Preparing for Sorrento, Sort of (June 4th-June 6th)

June 4, 2012

Well, I woke up feeling significantly better this morning. You may now stop your worrying and sending healing vibes my way. Thank you. This morning, I ventured to the local gym here in Italy. Kaleb and I are the "fitness nuts" of the group I guess, so we are now workout buddies. Unfortunately, his workouts are all on the erg (rowing machine) which makes for less than fantastic times. Fortunately, I do whatever I want. After doing Crossfit for the past seven months or so, I've gotten in pretty darn good shape. Or so I tell myself. But, Crossfit doesn't exist in Italy so I am having to improvise. My workout today consisted mostly of running on the treadmill and trying to lift weights by picking up dumbbells thinking they were measured in pounds and quickly realizing they were measured in kilograms. Darn you metric system. That being said, I'm excited to work out over the coming months and try my best to stay in shape. Gotta work off that Gelato...

After my morning workout, I took a shower. Surprise, surprise. Now without getting too weird on you guys, let's just say that taking showers in small rectangular places are hard. When it comes to shaving your legs, forget about it. I just shoot for like 60%. Following my refreshing shower, I had breakfast and prepared for class. Nothing too exciting. Italian was....Italian. We have our midterm tomorrow afternoon, so I will be studying for that all night. Well, actually I think we are trying to book our reservations for the weekend excursion ahead of us...so basically I'm going to study for like 30 minutes or an hour and then go to bed.

Tomorrow is Kaleb's (and my momma's!!) birthday, so after our examination in the afternoon I have been told that we are "going out" for the night. I think the whole crew of us is going, St. John's kids and all. Should be a good time. Side note/fun fact: I'm starting to become better friends with the St. John's kids. Yay. Friends in New York when I go to visit. So, I guess I should shout out to all my NYC people. (I know at least one of them reads my blog) HOLA.

June 5, 2012

Happy birthday to my beautiful, amazing mother! I am so sorry that I wasn't there to celebrate this big day, but I hope it was wonderful. Also, happy birthday to Kaleb! Two awesome people have birthdays today. Today was the day for our Italian 1 midterm exam. This whole study abroad thing becomes rather difficult when I actually have to study. I'll be the first to tell you it's nearly impossible to sit down and study in the city of Rome. Just not happening. I probably sound like an awful student right now...sorry to burst everyone's bubble. Either way, after maybe 30 minutes of studying or so, I took my Italian exam. I actually thought it was rather easy; I suppose in a few days my grade will tell me if I was right or completely wrong.

Tonight was the night that everyone was going out for Kaleb's birthday. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well today and Jenn and I decided to hang back and try to recover. We were aiming to be healthy for our weekend excursion. Sadly, we had to sacrifice Kaleb's birthday party in order to make that happen. With a few Ziacam tablets and one Benedryl, I dozed off into a deep sleep hoping to wake up on the other side feeling rested and ready to go.

June 6, 2012

Tomorrow we leave for our weekend excursion to Sorrento, Italy. And, tomorrow is my birthday. Best. Birthday. Ever. Today was supposed to be a "get ready for the weekend day"...not so much. I ended up watching UF lectures for most of the day. After class, Kaleb and I went to the gym for a workout and then headed to the supermarket to pick up some things for a quick dinner. Prosciutto ravioli, mashed potatoes, and oranges. Not the most impressive dinner I've thrown together, but still pretty tasty. While we were cooking dinner, we were joined by the 3rd floor St. John's kids. Most of the guys are pretty impressed by my cooking so far ;) I was invited to play cards downstairs and watch the soccer game with everyone, so I opted to do that instead of packing. Hindsight 20/20: probably should've packed some that night. Cards was fun though. I played a new game called "31", similar to the game of Blackjack and Spoons (for those of you that play cards) and ended up winning the entire game. Beginner's luck? I don't know. One of the guys, John, actually crafted a meme for me (seen above) about this particular event. If you don't know what memes are...don't worry about it. Not critical to understanding the rest of my future blogs :) I was treated to a victory Gelato by one of the guys, Darren. I had melon and strawberry again...by far my favorite combination yet.

As midnight approached here in Rome, I knew I was somewhat cheating by celebrating my birthday "early". In the states it was only 6 o'clock, but here, it was officially my birthday. At exactly midnight in Rome, my momma and daddy sang to me over Facetime and they were followed shortly thereafter by Jennifer, Katie, and Melissa singing to me in person. If that didn't make me feel special enough, Darren surprised me with a birthday rose from one of the creepy vendors on the street (Brave man). At midnight on June 6th/June 7th, I felt like a very special lady. I was looking forward to traveling to Sorrento tomorrow and starting a wonderful birthday weekend in Italy.