¿Porque?

hmm... so i was told before i came that a lot of the rest of the world hates america/ameriacans. that may be true...but most everyone we have come across seems to be fascinated by the fact we are from the states and ask us a lot of questions about celebrities and different things about the country and its culture. only one time..i was talking to this guy outside of school...and after i told him where i was from he asked me "is it true that all americans are more stupid than the rest of the world?" he ACTUALLY asked me that. i just looked at him like "uh.. are you serious?" he didnt see anything wrong with asking..he just wanted to know. haha...some people.

so we went out the other night to this bar that was pretty cool... it was like fairy tale themed... and i know that sounds strange...but it was really nice and pretty cool...here are some pictures.






the sweden girls! Lisa, Mel and Matilda





the roomates!! Mel (waffle), Me (brewkay), Matilda (macaroni) and Em (kuney-kune)


em, roquel, me





we went to this other bar that specialized in having "themed" shots...like over 200 different kinds....some kinds that you light on fire...some kinds that you suck out some kind of gas...we tried one that was called a "harry potter" and it was this shot of something...with an orange slice on top that had cinnamon and sugar on it...and then they lit it on fire while tossing in cinnamon causing it to go ¨whoosh...whoosh¨and get really big.. it was fun.. and then we did one called ¨the marshmellow....where they give you marshmellows on a toothpick... and light this shot on fire and then you roast your marshmellow until its roasted...then dip it in the shot and then take the shot... they were all pretty cool. here is a pic of the harry potter shot.



Friday night was mel´s last night in town....so got a group of people together (girls from brazil, turkey, sweden and then us)and went out for sushi. It was really good for us because one of the girls didnt speak any english...so we had to all communicate in spanish... it was difficult...but really cool to see how far ive come in two weeks. after sushi we all came back to our apartment for a little while to pregame a little and relax before we did the "late night" going out. Lisa was playing music and i asked if she had any justin timberlake... and she put it on and i told her how when im at home... its a known fact if i have people over... there will be some justin playing over and over... and its like a justin timberlake party. and she goes "okay. thats it! im getting a facebook (we had been telling her she needed to get on to keep in touch with us) and im coming to the USA to come to a justin timberlake partÿ!!¨she was so serious about it...it was great. To help me study... i made some flashcards of spanish phrases and verb conjucations and random vocab words...Well... somehow this stack of cards was found and everyone thought it would be funny to go around all night with a spanish phrase as a nametag..and apparently had some sort of nametag photoshoot frenzy. one girl was passed out on the couch with a blanket on top of her and we put the ¨¿Porque?¨card on her... im sure its one of those "you had to be there" moments...but it was really funny... when we get pictures back from that night i will have to post them (or maybe not..)
anyway...it was another late night of going out that night too...after the photoshoot we went out to "pacha" some club... and stayed out really late. too late for me... im only 23 and i feel like im too old to be staying out so late...yikes.

Mel moved out saturday morning...then the cleaners came to set up for a new girl to come.... the cleaner told us that we were in the wrong room...and should have been in a bigger room...so we happily moved to Mel´s old room. muuuuch better :) Me, Emily, Matilda and Lisa spent all day at the Port Olimpica Beach...it was really nice


when we got back from the beach, our new roomate was moving in! her name is claudia and she is from Austria! no pictures yet... but im sure we will have some to come! she seems really nice so im sure it will be great!

oh yes! Emily got switched the morning classes...so thats really great that we will be able to go site-seeing or go to the beach together after class everyday!

in other exciting news....im going to FRANCE this weekend to visit my friend Ellen! im flying into paris on friday and staying through sunday. Ellen is a friend of mine from school in nashville...and she is spending the semester in Frace for a study abroad program...and when she returns..shes gonna be my new roomate!! Anyway, i didnt think i was going to be able to see her until december, so putting this weekend trip together was very exciting for the both us!

