An Extraordinary Average Life, Unabridged

Let me just begin with apologizing for my lack of blog-posting these last two quarters, but it has been difficult to do so with the fact that I no longer have a computer (mine crashed several weeks ago). But I simply felt the need to write at least one more before I return to the States, so I stole my friend's laptop for the afternoon while she's out. Don't worry, I'll take good care of it. ;)

The last time I wrote, it was about Christmas break. So much has happened between that time and now that I don't even know where to begin! It has been a crazy adventure of trips and events and school that I've barely had a moment to think, but even with the continuous activity, I am having the best time of my life. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I was supposed to be here in Spain this year and that God sent me here knowing I would become the person I want to be and the person I am supposed to be. Out of all the things I've learned this year, the most important has been the fact that because of all the crazy things that have been throw at us, I have seen my own true colors, something I wouldn't have learned otherwise, and how necessary it is to be yourself and make true friends you can rely on and trust in any situation. 

Second quarter started off busy and cold, but our fantastic trip to Barcelona made all the difference and I fell in love with the city. I posted a picture of La Sagrada Familia which was my absolute favorite catedral I've ever visited, which trust me, have been too many. Our hotel was near the water where we walked down to in the evening to sit on the dock and we were also close to a market selling the best fresh-squeezed juice and mountains of fruits and vegetables and various types of fish and seafood. And, of course, the best part of being in the city is being able to eat GOOD FOOD and use the fast internet at Starbucks. 

The quarter ended with Semana Santa, or Holy Week, which Catholics observe and we therefore had our spring break that week. This, by far, will be the most memorable trip of the year. My friends and I were immensely blessed with the opportunity to go the the island of Crete in Greece with my friend Ryan and his parents. It was a little bit of a struggle to make the decision to go because the plane tickets were a tad pricey, but we figured that it would still be the cheapest trip to Greece that we were ever going to get, so the tickets were bought. When the day finally arrived to leave, we were up at the crack of dawn and at the train station before the sun was up and breakfast had been eaten. Ryan, his parents, and my roommate, Hannah, were flying the day after us, so it was just us five girls: me, Sara, Beth, Anisha, and Rachel. Our flight left from Barcelona, so we had to ride the train for a few hours to get there from Valencia, and once we made it, we took a metro to the airport. Upon arriving, we realized our departure gate was at a different terminal, easy to get to by shuttle, but a longer ride than we had anticipated. Looking at our watches, we realized we had only forty minutes until take-off, which normally would be just enough time even though it was cutting it close. Booking it to the check-in counter once we got to the terminal, the man working there gave us one good look at us "Americanas" and proceeded to tell us that we were too late and we could not get on the flight. Exasperated, we asked him if the gate had already been closed, which it hadn't, and if we could rush through security and run to the gate, which he wouldn't let us, even though we could have made it on time. Later, we figured out that they must have given away our tickets because they thought we weren't coming and that must have been why the attendent was so reluctant to help us.

Unable to except the situation, we found another employee who was equally as bothered by us and couldn't do anything to help us. It wasn't until we started speaking Spanish that he gave us the time of day, and he was suddenly more helpful and a lot nicer. Still, we lost our flight and our money. When was the next flight going out?, we asked him. Wednesday. What day was it now? Friday. Well, THAT wasn't going to work, we'd lose more than half of our vacation! I think that that moment was one of the most critical of all our traveling. Here we were, stranded in a big city by ourselves with no money or any means of transportation or communication, and on top of which, none of us had eaten all day and it was long after lunchtime. After the shock had worn away, we decided the best thing to do was to buy new tickets from a different company so we could salvage the most out of our vacation days. The next flight we could afford was leaving Sunday, two whole days later. Before buying the tickets, I called my parents on a payphone, the first time I called home all year, also the most expensive freaking call I've ever made in my life. One of my friends had already called home and starting crying after talking to her mom, to which I thought, I'm not going to cry, come on. Nope. Bawled like a baby. Never would I have guessed that hearing my mom's voice would have the effect that it did on me. I suppose that's why every girl needs her mother, even if all she can do is talk to you and tell you it's going to be ok. 

