Viva Roma!!

Epic Dinner

2009-12-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, I really don't understand how people can get that drunk on a daily/weekly business. That is ridiculous....

So last night was the last homemade dinner, called the "epic dinner." We had a lot of food: chicken (2 of them), a pasta salad, another pasta dish, zuchini stir fry, and bruscheta. We used it as a means of trying to get rid of all of our food that we still had. Afterwards we played Waterfall, a game I recently introduced to my roommate, and she wanted to play it. Yeah....I got pretty drunk, more so than any other time I think. By the end of the night, I had 4ish glasses of wine, about two shots worth of Limoncello, and some coke spiked with a chocolate liquor. Those of you who've had drinks with me know how I act when I'm drunk: happy and babbly. Sam decided to write down some of the things I said while drunk. Here they are:

"Sam I trust you because you're my roommate and you scream randomly in the middle of the night. And Yvonne I trust you because you slept under me in Munich."
This one needs explaining, cause out of context it is a very wrong sentence. At the begining of the semester Sam screamed in the middle of the night thinking that there was an intruder in the apartment. It turned out to be our neighbore upstairs moving chairs. As for the second part, they were bunkbeds in our hostel in Munich, and Yvonne slept on the bottom bed, and I had the top.

"I love gluwein so much I made it the password for my email."
I'm thinking of changing my password now....

"This is why I am a light weight because I am light-weighted." I don't remember saying that one.

"You two have a unique experience-in my 20 and a half years of my life."

"I'm not too fond of titsie rolls."
I meant Tootsie-Rolls, which I caught and corrected myself while drunk.

Me: "oopsies-thank you."
Yvonne: "you're welcome."
Me: "good."

"Mazeltof and live long and prosper."
Words to live by

"damn I'm quotable when I'm drunk."
I said this when I noticed Sam was writing a lot.

"I'm pretty sure someone has duct tape to shut me up. I don't because I forgot it at home."

By this last one I was also taking the most random pictures on my camera ever. Some of them I don't even remember taking. Then we decided to go to bed. I got to my bed with my PJ's intending to change, but I just plopped down and fell asleep. In my clothes, with my PJ's next to me. I woke up feeling nauseous as usual, but not too terribly badly. I had water before I went to bed, and i got some more when I woke up. I also took a hot shower, which helped a bit, and Sam was kind enough to get bread for me. I was still exhausted, though, so I took a two and a half hour nap, and I woke up feeling much better. We were talking about getting drinks tonight as a last bit of time together, but I don't think I'm gonna have anything and let my liver rest a little bit. But in 24 hours I will be on the long haul plane to Detroit, where my mom and sis will be waiting for me!

Reflections of Study Abroad

2009-12-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

As my time here is coming to an end, I might as well start a conclusion for the blog, too. There will probably be another couple of blogs, but I've had some free time to think a bit about my experience here. I haven't really had the reflection that I wanted at the sights yet (it was raining today and it's not supposed to tomorrow). So here are a few disorganized thoughts on my experience here in Italy:

Honestly, I can't really tell how I've grown as a person. I hate those kinds of questions "How does this affect your personal growth," "How do you think you've changed," etc. I can definately say I've learned a lot about Italian culture and history, but what have I learned as a person? Maybe that there are certain people I like but can never live with....it's hard to say. Maybe I won't know until I go home.

I guess one way I've certainly grown is by realizing that I can survive in a foreign country without knowing the language for a few months. The transition wasn't so bad, I didn't hit the so called "W" curve the way I thought I would. Ok, I guess I can reach a conclusion: I feel like I've grown, because I believe every experience is an opportunity for some sort of growth, but I can't exactly pinpoint how. I'll reflect on that later.

My experience here has been a unique and amazing one, that's for certain. I regret no decisions I've made, and I think that's a good sign. There will always be opportunities that I've passed, but I'm ok with that, simply because the ones I didn't pass on have been great. I only wish that more people get the kinds of opportunities that I've had.

As for Italy in general, I would love to visit again. There are so many places to visit and so many things to do here! I think I would like to live here if ever given the opportunity too. Maybe not Rome, but Italy I think would be neat. I'd have to master the language, but with study I think I could do that. It's a shame K doesn't have Italian as a course.

I'm going to miss a lot of things here, particuarly the people I've met. Granted, the number of Italians I've met are few, and most of them have been rather creepy, but the other study abroad students, for the most part, have been great! I can only wish that I will keep contact with them. On that note, I think I'll end this reflection piece. My apartment is having a party tonight, as one of the last hurrahs for us. I cannot wait for the fun of cooking, eating, drinking, and company; what a life. :)

Munich

2009-12-09T09:38:00.000-08:00

After about a month of waiting, I finally left Italy for a weekend. I know I pretty much decided not to awhile ago, but then Sam came to me saying that she was gonna go to Munich, and she was wondering if I wanted to go too. I asked how much it was, and the price was too good to resist. The two of us went with one of our roommates, Yvonne, and Kelly, a friend in Italian class.

