CHUG CHUG CHUG SMASH!

I can't believe it's been a week since I've written in here! I feel like I have so much that I need to talk about and so much that I've done so I'm sure that this will be a long one! Be prepared!

Thursday night we went to Maggie's apartment to pregame, and then out to Campus for Erasmus night. It was so crowded! Campus was fun like always, we ended up meeting more people and just hanging out with everyone and making new friends. On the way home Mia stole two Hoegaarden mugs (they are half liter mugs) and put them under her shirt. We have quite a collection of cups forming.

Class was a little rough on Friday, but not as bad as it was Thursday. At least our whole class (and the other Italian 101 class) all are hungover together. It makes it interesting and the teacher actually slows things down for us and teaches us easier things when we're all feeling a little rough. After class Friday we walked around for a little and went to the hippo to eat. I really want to be done eating there, our group feels too comfortable there. Then it was time to go home and take a long, much needed nap. I really didn't want to wake up but we had Courtney's "surprise" party to attend! Courtney, Erin, and Kaitlin all live together, and they live with this hispanic/asian woman named Betty (pronounced Bet-TEA) who doesn't speak much English so it's really hard for them to communicate. They always have great Betty stories. Anyway, Betty wanted to throw a surprise party for Courtney's Birthday which was on Sunday, so she let everyone come over. We all just had a chill night over there, drank some wine, and played some catch phrase. There's a rule in Italy where you can't be having a party past midnight (it's an anti-terrorism law) so we left around midnight which was ok because we had a Claudio trip in the morning!

Saturday morning the bus picked us up from the apartment. Claudio's wife (Rita) and son (Pedro) were on the trip too, so there was nowhere for me to sit besides this fold down seat that was pretty much right next to the bus driver and about 6 inches away from the windshield. That was a great wake up call. We went to Mantova and waited in a little coffee shop for a while before taking the tour. Some of us decided to get cioccolata caldo (hot chocolate), but wanted a little something extra. So Claudio spiked me, Lo, and Kalyns with some rum and cold milk so we could chug it. Thank you for encouraging us Claudio. We took a tour of the Palazzo Te which was a palace that was built by the Gonzaga family. It was really interesting going through the palace because there was an amazing love story that went along with it. Well actually it was kind of tragic but still interesting! After that we went to lunch. We had two kinds of pasta, salad, cheese, bread, grilled vegetables, and some almond cookies. When lunch was done we went to Palazzo Ducale which was also built and owned by the Gonzaga family. It was huge and beautiful! We had to pretend we were British students though because Americans had to pay and Claudio wasn't having any of that. We were all exhausted after all of these tours but we still had the factory outlet to go to. I ended up getting a shirt (of course, it's black) for 10 euro. None of us were really in the shopping mood that day. When we got back to Verona everyone just went home and relaxed because Sunday we had to be up early again!

Sunday Claudio picked us up from the apartment, and luckily I had a seat on this bus this time! We went to Bevilacqua and had a day filled with medieval activities. First we took a tour of the castle in the town, and then split into two groups. We first learned gothic writing, which I'm not too bad at. The next part though was awful. We did archery. I am TERRIBLE!!! It was really fun though, but I only hit the target once. Oh well, I can say I've done it now! We had lunch upstairs and it was amazing. They have weddings at this castle (Claudio got married here) so it was absolutely beautiful. The meal was the best we have had so far! For antipasto we had prosciutto crudo, and this quiche like thing with egg, potatoes, and cheese. The second plate had beef and potatoes, and the desert was a mini molten lava cake. After dinner a few of us got cioccalate caldo again. It was so thick, kind of like watered down pudding. I am in love with it and really want to find a way to make it! Our table also got cut off of wine haha. We went to Soave afterwards which had a huge open air market. Kalyn made some drunk purchases (.50 euro cent books) and we went to a cafe with Claudio where he got us hot wine. It was amazing. Claudio knew the people that owned the cafe. He knows everybody! When we got home we went to the hippo for a quick meal for Courtney's birthday, and we wanted to go out for a little but everyone was tired so we went home.

Monday began our second week of classes. Class is going a lot better! Out teacher is amazing, especially for putting up with about 12 Americans that are bad at Italian! Monday night a bunch of us went to Lo and Kalyns to start planning trips. Can you say stressful?! Things just keep changing around and there are so many of us so it makes it a little harder. But we're slowly getting there! Tuesday after school and tutoring we tried the same thing but at Katies apartment. Mia and I ended up leaving and Mia, Maura, and I just sat at the kitchen table and bonded over bottles of wine. We think Niko and Martha think we're alcoholics because we literally come home almost every day or every other day with a new bottle of wine, and when we go pregame we all bring our own. We did go to a supermarket that night which was really cheap and amazing! They had so much good food so I bought quite a bit. Oh and I fell in love with Nutella, finally. Yesterday we actually made some solid plans! We booked our hostel for Florence next weekend, and we also booked our entire trip to Prague for Valentines weekend. I want to get Vienna out of the way soon too, since the plane tickets are going up. We also have to get a hostel for a night for Carnival, but that's easy so after that we will already have 4 trips planned!

Last night we decided that we all needed a break from planning and since we hadn't been out in a while we decided that it was the right time to try a new bar. Mia, Maura, and I made dinner first, which was bruschetta for an appetizer, and then I made spinach pasta with a meat sauce. Absolutely amazing. We are all becoming great chefs! We pregamed at Maggie's again, and then went to Camelot. It is a medieval Irish pub. It was really fun and even though it was smaller it was cool to be hanging out with our group. Let's just say that Lo wins the award for being the drunkest. Joanna ended up giving me a huge wine glass she took from there, so I added another glass to my collection. When we got home I devoured pringles and passed out. Class this morning was pretty good, actually we didn't even really do anything. Gaia just let us ask her questions and so that was a nice break. After class the roomies and I went to this little store to buy wine (surprise surprise) and then to a bread shop where I got this amazing pastry. Well I haven't had it yet, but it looks amazing.

Tonight we're going to a mexican restaurant and then out for the evening! I am absolutely loving it here and can't believe I've already been here for two weeks. It is going by fast already!