This is why I say that the friends you make are so important... because in that moment, I knew I could rely on my friends and I knew I would rather be with them then anyone else from the school. Together we were able to book a room at a hotel for two nights which was close to the airport. Luckily, the hotel was right next to a supermarket and had a free shuttle into the city. But we were so broke, that we literally ate meals of bread and cheese, and I use the term "meal" here liberally. Saturday we took the shuttle into Barcelona and spent the day walking around making homeless people and starvation jokes, referring to ourselves, but we did get to see the Olympic Stadium and the Museum of the Art, which we obviously couldn't go inside of as we were too poor looking. At one point after walking on some free nature trail, we sat down exhausted and used Rachel's used yogurt cup to fill up with water at a glorious water fountain which made us look even more pathetic especially after we rationed a granola bar I found in my bag. But the weekend wasn't a bomb at all though, we actually really enjoyed being in Barcelona again. We stumbled on some fun things going on in the city, like a random Harlem Shake that we jumped in on and a fountain light show with the themes to all the Disney movies playing in the background. Oh, the luxuries of free entertainment in the lives of hobos. 

We were so early to our flight the next morning that our gate hadn't even been posted on the board yet. 

Greece was the most BEAUTIFUL place I have ever been to; I would go back in a second. Our lovely hosts had rented apartments right on the coast which included decks for tanning and a king sized bed. Not every day was sunny, but I tell you, the ones that were, I was out on that deck in my suit for hoursssss. And any weight I had lost on our weekend of "The Hobo Experience" was immediately gained back by the gorgeous food Ryan's parents made and the delicious restaurants we ate at throughout the week. We also got to drive all over the island and visit ruins and famous things like Zeus' underground cave and the popular Elafonisi Beach complete with pink sand and blue skies. The trip out to the beach was longer than expected, and we ended up reaching a dead end where rocks had fallen and blocked our path, so we had to turn around and find another way, but not before my bladder decided it might explode and I had to mark my territory on the pile on fallen rocks, but that might be too much information. I seem to find myself peeing at inappropriate places on all my trips... 

So if any of you readers decide to go to Greece, you MUST have Greek yogurt with honey, which we had in Athens on our layover back to Barcelona, and cheese pies, which Ryan's gracious father always had a bounty of. Delicious. 

Returning back to the school, we literally had one day before leaving on you last school trip of the year in which we went to Toledo, Segovia, and Madrid. It was a wonderful trip and I ended up loving Madrid almost as much as Barcelona, but not quite. I could go on and on but I realize I have already taken up enough of your time with my lengthy adventures and I will save the rest of my stories for another time. Thanks for listening, I really appreciate it.

So the school year is almost over. In exactly four weeks I'll be flying home to Minneapolis and it will be the hardest thing that I will ever have to do, but also the most exciting. I am SO happy to be going back to the States and see my friends and family, but I will miss Spain and my friends so much I can hardly stand it. I have made friendships here that will last a lifetime. God has blessed me beyond imaginable and I have no choice but to trust Him with anything that could happen to me in the future because all everything He has brought me through this year. I'd appreciate prayers as I end my year and take my Spanish exams and travel home and make decisions about my future. Thanks so much. 

Until next time... 

After a lovely time in Switzerland, we high-tailed it to Munich, Germany by train. Our hostel ended up being located a block or two away from the station, which had lots of good food AND a Starbucks (holy cow was I excited about that), but our hostel was a lot bigger which meant community showers, no kitchen, and bunk beds. We did have a room to ourselves so we were able to spread out a little more instead of climbing over each other’s suitcases as was the case in our closet-of-a-room in Interlaken.

Story time! So a quick side note to segue into our adventures in Germany. Our first or second night in Switzerland, I don’t recall which, my friend Sara’s boyfriend, Trent, sent me a message on Facebook. Mind you, I don’t know who this kid is. I knew him by name, but had never talked to him. Also, I happened to be the only one out of the five of us that was online at the time. He must have recognized me because I had been posting pictures from the trip with Sara, so when a message popped up from him, before even reading it, I shouted, “Sara! I got a message from your boyfriend!”, automatically assuming that he wanted to talk to her. All I can say is that praise the Lord Sara was in the bathroom and did not hear me yell to her. It just so happened that Trent is a student missionary in Africa this year and had recently decided to come up to Germany and surprise Sara with his presence. So I shut my face and told Anisha and Rachel what had happened and we all proceed to freak out just as Sara walks into the room. Trying to keep our emotions under control, Sara walks over and leans over my laptop which Anisha was then utilizing; Anisha opens another tab and closes Facebook while Rachel has the brilliant idea to grab Sara’s face, look her in the eyes, start CRYING, and say, “You’re just so beautiful!”

