Vatican for Easter

I was lucky enough to get an extra ticket for the mass on Easter Sunday at the Vatican! It was an amazing experience that I am very glad to have been a part of. We got up at 5:30am, and waited in line for the gates to open at 8:30am. It was a mad dash to our spots, which ended up being in the seated section in front of everyone! I got some amazing pictures, and even though it was raining, it was still a great way to spend my Easter!

Spring Break!

Again, I know that I'm not great at posting regularly...but here's another!

I had just finished my spring break 2010, and I was lucky enough to visit France and Sweden. I started my travels on friday the 19th, and flew from Rome to Paris where I met my friend that I work with all summer-Charlie. We made it to some of the many amazing parts of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower (which kind of looks like a big oil rig), and the Louvre. After our time in Paris, we went back to his homestay mom's house in Angers. Grandma, as I called her, was a pistol of an 80 year old woman. We got to walk around Angers and see the sites until I left on Tuesday for Uppsala Sweden. Another camp friend, Lauren, is completing her graduate school studies here, so I got to come see what Uppsala had to offer. I was really impressed when I got there with the amount of people that bike everywhere!! We rode bikes all over Uppsala, and we were lucky enough to take a day trip to Stockholm. The thing that impressed me the most about spring break 2010 was not only the scenery, but the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet) in Stockholm. The Vasa was a ship that in 1628 sailed 1000 meters, and then toppled over and sank. The cool part was that they brought the ship up and it is standing tall in the museum, perfectly preserved.

Back to reality! (not really, I'm going back to Rome)

Yes, yes, it has been a while I know!! I was waiting for my friend to put the pictures of Palermo, Sicily onto her computer, and it has finally happened.

Things are still as awesome as ever here in Roma, and as the weather starts to get better, more and more people hit the streets to walk around and talk. Yesterday my friend from home, Ben, flew into Rome at 7am. He is meeting his girlfriend in Florence, but she was on her spring break until late Sunday night, so we had a whole day to check out the city. We found this place near me that rents bikes for the day, so we took some bikes and rode around until we saw all of the sites!

It was pretty cool to see Rome in a day!

Time to go research for a paper!

Next stop, Alassio, Italy to visit my aunt!

Sunshine.

Sandals. Shorts. T-shirt. This is what I was able to wear today, because it was 60's and sun all day long. Thank goodness I didn't get sunburnt!!!

Tomorrow morning at 5am, so midnight your time, I will be awake, in a cab, and on my way to Palermo, Sicily!!! I am excited to see what southern Italy has to offer, and I am also excited to the weather ahead of me...high 60's and sunshine.

Have a great day!

Budapest

This weekend I was lucky enough to go visit my grandma (Nugyi) in Budapest, Hungary. It was about 10 degrees colder than it was here, but still beautiful. The thing that struck me the most were the mountains...just amazing. We started off by seeing the countryside of the city the first day, the downtown area the second (my grandma showed me where she grew up as a child), and went all over on the third day. Words cannot describe how cool it was, so let me show you with some pictures!

P.S.- When you look on the near side of the river, that is Hungary, the far side is Slovakia

Examination

Sorry for the lack of posts! I have been studying my butt off for my first exam over here, in cognitive psychology, and man is it tough. The material isn't hard by any means, but at school back home we have exams after most of our topics, and over here we only have one or two exams in the class before the final, so there is a ton of material. For example, today I have to know everything about the history, methods, and paradigms of early cognitive psych, and then we jump to attention, perception, learning, and theories, THEN! we get to all of the people associated with the theories, and before you know it....my brain hurts. I am confident that it will go well today, and, despite the rainy weather, I will come out of the exam a happy guy.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday!

SNOW?!

For the first time in 23 years, Rome has experienced snow, and it stuck to the ground! I am very happy to have seen it, and I feel like this is equivalent for Romans to seeing a Haley's Comet, but at the same time, I thought I left all the snow in Wisconsin!

On another note-

I had heard about "keeping your valuables (wallet, phone, etc) in check" because there are many pick pockets here. After being here for a month, I had determined that this was just a misconception of the city....fooled. My roommate had his Italian cell phone, blackberry, and wallet all taken last night without his knowing. scary!