Our flight to Munich was at 6:40 am, so we had to be up by our 4:15 am cab to the airport. And somehow get through most of the day. Let's just say we each had a lot of coffee. Luckily for us, Yvonne has a Gold Card for Lufthansa, so we got to skip the long economy class line and use the business class line. Then they gave us 20 euros of free food at a caffe in the airport. We thought we wouldn't be able to use it because the place was closed, but it finally opened about half an hour before boarding. And then, Yvonne and I, because we booked together, were bumped up to business class. It was pretty sweet. They fed us breakfast, offered newspapers, and the flight attendants were all annoying around. But it was pretty cool. Now at least once in my life I've been above economy class. Now Sam and I are hoping to be bumped up for the 9 hour flight when we go home, but we doubt that'll happen. Oh well.

We got to our hostel at around 9:45 ish am. We were told that a free walking tour was at 11am, so we decided to do that. To kill time, we got more coffee. The free walking tour was really awesome! This guy knew so much about Munich history....it's nice to be a history major sometimes, cause then one can really appreciate a tour guide that actually knows what he's talking about it. The most interesting thing he said is that Munich is pretty much completely rebuilt, but it looks old. Well, they intentionally did that. Of course, not everything was bombed by the Allies, but a lot was, as it was the headquarters and birthplace of the Nazi movement.

I won't go too much into the history annd everything, just be satisfied with the simple fact that it's interesting, especially when the tour guide has a stop in a beer hall for 45 min to talk about all of this instead of standing out in the cold rain. It was sweet.

After that, we walked the Christmas markets. It was packed, it was beautiful, it was AMAZING! The atmosphere of everything was so holiday spirit, except without something....oh yeah, without the fucking advertisements making buying gifts for the family nothing more than an annual obligation instead of doing it because one wants to. Well, we wandered around there for hours! and then next thing we knew we needed dinner (the gluwein helped, though). So we found a beer hall to have dinner and have traditional Bavarian dishes. Which is nothing more than how many ways can we cook pork. But it was a nice break from the three months of pasta and pizza. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel, because we got a free drink at their bar. I had the beer. Bad idea. It was disgusting. But then we got cocktail shots, cause they're cheap. The first one was long island iced tea. Bad idea again. We nearly left then and there, but we decided to try sex on the beach. That was good. Then we did pina colada. It was good too. We hung out some more in the bar listening to a German band...I think. I'm really not sure who they were, but they were singing in German. then we went to bed.

As we decided this was gonna be a relaxing weekend, saturday was devoted to shopping. I got a lot of gifts for my family. This involved both the christmas markets again and the stores in Munich itself. For lunch it was another beer hall. This time we had pork knuckle, among more pork and duck (and beer of course). We then did a bit more shopping and exploring, then we decided to go ice skating, cause we saw an outdoor rink in Karlsplatz, not far from the chritmas markets at Marienplatz. Yvonne has never been ice skating, but she had a great time! She never quite figured it out after falling a couple of dozen times, but she took it all so well, we're thinking of going again this weekend here in Rome.

That night we went to a bar for a cocktail and we hung out before we headed back to the hostel, exhausted. The next day, as most places are closed and we had to catch a plane at 3:10, we went to Starbucks for breakfast and coffee, then headed to the airport. There was another market and skating rink at the airport! We didn't skate, but we did wander the markets. We then headed into the airport and checked in. No free breakfast or anything this time, but that's ok. I had work to do, so I sat at the gate and worked. Also, it was economy class again on the plane, but it was perfect, as all four of us had a great weekend, and now it's Wednesday and I'll be home in 10 days!

Thanksgiving Brings New Traditions

2009-11-27T07:10:00.000-08:00

So as yesterday was the American Thanksgiving, it was a day full of traditions new and old. Except since I am in Italy, there is no national recognition that it is a holiday. So we here in Italy decided to savor the traditions we could and make some new ones.

Like every other study abroad student, I'm sure, I did have class. Luckily for me, though, one of them was cancelled, so instead of going through 3 hours of dreaded political science and Italian, I only had the hour and a half of dreaded political science. And yes, it was a very long hour and a half. Due to a complete lack of communication, all nine of the Kzoo girls didn't get together. Instead, it was the girls in my apartment and Rachel, while the others were at Rachel's apartment. I don't regret that much, simply because I knew they had burgers and fries, and I'm a sucker for tradition.

So we (my roommates and I) decided we wanted to do a sort of mash-up of the two traditional meals, ie a long Italian dinner and a Thanksgiving one. Except there is no turkey in Italy, but that was ok for me, seeing as how my family usually does chicken, which is precisely what we did. We got ourselves a small chicken from the gorcery store and roasted it in the oven. I made mashed potatoes cause I was the only person who knew who to do it from scratch, which honestly surprised me. I also made a really good gravy from the drippings of the chicken (I was so proud of myself for figuring it out). We had cheese and honey and a caprese salad as the apetizer, a pasta with oil, tomato, and basil for the second course, and the chicken with potatoes and eventually veggies (Leslie arrived late and then had to leave quickly for a choir practice). We also had white wine with it all.

