While I’m working on writing all my stories from Italy, new city, and new job, I have now, at least, put up my pictures from Italy for your viewing pleasure.  It’s Jordy’s account, but eh, why pay for 2 accounts?

So, as a graduation present from my aunt, I recently went to Italy for two weeks.  We stayed in the Tuscany area for a week, then stayed in Rome, Monterosso, and Venice.  I had never really been in a foreign country before (at least that I remember — and I’m not counting Canada…), so it was definitely a new experience.

The trip started off in a way that I pretty much expected — a plane delay.  We got to the airport at 6:30am, which is just really early, especially when, if you’re like me, you get about 2 hours of sleep the night before because you started packing, well, a little late.  So, anyway, we get on the plane at about 8:30, only to deboard soon after because there’s a light on in the plane, and they need to get a new part for it.  Our departure was moved to 10:00 to 1:00 to this plane isn’t going to leave.  So, we had to get an entirely new flight plan because it seems every plane is booked.  It was a pain, but as I said, it was pretty much expected on my end, and we eventually got to Paris (although, on these flights, at least 10 hours worth of flying, I didn’t get to sit next to my aunt because of our new reservations).

We got to Paris about 4 hours earlier than we had planned, originally, so it’s another long wait until we can get on the plane to Florence.  Once we start boarding the plane for Florence, however, it’s as if my ticket doesn’t exist.  I obviously have a ticket in my hand, but they don’t have it in their system.  Ugh, just another thing…

Eventually we all get on the plane (it’s me, my aunt, and two other people), I’m not sitting next to anyone I know, but oh well, we’re almost to Florence.  If you didn’t know Florence had an airport, it’s not surprising, because it’s one of the smallest airports I’ve ever seen.  Anyway, we finally made it to Florence.  Hot, hot, hot Florence…and I’m wearing jeans, a jacket, and tennis shoes.  I’m feeling pretty gross from all the traveling and no sleep, and it’s cool, of course, to be in Italy but I just want to get to where we’re staying, take a shower, change my clothes, and take a nap.  We go to the baggage claim area and the bags begin to roll by.  One by one, each person I’m traveling with picks up her bag, until, eventually, no more bags are rolling by.  Awesome.

Yep, my bag didn’t quite make it with me to Florence (well, not right away…I did eventually get it), but really?  Come on!  So, we go to the lost baggage area, I fill out some paperwork, and we’re on our way.

Don’t worry, I have plenty of pictures I’ll share soon, so stay tuned!

For our last spring break ever, Jordy and I headed out to the Seattle area to look at apartments and visit family.  After looking online, we had basically decided that we’d rather get a nice big (cheap!) apartment in Bellevue (about 8 miles from Seattle) and make the decently short commute to work rather than spend more money for a smaller apartment in the city.  Also, we’ve already done the ‘living in the city’ thing, so it’s not too big of a deal to try living somewhere else.

For those of you not familiar with the area, Bellevue is quite an interesting city.  It is identified now as an edge city because while it might be viewed as suburban, it has the population of an urban core city.  Bellevue was also #1 on CNNMoney’s list of the best places to live and launch businesses.  Therefore, Bellevue == not too shabby.

So, anyway, we basically only looked at apartments in and around downtown Bellevue, and I think we came out with many great options.  We spent around 2-3 full days just viewing apartments, and fortunately, since we won’t be moving until July, there was a large available variety in the kinds of places and locations that we liked.  Hopefully, when the time comes, we’ll be able to grab one of our favorites!

The rest of our trip consisted of visiting Jordy’s family in Vancouver for a couple of days and staying with my brother in Redmond.  Last summer was my first time visiting Vancouver, and, while I haven’t visited too many cities, Vancouver is one of the coolest looking cities I’ve ever seen (the water and mountains help with that).  Redmond, on the other hand, is not a big city, but more of a Disneyworld resort — parks, perfectly cut green grass, nice people, trees everywhere.  I’m just not used to that.  Both are great places though, and we had a lot of fun while we were out there.

Oh, by the way, when we were flying back home, we had a layover in Las Vegas, so I got to do my first Vegas gambling in the airport.  I only had 2 dollars and lost them both.  Thanks Vegas!