the end of all things is but a great and exciting begining.

I dont know if any one has written that before, but I believe that it works when describing the end of this year’s summer program. 

The leaving of princeton and all the faces we had come to know so well was both saddening and exciting. I could not wait to arrive in South Dakota, and even more so my own home; but, having to say good bye to the Italians and all the great people we had met was a rather somber experience. I am so glad I was able to participate in this years summer program. Seeing all the great ideas being passed from scientist to scientist regardless of origin, one comes to realize that the scientific community is truly globalized, and the amount of work needed, from the individual to the whole of society, is truly mind boggling. I can now truly say I wish to enter this world of study and understanding.

A truly enjoyable experience, I would like to encourage any future student interested in the sciences to apply for this program as soon as possible.  

I would finally like to thank all the people who have made this possible, and all the people who made us welcome in their states and countries. 

Thank You.

This year’s program was amazing.  I learned so much about physics and the Italian culture.  I have now opened my mind to possibilities of a future inside and outside SD.  I really miss everyone involved in the success of this summer’s program.  I’m excited to be able to keep in contact with most of them via email.  Our flight back home went well.  I was kinda glad to have a day away from Grey after the press conference.  Before we left Princeton, we started brainstorming for next year’s program.  I think we put together a pretty good schedule for next year’s students.  I’m so excited for the 10 that get to travel to Princeton, Italy and hopefully Lead next summer.  After the press conference the Thursday after we got back, we ate lunch once again with Governor Rounds and many other reps.  We shared some stories and started discussing some of the details for picking next year’s students.  I really hope to remain involved in the program planning for next year.  Right now though, my focus has switch to jumping into my first year of college.  Studying at Princeton has given me a heads-up that I couldn’t have gotten otherwise.  I hope everyone reading this enjoyed our summer journey as much as I have.

This year will go by fast.  Hoping all the best to everyone involved and reading this.

Sarah

So a lot has been happening to keep me away from blogging.  Last week, Cristiano had us studying hard to understand different concepts in thermodynamics.  If we didn’t understand the way he explained it, we went to ask another professor.  That was an extremely tough/frustrating week.  I think I understand it quite a bit better now.  This last weekend we traveled to D.C.  Another first for me.  Saturday we toured the area around the capitol building, Arlington National Cemetery, various war memorials and we ended our trip near the White House.  There was a protest to impeach Bush going on when we got there.  Our hotel was in the Georgetown area.  When we got there it started raining.  But the weather in D.C. is much like SD….it can be raining one minute and sunny the next.  In about a half hour we were set free to explore the area’s food and shopping in groups.  Veronica and I went with Francesco, PierFrancesco, Chris and Danilo.  They’re a lot of fun to listen to but they aren’t open to many foods besides Italian.  We ended up at a pizzeria.  Our waiter was fun.  He tried to pretend he forgot my food after I had ordered for the Italians.  I have some pictures that I’ll have to remember to put up when I bring my camera to the computer with me.  After eating, we went to Walgreens and got some souvenirs before heading back to the hotel for our check-in.  One of the groups was a half hour late.  Veronica and I went to find St. Matthew’s cathedral so I could lead some of the Italian students to it in the morning.  We decided to go to mass at 7 am so I went to bed kinda early.  PierFrancesco was the only one to come with me in the morning.  The mass was nice but there wasn’t any music.  We ate breakfast and then went to the National Mall area for more touring of museums and galleries.  Veronica and I hung out all day.  The Museum of Natural History was my favorite besides just sitting in the shade.  The national Art Gallery was fun to wander to.  We left D.C. at about 5pm.  We stopped somewhere along the way to get food.  About an hour away from Princeton, the food didn’t set so well with me and I got sick.  I felt bad for stopping the bus.  I was glad when we finally got back to Princeton so I could go to sleep.  I got 9 hours that night (felt so good to get sleep).  Grey didn’t show up to class on Monday morning because he got sick too.  I think it’s a bug going around.  Both of us are feeling better now.  I think I just needed a reason to catch up on sleep.  This week Frank is teaching us about electricity and magnetism.  I like this better because I can find more practical applications for it.  We get to do a fuel cell lab on Friday.  It sounds like Barbara will be back on Friday so we’ll see what the plans for the weekend will be.  Frank wants us to come over and have a cook-out Sat or Sun and we’re going to try to invite the Italians.  Still working out the details of coursework and getting home next Wed so we’re keeping busy.  Hopefully I’ll remember to post some more pictures soon so you can see our adventure continued in America.  Anyway, hope all are well.

