Video Blog Bonus 2: Emily as Eliot from Leverage

This is just a silly video we made from the Swiss Alps, it's funnier if you've seen Leverage the TV Show, but otherwise, Eliot is the tough guy from a con artist team who likes to wear beanies.  This is Emily doing her best impression.  It was taken on our last full day in Switzerland when we studied on a little bridge over a creek. Enjoy!

Video Blog Post 11: Vienna

Here is another post from 10 day, sorry it has taken so long, campus internet is just really slow and it was a large video. I'm sorry it is so long, but it covers two or three days of 10 day events and it is well worth your time to watch it all the way through.  It tells our wonderful story of our last night in Munich and our days in Salzburg and Vienna.  Hope you enjoy!

Video Blog Posts 9 and 10: Munich Parts .5, 1, 2, and Bonus: River Surfing

Hello everybody! We just returned home from 10 day, so now I am going to get busy posting all of these videos, hopefully to soon follow with the posting of videos from Greece.  This is a compilation of a few videos from Munich, the first (above) is from right after our arrival, while the second (below) is a compilation of two videos, one from mid-day on the first day in Munich, and the other from that evening (though I may have mislabeled it as the next day, it is from the first night in Munich).  Also included is a bonus video of people surfing in a river in Munich's English Garden, a very cool thing to see.  Hope you all enjoy!

Video Blog Post 8: Night Train to Munich

Hello all, 

We are currently on 10 day with three friends, hitting Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France.  Right now we're in Vienna, but here is a video from a few days ago when we boarded a night train for Munich, our first stop.  We decided to post videos from Greece later so we can keep you up to date on our movements here, hope you enoy!

Video Blog Post 7: Forum

Here's a video from the same day as the Colosseum, right next door at the Roman Forum.  It starts at Palatine Hill, the birthplace of Roman civilization, and moves down into the Forum, where we toured in the morning.  Enjoy!

Video Blog Post 6: Colosseum

Here is a fairly short video from the Roman Colosseum, where we went with the class about two weeks ago, right before Greece (more to come on Greece in the future).  This is the one and same Colosseum that hosted the gladiatorial contests and the like, and was an amazing visit with the class.  We also went to the Roman Forum on the same day, and that was quite breathtaking as well (video to come soon).  Hope you enjoy the videos and keep looking for more, as they will keep coming.  Any suggestions or comments are appreciated.  Enjoy!

Video Blog Post 5: Mondello Beach

I know this is a bit close to the time I put up the Palermo Market video, but we're trying to catch up, so they'll come a but faster now.  This is from a beach just west of Palermo, where Palermenians (Palermonians? Palermons? I don't know...) like to hang out in the summer.  A very nice place, even though we happened to be there in the winter.  Anyway, enjoy!

Video Blog Post 4: Palermo Market

Here's a short video of the market in Palermo, Sicily, where we went about three weeks ago.  Sorry it took so long to get up, internet on campus = really slow.....  Anyway, here it is.  Later that day we went back and bought  all we needed for dinner, (e.g. Swordfish steaks, fresh kiwi, octopus, pasta, and olive oil).  We also met a guy from Massachusetts later.  He had moved to Sicily to take over the family farm and helped show us around his awesome organic shop.  The experience was incredible, and we really wish there was "Smell-a-vision" for you guys, because the aromas are unbeatable.  Anyway, enjoy!

Video Blog Post 3: Frascati

Hey Everyone! Sorry this is so late! This is from the first long weekend when Luke was on duty. We spent the day in a beautiful little town called Frascati. This video is a little random because our day was kinda random and it ended so suddenly because some older Italian lady started walking toward us and we could tell that she didn't know we were making a video and she would have walked right through it. Thus, we wrapped things up kinda quickly. Hope you enjoy!

