Fourteen

You have no idea how much it hurts me to have to write that in english.

So, I'm home. It's weird. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be though, honestly. I mean, yeah, Italy is 1000 times better, but so far, I'm alright. And truthfully, I think my trip from hell home has a lot to do with me being able to adjust better. Not only did I pretty much cry myself out (seriously, I couldn't cry now if I wanted to) but after that mess, home wasn't so bad.

But first, lets adress the last moments of Roman glory. I discovered that standing on the porch and watching Italians going in and out of the gym below our building was one of my favorite things to do...so I did a lot of that the last couple of days. They are so funny! They drive up on their scooters (which are the best modes of transportation and I will be purchasing one as soon as I have some money), all decked out in their fabulous euro fashion. They lock up the scooter, go inside and spin (aka bike) for hours. I usually didn't see the same people come out, but they would come out fully dressed, only walking a little slower and chugging water. But then, they would stop chugging long enough to smoke a cigarette, make out, send a text message or do all three at the same time. It was so fabulous to watch. I got caught a couple of times, but I would just smile and wave. Oh, and then they would put back on their winter coat, even though it was about 80 degrees outside, possibly put on a scarf and then ride off on their scooters again.

Wednesday, Alison and I had our last visit to the soup kitchen. Nothing too exciting happened, other than our photo shoot with our favorite people. I am so so glad I was able to volunteer there. I felt like I got to see a real side of Rome, along with being able to meet some really cool people. All the other volunteers were so nice and I got to make real Italian friends. I mean, I met other random people along with way, but I can honestly say they were my friends. And, I'm not afraid of homeless people anymore. Good times at Ostello.

I also did a lot of last minute shopping and wandering the last couple of days. I bought most of my souvenirs that I needed to, and one bad ass pair of tennis shoes. I ate a lot of fabulous food (which would be any Italian food) and said ciao to the metro (which I was not sad about). Thursday night #51 had their last supper at the same restraunt where we had our first meal together in Rome. This time, I was showered, not feeling sick and actually knew what the menu said. It was a nice, looong meal and was fabulous, even though I got the wrong dessert. After dinner, my roommate and I headed over to a friends apartment to help celebrate her 21st. After much debate on where to go out, it was decided that it was too late to actually go anywhere, so four of us decided to get a late night snack and head to St. Peters. You can't actually go in the square at night, but we just sat in the street and enjoyed the view. UNTIL....my roommate swears she sees a sniper between the statue of Jesus and St. Peter (maybe, I don't know who the statues were actually of) and another friend decides to go ask the Polizia on duty what the black thing actually was. They didn't know, so they decided to shine their lights on and called for back up (meaning, the other polizia sitting on the other side of the square). No one knew what it was, so we just forgot about it and talked to the polizia about random nonsense. We tried to convince them we were nuns, but we couldn't fool them. However, one of them (the younger of the three) is like, you want to come in? Take photo at night? Yes, come in. SO-we got to go in ST. PETERS SQUARE at 2 in the morning...and have a photo shoot. It was amazing. It was seriously one of the coolest things I have done in Rome and definately an appropriate way to end the coolest semester of my life. And the polizia were soo nice. They offered to take our pictures all over the square and were concerned if they turend out blurry or anything. And they weren't skeezy at all! They didn't try to hit on us or anything sketch..I think they were just really bored. But it was fine with us, it was so soo cool.

Friday was the very last day, so I did some more wandering and had dinner at a friends apartment. At about one that night, a big group of us went for our last Old Bridge gelato. I went for the big due conna which meant I got A LOT of really amazing gelato/heaven on a cone. If I'm going to miss anything about Italy, I am going to miss Old Bridge. People that have tasted it know what I'm talking about. People that haven't tasted it, haven't lived. Anyways, since we had to leave for the airport at 4:30, we all just stayed up, packed and cleaned. The taxi came a good 25 minutes early, so we arrived at the airport around 5, before the desk was actually open. And then the saga of hell started. Since I don't really want to relive anything, I'll give you the abbreviated version, outlining how something went wrong every step of the way:
1. I had to switch flights, from the 11:55 to the 8:15 because I wouldn't get into JFK in time to catch my 7:00 flight home. All the arrangments had already been made, and I was told I only needed my confirmation number to be reissued a ticket. Turns out, I needed my old paper ticket, which I didn't have, so I couldn't get on the 8:15. Marco, the extremely nice man at the British Airways ticket counter in Rome worked some magic and pulled some strings to get me on the 11:55 flight, no thanks to the bitch at Gulliver Travel in the states, who yelled at me for losing my ticket and for bothering her so late at night.
2. I had about a 30 minute layover in London, so I didn't get to eat, or spend the last of my pounds and euros. And it was mainly coins, so I couldn't change it into US money.
3. I miss my flight in JFK because of a series of unfortunate circumstances involving a delayed take off and a snapped tow line. The customs man in New York said I would be fine and could easily make my 7:00 flight, even though it was 6:30 and I hadn't even gotten my luggage back. He lied. I missed it and got put on the next available flight, which was 6:15 the next morning.
4. I go to a hotel to check in. My card is denied because of insufficient funds. WHAT??? The day I left Rome, my online bank statement said I had $400. Turns out, purchases I had made 3 weeks prior were just now going through. So, I had been spending, thinking I had $400, when really I had $60. Through the miracle of fax, the room gets paid for and I get to sleep for 4 hours. Back to the airport at 4 am.
5. I somehow end up in baggage claim instead of gate 12, and have to through secruity twice, but I get on the first flight without major problems.
6. My connecting flight to Columia out of Washington/Dulles is delayed 2 1/2 hours. From a missing first captain, to maintence problems, I think I have covered just about every possible airport crisis.

Finally, I get to Columbia, where a lovely thunderstorm is there to welcome me home. But whatever, I got to eat, shower, and sleep so I was happy. And since you can add a good hour or so of intense crying to each of those steps, I was pretty much out of tears by this point. So I was actually happy to be home, instead of being miserable like I thought I was going to be. Don't get my wrong, I still really really miss Roma, but even Columbia is better than 40 hours of travel.

Anyways, I don't even know how to begin to conclude the best 4 months of my life, so I'm not even going to try. I will be returning someday. And a little piece of Italy comes in the form of Davide in August, so I'll be able to keep my amazing Italian skills fresh, haha. Sooo....ciao ciao :)

Tredici

You are on your own now...you can do it. Refer back to #3 and #10, and put the two together if you are having trouble.

So, wow, I leave Italy in 4 days. I can't believe it. However, it makes me very depressed to think about/discuss, so we are going to move right along.

A lot has happened since the great French adventure, but I have been super busy with this and that, so its been awhile since I updated. And right now, I currently need to clean the apartment, pack, and study, so I am going to just give a brief(ish) overview.

Katrina came to visit me in Rome the weekend after I was in France. We had soo much fun! We did all the touristy stuff...walked around, saw the Colosseum, Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, all the Roman highlights. Being a tourist is tiring! But it was still a lot of fun and I was really really glad she got to come visit.

I took my Italian final last week, and it was ridiculously easy. Almost embarassingly easy. But oh well, its over and done and hopefully I did fine. I don't think my other exams are going to be that easy..but we'll see.

So..the highlight of the past couple of weeks...I got to visit Davide! No, Davide is not my Italian lover, he is the kid that is going to live with my family for the next school year. He is like Sven, only Italian! His family lives in Rovigo, which is 3 hours north (by train) of Rome. He had gotten in touch with Ray, who gave him my email and phone number, and one night he called me. I was pretty pumped about the phone call alone, but then he invited me to come and stay with his family for the night...which of course I agreed to. So I took the train up to Rovigo last Saturday afternoon and spent the night. It was soooo cool and so much fun. I am so so glad I got to do that, it was definately one of the coolest things I have gotten to do this entire Italian experience. His family was so so nice to me, even though we had some serious communication issues. Davide could speak english pretty well, about how I can speak Italian, so we did alright. But his family didn't really speak english at all...so it was a struggle. But they spoke to me really slowly and we always had a dictionary handy, so it worked out fine. And Davide is really cool and nice and I am really excited about him coming in August. He is 17, sings in a band, is a soccer ref, loves Jim Carrey, and likes to break dance. He is also really goofy, so I'm sure he and JC are going to get along very well. We had a big dinner when I got there...it was so Italian, I loved it. We ate at like, 9:30 and had the 3 courses, wine with dinner, cheese afterwards, everything. It was fabulous. I met the whole family, grandma, cousins, sister, nieces, in-laws, uncles, everyone. And everyone would say the one or two phrases they knew in english, which was usually "I don't speak english well," or ask if I had been to New York. And his sister has the cutest little girl and she gave me a little euro-kiss goodnight, it was so cute! Anyways, we went out on the town, walked around, and I met a bunch of his friends, more cousins, and his girlfriend. Then we came home and he let me drive his scooter. But, I ran it into the wall because I forgot that you had to let go of the gas and press the brake at the same time. I was going really slow, so it didn't cause any damage, but he drove after that. So I got a midnight scooter ride, which was awesome. Sunday, his dad, brother, cousin, and I watched Davide ref a soccer game. He was very professional and apparently the president of the ref association thinks he has a promising future in ref-ing, I was so proud. His dad was sooo funny. He would just talk and talk in Italian and I would only understand like, every other sentence, but he just kept talking. He gave me a driving tour of the town. I saw the famous church, Davide's school, the university, the river, the old towers, everything. I definately was making the most out of my Italian dictionary, haha. We had another huge, delicious lunch, and then we watched some Jim Carrey skits and played video games. It was, of course, a soccer game, and I was pretty terrible. I kept dribbling the ball out of bounds and trying to shoot on my own goal. But I didn't lose! His cousin, who I was playing with, took about 50 shots to my 3, but he didn't score! And, then, one of the highlights of my life, I got to DRIVE the scooter! I was much better this time, I promise. I remembered how to break properly and I didn't run into anything or anyone. We drove all through town, on real streets and everything. It was FREEZING, but awesome. They invited me to stay another night, but sadly, I had to get back to Rome to study and I didn't have any more clothes. So, Davide and his parents came to the train station to see me off...it was so nice! They were standing on the platform waving and blowing kisses. I was really sad to say goodbye, but I'll get to see Davide in August, so it'll be good. ooh, it was such good times, this blog does not even do it justice.

