I never thought my life would ever be this cool.

Thursday 14 October
Design as Communication is on Thursdays. I think it is slowly turning into a cool class, but we are still tracing letters. Next week we are starting a new project.

Thursday night I went to the premier of Imogen Heap's premiere of her documentary, "The Making of Ellipse." I was a litte apprehensive because I didn't really know what to expect or if I would enjoy it. My friend, Elizabeth, won tickets to the premier on Twitter. I seriously, do not know how all of these awesome things keep happening to me?! The film was excellent. I love it. Her work is so brilliant. I had never watched a documentary of the making of an albulm before. I had no idea how much work and time it takes to produce an albulm. It was incredible to see how she makes some of the sounds for her song. She used kids toys, people jumping, staircases, pots, pencils, slapping her skin, the sheets of her bed and other bizarre noises I had never considered music before.

The premiere was actually at my school, The University of Westminster. It was in the theatre where the first motion picture was shown in the UK. It also has the oldest organ in the UK as well. After the film, Imogen played the organ for us. The music was beautiful. Before the show, she came out and we got to meet her! That was very cool. She's won several grammy's in the US but is from England.

Friday 15 October 2010

I had my creative writing module in the morning. Bleh.

Around 3pm I started the journey to Rome, Italy. My flight left at 6:20pm and it took about one hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport from class. I finally made it to the airport and sat in the holding area for a little while. This airport is different than at home, because you don't know what gate your flight is at until about 15 minutes before boarding. You have to watch the screen to know where to go. I went to the bookstore and picked up a couple books for the trip. (I almost have on already finished!)

I arrived in Rome about 10pm, but by the time I got to where I was staying it was close to midnight. Definitely, a long day of traveling. I took a bus from the airport to the train station, Termini, in central Rome then tracked down a cab to get to my friend, Alison's apartment. Alison and I are in the same sorority at home. It was so refreshing to finally see a familiar face. We stayed up a few hours and talked. I had to wake up pretty early in the morning to catch my train to Perugia, Italy. Here are some pictures of Alison's apartment. She lives in an apartment where actual Romans live, unlike my dorm here in London. It was really neat to get to see a different style of living in Europe.

Saturday 16 October 2010
I woke up about 5am to take a taxi to the train station. I wanted to get there plenty early to be able to get a ticket for the 7:43am train to Perugia, Italy. It was only ten euro to get there which is crazy considering it's a 3 hour ride. In London, it was ten pounds to ride about 30 minutes via train to the London airport. I couldn't believe how cheap it was! Anyway, I got there incredibly early and got to spend the morning reading my book. I boarded the train fine, but it was a little bit behind schedule. I got to Perugia around 11am on Saturday. Meredith, my roommate and sorority sister at Butler, was waiting for me at the station. I was SO excited to see her! I couldn't believe this weekend was actually here. We had talked about visiting each other for so long once we both decided to study abroad. It was pure elation to see her!

The city was packed with over 1,000,000 visitors from all over Europe for "EuroChocolate." It is a week long festival with chocolate from across Europe.  The streets were lined with vendors of fine chocolate. I knew the event was going on, but did not expect the massive crowds. The atmosphere was so full of energy and excitement. Walking through all the people adn trying some amazing chocolate took up a lot of the afternoon. We enjoyed some delicious Italian cuisine for lunch before walking through town. I was so ready to get some delectable food from Italy. Below are pictures of chocolate we tried. Yummm.

Bocci chocolate that is made in Perugia. It has hazelnut in the middle. Delicious.

"Hot Chocolate"

It's not what Americans think of as hot chocolate, it's basically melted milk chocolate. It's much thicker than what we have. Sooo good. We just tried the milk chocolate, "latte", but they had probably 20 different kinds you could try.

About halfway through, I decided it was necessary to purchase a liter of milk and carry it around with me throughout the festival. Meredith and I took turns chugging it out of the carton. Good memories of Italy. :)

"Chocolate Kabob"

 This was basically heaven in food form. Imagine a perfect pancake with warm chocolate syrup drizzled on top. Chocolate and hazelnut shavings are on top of that, topped off with whipped cream. It was so filling, but so delcious. After we bought this one, we walked to the edge of the mountain where Perugia is and sat on the wall to overlook the beautiful landscape.

We walked through the city a little bit and Meredith showed me all the beautiful sights. I think Italy is my new favorite place in the world.  At some point in my life, I just want to go on a trip through all of Italy. Every city I have seen (Rome, Florence, Assissi and now Perugia) is absolutely gorgeous. Below are some of my favorite photos from the weekend.

Before dinner, Meredith and I sat on the steps in the center of town. We were just above the crowd with a great view of all the people. It was a great spot for people watching. From these pictures, you can see just how busy this festival is!

Yes, this is an enormous block of chocolate being carved into a Jaguar. Normal.

Sooo many poeple.

Sitting on the steps, people watching.

Sunday 17 October 2010

We woke up somewhat early to walk through town one last time before I had to leave to catch my flight. Of course, this weekend was all about the food. I had a kabob for lunch. Although, this time, not chocolate it was equally delicious. Bread filled with tomoatos, carrots, lettuce, a couple dressings and lamb meat was to die for. Loved it! Wish I could have that again!

We bought gelato on the way to the bus. I had strawberry and apple goodness. It was from Meredith's favorite gelato shop. She refers to it as "Old Man" because an older man is typically working the counter. No old man when I was there, but it was pretty good gelato.

When we went to get on the bus to take me to the airport we found out it was not running because of the festival. We found this out 30 minutes before it was supposed to board. Meredith instinively takes off running and I follow her. This was hilarious. We were literally sprinting through the streets of Perugia trying to get to the bottom of the mountain to meet the train in time. I was laughing so hard trying to keep up with her. We made it in plenty of time, but this was a very climatic ending to a great weekend with one of my best friends.

I flew out of the Perugia airport. It was so, so tiny. It literally had 2 gates. I couldn't believe. Never been in an airport like that before and probably never will again. I had to take a picture, of course.

The airport was about double this size. It was comparable to a couple basketball courts next to each other. Crazzzy!

The commute home was a bit ridiculous. It took me 10 hours to make it back to my flight since starting the journey to the airport in Perugia. Once I got back to the UK, I had to wait in astromical customs lines and some of the tube lines were closed. I made it back fine, it was just a tedious process. When I was with Meredith, we booked flights to Switzerland for November. I am so excited! Can. Not. Wait.