Goodbye Paderno del Grappa...

Well today is December 6^th and I am on my way back to Arkansas! I always knew that this would be my last day in Italy/Europe (since I leave at 4 am tomorrow) but I don’t think I realized how much of an impact this day would have on me. I am sitting here in my room, waiting for my taxi to come in a little while and as much as I want to say I am excited to be home, I am also a little scared and sad. Being in Italy this last semester has helped me to not only become a world traveler but it has also helped me to develop as a person. I am now more aware of different peoples views/ways of doing things and I have more acceptance for them. Even though I wont miss waking up in my room freezing at night, or having to take scalding hot showers some mornings, there are a lot of things I will miss about Paderno del Grappa. To start I am going to miss all of the friends that I have made. We are all from different areas of the states so I know it will be hard to meet up, but hopefully we will find time to do it. Also, I never thought I would say it but I think I might miss some of the cafeteria food. I’ve never eaten so much pasta and red sauce in my life… but it was actually starting to grow on me. Ha! I’m going to miss being able to just go to Bassano and jump on a train, or getting a super cheap flight to another country. I have been fortunate enough to see lots of Europe, but there is still SO much more that I would like to see… Overall this semester has been amazing and I wouldn’t change one thing about it. I will always remember PdG, not just because of CIMBA and all of the great friends I have made but also the Prosecco, Al Sole, late night gelato and Tabacchi 1 and 2…

Okay… now also, I know that I just wrote about how much I was going to miss Paderno del Grappa, but now I am trying to look ahead and see how things are going to be back home. I am really excited to be back home and see my family and friends.. but at the same time I am scared. I have been gone for a semester and so I know that I have missed out on a lot of things and I just hope that it isn’t too hard for me. I ask for you all to pray for me in making the adjustments of being back home. I know that it is going to be a new challenge in my life and that I will be able to make it through; I just hope that it isn’t too hard on me. I have heard that when people go home from studying abroad they get more homesick then they were when they were actually away from home. As much as I want things to be just like they were when I left, I know they won’t be and that is just something I have to accept and begin to adapt to.

I would also like to put in a few thank yous to some of the people that made this semester so great. First, thanks SOOOO much to mom and dad for letting me have this experience. I know that none of this would have been possible if you weren’t behind me 100%. I am so thankful that you all have let me (and also Areta and Cara) have this experience, and maybe you will let me come again?!? Second, I would like to say thanks to Suzannah for coming with me. Last fall when I decided to study abroad I was a little hesitant because I wasn’t sure if I could do it alone. Thankfully Suzannah felt like she wanted to come too and so we did. Thanks Suzannah for traveling all across Europe with me… I couldn’t have done it without you, and some things probably would not have been as fun or funny if you hadn’t been with me. Hah. I would also like to thank Areta for being my personal secretary while I was gone. The internet in PdG is super slow, and so Areta was always there to look things up for me or even call and check my voicemail. I am so glad that you took time out of your busy workday to help me… Can’t wait to come visit in a few weeks! I also want to say thanks to Strigs, Laura, Courtney and Kelsi and lots of my other friends from home. Yall might not realize it, but the simple phone calls, emails, fbk messages or wall posts always made me so excited! It was hard to be away from all of you, but in just a few hours I will be back!!! I am sure that there are probably 10000 other people that I should say something to, but I am running out of time, and this is starting to get a little long.

I am not sure if I will continue to update my blog over the next few months or not. Since I made it just for my time in Italy, I hadn’t really planned on keeping up with it. But, once I get home I will have much faster internet and I might actually be able to add stories, etc from my various trips.

Thanks again for keeping up with me while I was gone.

Love, Blair

Pictures!

Here are most of the pictures from my trip last weekend! I also added pictures from some of the formal dinners we have around Paderno.

Rome

Vatican

Pompei

Formal Dinners

Rome & Pompei

Happy late Thanksgiving! I am just getting back from my weekend trip to Rome and Pompei and wanted to give yall an update on how things are... My trip to Rome was so much fun and for the most part we had great weather! We got to see all the major sites, and enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving meal at the Hard Rock Cafe!! Saturday we got up and took a trip to Pompei for the afternoon and then today we took the long train ride home.

Facebook has been blocked at school, so right now I am only going to put up a few of the main pictures. Once we figure out the whole facebook situation, I will be sure to give yall the links to all of my pictures from my trip.

Touring the Colosseum!

The group for the day!

At the Vatican! The weather wasnt that great, but it was SOOO pretty!