today, we spent all afternoon on this tourbus that has 44 different stops all over barcelona, and you can get on and off as much as you want all day....it stopped at all the main tourist sights and landmarks and had an audio guide in whatever language you chose to go along with it... it was pretty interesting! here is one of our favorite stops...Gaudi´s La Sagrada Familia. it was stunningly beautiful. here is a pic


tuesday is a holiday here in barcelona... not sure for what (i should look that up) -- but we are off of school...so emily and i are gonna spend the day hiking up Mt. Tibidabo. we are pretty excited about that :)

again...im running out of time at the internet cafe so ive got to go for now... just know we are having so much fun and learning so much and LOVING it! and we love you too!

mac and cheese

quick story

last night, emily and i were talking to our roomate, Matilda and her friend Lisa, both from Sweden.

brooke: if you guys come to america... we can show you some really good food...
emily: oh yeah, southern food....macaroni and cheese
matilda: macaroni and cheese? ive heard of it?
lisa: yeah...i think a friend of mine got it for her birthday once and she wasnt too happy.
matilda: wait...is it a place or is it a food?


me and emiliy: hahahahahahahahahahahhahahaha

we were laughing so hard we were crying... and even in class today i laughed to myself when i thought about it. i love our european friends. we are in the process of getting all our pictures onto a cd...so more pictures and stories to come

the adventures of brewkay and kuney-kune

hey hey!! we met a friend who has the same camera as emily...so we were able to charge up our batteries!!

we are having the BEST time here... i mean we really really LOVE it here. i could totally live here.... we are making so many friends from all over the world. new friends from Sweden, Holland, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Iceland, Russia, China....and all over really.

well...we are kinda obsessed with Barcelona...its so great. i just have to talk about the city for a little bit.

taken from my europe guide book...
"Perhaps Spain´s most un-Spanish city, stylish Barcelona is a forward-thinking place, always on the cutting edge of art, design and cuisine. Whether you explore its medieval palaces and plazas, gawk at the modernist masterpieces, shop for designer duds along its stylish boulevards, sample its exciting nightlife or just soak up the sun on the city beaches, you´ll be hard-pressed not to fall in love with this vibrant city."

AHH.. sums it up so well! some interesting facts about Barcelona. it was the home to the worlds only albino gorilla (sadly, the gorilla died before we got here). about 25% of the population are chain smokers (i feel like its even higher than that!), 90% Catholic, home of the 5,200 meter sausage (world record), official language is Catalan (not spanish...although everyone speaks both). The only english word derived from Catalan?....yacht. how random is that? home of the world famous art such as Salvidor Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Gaudi. Has the largest aquarium in all of europe. it has the Mediterranean SEA. home of Las Ramblas...one of the worlds most famous streets. home of futbol (soccer) team, El Barca, that plays in a stadium that holds 120,000 screaming fans. one of the most interesting things i think about Barcelona is how lunch is the most important meal of the day... and the entire day goes on a 3 hour siesta (nap) from around 12-3ish. literally...almost everything shuts down during those hours so people can go home and be with their families.

here are some pics of our apartment. the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, hallway that leads to the bathroom and the other bedrooms.














one of our roomates left (rowena from holland) and we got a new one, Matilda, also from Sweden (our other roomate, Mel, is from Sweden too). we Loooooove our roomates!! we are making a bunch of friends and hanging out with them every day. Oh yeah...so everyone told me that everyone goes out LATE in barcelona.. and that really is true. Saturday night, we went OUT at 2 AM and didnt come home till around 6. we had a lot of fun dancing but we dont think we really need to stay out that late again.

saturday during the day we went to a real life labyrinth! it was really really cool..and in the middle of this beautiful park.


On sunday we went to Sitges..a beach about 30 min south of Barcelona...it was really nice. i could get used to all this beach on the Mediterranean man... its so beautiful!



oh yes....we have a rock star neighbor. apparently thats what he thinks. at all hours of the day and NIGHT this guy puts on headphones and sings his little heart out...its REALLY really awful. the other night it was at 2 am and it woke me up....went on for a good 30 min... i thought i was gonna go crazy. it took everything in me not to scream for him to shut up.

last night a group of us went out..our intention was to go to this champagnerria that is supposed to be really famous...but we arrived too late so we are going to go earlier tomorrow night. since we missed out on champagne and we were already down by the port..we just decided to go out there...it was really nice sitting around, eating, drinking and talking with friends from all over the world. real friends that really really like so much already.


