Christmas Break

Well I'm back in Logan! It is quite a drastic changing coming from Cozumel's 80 -90 degree weather to, well let's be honest... 0. haha! I love the snow though. Snowboard time! Christmas break was so amazing. I spent the whole time doing things that I love :) traveling, live music, great friends, the ocean, scuba diving, sleeping in hammocks, Yosemite, and best of all.. FAMILY! :) It was really great spending time with my family. I don't see them nearly enough :( I seriously could have stayed in Mexico forever!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas as well! I'll put up some pictures soon

One of my favorite songs

railroad earth
through this railroad earth for whatever it's worth
singin' songs & stayin' high
& you know i'll be where my heart feels free
& my thoughts are free to fly
oh mama, please don't make me lie i need my freedom, need my open sky
in your socks & shirt & your bed of dirt with the midnight moon on high
& you know i've been where the midnight wind makes the soul & spirit cry
oh mama, please don't ask me why i need my freedom i need my open sky
through this railroad earth for whatever it's worth gettin' ' long & gettin' by
& you know i miss every single kiss as the years go rollin' by
oh mama, aint it good to be alive when you're mountain-top & feelin' high
oh mama, aint it good to be alive when you're down & rollin' free to ride
oh mama, please don't make me lie


I love this song. I have had it on replay this whole trip
life is so wonderful..

watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbwl1EzjHeg

picture taken at sunset yesterday. I couldn't get over the fog!

i sure do miss this girl! :)

Mr. Joey Papazian and I ice skating

snowstorm that we drove through to get here

picture I took this morning :)

Yosemite

Well, school is done! And as always, I jumped at the opportunity to come back out the Yosemite valley :) We've been here for a couple days, just relaxing, hiking, jamming, enjoying the company of great friends, reading and unwinding. We are staying at Mama Yo's for a few more days, then all of us are driving out to Lake Tahoe to see some friends play at the Crystal Bay. (on the one...check them out)

This semester was pretty rough. I felt like every possible thing that could go wrong, went wrong. I dealt with everything from friends, family, school and my computer (which is another story) and It was very mentally draining. Luckily, I had a good friend (miss Ally B) to help me through it all. Talking with my ma and Noah always helps me too. I truly believe that God throws us these challenges to make us stronger people. I realize this and I know that I have the strength to get through anything. I just need to be reminded this from time to time when I feel the world is out to get me. I have a great life, great friends, I'm healthy, my family is healthy and I am very grateful for it. I am doing a lot of thinking on this trip. Thinking long and hard about what I want in my life. Where I want to go after I graduate. I want to start writing again...and reading. I bought an amazing book yesterday at the Ansel Adams Bookstore here in the park. It is called The power of positive thinking. It's an AMAZING book..it is really helping me clear my mind and focus on the things that are important to me. I really love it here. My parents asked me the other day why I like Yosemite so much. I laughed and said, "remember how much I fell in love with Jackson the first time we went there? The goosebumps on my arms and the constant smile on my face? Well, that is the same feeling I get in Yosemite." Now they completely understand.( I get my love for nature from my parents :) ) I get the same feelings here that people get when they go to church. It is a very inspiring place. I am pretty bummed that I stopped writing on this blog after I came home from my Study Abroad trip but I am going to start doing it again! I may think back on some of the great times I had the past year and post them too :)

"Life is short but sweet for certain"

July 5th: Going Home

Are we there yet?!
Look at us tall girls with our matching Cambridge sweats!
We are proud to be American!

