They are here! He is here!

Hello hellooo!

Guess what… The fam is in the Flo! I repeat, the fam is finally in the Flo! Watch out world, the Olsons are back at it - and in a foreign country, might I add. Let chaos ensue...

Mama Carolyn, Papa Jeff, Callie, and my nana all arrived in Florence Saturday afternoon. I had their itineraries so I decided to surprise them by showing up at their apartment to greet them when they arrived. Upon our reunion, I was immediately embraced and my spirits were lifted. I don't usually get home sick, but something about this whole experience has made me miss home and my family more than I ever have, so seeing them all for the first time after three months was a dream.

However, the dream only lasted so long. After less than an hour of being together, I found myself thinking of the mantra, "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em." I really did miss my family, but I guess I just missed the more pleasant characteristics of them; my rose colored glasses really altered my feelings and made me forget about the fact that they are indeed humans, have flaws, and really stress me out.

After having trouble getting into the apartment, struggling to communicate in Italian to the neighbors, and getting worked up about every little thing, we finally made our way to dinner. Gusta Pizza did a little to help calm down my family's exhaustion, hunger, and thirst prodded mood swings, but even on our way to gelato, tensions were a bit high and - as bad as this sounds - I found myself wondering why I was so excited to see them.

As we were walking quietly through the streets, I turn around and look back and my mom was stopped in her tracks a few yards back. Annoyed, my sister asked my dad what was going on and why she stopped. My dad just shushed us and told us to let her be.

Unbeknownst to us, the street musicians were playing the Andrea Bocelli song that my grandpa (my mom's dad, my nana's husband) died to. Right when my dad told us that, I got the chills and started to tear up. We all just stopped for a second and listened to the music. In that moment, not only did I feel my grandpa smiling down on us, but I also just felt God's presence - I don't really know how to explain it. A calm fell over us all and everything felt so peaceful.

I didn't get the chance to know my grandpa all that well because he died when I was fairly young, but the one thing that I do remember about him is that he loved everyone and always wanted everyone to be happy and get along. He was always the one to break the ice and make people smile even when they were mad. He truly was a remarkable person - everyone could agree on that.

At that moment, I stopped in my tracks and just thanked God for everything: for my life, for my family, for this experience - everything. In that second, I knew that it didn't matter what was going on. God had everything under control, brought us together as a family, and He just wanted us to love on each other and live. Just like God, my grandfather loved everyone despite their flaws and shortcomings and was always thankful for everyones company. Traveling and being with anyone - let alone your family - for such a long period of time can cause a roller coaster of emotions, so I guess God - and Gramps - just wanted to remind us what really matters. God is so good.

Moral of the story: Everyone is flawed, but worthy of love. Life is not perfect and neither are we. We are to find the beauty in the flaws and love despite life's imperfections.

Just something to think about…

Sending you love from my flawed family to yours!

Sincerely yours,
Just Another Original

Spring Break!

Cheerio mates!
My oh my, what a week it has been!

As the title suggests, this week was spring break for GIF. For me, these past ten days consisted of five flights, over eight cities, four hostels, two currencies, and one backpack.

Three of my friends and I decided to make our way around the UK for our break to visit Scotland, Ireland, and England. To preface these stories, I didn't really have much to do with any of the planning of this trip. My friends planned most of it and I just decided to tag along. I didn't really know what any of these places had to offer - I was just along for the ride. The only expectations I had for this trip were to just take in what each place had to offer, run with whatever life threw at us, and to simply be thankful for the journey.

Usually I like to do a day by day recap of each of my trips, but that would take far too long and no one would really want to read all of that, so I'm just going to share a few of the most memorable parts of each destination...

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

The first leg of our three country journey was in Edinburgh, Scotland. Now, like I said before, I didn't do much research about anywhere I was going, so I didn't really know what to expect from Edinburgh. With that being said, Edinburgh far exceeded any expectation that I might have had. It was probably one of my favorite places I have been this semester. 

Scotland reminded me a lot of Oregon. The city itself was really pretty and clean, but there was also a lot of greenery and trees. It was beautiful. I absolutely loved it. 

