When in Rome...

Italians seem to be just as friendly as Belgians. I sat next to two Italian guys who were in Brussels for business. They found out my birthday was next week, and bought wine bottles for our row to celebrate! Strangers and their kids even sang Happy Birthday to me. :)

 

Day 1 

We got so lucky with the weather! Clear skies all day. So we did more outdoorsy touristy things such as the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps. Although these famous structures are beautiful by themselves, the gorgeous blue backdrop adds a nice touch.

Day 2

We took a trip to Tivoli, and visited Villa d'Este. Villa d'Este is the perfect representation of Italian architecture. It truly is a palace with its green gardens, running fountains, and magnificent views! My favorite part of the trip was the pizza we had at a local cafe in Tivoli. It was the best pizza I've ever had! Still dreaming about it. Yum. 

Day 3

It was a rainy day so we did indoor stuff: Musei Capitolini and Christmas midnight mass at the Vatican. My sister had to ask a nun back in the States to help her write a letter so we could get tickets to attend Midnight Mass. Getting tickets is one thing, getting in is another. If you ever seen a line for the iPhone, it's about 10 times that size. There were about 2500 people in front of us, and they let in about only 100 people behind us. We barely made the cut! Although we're not the most religious family out there, it was still a wonderful experience! 

Day 4

Christmas day most establishments are closed excluding restaurants. So we went to the Christmas markets, Pantheon, and Trevi Fountain.




We had clear skies and sun for 3 out of 4 days. Pretty good ratios if you ask me. Overall, Rome was a success. Next stop: Barcelona!





xoxo,

Amy

Just in time

My family is coming to Europe over winter break! They arrive in Rome today, and I'm suppose to fly to Rome to meet them.  I went out with a friend from the States last night, but responsible me decided to come home early to finish packing and a project. Good thing I did too, because I had absolutely no sleep. Packing for 2.5 weeks of traveling in a small carry-on is more time consuming than it looks! (I made an excel sheet for my outfits, anything worn less than 3 times gets left behind :D.)

Well I had some mishaps traveling this morning, what's new.

I left my house 4 hours before my flight departs, which I thought was more than enough time to get to an airport that is an hour away. Well the transportation system of southern Belgium decided to go on strike a wee bit earlier than planned. No trains were available. Now to plan B. 

Bus into Brussels, another to the center of Brussels. An hour long taxi to the airport.

I really appreciate the taxi driver doing some illegal moves to get me to the airport on time!  I got to the airport 10 minutes before the gate closed. :) Luck strikes again.



xoxo,

Amy

AHHHHHHH!!! FINALS.

You see my title there? I usually have that feeling of anxiety around this time of year. Oddly, this semester I don't. I have one final this week: an oral exam. I've never taken an oral exam for a business course, nor have I had 15 minutes of conversation count for 60% of my grade.

If you think that's a lot of pressure...

January 4th- Not only do I have an art history exam that counts for %100 of my grade, but it's also  written in FRENCH. On top of that, she's a new professor so she doesn't have a textbook.

January 7th- Corporate Strategy and Antitrust exam that accounts for %70 of my grade.

January 9th- Advanced Finance exam that accounts for %75 of my grade.


Never again will I ever complain about final exams accounting for %50 of your final grade.


Wish me luck!


xoxo,
Amy

How to be a Parisian

Outside the Louvre

1^st stop: Louvre

Louvre wing

To be a Parisian, you first need to have knowledge of the extensive art works located at the Louvre along with the numerous museums located in Paris. If you wanted to absorb every piece of art in the Louvre, you would need some good walking shoes, a sleeping bag, and enough food to feed an army. The Louvre is GIGANTIC; four hours can easily seem like four minutes. Personally, I don’t enjoy traditional art as much as contemporary art.  I wanted to see more modern art, but we ran out of time to visit the contemporary art museums along the Reine.

2^nd stop: French Wine Tasting

Wine tasting batcave

Menu for the night

Second, a Parisian would never be tricked to pay a ridiculous price for a bottle of wine. So to learn more about the art of French wine, Kirsten and I decided to go to a wine tasting. There are numerous regions in France that produce wine: Champagne, Bourdeaux, Loire, Sud-Ouest, Bourgogne, Languedoc, the list goes on. Northern France produces white wines; southern France produces red wines. From the 6 glasses I had, my favorite French wine is the Sancerre.  

3^rd stop: Tour Eiffel

I think the Eiffel Tower is the most recognizable monument in the world. When people think of Paris, they think of the Eiffel Tower. I’ve seen many photos of the tower in the day, but not as many at night. It was a cloudy night, so the sight was quite eerie.

Kiki's first snail!

4^th stop: French food

In the morning we already had our French breakfast, which consist of a croissant, a cappuccino, and freshly squeeze orange juice. Kirsten never had French snails before, so we went to dinner for her to try les escargots, les frites, and la crème brulée.

 

Before our last stop, I suddenly realized that I didn’t have my digital camera! I assumed a sketchy Parisian pickpocketed my camera on the public transport. Luckily, when I called the restaurant, the manager had found it and was waiting for me to come back to get it. As usual, I had lost something, and some nice European found it to give it back to me. Losing things sure does get old. Sigh.

xoxo,
Amy

Paris by Night

Since we were going to meet up with my friend Megan and her friend Lana in Paris, I decided it would be more affordable for us if we booked an apartment. Not only is it more affordable, it’s nicer than any hotel you would get at the same price! It was a “romantic” apartment, so the place consists of hurricane blinds, erotic literature, and a decked out shower.

We sat like this by accident. 

I hadn’t had sushi in awhile, so the girls and I went to the Champs-Élysées area to grab drinks and a bite to eat at a trendy sushi restaurant. After dinner, we walked around the city to admire the holiday lights and decorations.




xoxo,
Amy

Mug Shots

Next stop: Back to Paris! I made an observation about airplane seats. The middle seat is always the last choice; the window or aisle seat is by preference. Kiki always likes to sit window, and I prefer the aisle seat because of the extra freedom. Out of the 200 seats on the airplane, no one seems to ever want to seat between us. This happened on our Tenerife and Seville flight.  So for our Paris flight, we intentionally sat in our desire seats, leaving the middle seat empty.

We are always smiling, and I thought that might make us seem too friendly and possibly attract even more people to sit between us. So we practiced our mug faces, which scared off a few guys. 




xoxo,
Amy

I'm like a bird, I want to fly away

I came to the conclusion that it took us an average of 2 hours to find our hotels. So we learned our lesson, and took a taxi when we arrived in Granada. After settling in, we changed into workout gear, and then met up with our paragliding pilots at Piazza Nueva, the city center.

Paragliding is surprisingly relaxing. It’s not something to be afraid of, and I recommend anyone looking for some adventure to do it! Our paragliding pilots were extremely friendly. They even drove us up the hill again to do a second flight, but this time with more of an “acrobatic” style.

Our Australian friends

When night falls, we got dressed up to go to a tapas bar near Plaza Nueva. Warning to the girls back home: heels and cobblestone don’t mix well together.  :(

What’s great about Granada is that when you order a beer/drink, you get tapas for free! At our first stop of the night, there were a bunch of Australians sitting nearby that we asked to take our photo. We quickly befriended them, and went bar hopping with them for the rest of the night. 





xoxo,
Amy