Driving to Rome

Our journey started early to Italy. Our alarms went off at 3 am and our flight left st 6. Good thing we feel asleep the night before or should I say afternoon at 3!  So Justin was the brave soul who decided he would drive in Italy since I drove in Germany two years ago. The car rental went smoothly until we saw that it was a manual...well we looked at our booking papers and we booked a manual on accident after carefully only looking for automatics. Good thing Justin can drive a manual we just wanted him to not have to worry about having to drive a manual and drive in a foreign country. But we couldn't get an automatic so we just went on about our drive.

We quickly decided driving in Italy was not easy when it took 10 minutes to find our way out of the parking lot. We were warned that the Italians were crazy drivers and so when someone tried to pull out in front of Justin he refused to be a push over behind the wheel. What followed was a game of chicken that Justin won. The side effect however included Justin almost running over his first Italian and speeding through a red light intersection. After that his confidence was shaken but once we got on the highway he did great despite the ridiculous diving patterns in work zones...  at one point oncoming traffic was diverted on to our side of the autostrasse. **Quick note: this is a divided highway at 120 km/hr**. Its kinda scary to be diving down the high way then....wtf, there are cars on our side of the road going in the opposite direction. 

Turning into Rome brought on higher anxiety. At one point I was laughing so hard because they really just do whatever they want. Men and women on mopeds whipping in between cars while texting and talking on cell phones....cars missing turns and going the wrong way on roads to get where they need to be....crazy!  if you cant tell the mopeds are those to watch out for (not to take away from the crazy car drivers...haha) for they go into tight spaces and get to the front of the lines at lights.  

Most roads don't have lines and people just drive where they want to...most cars have dings because the drivers are crazy. Justin did a great job an we found our parking deck on the first try. Justin was very happy when he got in there...here is his relived face.

Whew!

Amsterdam in a day

Our flight landed at 5:30am and we had our bags and had gone through customs by 6am! It was very smooth and easy to get through the airport that early. We purposely found a hotel within walking distance from the airport. Our flight the next day leaves at 6:30 am to get down to Italy. This hotel was awesome when we walked in, very modern and very helpful. All of their signs have funny sayings and their rooms are very clean, futuristic, and Ikea like. We paid a little extra to check in early and get a hot shower before our day started. That was a great decision! The room has a single remote that controls the whole room, tv, temperature, blinds, lights, ect. It's crazy awesome...so needless to say we didn't get out of the hotel until around 8:30 after we played around with the room features.

In this picture I am standing with my back to the door and to the left is the toilet and the right is the shower with the bed flush to the back of the room...it's tight but that's normal for a total in Europe. The shower is a rain shower which was pretty neat. 

Then it was off to explore Amsterdam. We went straight to the tourist center to buy an iamsterdam card which gave us free public transportation and entrance to over 10 museums and a boat cruise. We thought that was a good deal...until we found out the train from the airport to the main part of the city wasn't covered.... All in all we got our money's worth in the ticket but would advise others to think twice before getting it if staying near the airport. Amsterdam is beautiful and has a very unique feel. The first thing we noticed when we got off was holy bikes.....whoa we had never seen so many bikes in our lives. This town we found out has as many bikes as people. 

This platform next to the free ferry holds 1,100 free parking spots for bikes. We stepped out at rush hour and almost got flatted by bikes not cars...yikes we learned quick to look both ways before crossing any streets.

Justin was adventurous and convinced me to walk to the museums from the central station...in hindsight that was great because we wandered through the back residential side of Amsterdam. The city is built so close to water that they have many canals and also many houseboats and regular boats on these canals. They do not have gondolas....that's Venice :). 

House boats on either side with the river cruise we took going through the middle.

We saw the Vincent van Gough museum which was very cool. It had many of his early pieces and really did a good job of showing his progression of an artist and how he learned from other artists. He used many tools to help him with perspectives and drew grids on paintings and sketches that he was copying for practice. The only let down was that his starry night piece was not in the collection. 

