Firenze

This past weekend I took a train to Florence, or Firenze in Italiano. I was a judge at the school talent show (ha) and made me way to the train station. And of course, travelling is never worry free for me. I found out 2 min before I was going to go that the public transport wasn't working due to a strike. Cool. There goes 15 euros for a taxi! I got to Florence just fine and met Rebecca and Marissa.

We found our hotel and checked in very sweating. It is getting very hot here now- this weekend it was 90s. We asked our hotel guy where to go to eat. He reccommended a place and we went there at 9:30. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

We knew it was good because there were tons of people outside waiting to get in. Two boys from Canada chatted with us for a bit- they basically warned us that it was a different dining exerience!

We were seated after a few min. and everything seemed normal; it was definitely a fun atmosphere with music and the waiters were laughing and talking. We got our order in and talked.

Our food came and it was then that we noticed that the waiters seemed a little drunk- and they were doing shots with other tables around us....One of the waiters came to our table and made us wear wigs...while we ate.

The owner let us have Marissa's ipod on for the whole restaurant. She played the song "The Cupid Shuffle" which has a specific dance to it. Of course I wanted to do this dance, so we taught the waiters the cupid shuffle in the middle of the restaurant...with wigs on. Yep. People at other tables were taking pictures and videoing us. Cool. This is what future teachers look like! ha!

We made our way on Sat. AM to the meeting spot for a wine tour. Our tour guide was super nice and knowledgeable. Everyone else on our tour was visiting Italy and hadn't been here long. It was cool knowing about stuff and informing them! I felt like an expert, even though I am far from it. Olsa was from Sweeden and she wrote articles about wine for a wine magazine and travelled all around the world for wine tasting etc, so she knew her stuff! We went to two wineries, one big and one small. Both were great to see and were absolutely beautiful. We also ate lunch at a restaurant ownd by "the crazy butcher" He is famous for playing ACDC and also has his own tv show. We also stopped in a small town near the second winery and had some ice cream and shopping.

When we got back to Florence, we went to the market where their speciality is leather goods. We bartered and got some good deals! We had pizza for dinner and went to bed early as we had had a long day!

On Sunday morning, we basically woke up and left on our trains. It was the last time I will be seeing Marissa and Rebecca, so that was sad! I am definitely already planning on going to Seattle to visit them sometime soon!

Sunday night was fun because my friend Robyn from my swim team in h.s. was backpacking with her friend Kirsten through Europe and was in Rome this weekend. I cooked them pasta and took them to the Drunken Ship. It was good to catch up with Robyn and get to know Kirsten!


Now I only have 4 days left of school! It seems so crazy to me. I am definitely ready to be done with the teaching part. I am excited to go home and see friends and family, but I also want to stay because when I go back, I have to find a job and do grown up stuff! I am so excited for Nick to come in only 4 days! I think travelling with him will be a great vacation!


Ciao and mi manchi (i love you)!

xoxo Katie