Sarah

A whole week has gone by since I last wrote.  So much has happened.  On Monday had our last lecture and then went back to the hotel because we couldn’t get a tour until late and we had a bus ticket to use.  On Tuesday we went on a full tour of the underground lab with David Montanari.  He’s really funny and the tour was fun.  We could have gone around more but the chill or the altitude was giving me a very bad headache.  We went back to L’Aquila, had lunch, packed, shopped a bit.  For supper we met one of Barbara’s friends near 99 fountains.  Very nice meal and the owner spoke English so we weren’t completely in the dark about what we were ordering.  We came back to the hotel for our last night when it got too cold outside to stand it anymore.  We got going at 5:30ish in the morning to catch the bus to Rome.  All of the Italian students families were standing around to see us off.  Slept on the way to the airport.  We were early so we wandered around the place.  Our flight got delayed by about an hour by the time we finally took off.  The ride back to the US seemed to take forever.  Grey took the window seat and I think having one toward the middle helped my motion sickness.  I talked to some of the Italian guys (Francesco and others).  I’ve had such a hard time remembering everyone’s names.  I was glad when we finally touched down because the weather wasn’t so great and I wanted to move.  We got through customs eventually…they checked my bag for imported things.  When we stepped outside is was like swimming through air.  Extremely hot and rainy.  We got checked into the dorms at Princeton and ran to supper.  Grey and I spent the night trying to finish papers and do laundry.  The Italians think all we do is work since we were sitting in the hall trying to get things done.  Today is actually much like the weather we had coming in…extremely hot and I’m glad I’m not outside right now since it’s storming.  We had our first lesson with Cristiano over trig and calc stuff Thurs morning.  The Italians have classes in Italian so we won’t join them for most of the classes.  After lecture we tried to work a couple problems and then we had to finish our papers and email them to DSU and we had to put together a powerpoint for our meeting with Governor Rounds.  We spent part of the evening sitting outside finishing up.  Friday morning we rushed to put the final touches on our presentation and then we went to eat breakfast with Governor Rounds.  It went pretty well.  It sounds like 10 students will get to come next year.  We toured a lab and then went over to the old President’s house for lunch.  There we all collaborated trying to figure out what the best approach to next year’s program would be.  The food was really good.  That afternoon we had Cristiano explain how to approach the physic assignment he had given us.  I just got my homework done completely today.  This next week is going to be more intense.  We study thermodynamics.  Friday night we went to a Trenton Thunders game.  It was fun to hang out with the Italian guys there.  They agree with me that baseball is a boring game to watch.  Saturday we went to New York.  It was amazing to shop in the big city.  We went up to the 86th floor of the Empire State building.  It was an amazing sight.  We went to where the twin towers use to stand.  Very humbling experience.  Rode the train both ways…I like that better than the plane.  Went to church at St. Paul’s today.  Very nice town of what I’ve seen.  We have a party to go to tonight so I need to get ready for that.  Hopefully this next week goes well.  More later.

Sarah

So it seems like forever since I last wrote anything for everyone.  It’s been a pretty busy week since we were given homework and had many sightseeing trips planned.  I ended up filling my first memory card on my camera (1 GB).  Actually I’m trying to upload some of the earlier pictures to our flickr site now.  Not exactly sure how it works otherwise I’d post details.  I finally got a chance to partially catch up on sleep today.  We’ve been up late most nights working on papers together and now we’re almost caught up.  So I badgered Grey until he posted.  Hope everyone enjoyed his comments.  Now we’re working on Veronica (the surprise participant) to get blogging.  We’ll see. 

