(E.A. Part 4)

The fourth day was pretty awesome. We got up at around 7 and ate breakfast. We set off to a cool market place where there were tons of shops and street vendors. We were here to tour right outside the Vatican for a little bit. We got off the bus and walked to a port. We split up and walked around for a little bit. Cole and I negotiated with a street vendor and we got aviators that were originally €25 for about €3. It was so much fun. Then we got ice cream and tricked Sydney Boyd into buying a pink 2-piece swim suit for the 52 year old Mrs. Berry, and well... we later got in trouble...  After we were done touring, we walked over a big bridge and through the city. We finally got to St. Peter's square and we needed to take a group photo next to a big structure. So Cole, Jake, and I got down on the ground and burned ourselves on the hot paved road that was cooking in the sun. Like we could have literally made an omelet in the middle of the Vatican. All three of us now have a scarred burn mark on our left arms:P we then got up and walked to a big church. We were in line for about 25 minutes and it got pretty hot, but once we got into the church, we all noticed there was a walking path system. There were barriers everywhere telling everybody where to walk. Me and my group snuck under, through, and over the barriers. The walls and statues were all made out of marble. It was absolutely fantastic! Once we weaved ourselves through the system, we got to the very back of the church and saw a miniature tower. We walked into it and soon realized it was a gift shop:/ Then we found an alter and started praying (for the pictures to be good). When our tour inside the Church was over, we walked outside and grouped up next to guards in fancy clothing. We took lots of pictures and had a lot of fun. Afterwards we walked over to a little house where a priest from within the Vatican lived. He talked to us about the Vatican and everything within it and told us to watch out for illegal items being sold by street vendors...Oooppss... He also mentioned that we should watch out for pick pocketers, because there is a lot of theft happening in The Vatican. Once we walked out of the little house, we started walking towards the Sistine Chapel. We got tickets and went in and saw a lot of famous ceiling portraits. We were not aloud to take pictures, but in fact our tour guild told us that Chinese people could because of some legal document that was signed a few years back. My leader went absolutely mental over that piece of info. We got to the end of the tour and we were stuck in a gift shop because our bus was late. I bought a few presents for my parents and siblings. When our bus picked us up we went on a 5 minute journey to another part of the city-state and got off. We then started walking to a pizza restaurant. Half way there me and my friends Cole, Kera, Megan, and Jake realized that we were walking past tons and tons of condom dispensers.They were everywhere and it was really funny. Our leaders started having a fit and said to stop pointing and laughing and to grow up and all that jazz. We finally got to the restaurant and we quickly realized we might not all fit into it. It was a pretty small place. We all had to get margarita pizza and ginger ale. It wasn't that bad, but we were all pretty used to that stuff. We had starring contests with Dani Spagnola. She got pretty freaked out. Then me and my BFF&E&E (best friend forever and ever and ever) Tyler figured out how to ask girls out in Italian and we worked it out with the waitress (; After dinner we walked back to the hotel. Our bus broke down and it was a 20 minute walk so it wasn't that bad. We got our rooms and room keys and I met up with Chris and Adam and we had an awesome night just chillin out and trying to work the un-existent wi-fi signal.

(E.A. Part 3)

On our third day in Europe, I woke up at seven o'clock because my roommates mother was calling him... even though our wake up call was at eight thirty. We went back to sleep and when we got up we got ready and went downstairs to eat eclairs ( a European breakfast ). Once breakfast was over we all got on the bus and headed for our next destination, Gladiator Training Camp. It was basically a little camp that was set off next to a castle wall that runs through the city. The entrance didn't look like much because it was kind of run down and grummy, but once we got inside it turned into a more interesting area. There was a museum, a gift shop, a dinning area, and a battle arena. We toured the museum and learned a lot about how the gladiators compared to kings and other fighters. We saw a lot of suits. We then went and ate a weird type of pasta that was cooked over an open fire. Afterwards we all got a wooden sword and shield and we learned different fighting stances and attack moves that we could use in battle. Then we got together and fought each other in a tournament. I accidentally knocked my friend Adam out with a blow to the head :P he was OK though. Once the leaders said it was time to go, we raced through the alleyways to the bus. Samantha, Allyson, Maddy, and I sat in the table seat playing cards whilst Cole and Jake laughed at the guys walking by in tights! It was pretty funny. Later, we split up into groups and navigated through the city on a city-quest. The point was to find different locations in the city and take lots of pictures, while at the same time, getting to know the people around you. Cole and I were the "map holders" of our group. We both bought a pair of awesome sunglasses, took lots of pictures, and became awesome friends. We both threw 2 Euro Coins into the Fountain, wishing that the 21 day trip would go by really slow. Then we all went to the gift shops and bought sweatshirts and water. As soon as we were done touring, we walked to the Spanish Steps and met up with the rest of our delegation. We negotiated prices for little sand puppets there. When we were done, we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe and got LARGE AMERICAN HAMBURGERS! After three days of nothing but pasta it tasted pretty good(; Afterwards Maddy, Cole, and I shopped at the gift shop that the restaurant had. We didn't buy anything but we saw alot of cool things. We got back to the hotel a little bit later and not thirty minutes after arrival, there was screaming in the hallway.... There was supposed to be a party on Cole and Joe's balcony. Apperently my good friend Dylan was suppossedly spotted ontop of a big structure by an Italian man wearing a pink hat. The man freaked out and the leaders found out quickly. Long story short, it was all a stupid mis-understanding and no one slept very well that night.

