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!