I think the most amazing things about Italy are the tastes and colors and smells of everything.  The only smell I don’t really like is the exhaust from the automobiles.  The lectures have been really interesting.  There was only one that I almost fell asleep in (not because of the subject matter but because I was really low on sleep time the night before).  The men from the lab have given us a taste of Italy–visually and in the food sense.  Augusto is so much fun to talk to and he pretty much gave us his office space for the week.  His office partner, Stefano, has been our tour guide in both L’Aquila and Rome.  He studied theology for 4 years along with engineering so he really knows his stuff and is a lot of fun to eat supper with.  Andrea also hangs with the engineers and brought us to Micron for a tour of the facitilies and to Santa Stefano and the ruins of a castle.  I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with everyone involved in this program. 

We toured Micron (makes image sensors) on Friday.  The building is huge (the clean room section is as big as a soccer field)!  We got to tour the clean room which is class one (meaning any cleaner would be a vacuum and Borexino’s clean room is no comparison).  To go in we had to go through a whole process that started with hand washing and a hair net, moved to booties, a cloth helmet, a clean suit and gloves.  Then we walked through an air wash and into a yellow lit room.  The tour was really interesting.  It takes a minimum of 20 some days to make the simplest microchip image sensor.  I didn’t understand everything because my mind was trying to wrap around the enormity of the building and the small size of the chips produced.  Getting out of our suits was as much of a process as getting into them.  The company gave us some pens and pins as gifts.  Andrea took us back to L’Aquila for the afternoon since Augusto was sick and couldn’t give us a lecture.  I’ll have to get pictures from him while he’s at Princeton since he’s leaving tomorrow morning. 

Barbara finally tried Kebab (and really liked it)…she’s so fun to watch in her cycle of excitement and disappointment.  She’s really been helpful in explaining things when our lecturers can’t seem to get everything across.  Yesterday we went to Rome.  We caught the 8am bus in and started our tour by foot (after my first ride on the metro) around 10:30 near the Santa Giovanni (the actual church of Rome’s Bishop–aka the Pope–according to Stefano).  I was in awe about the size and age of Rome.  We walked all around the city and it was already hot enough to sweat by 11am.  We found a cool place for lunch and I could tell I was already getting burnt.  We continued walking all afternoon, trying to see everything and still keep cool and enough water in.  We made it to the Trevi Fountain, the Panthenon, and eventually made it over to the Vatican.  We did a little shopping along the way.  Grey likes to wander so we ended up on top of a very tall museum overlooking most of Rome.  It was a breathtaking sight.  Veronica and I were very tired by the time we got to the Vatican and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to go inside since I was wearing shorts.  We met Stefano outside and he gave us a history lesson there.  Then we made our way inside (our clothing was all acceptable I guess).  Stepping in to the Vatican was even more amazing than seeing the outside.  It’s huge.  Stefano told us more stories about the door only opened by the Pope once in a great while, the sculptures, and the pope’s walkway.  When he got to the one about people touching Peter’s feet I got very excited because I knew the story and I had a chance to join the millions that have done that very thing.  There was a mass going on and I contemplated receiving the Eucharist but I felt bad for not being there the whole time.  We sat and listened to the music (amazing acoustics) and looking around.  Eventually we made our way downstairs to where all the popes are laid to rest. 

We did a little more shopping before heading out with Stefano for a quick tour of parts of Rome we hadn’t seen and some gelato and Chinese food.  It was an amazing night.  We caught the last bus at 10:45 back to L’Aquila (we were worried we might not get back).  After talking to my parents when we got back I went to bed and actually slept 8 hours straight.  I’m still a bit tired and dehydrated from yesterday but it was totally worth it.  I think a person needs a week to truly enjoy all of Rome.  It’s fun to visit but besides being expensive I think there’s too many people in Rome to actually ever want to live there.  I will have to upload those pictures some other day (Grey ran out of memory that day and I took over 200 just in Rome). 