Anyways, in other news...yesterday was Italian labor day, so everyone had off work and school. And there was this HUGE music festival at San Giovanni (a very large church) and we went and it was craaazzzzzy. There were sooo many people. It was a lot of fun though. And I thought it was pretty funny because they have this huge stage, with everyone rocking out and then the huge crowd, with people crowd-surfing, drinking, dancing and who knows what else, and its all in front of this huge church with all these huge statues of saints and popes watching. We couldn't get very far into the crowd, so we danced on the outskirts, it was fun. Then we finally made it to Trastevere for some food and we were all dead tired, so we came home and watched Wedding Crashers.

Ok, well it is definatley time to study now. More to come as my trip wraps up [tear]. Ciao ciao!

Douze

Again, to go with the theme of the weekend, this number is not Italian (it would be dodici), but French. So I don't know how to pronounce it. All I learned how to say in French was "my name is jacky," "thank you," "please," and "I don't speak French."

Anyways, this past weekend was SO MUCH FUN. It was so great to see my friends and France is a really cool country and overall it was just fabulous beyond words.

My friend Molly that is studying in Florence came to Rome on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we flew to Paris. On the way to the airport, there was another suitcase miracle known as the metro miracle. My silly little suitcase handle is broken and will usually not go down, causing problems while traveling, espcially when I get on a plane because it has to go on a seperate luggage thing. Anyways, somehow it magically went down on the way to the airport and it was miraculous. THe same thing happened in Greece at the airport and that was the Greek miracle. Once I got off the plane, it got stuck again and I looked like a retard trying to load it on the bus. Anyways, our plane was delayed and then we have to ride a bus into actual Paris, so we don't get there until 5 or so. But my amazing suitemate and dad, Katrina, was there waiting for us and it was really funny because we hugged and got stuck on each other's jewelry. That night we had a weird French sandwich (it was good though) and went to see the Eiffel Tower. It was SOO cool at night! I really wasn't expecting it to be so amazing, but it was just so cool to sit and stare at. AND, as an added bonus, it sparkles every hour for like, 10 minutes! It was so nice to sit and stare at the Eiffel Tower with some of my best friends. Then we ate a chocolate crepe, which has been one of my best European purchases...so delicous.




The next day we made lunch for ourselves and then wandered around Paris. We admired Notre Dame, which was crazy crowded because it was Good Friday and listened to a jazz band play "Georgia On My Mind" on the street. We also went to the Arc de Triumph, which is HUGE and then to the Lourve, which is HUGE times 1000. I still can't believe how ridiculously huge that place was! Molly and I got chewed up and spit out. It is free for students on Friday nights, so we just wandered around for an hour or so. Somehow we got stuck in the Italian art section and it took a long time to escape. We wanted to see the Mona Lisa, because that is what you are supposed to do when you go to the Lourve, but then the Italian painting section trapped us inside. It's all nice and everything, but we wanted to see something different since we had both seen our fair share of Italian art. Anyways, we finally escape somehow and meet Katrina back at the metro. By the way, the Paris metro system is INSANE. Rome has 2 lines, Paris has 14. 14! But it was nice because we could pretty much go anywhere on it. That night we had a quick McDonalds dinner (I had a Chicken Mystic, wouldn't recommend it) and then went to a club that was a boat on the Siene (sin) River, so that was pretty cool. Next day we eat a more traditional French lunch and then hop on the train for 5 hours to Cannes to see Carter. Carter's parents were leaving that night but we had dinner with them and they bought us an amazing crepe dinner. Crepes are fabulous, let me just say for the record. We were all really tired, so we went to bed in our creepy little room we rented on Carter's campus.

Easter Sunday (Buona Pacqua!) we laid on the beach pretty much all day (don't worry, we said a little prayer and thanked God for the beautiful weather) and enjoyed a fabulous fondue dinner. And we went to this bar that had a band playing and they made fun of me on the mic, for everyone to hear, when I requested Belinda Carlisle. I was not big fans of them. Cannes was a lot of fun and really pretty. And we got to see where they have the red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival. It is also where Carter will be strutting her stuff with Jake Gyllenhal, haha.

So then Monday we are back on the train, this time for like 9 hours. It was a little too much train time, but we met some nice people, so we survived. We finally got to Florence, where Molly's roommate in Florence and our friend (my mom) from school, Blakely was there waiting with a really fabulous dinner on the table. We walked around and got gelato afterwards. It was kind of strange to be back in Florence. That was where I spent the first 3 weeks of the trip and it was weird to be back, 1. because it wasn't FREEZING and 2. because I am just so used to Rome and its craziness now...Florence is a different kind of crazy. But it was nice too. And it was so unbelievably wonderful to be with my friends. Unfortuantely, I had to go back to Rome the next day and go to class...but it was nice to be back in Rome Sweet Rome as well. AND-I had a TrenItalia miracle! I was worried about struggling with my suitcase by myself on the train, but somehow the handle went down again. Of course, it wouldn't when I got on the metro, but I take what I can get. Anyways, my Roman roomies were here waiting, as were the two research papers I have yet to write. So I'm going to get on that so I can have fun with Katrina when she comes here tomorrow. Ciao ciao!

Undici

I dont even know how to spell out the first part...oooona. I can't think of an English equivalent right now. And then dieci, which was explained in the last blog.

Ok, well nothing too exciting lately. Just wanted to drop in, say hello before my long, amazing weekend in which I will not be posting blogs because I will be off having an amazing time with no time for silly things like blogs. More on that later.

Last Friday I went to Assisi for the day, with Dr. Hotness as my guide. Amazing, of course. And thats right, Assisi as in St. Francis of ASSISI. I saw his tomb and everything. Other than having cool earpiece things so we could hear Dr. Hotness and his infinite knowledge of everything, Assisi was a tad boring. It was really really beautiful and the weather was amazing for us, but it is a really small town with a lot of pretty churches. So we toured those, had some lunch and admired the view. I had forgotten that in Northern Italy the bread is terrible because they don't add salt to it, so that was a disappointment at lunch. Of course Alessandro explained to us why they don't use salt because he is so incredibly wise that he would know such things. And now I'll share it with you: when the Vatican took over the Tuscany area for a brief period of time 150 years ago (more or less), they put a ridiculously high tax on salt, so people just stopped using it to make bread. And, even though the tax has since been lifted, they decided to leave the bread salt-less. Which is really quite a shame, because it is so much better with salt. Crazy Tuscans. Anyways, the bus ride there and back was pretty, but uneventful, as was the rest of the weekend. It was really hot Saturday, so I walked around for a little bit but then tried to work on one of my research papers. I chose the most generic topic ever, Baroque Architecture, so I was going crazy with all the information. Its far from being done, but I started. That night I went to the sketchiest club EVER, but it was really funny, so I had a good time. There were the most random people..from like, 15 year olds to way older people. It was very strange.

Sunday, worked on the papers some more and then walked around and finally did some shopping. I actually have some money now thanks to my amazing family, so I treated myself. Everything was on sale, of course, but it was still exciting to actually make some Roman purchases, other than the neccessities. I got some really strange looks though because I had on flip flops. It was so hot though! Of course the crazy Italians are still in winter coats, but I just can't do it. I also went to mass for Palm Sunday that night. We got there at 6:30, when it said mass started but that actually meant they were going to do the entire rosary at 6:30. So, we sat through that and then actual mass. It was so different from mass at home, it was actually pretty entertaining. Other than having to stand up for 30 minutes while they read the Passion, there were funny old women and little kids to watch. And people were just wandering around the whole mass, going to confession, coming and going, whatever..anything went. And of course the church was beautiful, so I had something to look at instead of trying to translate what the homily was about. That night we went to a cute little restraunt near the church and had the craziest old man as our waiter. He kept playing little jokes on us and would just crack up at himself! It was hysterical...he wasn't even that funny, but he thought he was and had this insane laugh, so it was really entertaining. For example, I asked where the bathroom was and was like, sorry we don't have one and starts to walk off. Then turns around and just busts out laughing and pointing at me like he just played this huge prank on me. It was great..then he gave me a high five.

