Fam Time and Midterms

It's been a while since my last post, but with good reason. My family came! And unfortunately for you that means a really long post! Get excited!

I met my mom, dad, three brothers, cousin, and two aunts at the train station in Milan. Yes, that is 8 people, 9 if you include me. What you must understand is that nothing happens quickly in a group this large. Every 20 seconds someone is asking, "where is Kristen?" "Has anyone seen Connor?"... Most of the time it's really funny because the person they are looking for is in the vicinity, usually either directly in front of, or behind them.

So Milan. Beautiful. As if anyone had doubts.

Now enjoy these pictures telling the story of our weekend in Milan.

Kristen (my cousin) and I chasing birds at the Duomo

Fountain!

Milan has the street of my birth. Which is exciting.

My dad tried to get us tickets to see the last supper.. He got one ticket. So I got to see the last supper in Milan! It was huge and fabulous and i absolutely loved it! I also took this pic illegally. It was awesome. I couldve been kicked out. 

Inter Milan Soccer Game!!!! GGOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLL! They actually never scored a goal.. but it was still fun.

View from the top of the Duomo

Fam in Milan

My family on top of the Duomo

Inter game

Fam at the inter game

We climbed the Duomo. I saw the last supper. We went to a soccer game. Milan was fun.

My family also brought the harlem shake to Europe! We harlem shake'd Milan...twice, and Florence! And now, for your viewing pleasure... The Paetzold's Harlem Shake Milan Metro!!

Anyways...I had to go back to Florence for class because, unlike my family, I wasn't on spring break.

So they came with me.

We climbed the duomo in Florence. 

Mom and I on the Arno

We ate at the best restaurant in Florence, where Will took me for Valentine's Day. But, maybe I'm biased. We also went to the mexican food place, I can't get enough of it... we also ate A TON of gelato while they were in Italy.

On Wednesday my family left for Pompeii and I was stuck going to classes.. that was fun. But, I met up with them in Rome on Friday morning.

During that time frame the new pope was elected!! So crazy to be here in Italy during the conclave! I watched it all live on the news, which was in Italian, but I could actually understand them!! Which was even more exciting! My roommates and I were going crazy. Jumping up and down, screaming, and running through the apartment. It was so much fun!

White Smoke!

New Pope!!

So, since there is now a new pope I had to go to Rome and meet him!!

And look who came with me!!

Good thing Will planned to come with me to Rome, because we washed his passport. So when we got to Rome at 8:30am friday morning we headed to the consulate because he left for his spring break in Spain on Sunday. Basically long story short, they would only let Will in, I wandered around for 2 and a half hours trying to stay warm and also not getting lost in the two to three blocks I walked of the consulate. Will got his replacement passport and we met up with my family at the Pantheon for lunch.

Half of the crew left Saturday morning (at a very very early time that will not be mentioned) so my dad got us a hotel on the beach, obviously. It's closer to the airport.

Sunset on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea

There is a story with this photo...

So Carson, Kristen, Connor and I decided it would be a good idea to climb on those rocks.. Carson jumped across the water and made it.. I jumped... and totally missed the rocks, landing in knee deep water... Kristen decided to just accept her fate and waded through. Connor, well... He sort of jumped and slammed his knee into a rock!! HA! So obviously, the caption on the photo is a hilarious one if you know the story. Whats even crazier is that my boots were magically dry the next morning, probably because I used two hairdryers on them for a while.... 

Saturday it took us most of the day to figure out how to get back to Rome. We had to catch a bus, to take us to the train, to take us to the metro, so that we could store our luggage in the Termini train station. But that's okay because we ate Chinese food for lunch, it was amazing. We met one of Will's roommates at Termini and he wandered around Rome with us until it was time for the family and I to head back to Florence. 

Saying goodbye to Will is literally the hardest thing ever for me, and this time was worse for multiple reasons. He was leaving for spring break in Spain, I was going back to Florence to study for midterms... and well.. I really don't need to keep going. 

My parents and I took a spontaneous day trip to Lucca for a couple hours on Sunday.

Dad and I on the wall in Lucca

Carson helping me study for my Italian Midterm on the train to Lucca

It was pouring rain and beautiful. We walked along the wall after getting crepes and then ended up having to sprint back to the train station to catch our train. With our umbrellas. In the rain. We were quite a site. 

The rest of the family left Monday morning :( It was sad to see them go, it was good to mix up the traveling group, see familiar faces, and speak english!!!

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In other news, we are getting a lawyer to write Fish Pub a complaint about the noise problem and possibly fine them. They are apparently in hot water already because of a fight that occurred there recently.. awesome. It made the papers and everything. So we are hoping we can eliminate the Fish Pub problem entirely.

Also, our water damaged walls are now growing mold. We are hoping we don't all die.

Katie has been taking a lot of pictures for her photography classes, so it's been fun around here.

She photographed fruits and veggies and Jenn and I decided we wanted to be apart of the fun!

Katie also took Jenn and I out today for a photo shoot. It was a lot of fun. These are a few of her photos of me that I edited for the blog. BIG NEWS!! I bought the leather jacket I've been wanting! The guy originally told me 140 euro. I went into the store with 100 euro cash in my wallet. After trying on and ABSOLUTELY LOVING the jacket I asked him how much and then proceeded to show him that all I had was 100. He replied "Do you have just 10 more?". "umm... I have a lot of coins!!" I pulled out 6 euros worth of coins and he took 5 of them. So I got my leather jacket with the student discount price of 140 euro for 105 euro! I am pretty dang proud of myself. Although I couldn't have done it without the moral support of Katie and Jenn. Plus, I got to wear my new jacket in the photo shoot today! So you can see for yourself how cute it is!

Basically Katie is awesome with her photography skills! If you think the editing is bad blame me! but the photos are ALL HER and her wonderful talent! We were going for a hipster/indie look. I think we got it. Also I found a new cute outfit I can wear in the process!

She also cut my hair this week. Just the back. To be honest I haven't seen what it looks like yet, but I haven't noticed anyone laughing or looking strangely at the back of my head....

So anyways.. I still have midterms this week. Oops! I have one more tomorrow and then we (Katie, Jenn, and I) are off to Munich on Friday morning!! I am beyond excited. The weather in Munich is... cold. rain. chance of snow. Sounds like perfect spring break weather to me!! I'm glad my mom checked my bank account today before I left for spring break. That way I could know I only have $4.38 in there to use for the rest of the semester. Living the college dream! ... maybe buying the leather jacket was a bad idea... I'm broke, I'm in Italy, and I'm absolutely loving life!!!

...now back to studying