Pompeii for the Day

            Saturday was a great day! We left Rome early morning and took a train to Naples, saw Pompeii, Drove to Sorrento, Watched an amazing sunset, ate delicious food and obviously had a gelato… or 2.

            After having a few laughs on the train trying to understand how European traveling works we made it to Naples. A short trip later and we were in Pompeii. There we met up with our tour guide, Hector and he took us around. Before being there I did not know much about the city or what happened there so it was amazing walking down streets that were built so many years ago. Obviously no one has time to write down ever-single detail about Pompeii, but I will say that it was one of my favorite things we have seen so far. The people back then had restaurants, forums (malls), public bathrooms, churches, houses (with separate rooms), water and piping system, and even brothels. It just makes me want to go back to 75 A.D. to see it all in action not just as ruins. I would definitely recommend everyone to go and see it if they are in the area!

Lows

- Having a lot of (heavy) luggage on the train

- Still being somewhat jet-lagged

- Having a sketchy driver who made me scream a few times

Highs

+ Not missing our train

+Gelato

+ Our tour guide in Pompeii

+ Our tour guide in Pompeii making up funny stories about life in 70 A.D.

+ Our tour guide in Pompeii telling us that the funny stories were true

+ Getting lost in Sorrento

+Watching a beautiful sunset off the coast of Sorrento

 

Part of the temple at the end of the forum in Pompeii

 

Our tour guide, Hector, and I in the middle of the forum in Pompeii. The forum was complete with its own restaurants, bathrooms, shops, temples, city hall, grocery store, Bath houses, and more!

 

One of the only original wall paintings

I think I am still jet-lagged

     I made it to ROME! After 15 or so hours in a plane with a layover in Washington DC, I made it. I've already taken about a thousand photos, and I have only been in Europe for two days! It has truly been so amazing already I do not even know where to start. When we [my mom and I] finally got to our hotel yesterday morning they did not have a room ready for us, so while we were smelling like a sweaty airplane seat we decided to walk around Rome.

     This first place I wanted to go was the Trevi fountain (obviously because it was pretty iconic in the Lizzie McGuire Movie, but I didn't want my mom to know that was the main reason). As soon as we got there and looked around we realized that all of Rome's excavations were not going to stop once we got to town. Saddened by the site and the fact that I was not going to be able to make a wish and throw a coin into the fountain we moved onward to see a few other famous sites that were close by.

     After getting lost only a few times, we made our way back to the hotel to take a break because we were extremely jet-lagged and wanted just 30-minute to take showers and relax. Once we got back to the hotel, they informed us that our room was still not ready. From there we left on our 4-hour tour of the Vatican, not only smelling like a sweaty airplane seat, but looking like one too.

     Visiting the Vatican was amazing, though I almost fell asleep standing up a few times. I learned so much from our fantastic tour guide and saw some of the most incredible pieces of art in the whole world. There are rooms and courtyards and entire buildings lined with paintings, statues, and tapestries. It was truly breathtaking.

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    After not sleeping very well, we woke the this morning having a packed day in Rome. I am sure that by the end of the tour we stopped and saw every significant monument made for every Roman God/Godess, Pope, Emperor, President, King, and Prime Minister. We saw ruins through every old era imaginable, and it was incredible! It was unbelievable seeing apartment buildings next to ruins of ancient temples next to a palace all centered around a beautiful marble fountain. It was breathtaking!!!

    One of my favorite things that I did not realize was going to help me before I came was knowing about all of my Roman Gods and Goddesses. Last year I ended up taking a Greek mythology class where we studied all of the Gods with Greek and Roman names. As our fantastic tour guide started pointing out monuments I realized where I have seen and heard about most of the gods. I could depict who the statue was before the tour guide showed them to us. It was cool knowing that a class that I disliked so much could make traveling to Europe more exciting.

Highs
+ we made it to Europe
+ all my bags made it to Europe
+ I am so grateful I took mythology in College
+ PASTA
+ You can get a selfie stick on every street corner

Lows:
- I am still on a weird sleeping clock
- I bought the wrong size converse the day that I left the USA
- PASTA
- not knowing Italian

 

Trevi Fountain - The guard was telling me that I was taking too long so I had him jump in my great photo to let me stay longer (notice the no sleep and no shower).

 

View from a window in one of the buildings of the Vatican overlooking Rome

 

The Colosseum!!

 

Look at how amazing it is (and how cute mom and I are)!!

 

These pictures do not do the Colosseum justice! It was breathtaking! 

 

I loved all of the cute little statues on top of the buildings

 

The Pantheon Temple built forever ago to worship all of the Roman Gods

What am I doing with my life?!