It was very interesting but this museum is where both Justin and I lost steam....we were soo tired from not sleeping on the plane and getting up early for our flight. We pushed through with coffee and sweets. :)

Next we decided to go on a riverboat tour an rest our legs. It was a little over an hour and took us through the canals and pointed out famous houses and districts. The fact that we walked along one of the main canals to get to the museums was nice because we had seen the sights before and could recognize them and appreciate what they actually were. We both dosed off during the tour and took turns kicking each other to wake up. After the tour we picked up some souvenirs and made our way to the houseboat museum which is something I really wanted to see. It was a houseboat that had been in full use until the late 1990's until it was used exclusively as a museum. It showed how a family of four could live in one of them, honestly it was tight but not any tighter than a single wide trailer. 

Then in our way back we picked up another delicious and nutritious snack...a Belgian specialty but we saw multiple stand with fries and mayo....best fries I've had in a long time.

Justin is a great guide and really learns cities well, I'm glad I'm traveling with him!

After our snack we made our way back to the airport and to the hotel. The plan was to sleep until dinner and get up eat and go back to sleep....currently it's 11:30pm and I woke up about an hour ago, chose to blog and will go back to sleep so our plan didn't work. We have to get up at 3am for our flight to Naples tomorrow where we will rent a car and arrive in Rome around lunch tomorrow.

Bye bye Amsterdam!

Boston party

So our trip to Europe started very early on Wednesday morning. Our ride to the airport picked us up at 4:45 to catch our 6:30 flight.  We caught an early flight to Boston which landed at 8:30am  and then we didn't fly out again until 4:45pm. We decided to see Boston during our layover. Fist we took a taxi over to the aquarium which was a good choice because it was raining. It is very nice and centered around a big salt water tank with other exhibits spiraling around the main tank. Some animals were still on vacation while the renovated the main tank like the emperor or penguins but we saw these little guys instead...

The sea turtles are Justin's favorite and they had quite a few...

We also watched the fur seal training which is always fun! It's amazing how smart marine mammals are.

After the aquarium we decided to walk around for a bit. We saw the old north church and the site of the Boston Massacre. 

 

Also of course Paul Revere's statue.

We had a great time in Boston and loved being able to break up our trip. The flight to Amsterdam seemed very short after having a day of sightseeing. Both Justin and I watched a movie on the flight. He watched Argo which he had seen before and I watched the Perks of being a Wallflower which was an awesome movie. After the movies we both tried to sleep but only successfully dosed for about  2 hours. Then at 5:30am our plane landed in Amsterdam!

Spinning hat

This post is late but the oath and hooding was Friday and the big graduation was Saturday morning.  A tradition of the vet school is for all of the vet students to decorate their hats very elaborately. Justin had  planned an idea and really wanted the hat to spin. Since dinner was so late Friday we didn't start until 11pm.

Around 2 am the hat spun....

That is the face of yea it spins but there is no way I can walk across stage with this on my head.....

So we took the motor off which made it more stable.

Here is a skyline view of some of the hats at graduation...

It's a really fun tradition :)

Beach day!

After I took the state board exam we went to Pam's for breakfast. Roxy had to have a southern breakfast and loves biscuits so it was awesome. It was a great breakfast with my classmates...I still can't believe it's over! Then the rest of the day was spent shopping. We went to south point and met Laurie for lunch and shopping!

The other big at Roxy wanted was to see the beach. Wilmington is only 2 hours away so it was a perfect day trip. 

The beach was cold but we still end up getting in. Roxy forgot a hat so she was very resourceful with a tshirt...

We packed our lunch so we were able to have a picnic on the beach. Roxy was in the middle of a good book so Justin and I took a walk and then threw a football. After a good afternoon at the beach we headed back. After we got out of the sun we found out Justin and Roxy got pretty sunburnt.....so we stopped and got aloe on the way home. On the way back to Raleigh we stopped at Duplin winery for a tasting. It was the best tasting I've ever done, you get to try 12 different wines. Roxy found a wine she liked...yay!

On the way to the inert we found this gem...

After that we ate at Smithfield's chicken and barbecue to get some authentic southern pork....delicious. After a shower we headed to Frankie's. It's Justin's favorite! 

Roxy and Justin doing the dance dance game.

We did the batting cages which was fun!

This game was crazy it was air hockey but it then spit out 12 little pucks at once. 

