Living an even richer life in Monte Carlo

This past weekend my friend's dad took 5 of us to Monaco. We stayed in an amazing Hotel in Monte Carlo right behind the Casino. It is truly the richest place I have ever been to. I only played 5 Euro in the slot machine because I was scared and won 11 so that was exciting! One of my roommates won 105 Euro and then we proceeded to spend 99 of it on room service later that night. How you might ask does one spend 99 Euro on food..well lets just say a burger was 33 Euro. RIDICULOUS! I also tried snails and they were actually very good with the right type of sauce on them. We went to the Buddha Bar for dinner and drinks one night. (Google it its so cool).

I also learned a lot on this trip. For starters I thought Monte Carlo was in France..its not. Monaco is a country of its own even though its so tiny. They also have royalty there and we went on a tour of the castle. I wish I could have taken pictures to show you all the art work and pottery it was so beautiful in the castle. I would love to go to London to see the changing of the guards but since the pound is double the dollar I doubt I'll be going there..so instead we watched the changing of the guards in Monaco which was a much smaller ordeal but still fun.

The weather was great and I came home with a little bit of a tan!! The sad news is that its pants and sweatshirt weather finally here in Florence =[  I can't believe midterms are next week. Time is absolutely flying by. Tomorrow we are going to the Euro Chocolate Festival in Perugia on a field trip. Yep I'm sure it will have no educational value. We are going with nutrition but we haven't been learning about chocolate at all..and chocolate is not nutritious so..i'm not sure how this fits into the curriculum but I'm certainly not complaining!

After midterms its time for our big bus trip: Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris! YAYYY (I better get some sort of sleeping pills for this bus ride)

Pear Ravili

Making the pasta from scatch

Yogurt with fresh blueberry sauce and gram cracker crumbles

Tanning weather!

The pool at our hotel

Hotel de Paris (my friend's dad stayed in this 5 star hotel)

The Castle!

The marina

Monte Carlo Casino

the marina at night

view from our hotel room (there were always 2-3 cruise ships)

the casino at night

trying a lot of new slimy foods..

Living the rich life in San Moritz Switzerland

We started out our weekend by taking a 4 hour bus ride to Lake Como. Lake Como was so nice and we got time to shop around and have lunch. I tired to get an iced coffee..but they put plum wine in it for flavor and it was so weird! Haha i guess I better stick to getting espresso here. We also to a ferry to Bellagio Italy where we got to hang out on the other side of Lake Como and see many beautiful old villas. I would definitely take a house here!

I've always wanted to see the snowy alps and this weekend I finally got to do it! We took a 2 hour ride on the Bernina Express through the Swiss Alps after getting a chance to view the adorable town of San Moritz.  Although it was the coldest weather I have experienced here in Europe it might have been my favorite place so far (I feel like I say that every weekend). It was just so peaceful and the scenes were unreal. Our tour guide told us we had just missed about a foot of snow that melted last week! It was craziness compared to the 75-80 we still have here in Florence. I broke out my new boots and scarves though! Anyways as we toured through San Moritz we learned that it is becoming hard for locals to continue living there because it is becoming extremely expensive due to its growing popularity. I feel bad for the locals who live there and are being forced out of there homes..its sad. The school house was the cutest thing I have ever seen and has a gorgeous view of the Alps. Right next to the school house is the Palace Hotel, which is a five star extremely expensive hotel. The kids in the school next door get the same exact view from all their classrooms and their basketball court. I sure would love to work there. They use Francs in Switzerland not Euros.. personally..I think everyone in the world she use the same currency..this is getting confusing!

Going to Switzerland also made me realize how much I wish I was fluent in more than one language. Although I have taken a few years of Spanish and now am taking beginner Italian I am nowhere near fluent in either of them. In Switzerland they have 4 national languages: German, Italian, and Romansh and French. I asked a girl which language she was taught in school and she said all 4 but mostly in German because she was from the German speaking area. She also told me they had to take either Spanish or Japanese as foreign languages in school. But waittttt they all somehow know perfect English! People in Europe are way cooler than us pretty much and I'm jealous! We stumbled upon a country music festival on Saturday night where we heard all American songs. I am constantly surprised by the amount of English that is spoken here.

Yes Switzerland is famous for its chocolate and yes I tried it and yes it was delicious!

The bus home was kind of rough because we hit so much traffic but definitely worth it! Went into the Duomo today with art class and was amazed. Although I pass by it every single day I've never actually been inside and all I can say is it is HUGE! Off to Monte Carlo to do some gambling on Friday!!

Bernina Express

Some Swiss Chocolate

Bellagio