Longest Day EVER--literally!

Last day in Italy, Last day in Europe :(  It was a sad one.  We packed up our things, and left them at the hotel to set off on our final day.  It also happend to be the same day as Britain's Royal Wedding between William and Kate.  We were just ambling about the city when we happened upon an English Pub that was playing the wedding so of course we made our way inside and celebrated with the other English tourists who discovered this little place.  I ordered tea and sipped it whilst feeling a little bit of national pride for GB.  Afterwards, we walked around and found our way across the island where we sat on the edge of the water and literally watched the boats go by all afternoon.  It was an awesome end.  The sun was shining, the salt water was lapping up and hitting our feet, and the view was something I could have only imagined.  Eventually we headed back to grab some pizza one last time and grab our stuff for the flight back to London.  We left at 11pm Italy time and got back to London at about 1am England time.  We went ahead and went as close to the gate as we could get at that time of night where we all opened our suitcases and redistributed stuff so that we could meet the weight requiirements.  We spread out some blankets and watched the british flick "Love Actually" while we waited for the night to pass.  At about 7am we headed up to the terminal and grabbed some food while we waited to be able to check our bags.  At 9am we made it through security and then sat with our carry ons inside and waited for the gate to be opened.  My flight left at 12pm England time and arrived in Chicago at 9pm my time (or 3pm US time).  We said our final goodbyes and headed out with our parents.  I then got in the car and took the 6 hour drive down to southern Illinois.  It was an intense day!  We arrived home at 10pm US time and I stayed up until midnight which would be 6am my time.  Essentially I was awake for about 48 hours.  Needless to say I slept well that night and the next day I began trying to remember what it was like to live in the US. 

Venice :)

First day in Venice was really awesome!  I think it probably turned out to be my favourite in Italy :)  Only bad part was to travel to any of the different islands we had to buy Vaparetto (water bus) tickets which were really expensive for public transportation.  Then we had to wait to get on the water buses for ever so that part was really annoying.  Eventually we were off to the island of Murano which is famous for glassblowing.  We walked around a perused the shops enjoying the beautiful day.  Some of the shopkeepers were really rude so I waited to purchase my Venetian glass from the main island.  We bought some food from the grocery store and the next thing on the agenda was to ride the water bus to the island of Lido which is where the beach is.  It took forever for us to find a vaparetto that would take us there, and finally we were helped by some friendly canadian women.  When we finally arrived on Lido we stopped to get gelato and then headed straight to the beach.  Unfortunately, that day it was super windy and sand was blowing everywhere.  When we tried to lay down the sand was blowing into our eyes and it was kind of miserable.  I walked along the shore because the sand wasn't blowing there.  The body of water at Lido is the Adriatic Sea.  We eventually picked up and made our long water bus journey back to the hotel.  That evening, we went to try to bargain for a cheap gondala ride but the best we could do was 25 euros each.  That is a lot of money so we decided to skip it and sit on a dock and watch the boats sail by instead.  It was pretty awesome.

Verona

Wednesday morning we got up and left early to travel to Venice.  Venice is a city that is literally built on water so the only way to get around is to walk or take boats.  It was beautiful upon arrival and I immediately fell in love with its uniqueness.  We arrived around 2pm and after leaving our stuff at the hotel, Amanda, Christina, and I headed ot the train station to spend the day in Verona.  Verona is the setting for Romeo and Juliet and a lovely little city.  When we got off the train we tried to find the related tourist sites but we had a little bit of trouble.  We went to the tomb of Juliet first, which was a bust.  The tomb was just an empty box with a bunch of graffiti on it.  So we asked the museum lady where the 'other' Juliet stuff was and she directed us to the city center.  We got to see a lot of the stuff that was in the movie "Letters to Juliet".  It was so cool seeing the infamous balcony and we even took our pictures posing with the statue of Juliet.  We also found the "Letters to Juliet" club place in an upstairs room by the balcony.  We got to read real letters that people across the world sent to Juliet and also write our own.  Eventually, we found a nice pizza parlour for dinner and enjoyed a relaxing evening before catching a late train back to Venice.

Goodbye Harlaxton :(

Last British Studies Final.  Last Day at Harlaxton.  Last goodbyes before heading to Italy.  Today was a day equal to an emotional rollercoaster.  It truly was bittersweet.  We all rushed through our exams and probably didn’t try hard enough on explicating ‘British National Identity.’  We had our final lunch in the refectory with friends and then spent the remainder of the afternoon packing and saying goodbye to groups of friends who were leaving for home/independent trips.  I took one last walk down the lane by myself and enjoyed more English spring.  I trekked out to the Harlaxton church (not exactly sure what kind of church, I just followed the steeple) and I got to enjoy the pristine solitude of a beautiful spring day.  My last walk up the manner was sad as well, it truly was hard to say goodbye.  Even now, I feel like after Italy I will be going back up to school like usual.  So surreal how fast the time flew.  The Italy trip students got to stick around the manner until Thursday at 2am so we ate our final meal together (fish and chips-I thought that was rather fitting) and then took a walk into the woods behind the manor to see the bunker that the troops who stayed at the manor in WWII used to practice.  I got some more lovely stinging nettle on my legs and feet so that was fun and I also scratched up my leg on a branch (I didn’t anticipate that it would be so far back in the woods!).  Pretty much just wasted the rest of the evening away before heading out early for Heathrow Airport.  I will never forget my last few glimpses of Harlaxton Manor as the coach made its way down the drive way and down the A607.  This place changed my life, and I was sad to see it go.