Sunday, December 4, 2011

Ciao Ciao

Grateful. Sad. Excited. Happy.  It's Midnight and I am sitting in Milan Malpensa Airport waiting to board my plane to America. I have a bajillion different emotions running through me. I am so blessed to have met amazing people and have them in my life. Everyone has shown me so much love and kindness and I am so grateful.  I have loved living in Italy. It has been the best experience and I am so grateful how wonderful everything turned out. I have learned so much about myself, the world, different cultures, and being independent. I have grown so much and discovered the person I want to be.  For so long I have dreamed of going on a grand adventure, living in Europe, meeting new people, and seeing incredible things. Ya know what. I just lived my dream.  
“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” 
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Ok on the not so sensitive side.. There is an Italian granny sitting near me flippin out on some guy and it is hilarious. So many people have moved to different parts of the Airport because she is making a huge scene haha. Those Italian grannies really know how to put someone in there place.
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It's been like 15 minutes now. She is still goin at it. 

Monday, November 14, 2011

Florence & Pisa

Once upon a time me and my greatest friend on earth ShayLee Bell decided we were going to Florence and Pisa. So we booked us a hostel, bought some Opera tickets, and hopped in the little SMART car. We started our Journey on a beautiful fall day. The drive to Florence was INCREDIBLE. We drove through Tuscany and it was so absolutely gorgeous. I ♥ Fall. Upon arriving in Florence we found out that  Florence has the WORST drivers known to man and it was quite the experience finding our way around. We almost died every 5 seconds. After a nice hunt we found our Hostel, then we continued on our site seeing adventure. Our First stop was seeing the Dumo and Baptistery and then we found our way through some stores. And of course I spent all my money. Is there any need to ask? Afterwards we found the gallery with Michelangelo's David. He is HUGE! I know your wondering why is there no picture! But.. no photography :/ Sorry! To end our day, after eating delicious pasta of course, we hopped on a rickety bus and made our way to St.Marks English Church to see the Opera "Carmen". It was really cool to see an Opera in Italy. It was a wonderful experience and the singing was amazing. The next day we roamed around the Florence market a bit and then continued our journey to Pisa. To actually see the Leaning Tower was awesome! You here about it and see it in books and to really see it was super exciting. ShayLee and I finished off our adventure with some DELICIOUS pizza! I Love Italy! Ciao!
At the Opera in St.Marks English Church! Florence Italy.

Carmen and Don Jose!


Dumo in Florence.

The Hostel.

Welcome to Pisa.



Eatin lunch :) With the leaning tower in the back :)



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Fall

The other day I went exploring around where I live. This is all within a 10 minute walk. I live in the most beautiful place right in the Italian Alps. I love Fall.
Can you believe this is where I live.. 


So beautiful.

Dweeb Alert.


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Verona. Round 2.

Ok. First off I would just like to say I am so sorry I am such a stinky blogger. Second I would like to say. I love Verona! But don't get me wrong. I am still very anti love. Verona is so beautiful and it is so fun. It is filled with fun window shopping (I call it window shopping because I can't purchase anything from Gucci etc.), good food, and it is picturesque Italian. All perfect ingredients for a good trip. But what made this trip even better is because I went with some great girl friends! They are so amazing. It was a grand adventure riding the train and finding our way around in this little foreign city. This time to Verona I was able to go to the Colosseum. This Colosseum is the second largest in Italy (I believe) and the most intact. We then continued our way through the main Piazzas until we reached Juliets house. And you better believe I rubbed her boob again. I want all the luck I can get!!! :D This time I even left my mark on Juliets walls. It was such a fun trip! I had a wonderful time :)








Sunday, October 23, 2011

London. The Land I Love.

 London is the most wonderful place in the whole world. About two weeks ago a couple of girls I met at church and I decided we were going to London. Their names are Anni and Erica. Together we were going to go on a grand adventure.  So we booked us a Hostel and got some plane tickets and off we went. We arrived in London around 2 AM and then took a bus from the Airport to Central London. From there we got a taxi (my first official taxi ride, it was everything I had ever dreamed haha) to our hostel. Our Hostel was pretty ghetto but super cheap! The next day we woke up and we went to the Churchill war museum and it was really really interesting.  I went into the building that Churchill was hiding out in and they would  all work, I saw the chair he sat in, his room, all the map rooms and secret phone rooms. I love to learn about WW2 and that was really cool. Then I saw all the Houses of Parliament,  Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (where all the kings and queens get corinated and married and burried), Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge (yes they are different), Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle (where the queen lives), Kensington palace (where Dianna lived), and then I went to a department store called Harrods .Its like a department store for rich people. it was INCREDIBLE. I could never buy anything there unless i had money for stuff like GUCCI haha. After talking to a few native Londeners we found out about a Sunday Market on Brick Lane.  It seriously is hipster market. I loved it hehe.  I also went to church to the YSA ward it was super super fun. I met lots of kids who were on the BYU study abroad program there. I've been thinking about it and I think that will be my next big adventure. Ali in London.. Sounds good huh? :) London has many amazing museums and it would be incredible if we could have seen it all. Anni, Erica and I went to the Natural History Museum, the V&A Museum,  Tate Modern, National British Museum, and The National British Library. I cannot even tell you how incredible everything was. I saw an abundance of amazing art work,  the Rosetta Stone, Mummies, the Magna Carta, the Crown Jewls, original Beatles lyrics, Leonardo da Vinci's original artwork, Handels Messiah he hand wrote, and many other incredible things. While in London we discovered a store called Primark.. I spent a small fortune there.  Its only in certain countries in Europe and it is phenomenal. Its like a Europe Forever 21. In order to really know and get the whole effect that we where in London we went to Kings Cross station to Platforms 9 and 10 to test if we could go to Hogwarts. But it turned out to be kind of a let down haha.. We went all the way to platforms 9 and 10 and I was so confused because there was not even a brick wall between them and the guard looked at me and was all are you looking for Harry Potter and I said yes. Then he told me to go  out to platform one. So we go to platform one and outside there is this weenie brick wall with a sign that says platform 9 3/4 haha. Nevertheless it was super cool. To top off our adventure we went and saw Wicked. It was INCREDIBLE. ABSOLUTLEY AMAZING. I seriously cried. Only a little. It was an amazing experience. I'm so happy for Anni and Erica they are wonderful friends and this is something I will never forget. I love you London. 
Its a classic picture :)



The London Parks are so beautiful. I would say it was my favorite part of the whole trip.


Tower of London.

Windsor Castle. Where the Queen lives.

Kensington Gardens

St.Pauls Cathedral. Hooray Erica & Anni!

Yes. I went to Notting Hill. No. I did not see Hugh Grant. Yes. I was sad. Haha.

Best Hipster Market Ever! Haha!

My whole life has led up to this.

Natural History Museum.

I saw more naked men in those few days than in my whole life.

Hyde Park. GORGEOUS!


Our EXTREMELY ghetto Hostel. That we loved haha. :)


WICKED! SO AMAZING!!! OH MY GOODNESS!

Goodbye London!

Mezzomonte

Sorry its been a while since i've updated my blog! Almost  a month! crazy huh. Well these pictures are of Mezzomonte. Mezzomonte is the little city on the mountain near Aviano. This city was bombed during WW2 and is still damaged. Me and my friend ShayLee went up there and explored. 
This rock is really cool because it is actually rocks from underwater.  I think they are reef rocks. The Italian Alps were originally underwater. 


Memorial to those who died in the bombing.



Cemetery.

memorial of things to those who died.


ShayLee and I.