Video Blog Post 2: St. Peter's Square

Here's a relatively short video of our experiences in St. Peter's Square, one of the most beautiful and relaxing places in Rome, even when it is crowded with tourists as it was that afternoon.  Hope you enjoy.  (PS, the background sound is from the two fountains in the piazza, not only do the dampen crowd noise, making it peaceful, they also make videos difficult to shoot, but we did our best with the sound.)

Video Blog Post 1: Assisi

This is the first in what should be a series of video blog posts, simplifying blogging and making it more interactive for us all.  Hope you enjoy!

Subiaco- Part 1

Wow! I know its been a while! But I've been so busy! We honestly don't have a moment of free time! (Ok so maybe that isnt true but being the good student that I am, naturally, my studies consume me) lol... Anyways, the plan is to blog about what just happened because going back and recounting over a weeks worth of events at this point has been so daunting that ive been avoiding it. Which kinda defeats the purpose of keeping a blog, but hey, im trying...
SUBIACO AND ASSISI
I had a wonderful time on our trip to Subiaco and Assisi. We left for Subiaco on Friday morning, bright and early. All 105 piled onto two buses, excited and energetic. Needless to say, that died down quickly once we realized we had a total of 3-4 hours of bus riding ahead of us. Luckily those hours were broken up into segments. We headed toward Subiaco first, which is a small town near the mountain ranges NE of Rome (Note: In Luke's opinion they are not mountains, they are foothills. In my opinion...whatever.) There we visited St. Benedict's Monastery.  It was absolutely gorgeous. Only about 26 people live there now. Its built around a small cave where St. Benedict stayed and prayed for three years. We toured the entire monastery, led by our history professor Dr. Hatlie (who is a beast and knows at least 5 languages or something ridiculous like that) and got to go into the cave where St. Benedict was for three years. The energy in that tiny room is indescribable. You really have a sense of strong spiritual presence when you are there. Unfortunately we dont get much time to explore on our own after the guided tours finish so I only got to spend about 10 minutes in there. (small side note: guided tours are hard for me because i just want to sit and sketch for hours on end and when every inch of the inside of a huge church is covered with frescos i have a really hard time choosing what to sketch out really quickly, which ends up wasting more time before I finally have 2 minutes to outline something I could have spent 8 minutes on lol). Anyways, I have to cut this post short because we are about to leave for a guided tour in Rome for my Art and Architecture class and I havent posted something in forever so Im typing this up instead of eating lunch because I feel bad for taking this long. I'll do my best to get more info up tonight!!
Ciao!
PS- Luke is helping me set up an online photo album type thingey that will make posting photos and videos much easier. I'm in the process of working on that as well! Miss you all!

Look at me Mommy!! I made a blog!

Well I finally got this set up. Honestly the hardest part was picking a title. After brainstorming with my mom and two of my sisters for at least twenty minutes, I decided that just picking a title and moving on to slightly more important things like packing my suitcases would be the smartest course of action (or at least meditating on the act of packing my suitcases because at a glance the task is quite daunting). Looking at all the stuff I have to take with me and then looking at the two suitcases I have to stuff it all into is almost comical. Before I pulled out all the clothes, shoes and bottles of shampoo I'm taking with me, I figured the suitcases were big enough for ME to fit into. But, the more I add to the pile of "must have" items (like my 9th pair of shoes), the smaller my suitcase seems. Its as if the darn thing is shrinking. And it doesn't help that every time my mom looks at the collection of things I'm taking with me she just shakes her head and says "That can't possibly be enough for a semester", which of course prompts me to grab one or two more items I had written off as unnecessary. Needless to say, more posts about packing are a possibility in the future, maybe even a three part mini saga (entitled "Ode to the duffle bag" or a self-help mini series "Over the limit: My struggle to keep my suitcase under 50 lbs"). All i know is that I have four younger siblings and if they all sit on my suitcase and I still can't zip it, then I will just have to leave a small part of my soul behind in my closet to keep that fourth pair of boots company while I'm gone.
Here's to hoping it won't come to that. Til next time :)