The weekend that we were in Edinburgh, there was a huge rugby tournament (the Six Nations tournament), so the whole city was absolutely packed with fans - especially French and Scottish people - all there for the game. In fact, we didn't have a place to stay until the night before because every single hostel/hotel/airbnb was booked to capacity. Needless to say, we ended up finding a place to stay, but we did end up spending a bit more money than we would have liked to...

One day, while we were walking around, we were approached by a group of French men - really happy, drunk French men - who asked who we were rooting for. When we told them that we didn't really care, they insisted that we root for the French and then proceeded to draw the French flag on our faces. I guess we chose the right team because the French ended up winning that day. 

Besides that, the first major touristy thing that we did was explore the Edinburgh Castle. To be completely honest, I couldn't tell you what the castle was really for, but it had a pretty view of the city. I don't know, I'm not much of a museum person so it wasn't all that exciting for me; I simply went to appease a friend who wanted to see it. However, we did get a free whiskey tasting in one of the gift shops so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

After the tour of the castle, we made our way to the center of town to meet up for a free Harry Potter tour. Now, any Harry Potter fan knows that Harry Potter land is in Florida and the studio is in London, but you might not know that Edinburgh is actually where JK Rowling wrote the books and where much of the story was inspired. Even though I'm not a huge Harry Potter guru, I still really enjoyed the tour. I mean, these books are essentially the books of my generation; we grew up with Harry and his friends. So, even though I didn't necessarily know all about what the guide was talking about, I could still appreciate learning about everything that went into it. And, I mean, it was also fun to let loose and act like a kid for a bit by reciting spells as we walked around the town. 

The next day, we hopped on a bus and made our way to the Scottish highlands. Now, I didn't know what to expect from this, but I had heard that it's something that you have to do when you are in Scotland because that's one of the things that they are known for. After visiting the highlands, I can see why it's something for people to visit, but honestly, it wasn't all that awe inspiring for me. All of the hills, greenery, and lakes (including Loch Ness - home of the magical Loch Ness monster) looked exactly like what I am used to seeing at home. I know I sound really bratty and ungrateful but trust me when I say that's not it at all. I appreciated the beauty of it and am glad that I did it, it's just something that I don't have to do again. 

After our uneventful tour of the highlands, I wasn't all that excited to get on a bus again the next day and go to St. Andrew's, but I'm really glad that I went. The town was absolutely stunning. St. Andrew's is famously known as the home of golf - it's not where golf was first played, but it is where all of the rules were made and continue to be modified. Even though I can't play golf to save my life, I still found the golf course and area to be gorgeous. Granted, the sunshine and crystal clear blue sky helped a lot but it was still beautiful on its own accord. 

St. Andrew's is also a big college town - home to St. Andrew's University. Besides being jaw-droppingly beautiful, this university is also able to boast about being the place where Prince William and Princess Kate met and fell in love. How perfect, right? After walking around the grounds, I seriously considered stopping by the study abroad office to see what I needed to do to be able to attend the university. I wouldn't mind attending the school and falling in love with British royalty - I mean, Harry has yet to get married, right?

I know it might sound like I didn't really appreciate much of Scotland, so you might be confused as to why I am claiming that it was one of my favorite places. To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of all of the touristy things that we did, but I absolutely loved the city itself. Like I said before, it reminded me a lot of Portland - it was beautiful, the people were friendly to a fault, and it was just a really cool place with a lot going on all of the time.

DUBLIN, IRELAND

After our time in Scotland, we made our way to Ireland. Again, I didn't really know what to expect from Ireland - the only real ideas I had consisted of lots of drinking, little red-headed leprechauns, four leaf clovers, and lots of green - really ignorant, right?

Well, Dublin was nothing like what I expected. Dublin was very Americanized and reminded me a lot of the States. It was just a big English speaking city with lots of people bustling through the streets. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed by it. I know that I can't judge the whole of Ireland on one city, but I guess I just was hoping to experience more Irish culture than feel like I was back in the States. 

The first day in Dublin, Carly and I meandered throughout the city and eventually made our way over to the Jameson distillery. 

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I don't really drink so you might be wondering why I willingly pay to go on an alcohol tour. Well, since I have been abroad, I have started to test out alcohol - partially to fit in with the culture and partially so that when I finally turn 21, I will know what I like to drink. With that being said, by no means am I suddenly a huge drinker, but I do enjoy my fru-fru girly, mixed drinks when at the bars/clubs. I mean, I never drink just to get drink - I still refuse to drink anything that I don't like - so take that as you will. 