Anyways, this weekend is going to be amazing because I am going to FRANCE!!! I am so so excited! My friend Molly (who is studying in Florence) is coming here and we are flying to Paris to see my friend Katrina, then the 3 of us are going to Cannes to see another friend, Carter. After that, the same 3 are leaving Carter and going to drop off Molly and see our friend Blakely. Then I will be returning to Rome and Katrina is coming to visit here a few days later. I am sooo excited to see them and to see France! I'm a little nervous because I heard French people aren't very nice, so we'll see. More to come on that post-amazing French/Italian adventure. Now its time to work on my papers some more. They are due a lot sooner than I realized...haha.

Ciao ciao!

ΔEKA

This one is a toughie..."Theka" I don't really even know how to prounce it because I don't know any Greek. Italian is "diece" (de ay che) but since this blog is all about my "Big Fat Greek Spring Break," I thought throwing a Greek number up there would be more approriate.

Ok, so Greece. Amazing. Only, amazing times infinity. I can't even begin to describe. It was quite possibly, the best week of my life. Everything about Greece was fabulous. The food, the weather, the beaches, the people, the view, everything.

[sunset in Naxos}

For starters, we flew into Athens and rode their immaculate metro system (it puts the Roman metro to SHAME) into the heart of the city, arrived around 3, went to our hostel and then exploring. It was to late to actually go to the Acropolis, but we did get to see it from a distance, and also the Parthenon. Both were really cool to see and I hope to go back someday and see them for real. It started hailing on us, and a nice restraunt owner offered us shelter and free water (this is a huge deal, water is NEVER free in Europe) under his umbrellas. We ended up staying and eating there, and I discovered that real Greek salads do not actually have any lettuce in them. Its cucumber, tomato, onion, bell pepper, olive, and feta. And since I don't really like cucumbers, tomatos, bell peppers, or Greek olives (they are crazy salty), I just ate the feta and onion. Still, it was delicious. Then we got free dessert, which was the first thing we got free in Greece. After that, we got something free every day, sometimes multiple somethings. The man also taught us how to say thank you, and it wont let me type in Greek on this thing, so just know that it is a lot longer and more complicated than saying "Grazie." We realized that the language barrier might be more of a problem there than in Italy. However, lucky for us, almost everyone we met could speak English. And, everyone we met was soo nice. They would ask where we from, why we were in Greece, where else we had been and whether or not we liked it so far. Italians are nice, but these people were unbelievable. So accomadating and helpful, it was wonderful.

Anyways, the next day we got on the ferry (which was ENORMOUS) for four hours and spent the next 3 nights in Mykonos, which, of course, was amazing. Someone met us at the port, and drove us to the hotel, which was at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean and looked just like the buildings you see in pictures..the white square buildings with blue shutters. So so pretty. And they had a glass of wine waiting for all of us, which was really cool. Since there is still a week or two before tourist season really starts, there was hardly anyone else on the island, tourist wise. I really liked that, even though there were not many stores and restraunts open, it was nice to be away from the crazy crowdness of Rome. And we always managed to find somewhere to eat some delicious Greek food, so I was happy. There, we mainly hung out around the town, wandered around and watched the gorgeous sunsets. One day we did go down to the Paradise City. Haha, one of the beaches there is called Paradise. It was nice because no one else was there, except for people cleaning up the shops and stuff, getting ready for tourist season. The last night in Mykonos, we went to a local restraunt, where we were the only girls and the only people under 50. We met this guy who had a horse and offers horseback rides and scuba diving lessons during tourist season. He had dinner with us and got all his friends at the restraunt to teach us how to "oompa" dance aka traditional Greek dancing. It was sooo funny. We pushed all the tables against the walls and blasted Greek music and danced with these old men for like, 3 hours. And the owners gave us all at least 6 free shots. The alcohol was pretty gross, Ouzo and Ursus. Ouzo tastes like good and plenty and Ursus tastes like Dimeatapp. It was fabulous.

Next, we went to Naxos, where there was more stuff open, but still not a lot of people. More good food, wandering around, beach laying, and sunset watching went on. Some random man bought us free wine one night and the next, we got free shots again at a Tex Mex restraunt we accidently went to. I say accidently because of course, we wanted to eat Greek food and not Tex Mex while in Greece, but we didn't realize what it was until we got the menus. But the food turned out to be really really good, so all was not lost. They had a like, a resident salsa dancer there from Brazil, and he wanted us to dance with him. I got up and looked like an idiot for a little while, and then he got all 6 of us to do the rumba with him. It was really really funny. Esp since we were the only people dancing in this bar and our audience was pretty much all middle aged men and women, who were either laughing at us or ignoring us. Our hotel there was really nice (and had the comfiest beds) and was up on a hill as well, and you could see straight across to the Arch of Apollo, which was gorgeous. The family that owned the restraunt was so nice and was always willing to help us figure out where we were going and offer suggestions on what to do. In fact, I left a necklace and my watch there, and the owner met me at the port on our way back to Athens to give it back to me! And he said, "ok my lady," which I thought was soo funny. Anyways, we went to the beach there as well, and one of the days it was soo pretty and we could actually get in the water. However, the next day was really cold and windy and we were informed by our taxi driver that there was an eclipse while we were there. So, we didn't get a whole lot of sun that day.

Next, Santorini. Gorgeous, of course. The weather was perfect and we stayed in a really really nice hotel. It was in the capital, Fira and was like a 5 minute walk into town. It was a little strange though because apparently all Greek high schoolers take a 5 day vacation at the end of March, so there were about 1000 of them staying at our hotel as well. Other than the stares and boys winking us, it was fine. Our room had a loft and you could walk out on the roof...so we would walk out and wave to all the teenagers down below. The first night we had an amazing dinner and when we went out that night, there were actually other people besides just the six of us at the bars and clubs. Not very many, but still, it was exciting to actually see other people out and about. The next day we rented a car instead of trying to take taxis to the beach and that turned out to be the smartest thing we had done. We got 2 since all 6 of us couldn't fit in one and I was captain of car 2 (I was the only one who had brought their license). I got to DRIVE around Santorini and visit black and red sand beaches. It was so amazing. I was an excellent driver and did not get us lost, or in any accidents. Not that there was a lot of traffic, but whatever. And, the one of the best parts of the whole trip was driving around, listening to the radio and having "Heaven is a Place on Earth" (my favorite song EVER) come on!!! Greek radio is crazy, but I never would have thought I would hear the best song in the world on it! Anyways, that night we drove to Oia, which is in the north and has the best place to watch the sunset. It was really really pretty, but all the highschoolers decided to come as well, so we didn't really get to watch in peace since they were all crazy loud. But it was funny to see all the girls giving us evil looks and the boys checking us out. Also, it was interesting to see the differences between Greek and Italian teenagers. The Greeks seem less into fashion, but they are both all about smoking, PDA, big sunglasses, and being as loud as possible. It was just funny to watch. Anyways, our ferry ride back to Athens was 8 hours, but it was ok because it was gorgeous weather and we got to watch the sunset on the boat.

There is so much more I could write about, but this is already long enough. It was such an amazing experience. Everything about the week was fabulous and I really really hope I can go back one day. And the best part of it all, I got to come home to ROME, where the weather is finally starting to get nice and is after all, ROME. So I can't complain. Assissi on Friday and France next weekend! Ciao ciao!
Oh, check out the rest of the pics on snapfish.com... :)

Nove

No-VEY (as in conVEY, without the con and with a no.....haha, double negative)

Hooray for the beautiful weekend! Seriously, such beautiful weather…and it was about freakin time! It is not quite skirt weather, but I’m really looking forward to it! And it’s kind of ok, I guess…my legs are not quite ready for skirt weather either. But they will be after next week cause I’m going to GREECE and sitting on the beach all day every day!!! SO PUMPED!

Anyways, let’s talk about the weekend. It was good. My iPod is slowly recovering I think, but it was a tough weekend without it. I got through it ok and realized that my iPod probably died because I have dropped it on the floor multiple times. I mean, I don’t do it on purpose, but it slides off my night stand and/or bed a lot. But really, it needs to stop being a baby and suck it up. It’s in Italy for goodness sake.

