I have been so busy, pretty much going nonstop since, well May. With the end of school, Brandon graduating, going to Colorado/Utah then Italy, coming back, having 2 days then heading up to Denton life has been crazy. This is my first weekend since school started that I have nothing to do- I have all this free time and don’t know what to do with it! I was so used to having free time at Schreiner and I had people to hang out with there. But both of my room mates are at work and won’t be back until later tonight. Brandon is in Lubbock till late tonight as well. I am starting to go crazy here. I realized I hadn’t blogged in a VERY long time- due to life’s craziness- so I figured I would write a quick update to kill some time.

Let me start out by saying what a crazy and packed semester this is going to be!! My classes are keeping me so busy! (Which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but like I said, I have had very little free time.) I am taking History, DFST (a class for Education majors), World Literature, Political Science and Health. Political Science and World Literature are going to be the death of me! Those two classes ALONE make up for all the homework I am NOT assigned in my other 3 classes!! In World Literature we have to read and read and read and read! It gets quite tiring and redundant after a while. Political Science keeps me VERY busy because it’s a NextGeneration (or NextGen) course. Basically it’s what all of the college courses will eventually become.  In a normal class the professor lectures and you have tests in class and quizzes in class. In NextGen, the professor lectures sometimes, other times we do activities online, outside of class. We get on Blackboard and there will be games for us to play, quizzes to take, things to read with comprehension quizzes. It’s really neat to do something different, but it’s hard to keep track of all the online things along with my normal class schedule, but I am getting the hang of it.

My other classes are going pretty well. My Health professor encourages us everyday to find a way to make a difference. We watched this video yesterday in class and it brought me to tears. I thought I would share it with ya’ll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v632qGFWG58

We also watched this video in Health, and it’s just very interesting to see how the world has changed and what changes are coming in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHhVWCXmuzE

I want to leave you with those videos, maybe I’ll try to muster up some motivation and get some reading done. Who knows.

Today was the first day of classes, I was a little nervous- after all I was starting all over at a new school. I only had one class today and the room I was in is the size of the auditorium at Schreiner!! It made me laugh when I walked through the doors. The class I had today was Political Science. I am actually pretty excited about this class. It will different from my other classes in that it is a NextGen class. This means the class will composed of a few lectures, some online quizzes/tests and clickers- yes clickers. For those of you who don’t know what a clicker is, it looks like a garage door opener. It is used during class to answer questions- the professor knows its you when your clicker ID shows up on her screen. It is also used to take attendance quicker.

I am loving living in my apartment! It’s been fun to cook and sort of have my own schedule and rely on myself to get things done that need to be done. Very different from living in a dorm. It’s also been nice having Brandon so close by.

Well I think that’s it for now. Adios!

I thought I would dedicate a post to the strange quirks I have noticed about Italians. Here is just a short list of some that I have noticed- I will update as I find more to add.

You must be VERY specific as to what kind of water you want: fizzimente (carbonated), or naturale (non-carbonated)

They walk freaking fast!! I am a fast walker, and it’s hard for me to keep up with them.

They are like New Yorkers- they do not care if you are in their way, they will PLOW you down!

The Italians LOVE their Bedays!! They are in every bathroom (which by the way, their bathrooms are called toilets. And a public bathroom is a squatting toilet, and it’s called a “Water Closet”.)

That’s all I can think of for now.

A few of the professors have been keeping a blog of all we have been up to in Italy. It’s pretty neat, they update it more that I will be updating mine so go check it out and see what we are up to! Here is the link:

http://gellatographicdesign.blogspot.com/

I am a bit delayed on this first post- the first week here actually ended on the 18th, but oh well. There is so much I can say about Italy and so many pictures I can show! But I’m just going to put up a few favorites to keep you coming back! The airplane ride over here was so long! We flew from San Antonio to Houston (had a 4 hour layover in Houston), flew from Houston to Paris (5 hour layover) then Paris to Florence. It is absolutely gorgeous here! I have been keeping a journal every day as well as taking pictures every day and placing them into folders, one for each day. I am staying in a small but nice apartment with two other girls. We have a 2 bedroom, 2 bath with small kitchen and living room. Classes started a few days after we arrived- so far they are going really well. I have Art History from 9-noon (the professor lectures for and hour and a half, then we go look at the art we just studied) and Digital Photography from noon-3pm.  We sit in the room and she talks about a subject such as f-stop, exposure then we go out and take pictures for the rest of the class. The food here is so good! We went out to a very fancy 4 course meal the second night we were here (I took pictures of every course, haha.) Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip so far.