Needless to say, Sara doesn’t know what the heck is going on, so we all just laugh it off and blame it on Rachel’s time of the month. Meanwhile, Anisha grabs my computer and goes off to chat with Trent about tickets and hostels and all that necessary planning and we go on drinking our tea and hiding our emotions like a boss.

Back in Germany, our first day we went out on the town and explored. We shopped at all the little Christmas markets and I tried my first ever real German bratwurst, which was definitely an experience since I don’t eat pork, but I thought that I really should eat one since I came all the way to Germany. The next day we ventured to Dachau WWII prison camp a little ways out of the city. It was absolutely frigid that day which made the whole experience even more unpleasant, especially as we walked through the paths were the barracks used to stand. It was a very moving memorial and we took our time walking through the museum that was there. I couldn’t imagine what those people went through… it really made you think. The museum took quite a while to walk through and, oh this is going to sound awful, by the time we made it through, it was already late afternoon and all Rachel and I could think of is how we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and how extremely hungry we were. Yep, sitting right there in Dachau and all we wanted was to go eat. I am a bad person.

After finding some food, we headed back to the hostel even though it was still quite early. It was that night that Trent was supposed to arrive, so we were all a little nervous about being able to find him, but we had told him the hostel address and how to get there from the train station. Just to be on the safe side though, we wanted to be at the station in case we could just meet up with him there. I think the four of us must have said, “So let’s all go over to the train station around eight to buy some food, sound good?” like ten times that day. Sara must have been wondering if we had all gone crazy.

So 8 o’clock rolls around and we head over to the station when all of a sudden Rachel “really has to pee” and runs off with Derek to find a bathroom while Sara, Anisha, and I check our Facebooks at Starbucks while looking around for Trent every other second. Once Rachel and Derek get back, we decided to duck into a little grocery store in the station to buy some food. Rachel tells me that they couldn’t find Trent but that there’s another metro coming in from the airport. I suddenly have to pee as well and insist that Rachel show me where the bathroom is and while we run off, Derek says to Sara, “Sara, you have to help me pick out some good grapefruits! My grandma always knew how to pick out the best ones…”

Ten minutes later, we’re back without Trent and Rachel exclaims that she is just not feeling well at all and that we should go back to the hostel. Walking back we were all thinking that he must have gotten in already and that he went to find the hostel. Rachel and Anisha get there first and once we walk in, Rachel, with a beaming smile, walks out of the hostel bar and says to Sara, “Hey, let’s check our Facebooks real quick with the wifi in the bar!” “I just check mine at Starbucks freak!” Ok, she didn’t say freak, but she was thinking it. And then Trent walks out of the bar, Sara freaks out, yay happy ending. How cute.

The rest of the night was so fun as I got to meet Trent and recount all the struggles we went through trying to keep it from Sara. She never suspected a thing! The next morning we were up and out the down and back to the station to catch a train to Prague. The ride was nice, especially since I made everyone make sandwiches at breakfast and sneak them out so we wouldn’t starve on the train. Upon arriving in Prague, we had to make our way through the streets to find our apartment that we were renting which proved to be difficult because 1) I had a big-ass suitcase and 2) we could not for the life of us find the blasted apartment.

“Alright, it says it’s right next to this restaurant.”

“Well, that looks really sketch to me.”

“Where is the lady who is renting us the apartment?!”

“Does anyone know how to speak Czech?”

So after walking up and down the street where this place supposedly was, Sara and I went into this restaurant to try and use a phone and call the lady we had to meet up with. Call, call, call, no answer. What is going on? OMG. After a little while of this, Trent comes running in and tells us that the lady finally showed up! So here’s the catch… in the beginning, there was only going to be four people staying at the apartment because I joined the group later and Trent had obviously just arrived. But Sara, who was with me, was the one who had been emailing the lady about the apartment and setting everything up. So when this lady found the group, she ran up and said, “Who’s Sara?!” to which Rachel responded, “Me!” Therefore, Sara and I were stuck in the restaurant while the lady showed the others the place until finally Trent came down to fetch us.