Today we wrote 2 papers and I went to Mass.  Kinda a quiet day.  We have one more lecture and maybe a tour tomorrow.  Tuesday we have to relax (maybe shop…we’ll see how much money I have left) and pack since we have to meet a bus to Rome at 6am to catch our flight.  So I guess this satisfies curious minds for now.  I’ve been really homesick lately (so know that I’m thinking about all of you) and even though I love it here, I’m ready to be back in the U.S.  Can’t wait to hear from all of you and I hope you’re well.

More later,

Sarah

On Wednesday we met two more of the Italian students who will join us at Princeton.  Here’s their pictures.

Lorenzo Mazzocchetti

Massimo Mastracci

Sarah

First of all, the trip. I got up early, though Barbara wasn’t to meet me until one, I wanted to be a little tired so that I would sleep on the plane. I got up and washed up, ate a little breakfast, and waited. Apparently we were a little late, because the moment she, Barbara, arrived we flew out the door.

barabara

We met up with Sarah at the air port, and after a few preliminaries, we were off. The flight was short, around two hours, so Sarah and I took the chance to get know each other in the duration. We had a rather streamlined trip, the layover in Cincinnati was just a walk from one plane to the next.

After we got off our plane we met Augusto, an engineer working at the deep lab, who had been waiting to take us to our hotel in L’Aquila.

grey

L'Auila

The town we are staying in, L’Aquila, is a beautiful place of rich and vibrant history. Surrounded be softly rising high mountains, the town sits upon a hill. The streets and avenues are closed in be two or three story houses and apartment buildings, many of which have been there for several hundred years. As if to make this clear to me I saw a little bulletin on a board, while walking around the above ground research facility, that advertised an apartment with bathroom, living room, kitchen, and 13^th century frescoes in the bedroom. I got a kick out of that.

want ads italy

We ate in the open courtyard, under the soft light of the late afternoon sun. The quiet murmur of humanity out on the avenue was a backdrop to our meal. The pizza was delicious, three kinds for three people. The ordering, an adventure. And the conversation, a delight. A rather memorable evening altogether.

The next day we went to the actual laboratory, the above ground offices anyway. The trip to the lab was interesting, we saw huge mountains, and low valleys, little villages, and “ugly” hotels. There is a hotel, near the lab, that sits unfinished on the mountain side. Apparently, during construction, the region was turned into a protected site, stopping all development. Rather funny actually, all the Italians we met in the lab thought the thing was a hideous example of human building and design. Augusto seemed rather ticked by this, I laughed (quietly of course, as not to offend).

At the lab we met researchers and engineers. Then, quite suddenly, I hear a that one of my classmates from school had arrived. I was not surprised, as I had heard of her coming before, but I was shocked by the unexpected oddness of seeing a familiar face among all the new.

Veronica Watters was, and is, a very nice, though argumentative, young lady. She happens to be one of the most intelligent and driven people I know, unlike myself. We graduated together from Red Cloud High School last may, a date that probably won’t live in infamy.

Along with Veronica came a man of outstanding worth, one Frank Calaprice. Head of the physics program at Princeton, Frank had two projects running at the lab. Both studying neutrons, trying to figure them out as it were. Outside of that, He proved to be a real gentleman, guiding us through the often confusing customs of the Italian peoples (confusing for me, being half United States American).

After the introductions, we three students then attended a lecture on the deep lab and the different experiments being conducted there. A rather long list, though I know the people there would wish it longer.

That night , we all went back to our hotel (frank and veronica were and are staying at the same hotel as my group). And proceeded on to a nice dinner and a restful night.

The next day we arrived at the lab and took in a lecture by frank on the sun, among other things. We also met a few of the Italian students and went on a tour of the underground facilities. Basic day it seems.

That night was a little less boring.

Few Friday nights in my life stand out as being truly above the average, this night…was one of the few.

