so for the past two weeks i have been pretty busy. last weekend was the weekend i had been waiting for this whole semester. me and allie had booked far in advance our trip with bus2.it tours to go to interlaken, switzerland to go skydiving. so we werent leavin until 6 that night and were anticipating gettin on that bus all day. when we got there i saw the guys and was like 'aight we are ready!' and they said 'you goin to sorento?' and we said 'no, interlaken' and they proceeded to tell us that there was no trip and it had been canceled since the week before. so they just decided not to tell us. we were quite pissed..to say the least. so we decided to do the next best thing- find a beach and go there! that night when i was hangin out w/ my italian friends at i 5 tavoli i was tellin them i was gonna go to rimini the next day and they all said, 'NOOOO!' not unless you want to go bar hoping the whole time and that wasnt in my mind at all so they told us the best beach in tuscany to go to that we could go to by train. so saturday morning me and allie got up and caught the 8 am train to castiglioncello beach like 30 minutes south of pisa on the east coast. and they were right..it was gorgeous. it was a really small town that was basically the equivilant of 1 new york block. we found a hotel that had beach access and dropped out stuff off, ate and went to bum on the beach from 1 in the afternoon till around 5 that night. it was so hot that we basically had to go in the water every 30 minutes. it was my first time, besides puttin my feet in the water in nice france, that i had been completely under water in the med. sea. so i was pretty excited about it. we were surrounded by all italians for the whole weekend which was a breath of fresh air to get away from americans. we also bought 'scopa' cards to play. that night we went and got a drink at a really different interesting bar that was suprisingly empty but all the chairs were simply cushions on the floor. i loved it...sittin there in italy w/ my friend playing scopa and drinkin a capiroska. that night we went to bed early b/c we were tired from all that laying in the sun so we got some rest for another long day of laying in the sun on sunday. we were out from like 12 until 430 and i decided to lay on my stomach almost the whole day so the back side of my body could catch up w/ the front side. bad idea. i got pretty burnt. and ofcourse it turned tan w/in 3 days but not its all peeling off pretty bad and i have to start all over!! bah.

so this weekend i went sailing to elba w/ 44 italians and 2 of my friends from school and it was amazing. it was i have to say..probly my favorite weekend this semester. we left on friday morn to drive to the dock we would set sail from and chilled on the boats, studying (taking a nap) and waiting for the others to get there around 8p. when they did some of us went to watch the sunset over the med and drink some mojitos and talk. mostly all of them spoke in perfect english so again no italian was learned or used. ha. oh well. after that we all went back and we had dinner and then a dance party across all 5 sail boats and on the dock in the parking lot until 3 in the morning. the next morning i woke up to the sound of the engine in my ear at 830 am and so i went on deck and we were leavin the port. we sailed out to one coast of elba and anchored so that we could all swim. we got to jump off the sides of the boats and yes it was freezing. afterwards when we got going again we decided to have a race between all the boats. and this time there was enough wind to shut off the engine and use only the sails. the rules were to switch the side the sail was on every 5 mintues which involves alot more work then you think unless you know how to sail. and what did i do? watch! ha. i did it one time and i was way to slow turnin the handle w/ my dinky arms. then all of them decided to get me on the CB and decide the next rules in english...because our boat was called 'american boat' since the only 3 americans were on it and i had to say random things really fast in english so that non of them would understand..haha. so yea anyways..later that night we anchored the boat of shore another side of elba and attached all 5 boats to eachother and 'took a bath' as the italian say it. we went swimming for longer this time. i wasnt goin to b/c it was so cold but david attacked me with whip creme so i had to go wash it all off. the water gets warm quick though. while the boats were all still attached we watched the sunset again and then had pesto pasta for dinner. after me calais and dave went up on deck and looked at the stars b/c there was zero light polution from the water. so we laid there and talked about life and how surreal the moment was being on a sail boat in italy with all italians. thinking about what we want to do when we graduate and just about havin to grow up and where we want to live and all. its crazy. for now i am so greatful to have been able to go on this trip. we went to bed early that night and got up the next morning around 10. we were still anchored off shore and we started the day with greatness of nutella! (have i mentioned how obsessed i am...im sure but oh well i will say it once again) then we were off to another long day of sailing. i slept most of it b/c the sun was tiring and the sea sick medicine was drowsy. but it was a great great day. we got back around 6 and headed back to florence. my face is almost burnt but will turn to tan in a few but the remains of my tan is peeling off quite rapidly...

so this is my last week in florence and i have to spend it packing, cleaning my apartment and studying for exams...sucks! but next week i am off to sicily for a week before i return to grand ol US of A. if you are plannin on sending me anymore mail then dont. email me and ask me for the address to send it to.

and i have put a few more pictures up since the last email but there are some more on my friends website from the past two weekend. go to this address http://www.calaismarie.com and then click on liguria (NEW) and sailing (NEW)