me, Mel (one of the roomates) and Em


me,matilda (roomate),roquel (friend from Brazil), and Mel (roomate)


em,me,mel(roomate from sweden),and hannah


Jasper, Renata (another friend from brazil), Roquell(brazil), and Matilda (roomate from Sweden)



being robbed/pick-pocketted is EXTREMELY common here. its almost uncommon not to get your stuff stolen it seems. our roomate mel had her bag taken from someone on a bike riding by...just swiped it right out of her hands. on the metro the other day, right in front of us, we SAW these young GIRLS attempt to steal a wallet from an middle-age man. they got it out of his back pocket and were almost out the metro door but he grabbed it back from them and they took off. luckily...we are told that usually they arent dangerous...they wont try to hurt you to get your stuff... they will just steal what they can get. its still scary though...

sometimes, i try to speak to people in spanish outside of school... what i was attempting to say was "por favor, puedes hablar mas despacio" meaning "please can you speak more slowly" but what came out was "por favor, puedes hablar mas desperado" ....hahaha i asked if they could please speak more desperately. oops. i´m learning...


we have a lot of funny stories and little inside jokes that we are keeping up with... cant wait to share more stories when i get home! right now...im really not liking the idea of leaving :( i wish i could stay all semester and really get good at spanish. Speaking of... Classes are still going really well, learning so much!

love love love to you all!

hey guys!

sorry its been a few days...but we are still here! not too much to report on...which, is actually really nice that its been pretty relaxing and laid back and not so adventure-filled. basically... we have been in school everyday...and outside of school...just hanging out and walking around barcelona and studying! haha...it may mean something when i actually get excited about learning and studying and doing homework again. hmmmm. so school is going well. the first few days were pretty hard and overwhelming...its starting to all click... its pretty amazing how i spoke no spanish coming in...and now im sitting in a classroom where only spanish is spoken...and I UNDERSTAND! its a pretty good feeling. Emily is still in the afternoon class...so we pretty much have completely different schedules. I go to school from 9-1 and she is in school from 3-7. they said she cant change during her first week, but possibly next week she can change to morning classes....which will be nice so we can have all day to go and do stuff around here.

We havent done much touristy stuff yet... i think this weekend we may go do some of that stuff. So far, we have really enjoyed just getting to know the area we live in. we live about a 1.5 miles from school....and we walk there and back every day...its a nice little walk...and its a good thing we did so much walking on our travels before we got here because it prepared us for the walking around we are doing here. ANOTHER good workout we are getting is the stairs! we are on the 4th level in our apartment complex (it says we are on the second floor...but here, ground level is 0 then there is a "principle" level...THEN the first floor) and at school, our classroom is on the 6th level!

The weather was really hot the first few days, but today there was a noticible difference...it just felt really good outside..hopefully it will stay! no one wants to show up for class pouring in sweat.

soooo. ¨futbol¨ is a big deal here...haha.. The barcelona team played its first game last night against Milan and we won 5-0. We didnt go to the game (soo expensive!) but a lot of poeple did go...its interesting being in a place where soccer is the main sport. but it does make me miss american football...im getting excited about the thought that when i return it will be football season. sorry europe. i dont think im ever gonna care as much about soccer as i do football. but know knows...david beckham just may change my mind.

emily went to the beach this morning with some other people that have afternoon classes (im so jealous!) and she said it was really nice...we are gonna have to go soon (maybe this weekend??)

oh yeah... the welcome dinner monday night was really nice!! it was at this fancy tapas place..it was good too! free food and free sangria. im not complaining!

anyway --i have 2 min left at this internet cafe so i have to go.

miss and love you all!

koala bears and calculators...oh my!

okay... so im gonna backtrack a bit to keep you guys updated....

