The Manchester Study Abroad group came to Manchester a little over a month ago. We had orientation before the other students moved in, had one class-camp with Joe Marsh where we trekked about various paces in the UK to look at the history of industry and architecture here essentially. Highlights of those trips include reallllyy amazing meals, a tip to see Conwy castle in Wales, and a Beatles-esque trip to Liverpool.
The end of today marked the end of our official second week of classes and I already feel overwhelmed by my classes! Seminars, lectures, tutorials-I miss Colgate and it's simple class system already!
While we're in the subject of missing things, I am definitely wishing to be back in Italy right now. The week before the University of Manchester officially commenced, six of us girls-me, Lacy, Caitlyn, Joanna, Lesley, and J-Mac flew down to the Southern parts of Italy and France to take in a little culture, nightlife, and scenery.With only an extremely packed backpack to last us for a week, a slew of reservations to various hotels and hostels, we set off for Nice, France where we slept in the seediest hostel for the night. As soon as the crack of dawn peered in through our window, we jumped out of bed and made our way to the train station. A few hours of beautiful scenery later, we get to RioMaggiore, one of the five towns in Cinque Terre, Italy. Cinque Terre is absolutely gorgeous and I got a hint of brown to my skin for the few hours that we spent on the cliffs by the water. We also met these two amazingly creative boys from the Chicago area while we were in Cinque Terre sitting by the cliffs one night. One is an up and coming musician and one a freelance photographer. They were travelling around Europe until their money ran out, living the hippie, carefree life I'd always wanted to try out as well.
After Cinque Terre, we headed out for Florence, Italy and then back to Nice, France before flying back to Manchester and it's rain clouds. I really enjoyed Florence and all it had to offer. I could easily have lost myself in just one museum, one statue, one painting all day but we pretty much spent an entire day running around Florence trying to inhale as much of its rich culture and history as we can. I'd say the most amazing things I got to experience in Florence, or Firenze as the Italians say, was seeing the statue of David as well as the unfinished works of Michaelangelo and climbing up Il Duomo to see the very best view of Florence. The nightlife is pretty great too because I'd say Italians are pretty friendly and eager to acquaint themselves with foreigners. Some favorite lines that the girls and I came across from overly-amorous Italian men include "Excuse me, do you love me" as well as "You dropped something, my heart". I am still going through withdrawal from the delicious insalata caprese, fresh bread, firm tomatoes, and gelato of Italia.
Anyway, I thought I'd end each of my blogs, starting with this one, with a quote from someone from the Colgate study group:
"Alright ladies, time to squat"-J-Mac to us,in reference to the Italian men who seemed on the short side but were nonetheless attractive [Firenze, Italia]
Until next time!
Cheers, love
Xx[typical British way of ending a message]
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