I'm officially a studentessa. I started school on Tuesday, but was supposed to start on Monday. No, I was not skipping to be on the island of Elba. I just pulled a typical Jen move, and somehow thought I was supposed to start Tuesday. It didn't matter though, I really didn't miss much on Monday. My teacher's name is Silvio, and he's 29. He's funny ( Read more... )

Kelsie and I have been wanting to get to a beach since we got to Italy, so we started asking around as to where the best beaches were. We were told the island of Elba. We did some research and discovered that it was not only close, but cheap! Kelsie invited his whole class to come along, and after a little planning we had ourselves a nice little ( Read more... )

We got a postcard from Sandy today. Thank you! Ratings for favourite step-sister are in: you win Sandy! Just kidding Trish...I love you both equally. Thanks for the postings online, by the way. They make my day whenever I read them ( Read more... )

On the weekend Kelsie's professor organized an art field trip. We started the morning in the town of Arezzo. I think it was like 2 hours away, but I was sleeping so I don't really know. The few times I woke up and looked out the window I saw beautiful Tuscan hills, with quaint little villas perched at the top. There were rows of pine trees and ( Read more... )

I've often heard people say that Canadians are identifiable when travelling because of their patience and their politeness. Hmph. Strange that these are the two qualities quickly slipping away from me in this ridiculously busy, pushy, and crowded city. While talking about "business" in Italy the other day, Kelsie informed me that Italy has a ( Read more... )

Last Saturday Kelsie and I went to Lucca, this beautiful old city about an hour away from Florence. I have never seen any city quite like it. First of all, I think I enjoyed it because it was a nice break from the chaos of Florence. Everyone wandered at a leisurely pace, and you didn't need to worry about dodging vespas or cars. I actually knew I ( Read more... )

Kelsie and I went to the Mercato Centrale today to get our fresh produce and had quite the time. I got fresh salami, asiago, and brie. We went upstairs where the vegetables are, and a cute Italian woman started talking to us in Italian trying to get us to buy all her zuchinni. She kept saying "capisce??" and caressing my face warmly. We managed to ( Read more... )

I can't post pictures on this journal because you have to pay twenty bucks a year......so I have a site set up with flickr. I won't be able to post all the photos since there's a monthly limit, but i'll do my best ( Read more... )

I bet you're all wondering what our little Italian apartment looks like. Well wonder no longer! First of all, our apartment is much bigger than we had anticipated. That, however, is not saying much. It is quite small, but perfectly suited to us ( Read more... )

Okay, so we arrived in Rome just before lunch. We slept the entire flight since we hadn't slept during the night at the airport, so I guess it was a good flight! After we touched down we made our way to the Passport check lines, and oh my, what an experience that was. We stood in line for like an hour - apparently we chose the wrong line because ( Read more... )