Trowing our coins into the Trevi Fountain! 1=good luck. 2=return trip to Europe. 3=fall in love and return to Rome... This picture makes me laugh because--first of all, that is probably the same motion/face I make when serving in tennis; and second of all, I think that we were supposed to do it with our right arm over our left shoulder. O well. It's the thought that counts!

Just a few of the bodies found in Pompei.

The group of us in some stadium thing in Pompei.

Snow in Italy!!

Well so today I got up and got ready just like I usually do... except when I opened my window to see what it looked like outside i saw snow!!! There was actually quite a lot on the ground (compared to what I usually see in November. aka none) and it was coming down pretty hard... now it has stopped and it is starting to melt away, but it was still pretty exciting. Here are some pictures out my windows... I will try and get some good pictures of the mountains later.

Barcelona, Dublin & Berlin

For my second travel break I went to Barcelona, Dublin and Berlin. I had a great time but now I'm having to get back in the school mode again... Once again I am going to just post the links to my pictures... Maybe one day I will have time to come back and write about them... I am starting to get super busy with school work... and I only have 18 days till I get home... This semester has FLOWN by.

Enjoy!

Barcelona

Dublin

Berlin

Concentration Camp

Weekend in Venice!

Last weekend I had the chance to go back to Venice... I was excited to just be able to wonder around and see all the things I hadn't seen during the few days I was there back in September (when it was SO hot and Suzannah and I thought we were going to die from carrying all our bags)...

We thought it was going to rain the whole weekend, but the weather turned out to be perfect and I absolutely loved it... One of the best parts of the weekend was getting to experience Venice during a 'flood'. Even though I am a little sad that my shoes probably aren't going to be returning to Arkansas with me, it was a once in a lifetime experience and I can now say that I've been in the water in Venice!

More Pictures from Venice

Florence & Pisa

Here are some of the pictures from my weekend trip to Florence and Pisa... I promise that one of these days I will be able to write about my actual trips and not just give you the link... but for now this will have to work.

Pictures!

London, Amsterdam, and Prague in 9 days

Well I just got back from my first travel break and it was AMAZING... We got 9 days off from school, and in those 9 days I was able to go to London, Amsterdam and Prague. Even thought I didnt get to see all the sites in each of the cities, I was able to see most of them and have an absolute blast! I have lots of stories from each of the cities, but once again I dont have enough time to write about them.... maybe one of these days I will be able to write more about all the places I've been.

Here are the links to the pictures.

Enjoy!

London Part 1

London Part 2

Amsterdam

Prague Part 1

Prague Part 2

Prague Part 3

Cinque Terre

Okay so this past weekend I was lucky enough to get to go to Cinque Terre. It was absolutely amazing and the weather was wonderful! I was only there for a little under two days but I still got to enjoy it. We hiked the trails between all of the cities, and even though there were points I thought I wasn't going to make it, or where I literally felt like I was going to die, we made it and I am so glad we did. Once again I don't really have time to upload pictures on here, but here are the links to some of my pictures in case you weren't able to see them already.

This weekend/week I am going to London, Amsterdam, and Prague, so be expecting lots of pictures in about two weeks!

Part 1

Part 2

Pictures!

Okay so I haven't really had much time to write on here or load any pictures so I figured I would just post these links so that way you can see what I have been up to....

Venice

Paderno

Trieste

Milan

I made it!

Well so on September 4th, Suzannah and I headed off for Italy. Here is a picture of us at the airport. hah. obviously mixed emotions.

We had a few problems at the airport and then once we actually arrived in Venice, but we made it and for the two days we were in Venice we covered lots of ground.

After just another water taxi, train, and taxi ride we made it to school. Mom and Dad were with us to help us get settled in, before they went on and continued their stay in Europe before heading home.
This is the view from my bedroom.... if I lean out the window a little bit. I didnt get the best of views, but o well.
This is my room. Not quite like Maple Hill, but I guess it will have to work for the 3 months I am here... There isnt any air conditioning and not many plug-ins but I guess I will have to work around all that.

This is the view from my bathroom window. Italy is so pretty!
I started class today and I have about a billion other things I have to do, but I figured I would update and let you know I made it. Hope you all enjoyed seeing just a few of my pictures. Hopefully there will be more to come. 

Skype is AMAZING!

