One Week and Counting

Hey guys!!! I'm sorry I haven't been able to post lately, you wouldn't believe the demand for one computer in a house of 23 girls... Plus we've been busy as sin with school work. It's a little ridiculous. I'm taking Teresa's advice to a certain point and not letting my schoolwork get in the way of my education. :) So far, we've been out of Sansepolcro three times. I've been to the neighboring towns Anghiari and Arezzo twice and Florence once. We had to be on high alert in Florence because the crime there is out of sight. Happily, no one got robbed and I got some incredible pictures of the most beautiful Cathedral I've ever seen. Alot of girls did some bartering in the market there, and one girl got a leather jacket for ridiculously cheap.
Anghiari and Arezzo are really really beautiful in the quaint little town sort of way. We went into a cathedral in Arezzo and they were conducting a wedding right there for everybody to come in and see. So we did. We also saw frescos painted by Francesco, you may have heard of it, Legends of the True Cross. BEAUTIFUL. The preservation and beauty is just incredible. We're not allowed to take pictures, but I have a brochure to show you when I get home. We went to the park after wards, and just sat on this mountain and looked across the valley. Dr. Winterhoff's wife got it pretty much in one phrase. She just said "God is talking." It was an indescribable sight, so I took alot of pictures.
Y'ALL. The Public Displays of Affection here are CRAZY. We're trying to take pictures of as many as we can. Don't worry either, cause there's no way they see us. Girls sitting on guys laps, completely like eating each others faces. I wish I had a picture of the couple we saw at the park. Cathy called them Brave Blind Dentists. Hilarious.
If you know anything about the materials we had to read to prep for the trip, you've heard about the different stages that most people go through when studying abroad. Supposedly, you go through a euphoria stage where you're super excited to be in a new place, then a irritation stage where the differences get on your nerves and seeing the same people everyday gets stressful, then you acclimate and find a happy medium to finish your trip. I am here to tell you that this euphoria stage skipped right over me and I'm vaccillating between acclimation and annoyance at seeing the same people every single day. I love the girls that I'm with, but close quarters get a little stressful sometimes. The only complaint I have with the country is that they don't eat enough chicken. I miss ketchup and chicken. However, I think I will come back in the greatest shape of my life.

Day One and Technically Two, I hate jet lag...

Soooo we're here! This keyboard different from American ones. Well we got to Rome around 9 this morning after an 8 hour overnight flight. My first word to an Italian was grazie, to the bus driver, because he put my bag on the bus. He said "prego." It was awesome. We had two INCREDIBLE meals here at the Servi and are now preparing to go to bed. The shower is literally like two feet by two feet. If I had a tape measure I'd confirm it. I'm a little homesick, but we're keeping busy so it's not too awful. I had gelato for the first time, incredible :) We were hit on once by Italian men after dinner. They said "Helloooo," to which we answered "Ciao, ciao." But they were not fooled. Immediately they recognized us: "You are english, no?" Maybe it was the fact that we were traveling en masse with no particular aim, maybe it was the star struck look we gave them as we stopped mid stride when they spoke to us in our native tongue. Never can tell.
I have learned a few other important phrases, such as "I'm sorry, I don't speak Italian," "Do you speak English?" "Stop" and "No thanks, I have a boyfriend." So far I've only utilized "thanks" and "very good," but I'm told this is a good start.
Whoever called me this afternoon, try again, it didn't show up on the caller id, sorry I don't have my voicemail up yet. I'll get on that. Also, if you're posting comments to these posts, I'm not getting those either. If you need to get in touch with me, you can call or email me at powellsp@meredith.edu.
I miss and love you guys soooooooo much! I'll keep you posted:) Ciao, ciao for now!

One More Day = terrified

Welp, I'm freaking out a bit more than I was previously. One because I leave officially tomorrow (because it's technically Wednesday,) and two, because I have to go to Meredith and make sure that my financial aid business is squared away. I know we all thought that it was, but we have been duped. It's my own stupid fault and I take full responsibility - or rather irresponsibility. Grow up, Spence. Get it together. My future will not be this scattered. My acting professor told me I have a scattered energy. My aura is very big. This may be because I grew up in a rural area.
Anyways, I didn't get my foot x-rayed because the machine was broken, so I hope my foot is not. I've listened to my body though, and I'm pretty sure it's just bruised. I know you were all concerned.
The real reason I posted this blog: Updates for everyone who wants to contact me via telephone while I'm abroad! I received a "Virtual US Number." This means that anyone in the US may call me at this number and will only have to pay the rate that it would cost to call this number in the US, instead of my real Italy number. I believe the number is a Fayetteville line? They didn't offer Raleigh, go figure, and Fayetteville was as close as it got. Why they offer Fayette-nam and not Raleigh numbers, I could never say.

Anywho, if you want to call me from the US and pay the same rates as you would to call Fayetteville, my number is:

1-910-778-1770

If for any reason you want to get in touch with me via my European numbers, (i.e. if you are ERIK and I am meeting up with you while we happen to be in Europe at the same time!!!), those numbers are:

Italy: 39-335-719-7665

Switzerland: 41-797-895 (I didn't leave a digit out, it's just shorter than the others)

UK: 44-790-433-1148

Hip, hip huzzah. I'm gonna be in Italy after a day and an 18 hour plane ride.

Pre-game Show

Yay, I have a blog! I've never done one of these before, so bear with me. This is like my test post. I guess this is gonna be a journal for me to let you know how I'm feeling about being away, show you what I'm seeing in Europe, and cheaply keep in touch with the people I love :) I don't know what other people do with blogs. Who wants to hear about your day to day life all the time? Only a stalker. Juuuusst Kidding.

So I leave on Thursday, and I'm freaking out more than I'm excited right now, because my FAFSA business isn't taken care of yet. So I'll find out about that tomorrow. Once that's squared away I'll be more excited. This is all I have to report. Oh, and I hurt my foot playing capture the flag. I jumped from wall to brick, barefooted. I'm gonna see if it still hurts tomorrow, and if it does I'll have it x-rayed. This may turn into Spence's booted limp across Europe. We'll see.