Jeez, enough with the blabbering. Friday, a couple of us that volunteer at the soup kitchen met up with some of the Italian volunteers to go out for a St. Patrick’s Day drink. They are not big on St. Patty’s here, so they were not pleased with getting pinched for not wearing green. Also, they weren’t concerned with celebrating right, so we ended up at a German bar. Wasn’t the most festive, but it was still fun and really cool to get to talk with real Italians. It was kind of nerve-racking though because every time I attempted to speak Italian, all five of them would stop and listen. I would normally crack under the pressure and end up saying something completely wrong. But whatever, I tried

Saturday I went to a peace demonstration. It was REALLY cool. I really had no idea what to expect. This is everything I had heard about it: from my teacher-“it will be good…come take pictures for extra credit. Va bene? See you Saturday.” And an email from the US Embassy-“AMERICANS-STAY AWAY.” Just kidding, it wasn’t that extreme, but that is basically what it said. But my teacher won out, so off into the unknown I went. It turned out to be one of the coolest things I have done. There were a ton of people there and they were all just walking down the street waving flags of all sorts, yelling things, smoking cigarettes, looking cool, and dancing. It was awesome. And the best part was the DRUM BAND. If you know me at all, you know that drum line is one of my most favorite things in the world and it literally almost brings tears to my eyes to hear it. I don’t know what it is, but the drums make me sooo happy. Seriously, I went into special ed, the other sister mode, when I heard them. The people with me where like, um ok, Carla…we’ll go find them because I was like, WHERE IS THAT COMING FROM?!?! I KNOW I CAN HEAR IT!!! And I found them and I loved it and was kicking myself because of course I didn’t have my digital camera, only the regular one. But I got pictures, so it’ll be good. It was just a cool thing to be a part of, especially since I think it was for a good thing. I don’t know too much about what is going on in Iraq, but I don’t think W is making any progress. But that is neither here nor there. After the excitement of the demonstration (no one was injured), we had a little fiesta at the apartment complete with tacos and guacamole but sadly, no sour cream. I once asked Dr. Hotness if they ate sour cream here and to explain what it was I said, "its like plain yogurt...but sour." And he looked at me like I was crazy (like he always does) and was like, um, no we don't eat that here. Anyways, Katie made the most amazing Tiramisu for dessert (which doesn’t really fit the Mexican theme, but it was delic, so I’m not complaining), and I had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack the next day.

Sunday, I was a good little student and wrote seven (sette) pages of my History of the Mafia paper. I was pretty impressed with myself. Granted, most of it is purely speculation and I have to go back and fill in actual facts, at least I got something. I was pretty excited about writing it though, as dorky as that is. It is about the relationship between the Mafia and the Catholic Church, which I think is really interesting…and scandalous! That night I went to a Roma soccer game, against Messina (from Sicily) and it was a lot of fun. I fit right in with my super awesome ROMA jacket that I bought for 15 euro at a street vendor. People are intense about their soccer over here. There were at least 100 security guards around the Messina fans because people can get CRAZY. It’s cool though. On the way home, I had a really good panini, ate some Tiramisu when I got home and life was grand.

Today, we took pictures in the Jewish Ghetto (that is really what it’s called) and on the Tiber River Island for photography. The Island has the oldest hospital in Rome on it. Fun fact I learned in Rome through the Ages…when the Black Plague hit Italy, they brought in the Greek God Apollo and started worshiping him because he was the god of medicine and they thought they could help fight off the Plague. And they built they hospital in honor of him, and its been there ever since. Of course, it has since been Christianized, and hopefully modernized (I didn’t go inside, but I would think they are not still using leeches or something to heal people). Anyways, it’s surrounded by the Tiber River, obviously (hence the name) but the river is soo gross! The water is this disgusting brown color and there is trash everywhere. Even in the trees on the side! It floods when it rains so the water rises and the trash gets all stuck in the trees on the bank and in one of the trees there was a skeleton of a DOG in the branches!! Isn’t that crazy?!! Don’t worry, I took a picture…you all will get a visual. Then I went to the post office for the millionth time to try and mail some stuff, and of course, it was closed…at 3 in the afternoon. Grrr…Anywho, in my last 2 classes, we reviewed for the mid term. Rome through the Ages, no problem. Mafia, we reviewed for a looooong time, so we’ll see. Tonight I went to “dinner with Italian students,” this thing our program sets up for us every now and then. But really, its dinner with a Chicca’s friends. Chicca (Key-Ka) is a little older than the students and works in the housing office. Some of them aren’t really students, but whatever. I only got to sit by one, but he was really nice and fun to talk to. I am in LOVE with the Italian accent, especially when they speak English. He wasn’t even that good looking of a guy, but I was in love by the end of dinner. My favorite lines… “What did you choice?” and…I can’t think of anything else, but it was cute. I think that is why I love Dr. Hotness so much. He’s really good looking and all, but who can resist someone that says “Jesus baby” and says “nak’t” instead of naked? Not me. Anyways, Italian student was trying to explain to me how he wants to be a lawyer and how it works and with his broken English and my horrible Italian, we didn’t very far. But, “no worries” he said and we just talked about pizza and soccer, and it was good.

Must go study now. It’s not all fun and games here…hahahaha, yeah right. I have the best life ever…. “dolce vita.” Ciao ciao!

Oh, and here is a random picture for you to enjoy...Guess who?!

Otto

OH-TOE. Eight is easy.

Sooo...this thing is harder to keep up with because I am crazy busy. But, I like doing it when I have time. Right now, I really should be outside enjoying the amazing weather we are having, for once..so I am going to try and keep it short and sweet.

This week FLEW by! Oh yeah, Happy St. Patricks Day! I don't know how Italians celebrate this lovely holiday, but I am going to find out tonight! But I really can't believe its already Friday! I really didn't do anything to exciting this week, but the days are just flying by.

Last Saturday I went to my first real Italian club and it was crazy! I loved it though! I was kind of surprised because usually Italians are very laid back and chill, but they were definately going wild at the club! I mean, not too wild, just crazy dancing and having a good time. There was a lot of dancing, which I loved...I had been having a serious lack of dancing in my Italian life, but that is all fixed now. I went to a club last night as well and got some good dancing time in. You have be careful though because you never know who comes up dancing behind you. I observed from sitting out a couple songs that there are some creepy older men that show up to the clubs and dance all sneaky up on unsuspecting girls. So you have to watch your back. Literally.

I really need to start working on my school work because I have to write three 10 page papers in the next month. I realize that this is a ridiculously small amount of work compared to the normal PC workload, but it is hard to get anything done school wise when you have all of Italy to explore instead. Also, spring break is coming up (Friday!!) and I am definately not going to be getting anything done then! We fly to Athens this Friday and I could not be more excited! Other than having no money and not being sure how I am going to feed myself while I'm there, I am soooo pumped about it! We are doing like an island cruise thing, going around to a bunch of different Greek Island and ending up on Santorini, then ferrying it back to Athens and flying home on Sunday. Even if its not that warm yet, its going to be a-mazing!

Ok, I really need to go outside. More later. Keep the emails coming! I love hearing from everyone! Ciao ciao!

Ok..and addition. I did eventually go outside and it was sooo beautiful. I walked over to a friends apartment and on the way I stopped by St. Peters Square and sat for awhile because I heard bagpipes and got really excited! I don't know why they were playing but it was really funny....they had like a little parade through the square and then they played Happy Birthday!! It was fabulous and totally made my day. Then I kept walking to the apartment, and my friends weren't even there so I turned around and walked back. I was sad because I bought Frizzante water, which has gas in it and its disgusting. But then I went back to St. Peters to chill and met some girls that are American students in Rome. It reminded me a lot of home because they were trying to get me to come to some church thing. They were really nice and all, but it was just funny because I wasn't really expecting it, I guess. It was two sisters, both from Michigan, studying Philosohpy here. They were really nice. Then I went to the grocery store, which is my favorite part of Italian life and made myself a lovely little dinner and now I'm going to get ready to go celebrate St. Patricks day with all the crazy people I saw wandering around in kilts earlier today..don't know what that was about. Ta ta for now. Ciao ciao!

Sette

"Set" plus a little "teh" at the end.

Well well, after quite the exciting weekend adventure out of Rome, accomplishing life goals and drinking the tears of Christ on top of a voclano, one would think the following week would just not be able to measure up. But, one would be wrong. Because everyday in Rome is beyond amazing and beats most days spent in the states.

Monday was a good day. My orginally planned day was thrown off by the public transportation strike, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because I couldn't go home as planned, I showed up early to the meeting place (the Colosseo metro stop) for Rome through the Ages and got to spend 30 minutes talking and sitting next to none other than, Dr. Hotness. It was amazing, as always. We laughed, I learned, we connected..it was magical. Then we visited the Triumphal Arch of Constatine (so cool) and then went to this super awesome church, the church of St. Clements, which is down the street from the Colosseum. On the way there, I learned that they do not eat sour cream in Italy, which is very sad and put a damper on our plans of having a Mexican fiesta. Anyways, we go to this church, which looks like your basic church from the outside...is pretty cool on the inside but then gets super awesome because there is a whole other SUB TERREAN level of architecture to explore. It was soooo awesome. You can walk downstairs, and basically walk through history. The main level of the church is what was rebuilt in like, the 17th century and then you go down a level and you see the orginal Christian church from way early times. There are still some floors, walls, columns, and even frescoes from that time period. And the, you walk even further and there are ruins of early pagan churchs and a temple dedicated to the cult of Mithros, which was similar to Christianity, but slightly stranger. It is so crazy that you can still see and walk through all this stuff. It was absolutly amazing to see and learn about. Rome through the Ages is definately one of the coolest classes I have ever taken. And not only because of Dr. Hotness..it is so exciting to be able to learn and experience 2000 years of history in the city I LIVE in. I mean, yay for Clinton..but its history pretty much consists of William Plumer Jacobs...not too exciting.