during our time in Tarquina, emily and i started to crave a couple different foods we hadnt had in a while... cereal and milk...and chips and salsa. so we went to the grocery store to remedy this...we got cereal/milk..but it was interesting because in italy... EVERYTHING has chocolate in it...we literally found only like 2 cereals that didnt have chocolate in it.. we just wanted a good ole fruit and oats type cereal..so we found it and then looked for chips and salsa. we thought we found that and bought our groceries and went home to have dinner. the cereal and milk were great... then we moved on. oh yeah... we couldnt find tortilla chips so we thought potato chips would do. then we opened the salsa....to find out it was spaghetti sauce. the sad thing is...we ate it anyway. potato chips and spaghetti sauce for dinner. how strange is that. we felt a little sick afterwards. seriously...who eats chips and spaghetti sauce??

speaking of food in italy... MAN. do they not get sick of pizza and pasta and gelato?? sure... all those things are great..but for every meal?? every day? im seriously surprised everyone who lives there doesnt weigh 1000 pounds each with the kind of diet they are on. to quote elizabeth gilbert (eat,pray,love)...Italy is on a ¨"No Carbs Left Behind" diet. even breakfast...croissants and sugary breads and chocolate pastries. hasnt anyone ever heard of fruit??

as i said in my last post...we had a pretty crazy day yesterday. i think all the details would be boring..but the reason we had to spend a lot more money than we were planning... and what messed up part of our traveling and made it more hectic than it already was... was because on our train from Tarquina to Rome, we had a stop in this one town in between. Normally, the train stops for about 5 min at most to drop people off and to pick up new passengers. When we pulled up to the station, we could see there were HUNDREDS of people at the station waiting to get on (there are normally like... 5-10) and they were chanting and hollering and yelling.... we found out that they were a bunch of half naked drunk (hmmm im sensing some similarities in other italians we have come across on this trip) soccer (or ¨football¨) fanatics..trying to get to Rome for some big game. they RUSHED onto the train all at once (another thing ive noticed about europe...huge generalization here...but they do not understand the concept of forming a line...ever)anyway... they rushed onto the train without tickets and were being very wild and obnoxious and the train driver couldnt stop them all.sooo..... the train completely stopped. they had to call the police and wouldnt really give us any information as to when the train would be running again... we sat around for over 2 hours waiting... and then started to kinda freak out because... we had a plane to catch!! so... we ended getting a cab..and there were 8 of us TOTAL...to take us the rest of the way to rome...it was a little over an hour and it cost EACH of us 35€. yikes. an expense we didnt intend on...

so.. to spare you some of the boring details...a few trains and buses later. we were on a plane from Italy to Spain. the only international flight i have been on was from the US to Athens on Continental...so it was an american airline. This was a european airline and it was just funky. first of all, they sell things...all SORTS of things... from lottery tickets to stuffed koala bears to calculators....and every other electronic advice you can think of. Also, as soon as the plane hit the ground for the landing... the ENTIRE plane erupted in applause. ive never seen anything like it. do planes not normally make it back okay?? its not like it was even a rough flight or terribly delayed. then when they made the announcement that we were there everyone started cheering again. i couldnt stop laughing...pretty sure i was crying i was laughing so hard at this (think "two blue moons--PM" type laughing ellen, kristen, adam, dan and aubrey)...really...laughing like that was a nice relief when youve had a stressful day of traveling. man bus stops and metro lines later.... we made it to barcelona, checked into our school and made it to our apartment!

we are sooooooo happy with everything here! we love barcelona! we love our apartment! we love our roomates! we love our school! we love each other!

we are SO loving that we are staying in one place for 3 weeks with no more heavy backpacking daily :) Our roomates are super nice. both of them have been at the school for about 3 months each (wow!) One is from Sweden and the other is from Holland...i think its gonna work out nicely. em and i are sharing a room... and the other girls are sharing a room... we have a living room with couch and chair and tv, a dining room, a bathroom, a balcony, our bedroom... hopefully pictures will come soon! ALSO. praise the Lord above... we have a WASHING MACHINE!!! you may never understand how wonderful that seems when you have been wearing the same 5 shirts/pants every day for 2 weeks.oh and i must add that packing up a slightly wet towel into your things every day really helps the smell as well. Thank God for deodorant. i must say... emily and i have done really well on this trip as far as being low maintenance goes (not that either of us are anyway)...but i didnt think i would be able to live without my flat iron. not only have i not used that in almost 3 weeks... i havent used a hair dryer at all (thats right.. its just one big frizzy mess piled ontop of my head everyday)...and no makeup either... for almost 3 weeks. thats pretty good. i dont think i could handle a trip like this if i was one of those people who had to fix their hair and makeup everyday. thank goodness neither of us are.