Anyways, I went on the tour because it's just one of the things that you do in Dublin. Dublin is home of Jameson and Guinness, so those are two of the biggest tourist attractions in the town. I had been on brewery tours before, so I wasn't over the moon excited for it, but the Jameson tour was actually really cool. It was short and sweet, but very interactive and easy to grasp. The tour ended with a free (with admission) Jameson drink, so that was nice. I found out that Jameson is one alcohol that I do like - I guess I have expensive taste…

That night, Carly and I went out to a local pub down the street from our hostel and it was honestly one of the best nights I've ever had. This pub was exactly like what you expect when you go to Ireland - picture the PS I Love You bar scene, and that's what it was like. The bar was absolutely packed with locals all sipping on their brews and singing along to the live music. Everyone was just so happy and friendly - it felt like everyone was there hanging out together as one big group, not separated into little cliques doing their own things.

We were all enjoying singing along to songs like Galway Girl and Wonderwall (Ireland's theme song - we literally heard it at least twenty times a day and that's not an exaggeration) when the singer switched it up and started playing some song that only a few people in the bar knew (I later found out that it was Tribute by Tenacious D - random). Anyways, I turned around and asked the guy behind me what song it was, figuring he would know since he was passionately singing along. After that initial question, Carly and I ended up spending the entire night with him and his friends. The six of us (Carly, four German boys, and me) spend hours singing along with the singer, swapping travel stories, learning about each other's lives, and teaching the other how to German/English. I will always remember the night as one of the times where I was genuinely happy. 

The more I think about it, most of my favorite memories from each trip have consisted of the random times spent meeting locals and other travelers, learning about their lives, swapping stories, and just being in each others' company. It's just really cool and humbling to realize that no matter where you are in the world, you can find people that you can relate to and feel comfortable with. It just makes me wonder about how many cool people there are in the world that I will never meet.

Anyways, the next day, we went to Dublin's other main tourist attraction - the Guiness factory. I didn't really want to do the Guinness tour because I really don't like beer, but everyone told me that I absolutely could not miss it because it's literally Dublin's claim to fame, so I begrudgingly decided to go. The tour was fine - nothing special - but maybe I just thought that because I went in thinking I wouldn't like it. But, we did get to pour our own perfect pint of Guinness - watch out world, I am now a certified beer pourer! After that, we got to hang out in Guinness' famous "Sky Bar" that overlooked the entirety of Dublin, so that was pretty cool.

That night was the Beyonce concert - aka the whole reason we went to Dublin. We had general admission tickets, so we ended up waiting in the arena for a couple hours before the concert even started. We were all getting kind of annoyed having to wait around, but at least we didn't faint; there were legitimately three girls that passed out - because of the heat, drunkenness, dehydration, etc. - and had to be carried out by the body guards before the show even started. Anyways, the concert was absolutely amazing - I mean, I wouldn't expect anything less from Queen Bey. It was one of the best shows I've been to. She was flawless.

The next day was our last day in Ireland so we figured we would make our way to Ireland's famous Cliffs of Moher. The trip was pretty cool because we didn't just go to the cliffs - we also stopped in little towns along the way and actually went on a little hike around a family farm and got to enjoy some warm apple pie from "Granny's Cottage". The cliffs were beautiful, but I feel like I couldn't appreciate them as much as I would have liked to because I couldn't actually see the cliffs because of the heavy fog. Oh well.

All in all, Dublin was pretty cool, but no where that I am dying to get back to. My favorite part was the bars and live music, but I don't think that that's necessarily reason enough to spend an arm and a leg to go. It was fun for a few days though and I'm glad that I went but I probably won't be back anytime soon.

LONDON, ENGLAND
I know I said that Dublin reminded me a lot of the States, but London was legitimately an American city. I've never actually been to New York, but I've heard that London and New York are very similar - London is just a bit cleaner. 

We only really had a day in London because our trip was cut down by a day due to air traffic controller strikes in Dublin - sounds familiar, right? - so we just tried to knock out as many of the big tourist attractions as possible.

