Ciao Benito. Oops, that's Big Ben...

Just a short week after Dad and Berb returned to the real world I got to escape from my reality.. To LONDON, England!!

Thursday November 11th was supposed to be the day of our Italian Grammar midterm. London was to serve as the 'Yay, we finished the exam.' However, it was rescheduled to the following Tuesday. Hm...
Anywho, we headed straight from the BCSP office to the airport to being the long weekend in a non-schengan state.

As a first-time RyanAir flyer.. I was a bit nervous. It is quite possibly the most inexpensive airline ever. We soon found out why.. Our evening flight started off just as any other after getting through security to our gate just before a group of about 40 people lined up behind us. After sitting at the gate for a while, a line began to form at the gate.  There are no assigned seats on RyanAir. It was a bloodbath, but somehow we got seats together. The duration of the flight was the interesting part... You know the AirMall magazines on flights.. well on RyanAir the flight attendants try to sell those things over the LOUD SPEAKER.. including smokeless cigarettes, lottery tickets and a selection of other gems..

The WE I keep referring to were the lovely Tatiana, Nicola, Ellen and myself. Maried and Mallory joined us on Friday.

We made it to Gatwick Airport, then took a bus into London for about an hour. The bus dropped us off at King's Cross! We were here EVERY DAY taking the tube from place to place.

Thursday night proved uneventful after getting HORRIBLE directions from the concierge (if you want to give him a proper title, dude if not.)

Friday marked the real start of the trip. We decided it would be a good idea to take the free hostel tour.. oh boy was it! Haha our tour guide and about 70 other people walked all over London stopping at some really neat places and got a short description of each. Saturday we decided to get an extended tour of old London. That time there were only 8 people, including the guide. The sites included...

Our tour guide in front of Parliament. This was the end of the tour, but whose counting.. 

Yes, the tea company. They have been paying rent in this building for over 300 years!

Well.. this we saw at every intersection. What a brilliant idea for those pesky tourists and other idiots that forget they drive on the opposite sides of the road in England.

Tati was a bit disappoint with Big Ben. It was impressive, but too small for her standards.

Westminster Abbey. Breathtaking.

This beloved site was visited SEVERAL times over the weekend. Yumm.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the only royal ground on which an Olympic event will take place in 2012. You guessed it.. Sand Volleyball.

We had someone take a picture of us in front of Buckingham Palace.. It's behind that pesky pole.

And the trip would not have been complete without a picture inside the telephone booth.

Caroline, Kimberly, Jessica, Tati and me.

Friday night was a bit more eventful than Thursday had been. Tati, being the world-traveler that she is knew several people living in London. Thankfully, she was able to get in contact with them. They were able to show us a real night out in London. We went to Proud Gallery in Camden Town. This photography gallery by day and dance club by night welcomed us with a line of about 75 people. For the first time in my life I can say.. we were on the list! We skipped the line and headed into the club. The dance floor was full of people singing along to songs EVERYONE knows. The DJ was Fantastic.

I was hugged by a tree.....

Saturday was another day of exploring.. after the second tour we met up with one of Ellen's friends, Stephanie. We made it to Buckingham Palace just in time for the Changing of the Guard ceremony. It was a bit underwhelming because we couldn't see anything. So naturally we went to Satrbucks. A little while later Stephanie took us to Harrod's. Can you say 'one-stop-shop'? It was AMAZING. Period. There were clothes, puppies, a sweets store, a food section.. it was incredible. We ended the night with a movie  because we were worn out. Due Date.. it was terrible. Don't waste your money.

On the way in to change the guard.. the hats were epic.

Killing time before the movie.

Sunday we decided to be super touristy and head over to Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum. In all honesty, it was a bit terrifying. I was waiting for them to wake up and jump out at me. It was a good use of a few hours while the daily rain came and went. Later, because we had originally planned to go to London for the premiere (in theaters) of Harry Potter, we HAD to stop by Platform 9-3/4. It was conveniently located at King's Cross Station.

The group.

After a long weekend we were able to make it to Stanstead Airport at about 4:30am for our flight back to Bologna. We made it back and to class! Well done girls.

All in all, London was amazing.

I'm late, I'm late - for a very important update!

I apologize to those of you who have been hanging by a thread to read my updates. I have been pretty busy living in this extremely fast-paced country.... NOT. I have been busy though.

Thinking back to the last update.. the next big event was FLORENCE. Alex, Tatiana and I got the chance to go to Florence on Monday October 25th to see STING. Yes, Sting.. like from The Police. Well, long story short - Alex's dad has been touring with Sting for the past several months. They completed the US tour then moved on to Europe.

Yep, that's Sting.

:)

That being said.. we were able to get the 'IN' at the concert. We had neat backstage passes and were able to sit in a booth at the show on the first level. The concert was held in a beautiful opera house, Teatro Verdi, where the sound of the orchestra and Sting filled the room. Yep, I said it... Sting was accompanied by a full orchestra (and a man with a cardboard tube). The London Orchestra.

Here you can see the amazing seats AND the backstage pass.

Oh - I forgot to mention that we were able to USE the backstage passes. Just a few minutes before the show we got to walk on stage and back into the dressing room area. We met a few members of the Orchestra as we were waiting/hanging around.. Then Alex's dad led us up a flight of stairs and around a corner and BAM! there was Sting.. steaming himself. He was literally holding a steamer up to himself.. my thought.. hmm it's Sting. I'm surprised he doesn't have someone to do things like that for him. Later we found out he was warming up his vocal chords because he had been having some difficulty a few days before. This made more sense also when Alex's dad mentioned that he had performed 80 shows in the past 3 months... do the math.

View from backstage... awesome.

Then it was back to Bologna early Tuesday morning.. we all made it to class :)

A few days before the trip I:
A. Found out that I had been chosen for an internship at the Taste of Italy.... Yay! It is an internship in Bologna working with a woman who started a cooking school. I'll fill in more when I know exactly what I will be doing.

B. Decided to GO TO LONDON on Thursday November 11th with Tatiana, Ellen, Mallory,Maried and Niccola. (Yes, this Thursday.. we made plans in advance.)

Oh and another thing.. in the past month.. well the past week. Dad and Berb (Barb) came to visit me in Bologna.

Papa and me in front of...... ummm 

Worn out!

On the terrace of San Marco in Venice :)

Barb thought it was hilarious that the dog behind me had a matching red coat.

It was SOOO much fun having them here! We took a few trips. One to Venice the first weekend and a day trip to Florence the second weekend. They had a few of their own little excursions planned including a few cooking classes (ironically with the woman I will be working for), a tour of several factories (parmesan cheese, winery, basalmic and prosciutto) and of course meandering around Bologna trying to get their bearings.

It was SO great to see them! We had some pretty fantastic laughs and talked about everything... literally.
I would tell everyone all about it, but that may either bore them or make them incredibly jealous about how cool my family is. (love you)]

All in all... still having a great time in Bologna. Loving life.

Please leave complaints, comments or questions in the section below :)