A few days before, Wednesday I think, we were told that a dinner with the governor was in the works. At first I didn’t worry about this, but as the day wore on, I considered the up coming meeting more and more. Then it dawned on me that I was without proper attire, acceptable clothes, as it were. This worried me, and led to my first real purchase in an Italian clothing store (turned out being a department store). Though, I don’t think I will relate that particular experience at his point in time, just because it was rather mundane.

On Friday evening, around eight thirty, we met a man, the director of the GranSasso lab, a mister Eugenio Coccia. We, the students, were then carted off to a little restaurant just out side of L’Aquila. I later learned that this particular restaurant was rather expensive and rather nice.

When we arrived at the restaurant we were seated by the pool side, bathed in candle light, in a table under the beautiful open sky, the moon hung like a curved blade of ivory overhead. The few patrons that were there were quiet and provided a pleasant background noise to our dinner. The table was large and round, able to fit seven comfortably. A grove of trees interspaced with lights glowed softly behind the pool. A warm night with little breeze, the smells of the kitchen and food wafted slowly around us, causing a small growth in appetite.

As we were being seated the director was greeted by a woman, middle age and friendly. I was surprised to later learn that she was the governors aid, come to help translate through the evening. Unexpected though she was, a place was set immediately to accommodate the change. As we all sat in waiting, now for frank and Barbara along with the governor, chatting ensued.

The governor ten minutes later arrived. When he walked through the door, I would not have guessed him to be anyone else. A man of simple elegance, the governor seemed to be around sixty years in age, he wore a light colored summer suit, and he walk in a quick and quiet manner. He spoke only Italian, or at least not English, which proved to hinder nothing in the conversation. He greeted every one around the table, and a new round of talking began.

around ten minutes later, Frank and Barbara walked in the door, and the evening started.

The entire night was filled with pleasant smells, and new foods. The food was a little different from what I was used to, being mostly fish. The girls had a particularly hard time with some of the more fresh, that is raw, dishes. Prawns and seaweed, oysters of the sea variety (not the mountain), and other interestingly prepared dishes. The fruit was fresh off the vine, as it were. Along with the food, the conversation around the table was as varied and as exciting as any I have ever had the pleasure to sit in on. I suppose that if one thought about it before hand, the discussions could have been predicted, seeing as there were politicians and scientists all around the table. All in all, the evening proved quite enjoyable.

We headed back to the hotel about twelve o’clock, after thanking the governor and director for their time and company. It was a Friday night, and we all were tired. So, a soft bed and warm blankets were in store.

Saturday dawned a beautiful blue, to bad I went back to sleep. The group was to congregate in the breakfast hall at around nine, so we started to trickle in about nine thirty. I personally had slept in because of a lack of planning, we didn’t have a plan I mean. Originally, there was a bit of support for going to Rome for a day. But, that had dissipated as the amount of traveling and walking that would be going on was discussed. In the end we decided to drive through the country side, letting Frank tour us in his little car. By the way, all the cars here are tiny in comparison, though I probably mentioned that earlier.

First we went through a few little towns, and then up to another little town, this one on the mountain side. The little town on the mountain side had two attractions, a great little restaurant (Maria’s, some of the best food I’ve ever had), and a lift up the mountain. So, we ate a huge meal, and took a ride up the mountain. On the top of this particular range is a little bar and hotel, and a really cool guy that makes stuff out of brass from his little shop/rv type thing.

So, the view was rather beautiful. The fun thing about being up the mountain happened to be when frank wanted to walk up a “hill”, a rather high hill. This was fun because I had an old pair of sandals on, so they were rather thin, and I ended up walking up it bare foot. Got a lot of weird looks from the local peeps. So the moral of this story is….bring good solid shoes where ever you may roam.

mountain

So, around five we went back down the mountain, the lift was a little “wobbly” this time, but fun. It didn’t help that frank kept going on about the cable car that he had seen last time he was there, the one that had fallen the sixty feet to he mountain side. Yeah, that helped the nervous rocking feeling.