The other two girls that we were with wanted to go into every museum, so Carly and I went off on our own because we didn't want to waste our day inside. We basically just wandered around the city taking in all of the sights - including Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, St. James' Park, Westminster Abbey, etc. We even made sure to have a photo shoot with the famous red phone booths.

Our time in London ended with quite a bang… On our last night, my friends and I were woken up at 2:30 in the morning by our hostel's fire alarm. We were all really confused when we first heard the sound, thinking it was someone's alarm or something like that, so we just kind of ignored it and laid in bed until someone said, "shit, guys, I think that's a fire alarm!" After that, we all jumped out of bed, layered up with jackets, grabbed some of our belongings, and ran out the door. We stumbled outside the hostel with all of the other confused residents and watched as the Greenwich Fire Department rolled up and handled the situation. No one really knows what exactly happened, but I guess it wasn't a huge deal because we were back in the hostel within half an hour. I guess it was a good thing that it wasn't a serious fire because if it was, we all probably would have died inside considering it took us a good ten minutes to get up, get dressed, and grab all of our stuff. Maybe next time we will know to move a little quicker…

Just like Dublin, London was cool to see, but no where that I am dying to get back to. It was just too busy for me and I just felt really touristy the whole time. Maybe if I had more time there I would have been able to take in more of the English culture, but at the same time, if I go back to England, I think I will go to a different part. Everyone in England told me that I shouldn't judge the country based on London - London is not a very good representation of England as a whole because it is kind of the melting pot of London where all of the immigrants come and tourists congregate. In the end, I'm happy I saw it, but I don't need to go back anytime soon.

At the end of the day, spring break was absolutely exhausting (we averaged a maximum of five hours of sleep a night) but a lot of fun at the same time. However, I have never been so happy to come back from a trip and just be able to breathe in Florence. Next weekend, my family is coming to visit so hopefully this next coming week will be a bit more relaxing than last week.

Anyways, back to reality I go! Five more weeks of this crazy adventure before it is back to actual reality…

Ciao for now!

Sincerely yours,
Just Another Original

Krazy about Krakow

Hello to all of my loyal fans -

I realize that I have already failed on my New Year's resolution to blog once a week, but I just didn’t have anything to say last week. So, I apologize for anyone who actually cares about my blogs…

This weekend was honestly one of the best weekends and I am so thankful for that because I needed it - badly. I went with my friend Erin to Krakow, Poland and ended up meeting up with Ryan and Diego (some LMU friends) and it was just a weekend full of genuine happiness.

Now, you might be wondering, "Why the heck would you go to Poland? Of all of the places you could go, why Poland?" Well, the answer is this: the school organized a trip for people to go and visit Auschwitz, but Erin and I didn't want to go with a big group or pay for the school trip, so we decided to go on our own. We originally just went for Auschwitz, thinking that Krakow wouldn't have much else to offer, but it turned out to be one of my favorite cities that I have visited thus far. Krakow - and Poland in general - is highly underrated.

We started off our trip with nine hours of travel, going from Florence to Milan and Milan to Krakow. When we finally got to Krakow, it was about 11 PM so we just went straight to our hostel. We checked in, popped our heads into a karaoke bar, got a kebab, and called it a night.

On Friday, we made our way two hours out of Krakow to a little mountain town called Zakopane. In Zakopane, we walked around their little market that was filled with street vendors - mostly selling sheep cheese - and people dressed up characters walking around trying to get people to pay to take pictures with them. We managed to take some pictures with the characters and got away with not paying for them by playing the confused tourist card.

After walking around the market – and eating everything in sight – we made our way to a local ice-skating rink and spent some time on the ice.  At the rink, we ended up making friends with the worker there who liked us enough that he didn’t end up making us pay for our skates. I guess sometimes being nice pays off – literally. 

When we were there, Erin caught the attention of everyone around by showing off her amazing ice skating skills. I’m telling you, the girl should have gone to the Olympics – well, maybe she wasn’t that good, but she was better than anyone I’ve ever seen in person. Not only did she impress me, but she also made quite an impression on a television crew that was walking by. They even went out of their way to stop her and asked if they could film her ice-skating and air it on national Polish television. Cool, huh? We ended up talking to the camera crew for a while and they filmed us skating around and having fun on the ice for a while. I’ll be sure to post the link once we find it online.

