In May I got to go to Europe with the Interior Design Department and it was amazing! Thanks to my Dad for paying most of my way and to Matt for paying the rest! It was an experience I will never forget! Here are some of the highlights (there is way too much to write, you would probably get bored)

• We traveled Europe for 16 days seeing: Venice, Sienna, Florence, Rome, Sicily, Athens, Crete, and Turkey.
• Got to eat a lot of gelato…new favorite flavor has to be pistachio, who would have thought!
• Got to eat a lot of Italian pastries…I can’t even tell you what they were called, but they were so good!
• Endless yummy food from pizza, pasta and pastries to endless cruise buffet!
• Amazing monuments, statues, and architecture. We got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Acropolis and Parthenon, The Vatican, Sistine Chapel, Spanish Steps, Statue of David, numerous cathedrals, ancient cities and ruins and much much more!
• We got to taste some interesting foods; I tried escargot, hot Turkish apple cider and Turkish kebabs (probably what made me attract a virus, but they were so yummy)
• Got to go on a cruise for the first time! First day was very rocky! We shared a tiny room with four girls…not the ideal situation to say the least, but we made it!
• Our hotel rooms in Italy were interesting. The bathrooms were tiny, the beds were uncomfortable and all together the rooms were a little on the creepy side.
• We got to shop the streets in Rome, Greece and Turkey. Turkey was the craziest place I have been to shop, they definitely know how to get your attention and get you into the store. Best part is a lot of them knew Utah because of Memet Okur, they would say Utah Jazz! So funny.
• Got to meet some amazing new friends! I was sad for a minute I was done with school, but that quickly changed once I got home!
• Got to see a glass blowing demonstration…it was amazing! I can’t even tell you in words. It is a crazy skill that takes years to master. The glass master made a glass horse it literally 30 seconds!
• Got to see a Turkish rug being hand-made. Another amazing skill…they memorize the rug pattern and tie millions of knots. Some rugs have 900 knots per square inch! I wanted to buy one so bad! The rugs take months sometimes a year to make.
• Learned a little bit of Italian

I am sure there is so much I am missing but that is a good glimpse of my study abroad to Italy, Greece and Turkey! I definitely want to go back someday, hopefully with Matt, if he wants to go! Italy is amazing and so pretty. Walking through Venice the first few days, I kept thinking I was on a movie set. Seeing so many things I have studied since high school in actual reality is such an amazing experience. You study things from a book and picture them so different. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is in the middle of a neighborhood and the Colosseum is right outside the subway station. It is so different in all these places then anything in America. It is crazy to think how ancient most of these things are and how they are still standing and how intricate they are. I had an amazing time but I must say it’s good to be back in the states!