Okay so I have always known that skype was good, but tonight I realized it is AMAZING! (if you dont have it, get it on your computer... it's free to download, and then we can "talk" or video chat while I'm gone)... Well so the thing that makes it even more amazing than usual is that I was able to get an "online number." It's a local number and so people can call it just as if they were calling my regular cell phone number. I know that I will be 7 hours ahead of everyone here and so it will be a little hard to actually find time to talk on the "phone" but I still think that this will help SO much. Send me an email or something if you would like me to give you the number so you can call and "check up on me" while I'm gone!! I'm super excited!

More from the last few weeks...

I had some trouble getting everything to work in that last post so I decided that two posts would work just fine.

We had been planning on taking a trip to Amelia's Island to meet up with Cara for the weekend, but tropical storm Faye changed those plans. Friday afternoon, after finding out that our flights to Jacksonville had been cancelled, we decided that a road trip to Atlanta would work just as good. Areta, Allen, and I were able to get there on Friday in time to go to the Falcons' game before Cara joined us the next day. We got to stay at an AMAZING hotel and basically just spent the weekend relaxing and spending time together. ha! One of my favorite things was going to the Coca Cola museum and getting to sample all the different coke products from around the world. I definitely wont be drinking any Beverly while I am in Italy.

VOTE FOR MY MOM!!! Well my mom is running for school board again. I wont be here this fall to help campaign for her, but I was able to vote! Here's a picture of me voting for the first time via absentee ballot! VOTE FOR JEANIE HILL!

The last few weeks..

So I figured that since I haven't been able to put pictures up on facebook this summer because of Recruitment that I would post some on here to keep yall updated on some of the things I have done this summer.

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Just a few weeks after getting out of school in May, I got to go on a cruise with Laura and Megan. We went to Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. It was a lot of fun, and there are definitely some stories from the trip I'm sure we will each be telling all year long ;)

Courtney and Kelsi were lucky enough to be in Fayetteville this summer with me. hah. We were all busy with summer classes, but we still found time to hang out. This picture is from when we went to the Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban concert (thanks Walmart! ha). 

Before leaving for Italy, I decided I needed to take a trip down to visit Areta and Allen. I got to spend a few days with them here in Homewood at their new home and one night Areta and I even got to go to an art class. I had so much fun! I really do think I will be an artist one day. haha. Here is a picture of us with our final products, as well as a picture of the painting we were supposed to paint.  

It's finally summer!

So today was my last day of summer school!!! I finally get to sleep in as long as I want, lay by the pool till I burn, watch as many movies as possible, and play with the dogs/cat/things at the house I am house sitting at for hours on end. I can tell that I am absolutely going to LOVE these next few weeks before I leave for Italy... especially since my friends from school will be moving back up here soon! However, not having school also means that I don't have an excuse not to be getting my stuff ready for Italy. I have so much that I need to go out and get, and I also need to practice getting it all into my TWO bags :( Believe me tho, there wont be a single open space in either bags. ha.

Only a month to go...

So I didn't realize how fast this summer would go by. It seems like it was just the other day that I was talking about leaving for Italy in like 80 or 90 days... well now it is only 30 days away!!! There are lots of things that I have to get done before then, but I am thinking that I should probably focus on finishing summer school this week, relax this weekend, and then next week I can start to panic.

I got a packing list from the store the other day and there are all kinds of things on it that I wouldn't have even thought to take.... I am beginning to get a little concerned because I didn't think all my clothes (particularly jeans and tshirts) would fit in my bag... so how am I supposed to get all this extra stuff in it too??

Well I better return to working on my Philosophy homework (BORING!).. only 4 more days and I will be done!

Also, I am going to start putting together an address book for people so if you would like to be included on that list, please email me your address at BHILL430@aol.com. Thanks!

only 3 more months!

Several months ago I made the decision to apply to a study abroad program in Paderno del Grappa, Italy and on February 15th I was accepted!! I have been counting down until the day I leave and, as of right now, I am about three months away from my departure! I am really looking forward to the various experiences I will have in Europe, but along with all the excitement I am feeling comes some hesitation. I know that I am going to be missing out on a lot of things here in Fayetteville, but I truly feel like right now is probably the best time for me to get away and I know I am going to have the time of my life! I wont get to see how our new football coach does this fall, but at least I wont be missing any baseball... I might not get to have the normal Thanksgiving meal, but I am sure they will make up for it somehow... the list of things I have been thinking about missing could go on and on, but I know that for each of them there is something even more amazing that I will get to experience while I am away in Europe.....

This is a picture of Mt. Grappa from a dorm room... Once I am in Italy, I will post lots and lots of my pictures on here but figured this would be a good start.