The apartment turned out to be extremely nice and really homey with fast internet and an awesome kitchen! After settling in and eating, we explored Prague at night and bought some groceries. Sadly, I only had one night in Prague, so the next day we tried to see a lot. It was snowing those big, wet flakes that you could catch on your tongue and we walked up and down the pretty Prague bridges… Definitely one of my favorite cities I’ve seen thus far.

That afternoon, everyone walked me to the train station where I was to catch my train to Berlin, and from Berlin, an overnight train to Paris where I would be meeting my family! It was sad to part with the group, especially after getting to know them all so well. We bid farewell and I started my trek across Germany. The ride to Berlin wasn’t bad, but the train to Paris was THIRTEEN HOURS LONG and I had to share a compartment with another girl, two German teenage boys, and their grandma. It was a long, extremely warm, uncomfortable train ride in which I probably got two hours of sleep at the most.

Arriving in Paris was wonderful and I was able to navigate my way through the metro to where I needed to get off and then walk to the hotel. My family hadn’t gotten there yet, but exhaustion was hitting in hard and I was finally able to check in and go to the room and take a long, glorious shower before the joyful reunion with my family once they arrived.

               Leaving for Christmas break after a stressful finals week and last-minute planning of flights and train reservations was exhilarating to say the least. Not only had our tests and project due dates lasted from Monday up until Friday, I had also committed to participating in not one, but two Christmas parties:  the first being a traditional Spanish celebration where I was “Santa’s helper” and helped pass out Amigo Secreto (Secret Santa) gifts, the second being a Christmas dinner the night before break where I had decided to sing a song with my friend after only practicing once. Both turned out well, and hopefully my test grades didn’t suffer too much from being so busy, but by the time Friday came around, I still hadn’t packed for the three week break which was rapidly approaching.

                Deciding to commit the day to packing and cleaning and more or less resting up a bit from the week, I managed to say goodbye to my friends who wouldn’t be returning to Spain next semester as well as tie up all the loose ends for my trip. By the time I was rapping things up, my roommate Hannah had returned from Valencia where she had been with my friend Rachel picking up Rachel’s boyfriend, Derek, from the airport. After meeting him, it was late, but Rachel still had to pack, Hannah was excited about her flight home to Texas the next morning, and I realized that we had never watched a Christmas movie to bring in the season. So we decided, after admitting that we’d only get a few hours of sleep anyways, to just stay up and watch “Home Alone” with big mugs of strong coffee in hand. By the time 5 o’clock rolled around, Hannah had left for the airport and I was waking up a curled up Rachel who had crashed out on my bed around 2. A half an hour later, Rachel, Derek, and I, as well as my friends Sara and Anisha, were heading to Valencia to catch our flight to Basel, our first stop on our trek through Europe!

The first thing I remember after stepping off that plane in Switzerland is that it was COLD. Not the “dorm room doesn’t have heating so you resort to doing homework in mittens” kind of cold that the whole third floor of our dorm had been experiencing lately, but the “sharp clean air that burns your lungs and wakes you up” kind of invigorating cold that I had been missing from back home in Minneapolis. We still had a ways to go, though, before reaching our destination, and after finally getting on the train taking us to Interlaken, the day now taking on a sort of dream-like quality from lack of sleep, and all I remember is the nonsensical storyline of my Harry Potter audiobook that was floating into my ears while I drifted in and out of a doze.

Interlaken turned out to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. It reminded me distantly of the mountains in Colorado with the snow-crested mountains and ski chalets that served hot chocolate. Our hostel was situated near the train station and after checking in, we proceeded to crash in our room out of pure exhaustion even though it was barely 7pm. After breakfast the next morning we set out to explore the town and see what we could find. We discovered right away that we wouldn’t be doing much shopping in Switzerland because of the outrageous prices, but had fun walking around and window shopping instead. We came across this large meadow, as it was called, where a fancy hotel sat overlooking the mountains. The hotel had a little Christmas market set up outside of it where there was a bonfire to warm your buns and little stands selling raclette and hot drinks. Rachel and I, having to pee, decided to duck into the hotel to use the bathroom, because of course the bathrooms in the fancy hotels were always the best. So we strutted into the main lobby pretending we were guests there and headed straight towards the restroom on the lower level to find that the woman’s room was locked. No matter. After seeing that the floor was deserted we sneaked into the men’s, complete with multiple urinals and stalls, and took turns peeing lest a man should wander in, in which case we would impersonate foreigners and explain, in heavy unrecognizable accents, that we couldn’t understand that the little sign of the woman with the dress meant “ladies” and the little man meant “men” because where we come from everyone is gender neutral.

