November 11, 2005

November 11, 2005 12:50am
We made it through another day but just barely. I think that today is going to be my favorite day to look back on. It was crazy! I woke up at 8:30am thinking that it was like 5:30am. The room has no windows and the bottom of the door is tightly sealed so no light comes through. When I woke up everyone else was sleeping so I just went and logged onto our site to see if anyone made any comments. Thank you mom, it was so great to hear form you. I love to hear about what is going on at home and what you think about my adventures. I had 8 minutes left on my wireless time so I tried to send mom some pictures. I am going to try to send them again but it takes so dang long! While I was playing on my computer a couple that I became friends with came up to me to tell me that there was a train that could take me to Florence for 5 Euro. I was so excited that I hurried back to my room to get ready. It was about 9:15am so I decided that I would just go whether or not anyone else wanted to go. As I was getting ready I woke everyone up and they decided that it sounded like a good deal as well. When I was about done everyone else was slowly getting up. Finally we went up to breakfast and as we were going up I said “it is getting really close to the next shuttle leaving we should probably just grab an apple or something.” after that they all laughed and said, “are you kidding us! We didn’t get our fat bodies by just eating apples!” and we got a kick out of that. So we went in and had a sit down breakfast and slowly made our way down to the shuttle where everyone complained that it would cost 4 Euro each way. When we got to the center of Livorno we went to the tabacco shop to buy our bus and train tickets. It cost 15 Euro each and that was for our whole trip there and back. By the time we got on the bus we realized that if we went all the way to Florence that we would only be able to be there about 30 minutes. So we decided even though we had already paid to go to Florence, we only had time for Pisa which was on the way. So we got to the station and we had just missed our train so we had to wait an hour for the next one. When it finally arrived, we got on and heading to Pisa. Heather and I listened to my new IPOD Shuffle during the short trip. In Pisa, we walked 3 miles to the tower through little streets and alley ways. It wasn’t that crowded and there were beautiful men everywhere. We got to walk across a bridge where at the edge of it was this tiny cathedral thing. It was beautiful like everything else here in Europe. Everything here is just so neat. The buildings have such character. When we got to the end of one of the alleyways, there was a sudden opening to the gorgeous square that the tower was located on. The tower is so beautiful! The first thing we did (of course) was take a ton of pictures of us holding it up. Then I went and looked at all the little shops along the side of the road. There was a ton of the usual cheesy touresty stuff but among that were little treasures. Beautiful handmade shawls, authentic bracelets and I finally found the perfect purse. I think that you will like it a lot. I got stopped by some West Africans selling fake watches. It was so something out of the movies. We were right in the middle of talking when a police car drove by. It was so funny cuz he totally stopped talking to me about it and shut his little briefcase until the car drove away. Like the police are stupid enough to not know what they are doing! Well, I found a fake Rolex that I liked and I took him from 50 Euro to 25 to finally 20 Euro. It is a really cute watch and I needed one so bad. It was really funny cuz he asked me if I was from America and I said yes so he said, “I love you, don’t you love me?” of course I said no but it sure was funny. After that I started walking to find everyone else and I could not find them anywhere. So I decided that I had been gone long enough and it was getting kind of close to get back so I walked back by myself. It was a really tranquil walk back and I was able to take some more pictures. They were not at the station when I arrived so I just got to wait. Sally that morning had talked me into wearing a tank top which was funny to wear because everyone around was wearing jackets and sweaters. I thought it was a very nice day. As I was sitting and waiting I had three Italian men ask me in Italian why I was wearing something so cold. Of course they said it in a sarcastic and with a joke but I just had to reply that I spoke English. They made me laugh. One of those men come up to me and he spoke no English whatsoever but some how we had a conversation about how I was waiting for my lost friends and that he was waiting for a 5o’clock train. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to go have a drink with him in the bar and I tried to tell him that I was underage. I don’t think that he got that but he got that I didn’t drink. I waited for them for an hour before they finally got there. What I learned later was that they were able to go inside the cathedral that was there by the tower for free. I didn’t even know that there was a cathedral. I hear that it was so beautiful that Cari cried. On their way back they stopped for a bite to eat and Susan found some charms for her charms bracelet and I did not. I am definitely kicking myself now for getting lost. When we got reunited we hopped on our train and headed back to the ship. The first thing we did when we got back was head up to dinner. It was a good thing too cuz I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It is really neat because we have a room steward that is in charge of our room for the whole trip and he is Philipeno. He is so nice and I asked him where he is from and he said a little town in Dagupen. I had him write down the name but I left it in the room. (PS. Steph I found and bought the thing you were looking for. I will ship it to you from Barcelona when I can try to speak Spanish at the post office.) After dinner there was a comedian and the princess dancers performing in the theater. The comedian was pretty funny and the Princess dancers were scantily dress and not that great. But it was still fun. They had waiters walking around getting everyone drinks. I got myself a virgin pina colada. It was really good. During the show I got REALLY tired so I went up to take a nap. I zonked out! An hour later I was having this weird dream that someone kept knocking at the door and my roommates were trying to open it but they couldn’t or something. But the knocking continued no matter what. It was really weird. Finally I realized that it was heather trying to wake me up but I was so out that I had slept through it for 10 minutes. Finding Neverland was playing on the outside screen so we were going out to the pool. It was really cold and they didn’t have the hot tubs available at the pool so I just went to the inside pool’s hot tubs to relax. It was just me and then a nice old man in a speedo got in next to me. We had a great talk about what we have seen so far and where we are from and what we do. I told him that I was planning on going on a mormon mission and we then began talking about religion. He had lots of questions and I gave him a background of the church. It was after my short but very detailed background of our religion that he told me that he was an athiest. We continued on in our discussion about religion in schools and the government. He made an interesting comment that the founding fathers tried to get away from religion so it should be out completely. Then he asked me why a loving god would bring so much pain and disasters into the world. I just him about how we believe in an afterlife so those that past on are going to be ok and with every disaster brings the bringing together of people and many lessons learned and more service and love in the world. He was such a nice man and it was a great discussion. He was from Georgia and that makes me want to go there on my mission so I can talk to him again. At least I planted a seed. After my hour and a half conversation in the hot tub I decided that I was completely prune-I-fied. I returned to my cabin to find out that it was midnight chips and salsa time. We enjoyed our food and now I am writing to you. It is now 2:35am and I am ready to post this and head to bed! I hope all is well at home. I will try again to send some pictures but you might just have to wait til I get home! Love you!!