I'm terrible, I know it, and I'm sorry! I just get so BUSY and then I realize that its been days since I've even checked my email, let alone visit all of the websites that I love!
Well...quick summary. I finished my first year at James Madison University with a good GPA, straight A's on my jury, and a bang, I suppose (metaphorically speaking, of course.) I got home, worked for a week at Borders, and then got on a plane for PARIS!
My best friend Ashley and I spent 3 days in Paris at the Young and Happy Hostel in the Latin Quarter, which was fantastically located and fun! Many Paris sights were seen, many friends were made.
Next came Lyon, which was sort of a dissapointment- we were expecting it to be really fun, and instead we were bored during the day, and felt really unsafe at night. Our hostel wasn't very nice, and we ended up doing a daytrip to Grenoble, which was BEAUTIFUL and very relaxing.
After Lyon was Nice, which was also a tiny letdown, but only because almost every street in the city is under construction, or so it seemed, so there was noise 24/7, and the beaches were made of rocks! It was fine though, because we just went to Cannes for 2 days during the film festival. You must have passes to see films, though, so we just bummed around on the beach, and became delightfully tan. Also, we saw Mr. George Clooney, which was a highlight of my LIFE, let alone the trip.
We took a (horrifying) night train from Nice to Siena, Italy, in which there was no AC for 10 hours, we were in a compartment with 7 other people, and the men in the next compartment over were shooting up heroin. FUN!
Siena is the most BEAUTIFUL and RELAXING city I have ever visited. The people there were so kind and patient and willing to help in every way possible, and we just had the most wonderful time. We were very sad that we couldn't stay longer. While we were there, we visited San Gimignano, which is a medieval town filled with tiny roads and towers, entirely surrounded by walls. While we were there, we had the best gelato in Italy! (Literally. They won the contest for the best gelato in Italy!)
After Siena came Florence. I really did like Florence, except that I felt like I was in the United States the entire time! There were SO MANY AMERICANS! We did some museums, went to mass in the Duomo, and basically went and took pictures of all the famous sights. Unfortunately, Florence doesn't have too many student-discounted-museums, and our bank accounts were stretched enough as it was. We stayed in a hotel in Milan for a night, and then flew out of Milans airport at 9am! (10 hour flight due to harsh winds SUCKED, let me tell you.)
Annnnnd now I'm home and working for the rest of the summer. My other best friend who I work with is getting married on Tuesday (and the date happens to coincide with the mark of her 6th month in pregnancy, which is SO exciting!), and I'm the maid of honor, so I'm excited about that.
HOPE EVERYONE HAS BEEN WONDERFUL!
Favorite HHW moments- dancing with td, random music chats with jose, the old chat room extravaganzas on monday nights, the days of bevan, jed, ann, maya, and mark bakalor, ron pulliam telling me to "walk in the sunshine" (a postit note that i wrote down 4 years ago and still have!), julianas journal, and all of the crazy, crazy moments inbetween.
