Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	Freddy vs Jason (movie - not soundtrack)

I'm back =) Anyone miss me? ::smiles::

So, I typed up everything about Italy and I made it a lil clicky thing cause it's so long...so feel free to read it. I may end up editing it after rereading it because I probably forgot something.

I started school on Monday (I missed the first day (which was the 23rd) because I was still in Italy.

Today is a good day. Why? SNOW DAY!

So far, I really like my professors for:
Juvenile Justice - I've had her before
Human and Animal Learning - Cute lil old man
Quantitative Applications - He's a young guy and really laid back

I'm not sure if I'm digging my piano teacher this semester. He's kool...but seems like he could be a dick. I guess I'll find out soon (I've only had him once so far).

Now, (as most of you already know) I absolutely loathe my Principles of Criminal Investigations professor. He is an asshole and a hypocrite. He yelled at me (and one other kid) for missing the first day of school. Telling us we knew when school started and it is our obligation to attend and a trip or whatever is no excuse not to be there. I had to bite my tongue because I was tempted to tell him to fuck himself.
1.) I am PAYING to go to UNH so it is MY loss if I do not go
2.) I am allowed to miss 2 weeks of class (4 days) with no questions asked
3.) I am old enough to choose what days to miss and why, especially because it is my money and my grades will reflect what I learn
4.) Those who play sports can miss class to play a game without a problem, yet I cannot miss ONE day to go to another country which is almost a once in a life time opportunity.

Getting to the hypocrite part, after getting the syllabus I noticed he is missing a week (2 days) of class to attend a CJ club trip.

Bottom line: Fuck him.


Italy:

Saturday - Sunday:
Emily and Justin stop by to see me before I leave because they love me. We left for the airport around 3pm and got to JFK crazy early for our 8:15pm flight to Munich (plane: lots of rows. 2 - isle - 3 - isle - 2). Our flight ends up delayed leaving JFK because of some kind of problem while boarding. We leave like 10min later than expected and have lots of turbulence most of the way. As we near Munich we are told we are going to be delayed another 15 - 30min because of traffic going into Munich. On the flight I listened to lots of music and then watched Freaky Friday. This wouldn't have been a big problem...but our connecting flight to Italy was boarding at 10:10am (Germany time - 6hrs ahead of us) and we were still in the air. So, we had to change flights once we got off the plane and only had to wait around for an hour or so before our flight to Rome boarded. While waiting we found a lil table of free coffee and tea. Yumm! Our flight to Rome was in this tiny plane that had a little over 40 rows of 4 seats (2 - isle - 2). We finally get into Rome around 2:30pm and we are waiting for the luggage. We sent Nick to look for the Insight people (transportation) and we wait...and wait. 3 bags of luggage were lost, Bill's, his sister's and my mom's. The guy from Insight was ready to leave us there, but Bill finally finished filling out all the info for lost baggage claim. We head to the hotel (the Melia) and then have a little meeting about what we are doing and all that stuff. (There was 43 people on this tour.) Our tour director (Deborah) made everyone 'break the ice' telling us how by the end we are going to be exchanging addys and stuff - no one believed her. We hit the bar for food and drinks and ended up bullshitting with the bartender Veronica. She was really sweet and kool to talk to. Then, time for sleepies.