Wedesday we went to this place called Garbatella for photography. It was my first time riding Metro Line B, which was exciting, and also my first time getting seriously lost in Rome. It ended up being fine, other than showing up 30 minutes past the meeting time at the end of class. My teacher is super nice though, so it was ok. Garbatella is an area known for its unique architucture, so it made for a really interesting shoot. It had some really cool things to take pictures of, and it was nice because it wasn't ridiculously crowded like most of the city is. I talked to some really nice people while shooting as well, and was able to get some Italian practice in. People wanted to know what was going on since they say like, 15 people wandering around with cameras. I still am not completly comfortable with taking pictures of random people though, so it was nice to make friends before I started snapping away. I am really excited about getting those pictures back. That night I also went back to work at the soup kitchen, which was actually fun this time. It went a lot better than the first time, mainly because I got to work the front desk instead of working inside the eating area. I worked with 2 really nice people, both who knew enough English to where we could actually talk (I threw some Italian in when I could) and understand each other. This really nice man taught me the days of the week and is going to quiz me next week. I am totally going to be ready...Lunedi, Martedi, Meircoledi, Junedi, Venerdi, Sabato, Domenica. I don't think any of those are spelled correctly, but luckily, its going to be an oral exam.

Friday I went on a tour of Capotoline Hill, the Colosseum and very abbreviated Forum. We first walked through a demonstration, which I, of course, have no clue as to what it was about. There were a lot of colorful flags though. I got a little nervous though, because anytime we see or hear anything about demonstrations in mafia class, someone always gets shot. But, this one went on without any of that, thank goodness. Anyways, the tour was interesting. Most of the stuff I had already learned from Dr. Hotness, but it was interesting to get a different perspective, since our tour guide was younger, and American. He was really funny and focused more on interesting things to know, rather than the architecture and historical significance of the buildings. We also walked to the top of this cafe in the Capotoline museum, and we got an awesome view of the city.


That night we had a little dinner party and my friend Megan made some amazing gnocchi! Everything was sooo good and I stuffed my face. One of my roommates Katie, made dessert that we all devoured like crazy people. It was pretty funny...she set it on the table and we all attacked it. It was chocolate truffle something or other and it was soo good. I contributed nothing to the dinner. I didn't even help wash dishes. Shame on me. Then, we all went out afterwards and it after some very frustrating transportation issues...we finally make it into where we wanted to be. On the way there, it was nice out...not too cold, clear skies...Then, we are headed to a wine bar and it starts HAILING. It was the craziest thing...no one saw it coming. I was pretty upset because it was the first time I had straightened my hair since we had been in Rome and we all know that hail or any type of weather other than perfectly clear skies does not agree with straight hair. But it was still a fun night, even though we arrived at the wine bar soaking wet and looking rough.

Anyways, more adventures to come, as always. Every day gets better and better...and hopefully the weather will start doing the same. Ciao ciao si si va bene ciao si si si si va bene ciao ciao ciao ciao si va bene ciao ciao (this is how Italians say goodbye on the phone...one ciao is simply not enough).

Sei

Like saying "say" really country-like.

I accomplished a life goal this weekend! It was actually quite the productive weekend, since I actually accomplished 2 life goals, narrowly escaped death (twice) and basically had the best bus ride of my life.

oooo...and I just figured out that you can put pictures on here! So I am going to add some so you can see what I'm talking about. But the rest are on snapfish.com, so you can enjoy there as well, don't forget.

[above, Hotel Acqua]
[below, Pompei]

Ok, so, its always been a life dream to see Pompei, the Roman city that was covered in volcanic ash in 79 A.D. by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and is pretty much preserved as it was at the time of the eruption. And, this weekend, I DID IT! It was A-MAZING. We went on Friday and wandered around the city for a couple hours. It was soooo cool! I mean, its not completly preserved, most of the city is ruins, but they are basically exactly the way they were when the volcano erupted. I can't even explain it, it is just the coolest thing I have ever seen, basically. I could have stayed there all day and not seen everything. Of course, my camera dies after like, 10 minutes of being there, so I have to steal other people's pictures as soons as they put them up. However, I got batteries towards the end, so I did get some pretty amazing pictures. The end between, I only have my memories...haha. We walked around the city with my hottie Rome through the Ages professor, Alessandro, (aka Dr. Hotness) and this beautiful man told us all about city life before the eruption. They have entire houses and streets preserved. There are even some places that have paintings, frescos and mosaics still preserved exactly as they were in 79 (SEVENTY NINE!) A.D. There are also places that have PEOPLE preserved in the positions they were in when they were covered in lava. It is so crazy! They are all crouched over and obviously scared to death. We only got to see a couple of those since a lot of the exhibits were closed because it wasn't tourist season, so they didn't have gaurds for them. Another thing we didn't get see is the "brothel" and all its erotic frescos, so that was a little sad. But we did get to see some later in the museum, and they were pretty risque, let me tell you. They also have an entire stadium (like a mini Colosseum) and amphitheater pretty much entirely intact. AHH, it was just so amazing! I loved it! And we stayed in this hotel with a gorgeous view in a little city in between Naples and Sorrento. That night we had free dinner at a local pizzeria and had some amazing pizza. The Napoli region is known for its pizza, and now I know why. We had some crazy pizza with hot dog and french fries on it, so that was interesting.

And as for the other life goal, I was telling some people on the bus how my other life goal had been to be SGA President, but obviously , that one is not going to come true..but they decided that I could be SGA president of AIFS, so that was dream #2 coming true!! Of course, its not exactly the same thing and only about 5 people voted, but I think it still counts...

Anyways, on Saturday we got up early and went to THE Mt. Vesuvius. It was a ridiculously crazy bus ride up and I came to some conclusions about the charter busses of Italy. First of all, they are magical. And the bus drivers themselves are sorcerors and were trained at the Chuck Norris School of Bus Driving. There is no way that it should be possible for them to be able to drive up the tiny little mountain roads that they drive up and make the turns that they do. Its insane and its not physically possible. So they're magic..I figured it out. Also, thanks to Chuck Norris for doing such a good job training them. The bus drivers in the actual city of Rome also attend the same school because they somehow navigate through the crazy Roman traffic without killing anyone (thus far). ANYWAYS, a couple funny things happened on the way to THE volcano. First, we're driving through some small little towns on the way there and Dr. Hotness gets on the bus mic and lets us know that we are driving through some really unsafe towns because they are pretty much run by the mafia, who traffic drugs and kill people basically, right outside our window. They are so dangerous, in fact, that not even the police can go into some areas. So that was the first way I escaped death, I didn't get killed by the mafia driving through. (Just kidding, I wasn't really scared...I am learning all about the mafia and they wouldn't randomly shoot a bus full of Americans...unless we got in their way....) Moving on, we get up to the top after the bus driver works his magic and....its closed because its so foggy and windy. It was pretty funny since we had gone through the whole ordeal to get 3 massive charter busses up there. But someone convinces them to let us go up and we literally walk straight up hill to the top. Most people dropped off when we got to the first and second souvenir stands (thats right, souvenir stands on top of a volcano...Italians are always looking to make a deal) but me and a few other brave souls made it to the top. Of course, we could not see a thing and we almost got blown off the mountain because it was wicked windy, but it was still cool to get to the top. To celebrate, we had some wine called "Lacruma Christi del Vesuvio," which means the Tears of Christ. I thought it was pretty hysterical that they had wine made from Christ's tears...so it was only appropriate to have a glass at the top of THE volcano. Anyways, when I was good and smashed (jk, I only had a tiny glass) we went back down and then onto Napoli. That was second way escaping death, since THE volcano didn't erupt on us. It is due for an eruption any day now, so I was definately taking my chances.

Napoli was soo crazy. The traffic there was INSANE. But, once again our magic bus drivers got us to the archelogical museum safe and sound without killing us or any pedestrians. I had the best pizza I've ever had in my life there. Dr. Hotness told us that Napoleons (isn't that cool that they are called that?) don't eat pizza anywhere else in Italy because they know theirs is the best. Anyways, the museum was very interesting...they had a lot of orginal statues and other things from Pompei....including a lot of statues of penis', which were apparently a very important part of the daily life of Pompeians...so that was interesting to see. Afterwards, Dr. Hotness and friends took us on a tour through Naples (stupid me left my camera on the bus, so I have no documentation of this tour) and we saw a pretty nunnery, a TON of graffiti, lots of random Napoleon things, a huge square palace thing, and a castle. Then came the best bus ride of my life because I got to sit next to.....DR. HOTNESS! I won't bore you with details, but it was fabulous. A tad akward because I get nervous around really good looking people, but overall, I did alright. However, I think he thinks I am pretty ridiculous (which I am) because he usually just laughs at whatever I say and then doesn't really respond. But whatever.

Sunday we had to get up crazy early and we were scheduled to go to the island of Capri, but sadly it was too windy and we went to a palace in some random small town instead. It was ok, but it was no Capri. It did have a cool waterfall/fountain thing so it was fun to walk around. Then we came home on the magic bus and ate at Roadhouse Grill at the train/bus/metro station and it was soo delicous.

Also, as a random side note that doesn't have anything at all to do with the weekend...I bought a Belinda Carlisle CD at a Roman bookstore and I am really pumped about it because I decided that she is my female hero since she sings my ultimate favorite song, "Heaven is a Place on Earth." I also learned that is actually the real name of the song, and not just "Heaven on Earth," as I previously thought. "Heaven On Earth" is just the name of the CD. Good to know.

So anyways, it was an AWESOME weekend and who the heck knows what next week will bring. I am in love with Italy. Ciao ciao!

