Venice

Yes, the rumors you heard are true. I spent the weekend in Venice. My roommate, Maggie and I had a roomies trip. We flew from Sevilla to Milan (the fashion capital of the world) and took a train to Venice from there. The train station was everything I had hoped it would be. The train was great because we got to see lots of the countryside, which was beautiful. Here is a picture of the train station.

We spent Thursday and Friday exploring Venice. We stayed in a cabin/hostel thing. We only had 2 real Italian meals, in a successful effort to save some money. We got lost in Venice, which was planned, because we left our map at the hostel. We met our neighbors, Max and Sarah from Seattle. We also met some Gondola friends, Jess and Ian. That's right! I said Gondola! Not only did we get to ride a gondola, we got to ride it for 1/2 price because we made friends with the drivers! Great job, huh? We thought so. We also saw St. Marcos Plaza and the Grand canal.

We left Venice and it's all Italian autmosphere to view Milan on Saturday morning. We spent the day in Milan. No one there speaks English or Spanish, which made communication quite difficult. Maggie even dared to get her hair cut, although she couldn't speak the language. It turned out great, though. After a long day of shopping (and not buying) we headed to the airport on our first double decker bus! We had the whole top layer to ourselfes.... which is dangerous with a camera.

We spent the night in the cold, cold airport on the ground because our flight left at 6:30 am. We didn't want to get a hotel. Only catch? The airport closed at 10:30 p.m. hahahaha. Fun night overall. We came back into town exhausted, only to find we were locked out of our house and our family wasn't home. They quickly came to our rescue and we slept the day away. All in all a very good weekend.

Culture differences

-smoking is everywhere. Everyone does it

-Everyone here thows thier trash on the ground because the street sweepers come every night and clean the streets

-There is only one trashcan and one clock in the whole house...and no kleenex

-There is no phrase in Spanish for "Can I please have" only "I want" and "I need" Everyone here is very upfront. Oiga!

-You must wear shoes at all times, even walking around the house

-They don't ever drink milk... only EAT CHEESE!!!!

P.S.-My birthday is in 10 days. If you want to mail me something, you better get to it. Here is my address:

Jessica Fowler

44 Recaredo

41003 Sevilla, Spain

I expect lots of packages and mail!