sooooo... we had our first day of classes today!! we met at 8 this morning...for those who have had any spanish training...they went and took a placement test (thats what emily did) And those who didnt know anything (me) they put in a beginner class. they broke it into small classes...so my class only has 6 people total!! you either get placed in morning (9 am-1pm) or afternoon (3-7pm) classes. unfortunately...i am in the morning classes and emily is in the afternoon. she is going to try to get hers switched to the morning timeslot too so we can have the whole day to do stuff after school. she is actually in class right now as im typing this (free internet.. at school!!)

my classes went well! like i said, only 6 people were in my class...and its an intensive course...so they only speak to you in spanish and everything you say (well...you are supposed to) is in spanish. pretty overwhelming when you havent had any spanish!!but it was so good! i already feel like i learned a lot just today! it makes you learn and pay attention when thats all thats being said around you and you know you will have to talk in front of others. there are 4 germans in my class and one person from holland. and then me...the lone american. there arent too many americans here... actually, emily and i are the only ones that i know of. makes if fun to meet people from all over the place. thank goodness...no matter where people are from..it seems that everyone knows english (it makes me kind of embarrassed that it is ALL i know...when these people are learning spanish as their 3rd or 4th language). oh well...im trying! maybe soon i will start typing these blogs in spanish. hah.. probably not, but maybe i will be able to hold a pretty basic conversation after this is done :)

we are really impressed with the school so far...they seem to really take in interest in the students and providing a community feel. they have activities planned for every day of the week pretty much...so people can hang out and get to know one another. Tonight we have a "welcome dinner" for new students!

sorry this was a big long ramble... hope my style of typing (i kinda type how i talk) isnt too difficult to read and follow along. i think we will get our charger situation fixed soon... so hopefully pictures will come soon!

barcelona is just so cute. i dont think i had really any expectations of what it would be like... but we love it so far!

too tired to type

hey guys.

just wanted to let yall know we are IN barcelona... checked in with the school and made it to our new apartment. everything is great... but we have had a seriously long day of traveling.

today we took the bus to the train station, the train to another town, a taxi to get to rome, another train to get to another town, a bus to get to the airport, the plane to get to girona, a bus to barcelona, the metro to the school, then another metro to the apartment...

more details later... lots of adventures and funny stories.. but we are exhausted.

school starts in the morning!

adventure time!

where do i start...what an adventure.

so, emily and i took a train to Tarquinia yesterday... all we really knew that it was supposed to be a small town, kind of a etruscan town on the coast. when we got off the train... we realized we were in the middle of nowhere...we didnt see any town near us. we saw a sign pointing to Tarquinia...so we just started walking down this one road. it felt like nothing around us. We noticed it was pretty cool out, which was unusual since it has been so hot...we keep walking and walking, with our heavy backpacks on us..not really knowing what we are doing or where we are going. All of a sudden it gor really REALLY windy and emily looked at me and said "did it just get dark all of a sudden"...sure enough.. at only 2pm, the sky was a dark gray and the winds kept picking up. we picked up our pace a bit when all of a sudden it seemed like the sky fell out. im talking total downpour....but it wasnt coming straight down... it was like hitting us from beind...going horizontally because of the winds... emily and i tried to run a little bit...but the winds were really strong. i thought for sure we were gonna get knocked down or blown away. we saw ahead that there was a lone house on this road so we ran to the gate to try to get something to hold on to and try to block us from the wind. em and i just looked and each other, soaked, and were just saying "i dont know what to do"