Monday:
Nick and I both ended up waking up around 3:30am and couldn't fall back asleep so we just bullshitted and waited for it to be 5:30am. At 5:30am Nick took a shower, then around 6:00am I did and then 6:30am Mom took a shower. Breakfast was at 7:00am and we had to be on the Coach Bus by 7:50am to start our sightseeing. We started out by meeting our local guide named Carlo. We went to the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Colosseum and lastly, the Forum. Between St. Peter's Basilica and the Colosseum we had an hour or so to walk around, eat lunch and buy stuff. The souvenirs in Rome were pretty shitty so we only bought a shot glass and some postcards. The Sistine Chapel was beautiful. They've cleaned it a few times but left some parts dirty to show the difference. The weather was pretty shitty. It drizzled on and off most of the day...until we went to the Colosseum. It rained...a lot so Nick bought me an umbrella so I could still take pictures without getting my camera wet or getting water on my lens. After all the sightseeing we headed back to the hotel around 3:45pm. We had plans for an excursion at 5:30pm so we had some time to kill. We all fell asleep and I woke up at 5:12pm and rushed everyone to get up so we weren't late. As I ran over to Bill and his sister's room the guy with the lost baggage showed up! We all rush out to the bus and walk around in the rain (this time they gave us umbrellas). We saw the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, old roman ruins under the street and in the lobby of a bank. Then, we had a little break for dinner and we ate at this tiny little restaurant. I had Penne all'Arrabbiata, which means angry penne. It was awesome. After that, we ran over to get gelato. We got Tartufo (which means truffle). It was soo nummie. Then, we head back to the hotel. Nick heads straight to the bar and I joined him later. He was down there with two guys (who at the time we didn't know). When I got there one of them left (Neil) and the other (Steve) bought me a drink. Yummie margarita! We bullshitted for awhile with Steve and Veronica (again) and then it was off to bed.

Tuesday:
We headed to Florence today. On the way to Florence we stopped at a 'hill top town' called Orvieta. To get up to the town we had to take a train up the hill and then a little local bus into the town. Orvieta had a beautiful church, but other than that it was a bunch of little shops. We had some time to walk around Orvieta to shop and eat. Once we were done, we took the local bus back to the train and then got back onto the coach and drove the rest of the way to Florence. We were supposed to go straight to the hotel (Grand Hotel Mediterraneo) but Deborah switched things around to give us more time on Wednesday to walk around. So, instead of going to the hotel we went sightseeing with a local guide named Anna Maria. We went to Accademia to see the statue of David, another Cathedral, the "Gates of Paradise" and the Basilica of Santa Croce. The Basilica of Santa Croce was closed so we weren't able to go in. One our walk back to the hotel this Asian woman stopped me and asked me where I was from. I told her Connecticut in the United States. She told me that her daughter (she's like 6 years old) told her I was the most beautiful lady of our group. That made me feel really good - especially having it come from a child. We stay at the hotel for a little while and wait for 7:30pm so we can go out to another one of our excursions. We had dinner in a restaurant in the hills of Tuscany. As we walked in we were all served this peach infused wine stuff that was bright blue. It was awesome and Jaclyn was obsessed with it for the rest of the trip. It was a great time. Our table was set for 6 so we had me, Mom, Bill, Jaclyn, Nick and Steve at our table. Each table was set with a bottle of water, a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red wine (Chianti). We drank both bottles of wine and even borrowed some from one of the empty tables. For dinner we had some Antipasto, Ravioli with truffle sauce, Penne with meat sauce, Chicken (or steak) and dessert. For dessert they gave us some pie stuff or something and a tiny cup of coffee. It was awesome and was the best coffee we had the entire time we were in Italy (coffee really sucks there). After dinner we headed back to the hotel and were the loudest people on the entire coach. Once getting to the hotel we went straight to the bar. At the bar we met up with Steve, Joanne and Neil. A few nasty chicks from another tour showed up and annoyed most of us. We spent most of the night at the bar - even after it closed. Once we got back to the hotel Nick and I tried to use the phone to call out to Ricky and I apparently said "eh" (which is something Deborah says every two seconds). I didn't even know I said it. I finished my sentence and Nick and Mom are cracking up. I looked at them and asked what was so funny. Finally, they told me and I still don't have any recollection of saying it (and no, it wasn't because of the alcohol).

