The Fiat Five

First I would like to share the fact that when I walked into the kitchen this morning for breakfast I found Liliana staring at the newspaper wearing paper 3D glasses. Apparently there was some 3D TV advertisement in the paper this morning that included the glasses and 3D pictures-- needless to say Liliana had no idea what was going on and asked if I could shed any light on the situation. While I was trying to explain the concept of 3D TVs, pictures, etc. (probably very poorly) she started reading the warning on the inside of the glasses "Epilepsy? Damn, these hurt my head." Funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I would pay like 100 Euro to have a picture of that adorable little lady in those goofy glasses. Man, I'm gonna miss her.
Moving on. Sunday was Spencer and my birthday! So our darling friends decided we should road trip to the Amalfi Coast to celebrate. We left bright and early on Friday morning. Adair and Anna rented a wonderful little Fiant Punto (http://www.cuboauto.it/gallery/fiat-punto/1138.html) Jenna and Spencer brought the snacks, I made 10 fabulous mix CDs and we were off on our 6 hour trip to Sorrento! My CDs really were fabulous, I must add. [most successful crowd pleasers: Hakuna Matata, Build Me Up Buttercup, Livin' la Vida Loca, Hot in Herre] I forgot how much fun singing and dancing in cars with friends is. The time really flew, and before we knew it we were wedged in a tiny cobblestone street in Sorrento and learned that Italian cars don't reverse the way American cars do... so we put the car in neutral and put our teamwork to the test. Success.
Our hostel was absolutely awesome, and after we checked in we headed straight for the beach. After a few lazy hours on the beach we tried some famous Sorrento pizza. I actually switched things up a bit and went for these things. Wonderful decision. Still having food flashbacks to those (Riz, you know what I mean, and I know Charlie would too, if he could read this.) When we got back to our hotel we hung out at the sweet rooftop bar, and returned to our room. Unfortunately we were staying in a room for 6 people-- and there were 5 of us-- so when I was being a liiiiitle rowdy when we got back I was informed by our (clearly European) roommate that "If I wanted to make party, I needed to go elsewhere." I proceeded to laugh hysterically at his word choice before Spencer apologized for us making party too loudy...he stayed there both nights that we did. Super comfortable.
Saturday morning we caught the first ferry from Sorrento to the island of Capri and essentially felt like rappers-- or wealthy retired people. Our question of the day was, "Why are we allowed to be here?" It was (drumroll, please) the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. I don't understand why water is so much prettier over here, but it really is.
Our first stop on Capri was the chairlift that someone told Bear was something we absolutely HAD to do while we were there. I'm so glad we did! It was so cool-- it was like a single-person ski lift up the mountain that gave you such an incredible view of the island. I think the best part of the whole thing was the security, though. No lock or anything, just a bar that you can lift up at any point. Things that wouldn't fly in the U.S. I love it though, such an Italian idea-- basically saying, "If you're stupid enough to lift this bar up and fall out of the chair you deserve to break all the bones in your body." Good for you, Italy. (Excuse me while I channel my Babbo.)
At the top of the mountain you could wander around and get some incredible views of Mt. Vesuvius and the rest of the island. Not a cloud in the sky. This is all happening while Holy Cross is taking finals...What? These are our "being on Capri instead of in Worcester" faces.
After we took our lives into our own hands and journeyed back down the mountain via death-trap-chair-lift we treated ourselves to a delicious lunch. I decided to immerse myself and had the most delicious Caprese pizza that's ever been created. Dramatic enough? But seriously, this pizza was really good. Then we found a sweet little beached and bummed around again. That's a theme for the trip, if you hadn't already noticed. Our return ferry left in the early evening, so we made sure to get ourselves a lemonade slushie before we left Capri behind us. We returned to our hostel after a solid walk and stop at the supermarket for the essentials: bread, cheese, mostly vino to prepare for birthday celebrations. Because our birthday was on Sunday, 6 hours of which would be spent back in the ol' Fiat, we decided it would be best to celebrate on Saturday night instead.
