went perfect for BJ and I, Pat...well, that is another story! But he is getting it worked out :)

First day of classes today went great! SMALL classes, we all really like them. Basically just a great intellectual discussion about topics, not the high stress 100 person class socratic method of the last year.
The reading is beyond dull though!!! Got through my reading for tomorrow and it took forever!!

We're on the lookout for the rumored .99 cent bottles of wine near the market....

The dinner last night paid for by the school was amazing!! The traditional italian feast, with all the courses.... a bread, meat and cheese course. Two pasta courses. A main course, and dessert! mmm
of course pitchers and pitchers of red wine.

I was dying because after the first three courses, I thought we were done, I piled the pasta course on...big time! Was hurting trying to eat our main course,, chicken and potatoes! Pat and I were both a little stuffed, BJ loved his main course :)

SIDE NOTE: Yesterday, Pat had HotDog pizza!! It is exactly what you think it is....talk about a new favorite hangover food :)

Yesterday we went to the museum and saw "The David", it is amazing! I had seen it so many times in pictures, etc...that I was ready to be disappointed but it is so massive and intimidating that you turn to go down the hallway, see it and gasp! That was awesome.

So..we are off to the market, I will add lots more later, including a story from Rome I forgot to share! It is a winning one :)

PICTURES!

We finally got the internet to work here at the apartment, unfortunately for now it is only on my computer, so we are using this as the little hub.

I wanted to post some pre-camera lost pictures....from my camera, will post pics from Pat's camera later!

THESE ARE THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF OUR TRIP

AT SEATAC























































































POSTING MORE LATER....we have to sign up for classes right now!