then...i hear some yelling... the people were out of their house, on their porch yelling something. at first, i couldnt tell if they were yelling at us to get away, or what because i couldnt see their faces because of how strong the rain/wind were. looking closer, they were gesturing to COME IN, and they had opened the gate. i thought at fisrt they were just gonna let us take shleter on their porch for a little bit... and for that i would have been so grateful....but they INSISTED (in italian of course) and by using motions that me MUST come in. we were drenched and muddy...but they didnt care. they spoke no english and we knew very little italian (ciao and grazi are about all we could communicate...basically) but with huge smiles...its amazing how you dont even need words. these people took us in and tried to feed us...but we declined...we were just so grateful they let us come in from the storm. They were the typical Italian family. A mom and dad...in their middle ages, and their grown son, still living with them. they were all so warm and inviting. The mom was so cute, bussiling around making sure we were okay... then she made us some of the BEST coffee we had ever had. We exchanged names (theirs were Elena, Francesco, and Fabrizio) and that we were from America...on a trip. They were fascinated with our names...kept saying them over and over... i guess because they are pretty american names. they said my name like "broo - keh" (the the r rolled of course)..and said they knwe the name from "reality tv or film"..haha..

oh yes, i forgot to mention that the electricity went out as soon as we got there too.. so we were all sitting around in the dark, not really being able to communicate. so the storm seemed to be passing...the rains slowed down and they communicated with us that the son, Fabrizio, would be taking us to our hotel (we had shown them an address of where we were trying to go). so we said our goodbyes and plenty of smiles and waves and "ciao"s and he took us to the hotel. Its times like that when... complete strangers open up to you and show you grace and generosity that makes you see what is good in the world... and how 2 groups of people...who seemingly have nothing in common, not even language, can communicate and seem to understand each other. Emily and I agree that this was one of the best things that has happened to us on our trip...we are so appreciative of what they did for us... and thank God for their graciousness! we just couldnt believe it...it really felt like an unreal that these people were being so kind. We are going to try to find a way to get them some sort of gift basket or something and bring it to them (if we can find that house again)...hopefully that will work out.

Today...had breakfast at our hotel (btw...it is the CUTEST little place... its a bed and breakfast) and then spent a majority of the day trying to figure out the bus system in this town in order to get to the beach. first of all, none of the times and bus lines or bus stops seem to be acurate...haha.. but we eventually got it figured out and we spent most of the afternoon on the beach. it wasnt as PRETTY as the beaches on mykonos...but it was nice and quiet. this town is pretty strange. its like in the middle of no where (between rome and tuscanny... all the buildings look like they were built in pre-roman times. its not very touristy.. and thats nice to just be in a small town in the middle of nowhere...in ITALY :) there are only 2 "internet points" in this whole town... and neither of them are very close to us... so we might not be online to blog everyday... but our plan is.. staying here until sunday... then catching a train to the airport, then flying to that town outside of Barcelona..where we will have to catch a bus to Barcelona....then school starts monday!


oh yeah..one thing i must mention. EVERY single place we have been...we have somehow heard a justin timberlake song on the radio or on tv or something. hes following us. i think its a sign. i love him. ahhhh... haha...enough about that

emily has also started giving me little spanish lessons late at night before we go to sleep--to try and help me with the basics so i wont be totally lost and overwhelmed when i get there. i probably will be anyway...but at least i will know the days of the week and how to ask where is the bathroom :) well... my time is up at the little internet cafe... more later when we can.

love!


here are a few pictures i found online of Tarquinia...

chips and a gadget!

another day another dollar. make that a lot of dollars. no...make that euros.

we figured out what we are doing today...for the next few days until we get to Barcelona (and ive got to start saying it "barthelona"...cause thats how they say it there..so weird") Anyway... we are going to a cute little beach town on the west coast of italy for 3 days.. its called Tarquina...and we will be on the beach and just relaxing in this little town from thursday-sunday. then....we have a flight to barcelona... EXCEPT... we realized after we booked our flight... that it really isnt barcelona... its a town 2 hours away.. the airline tricked us!! it said "barcelona-girona" and we just figured that was the name of the airport or something...but no... its a town a couple hours away... and we will have to take a bus to actual barcelona. i felt a little decieved. oh well.

yesterday.. a good chunk of our day was dedicated to going to Vatican City. we have heard that people can wait 4 hours in line just to get in...but our tour guide told us that if you go at a certain time (1:30) the line is pretty short...and we only waited probably 10 min (to get in).