So we made ourselves a lovely little picnic on the rooftop bar, Anna, Jenna and Adair surprised us with adorable cards and a birthday tin of cookies.. haha.. but it was wonderful, and a few rousing games of asshole commenced. Shoutout to the Gobbledy Goose. Not long after we were joined buy a couple of Italian guys who obviously couldn't help but hear how much fun we were having. Unfortunately, asshole was a little much for them and they ran out of vino pretty quickly. So they hung out for a little while and taught us some Napoletano. Mostly swear words, but it still absolutely blows my mind that all of the regions of Italy have their own dialect. I mean, accents, fine. I'm used to that. But essentially a completely different language? People calling "soda" "pop" in different regions of the US is strange enough for me. I don't know how these guys do it. I guess it'd make talking about strangers that much more fun... Man, I love strangers. After a few games of cards, a lot of laughs, and some really interesting rounds of "would you rather" Anna, Jenna, and Adair went down to the hostel room for something, and when they came back they found this... Spencer and I slept through our midnight birthday celebration! Pretty anticlimactic for Lauren Evans' 21st birthday celebration, right? You all thought I'd be arrested or dead or something. And instead you got this. haha. No regrets, though. It was a perfect birthday- and as I was reminded recently, this means I no longer have to worry about law enforcement in Pittsburgh!
So the next morning we woke up early and headed for Polsitano, which is an adorable little village about 30 minutes down the Amalfi coast from Sorrento. The drive along the Amalfi Coast is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. It seriously rivaled the PCH-- as a Californian, I feel blasphemous saying that, but it was seriously breathtaking. Breathtaking? What has study abroad done to me? I'm so cheesy now... Sorry, I couldn't delete that because it was so outrageous. But Anna handled the drive like an absolute champion, Bear was a wonderful navigator, and we arrived in Polsitano without any trouble at all. The weather was still absolutely beautiful and after wandering around the city for a little while, pausing ever few steps to take a picture and say "why are we allowed to be here?" we found ourselves on a wonderful sandy beach (surprise) and hung out for most of the afternoon. At around 3 o'clock the Fiat found itself full of five little lobsters, but they were very content lobsters The drive back was equally uneventful, which is usually a good adjective for car trips, I think. Eventful car trips make for better stories later, I suppose, but a lot more stress at the time. (The Moron's "honeymoon" comes to mind.) So I prefer it the way it went down.
Now I have three weeks left in the Flo. Last night we had our final dinner with our cultural adviser (slash the tutor who couldn't stand us during Museologia- same person) where Adair, Jenna and Kristen who have been taking a cooking class all semester prepared a lovely meal for us. We had Pappa al Pomodoro (my favorite Tuscan bread/tomato soup), Pesto Lasagna, some awesome meat wrap things, salad and cheesecake. They did an absolute bang up job, and I can't wait for them to cook for me next year-- in order to keep the dolphin-shaped Study Abroad Bod intact. Unfortunately, our last dinner also meant the due date of our cultural project essays. This is the essay about the CCD class of which is 40% pictures (of absurd things like this) and in which I actually typed a smiley face into Microsoft Word (bet you didn't know you could do that) and I have since learned that it was supposed to be taken somewhat seriously. So, it'll be interesting to receive feedback from that..
Tomorrow after school I'm heading to Milan to meet up with Scate! They're still on their eurotrip (as is the Goofy Gobbler) and they're heading back my way (kind of). So I'm going to take a train to Milan and they're going to pick me up in their car and we're going to drive to Munich, Germany and then to Zurich, Switzerland. I'm so excited! Not only to see these goofballs (and Munich and Zurich) but to hear about their shenanigans over the last 3 weeks since I've seen them. I think that will actually be my last trip, too.
It's unbelievable to think that this wonderful experience is really coming to an end. The Fun Express is on the home stretch.
Vi voglio bene, ragazzi! Baci :)

