President of Procrastination Club
Just realized I haven’t posted anything since spring break! The pictures are taking a lot of time to get through, but here’s an update of what’s been going on.
Went to the Amalfi Coast a few weeks ago! Colleen and I booked the trip through another one of those companies that we’ve been using a lot this semester, so everything was all taken care of. Bus transportation from door to door!
We stayed in Sorrento for the weekend, but we didn’t see much of it because we didn’t really go out at night and they had us traveling every day. Our hostel was set up like campgrounds. It reminded me a lot of the kinds of places where we stayed during lock-ins and retreats and stuff …. but whenever I looked over the lemon and orange trees growing outside my door and saw the gorgeous water I remembered where I was ;) We all had private cabins, 4 to a house, with a patio, a kitchen, and everything. We were paired up with these two girls from NYU who we really liked and hung out with the whole weekend.
The first day we took a boat to Capri and our first stop was the Blue Grotto. When I came here in high school this was the NUMBER ONE thing on the top of my list to do, and it was closed for bad weather! But it was open the morning we went, so even though it was a little bit overpriced (10 euro for roughly 5 minutes .. AND the boat man asking for a tip. really?) I couldn’t pass it up. We realized afterwards that it might have been better if we went later in the day when the sun was in front of the cave, but it still ended up being as cool as I had hoped it would be. If you’re not familiar with the Blue Grotto — google it! Seriously, I didn’t bring my camera in with me because I was nervous about it getting wet, but Google images should give you an idea of what it’s like. Its a cave in the water that used to be attached to an old Roman villa. The stone at the bottom of the walls reflects the sun and gives the water this electric blue color, and other than that it’s completely dark. We went in groups of 3 and 4 in small boats. The guy rowing pulled us through the tiny opening to get into the cave and rowed us around twice while singing and spitting out facts about the grotto. I’ve heard that sometimes they let you swim … but it was a little chilly so I just dipped my hand in. ;)
After that, we toured the island by boat and on foot. We saw the green and white grottos, the gardens, and beautiful views all the way around. We went to a factory to watch them make sandals and to taste limoncello and chocolate! I bought lots of good stuff to bring home from there. Who knew lemon chocolate could be so amazing? It was so refreshing, the perfect thing to have a little taste of after dinner :)
After that we walked around for a while, but didn’t have enough time to actually sit on the beach even though the weather was GORGEOUS! We caught our ride back and had a group dinner in Sorrento that night.
The next day we went to Positano. It was cloudy, but we sat on the beach for a while anyway. Then we found this great restaurant (amazing seafood & fresh pasta) & sat for a few hours while the sun came out. The view was amazing - wait til you see the pictures!
After our long day trip to Positano, we returned to Sorrento with every intention of showering, getting ready, restocking on wine & meeting the group to go out downtown. Instead, we walked through the door, changed into our jimjams, cracked open the Pringles and M&Ms and sat around talking all night. It was just as fun and a much cozier way to spend four or five hours …
That was also right around the time that I found out simultaneously that I (bad news first) lost $200 but got an internship offer for the summer! The $200 was from the Jason Mraz tickets I wasn’t able to sell …. I’m bummed about that but determined to put it out of my mind. And for those of you who still haven’t heard — I’ll be working at Time Inc. this summer as a Public Relations intern for the Lifestyle Group. I’m so excited - but more nervous.
Anyway, on our last day we packed everything up, moved out of the cabins, and headed home, but not before stopping for the day in Pompei. We took a 2 hour tour and saw all the old ruins. Lots of cool stuff.
*NOTE* - I’m going to post these in installments because I’m multitasking and trying to write a paper at the same time. Oh .. and I’m in class.
I’ll post later about the visit from the fam … for now it’s back to The Political Implications of Feminine Beauty in Contemporary Italy. F-U-N !
Pics soon! There are definitely a few that are desktop worthy, so take a look when they’re up! I’ll really really try to make that happen soon.