the museum was massive! i think we heard there were 1400 different rooms... so crazy... we had a little audio guide, but we were still pretty overwhelmed by everything. one of the things we got a big kick out of were these little "dont fall down the steps" signs that were everywhere...not sure why...but everytme we saw it...we couldnt stop laughing.




the end of the museum is the Sistene Chapel. wow. thats all i can really say about that.






from the chapel....we also learned from a tour guide on a previous day that you dont go out where it says "exit" but you go out another exit it leads straight to St Peters Basilica instead of having to go outside and wait in line again for that. it lead us straight to the underground part of it...where the tombs of all (or most..not sure) of the previous popes are. it was really crazy to believe how much history was in the room... so many leaders who have done so many things throughout the church...all right there. one dissapointing thing about being down there... was how disrespectful people were being. there were very clear signs saying that it should be silent...and people were being very chatty anyway...

here are some pics of some of the tombs. the first one is Pope John Paul II. this was really crazy for me...to see the tomb of a pope that i had grown up hearing his name all the time and seeing on the news and everywhere. people were still laying flowers on his tomb.




the next one is of the disciple Peter..who the catholic church calls the first pope. the basilica is named after him because it was built around his tomb. it was breathtaking to see that... someone who knew Jesus personally... his body was right there. it just was a little overwhelming for me.





the next picture is of a pope (of Pope Pius X ...but its also an example of how most of the tombs looked)






after the downstairs part with the tombs, we actually went into the church, st. peters basilica. it is HUGE... i can now say ive been to the largest church in the world. there is just so much to it... it feels neverending. but really awe-inspiring and beautiful.








last night we webt to dinner... and after my last experience with paying for bread (and seeing brads comment how you just dont eat it if you dont want to pay for it) -- the bread came out and we didnt eat it... and at the end of our meal they took it away (made me wonder...im sure the re-used it for someone else... thats pretty gross..they dont know if we touched it or not). anyway.. when it came time to pay...we saw a charge for something we didnt understand.. and when we asked about it they said it was a COVER CHARGE for the table!!!! not a service charge...that was already included..but a charge to sit down at a table! whos ever heard of such a thing!

today...we went on a search for a camera store (no luck...think we are gonna have to order a charger online or something) and a post office....and then we went to the Spanish Steps (and the Piazza di Spagna)









...then went to the Villa Borghese ..which is suppppposed to be these beautiful gardens. but its august...and all we saw was a bunch of brown grass...haha..maybe we missed something. we also discovered this little underground mall at the main train station at rome... so that was fun to walk around today and go to some of the shops and the grocery store there...(we are buying our own fruits/snacks to save up for the day).

we leave rome in the morning! its been good... really good to us. both of us are glad that we stayed around and got to relax and get a feel for the city the way we did..intsead of running around like a bunch of rushed tourists... we got to take in the city leisurely, at our own pace...and really started to understand our way around this place!

titolo (italian for title)

hmm alright -- a few things.

we really pretty much made yesterday a "day of rest" too... its just so nice to be in one spot and not have to be rushing around everywhere. Although, we did have to change to a different hotel. say goodbye to our little apartment with a kitchen...they had apparently already booked it before we decided we wanted to stay longer. sooo... we got a new hotel and found out that it was about a mile away..and then packed everything back up into our backpacks and walked on over to our new room. its actually not bad... its not in a quiet neighborhood like our apartment, its on a busier more "happening" streeet...but its also walking distance to everything we need! (internet cafe is next door!)



as we were walking around yesterday... we came across the Piazza della Repubblica, one of Romes more noble open spaces. In the middle is a gorgeous fountain with naked nymphs with swans. the fountain was built fairly recently, by roman standards. according to a guidebook, the women who modeled for the nymphs were a pair of sisters, two popular burlesque dancers of their day. they gained a bit of notoriety when the fountain was completed...the church tried for months to prevent the thing from being unveiled because it was too sexy. the sisters lived well into old age, and even as late as the 1920s these two old ladies could be seen walking together everyday into the piazza to have a took at "their" fountain..and every year, once a year, for as long as he lived, the french sculptor who had captured them in marble during their prime would come to rome and take the sisters out to lunch, where they would reminisce together about the days when they were all so young and beautiful.