Oh, I felt I needed to share the adorable birthday card that Jenna made me, depicting my friends celebrating my birth in their post-Italy body shapes...hilarious

Gettin' Loose and Croazia

Hello faithful readers!
I think I might rush through the epic tale of the family's visit. For several reasons: 1.) Most of my readers ARE my family 2.) We didn't really DO much at all and 3.) It's all a little hazy, to be honest. But don't get me wrong. Best week of my young life.
So everyone got here on Saturday, April 23 and we had a lovely dinner, everybody caught up, and the boys all learned how much fun it was to throw wine bottle corks into a cup sitting on a chair across the courtyard. I mean, we all knew that was going to be a hit, didn't we? Easter Sunday ended up being an absolute ZOO in Firenze, I don't know why I didn't plan on that... but the streets were absolutely packed with people, and it made sight-seeing much less enjoyable. So we retired to our rooftop fortress a little earlier than usual that day, and I think that's when Matty finally convinced the parents to play Asshole with us (note: despite it's charming name, this is a very entertaining card games often enjoyed with a beverage by America's youth, for those of you who are not familiar.) And this quickly became the group's favorite pastime. Monday and Tuesday were spent wandering around the city, visiting museums and churches, and me pretended to go to class a couple of times. Wednesday, Scate, Schmoe, Gob and I woke up bright and early to head to Cinque Terre for a day of hiking and soaking in the beautiful landscape. (Yes, I am aware that I have now been there 4 times. But, I think my experience made me a pretty stellar tour guide the last time.) We lucked out with a hostel RIGHT on the water, and had a lovely hike for the afternoon where everyone learned just how long it's actually been since Matty exerted himself physically. Hint: a really long time. We were all very proud that everyone eventually finished and no one had to be airlifted off of the hillside!
Thursday morning we returned to Firenze and I again pretended to go to class while everyone else wandered around and met Michelangelo's David. That afternoon Laura Patty, one of Gob's best friends from home joined the clan! Thursday was our last night in the palace and we celebrated accordingly because on Friday morning Scate, Schmoe and I were headed off to Rome! The weather was absolutely awesome on Friday, and we got to see all of the standard touristy things: Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, ya know all the fun outside stuff. That night we found ourselves in a really fun area of the city for dinner where I ran into a kid from Holy Cross. That was bizarre. And besides the point. Saturday we went to the Vatican, like the dummies that we are unaware that the next day was Pope John Paul II's beatification. Sooo the Vatican was even more absurdly packed than usual, but we didn't actually have to wait that long to get in. Scott made friends with a Polish lady in front of him who had him write his digits in her Bible. Really normal stuff.
In short: I had an absolutely unreal week with my family, and I already miss those goofballs a lot.Buuut I didn't have time to get sad because on Thursday Jenna, Anna and I left for Croatia! If you're like me a few months ago, you think Croatia sound Eastern European and therefore pretty sketchy and scary and you're not sure why I'd go there. However, you and Lauren circa 2010 would be SO WRONG! We went to a city called Split on the Dalmatian Coast and it was (I know, I know) the most beautiful place I've ever seen! To get to Split, however, you have to take a ferry from a city on Italy's eastern coast. So after a relatively painless train ride and the process of procuring our tickets and finding out where to go in the land where no one labels anything (!!) we got ready to board our ferry *company name: LOW COST!* fellow travellers *senile* whole experience *hilarious*. Okay, those asterisks were a little unnecessary, but I'm trying to make a point. It was a bunch of geriatric Italians, a small group of nuns, Jenna, Anna and yours truly. We splurged on the cabin instead of the airplane seats and curled up in our comically cramped bunk beds only to wake up in Croatia at 7 o'clock the next morning!
The weather in Split absolutely could not have been better. Sunny enough to burn this study abroad bod to an absolute crisp the first day on the beach, that is. Friday we were absolute bums all day long, laying on the beach and judging the hell out of all the frat kids we were listening to tell idiotic stories. I didn't care. I had sunshine, the ocean, and Tina Fey. Nothing could upset me. Friday night we went on a very fun pub crawl around the city of Split, met some serious characters, made some bearded friends, I yelled at a Welch kid. It was an all around success, I think.
Saturday we were much more productive! We decided to go on a white water rafting trip for the afternoon. Our guide was such a stud! He had so many funny stories to share, and he knew a lot about the river and the area-- so it was not only fun, but very educational. However, he told us that Croatians invented the lightbulb...so maybe his nationalism skewed the truth a little bit. Much like me and the Welch kid. Except I was just a ranting lunatic. The paddlers included: Ivan (tourguide) Jenna, Anna, me, and Martin. Martin is a middle-aged Polish chef working in London who was on holiday in Split. Any questions? Didn't think so. Dude just wants to white water raft. He was very cool until he asked what we were doing that night. (Fortunately I was sound asleep in the van at this point, and got to avoid the awkwardness of responding. Jenna and Anna were not as fortunate.) In the middle of the rafting trip we got to climb behind a waterfall into a cave. I can't even describe how cool it was! Saturday night we thought we were tired, so we were going to have a "chill night", but it turned out to be Split's patron saint's day, and the city was too happening to pass up.

Things like this were going on!

So we naturally ended up doing things like this.

All in all, it was a very fun night.
Sunday we woke up a liiiiittle later, for logical reasons, but still managed to spend a full day soaking in the sun. It was absolutely wonderful! The skin peeling off my back will tell you a different story. But I'll tell that skin (not really, it'd be weird for me to talk to my skin) that it better get it's act together because I'm leaving for the Amalfi Coast on Friday morning!!
Anna, Spencer, Adair, Jenna and I are packing into a rental car and driving down to Sorrento to spend Spencer and my birthday weekend hanging out and hopefully being complete jokes!
Can't wait to have my first taste of alcohol on my 21st birthday! Hope it's not yucky.

Good talking to you. See you in a month. (Whaaaaa?)

Baci!

36 days?

