Sardigna and Berlin!

Everything is going well in Italy. The last day of classes was last week and I just have a couple finals on Tuesday and Wednesday. It has been awhile since I last posted so I will recap my trips.

The weekend after Paris was great because I just stayed in Florence and was able to get some work done. Then the weekend after I went to Sardigna with some friends in my program. We stayed at this really nice bed and breakfast and the Italian owner was really funny. Our first day was very sunny and we went to the beaches, however it rained the rest of the weekend. This was kind of a downer because there was not much to do but go to the beach. However, it was Easter weekend so there were some festivities going on in the center. I went to mass on Easter Sunday and that was very interesting. The church was beautiful and it was filled mostly with nuns. Although I couldn’t understand everything, I normally knew which prayers were being said.

The week after Cagliari, the city we stayed in Sardigna, I had a big presentation for my school with my internship. It went really well and my professors were pleased. Also my boss Maurizio was impressed.

Then this past weekend I traveled to Berlin Germany with my friend from school. Berlin was amazing and it was definitely one of my favorite trips thus far. It was the first time I took part in “couch surfing” as well. CouchSurfing is a website for young people who travel or want to host people from other areas. The best thing about it though is that it is free and it is a much better cultural experience then staying in a hostel. It is mostly in Europe however, it is also in the US. Beth and I stayed with this German student named Felix and his girlfriend Steffi. They were great hosts and were very helpful with showing us around the city. It was amazing how much trust they had with us, whom they had never met before. They gave us a house key and left us alone in their apartment while they were in class. They cooked us dinner and brought us to a BBQ with their German friends on the last day.

Besides the couch surfing adventuring, Berlin is just an amazing city. We took part in two free tours which were both awesome. 90 percent of Berlin was destroyed during WWII so it is fairly modern, however the older buildings are very cool. The city itself is very young and alternative. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 so the city is truly only 20 years old even though it has an extensive history before that. The beer was great, much better than in Italy. And the brautwursts were also tasty and a nice change from Italian cuisine. It was also funny because I looked a lot like the Germans and people kept coming up to me and asking for directions in German. Felix also taught me that “schwindt” in old German means “fast.” Overall, Berlin was one of my favorite trips thus far.

My flight home is May 30th and I am unsure what I am going to do this next month. I am staying with Stefano in Turino for a week or so, then I am going to try and go to Morocco. I also just plan to see the parts of Italy that I did not get to this semester and I need to go back to Rome cause I only spent one day there.

I apologize for the poor writing. My English has definitely gotten worst since I have been here so next semester will probably be a shock.