It so happens that where in Interlaken, everything closes down ridiculously early. Apparently they have this “quiet atmosphere” or who knows, so the evenings were pretty quiet while we were there and we ended up cooking or watching movies. Our first night though, we were out looking at the stores and walked into this one with sporting goods and what not and as it turns out, the guy working there was from Long Island. He heard us speaking English and asked us where we were from and ended up talking to him for a while. He had a thick New York accent and swore every other word but otherwise was really nice. After telling him we were going to Prague later in the week he told us that that was one of his favorite places.

“Oh, yeah? What should we do there?”

“Drink!”

“Oh…. Well, we don’t drink.”

“NONE of you drink?”

“Well, no.”

“Then don’t go! Ha, ha.”

So then that sort of segued into the fact that we’re Adventists.

“What is that? Like, a religion?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m, like, no religion. Ha, ha!”

“Har…har.” God rest your soul, man.

After that, the swearing seemed to suddenly stop and he started teaching us German.

My first Thanksgiving away from home happened to be the very best day I've had here in Spain. I know, it's crazy, out of all the adventures I have had so far, my favorite day has been the one where all the ACA students here rallied together to make one of the most important American holidays special for everyone. 

What is the best way to make ourselves feel at home in Spain on Thanksgiving day? Football, of course. But first, we must warm up. Some girls organized our very own Turkey Trot run for Thanksgiving morning. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I don't run. I would seriously rather do almost any other form of exercise. But in honor of the sacred tradition, I thought I'd go for it. Well, it wasn't so bad running down the big hill that leads up to the school, but by the time we were running in the street dodging semis and other injury-inducing vehicles, we turned around and proceeded to saunter up the hill while taking pit stops in the orange groves for a little morning snack. Ok, so that was just me, but I did convince a few others to walk too.

Football made the day feel like home. Ok, so no, I didn't really play that well, MY BAD, but it was the spirit of the game that made it so fun. It was also raining during all this, which made the game perfect and muddy. At one point, when a player on the team against ours had just been thrown the ball, I booked it towards him trying to grab his flag while at the same time the other girl on my team, who must have had the same thought, was coming straight at him from the opposite direction. I swear, if that guy hadn't started running away, we would've had him. I'm just glad I didn't fall into the mud when I collided with her. 

After our team's triumphant win, a couple of almost-concussions, and a ripped pair of pants (in the wrong place, if you know what I mean), it was out of the rain and into the shower for before heading over to the cafeteria to start decorating for the Thanksgiving dinner that night. Meanwhile, I was slightly panicking because I hadn't practiced the song I was going to sing with my friend and I still didn't have my hair and make-up done. Also, I was spontaneously recruited to play the role of Queen Elizabeth the XIVIXIwhatever in the traditional Thanksgiving story and I still didn't have a costume or know my one line.

Luckily, by the grace of God, the night started off wonderfully and I didn't forget my line at all. The teachers still refer to me as "princess" because of it. Food was next. Oh my word, let me just tell you, I had never been so excited to eat before. The food was all homemade by the people who didn't do decorations and it was AMAZING! The mashed potatoes did it for me. Of course, I still hadn't sung yet; therefore, my stomach wouldn't let me stuff it to its full capacity. During the meal, my other friends were singing and it was really good and I was starting to wonder which of my lyrics I was going to mess up in my own song. So when Nate and I were introduced, we sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to begin the Christmas season. And yes, I did forget a line but nobody noticed (I hope). But it was the perfect way to end the night. I even had one guy propose to me afterwards and another tell me that I had one of the best voices he had ever heard. Kind of made me feel all warm inside.

Before I begin, I would like to thank our lovely school here in Spain for the numerous opportunities we have to make new memories. And when I say that, I mean, thank you for making us go camping AGAIN and, oh, let's do it in the pouring rain, and maybe, just to top it all off, let's have the entire theme of the weekend be about sex, shall we?

