Top of Europe

Midterms week is upon us here at JFRC. But, before I start worrying about all my papers and tests, I have to update everyone about my last week! Obviously this is not a form of procrastination at all...

In my on-site Roman Catholicism class on Tuesday, my class visited several churches. In one, we explored the underground scavi to see what the first Christian churches were like. We also visited San Pietro in Vincoli, or St. Peter in Chains. This church not only contained prisoner chains that date back to the first century and are ones St. Peter would have been imprisoned in, but it also houses Michelangelo's Moses!

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to spend time with my Aunt Leanne. After meeting in Termini, I showed her my neighborhood in Rome as well as Loyola's campus here. After my weekly calcio game (which unfortunately ended in a loss), we had dinner at a local pizzeria, which has become one of my favorites. I loved having the chance to spend time with family in my home!

My Thursday morning English on-site class visited the Palazzo Barberini, which houses lots of art pieces including the pieces owned by the Barberini family. We spent the class writing a story about a painting; I wrote mine from the perspective of the painting's subject.

After Thursday classes were done, Katie, Audra, and I headed to Termini where we met up with a guide for our weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland. After a 10 hour bus ride consisting of movies and sleeping, we finally arrived at our hostel at 6am on Friday. After a few more hours of sleeping in an actual bed, the three of us explored the town. We walked around the main square and found one of the lakes surrounding Interlaken (which translates to "between the lakes").

We also ended up buying lots of chocolate. Lots and lots of Swiss chocolate. 

On Saturday, Audra and I went skiing in Jungfrau, the highest mountain range in Europe, which surround Interlaken. So we ended up skiing the top of Europe! While the weather wasn't the best and it was a little difficult to stay on the barely-marked trails, we still had a lot of fun and got to explore a couple mountain towns as well. We also managed to stay perfectly safe, minus the times we both wiped out in the powdery snow. The snow really made the trails beautiful though!

We walked around a little more on Sunday, buying even more chocolate and enjoying some yummy French onion soup, before leaving the beautiful Interlaken. Luckily, it was early afternoon so I was able to take in the beautiful changing scenery as we drove back to Rome.

After a physically tiring journey, it was so nice to crawl into my own bed Sunday night. Now to focus on midterms for the next few days and then I'm off to explore even more of Europe during spring break next week!

Arrivederci!

Gina