Cinque

Cheeen qu-ay. Otherwise known as five.

Yesterday was quite the adventure. Well, everyday is but yesterday was espcially jam packed with adventures. Oh yeah, and Tuesday was "Mardi Gras" (they dont call it that here but thats essentially what is was). It was pretty uneventful for me. I had class at 9, so I didn't want to get crazy. But we did go out for a little bit and it was funny because there were all kinds of crazy people running around in costumes. They are really into dressing up for Carnival here. There were a lot of drag queens with horrible make up.

But anyways, onto Ash Wednesday. So, I have to get up at 9 for Photography and meet at Castel San Angelo. I thought we were going to just take pictures there, but our teacher tells us to focus mainly on St. Peters Square, which is right down the street since there were a ton of people there for Ash Wednesday and the Pope. We have 36 pictures to capture the "essence of Ash Wednesday," with anything from architecture to people selling all their crazy rubbish. Seriously, they have everything! Little statues of THE DAVID, flowers, food, lighters in the shape of the leaning tower and then there is the Pope merchandise. His face is on everything! Plates, lighters, bottle openers, flags, shirts, cups, bags, hats, seriously, everything. Its insane. So whatever, I wander down the street, taking pictures of whatever. I don't really like taking pictures of people because 1. I don't really care to have pictures of them. 2. Its hard to set up a frame of something interesting because I can't get that close or get them to do what I want and 3. I'm afraid they are going to get mad or tell me I owe them 5 euro, like the gladiators at the Colosseum. So I take a lot of stills, thinking how cool it would be if I could actually get in the square to take pictures. I heard you had to have a ticket, which I didn't so I just stood outside the gates. And I looked kind of creepy too because I busted out the zoom lense to try and get some shots inside the Square. And it was so funny to just watch everyone because they are all getting so hyped up about seeing the Pope. There are tons of people there, singing and waving flags and cheering...even before he comes. It was like a rock concert! Then, he finally comes out on his little Pope chariot (it wasn't the actual Pope mobile) and people go crazy! It was fabulous. And I'm still standing in the back, just cracking up because all I can see is his little white head going by. Oh, and I can see him on the JUMBO TRON they had set up. Thats right, Benedetto was up on the jumbo tron. So hes waving to the people, and people are crying and yelling "Papa!" And I'm laughing because I just can't believe that this is real and I'm really in ITALY at ST. PETERS SQUARE watching the POPE ride by on his chariot. I still can't believe I'm here sometimes. Anyways, I walk closer to the gate because I see some friends and a carabieneri (local police) is all, you want to come in? I told him I didn't have a ticket and he said that you only had to have a ticket to sit down!! I was a little mad because I already used up all my shots, but whatever...I still got to go in. I only stayed for a little bit, but I heard the gospel read in like, 6 langauges and listened to the Pope speak for a little while. I didn't stay to hear him speak in English, but it was still pretty cool. I SAW THE POPE!

So, after my exciting morning, I walked to school, did some random stuff (Photography is my only Wed. class) and then wandered around and did some shopping. I walked off my usual path and found the prettiest little back and side streets. I mean, everywhere you walk here is gorgeous, but it was such a nice day, it was great. And, of course, my camera is still dead because the batteries I bought for it don't work, so I couldn't take any pictures. I spent a couple hours in a bookstore which was amazing as well. I bought some books and a Belinda Carlisle CD, because she is my hero (Heaven on Earth singer...). I also went into this shoe store because they had really cool tennis shoes in the window and I have been wanting cool tennis shoes, so I went in. But it was really strange, because there were no tennis shoes in the actual store, which was only this tiny room. So I stand around for a bit, because the sales person is talking to some guy outside and isn't really interested in helping me so then I just leave because I didn't want to cause any problems. Sales people and waiters here are not very friendly or helpful. I kind of wish I could be a waitress like that at home because they come take our order whenever they feel like, never check on us to see if we want anything, usually someone else brings out the food, and they only bring the check if you can flag them down to ask for it. Anyways, I ended up just walking home and will try again one day in hopes someone else will be working and I can speak better Italian.

I signed up to work in a soup kitchen, so I started that last night. It was very interesting. We had to fight our way through the crowd to even get in. There were some crazy people there! But I guess I would be a little crazy too if I had to resort to the soup kitchen for food. Anyways, there are about 5 of us from my program there doing it, and we were there to clean up and refill the water mainly. Of course, people were making all these demands in Italian, and we were all kind of like, ummmm...I don't understand you. It was frustrating and a little scary sometimes because people would get so mad! There were some Italian girls working as well though, so they could figure out what they wanted. I met some really nice people though. One man taught me the days of the week in Italian and we managed to have an entire conversation with me struggling along in Italian. And most of the other people working were nice as well. There were some jerks though that got all demanding and rude. It made me a little angry because we weren't there to be their waitresses, but they would treat us like we were. I didn't mind helping the nice people but there was a group of younger guys that were so rude and wanted me to take their trays and all this other stuff. And of course, we had some men like, hitting on us, and I'm like, are you serious? We are in a soup kitchen, no I am not giving you my number. Overall, it was good though and I'm looking forward to going back next week.

To end the day, my roommate and I ate some amazing Chinese food and I took bath and went to bed early for once. It was lovely. Tomorrow, we are going to Naples and then Pompeii. I AM SO EXCITED! More to come on that next week! Ciao ciao!

Quattro

“qua” as in “quality. “tro” as in “astro-turf.”

Alrighty then, so it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these. Much has happened since my last adventure. Where to begin….

So, I had class in the Colosseum, which was pretty stinkin awesome. Oh, and the day before that, I went to mass at St. Peters. It was the first time I had been inside and it is un.be.liev.able. Seriously, that place is crazy ridiculous. It was hard to concentrate in church because there is so much stuff to marvel at. Also, there was the cutest Italian kid two pews up and I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to steal him (don’t worry, I didn’t). Oh, and then there’s the whole mass being in Italian thing, so that made it hard to focus as well. I could understand the order of things and what was happening when since all Catholic mass goes in the same order, but the priest lost me during the homily. Something about brothers and sisters, and then he just went off. He was pointing all over the place and raising his voice, so I think it was something important. When I am fluent in Italian at the end of the semester, I will know what is going on and I’ll report back on how the Pope thinks you should be living your life. Be ready for that.

Back to the Colosseum and its awesomeness. It makes me a little sad that it has been destroyed by man. During the Middle Ages, people took all the metal and bronze supports out of it, so that is why there are holes all over the outside. What were those fools thinking?? It had already been there for like, 1000 years! Also, interesting fact, it has been struck by lighting twice. I mean, that only happens like, once every 1000 years...but since its been there for 2000, it makes sense. Another interesting fact, the only reason people had to stop destroying it was because some pope way back when declared it a tribute to martyrs since many Christians were executed there (before Catholicism was the cool thing to do) and now the church is still in charge of it and they do stations of the cross there during Lent. So we might go try to see it sometime. Speaking of Lent, I think I am going to give up soda and possibly sweets. Giving up Nutella and gelato would be pretty tough, since they are basically the loves of my life, but when in Rome….give up something important or the Bennedetto will find out and be upset. Oh, and back to the Colosseum, its funny because outside, there are all these men dressed up in Gladiator or Senator outfits and they stand around and smoke cigarettes and try to con you into taking pictures with them. Some guys from our class did and then they’re like, ok, 5 euro please. And then its like, crap, I have to give it to him because he has a sword. I mean, I doubt he would chop your head off, but I wouldn’t want to take any chances.

Moving on to my big adventure, Barcelona! We left wicked early Friday morning (3:00 AM) and flew out of Rome at 6:55 AM. I would not recommend such early flights out of anywhere. Other than there being no traffic at this hour, there are not many other benefits to ridiculously early flights. Anyways, the flight and getting to Barcelona went smoothly and we made it to our hostel in one piece. Turns out they had overbooked the hostel, so they set us up in the apartments next door. And the man was all apologetic because we had to be on the fourth floor (which meant a lot of stairs) but the apartments turned out to be really nice, so it wasn’t bad at all. We had our own bathroom, a kitchen, tv, a washing machine, and rooms to ourselves (instead of 16 other people). It was four of us, and then 4 other random people. We met 2 other girls who were from Switzerland and were really nice, so it was fun to talk to them, even though they made me feel really dumb because they both knew like, 6 languages and I was struggling along with my pathetic Spanish and even worse Italian. But whatever, my English was better than theirs.

Anyways, Friday we were all really tired (again, early morning flight, no good) so we took a nap, and then wandered around and went shopping. Spain is sooo different from Italy so it was really interesting to be in a new country. First of all, they are much more commercialized (I think that is the word I’m going for). They have much more chain restaurants, shops and different cultures thrown in there. Instead of just McDonalds, they had Burger King, KFC, Dunkin Doughnuts, Starbucks (they seriously had 80, all within 15 minutes of each other), Subway (woo hoo!), and something else random I can’t remember. They also had a lot of Spanish chains, which Rome doesn’t have too many of. I honestly did not really enjoy the food I had there. Granted, I had to eat pretty cheap, so I mainly had sandwiches, but even those were not very good. Especially compared to panini’s, which are very fabulous. I broke down one day and had Burger King. Don’t judge! I was starving and I knew I would actually like it. Plus, it was the first hamburger (beef, really) since I’ve been here. And it was delicious, so I am not ashamed. They also give out free ketchup and mayonnaise there, so that was nice. Oh, how I’ve missed mayo. The best meal was Saturday night when some girls we met cooked authentic Spanish food for us. I don't what it was exactly, but with the extremely cheap Sangria we bought, it was fabulous. I know we had cheese crepes for dessert, but the actual dinner, I don't have a name for, other than delicoius wonderfulness.