And of course laser tag was played :) I beat everyone!!

Lions and tigers and bears...oh my!

On Tuesday Roxy Megan and I packed up to go to the Asheboro zoo.  Anyone that knows me knows that I love the zoo and will go any chance I get! Justin has never been to the Asheboro zoo which I think is crazy.....that will have to happen this summer. The drive wasn't bad and we got there around 10. We started in North America and found out that during the week there are ALOT of school groups...argh.....we spent a good bit of our day trying to get away for the screaming kids. Other than that it was a great day not too hot or cold and many animals were out being active. The best part of the trip was an impromptu visit to the deck at the giraffes. You pay $2 entry to feed the giraffes, there is no guarantee that a giraffe will come up to the platform but we saw that the giraffes were currently being fed. We rushed to the platform and were given leaves to feed the giraffe. I got to pet it's head and feel its long tongue  Really cool experience!!!!

After a quick lunch we went to Africa and saw the animals on that side. That night I studied for state boards which was the next day....last real paper test of my life...the rest will be tests in the real world....wow.

Shop till you drop.....then jump around!!!

So not only did Roxy come for my graduation she also took a week vacation to stay with me! I was able to spend my first full week of life without school (forever) with her! The first day we obviously went shopping. I think I shopped more with Roxy in 2 days than I did all through vet school. We treated ourself to Cheesecake Factory and the lunch was so good we couldn't even fit in a cheesecake for dessert!! After a full day of shopping we met Somer and Steve at a place called Defy Gravity. It is a gym full of trampolines! You can buy 'flights' in hour increments, boy were we glad we only did an hour!!!

All of us really excited before it got started :)

Cousin love :)

Go Somer.....go Somer 

Steve getting some big air.

Justin

Roxy :)

All in all it was a great day! I would recommend everyone in the Raleigh area try defy gravity it's a really cool place which will make you feel like a kid again!

Oath and hooding

Friday night was the oath and hooding. It was held in the same room as our white coat ceremony first year.  My vet school experience was well rounded because my oldest friend (and pretty much sister) Megan was able to attend my white coat ceremony and then also attended my oath and hooding.  We were required to get there early for a class picture but it meant we had time to take photos and socialize with each other. At this point it still hadn't sunk in that I was graduating...I just felt like we were all dressed up and socializing. Along with that I also hadn't come to terms with the fact that this weekend would be the last time I would see a good number of my classmates. After seeing everyone for 3 full years of class and then sporadically on clinics it was crazy to think it was over. The ceremony was very special. We nominated then voted on the professors who hooded us and also the professor who gave the faculty address. Our class speaker was Justin Jornigan who gave an amazing speech. After the festivities Megan took some wonderful pictures of the family and of Justin's family who was able to come and celebrate as well. Then it was off to a late dinner to my favorite Indian restaurant. I was brave and tried the goat in celebration of my ruminant internship next year. I will say it was good but I probably won't order it again there, I have too many other favorites.

 

The big weekend!

It finally came....graduation. This past weekend I took my oath and was given my diploma and officially became Dr. Nikki Schweizer.  It's crazy!! My parents came for the weekend and brought a special person with them, my cousin Roxy!! She is currently finishing her bachelors thesis and had some time to come visit. I was so floored and excited!! They night we had a Crock pot meal of stuffed peppers which were amazing.

I was so happy I cried like a baby that is why my face is all red and blotchy.  The next day Justin had to work so it was just my parents and I and we went downtown to beasleys chicken and honey, my favorite brunch place in Raleigh. Since it was not the weekend we just had lunch but it was still great. 

After lunch frozen yogurt with Laurie was of course a great choice. Roxy and Laurie know each other well because when Roxy came for an exchange horse camp she lived with Laurie and her family so this reunion was really fun.

Mom then said for old times sake we need to take the dogs on a walk. We went to lake Lynn which I found out is half way between Laurie and I which is very handy :). It's a great walk Roxy bear just didn't appreciate that it was 10 degrees hotter than it was the day before and dragged the whole walk. We really enjoyed all the turtles that were sunbathing....I have never seen so many wild turtles.

After the walk we went home and everyone got ready for the festivities that night..blog post to follow :)