The following mess of pictures are my favorites from our trip to Greece. I can barely describe the incredible time spent in Greece. Through the university we were able to see sooo many places, museums, and sites. I couldn't have imagined trying to plan a trip there without them. I literally only had to pack my bags! It was fabulous! I have numerous wonderful memories from this trip, here a just a few:
1. 0uzo shots (yuccckkky but sooo cheap!)
2. gyros... AMAZING
3. Athens.. INCREDIBLE.. the ACROPOLIS- THE PARTHENON among other archeological sites.. just amazing!
4. Singing in the theater of Epidaurus, where ancient greek tragedies were performed. The most invigorating thing I've ever done in my life!
5. sharing in a LOT of fun with some of my BEST friends!
6. sticking my feet in the FREEZING Adriatic Sea
7. learning NO greek, because it seems IMPOSSIBLE!
8.... the list will go on and on. I have soo many memories! It was a wonderful trip and I couldn't have enjoyed myself more!

Barcelona

Hello, Long Time No Talk... I apologize to those people who look forward to my blog daily, I have been pretty weak, huh? :)
Well, here are some pictures from Barcelona. This was my favorite trip up to date. I looooved the city, the food, and everything about Barcelona. Here are some key spots from our trip:
SHOPPING, Beach, 500 SHOTS BAR, FC BARCELONA SOCCER GAME, Sagrada Familia, the Cathedral, and the Picasso Museum.
It was INCREDIBLE!

POMPEII

ART AND ARCHITECTURE FIELD TRIP TO POMPEII

We took a "field trip" to Pompeii as a class. After the three hour bus ride, we finally arrived. We ate our lunches in the beautiful sun and walked around town. We took in the wonderful fresh air and relaxed by the fountains until Liz and I decided to get some gelato before our tour in the ancient city. When we entered the ancient city of Pompeii, our group was divided in half and Dr. Flusche (my art and artchitecture teacher) gave our tour. The ancient Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed in 79 AD due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The town and population were destroyed, not by lava, but by raining pumice and ash. This layer of ash covered house, tombstones, and even people, preserving them-and we see these remains in Pompeii today.

FIELD TRIPPP

Every Wednesday we have a trip into Rome for a "field trip" for our Art and Architecture class. This past week we went to the Roman Forum, a place where Romans gathered for, well, EVERYTHING! The Roman Forum was used for political, social, religious, and even entertainment matters. It was so cool to be so close to ancient history, we saw ancient temples and arches which had extreme political significance! Here are a few pictures from the Forum.

With our school pass which

got us into the Forum, we also had free admittance to the inside of the Colloseum!! It was incredible! We were able to see below the original stage/battle area, where they used to keep animals and where stations were. I was blown away by the view! It was magnificant!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAYYY

Today was the Annual CARNIVAL PARADE in Marino, the town up the road from our campus! It is similar to the USA's Halloween. This festival is celebrated every year on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. This year it just happened to fall on VALENTINES DAY!!! All the children were dressed in costume: princesses, vampires, pirates etc. A few of us went to Marino to see what this parade as all about. We found a box with costumes in it. Some girls decided to dress as HORSES :) I just put on a yellow tutu! There was confetti everywhere, people had floats and even adults dressed up. The craziest part of this was the dancers. I feel the pictures I took are a bit inappropriate to upload, but there were 4 girls dressed in sequin bras and thongs. They had HUGE feathery headpieces and wings on. They were absolutely ridiculous and dancing crazily... I think Dr. Hatlie, the professor that went with us, was extremely embarrassed by this! All in all, this way a LOVELY DAY!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO EVERYONEEE!!!

SNOOOOOWWW IN ROMEEE!!!!!!

my lit trad teacher and me

Mariana's first snow ->
dr blues daughter and me
We were all slightly jealous of all the snow in the United States. The University of Dallas in Irving had delayed classes and people were getting off work... we were thinking "oh if only it would snow here"... Well, we went to bed and woke up to SNOOOWW outside our window. It is BEAUTIFULLL!!! The vineyard at our school is covered in snow and it is absolutely gorgeous! We had a snowball fight and our teachers and their kids played in the snow too. The weather is crazyyyy.. it was snowing HUGE FLAKES, then it changed to RAIN, then SLEET and back to SNOW. Ten we HEARD snow THUNDER! It was absolutely CRAZY! We had sooo much fun. Now we are drinking cappucinos and watching movies! What a lovely DAY! And it is the first SNOW that the Rome campus has seen in 20 years!!!!!!

ROOMIES

Mussels in Brussels... BELGIUM

We took an early flight out of Rome on Friday morning, putting us in Brussels around noon. We had to take a bus from the airport into the city which took 45 minutes. When finally arriving in Brussels, we found our hostel an gt our first waffle!!! I got whipped topping and sprinkles on mine! We explored the city and came across Grand Place and Manneken Piss. The peeing boy was funny, but he was a much smaller statue than we anticipated!

Then we went to McDonalds which made us feel at home! We had hamburgers and used there free WIFI!!! After using the internet and regaining our strength, we walked round and got some chocolate which tasted DELICIOUS!!! Friday night we went to Delirium, a popular bar that has 2000 plus beers on draft. The beer was AWESOME! Ironically, GOOGLE was sponsoring an event at the bar. We met a google engineer named Dan who helped get us some free drinks!! We also met a group of European guys who were celerating their friend Ricky's birthday!!!

The next day we slept in until 10am, checked out of the hostel by 11am, and had our next waffle by 12 noon. We spent Saturday walking around and shopping. I bought a pair of HIGH TOP sneakers (on sale!!) and a pair of SKINNY JEANS!!! Our flight Sunday was scheduled for 6:30am, and the gates shut at 6am. The first bus that leaves town to go to the airport is at 4am, the last is at 12 midnight. We decided that we would see how our night went and then make our final decision. Went to Delirium Bar again, after a nice dinner of MUSSELS!!-MY FIRST TIME!! At Delerium, we tried some diffferent beers, my favorite was called Cactis, a green beer. We decided to leave Delirium and try and make the last bus for the airport, and when we got there we could pile up and sleep until our flight the next morning.. (we didn't reserve a hostel for Saturday night because our flight was so early, it was just be a waste of money). We took the metro tram to the bus station, which our bus had alredy left. Because it was night, the bus station locks all the bathrooms-which is not good for 3 girls who had been drinking since 8pm. We asked some policemen who told us to find a bar nearby and buy a drink, and use their bathroom. So, we walked up to a nearby bar, which happened to be very UPSCALE with some very very nicely dressed Europeans. We headed straight to the bar. Cortney and I each ordered a "PALM", the cheapest beer on the menu! One by One we descretely used their bathroom. In the meantime, somehow, the bartender must have fallen in love with me. He started pouring me free beer and mixed drinks! We ended our night at the bar with 3 cappuccinos so we could wait up for the bus. We headed back to the station alittle after 2am. The station was LOCKED!!! and it was FREEZING outside! We finally flagged down some police men inside who kindly opened the door for us. This was extremely lucky because there were few people inside the station, we WAYY MORE secure inside than outside the station. We huddled up in a corner and waited until 4am, when our bus arrived. We took our bus to the airport, got through security pretty smoothly and hopped on our plane home.

Overall, the trip was extremely successfu. When we were lost, stranded, or COLD, God blessed us and led us to an alternative. He was right there with us the whole time. It was a perfect first weekend trip. We saw some sights, did what we wanted to do, and relaxed a bit as well.

Overall, the Belgium trip = A+