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!