ROMA! Naturally this was probably one of the best weekends of my life. Everything, and I mean everything in Rome blew me away. I was pretty much geeking out THE entire time.
St. Peters Basilica
It was an overwhelming experience to see the Peita in person. Extremely impactful!
School of Athens! MAJOR geeking out going on. Glad I wasn't the only one though (shoutout Shannon and Whitney. Holly I appreciate your support and appreciation haha).
First Italian gelato! Mammamia here we go again my my so much better than anything else I've ever done in my entire life and thats not even me being dramatic.
Piazza del Popolo
Spanish Steps
So I got a characature... by this skinny guy right here who I helped to find his charcoal pen for like 10 minutes... ended up being in his shirt pocket. Characture ended up being... not great, but superbly hilarious.
Trevi Fountain you are gorgeous.
Make a kiss and make a wish!
As long as that coin stays in there it means I will return!
Adriano Temple
Pantheon!
OKAY THE IMPORTANT STUFF.
Day Two:
The Colosseum
More important stuff...
My lemon, parsley and shrimp pasta... lifechanging.
The last of many visits to an Italian Gelato shop...
Clearly I like the savory flavors.
Get in my belly.
My wonderful creation. Tiramisu, roche, Equadorian chocolate, caramel, Irish cream... ohhh boy. I can't decide if this picture or the one after it is more magical. So I am posting them both.
Piazza Navona
...I love Rome...
The Email:
Bonjour family!
Things have been going great! I can't believe I have been gone more than a month now! Its officially the longest I have ever been away and honestly its been great for me. I love this city! And the only way I am going to be able to make amends with leaving is to promise myself to come back again and possibly again. I LOVE Paris.
There are SO many things to see and do. Now the list of major sites is way too obnoxious to report so I'll just share some highlights.
Last weekend we traveled to see the French Tapestry, saw Normandy and Omaha Beach, then went to Rouen and saw Monet's chapel, then to Giverny to see his house and gardens. LOVED that trip. It was so great, everything we did was an experience rather than just sight seeing. Omaha Beach was a very impactful (is that a word?) experience. The memorial and cemetary were so well-executed, it was just perfect. I am still surprised that I got emotional! It really was beautiful. What got me the most was the unidentified soldier plots. It was just a beautiful place and it honors such a beautiful thing. I am so proud to be an American! Rouen and Giverny were just out-of-body experiences. Rouen was very cool. The museum of beautiful art was wonderful, the city is historically rich, we saw Joan of Arcs death site, found a fabulous fabric and soap stores... And most of all I LOVE impressionism and so being able to actually see Monet's inspiration and later to go inside his house was incredible. He filled his house with Japanese artwork. Completely filled it! Very interesting the contrast of French Impressionism and Asian art. But I can tell traces of asian-inspiration in his paintings. It was a great weekend!
This week we saw the Catacombs, those were freakkkky. Over six million people's bones are down there. Had a funny security guard ending up giving us a tour. He kept making fun of our ewws and uhhs, it made the experience a lot more fun! Also spent a good couple hours in the Louvre.
The weird people stories keep piling up! Three times now a homeless person has walked in and sat down during one of our classes/sunday school. It'd be totally fine if they didn't smell SO bad. It literally hurts. Still are getting people coming up to us asking if they can eat our food, even at restaurants! I guess that isn't completely normal, or not many people we have asked said that has happened to them too. But its not a big deal.
I almost got robbed! I was laying on my stomach studying on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower when a bunch of gypsy kids (yes kids! 8-12 years old) came up to us trying to get us to sign their papers. We all said no immediately but then they came closer, literally shoving the papers against our faces! The papers had jibberish written on them, not even real words! Anyway we finally got them to leave, then one of the girls there with me said "Maddie! He has your iPhone!" She jumped up and ran at him! He immediately dropped the phone and pretended like he didn't know what she was talking about. She grabbed it, told him to get out of here, then came back. I was dumbstruck! My phone was purposely inches from my face so I wouldn't let it go anywhere and he must have grabbed it right when he shoved the paper against my face. Anyway right after that an undercover cop came over, showed us his badge, made sure we had all of our things, then it looked like he left to follow the kids. CRAZY. A couple days later another girl in our group got her iPhone stolen the same exact way! But she was at McDonalds and the gypsys came up to their booth. She was really stressing about it, I feel so bad for her, and so lucky.
Keep finding patisseries and small street food stands with DIVINE stuff. I am trying to write everything down! Mom and Dad, I am putting it all in that little Paris handbook you sent me- its perfect! I looked up a Fondue Restaurant on TripAdvisor that has fantastic reviews and we are going to go to that soon :) Can't wait. Madame de Mezary is still cookin up delicious stuff. Check my blog to see pictures and discriptions. Best thing eva.
Wasn't conference SO good?! If you havn't watched it you SHOULD. There was so much about growing closer to God and leaning on Christ. It seriously fed my spirituality to the BRIM. I am really excited to work on the things that were suggested. It is just great to be on this earth at this time!
