Italy pictures!

Florence: Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge in Italy...beautiful!


Florence: View from Piazza Michaelangelo....you can see all of Florence!

Florence: Inside the Duomo Cathedral



Florence: View of the city from the top of the Duomo!


Florence: Paintings inside the Duomo

A kitty cat that adopted our room in Cinque Terre....most cats don't have permanent homes, but just roam from house to house in Cinque Terre. It looked like my kitty Lilly!



Cinque Terre: a bridge in Manarola, the city we stayed in...such a peaceful place!

Cinque Terre: view from the balcony of our room...if you face the other way, there is a beautiful view of the ocean!!


Arriving in Cinque Terre!! It was really hot walking to our city with those backpacks on!

A view from the hike we went on between two of the Cinque Terre cities


Jill and I on our balcony in Cinque Terre before dinner :)



Arriving in Cinque Terre...walking to our city Manarola


Walking to the train station in Genova...by the statue of Christopher Colombus. The beginning of our Italy trip!

Here safely!

Hi everyone! I dont have too much time because I am at an internet cafe in Florence, but I wanted to let everyone know we made it here safely. Cinque Terre was soooo beautiful!! Florence has been amazing as well...we leave tomorrow morning to head back up to Genova on the train. Then we fly to Madrid where will we meet our program directors and the other students. We will spend a couple days in Madrid and a couple in Toledo, and then we will be heading to Granada! We meet our host families next Monday, Aug 31st. Im really excited to see what life is going to be like in Granada and meet my host family. We have had many adventures so far...but I dont have enough time to write about them now. I will post pictures as soon as I can! Love and miss you all!!

Ciao!!
Ellen

Bon Voyage!

Jill, Maura and I with the cards Maura made us!




Jill's sister Bri, Jill, me and Angela by Deanna's pool!


Best Friends :)


Tomorrow is the big day! I have to be at the airport at 5am for my flight that leaves at 8am. We leave from LAX and fly to Toronto, Canada. Jill and I have a long layover in Toronto. We will finally arrive in Madrid around 11am on the 20th. Then it's off to Italy for a week :-) I can't believe it is actually happening! It feels really surreal right now, I am not sure it is sinking in yet. I am really excited, but a little nervous as well! I will post pictures of Italy as soon as I get back to my computer at the end of the week (My computer will be locked in my big suitcase...which will be locked up in lockers at the Madrid airport).
My best friend Deanna threw me a going away "Bon Voyage" party this past Saturday at her house. It was really nice to say bye to all my friends. The pics above are from the going away party! I hope all is well with everyone! Keep in touch :)