Wednesday:
To start our day we headed back to Santa Croce with the tour group. We saw a gold demonstration and a leather demonstration and then headed into the Basilica of Santa Croce. We saw the tombs of Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante and Michelangelo. It was pretty cool to see their tombs along with some other famous people that I didn't know. After seeing the tombs we had a few hours to just walk around and shop. We didn't buy too much in Florence but I got the best red scarf ever and I found an Italia shirt. After showing Mom and Jaclyn the shirt they both ran back into the shop and bought the same one because it was perfect. It was a girly long sleeve black shirt with little pictures of Venice, Florence and Rome (with the headings under each). It was perfect because of those are the three cities we actually stayed in. I also bought a cute leather purse and Mom bought a Nomination bracelet for us to share. I wanted to get one with flags of each country we go to, but since we've only gone to three (including the US) it was pointless to do it at the moment, so we just got one with pretty stones in it. I really wanted to buy a leather skirt, but the leather there was crazy expensive (but beautiful). A skirt would have cost like 200 - 300 Euros. I decided that it's OK by me to get a nice leather skirt in the states that would cost like 100 bucks. While walking around in Florence, instead of eating lunch we all stopped and got some Gelato. Super yummy. After shopping we made it back to the hotel just in time to leave to go to Pisa. We took crazy pictures of us "holding" up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but they didn't come out well because of the contrast of the bright blue sky, white building and us. We look like a shadow. It still looks really kool, but it would have been nice to actually make out what we looked like. Deborah took the pictures of us holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and she got great amusement out of my digital camera. She was so excited to take the pictures. In Pisa, like in NYC, there are guys walking around trying to sell you imitation crap (especially watches), so Bill decided that he wanted a watch so he took 5 Euros, put it in his pocket so he could bargain and pretend he only had 5 Euros. A guy walked up to him trying to sell him a watch for 150 Euros. Bill said, while pulling out his 5 Euros, "I only have 5." The guy responds with, "I'll give it to you for 10." Bill goes to empty his other pocket, pulling out 2 chapsticks (a blue one and a black one) and repeats, "Sorry, I only have 5." The guy says, "OK. How about 5 and the blue one." Bill gives it to him and the guy picks up the chapstick makes a motion with it near his lips and asks, "It's for this, right?" It was hilarious. Also, before Bill could even come over to tell us the story about his new watch he drops it and breaks the glass. After Pisa we had a hotel dinner. Our hotel dinner was good, but it sucked at the same time. The water tasted like chlorine so we all drank some Chianti wine. For dinner we had soup, pork chops with potatoes and Tiramisu for dessert, at least we think it was an attempt at Tiramisu (it was horrible). Dinner left us all hungry, so we headed to the bar and filled up on drinks. Jaclyn and I stayed with Strawberry Margaritas and Mai Tais. Bill and Nick cleaned out the entire bar of Budweiser and Mom, Steve and Neil drank lots of white wine. I took a picture of our table of empties when we were done. There are a few missing because we didn't start collecting until we were at the bar for a few. Also, I took a picture of everyone (Mom, Bill, Jaclyn and Nick) and some Asian man saw and asked if I wanted him to take a picture of all of us, so I say OK and instead of looking through the view finder he looks through the little gap between the opened flash and the top of the camera. The picture still came out at least, but it was hilarious. Once it was time to go to sleep Nick and I were talking about the day and looking at the pictures I took. Since dinner was so unfulfilling our stomachs started growling, but the way it happened it sounded more like our tummies were having a convo cause one would growl and then the other would. I made up a conversation for them about the lacking dinner, but I don't remember it anymore and it wouldn't be funny to anyone else anyways!

