an update on my travels the last couple weeks and what's to come...

When I looked at my blog and realized I hadn't posted in a couple weeks, I couldn't believe it. Which is scary, because I'm sure I will be wondering where the time went after the next 5-6 weeks. Since I'm always short on time these days, I will just tell you about the most exciting parts of my past couple weeks. November 7-9 I was in Ireland with all of my roommates!! My roomie Maire's aunt and uncle live in Raheny, a small town right outside of Dublin, so we stayed with them. It was wonderful being able to stay with them, and they were firm believers Irish hospitality, so we were treated extremely well. On Friday, we went into Dublin, had some traditional Irish stew, then saw the main attractions including Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and of course the Guinness brewery. Saturday we did some shopping in Dublin then we went to the beach near Raheny and to the small town of Howth. I think Ireland is the only place that can still be beautiful when it is rainy, cold, and windy! This past weekend we had our last "Lectures and Tours" on Friday and Saturday around Rome. Friday we went to Palestrina and visited the museum and site of a huge ancient Roman temple, then after that we went to Tivoli and visited Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este. Hadrian's Villa was probably my favorite...it was huge and it was so fun to imagine how incredible it looked at its height. And today I went to the Vatican Museums and saw a whole collection of Egyptian and Roman statues from the villa, and it was really neat to be able to think of the exact area where they would have stood. Villa d'Este has these huge gardens that are filled with beautiful fountains. Saturday we went to Ostia Antica, the ancient port city of Rome. I had a really good tour guide, the archeology professor who happens to have his doctorate in the study of Ostia, so I definitely learned a lot. It was really neat to imagine that I was in the center of the place where goods from all around the world came into Rome. Saturday afternoon I went on a long walk around Rome with one of my roommates. This is my favorite way to see Rome....just heading out in a general direction and getting lost. We went to this park that has an incredible view of Rome and found some other neat places. Sunday I left at 6 am for Florence! It was really a perfect day. We didn't wait in line for the Academia to see the David, barely waited to get into the Uffizi Gallery, which holds the greatest collection of Italian paintings, then shopped on the famous bridge called the Ponte Vecchio. After that we went to this small town called Fiesole, which has the best view of Florence. It was breathtaking, and we made it right at sunset so it was a great end to the day. Now I leave for Frankfurt, Germany on Friday for the weekend!! The next week should be great because we have a Thanksgiving banquet at the hotel, then I am going with my roommate Jillian to stay with her relatives in England and maybe Scotland. It's all downhill from there: one free weekend staying in Rome, finals (on the wknd too! ), then the Christmas banquet to end the semester. After that, I am heading to Austria from December 20-26! Everything is planned by Notre Dame and Saint Mary's students who are currently studying in Austria. There are more details on that coming soon! 

Here's a link to some recent pictures: Ireland, Roma, Florence

Ciao!