ROME WAS AMAZING. I can't get over it. All I can say is that I AM going back someday! My coin is in the Trevi fountain so that means I will have a lucky return back to Rome! It is way smaller than Paris (or so it felt) and just gorgeous. So colorful and all the major sites were so much fun to see. Italians are so happy, everyone in Rome was happy including us! We ate at this GREAT restaurant I got some delicious pasta and pizza (wrote down the name!) and gelato was unreal of course. Favorite things were the Peita statue in St. Peters, the Sistine Chapel of course, well the whole Vatican and the Trevi fountain.We got to go together someday! Oh it was magical.
Anyway lots of schoolwork this week. Which is timely because it is getting so cold! It was fun to hear about your St. George and Bryce trips! Love you and miss you all! Can't wait for all of the things coming up in our lives! And that includes Hawaii 2013! Yes Katie and Vince let slip that there is talk about a Hawaii trip I am so okay with that!
Blog posts are coming....
With love
MAdeline
Things have been going great! I can't believe I have been gone more than a month now! Its officially the longest I have ever been away and honestly its been great for me. I love this city! And the only way I am going to be able to make amends with leaving is to promise myself to come back again and possibly again. I LOVE Paris.
There are SO many things to see and do. Now the list of major sites is way too obnoxious to report so I'll just share some highlights.
Last weekend we traveled to see the French Tapestry, saw Normandy and Omaha Beach, then went to Rouen and saw Monet's chapel, then to Giverny to see his house and gardens. LOVED that trip. It was so great, everything we did was an experience rather than just sight seeing. Omaha Beach was a very impactful (is that a word?) experience. The memorial and cemetary were so well-executed, it was just perfect. I am still surprised that I got emotional! It really was beautiful. What got me the most was the unidentified soldier plots. It was just a beautiful place and it honors such a beautiful thing. I am so proud to be an American! Rouen and Giverny were just out-of-body experiences. Rouen was very cool. The museum of beautiful art was wonderful, the city is historically rich, we saw Joan of Arcs death site, found a fabulous fabric and soap stores... And most of all I LOVE impressionism and so being able to actually see Monet's inspiration and later to go inside his house was incredible. He filled his house with Japanese artwork. Completely filled it! Very interesting the contrast of French Impressionism and Asian art. But I can tell traces of asian-inspiration in his paintings. It was a great weekend!
This week we saw the Catacombs, those were freakkkky. Over six million people's bones are down there. Had a funny security guard ending up giving us a tour. He kept making fun of our ewws and uhhs, it made the experience a lot more fun! Also spent a good couple hours in the Louvre.
The weird people stories keep piling up! Three times now a homeless person has walked in and sat down during one of our classes/sunday school. It'd be totally fine if they didn't smell SO bad. It literally hurts. Still are getting people coming up to us asking if they can eat our food, even at restaurants! I guess that isn't completely normal, or not many people we have asked said that has happened to them too. But its not a big deal.
I almost got robbed! I was laying on my stomach studying on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower when a bunch of gypsy kids (yes kids! 8-12 years old) came up to us trying to get us to sign their papers. We all said no immediately but then they came closer, literally shoving the papers against our faces! The papers had jibberish written on them, not even real words! Anyway we finally got them to leave, then one of the girls there with me said "Maddie! He has your iPhone!" She jumped up and ran at him! He immediately dropped the phone and pretended like he didn't know what she was talking about. She grabbed it, told him to get out of here, then came back. I was dumbstruck! My phone was purposely inches from my face so I wouldn't let it go anywhere and he must have grabbed it right when he shoved the paper against my face. Anyway right after that an undercover cop came over, showed us his badge, made sure we had all of our things, then it looked like he left to follow the kids. CRAZY. A couple days later another girl in our group got her iPhone stolen the same exact way! But she was at McDonalds and the gypsys came up to their booth. She was really stressing about it, I feel so bad for her, and so lucky.
Keep finding patisseries and small street food stands with DIVINE stuff. I am trying to write everything down! Mom and Dad, I am putting it all in that little Paris handbook you sent me- its perfect! I looked up a Fondue Restaurant on TripAdvisor that has fantastic reviews and we are going to go to that soon :) Can't wait. Madame de Mezary is still cookin up delicious stuff. Check my blog to see pictures and discriptions. Best thing eva.
Wasn't conference SO good?! If you havn't watched it you SHOULD. There was so much about growing closer to God and leaning on Christ. It seriously fed my spirituality to the BRIM. I am really excited to work on the things that were suggested. It is just great to be on this earth at this time!
ROME WAS AMAZING. I can't get over it. All I can say is that I AM going back someday! My coin is in the Trevi fountain so that means I will have a lucky return back to Rome! It is way smaller than Paris (or so it felt) and just gorgeous. So colorful and all the major sites were so much fun to see. Italians are so happy, everyone in Rome was happy including us! We ate at this GREAT restaurant I got some delicious pasta and pizza (wrote down the name!) and gelato was unreal of course. Favorite things were the Peita statue in St. Peters, the Sistine Chapel of course, well the whole Vatican and the Trevi fountain.We got to go together someday! Oh it was magical.
Anyway lots of schoolwork this week. Which is timely because it is getting so cold! It was fun to hear about your St. George and Bryce trips! Love you and miss you all! Can't wait for all of the things coming up in our lives! And that includes Hawaii 2013! Yes Katie and Vince let slip that there is talk about a Hawaii trip I am so okay with that!
Blog posts are coming....
With love
MAdeline
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