I thought we would go home, to the hotel, at this point, but yet again…..I was wrong.

The decision was made to go to the beach. Though none of us had suits, and we were a little tired it turned into a great time. We drove around the mountain, taking the scenic route, and got to the beach around six thirty. The drive was spectacular, we went along side mountains and up through passes, down beep tree lined valleys, where the tops of the mountains stretched to the heavens around us. Finally, we came out in an area full of houses and rolling hills. The trees and buildings were all set up to complement each other, as though houses grew among trees and grass.

We finally arrived at the beach, found a swim shop, and swam in the Adriatic sea. The water was so warm, a hot bath never felt as good. A little salty, but that was fine. It was actually Sarah’s first time swimming in a sea. I only wish there had been a few more large waves, just for the sake of fun times.

After we were done swimming, we all took turns changing in the one changing room. I think I will always remember the moments I had laying on a beach chair, watching the sun set over the land, listening to the waves lap at the shore. There was a warm breeze and a sense of eternal rest, I finally understand why the Christians would want a place where they just sat around enjoying themselves. The only real sense of paradise I have ever had…

We went to eat, but the shops were all full, I guess the sea side is rather popular for a reason. So, we just went home, planning to eat when we got back. Though, I think we just crashed out.

Sunday was great, I slept till ten thirty, and just missed going to mass with the girls. The whole day was exactly as that old book says, a day of rest.

The next few days were basically the average, eating, sleeping, going out with engineers. That is except Tuesday, which turned into a fun thing. We went to a little village that had been really kept up, since the 13^th century, and we had a great ol’time! Then we went to a castle on a mountain. A really impressive place actually. A really fun day, and we got to hang out with the guys from the lab, who took the day off to bum around and show us their home.

castle veiws

castles in italy

a veiw

So today is Tuesday and we’ve been gone for a week now.  We’ve toured the lab and have had 3 lectures so far.  I’m learning quite a bit about Italy and science.  Yesterday we had a lecture and tour on radioactivity and the experiments done underground to reduce background noise.  I’ve been taking lots of pictures but I need to get several from Augusto since he’s also been taking pictures of the group while we’re learning.  I’m waiting for Jenny from DSU to set up a place that I can upload all my pictures so she can post them easily.  Yesterday was a lot of waiting around the lab.  Since it’s a pilot program this year things aren’t quite as organize as they could be.  I don’t mind the extra time to catch up on emails and reading materials but Veronica and Grey feel that they should have planned more for us to do (work or touring).  I finally got some sleep yesterday.  We wandered around the external lab for a bit and found a nice quiet hiding place for a half hour nap.  Then when we got back to the hotel, I decided it would be best for my health to take a nap instead of going shoe shopping with Grey and Veronica (since I don’t like looking for shoes much anyway).  When they got back, they woke me up and we went out to get kebab (paninis for the Americans) and look for bus tickets.  A very nice woman helped us find out that the easiest way would be to get them from the bus station instead of the bar or tobacco store like Pablo had told us.  I got on and did a bit of emailing last night before going to my room to do some laundry and sleep.  I feel so much better today than I did yesterday.  I’m working on Grey to get him so post something but we’ll see.  It’s interesting to see people around the lab and actually start to know their names now.  I’m starting to get use to the taste of cappuccino.  Today we have a lecture with Christian planned in the morning, lunch, and then travel to a medieval village and try a restaurant where they only serve a certain type of sheep that’s unique to this area.  I’m excited for today.  We’re still trying to figure out what we’re doing tomorrow and Thursday while everyone at the lab is in meetings for their projects.  We might head in to Rome one of the days.  Anyway, I should probably get some other stuff done and I will send pics to Jenny to post as soon as I can because I know everyone is curious to see what we’ve been up to.  I’ll keep working on Grey to get some posting done but he only thinks about himself some of the time so he might not understand the importance of everyone wanting to know what he’s up to.  Ciao.

