Florence was amazing!! I went this weekend with Amanda, Stephanie, and Cameron to Florence and on the way there we realized that taylor brown was on the same train as us and a whole other group of fun guys were on a connecting train with us to Budapest hungary! So it was so much fun traveling on the first two hour train with everyone, I tried to study a little bit and then ended up watching two episodes of lost with karsten on the train. Then we all separated which was kind of sad but a least we had an hour together in the Munich hauptbahnhauf. We reserved a whole compartment but unfortunately our seats didn’t pull down to make one big bed so we had to sleep upright for a little at first but then we realized the train was empty so two went into a compartment and I stayed in one with steph and Cameron. I slept on the floor and it was so warm by the heater until all of a sudden our heater broke and it started spewing out a ton of cold air. It was awful steph woke up too and we were both freezing, I put on my leggings and all my socks and sweatshirts and we couldn’t even turn the heater off it was full blasting cold air. Finally after like an hour the conductor comes by to check our tickets and I said to him excuse me, why is there cold air coming out of here? And he felt it and then said that is no good change compartments at the next stop. So me Cameron and steph all huddled together on the same seat with a blanket over us for 40 more minutes then changed compartments and then it was better and I got like 3 hours sleep!
We finally arrived in Florence (after a two and a half hour delay there’s itallian trains for you) and Katie and sandi picked us up (well walked) from the train station and led us back to the pepperdine Florence villa! We got to the villa and it was amazing! You can’t really compare moore haus and the villa because they’re completely different! But it was beautiful and huge and everything looked new! And there were awesome collages everywhere from every program that had been there! I loved it! But we didn’t get to stay there cuz the house was full so we had to find our hotel (hotel aline) but I was so glad the house was full cuz that made it even more fun because I more enjoyed the company there than Florence itself. Not that Florence wasn’t wonderful it was just so good to see everyone!! It was like a pepperdine reunion cuz half the lausaine and London kids were there as well as all the Florence kids! I loved it! and I had the best surprise ever when they showed us the music room and I saw my friend alex cox in there! He’s in the lausaine program and I was really sad cuz I didn’t think I was going to get to make it there this semester and he’s only there for one, well anyways I screamed when I saw him cuz I was so excited and surprised!! So that was fun!
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| This mural made me so depressed when I saw it!! I was so sad =( I miss Alex and Tiffany so much and I was wishing that I was there when they were there!! It felt like I had just missed them!! (they painted this of their Summer Florence art program students!) |
We found our hotel, which was a little sketchy but it was only 63 euros a night for 3 ppl so we were fine with it, and then Katie and Sandi took us all around town showing us everything from the Duomo to the David. The Duomo was beautiful it had such intricate designs on the outside, I liked the outside more than the inside that’s how beautiful it was. And then we went to the Gold bridge and looked out over the town and the water (apparently it’s the only one intact from WWII cuz Hitler looked at it and said don’t bomb this one it’s pretty, so they didn’t and it’s still there) but there’s gold shops all along it and then it started pouring and I didn’t have a jacket or umbrella so I was completely soaked and dried off in the museum where the David is. It was absolutely incredible. Never before have I been so impressed with a piece of art that people rave about. Usually I’m a bit disappointed cuz it’s not as great as I expected, but the David is a masterpiece. You can’t help but stare (mouth wide open) at it for like 15 minutes. It’s just incredible there are no words to describe it! and it was even cooler because on the way too it they show Michelangelo's unfinished works so you can just see that it all started out as this huge block of marbel, it’s just ridiculous how amazing it is and what it came from! I was totally and completely impressed!
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| The golden doors! These aren't real though! |
So then he’s a club promoter and takes us to this American club that has karaoke and darts but really no place to sit and me and steph are exhausted and kind of just wanted to go back but we suck it up and he takes us to club lockness where you have to be a member to get in and he gets us memberships, its so funny its got a picture of the lochness monster on it! so we go in there and there’s pool and fuzball and we just sit and talk in there for a while and then we finally get to go to bed, I’ll admit I was being a bit of a party pooper cuz I was so tired!
The next day I got to see jeff!!! We went to breakfast at this café they get to go to for free until 10:30 and so you can get whatever you want off the menu and everything was amazing! Pastries and croissant sandwhiches!! Mmm!! And I saw jeff there and I freaked out and ran over too him and he gave me the best hug in the world, he’s a good hugger, it like almost made me fall down when he let go!! So then we ate and decided to go to bubbly garden park!! It was just a few of us me, jeff, Amanda, and Stephanie, but it was so cool that so many people were there cuz we ran into like everyone in the streets and it felt like my hometown so small and everywhere you go you see someone you know!! And I saw alex cox and he was serenading me with songs he “made up” for me, like backstreet boy songs!! He’s so silly!! And then he takes my hand and takes me over right in front of the bubbly gardens in the middle of this huge cobblestone platform that no one was really walking on and he starts dancing with me and singing to me!! It was the cutest thing of my life!! And we were waltzing and then he dipped me!! He’s so sweet!! And funny!! So then we all decided to go to the bubbly gardens together!! And it was gorgeous! I’m such a hippy but I could stay outside forever!! And Florence was so hot and nice outside, I missed warmth!! And we were higher than the city so it was gorgeous to look out at Florence!! And the bubbly gardens basically looked like my secret garden!! it was so pretty and relaxing and then we found this perfect patch of grass and we all took a nap on the grass and the sunshine felt so good on my skin! It was just a perfect day!!