Thursday:
We did a good amount of traveling today from Florence to Venice. It was probably about 4hours or so in total, plus we stopped at two places. First we stopped to see a statue with a replica of David on it. I can't remember the name or anything. Not to far from the statue was a great view overlooking most of Florence. We only stayed here for 10min or so to take some pictures. Then, we headed to Verona to see the Roman Arena and to grab some eats. We got some pizza which is called margharita in Italian. The piece they gave you was huge. After eating pizza in Italy I realized people can't make fun of me for eating pizza with a fork and knife because that's how most Italians eat it, so there! While in Verona the Asian woman (with the little daughters) stopped me and asked to pose in a picture with her daughters. I asked Mom to take a picture too, but she wasn't paying attention to me apparently and didn't do it. I'm kind of sad about that because I would have liked to have a copy. We head over to the hotel in Venice (the Hotel Continental). Nick carried my bag for me over the three bridges we had to cross because it was too hard for me to carry it up and down the stairs. He also carried it up the stairs in the hotel. Thank god he was around! I don't know if I would have survived the walk without him. The hotel we stayed in was really pretty and all that good stuff but we soon learned the bar sucked. Our hotel room was green everywhere, the walls, carpet, tile in the bathroom and the curtains were green. I took a picture of it because it reminded me of Lily. From what she remembers her father was from Venice, so maybe that explains why she loves green so much! Anyways, before learning the bar sucked we had an excursion that was a Gondola ride. It took like 6 Gondolas for all the people who opted for the excursion to fit. Our Gondola was just the five of us. It was great and so beautiful. I took a lot of pictures while in the Gondola. There is only one Gondola maker left, because each Gondola is made specifically for the guy who "drives" it because it's design is based around his weight. It was amazing to see the guys steering the Gondola with one straight ore. After the Gondola ride we had another excursion called "Venice at Night." For this excursion we took a private taxi which runs about 130 Euros around Venice to look at all the kool buildings. After we finished in the looking at the buildings we stopped and went to this place to have Skropeenos and hot chocolate. Both were super nummie. Skropeenos are made of lemon sorbet, champagne and vodka. The hot chocolate was like drinking melted milk chocolate. After that we got back into the taxi and headed to the hotel for dinner. For dinner we had bread, pasta and ice cream...I think. For some reason I think I'm missing something. Again, our table sat 6 so it was me, Mom, Bill, Jaclyn, Nick and Steve. And again we had wine, both red and white. Mom and Steve killed the bottle of white while the rest of us worked on the red. During dinner this little boy Daniel came over to me (the cousin of the two little girls) and asked me my name because his cousins wanted to know. It was absolutely adorable. Once dinner was over we headed to the bar. There was a few new people in the bar (including Deborah). She ordered me and Jaclyn his special fresh squeezed orange juice that is made from these oranges that are red. It was great (especially because the orange juice in Italy is horrible). We got kicked out of the bar around 11pm. They wouldn't even let us stay in the room to bullshit and stuff (the bar in Rome and Florence let us stay even after it closed), so there was no place else to go but back to our rooms. I finally was able to call Ricky (at work because of the time difference). He yelled at me for not calling sooner, but I explained about the hotel room in Florence. Then, me, Jaclyn and Nick went to my room and played Care Bear Uno (Jaclyn won). Around 12:30/1:00am we went to sleep...or at least I tried to sleep. I slept so bad Thursday night. Our hotel is supposedly older than most countries; at least that is how Deborah put it. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking there was a man talking in my room. I opened my eyes and saw this guy (that for some reason I thought to myself "a little Italian man" and his outline was goldish). I shut my eyes again thinking I'm half asleep seeing shit and I get this weird cold, tingly and then hot feeling and open my eyes again. I see him still at the edge of my bed looking towards the window (my right). I keep looking waiting for the image to dissipate like usual when your brain makes up shit in the dark but it doesn't. It turns to it's right and looks straight at me. I get a really strange feeling and start sweating. I keep looking and it fades away like in a horror movie. I turn the light on to look at my watch and it's around 3am. I try falling back asleep and keep waking up every so often making sure I don't look up. It was the worst sleep ever and on top of the freakish shit my Mom was snoring like crazy and I just wanted to stab myself in the ears. Morning finally comes. I couldn't wait for it so I could just wake up and get out of the room.

