Traveling here, traveling there... Angela's traveling everywhere!

While I was living with my lovely relatives in beautiful Liguria (the region of Italy that contains Genoa, Chiavari, and Cinqueterre, for those of you "in the know"), I traveled quite a bit around Italy.  Joshua and I visited Florence with my cousin Tomaso and his girlfriend Laura, we explored Venice by ourselves, and experienced Rome with Tomaso.  We also saw the area around where we stayed.  Joshua and I headed out to Cinqueterre for a day to hike through the five towns strung out along the Mediterranean coast, and we saw Zoagli and Rapalla.  I'm feelin' pretty good about seeing Italy.  Now to expand my horizons a little bit...

The first weekend in October I'm off to Germany; Oktoberfest, here I come!  One of the international student groups at my university here planned a trip which involves leaving Friday night, arriving in Munich Saturday morning, leaving Munich late Saturday night, and being back in Milan by Sunday morning.  Whew!  Long story short, I'm going to Germany for a day for 36 euro!  Pretty excited about that.

At some point in October, I'm back to Chiavari for an olive-picking weekend with the relatives!  I can't wait.  We will harvest the olives that grow in their very own olive grove, and then send off the olives to be made into olive oil.  Honestly, how cool is that?  They get olive oil made from what they've grown and picked themselves.  And this year I get to be part of it!

I've been to Rome, as you know.  Tell me, what would bring a nice historical balance?  Let's see... "the ______s and the Romans"... If you just shouted "Greeks!" in your mind, you are correct!  This November I'm jetting off to Athens with some friends during fall break.  I'll be honest: when I came to Italy, I never thought of taking a trip to Greece, but now I feel a dramatic rush of excitement in my stomach whenever I think about it!

Later on in November or December, I'll fly away to a city lit with enchantment and laced with romance... Paris!  There some starlit evening, I'm going to meet my beautiful friend Rebecca, who is spending the semester studying in Northern Ireland, and my lovely friend Marie, who is teaching English in Spain this year.  We have been eagerly anticipating this reunion since before we were even apart.  (We shared an apartment in Chicago last school year.)

Holy smokes, this sounds like SO much traveling!  I guess I've never looked at it all at one time before; it seems a little different when it's spread out over five months.  I want to take advantage of every opportunity I have while I'm here.  In one year, will I be able to hop on a plane to Athens for a nice little trip?  Heck no!  Now's my only chance!

Tomorrow I get to go to the police station for the next step in the process of applying for a permit of stay.  So laborious and confusing!  I spent way too long filling out the ridiculously complicated paperwork before spending a tragic amount of time at the post office, where I had to turn it in.  I foolishly thought I would be done when I turned all my paperwork in, but no.  I need to go in tomorrow.  My friend went today and it took three hours.  Hopefully since she was in a different city, it won't be the same.  It would be great if Milan processed people faster, especially because after my appointment, I have to take the final exam of my Italian language class!  Speaking of which, I should really go study more and then get to sleep.  Good luck, me!

P.S. Soon I'll try to figure out how to post pictures.  I don't see anything that seems easy right now.