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| You are the master of wonderful ideas Jeff!! Such a good afternoon! |
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| Dancing in the streets!! You're so wonderful! Emeshae says: "So sweet... not to mention the two people I want to see before Christmas! Alex... go to HD next weekend... I will be there! Shannon... can't wait to see you! |
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| Favorites! |
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| had a cool picture idea and fell down in the bushes in the process of it!! |
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| Success!! |
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| Haha! You're so cute! |
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| boys are so funny!! |
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| I want all of you in my program!! Come to Heidelberg puhlease!! |
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| Candid stair shots! |
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| It looked way cool behind us but you can't see it! |
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| Ewwww, this is how sick the water was!! He wrote his name in it with a stick and it stayed like that!! |
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| So of course I tried as well! |
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| Florence! |
And then everyone else was going to the Michael bublay concert so they went to get changed and we were gonna meet back up with them for dinner so me and jeff went inside his favorite church which was amazing cuz on the outside it just looked like nothing but it was gorgeous and huge on the inside and just simple!! I really liked it! then we went to an itallian café and I got hot chocolate and it was so good and we sat and talked in there for a while and then we sat out and waited for the group but they were taking forever and we were huddled on the stairs trying to keep war cuz the sun went down and it got windy!! And jeff taught me how to ask what time it was in itallian and made me ask someone but I don’t remember what he said I just remember I was really nervous to ask! And itallians aren’t very nice at least in Florence they weren’t!! and then it was way past the time we were supposed to meet so we asked someone how to get to the resturaunt and we figured it out!! And they had just gotten there when we got there cuz they were running late and they hadn’t forgotten about us someone had been running to go tell find us but we must have just missed them!
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| Coffee and hot chocolate in Florence!! Mmmmmm it's so good it tastes like you're drinking melted chocolate! |
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| The archway?? I can't remember whet you told me it was called!) One of my eyes was closed in all the ones where you can see the top better so I had to just pick this one!! haha! |
The resturaunt was so good and so many people were there, me and jeff sat with these two girls neither of us knew but they were so nice and it was so cool to just get to know more people from pepperdine!! But yeah the food was amazing!! I’m obsessed with itallian food! It was like the first time I’d eaten something I liked in a long time!! And then they all left for the Michael bublay concert and me and jeff walked back to the villa!! It was so good getting to talk with jeff he’s such a good guy and I miss him so much!! There are just wonderful people everywhere you turn at pepperdine!! I seriously love everyone!! And everyone that was there that weekend was amazing and it just made me wish that everyone could all be in the same program so I could get to be with everyone!!
And we got to the house and went to gelato with some people at the best gelato place EVER!! Jeff and I shared cuz we had already promised another group we were gonna go get gelato with them but we forgot we had promised this group we were going to get gelato, so we got banana and chocolate the first time which was amazing! It tasted like a banana split!! And then we walked back and two minutes later went with the next group to get gelato and this time we got baccio and they’re specialty mencha something but it was absolutely to die for!! It was soooooo good!! Best gelato combo you could ever make!! And then we got it in a cone that time and jeff didn’t like the cone part so he gave the rest to me and of course I knocked the whole top part off and down my shirt!!! It was so funny was just sitting there making this face and bending over and everyone was like “what??” and then they were like oh my gosh Shannon, you would!! And then I was so sad cuz I had to throw it away =( haha! Katie kept telling me I was her favorite thing in the world!! Haha!!
And then we went back to the house to watch love actually before we had to leave and everyone was watching it and it was so fun we were all like sitting on each other’s laps there were so many people in there!! And then more people I knew came in the door who I didn’t even know were there the whole time!! And one of them was chris rahe and he like full on tackles me when he saw me!! It was so fun!! And then we had to leave and it was so sad, sandi, Katie, and jeff walked us all back to the train station and we had to say bye and It was like the sadest feeling ever! And then we went to the wrong train station and almost missed our train but we caught up with it in a taxi so everything worked out!!
But basically I loved Florence and everyone in florence and it was just what I needed to satisfy my missing my friends feeling!! It really did come at the perfect time!! It made me less homesick and really was a turning point for me loving it here so much!!
Luv shannon
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