You must be kidding me. I have 36 days left in Florence?!
I'm pretty sure I used to complain about have 7 months left. Where has this year gone? Bho.
But I can tell you where my last two weeks have gone :) They went all over Italy with my wonderful family! (I'm sure I'm missing some period of time before they got here, but it wasn't as significant. I promise.)
So Modge, Pops, and Gob arrived in Milan on Monday, April 18. So after school that day I hopped on a train (and a metro, and a bus, and a shuttle..) to meet them at their hotel. I honestly cannot describe how awesome it was to see those three walk into the lobby. Having so much fun over here makes the whole missing people thing a little different, so finally seeing them reminded me how much I love those boogerfaces. Even my brother in that damn Baltimore Oriole's hat and his Grateful Dead t-shirt..
So that night Matty and I spent a long time catching up and laughing our asses off, per usual. Then unfortunately returned to our hotel room where he still hasn't accepted that I'm his sister and not his college roommate and that he can't pee with the door open... But, that's another story.
The next morning Pops and I reported to the rental car agency and picked up the Hyundai that would become our faithful companion for the next week. "No one has rented this car before. It's okay for you, I think." And thus begins my two weeks of being pushed to the counter in every business and restaurant to "speak Italian to the guy" even though said employee probably speaks better English than I do. (Wish I were kidding.) And we hit the road.
Our first stop was on Lake Garda for lunch. I think Lake Country in northern Italy is actually the most beautiful place I've ever seen. (Please don't take this opportunity to go back through my blog and find the other 8 times I've said that this year.) We ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant right on the lake, and Modge and I think we've found the PERFECT place for my wedding reception. Said wedding will be taking place right on Lake Como. Get pumped everybody. Riiiiight.
Our destination for the night was Belaggio, only accessible by ferry. Also casually where George Clooney has a home where he spends most of his time. You really can't blame the guy, though. This place was UNREAL. We spent our afternoon wandering around the city and through the botanical gardens right on the lake. Making fun of each other and sharing funny stories.
The next morning we hopped in our little toy car and headed for Ferrara. Ferrara is a really neat medieval walled-city where more people ride bikes than drive cars. It was a tiny little place, so we got a good feel for the sights on our first afternoon, and Matty and I stayed up way too late that night to observe the college kids congregating in a piazza partaking in public drinking and drum circles until 4 AM. We weren't wearing black leather jackets so we didn't think it would appropriate to join in. The next morning we took a nice little bike ride around the walls of the city. Proud to report NO accidents. Despite Modge's best efforts to zig zag her way through the streets :)

Next stop: Gubbio. (Goo bee oh) Yep, just as hilarious as you thought it was. An even cuter, even tinier, and even medieval-er (?) city. Again, mostly wandering, talking, drinking vino and making fun of each other. But there's honestly NOTHING I would have rather been doing. We had a wonderful dinner in Gubbio at a really fun little restaurant where there we no menus, just the waiter TELLING you what you should eat. I mean, dude knew his stuff. It was delicious. Too bad Gob couldn't participate because he'd chosen to eat an entire package of lunch meat (that cost 97 cents) a few hours prior to dinner. Womp womp.
The next day I came back to Flo town to prepare the city for the tornado of an Evans family that was about to hit it. And then everyone got here on Saturday!

It was actually remarkable how easily everybody met up at the apartment in Florence, considering who we were dealing with. Actually, I guess it wasn't THAT easy. I may or may not have told Scate that they didn't need to buy train tickets from Milan to Florence ahead of time because they never sell out. Oh, what's that? Easter weekend? Ohhhh. But despite apparently almost getting locked up abroad, the happy couple arrived at the apartment like 30 minutes after Mike and me. (Mike is Scott's best friend who joined the adventure, for those of you who don't know. He may also be referred to as Schmoe. Keep that in mind.) Being the first people to arrive at our sweet pad, though, Mike and I felt like we were on the Real World. Running from room to room: "Duuuude. Have you seen this?!" "This is so sweet!" "Dibs on this bed!" "Did someone just use this bathroom? Ew!" "Oh, man, there's a rooftop balcony!" (Okay, one of those didn't fit in, but it did happen.) But really, everyone arrived with minimal issues, and the party began. My ONLY complaint about last week was that Florence was being a complete brat with the weather. The sky was pretty ominous for the first few days, and we KNEW we weren't going to let rain ruin our rooftop extravaganza. So naturally my dad and I went on an adventure to the Coop (the humongous Target/Walmart/supermarket) in search for a tarp that we could put up on the balcony to keep the rain out, and "really class the place up." You can take the Evans out of the Central Valley, but you can't take the Central Valley out of the Evans. So then this happened.

After mother nature took her toll, I think we went through about 3 of these puppies. But by the end we absolutely had it down. Probably our greatest accomplishment of the week. Well, I'm going to have to cut this short and fill you in on the rest of the "Best Week Ever" next time.
I'm off to the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia for the weekend with Jenna and Anna. I'm absolutely giddy. About being there. The 12 hour ferry ride doesn't exactly have me doing cartwheels, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Mi mancate, ragazzi. E, come sempre, vi voglio benissimo. Baci!

Oh, and because I won't be around on Sunday to holla' atcha'-- Mother's Day shoutout, Modge.
Love you so much. I had so much fun with you for the last two weeks. Can't wait to see you again!