Italia

Between the two sessions the ones of us who stayed got a free weekend. So... Jessica and I decided to go to Venice! Here is a summary of what we experienced:

1. We stayed in a tent. Yes, a tent. No heating, no air conditioning, no bathroom except for one that we had to share with about 50 million other people and about 100 million bugs. There were mattresses and blankets, but I was not prepared to rough it in Italy.

2. We visited the San Marco Basilica, the Doge's Palace, and the Campanile, all beautiful and amazing parts of Venice.

3. Venice is not as pretty as I expected- the canals are awesome, but the buildings are pretty run down and it kind of smells.

4. I didn't feel like I got real Italian food. I felt like the restaurants were catering to tourists and giving us what they thought we wanted. Not as good as I was expecting.

5. GONDOLAS ARE SO MUCH FUN. WE SAW MARCO POLO'S BIRTH PLACE FROM A GONDOLA.

6. So. Much. Shopping. Bought some awesome earrings made from Murano glass, which is glass from an island part of Venice.

It was a weird trip. Not having a set itinerary was kind of hard for me and made the trip kind of stressful, especially when things I didn't expect happen, like the whole tent thing. We also had more people with us than we thought, so that was difficult for me to try to make everyone happy with what we were doing. Lots of good things and some not-so-good things. Learned a lot, but happy to be back in Venice.
Time to start session 2! Ciao!