Friday:
We didn't have anything planned today except for early in the morning. With the tour group we took the public bus (well, boat) to the square. Once we got outside the hotel I thought I saw snow but I wasn't sure. As we made our way to the public transportation it started to flurry and once we got into the square it was snowing pretty good. One of the women in our tour group had never seen snow before so it was so kool to be there to see her reaction. She was so amazed by it and thought it was so beautiful while the rest of us were moaning about it. Also, Deborah (who lived in Venice and has been a tour guide for Europe for like 10 years or something) said it was the first time it has ever snowed in Venice when she was doing a tour. We also went for a Venetian glass demonstration. It is amazing to watch these people blow glass and make vases and little glass figures. There are only 15 registered glass blowers in Venice, which is also a dying tradition because it takes something like 10 to 15years to master the art. I wanted to buy a small piece of real Venetian glass but it was way too expensive. The cheapest thing was this tiny vase that cost like 40 Euros. I did buy a piece of glass from a souvenir shop that is this flat heart pendant. It may not be official, but it's glass and I bought it in Venice so that works for me! We walked around Venice for a few hours and got detoured down some allies. Both Jaclyn and I had specific things we wanted to buy. She wanted a porcelain doll and I wanted a Carnavale mask. We didn't find any that we liked so we decided to go eat and then shop the other side of the bridge. For lunch we ate at this place called Gino's Pizzeria. I got Penne all'Arrabbiata. It was good here too. I can't compare it to the one from Rome because they were different, but I still think my meal in the tiny restaurant in Rome was my favourite of the entire trip. Mom ordered some Gorgonzola pasta stuff and Nick accidentally ate hers. He kept asking about Alfredo (which they didn't serve). The guy told him they didn't make it and he asked something about it again and the guy ended up writing him down for the same thing Bill and I got. Since he was expecting something cheese-like when he saw Mom's he thought it was his. Now, anyone who has ever had Gorgonzola you know something is up when you are eating it because it doesn't taste like normal cheese stuff or cheese combos or whatever. After eating Bill and Nick headed to the hotel to nap and me, Mom and Jaclyn didn't want to sit around so we went shopping. Finally, we both found what we were looking for. My Carnavale mask is awesome. There was another one I wanted but it was almost 300 Euros and well...that's just crazy. The one I bought was only 32 Euros! Mom also got a kool Carnavale mask. I bought some souvenirs for a few of my friends while in Venice. Venice was by far my favourite place to go. Even though it was freezing cold and the snow didn't help much, but it didn't snow all day which is a good thing. After finishing shopping we headed back to the hotel again. Not wanting to fall asleep Jaclyn and I watched some TV. We started watching this show because we couldn't figure out what was going on. There was a bin of dogs and a bin of cats and then some woman came out with a cat and start talking. They showed pictures of animals and stuff. Then, a message flashed across the bottom and Jaclyn and I came to the conclusion it was about animal maltreatment. Then, we flipped through the channels and found the Simpsons in Italian. Next thing I know, both of us are waking up at the same time (before everyone else - as usual!). We decide it's time to eat again. We scoped out a few places (including the hotel) but ended up deciding on going back to Gino's. Nick decided to go out to a concert with Steve and a few other people. We all agreed we would have liked to go but the price was definitely too high (21 Euros). So, me, Bill, Mom and Jaclyn went back to Gino's and we each got something different to eat. Mom and I both tried pizza this time. It was really good, but I ate too much of it (because in Italy you can't take left overs home) and ended up with a tummie ache for the rest of the night. After stuffing our faces again, we head back to the hotel. Bill and Jaclyn go into their room and Mom and I go into ours (Nick still was at the concert). I flipped through the channels hoping something good would be on (since the only thing in English was CNN and the videos on MTV). Luckily, on MTV there were a few shows on in English with Italian subtitles. I was glued to the TV for an hour watching the Osbournes and Punk'd. Thank god for MTV! After watching Punk'd I got ready for bed and went to sleep. I slept like shit again. It must be the hotel room or something because the same guy was in my head again. This time, I felt something grab my foot and I got really cold. I woke up and looked over at my mom and saw something (knowing it was my eyes playing a trick on me). I fell back asleep and had this horrible dream that I thought was real until I finally opened my eyes again. The guy was dragging me off the bed (everything looked exactly like the hotel room) and I grabbed my Mom trying to wake her up so she could wake me up. I was screaming for the guy to leave me alone and it wouldn't until morning. When I woke up (in my dream) my Mom was on the floor from me grabbing onto her trying to wake her up and she couldn't remember how she got there. Next thing I know we are at this hospital because I wanted to go to a Psych ward to see if they could make the dreams or whatever go away. While waiting this guy is talking about something and I offer him this green hat I had. He takes my scarf (while I still have it on) and puts it around his neck so he and I are face to face. He says something to me and Bill comes over and quotes a movie (telling him to leave me alone). Then, him and the guy start bullshitting about different movies. I start walking towards the door to the Psych Ward with Mom (walking passed a pool) and I keep saying to Mom "They're Roman Catholic here, right?" We near the door and I wake up shaking and sweating. I haven't been that afraid of...anything in a very long time. I had to sleep with the light on the rest of the night.