Everyone keeps asking me what I am doing next in life… and I wish that I was one of those kids growing up that knew right off the bat what I wanted to be. As of right now I have the next 7 ½ months planned, but nothing more than that. Currently, I am sitting on an airplane flying to Europe to start the next chapter of my life.
My mom and I are traveling through Italy for the next eight days. We are going traveling for a few days in Rome, Capri, and Sorrento and then going on a Backroads trip through the Amalfi coast for five days. We are hiking and seeing the sites along the beautiful coastal areas.
From there I am going to Paris for a month to take my final class in my college career. We have class mon-thurs for a few hours and then are free the rest of the time to do whatever we want. As a class, we are going to Normandy for a weekend, but other than that, they house us in apartments with 3-5 students from the University of Utah, and we travel through Paris for a month!
After Paris, I am going Poland for six months. There I will be an Au Pair for a family from July until December. The family that I am living with is amazing. We have skyped/texted/talked on the phone a few times a week for the past month. They have two little kids (Girl-7 & Boy-5), love to ski, and best of all they love to travel. They are excited for me to come out to go on all of their family trips planned over the 6-month period.
Obviously I understand that this next adventure is not going to be all fun and games. There are going to be days where I want to go home and quit, but I also feel that this will be the perfect way for me to travel and see our amazing world. I will be able to grow from a life changing experience that most people do not get to have.

Graduation

 Last week put on my gown and cutely decorated cap and walked down to the stage and picked up my diploma. I finally graduated. Now, it is time to leave the University of Utah, my friends, and the place I have called home for the past three years. After taking a few (large) loads of junk to Goodwill, loading up my car, and saying the hardest goodbye of my life... I left Utah.

Deciding on a blog name is hard

     So... here I am, just like every other 20-something-year-old starting a blog. I wanted to jump on the blog bandwagon to share the adventures of my life post college. Over the next year I know I am going to have a lot of new and exciting changes. To start out, I am graduating from the University of Utah in 5 days with a degree in Psychology and a minor in Business. All I can say is that I am so grateful to be finished with taking tests, and turning in pointless homework to teachers that don't even like me very much.

    With graduating and being from a different state I have come to realize that though I am excited to be finished with pulling all-nighters, I am going to miss the life I have created in Utah the past 3 years. I am going to miss the late night adventures with my sorority sisters, snuggling in my bed all day watching Netflix with my best friends, the weekend get-a-ways, and the fraternity formals/date nights/parties. I have been in the sorority Alpha Phi since I started college, and it has taught me so much. Not just how to plan a date night, where to get my hair cut and which sister has the best shoes to borrow, but how to be a better me. Alpha Phi has changed me for the better, and I am so grateful for all of the life lessons I have received from becoming a member a short four years ago.

      A little bit about me though. I am 22 years young from Northern California. I have two brothers and a younger sister who are all my pride and joy. We are a family that loves deeply while enjoying the company of each other and close friends all over the world. I grew up singing and dancing while I was not always the best I loved being the in the spotlight as a sassy little girl. When I graduated high school in 2010, I took a gap year with Thinking Beyond Borders. We traveled to 7 different countries for eight months learning about various global issues while living with host families and exploring new cultures. While I was on my gap year, I was able to live with an indigenous tribe in Ecuador, Climb the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, and hang out on the Great Wall of China. After the most amazing year ever I decided to follow in my older brothers footsteps and go to the University of Colorado, Boulder (Go Buffs). I lived in the dorms, joined Alpha Phi, met some amazing friends, and became a true buff. Though my first year was fantastic, I decided I wanted something new. I transferred to the University of Utah the following fall and there, after changing my major 4 times, decided on studying psychology and minoring in business... and now here I am graduating in a few short days. I love to travel and explore, taking pictures, trying new and exciting foods, blended chai, hiking, skiing, instagraming, and dancing like no one is watching.

     Deciding on a blog name is hard... Seriously though. A few friends tried to help and came up with things like, mckin-dogs blog (even though no one calls me mckin-dog), McKinley travels, mckin travels through Paris and my favorite McKinley write a blog, none of them were what I wanted out of my blog. I want my blog to be about my stories and life... the good and the bad. Along with having a hard time coming up with a short cute and catchy phrase, everything that I start to like is already taken. I am not an incredible writer, but I want to be able to look back and see what I have done, and maybe share it with a few friends and family along the way. That is when I came up with Just One Girl. Obviously I am not a solo loser going off on my own throughout life I do enjoy being the goofy, fun, adventurous person that I am. Maybe tomorrow I will come up with something else that I like even more than just one girl, but I think it is pretty safe for now. Hopefully with creating a blog other people will be able to see how incredibly awesome my story is and will want to follow along.

     Here we go, starting in a few days I am going to be a new women with a new adventure, and hopefully you are ready to be a part of it.