Fourth of July in Greece!

We finally finished our Italian class which means we get to go home soon! We took our final on Friday, they ended up teaching a new conjugation the day before just so they could make the exam that much harder. That made a total of six different verb conjugations on the final, I cried the whole test.

I think after living in Rome for almost six weeks I can tell you the only words you need to know if you are ever going to Italy:
1. Parli inglese? (do you speak English?) parlo inglese! (I speak English)
2. Then if you ever happen to knock a bunch of candy off a shelf in a store, you say "mi dispiace!" she will give you free candy because it is a polite way to say i'm sorry instead of just "scusi"
3. Prego
It means everything: you're welcome, go ahead, my fault, don't worry about it, please.. So just throw it in with anything you say, especially ciao and grazie

For our last time as a group together, our professors organized a farewell lunch for us just two days before our final exam. On our way to lunch there was a rumor going around that in the past trips it was normally a farewell dinner, and everyone would always drink more than they should for it. As soon as our lunch started we kept the tradition going. The waiters brought out wine bottle after wine bottle, till I think just about every student drank their own bottle to their self. Max gave a toast to the whole group, and made our Italian teacher swoon over his every word...aka he definitely got an A on his final. Our class started super late, and that class lecture is now known as the "black out class" because whatever we learned that day... no one really knows or has any coherent notes from it. Oops! Luckily that portion of the final wasn't too large

Once we finished our final we all went out to celebrate by the river, Max's family and girlfriend Kate came to visit him so his brother and Kate came out with us all too. Friday and Saturday most of the Rasella girls went to Florence, but to save money me and Laura stayed in the slums to do some sight seeing that we have been putting off....


This is the Pantheon, it's right by our house and i think it is the most interesting building in Rome...The pillars are carved out from just one large piece of stone! We walked past it so many times and learned about it on tours but we finally were able to go inside



The only source of light in the dome






Then we visited the Spanish Steps, which was about five seconds from our house too


Tourists everywhere


Spanish Steps, and a bunch of people


So many people, way more popular than the Trevi fountain!








view from the top of the Spanish Steps


Inside the church at the top





Then we started to pack for home and Greece, the other apartment's electricity went out so they had to pack in the dark. Our AC went out too, this is the second time it's happened to them, and our landlord doesn't care or help us at all :(

Now we are on vacation in Greece!
We left Sunday morning and flew Ryan Air to Rhodes. My friend Aaron told me about Ryan Air and how it's so cheap but he really forgot to mention how it is survival of the fittest and you have to fight for your seat.... There weren't any lines, so everyone was running to get the seat they wanted. But Laura and me have lived in Rome for so long we know how to be rude and how to use our elbows so we got excellent window seats. I even watched Laura kick an old lady's wooden cane down the steps while she was running to the front of the line!

We are on the windy side of the island, so everyone wind surfs here


Me and katie are going to wind surf tomorrow....we don't want to take the five hour lesson so we are just going to rent them and teach ourselves! We haven't seen any girls do it yet, and I don't have any upper body strength so this is going to be a joke but I'm still doing it.


That is Turkey in the background! We can take a 45 minute ferry ride over...I want to try and out do Laura on her island swim and maybe doggie paddle to this...or wind surf over


This is our resort! Me and Laura have a real shower too, we are finally clean!

I took pictures of our apartment before we left for Greece, so you can see where I have been living..



Our floor. We have NOTHING to clean this up with, our sink and shower leak everywhere so the dirt in Rome just finds its way in. Our cleaning lady (same person as our landlord) is punishing us for asking for more than two towels to split between four girls, now she has gone on strike or something and refuses to change our sheets, or help us clean this. She won't even give us cleaning supplies! I think this is abuse and I can't wait to go home to clean sheets and clean floors and towels!




The kitchen, fully equipped with three knives, a spoon, a pot, and one bowl to share


The shower that you can't get clean in

We are visiting the town of Ladiko I think tonight, we heard the town has all white house with blue roofs! And later tonight we are going to celebrate the fourth of July in Greece, we are all really bummed we are missing it but karaoke is tonight at the resort so maybe I will sing a patriotic song on stage and get booed off

Location:Rhodes, Greece