At the beginning of the year, I thought, what a great way to get Bible class credit: go on a camping trip for a couple nights! Well, that decision was made when it was 70 degrees outside and we hadn't had our first camping adventure (what happened with that one... oh, yeah, I got sick and almost died). So, unwilling, a now sorry group of students from the school gathered together on a gloomy Friday afternoon to be taken to our campsite. Little did we know, that we didn't have a bus and we had to be taken in shifts of about 16 people in vans to the site. Ergo, after about 4 plus hours, we all finally arrived at the campground located 25 minutes from the campus. Dinner consisted of a sandwich with only plastic-tasting cheese and mushy tomatoes, a piece of fruit, and a stale lemon cake. We saved the night though, after the much anticipated premarital sex talk, by playing Spoons and Presidents until we crashed.

A group of us from the school and bought tickets to go see a professional soccer game, Valencia versus Barcelona, and after a blur of awkward presentations throughout the next day, we got to hop on a bus and go into the city to watch it. It was incredible to be in the stadium and watch the game since I've never been to one in America. Plus, you have to see soccer in Spain, it's just what you do. I never realized how intense soccer is until I witnessed two players having to be carried out on stretchers. The game ended with a Valencia win and a very angry Barcelona goalie who thought it would be a good idea to moon the ref.

October 28-November 4, 2012

Whenever I find myself standing in front of a famous monument or sleeping in a city I've only seen pictures of, I can never, ever, convey or begin to describe how I feel. There's this certain excitement that's mixed with a feeling of living apart from yourself that always overcomes me. I don't know... it's almost as if I never thought I would ever be there or see that, and now that I have, there's a little nagging feeling of losing that hope of wanting to experience it, but also a gaining of a life-long memory that is always a bit blurry on the edges, as if it never actually happened.

This happened to me several times in Italy, as we traveled through four different cities and saw so many famous places. Rome, our first stop, began with the Colosseum, of course. One of my favorite moments of the trip was stepping off the metro and exiting the station and into the shadow of the massive structure in front of me. "I'm standing in front of the Colosseum." Like, what the HECK. It was unreal. Rome had so many things to see, that two days just didn't cover it. Checking off the Forum, where Caesar governed, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel (my favorite!), and St. Peter's cathedral, we covered as much as we could with the time we had after spending countless hours in lines and too much money transportation and food. Venice came next with a rush of wind and cold and 20 euro rain boots. By far the prettiest city we visited, it was also the most confusing and we must have gotten lost about ten times. After forgetting my umbrella in the hotel and walking as if we were catching a train, my spirits weren't the greatest. I had to walk around the city with my sweater covering my head, using the arms to tie it around my neck, and looking like a nun who couldn't afford a proper hat. What made it worth it was the GELATO. Let me tell you, pistachio gelato is just about the best thing ever made and soon became our group's tradition and we ate it at least once a day, if not more, trying to find the best one. What surprised me most about Italy was the food. I've had better pasta at Olive Garden. Now, I realize that we were in tourist areas, but every single place we ate, the food was overpriced for a tiny portion of semi-authentic tasting food. I assume that in order to find the best places, you'd have to go to the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that the Americans aren't supposed to find. The pizza was always good though, especially the places that sold by the slice. The highlight of Florence was by far the statue of David. I think we must have sat there and stared at it for a half an hour. It's truly incredible. The way the light hit the muscles and how life-like it was, like he was about to step of his pedestal and start walking around. All there is to see in Pisa, our last stop, is the leaning tower. We of course had to take the "holding up the tower" picture and because twice now I had been caught in the rain with my umbrella sitting nice and useless in our hotel room, I had brought it with me. I was so upset that it didn't start raining, that I walked around with my umbrella open over my head, getting many an odd look from strangers, to whom I simply ignored. After I almost nailed someone in the head with it, I decided I should probably put it away. Being the crazy kids that we are, every night we simply needed to find wifi so the boys could talk to their girlfriends, bless their souls. I was later encouraged by my friend to travel with fellow single people. 

Our hotel experiences were quite the interesting ones, as I never never had a brother or anything, and we were all sharing one room. Our various bodily functions was the main topic of in-room conversations, if not the only one. By the end of the week, I realized the blessing of not living in a co-ed dorm. At our "hotel" in Florence, which was more like a hostel because of its shared bathroom and metal-framed twin beds, everyone but me got bedbug bites during the night! The owner claimed it was mosquitoes, but the boys had bites on their arms when they had been wearing long-sleeve shirts. Could have been mosquitoes though, because I didn't get any bites, and being Minnesota's state bird, they obviously recognized my Minnesota blood and went for my Washingtonian companions instead.