First let me start out with a tour of my new apartment! Unfortunately I was unable to place it here on this site but visit http://oregonstate.edu/~ouelletd and look for Italian Vacation.

This weekend was spent as a wellness weekend. It was much needed becasue homesicknes, new job anxieties, and living out of suitcase was makeing me insane. Elyssa, A friend that I have known since freshman year, made her way around europe with her family. So i took a day off and traveled down to florence on the train with a eurorail pass. Only cost me around 35 euros for a roundtrip ticket. I suggest eurorail to everyone, the only downside was that it took a lon time to get there. It took about 11 hours to get there but gave me plentyof time to burn through harry poter 2 book.

I arrived about 7pm in pisa and met up with elyssa and her family. They were so nice and so friendly. They spent the day in pisa, which was not recomendable. besides the leaning tower there was nothing esle there. really sad cause of how run down the city was. That night they took me back to their hacienda inbetween pisa and florence and had a delicious dinner. Oh how I love the pasta, wine, and GELATO!!!!

Next day we made our way to florence and I tried bieng a tour guide for them to the best of my ability. made our wat to the ufizi museum which was one place that I have not visited yet. We mad our way through the museum and about an hour in Elyssa and myself were getting a bit drained. We stopped by the cafe and grabbed a couple of coffees with liquer. Was great energy boost plus made the museum a bit more interesting. Afterwards I led them down around famous bridges and statues giving the historic background of Leonardo and Michaelangelo. Sat down for lunch in a small plaza and had some delicious pasta along with tasty wine.

It was great just to be with friends from home. A weekend that was needed for my sanity. the weather was beautiful and was perfect getaway. Sunday was my goodbyes and another 12 hours back home. Love the fact that I can go to another country only three hours away.

Now it time to get ready for work. Take care all