Sent to exile

Since all my kiddos are “pirates” this week… instead of going to timeout, they’re “sent to exile.” They find it HYSTERICAL and try to get sent to exile almost on purpose. Go figure. I’d send a handful of them to exile, except my favorite little sausage (who just so happens gets sent to exile every 5 minutes.) He’s adorable and I want to adopt him. Yesterday, Ale did an entire puzzle by himself. He sat there for at least 15 minutes (which for him is a long, long time.) I told the teacher and she calls him over and tells him he’s amazing. He sat there smiling from ear to ear. Proud teacher moment J

One student, who speaks no English, decided to be my sidekick for the entire day. He kept talking to me in Italian.. and every time I said “speak in English” he would just look at me and smile. At the garden, I played chase with the two boys and as we were walking in they say “we want to work with you now!” (Earlier in the week… I KNOW they would talk about me in Italian.. they would giggle and stare at me).

I think everything is catching up with me.. time change, lack of sleep, not sleeping during the night.. you name it. Bags under my eyes like woah and two cappuccinos are needed to get me through the day. My teacher told me I looked tired.. thanks, lady. I figure I’ll just sleep once I get back to Virginia.

To end our first week at Marymount, Mary Katherine and I went for a nice run around the city. Oh, and I come home to beautiful flowers from my wonderful parents. Kyle comes to my window and says, “I need to speak with you.” I asked him if I was in trouble and he shakes his head yes. Then he pulls out flowers from behind his back. So thank you parents!! You da best.

Nine of us went to the cutest restaurant last night in Campo de Fiore. We sat outside, got drinks, and had some wonderful food. After that we went to a club (we were the ONLY ones there.. these Italians go out super late) and then met up at Drunken Ship (appropriate name) with more of the girls. We used “it’s her birthday!” one too many times… because I ended up skyping with my Mom, Dad, and John at 2:30 in the morning. Oops. Sorry family… when in Rome. At midnight, the DJ sang happy birthday to me J Being able to say I turned 22 in Rome and spent the day in Florence is amazing.

So three hours of sleep hasn’t made for a happy go lucky birthday girl today. We were all exhausted. We woke up at 6:45 and were outside by 7:15… caught the metro at 7:30 and then arrived at the train station. Well, we ended up on the wrong platform and missed our train. Off to a great start. 25 lost Americans stick out like a sore thumb in Rome. Pretty sure we looked like idiots. We ended up just having to find open seats on the train. Slept like a baby through the entire train ride. After finally arriving, we had to walk what felt like 3 miles to our hotel. Not complaining, I’m LOVING all of the walking but traveling with rolling suitcases on cobblestone streets isn’t so much fun. As we’re on our way to the hotel a man says, “are you from Barbie land?” Barbie land? Good pick up line Italian man.

A group of us went to lunch and I ordered eggplant parmigiana. So delicious. Of course we were all craving gelato and got some which was definitely not real gelato. Disappointing. We decided to come back to the hotel and take a nap before our tours started… there were 8 of us in one hotel room. Try one bathroom and 8 girls. 2:30 rolls around… we’re all half asleep and begin our tour. I’m pretty sure we were sleep walking the entire 3 hours. I couldn’t tell you one thing from the museum we went to.. other than it is called Uffizi. The building was incredible and there was so much to look at… but it wasn’t my kind of painting. We end the tour, go outside, tons of pigeons flock to us and start pooping. All 20 of us are amazed by the pigeons and Kyle says, “You all are more fascinated by the pigeon shit than you were with anything inside. Pigeon shit> Uffizi museum. Sorry Dad. We ate dinner at the cutest little restaurant. Kate and I shared bruschetta and a pasta dish. And the other table told the waiter it was my birthday and ordered me tiramisu J Oh, and to end this wonderful birthday we asked the waiter where a good gelato place was and he sent us to an amazing place. Two gelatos + one tiramisu= good birthday.

Florence, so far, is beautiful. Rome is awesome, but it’s too much of a big city for me. BUT Florence is shop after shop after shop. I’m becoming like my mom where shopping can be overwhelming. Tomorrow is a day full of wine tasting, olive oil tasting, and pasta cooking classes. Cannot wait! Till tomorrow J Ciao!