 July 13th, 2008
More from Italy
 We’ve had many adventures since our arrival. After half a week here I’m becoming pretty familiar with the streets of L’Aquila. It’s amazing to be able to wake up in the mountains. On Friday, the governor introduced us to the best seafood restaurant place in this region. He didn’t speak much English so his assistant Roberta translated. She was quite entertaining. The director of the lab was also there along with Frank and Barbara. We had many sorts of raw fish including sushi (the only foreign dish that I knew of), lobster, crawfish looking things, and some others that I can’t remember what they were. I liked some and others not so much. Roberta kept telling us to leave it if we didn’t like it but I usually tried everything (except the oysters) since the meal was so expensive. We had a bit of White wine and a mix from the region. We had some cooked fish and later pasta with shrimp. It was all pretty good but I liked it best when the fruit came. There were some melons and cherries and pineapple that you can find around the U.S. and there was also some fruits (like leche) from the European region. All very good. Then we had candied almonds, drinks, and chocolate. I took a sip to be polite. The waiter was joking around all night because I fit their image of Americans drinking milk. He brought me a huge glass of warm milk with cocoa. Then we had a lemon dessert drizzled in chocolate. The whole night we told the governor about us and America and we talked politcs and covered many subjects. We’re trying to convince Roberta to follow the governor to the U.S. when he meets with Gov. Rounds. It should be interesting. Dinner lasted 4 or more hours. I didn’t get to sleep until about 3 that morning. Italians normally eat much later than I ever have. Instead of going to Rome this weekend, Frank (Princeton Professor) showed us around the countryside since he’s quite knowledgable about the area. First we went in shopping in L’Aquila. Many fun shops and the market in the center of town is amazing. Then we went and looked at a few churches on the way up to the lift. Very beautiful villages around. We ate at Maria’s…the owner is a mother of one of the Italian students coming to Princeton. We had appetizers (very colorful), a couple types of pasta, and watermelon. The waitress gave us an apricot dessert on the house. When we get back to Princeton, Grey, Veronica and I plan to treat Frank to a South Dakota meal since he’s been treating us to the Italian styles. We went up on the lift to the top of one of the mountains. I hated the bumps when we passed a tower. The view at the top was breathtaking. We climbed up on another path and took pictures before coming back down to look at a metal workers crafts and hang out for a bit in the hotel there. After we came back down we decided to take a scenic drive to the beach. Beautiful ride. Frank drove smooth enough so I didn’t get carsick on the mountain roads. We found 2 cows on the road and we stopped to take pictures of a waterway through the mountains. When we finally got to the beach it was about 7 or 8. We walked the shore picking up rocks and shells for a bit and then Frank decided that we should go get swimsuits (since we had left them at the hotel) and hop in since it was my first time to a beach and the ocean/sea. We ran to store before it closed (5 or 10 minutes) and changed and jumped in. Frank took some pictures and we all tried to swim out and ride the waves in. When it got too dark to swim, we got out and dried off and ate peaches that Frank had bought at the market that morning. The sights and sounds of the shore village and the waves were amazing. We decided to come home before eating. I can’t seem to snooze on drive for fear of missing something so Veronica and I talked while Grey slept. Grey, Veronica and I went out when we got back to try to find something to eat. The night life of Italy is amazing. The main streets were packed with people our age. Grey wanted to wander too far so Veronica and I came back to the hotel to eat my food and have girl time. I didn’t get to bed before 3am. Woke up this morning for breakfast at 9:30 so we could walk to the Basillica by 11 for masse. Just Veronica and I went since I’m the only practicing Catholic of the bunch and we figure we shouldn’t go out alone. The church was beautiful as was the music and the language of the masse. I wish I could have understood the liturgy. The process of masse is very similar to ours so I just followed everyone else around. Sundays L’Aquila is pretty quiet aside from church so we’re trying to catch up on everything now. So far the experience has been amazing and I want to come back after some lessons in Italian. Grey and I went to dinner and wandered the town. We came across a smaller market with amazing jewelry. The woman there was very nice and tried to teach me some Italian while I purchased things. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.