Saturday:
I couldn't wait to get out of the hotel and back to Rome's hotel (same as before the Melia). I knew once I was out of the Continental I would be able to sleep again. As we were leaving the hotel the Asian family (with the little girls) wasn't coming with us back to Rome. Their mother stopped me as I was leaving and asked me to give her daughters big hugs before I left. Nick said he almost teared up when he saw it because it was so adorable. He also told me that while he was at the concert the little girls were there asking him how they could be friends with me. From the hotel we had to walk back to where we could pick up the coach (over the three bridges again). Nick carried my bag again saving me from probably killing myself trying to do so. We got to the coach and started our journey back to Rome. We stopped twice along the highway. We stopped to grab something to eat (and the ladies working there were very rude). After eating it was back into the coach to head to Rome. Once getting in Rome we went to the hotel and had a little over an hour to just relax before it was time for our last little walk and dinner. We went to the Trevi Fountain and learned that you are to through two coins in the fountain. You put the coin in your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder (obviously with your back to the fountain). The first coin is for any wish you choose and the second coin is to guarantee you return to Rome one day. We stayed at the Trevi Fountain for 20min or so and then got back into the coach and drove to our "highlight dinner" which was at this restaurant called Pepe Rex. When entering the restaurant there was a guy dressed as a gladiator and a photographer. We got our picture taken with the guy (me, Jaclyn and Nick - Jaclyn and I made sure to go in together because we didn't want our picture alone). Probably like 20min after we had our picture taken the guy shows up with the prints so we could see if we wanted to buy one. We all chipped in to buy the one of the three of us and are going to make photocopies. It was only 5 Euros, so it wasn't too bad and the picture is really kute. Also, there were two opera singers there (male and female) that sang while we ate and also did a kute little skit. I felt really sick so I didn't eat much. The meal consisted of bread, some bread with tomatoes on it, pasta with some kind of cheese sauce and pasta with tomato sauce, veal and potatoes and lastly some kind of fruit pie/cake thing and coffee. I didn't eat much at all. I had bread and the pasta with tomato sauce. On top of feeling really sick, I don't eat Veal so that was out from the beginning. We took a bunch of pictures tonight of all of us (including Steve). They came out really kute. Each table had two bottles of white wine and our table killed it (before any other table) and we had the least number of people (especially because the big wine drinkers, Steve and Neil were at a different table!). At dinner we exchanged addresses with a few people including Neil, Joanne, Steve and Thomas (the guy that was always really excited about everything! It was so adorable). Thomas gave me the address of the two little girls that wanted to be my friend so I'm going to write them this week. During dinner Mom and Joanne started talking and they were throwing the idea around of us getting back together and doing a tour of Greece in May of 2005. I think it's a great idea. After dinner I started to feel a little better. The first thing we did when we got back to the hotel was take a group picture of everyone on the tour. One of the hotel guys took it for us using everyone's cameras. My picture came out OK but one lady isn't looking and he cut Deborah out. I'm hoping Jaclyn's came out better. After the group shot we all became Frank Pals (meaning we got our picture taken with a duck stuffed animal named Frank) and it is going to be posted on the website www.allaboutfrank.com. Since it was our last night we had to go to the bar again. Veronica wasn't there, which was a disappointment because we wanted to get a picture of her since we sat and talked to her for awhile the first two nights. We had a few new faces at the bar, David, Keith, 2 Asian ladies that I never got their names and Frank chick (I never got her name either). Me, Nick and Jaclyn didn't stay at the bar too late because we were all pretty beat. Mom, Bill, Steve, Neil and Dave were there until almost 3am. It was really sad that it was our last night. Part of me really wanted to be home again, to be with my family (including Buddy), sleep in my bed and have real orange juice. Then again, I couldn't believe it was already over and I couldn't believe how close I became to these certain people.