(E.A. Part 2)

Our first day of the trip was in Rome, Italy. It was a really new experience for me because it was the first time I've been independent and away from my family. My group and I were very tired because we were running on literally no sleep. We lost sleep actually. We spent the beginning of the day in the airport. We all got off the plane, got our bags, went through customs, and then met our guild who's name was Johannes. He was a pro and he spoke 7 different languages. After we introduced ourselves, we walked out of the airport and into a really hot and dry area. Our bus was awaiting us outside. It was the bus we rode on for the entire trip so we really got to know our bus driver. His name was Gary and he was awesome! He has 4 kids and his family owned a transportation system. Anyway, we got on the bus and we were greeted by thirty-four other kids from Pittsburgh. We all became great friends really quickly! As soon as we got introduced we took an hour long bus ride through Rome. There was a lot of graffiti and artwork everywhere. We were dropped off in the middle of the city and we walked to the Coliseum. It was a giant structure and it looked very old. There were street vendors walking around everywhere selling little trinkets. We split up into groups and I went with the four other Indianians. We took tons of pictures and got postcards and little toys for our siblings. Once our independent time was over, we grouped up and got ready to tour the coliseum. We got an Italian guild and she spoke really fast. It was kind of hard to understand her. We walked up and down and all around the Coliseum and learned a lot of neat facts. Like how it took two centuries to build. It was also where the city would gather to watch battles or public trials. It could was a really interesting place and it had a huge past. Once the tour was over we walked through the city to a pizza place the was runned by two brothers. It was really good and we had time to tour a big Church that was right next to it. I bought a little motorcycle model for my brother in one of the close shops. We were done touring and the bus picked us up at about 9:30pm. We got back to our first hotel at about 10:15pm. We got our room keys and went to bed. I had roomed with a kid named Kaiden. He was pretty cool and had an interesting life story. We unpacked and stayed up for about an hour listening to the rooms radio, which was attached to the walls. That was our first day and it was really fun.

(E.A. Part 1)

The airports were pretty interesting. I've only flown a couple times in my life so I guess this just adds to the experience. We had usually hung out in the airport for a couple hours until the flight was ready. The first day we had gotten there with our families and checked our luggage. We then got our tickets and said good bye to our parents. Going through security was really interesting. We had to take off our belts, lanurds, pins, glasses, watches, etc. We set our bags onto the machine and walked into what looked like a giant metal detector. We walked through, raised our hands and the arms of the machine started to rotate. It beeped and a man told us to walk out, grab our stuff, and to have a nice flight. We packed up our stuff, waved once more to our parents, and walked on. As soon as we got to the terminal we all decided we wanted Starbucks. I got a mocha frappeccino with sugar and a cheesy omelet breakfast sandwich. We had another hour until our flight left so we just hung out and got to know each other. We toured the airports little museum that was there. Karen was writing in her P2P folder and we all went to the bathroom about 6 times each. Once the speakers in the terminal said we could load the plane, we all got our stuff and gave our tickets to the flight attendant. Once we got onto the plane we set our bags in the overhead storage unit and took our seats. We all laughed because one of the male flight attendants was wearing wickedly pink shoes. Hahaa, we had a lot of laughs on the plane(; On the first flight I sat next to Madeline Ritter. Parker sat next to a women with a crying baby and everyone else sat together. We flew for an hour and a half to another airport where we met up with three other girls from People to People that were coming from Michigan. We all got to know each other over a cup of coffee (on this trip we drank ALOTof coffee<3 ) once we got everything straightened out we got our money exchanged to the Euro, we got our boarding passes, we had some R&R, and we laughed together over the fact that there were Justin Bieber pics all over the airport. We got onto our plane to Rome, Italy after about 2hours of waiting. It was a nine and a half hour flight that had taken forever. I sat next to Samantha Williams and we played games on the TV's that were attatched to the backs of the seats. We also watched "The Adjustment Bureau". The guy I was sitting next to was Italion. He had a hot pink laptop and he was watching Secretariat over and over and over again. He had a tattoo of a bear mug on his ankle (clearly visible since he was wearing Capri's). The meals that were served were cold and grummy:P and we all slept for maybe 20 minutes, and we went on the next two days without sleeping. It was a weird jet-lag. Once after the flight ended we got our passports stamped and we grouped up outside of customs. We got our luggage and we got some "Germam iHop" since at that time, it was morning. Even though to us it was like 26hours without sleep. The terrain there was very dry and hot. The signs in the airport had Italion in big BOLD letters, and English in tiny letters under the Italion script. It was an interesting first day.

A formal Start.

Hello. Bonjour. Chiao.  My name is Zachary Towner, and I am a Student Ambassador for People to People, and I was just given the opportunity of traveling around all of Europe on a 20 day trip with thirty-eight other kids from Indiana, Pittsburgh, and Michigan. It was the greatest experience of my life and I wish I could do it all over again. My favorite part of the trip was definitely when I toured up and around the Eiffel Tower. It was so much fun  I also liked the two hours we spent in the Louvre Museum. It wasn't at all enough time but it was a good start(; I had gone on so many great adventures and I've had an amazing time working on my talking skills. I communicated with people in different languages and learned a lot of new things. I have a new view on how people in Europe go on with their every day lives. This trip was definitely a huge learning experience for me and Im very glad that I got to do it.