Santa Maria Novella- my favorite church so far.

every Thursday there is a flower market a block from one of the campuses- this was taken during my digital photography class.

VENICE BABY!!

I'm in a GONDOLA!!!!!

There is just a few of the MANY pictures I have from this trip. I got angry at my computer yesterday because I was uploading the pictures from Italy and it deleted a bunch from the Venice trip- and my 2 favorite photos were in there!! Grr. Oh well. I will write another update in 4 days!

I meant to write all this yesterday, but we got home later than originally planned, so it had to wait. For the past 2 weeks I have been in Colorado visiting family, and in Utah. We left our house on June 15th and got to my grandpas in the mountains on the 17th. While we were there we went fishing (the boys-Aaron, Tyler aka Ding Dong, & Eric- caught 20 fish! and they were delicious!), hiking, went to an AWESOME Rockies game and had some yummy food. We also went to the Greeley Stampede, which is a rodeo. That was a ton of fun, except for one ride… I have NEVER been so scared out of my mind as I was on that ride! It was insane! It was called the Zipper and you sat in a very small and enclosed space (the claustrophobic in me did not like that at all!!) and the ride moves like a Ferris wheel, which would have been a lot of fun. However, while the ride is moving, SO IS YOUR CART!! So you are flipping and spinning and swinging all over the place. It really felt like our cart was going to fly off! From the moment the guy locked us in I was shaking and I did not stop shaking until like 10 minutes after we got off. As soon as we got off I also started bawling, I was still so freaked out! A ride has NEVER scared me before now.

While in Utah we went to Estes Park, the boys and I rode horses (I rode some in Utah as well! ) Then we went and rode go-karts, and the giant slide. After that it was my favorite time- Salt Water Taffy time! We went to our favorite taffy and caramel corn shop and bought some goodies. Salt water taffy is pretty much the most amazing thing… ever. In Utah, our condo is right on the mountain. To make it more clear, you step out of the doors to the condo, and you are on the ski slope! Pretty awesome!! During the summers they have a little carnival with an alpine slide, climbing wall, trampolines, and rides for little kids. This year they had a few new additions. They had an Alpine Coaster (which I have a video of), and a zip line! I’ll bet you the boys and I did the Alpine Coaster at least 15 times (and that’s in 2 days!! haha.) I have a video of me on the coaster up on Facebook- check it out!

Lastly, I am leaving for Italy in ONE WEEK!!!

That’s right- I am got accepted to the University of North Texas!!!

Whoop whoop!!

As of a few minutes ago, I am done with my spring semester of college classes!! All I have left is finals which are next Monday through Thursday. Finals should not be too difficult. I am really only worried about my history final. This is short I know, but I am so excited that I only have 4 days left and I am done!!

This weekend was pretty much my last fun weekend until school gets out. This week is the LAST WEEK of classes!!! Finals start May 3rd!

Friday was a blast! I left my house around 7am and drove to campus to meet Brandon at his apartment. We left his apartment and drove to Dallas for his interview. After dropping him off, I drove to Denton and got to hang out with Kristen!! That was a lot of fun! I hadn’t seen her since June and we had a great time catching up. She showed me around her dorm (which can fit FOUR of my rooms in one of hers by the way. haha.), then went to the pet store where she bought some new fishes! They are so cute but one was being stubborn and did not want to go in the tank! I was sad to leave Denton, but I am hoping I will be able to attend UNT next fall and live with Kristen! I went and picked up Brandon and drove back to Austin. (I don’t know how this happened, but on the way to and from DentonI got a little lost but still ended up at the correct destinations.. haha.) On the way back to Austin we saw a car who had white smoke coming out of their exhaust pipe! That basically means something is wrong with the oil and the longer the car runs, the sooner it can blow up. We sped, honked, flashed our light, desperately trying to catch up to this car. He had no idea what was going on and no one else was trying to help! He pulled off onto an exit, but kept driving! There was nothing we could do at this point since he was now going a different direction. It was such an adrenaline rush! My house was full of teenage boys playing poker. Baker threw a surprise poker/b-day party for my brother (his birthday is tomorrow the big 1-6!!)

Saturday was a relaxing/homework day for Brandon and I. In the afternoon we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go to Art Austin. It was so cool! There were so many artists with a huge variety of medias. After that we walked to Paciguo (yum!) and grabbed some delicious Gelato and walked around downtown. We went back to my house, ate and watched House Bunny with my parents (they actually liked it!! SHOCKER!!)