Sunday:
Time to leave Italy and head towards home. We were supposed to make the same type of trip back to JFK (hitting Munich, Germany first) but things changed. We get to Rome's airport and find out our flight to Munich was canceled because of snow, so we had to change our flight to an hour or so later into Frankfurt, Germany which obviously changed our flight back to JFK. The flight from Rome to Frankfurt wasn't bad, it was only about 1hr 30min long and our plane (a good number of rows, 3 - isle - 2 - isle - 3) was bigger than our plane from Munich to Rome. We had to go through security in Italy which was easy. Then, after getting into Frankfurt we had to go through security again before we even got to our gate. Then, once we got to our gate we had to get our passports and boarding passes checked and then we weren't allowed to leave the gate (for an hour or so). Our flight finally boarded for JFK and the plane was huge! I'm not even sure how many rows there was (3 - isle - 4 - isle - 3). We had a lot of turbulence, again. We watched the movie Runaway Jury, which ended up being really good. They fed us a lot, just like last time. I couldn't wait to get off the plane and be in the States. After getting off the plane we had to go through Customs which only took a second. The guy we got was really nice. He said we looked drained and relieved to be back home. We waited for what seemed like forever for our luggage to come through and then it was off to the car. Bob was waiting for us with Bill's parents (who accidentally parked right next to Bob in the parking lot. That amused me). Bob told us that Lily was in the hospital and he didn't tell us sooner because he didn't want us to worry while we were in Italy because there was nothing we could have done. Apparently, on Friday she went to the doctors and after a blood test was sent to the hospital. Her white blood cell count was 250,000 (normal is between 5,000 - 11,000). After going to the hospital she was told she has Leukemia. We aren't sure exactly which form she has, but we should find out Thursday. The doctors are hoping it is the kind that is treatable with pills.

General Stuff about the trip:
1. Breakfast in Italy is bad. Even the toast can taste like crap. The juice is horrible and from what everyone else said the coffee is disgusting and Italians can't cook bacon.

2. For some reason everyone was extremely concerned with what our situation was. Meaning who was related to who and who was dating who. I can't tell you how many people asked us why we were all together and how we knew each other. The general idea was Nick and I were dating. Bill and Jaclyn were dating or brother and sister (we had both). Then, we had that Mom was my mom or Bill and Jaclyn's (we had both for that too). So, our situation was nicknamed the "Connecticut Connection."

3. Italians cannot drive. They don't obey lights or lanes (our coach bus including). They park ANYWHERE, including in the middle of the street.

4. They let their dogs shit all over the sidewalks and don't clean it up. Super ick.

5. According to Jaclyn, Italian's walk the same way the drive (meaning they will walk through you if you are in their way).

6. The majority of Italians we came into contact with were real assholes. Venice had the nicest people thus far.

7. Our little group of every night bar people (Me, Mom, Bill, Jaclyn, Nick, Steve, Neil and Joanne) got nicknamed the "Australian American Alliance." Steve coined us that in Venice.

8. In addition to all the sights I named that we saw, we also saw a lot of other buildings (including the Justice building, Mussolini's balcony, Napoleon's balcony where he did something important, etc.), churches/cathedrals, fountains, etc. I cannot even begin to remember everything we saw. It was definitely worth the money we spent and then some.

9. Italians like dogs, a lot and they (especially Venetians) dress them up in little outfits just like I do to Buddy!