Barcelona also had a totally different atmosphere from Rome. In Rome, there are these crazy people trying to sell you umbrellas, fake purses and sunglasses, mini statues of THE DAVID, or something else completely useless all over the place, but there wasn’t any of that there, which was really nice. They also didn’t have as many people begging in the streets. Instead, they have people dressed up in these crazy outfits that sit perfectly still until someone gives them money, and then they do something retarded, like wave or bow and you’re allowed to take pictures with them. They get really pissed if you take pictures without giving any money and will yell at you, so you have to be sneaky and get a picture while someone else is posing, so they don’t really notice you. I didn’t take any though, I am always nervous they are going to flip out on me and I’ll get beat up by someone dressed up as a mummy or something. However, Spain isn’t too much better because instead of homeless people in the streets, there are prostitutes…but at least they are offering some sort of service for your money and not just sitting there with a cup in front of them. That made it a little sketchy to walk down the street at night (they were there during the day too though), but otherwise, it was ok. The street our hostel was on was a little skeezy, but nothing bad happened. And, it was right by this park that had a giant cat statue in it, so that was cool. I didn’t get a picture of it because my piece of crap camera died while halfway through the trip, but trust me, it was crazy big.

So we didn’t do much Friday except spend an excessive amount of time in Sephora and Zara (possibly the most fabulous stores I have ever been in) and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. Saturday we went on this bus tour thing where you could get on a tourist bus (double decker!), ride around to all the cool places in Barcelona and get on and off wherever you wanted. We went to this church called the Temple of the Sacred Family, which is seriously the most ridiculous building I have ever seen. It was a mix of every architectural style you can imagine. I didn’t go inside because it cost money, but I did admire it from on top of the bus, and across the street at Starbucks, where I enjoyed a caramel frappacino, which later turned me into a psycho because caffeine makes me crazy. The sugar high later put me running a million miles a minute, it was interesting. Anyways, we were supposed to see a parade for Carnival, but we missed it, so we went to see the magic fountain instead. I don’t have any clue as to where we were, but there was this huge building at the top of a hill, with fountains going all the way down to this big square, that had an enormous fountain in the middle of it. There were millions of stairs we had to go up and down, but I was still high on the frappaccino, so I ran up and down them, no problem. The fountain was magical because starting at 7, it did a little song and dance for everyone! It had lights and music and the water would do all kinds of crazy things. We watched for probably 45 minutes, it was soo cool! It was definitely my favorite part of Barcelona. I took a ton of pictures and then I got the fabulous idea to take video and then my stupid camera died, so I only got like, 10 seconds. Sad times. And since you cant hear it, I will tell you that the “BARCELONA!” theme song sounded like it was sung by Queen, so props to Barcelona for that.

Well, since this is already a novel, I’ll wrap by saying we went to a bar that night, there were lots of people dressed up in crazy costumes for Carnival, and some jerk playing a xylophone, so we didn’t stay long. Sunday the weather sucked, so we rode around on the bus some and then went back to Sephora and Zara, where it took a lot of self control not to spend the rest of my savings. Oh yeah, I spotted 46 mullets over the 2 days (I didn’t start the tally until Sat)…those people were mullet crazy! And there were all sorts of varaties…including dread lock mullets! WHAT?? Spain was pretty progressive everywhere except the hair department..it was very sad. Anyways, we had a metro adventure, but other than that, the route back to Rome went smoothly. The plane ride was interesting though, everyone was like, cheering and clapping when we took off and landed, it was bizarre. Crazy Italians. Getting home from the airport though was a big pain in the butt, but I learned not to depend on the night buses and to spend the money on a cab. Next week…Naples and POMPEII!!! So pumped!

Ciao ciao!

Tre

Roll the r.

Ok, so I have been watching a lot of Olympics lately (they're in Torino, I've been there) and there are a lot of crazy sports that I didn't even know existed! Until today pretty much, I was under the impression that the winter olympics consisted only of skiing (just generic downhill skiing), snowboard (again, generic), ice skating, hockey, the luge, and bob-sledding. And bob-sledding I only knew about because of Cool Runnings. But no! There are tons of other stuff! For instance, tonight I watched ice dancing, ski jumping (which I definately want to try sometime...and yay, Japan is in 1st and 2nd right now! oh, nevermind Australia just took over), the skeleton (basically trying to kill yourself by flying down an ice slide on a piece of plastic), and a snowboard race type of thing. There is also other stuff that I don't know the name of...or the point of. Speed skating, but tag team style, for instance. All they do is take like, 50 laps around a ring and push their teammates into the action every 2 laps or so. It's very strange. But all the events are fun to watch, espcially when there are British commentators because they say things like, "imperious" and "now I'm going to find some sparkles and ribbons to celebrate with." Other thoughts on the Olympics...it makes me very sad that the Italians are not winning more medals. I feel that, as the host country, they should at least have more medals that Switzerland, who has never even hosted the games (I don't think).

Enough with the Olympics, I have figured out why Italians are so laid back and not hurried. Because the public transportation can't get you anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. So, if you can't get anywhere on time, why even care about starting anything on time. The metro is probably the most unrealible thing ever. You leave the house an hour ahead of class, even though it should only take 20 minutes to get there...you walk to the metro station, roughly 7 minutes away and even though its the middle of the day, its closed! Awesome, so you walk 3 more minutes to the bus stop (sometimes 6 minutes if you don't catch the light) and wait around for the bus to even get there....4 more minutes..and then wait some more until the bus driver decides he wants to leave. Then, you go across the bridge, traveling probably a mile, but stoppping at least 12 times, and have to get off before your stop because there is a protest against the vatican going on and the busses can't drive through town. So then you get off and walk the 50 miles to school. Maybe not 50, but even speed walking, it takes you 30-40 minutes to get there. And heck no, you're not taking a taxi! That would be like, 10 euro! This is all hypothetical of course, but should you really be counted tardy? I think not.

Speaking of class, we for real learned about how the mafia kills people in class on Thursday. In my notes, it seriously says: strangling-most convient way of killing; no noise and no blood. can tie hands and feet together so person strangles himself and then body is easier to put in a trunk for transport... ISNT THAT CRAZY??? I can't believe I am really learning about this stuff. Honestly, it makes me a little nervous. I hope no mafiosa find out I know all their secrets and decide to kill me, dissolve my body in acid, and then wash me down the drain (no evidence). And for Rome class on Monday, we are going to the Colosseum! I am so excited!

Anyways, today we set off an a mission to find the zoo, which we eventually did (yay for maps!) and on the way, found some really cool stuff. We didn't actually go into the zoo because it was about to close and it cost 8,50, but we walked through the Spanish steps and Spanga Piazza (its all under construction so its not so cool looking right now) and then took this pretty little side street to come out to Piazza del Popolo, which like every other cool piazza, has amazing fountains and churches. And it was such beautiful weather, it was the perfect day for exploring. To get to the zoo, we had to walk through this cool park which had more cool statues and fountains and fun little pond! It was a good day. Until I had to take the crazy metro back...it was soo crowded..I mean, its always ridiculously crowded, but this time I had to wait until the 3rd one came before I could actually get on. And even then, I was squished up against some old woman and a pole...it was most uncomfortable. But then, I ate Chinese food and.....gelato!! so it was all better.

More later...ciao ciao!

Due

Due

Pronounced doo-aye. Remember that.

What a freakin week! I am going to try to go chronologically, but I am just so excited about everything that is going on, I don’t know if I am going to be able to contain myself, so just bear with me.

First, classes. They started Monday. They are awesome. Photography, we’ve had 2 photo shoots…not only do I feel like a real photographer, but I also feel like a model since everyone in the class has to pose as well. Today, I posed in the Piazza Navona. Very cool. Rome through the Ages, my teacher is so cute and has the best accent! He is also very smart and knows lots of cool stuff about Rome (very appropriate). Today we went to the Roman Forum. I HAD CLASS IN THE ROMAN FORUM. I mean, Neville is cool, but THE ROMAN FORUM. History of the Italian Mafia, a very cool class. Today we learned about how they kill people. Suffocation, poison, guns, etc. Just kidding..but I’m hoping that will be a future class. Italian, I don’t really like..I know, what the heck, its probably the most useful thing I’m doing, but its just kind of boring. I would rather practice on real Italians. Even when they laugh at me.