Well the day definitely didn’t start off as well as I had hoped. Last night we went and checked out the "so called" 4th of July party and stayed for 20 minutes or so. It was a little weird but I did meet a bunch of people from Madison, WI! What a small world huh? We all were pretty tired anyways so we just went home and got some sleep for the long day of traveling we had ahead of us. I could have sworn I set my alarm but next thing I knew Lindsey was knocking on our door telling Kaari and I that we were suppose to be leaving for the airport! We threw all are stuff together and got out the door in less than 10 minutes! I wasn't very happy. haha.. I was on time everyday on this trip and had no problems waking up what so ever but this happens on the day we leave! Luckily, Kaari and I improvised and washed our hair in the sinks at the airport. Haha It ended up taking us a total of 28 hours to get home. First, we left Florence at 6 a.m and rode a bus to Pisa. We ended up having quite a while at the Pisa Airport before we could check our bags so we went and saw the leaning Tour of Pisa! We didn’t have much time there but at least we saw it.
Our flight from Italy to New York was ten hours! It was a pretty frustrating flight too... people were loud and there were kids EVERYWHERE! We were all really excited to be back in the states when we got to J.F.K. Unfortunately, our flight home was delayed another 3 or 4 hours and it ended up taking us close to the same amount of time to get from New York to S.L.C. as it did getting from Italy to the U.S.! I have mixed feelings being home. I'm a little burnt out and ready to be back home but at the same time I wish I could keep traveling and check out Germany, Ireland and so many other places! I give myself one or two days before I start really missing Europe. What an amazing trip! I will always remember this awesome trip and the people I experienced it with!

Happy Fourth of July!!

Our group listening attentively to our tour guide
Kaari and I on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge
The Duomo!
The David! I wasn't suppose to take a picture so Its a bit blurry but It still turned out pretty good!! haha


Happy Fourth of July! I’m a little sad I’m missing out on all of Jackson Hole’s Fourth of July festivities but hey.. I’m in Italy! Today we had a tour guide show us around Florence and tell us some of it's history. It was really great. Many of the places he took us are places we walked right past yesterday without knowing the history behind it all! Florence is so unique..I love it. We went to the Brancacci Chapel, The Academia, Piazza Della Signoria and the Ufitzi gallery among a few others. The best part of the day was seeing Michael Angelo’s David! It was amazing! All 17ft of it! It’s incredible that something that was sculpted in the early 1500s can be so powerful and symbolic. What a great day…tonight a few of us are going out dancing at a 4th of July party! crazy huh? We’ll see how it goes. Tomorrow is our last day and I’m pretty sad. This trip went by entirely too fast! It has all been like a dream to be quite honest…somebody pinch me!

Tuesday: July 3rd

Today we spent some time wandering around Florence and shopping some more of course! J We also decided to cross of the Ponte Vecchio Bridge to the other side of town. It’s starting to really kick in that the trip is just about over and we’ll be back at home in just a few days. I’m so sad! It’s crazy we aren’t going to be in the U.S. for the fourth of July tomorrow! There are a few parties for it out here which is really odd but we mat go check them out anyways and get our dance on!

Monday, July 2nd 2007: ROME!!

In front of the Vatican

Roman Fountain

The Colosseum

The Pantheon
The group at the Colosseum
Today was an interesting day. Rome was amazing but we ran into a few bumps here and there.
We left the hotel at 5:50 this morning to catch our train and two of the girls ended up missing the train waiting in line at Mcdonalds! Luckily they got on another train and we met up in Rome. Our first stop was the Coliseum! It was INCREDIBLE! You can still see all the underground passageways and rooms where the gladiators would get ready and the exotic animals were kept! It was bigger and better than I thought it would be. It was about an hour wait to get in but it was well worth it! Afterwards, we jumped back on the bus and headed to the Pantheon. We also stopped for some famous Rome pizza and gelato. The gelato here is so good! I wish I could bring some of it home for everyone to try. The Pantheon was so beautiful. We were happy to find out that it was free to go in too. The best part was when the rain started coming down into the building through the oculus of the ceiling. It was such a great experience. We then went to the Vatican but didn’t go through since there was a 2 hour + wait to get in and we didn't have the time. I would have loved to have seen St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel but we later found out the Sistine was closed anyways. We jumped back on the bus and went to the Roman Fountain. It was so pretty! We were told that if you throw a coin into the fountain you will come back to Rome again sometime in your life so we all spent some time at the fountain taking pictures and throwing in our coins. We left Rome around 7 pm and got home around 10:30. It was a long day but well worth it! I HEART ROME!