soo..if you know much of anything about me or emily...you probably know we looooove reading. big time nerds really. anyway...when we were trying to "pack light" each of us only brought two books for our trip...which really...we should have known better. we have read our books and each others books...and we NEEDED to each have another book (in english) for the time being. we went on a hunt and found an international bookstore with a goodsized english section. yay!! by the way...the books that we have read so far on the trip, we HIGHLY recommend...definitely some of our favorite books so far. if you read...you should check out

Eat, Pray, Love - by Elizabth Gilbert
The Kite Runner - by Khaled Hosseini
Life of Pi - Yann Martel

so we each got a new book (the new hosseini book "a thousand splendid suns" for me, and "inheritance of loss" for emily...both supposed to be good!)

another thing... we found a use for the duct tape that everyone said you should pack in a backpacking trip...lydia told me "you never know what youll need it for..but you probably will" or something along those lines... so i went and bought some duct tape...and sure enough -- last night we used it! we have to use a converter to plug in anything we brought over into these european outlets (like the camera battery charger). anyway...it wouldnt all stay up on the wall and it kept falling down...so we taped it to the wall!

speaking of the camera battery....turns out, it wasnt the battery that was bad..its the charger! soo... now we have 2 dead camera batteries and a charger that is apparently broken. blaaah... so we arent sure what to do. i guess try to find a charger somehow.

also... a weird story...emily was trying to use a payphone the other night.. and there was this man at the payphone... and she was standing there..obviously waiting to use the phone.. and the guy just kept on talking..so she went walking around... and eventually, came back to the payphone about an hour later and the man was still there at the phone. But emily said she couldnt even hear the man talking...so she got a little closer...and the man was just standing there...making kissing noises into the phone. she was furious cause all she wanted to do was use the phone and some weirdo was kissing into the phone. i thought it was pretty funny...

yesterday we had pizza and pasta for dinner last night at a place across the street from our new hotel. they brought out bread with the dinner...so we ate it. when we got the bill, they had charged us for the bread! what?? i thought that was very rude...and if i spoke italian i would have said something...but i dont, so we paid and left...oh well.

today we are off to vatican city to see the vatican museum, sistine chapel, st peters basilica...more updates to come later.

love to you all!

ice cream of the crispy saint

yesterday was a day packed full of all sorts of touristy siteseeing stuff....and since we had a camera that means lots of pictures!

from our apartment - we walked down to the Colleseum and took it all in... hard to believe that everything we have heard about in history that took place there... that we were actually in that very spot..it wasnt some recreation..we were actually there... crazy to imagine 50,000 people in that place and think about all the craziness that happened there.









our feet...walking on the original 2000 year old marble floor....we thought that was pretty cool..thinking about how many people through the ages have walked on the same marble floor.


texas a&m... on the colloseum. gig em aggies...wow.



emily and i escaping from cages that held lions, tigers, bears, slaves, and gladiators before fights






after that, we walked to the Roman Forum and Palentine Hill...some pics from that...










then... from there we walked even further to the Pantheon





and then over to Trevi Fountain... where it is the custom to throw one coin over your shoulder to ensure a return trip to rome... and a second coin for a wish. here we are in sitting in front of it




at this point...we had seriously walked what felt like 100 miles... we deserved a treat! emily and i both read the book "eat pray love"...basically - this woman raves about this gelato place called "il gelato de san crispino" which we think might translate as "ice cream of the crispy saint"...our europe guide book also said this was the place to go... we were very excited to find it!



then... the long walk home.. we had been walking for hours and hours without resting... and we were totally worn out and everything hurt. we felt like we walked forreeever that day.. emily and i both agreed thats probably the most walking either of us have ever done in one day. we took a picture to show how tired we were...



we came home... and emily made us some spaghetti and we relaxed!! we declared today (sunday) as a day of rest... and thats what weve been doing all day... its been nice! to save money...we went to the grocery store yesterday and we bought groceries for all of our meals...its actually been really nice.