Last week, I did a lot of running around trying to buy books and notebooks. Regular, spiral, lined notebooks are very hard to find. It was rather frustrating. I also spent a lot of time being lost. Seriously, I got lost going to school, from school, going home, basically, wherever I went. BUT, I always found my way and I am very proud of myself. I am the master of public transportation. UM, not really. I definitely got fined 50 euro for not stamping my bus ticket on time. Yeah, that sucked a lot...but lesson learned. In my defense though, I had only been on the bus like a minute. And no one ever stamps their ticket! Whatever. The busses and the metro are amazing when you know what you’re doing, they are running properly, and you have at least 1 and a half to get where you’re going. So pretty much, I walk A LOT. But its cool because I like to think I walk off all the amazing food I stuff my face with everyday. Today, for example, I had at least a loaf of bread…by myself. With olive oil. And then the rest of my meal. And gelato. But it’s a lot of walking…

Thursday night I went to the most ridiculous “jazz” concert I have ever been to in my life. Seriously, it was terrible. Apparently it was “experimental jazz.” We didn’t learn that until afterwards because we couldn’t understand the Italian introduction. Anyways, it was so bad…it was like monkeys banging on trash cans. But it was so entertaining because 1. all the musicians were really really into it. 2. Everyone I was with was either sleeping or looking around like, wtf? Is this for real. You kept thinking it was going to get better..but it never did…it got worse and worse. And just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, one guy started playing notes with the spit in his trumpet..and then another started yelling/moaning in gibberish.

So, Friday to celebrate the opening of the Olympics, we had a party! We all represented a different country and watched the opening ceremonies. I, of course, was Japan. We were supposed to dress accordingly, but with a limited budget and no Italian goodwill around, I only had a white shirt and a note card with a red dot in the middle of it. It was kind of sad, but I tried.

Saturday I went on a very extensive walking tour of Rome. A group of us wandered around Tratesvere (sp?) and found this really cool park with confetti and statues and real grass (theres not much here) and ducks. It was great. The walking part ended up being way more than we anticipated because there was a riot or something and all of the bus lines to our apartment were shut down. So, we hoofed it back and as a treat, we stopped at Old Bridge gelato by the Vatican and it was seriously the best gelato I’ve had since I’ve been here. And as you can tell by my pictures, I’ve had quite a lot. I think the Pope blesses it or something. I wonder if the Pope eats gelato? He should. That night we went to a soccer game, Lazia (the local team) vs. some other team we never learned the name of. Of course, we were hardcore Lazia fans, even though it ended up being a tie. We had to leave early though because my roommates and I had to leave on a midnight train to…Georgia. JK…a train to the OLYMPICS!!! That’s right, 7 hours later we were in Torino!! And it was sooo cool! Literally, it was freakin freezing there! We got there really early and had to wait around on things to open up but we went to the OLYMPIC village and the official OLYMPIC store and saw the OLYMPIC torch and rode up to the Swiss Alps to look at more OLYMPIC stuff. And to end the day, we went to a women’s OLYMPIC hockey game and saw USA kill Germany 4-0. It was very exciting. There was passion living all over the place! “Passion lives here” is the Olympic motto or something, and it was everywhere! I thought it was really funny, so I took lots of pictures. Check it out. Then we took another overnight train back to Rome, got in at 7:30 and I went to class at 9. The ride back was better than the ride there though because we figured out how to work the heat. The way there was miserable and freezing. But it was ok because it was worth going to the OLYMPICS! For anyone interested, it makes me happy when both the US and Italy win things.

Tonight, we had some boys cook chicken parmesean for us. It is completely backwards over here! JK…they were really just using us for our kitchen, but whatever…it was really good. My cooking so far has consisted of sticking bread in the oven and heating up tortellini on the stove, so I was most grateful. We watched Olympic ice skating on TV, and were like, oh yeah, whatever, we’ve been there. Russia won in case anyone missed it.

Anyways, that was my week. More adventures to come this week, I’m sure. We’re going somewhere with a lot of fountains on Friday (the name escapes me right now) and then just hanging out, doing touristy stuff on the weekend. And the weekend after that, I’m going to Barcelona! Let me know if you know of any cool things to do in Spain. Other than just being there, because I think that is pretty freaking cool. Anyways, until next time…ciao ciao J

Uno

10.02.06 (date, European style...Feb 10, 2006)

Yay!! I finally am able to start this thing up for all you beautiful people to read. I decided to number these by Italian numbers so not only can you see what Im up to, but you can also learn to count in Italian!! Entertaining and educational!

Ok, well just to do a quick recap, since this was started late in my journey....I arrived in London on Jan 12, had a hellish time at the airport, but spent three days and hit all the highlights London has to offer. The weather was really crappy and everything is crazy expensive there, so I was ready to leave. The pound is worth $2!! To put that nonsense in perspective, I exchanged $80 for 40 pounds. And I just barely made it the three days with that, I had to eat some really cheap meals. And you would think you were getting a good deal...like a crappy sandwich, some weird chips and a water for say, 5 pounds. But then you would think about it, and it was like, wtf? I just paid $10 for this terrible meal! It was no good. But I did get to go to a Russian Winter Festival...it was really interesting. There was some crazy entertainment.

Moving on, I was ready for Italy. We spent the first 3 weeks in Florence, which is such a beautiful city. There I took an intensive Italian language class. It wasnt too terribly hard, but of course, since I am retarded, I made a B+. I still dont really know how that happened, but whatever...at least I didnt fail. We had the cutest and nicest teachers with the greatest accents. I loved being in class just to listen to them speak. We would do 2 hours of grammar stuff and then 1.5 hours of conversation. While we were there, we stayed in the Hotel Porta Rossa, which was right in the middle of the city. It was not far from the Florence Duomo (it took me awhile to realize that every city has a duomo), which is this enormous church in the middle of town. Seriously, its huge. And its so weird because youll just be walking down the street, mouth watering over gelato in the window and all the SALDI! (sale) signs and then BAM! The duomo and its enormity would hit you in the face as you turned the corner. Everywhere we walked was just amazing. And every day on the walk to school, we walked across the river and could see the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio, which is the main river and the really famous bridge in Florence. Also while we were there, we took a 3 day weekend to Venice. This is probably my favorite place so far. It was soooo beautiful. It is everything you see in pictures, only a thousand times better. I seriously want to go back and live there at some point in my life. If not live, at least get engaged there. I am going to have to decline my future fiancee unless he proposes on a gondala, in Venice. I dont ask for much. Anyways, the weather was crappy when we first got there, but it was beautiful the last day and a group of us took a gondala ride. It was soo pretty. Of course, the batteries on my camera died, but I am going to steal pictures from friends as soon as I can. Our gondolier was kind of lame, he talked on his cell phone some on the ride, and I think he was just making stuff up about where people lived and stuff. And, he didnt sing or anything. But it was still amazing. And we went to a bunch of churches and museums while we were there. We had art historians as our guides, so we learned a lot of really cool stuff. There is so much art here..espcially Christian art. Jesus and Mary are huge here! Everywhere you go! Its interesting, but I am so excited about getting into the mythology stuff and everything. We also went to Siena for the day while in Florence. It is such a cute little town. Its very quiet, but it was a nice break from busy Florence. There is this huuuge square in the middle of town (i forgot the name..St. Marks maybe?) where they have this crazy horse ride every year that lasts like, 10 seconds. Anyways, this quick recap is getting long so...Florence was amazing...on to Rome!

Rome is HUGE! There are soooo many people, everywhere you go it is soo crowded. But, I LOVE IT! There is so much to do and see, I am never bored. Me and 3 other girls (2 from Minnesota, one from Virgina) live in a Residence a couple blocks away from the Vatican. We got the crappier end of the apartment stick, but its ok because we have wireless, a porch and most importantly, hot water. And, its ok because we have fun together and there are a lot of other international students in our building that are fun. And, we dont have to worry so much about making noise at night, esp when we have crazy wine parties (jk).

Classes are good as well. For photography and Rome through the Ages, we get to go on site to so many cool places, I am so excited! Monday we are going to the Colosseum and we get to underneath and everything, where most tourists dont get to go. And for my history of the Italian Mafia class, we get to watch all these crazy mafia movies including The Godfather (which Ive never actually seen all the way through) and its just so interesting to learn about it. I look back at my notes and Im like, what am I doing?? I am taking notes on the infrastructure of the freakin MAFIA! I am also in conversational Italian, which I dont really like, but it is very helpful. I now know how to order a beer, talk to a policeman, and buy a train ticket. All very useful conversations to know.

The food here is amazing. When I go out, I usually get ravioli or pizza, or I pick something random to try, which usually turns out to be delicious. Once, I got steak it was amazing. But, its kind of expensive, so I usually go for cheap. We have these food ticket things that most restraunts accept, which is really nice. The grocery store does too, so we spend a lot there. It kind of makes you feel like you are on welfare though, its like using food stamps or something. But whatever, my appetite is bigger than my pride. At home, I have been eating mozzerrella cheese and balsmic vingerette like its going out of style. I also eat a lot of Nutella, which is the greatest thing ever created. My roomies think I am so weird, but I dont care. We also keep a abundant supply of wine, bread, and olive oil. And we go out for gelato...a lot. Gelato might be the best part of Italy. Cream caramel is definately the way to go. Its all pretty delicious though.

Well, this is crazy long, so I am done for now. I miss everyone a lot but I am loving it here! The title of my blog, btw, means "This is the life!" (I think...my Italian struggles). I love getting emails from everyone, so keep them coming! I will try to get pictures up every now and then as well. I havent taken many in Rome yet, but Ive got time, no worries. Ciao ciao for now!