Firenze!

I am in Florence! Or Firenze as the Italians say. We just got here a few hours ago and it is such a relief to have free internet at the hotel! Although there is a 15 minute limit and I have a line waiting for the comp so I gotta make this quick. I really love Florence already. We are RIGHT by the biggest attraction of the city, the Duomo with the bell tower by Giotto. I got really excited about the bell tower because weve seen pictures of it in our art book. Our hotel is right in the heart of the shopping area and luckily our street is for pedestrians only! (: But I have yet to see the city during the day. I was sad to leave Venice this morning but I enjoyed my time there. I was most excited for that city from the beginning. After seeing it in person I can say it was more beautiful than I imagined it. Although Florence I can see already that it is a more metropolitan area. Venice afterall is a series of islands so everything there was much more expensive since everything has to be exported. BeforVenice we were in Switzerland! It was prettcool,,, literally sinthere was snow! But it kind of reminded me of the mountains in Washington... FYI if anyone wants to come, I really want to go sledding at Mt Rainier when I get back! I think the last blog I wrote was from Paris. Paris was awesome but there is so much to see in that city so I think Ill just have to come back to get the full experience. It didnt help that we had a test and quite a few other projects all due here. ): But Im trying to live everyday to the fullest. Speaking of which I need to go do more preparations for my debate that is coming up on Monday!

So what is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? We decided not to have thanksgiving dinner on Thursday but rather Friday because it worked out for us to rent a kichen for that day. Oh well. We are planning on making our own turkey dinner with all the fixins! Speaking of food... I really miss Mexican food!!! And fresh choloate chip cookies! And pumpkin pie! I could go on and on... in fact I made a long list of food I miss while traveling on the bus today. Maybe Ill share it later... haha.

I like flying buttresses and I cannot lie...

Hello, I am in Paris. I L-O-V-E it here. I just got here last night but it has been sensory overload since Ive been here. But last night on the metro, aka subway train, I made some lists that I will share with you (:

Things I miss:
Pumpkin pie
Mexican food
My laptop

Things I dont miss:
Cell phones
English
Staying in one place

Things I will miss:
Awesome chocolate...right now I am obsessed with Bueno by Kinder... I eat waaay too much of it
Great public transportation... seattles pub transit doesnt even come close
Mango brand clothing stores

Enjoy some more recent photos. They took forever to post but I hope you like them. They go from most recent to least recent... all taken within the last four days... well mostly.



At the Notre Dame cathedral today... listenin to Rick Steves' audio guide to Paris' historical site... many flying buttresses where to be seen here. But sadly no hunch back.

At the Eiffle tower last night.... kind of excited. Can u tell?

This is from when we went to Normandy. This is a memorial site for the soldier who died on D day and also after that. I felt very patriotic there. Its actually American soil given to it by France for the memorial.

Normandy beach

I cant remember the name of this church... ill find out later for u but the inside was the prettiest thing i have ever seen... many flying buttresses on the outside

Bayeux; France ... and you already know there where flying buttresses on this church

This is in Brugge, Belgium, working the sweatpants look

Brugge, on a bike ride