At around five o’clock, we had seen all we could see, so we scrounged up just enough change to take the bus back to Krakow. When we got to Krakow, we met up with Diego and Ryan and a couple other kids from LMU for a traditional Polish dinner. Believe it or not, I actually did eat real Polish food – Polish sausage, pierogies, potato pancakes, sauerkraut – the works! Crazy, huh? Besides eating great food, I really enjoyed being able to spend time with some familiar faces. Even though Diego, Ryan, and I weren’t all that great at keeping up with each other at LMU, it was so nice to be able to catch up with them. Seeing them brought me so much genuine happiness and for that, I am so thankful.

After our lovely meal, we ended up walking around the main square just taking in Krakow’s beauty. While meandering around, we were hounded by bar promoters every time we turned a corner. After being handed at least five “free shot with entrance” cards, we decided to check out one of the bars. We ended up hanging out in a really nice bar for a while just talking and enjoying each others’ company until about midnight when Erin and I decided that it was time to go back and get some sleep.

The next day was the day that we had been waiting for: our trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Honestly, the whole trip was just mind-blowing and just so moving. I don’t want to give a history lesson because I’m fairly certain that all of you know the significance of Auschwitz and Birkenau, but I will tell you that no matter how much you think you know about what happened, there is still stuff that you don’t know.

Both camps were so different than I would have ever expected. When you see the old black and white photos of everything, they really don’t even begin to capture the essence of the camps. To be honest, they were both incredibly beautiful places; it was sad to think that some place so beautiful could be the scene of such inhumane actions. Oftentimes throughout the tour I would find myself thinking about how pretty the camp was but then feeling incredibly guilty for ever having that thought cross my mind considering what the place stands for.

There were so many little things that we saw that just blew my mind. One of the most touching parts for me was when we visited this a room filled with hair – real human hair – that had been shaved off of the prisoners as they entered the camp. I was speechless. It was unreal to see something so raw and human. It made it easy to envision the people and picture their innocent faces as they sat there not knowing what was happening to them as they got their heads shaved so that they could become one in a number. I don’t know, it was just something that made the whole experience so much more real for me.

I honestly could go on for days about how much we saw and everything I learned, but like I said, I don’t want to give you a history lesson.  All I can say is that it was definitely something that you should go see if you ever have the chance. We have all been taught about the Nazi regime our whole lives, but it has always just been that – a lesson in school. Visiting the camp was like putting a face to a name – it really brought the whole lesson and story to reality.

The next day Erin and I woke up early to go on a free working tour of the city. We woke up thinking that it was going to be fairly warm and sunny like every other day so we didn’t bring our jackets. Bad idea. It was literally 34 degrees and I was wearing a t-shirt and a chambray button up. Needless to say, I was a little cold… We went on the walking tour for about an hour before we deciding to ditch the tour and head back to our hostel to get our jackets.

After bundling up in literally six layers of clothing, we left our hostel and met up with Diego, Ryan, and our two other new friends. The six of us made our way to Wawel Castle (the old governor’s palace) and walked around the grounds, visited the state rooms, and just enjoyed the beauty of the castle. The place was absolutely stunning. I only wish it wasn’t so foggy so that we could have taken in the view of Krakow, but it was still gorgeous.

Once we were done frolicking around the castle grounds and exploring the city, it was time to say goodbye to Krakow and our friends and head back to Florence. We got from Krakow to Milan with no complications, but once we got to Milan, that’s where the fun began… We arrived in Milan right as the last train to Florence left so we thought that we would be stuck spending the night in the Milan airport and catching the 5 AM train back to Florence. None of us wanted to do that so Erin and I took it upon ourselves to find some way to get back that night. Turns out the private shuttle we found didn’t get us back to Florence until 2:30 AM and it cost more than the train would have… Oh well – we all got back safely so that’s all that really matters, right?

Anyways, at the end of the day, Krakow was wonderful. I didn’t really know what I was expecting when I went to Poland, but it by far exceeded my expectations. I would highly recommend visiting the country if you ever have the chance.

Here’s to a wonderful weekend in a wonderful place with wonderful people!

Ciao for now!

Sincerely yours,

Just Another Original