From this dinner a new tradition emerged. Well, we like thinking of it as a new tradition...next year will tell whether it is or not. Sam and Yvan had chocolates on the table, and halfway through the meal Rachel wanted one. They were there, nobody was gonna stop her. So she put one on her fork and heated over the candle in the middle of the table. And then we all decided we wanted one too. So we joked about how now every year no matter where we were we had to have chocolate in the middle of the meal. We then had lava cakes for dessert with vanilla gelato, followed by a shot of an "elixer of happiness," also known as liquor bought from monks that was really really good. We all had two shots of that. We then decided to play some cards a bit, then Rachel had to go home, so we stopped. I was kind of drunk by then, anyway, and I wanted to get up early the next day to work on a paper.

So that was Thanksgiving in Italy! It was sooo much fun and wonderful, I wouldn't have changed onething. And now, a short list of the things I'm thankful for this year:

1) The ever continuing support of my family and friends
2) The new friends I've made here in Italy
3) Studying abroad in general
4) The beautiful new addition to my family, who is six months old today
5) Good times, good memories
6) Glee (that show just makes me happy)

Well, I could keep going, but I think I'll stop there. It would get pretty ridiculous pretty fast. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!

Vatican City and Castel St. Angelo

2009-11-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Today, after saying that I was going to go many times, I finally went to the Vatican. I'm kind of happy I waited. For one thing, I was able to figure out how to walk their from my apartment, which isn't actually that long at all. Secondly, tourist season is over, so there are less people. there are still a shit ton of people, but it looks half as crowded as it would be if it were, say last month.

So I got up early and walked there. I decided I really wanted to see the museum first before St. Peter's (BAD IDEA: IF YOU'RE THERE EARLY, GO TO ST. PETERS FIRST!) So I went into the museum. I got a student discount, which is welcome anywhere, and I notice this sign for an exhibit about the astronomy equipment. I got really excited, cause I thought my dad would love to hear about what's there, but I couldn't find the damn entrance! I looked around for it, but couldn't find it! I don't know where the hell it is! Oh well...

This museum is huge, crowded, and full of so much stuff I'm surprised I got out in about two and a half to three hours. If it wasn't so crowded with moronic groups I would have stayed in way longer than I was in there. There were Egyptian, Etruscan, Roman, Church history exhibits, a map room, a Muse room, paintings, sculptures, artifacts....it was pretty much a name it, they got it place (not literally though, cause I just thought of about 10 subjects they don't cover....). This museum can also proudly boast the ownership of my absolute favorite painting that I was able to get bad pictures of: Raphael's School of Athens. By the time I found it, though, I was in a pretty bad mood. This museum is not really condusive to big tour groups AND random people walking around. The rooms and halls are not big enough. So let's say I was slightly annoyed and claustrophobic. But I was happy to see the painting.

Of course I also saw the Sistine Chapel, which is nicely connected to the museum. I'll admit, it was a little anti-climatic. I mean, it's one of those things that everybody's seen in films/books/classes. So you'd think the real thing would be absolutely amazing, right? It may have been the cloudy day that didn't light the room very well, or itmay have been my mood (the Sistine Chapel was after Raphael), or maybe I've seen some kick ass pictures of it, but it wasn't so spectacular. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't....wow.

After that I headed out of the museum with every intention of braving the lines and going into St. Peter, climbing the dome, and looking at the view from there. Then I saw the line. It reminded me of lines at theme parks on really popular parks added on to the line outside Independence Hall one June day many years ago..... I couldn't stand another overly crowded place, so instead I walked to Castel St. Angelo.

Castel St. Angelo was another big assed thing Hadrian built (megalomaniac....). It was his mausoleum, which was converted into some sort of defense area, hence the name Castel St. Angelo. This was a sort of military museum, which was neat. But the place wasn't worth the 8,50 euro I paid to get in. The view from the top was lovely, as is any view on that side of the river (like the top of the Gianicolo Hill), and the canons and guns and stuff inside were neat to look at, but it didn't look all that special.

Afterward I walked home. And now I have this headache that won't go away, and I'm starting to feel congested. I swear, if it's another cold, I'm not gonna be happy. At least it's not the swine flu....rumors are around that a couple students have it......though they are only rumors, I do need to be careful. Actually, it won't matter. If I don't get it here, then I know the second I get home I'll get it; so many places have closed.....wow, random tangent. Back to work!

Tuscany Day Trip

2009-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to Tuscany with a bunch of people from AUR. It was one of the excursions; Pompeii was another, and my last one will be Assisi later this month. Anywho, we went to an agritourism place in Tuscany. And agritourism is a place where city people go to for a weekend to live the "country life," an experience the rustic nature of a villa.

We left at around 7:30 am, and got there at around 10:30 am. First, we got a tour of the place and its winery. It was situated on a very lovely hill between two other wine towns. Our tour guide made sure to point out the field where the Field of Elysium in Gladiator was, and the direction of the town where New Moon was filmed. When New Moon was mentioned, there were so many giggles of glee I wondered if I was with other college students or middle schoolers. She could've mentioned anything and I would not have giggled like that. It was rather annoying. Anywho, we then got a brief explanation on how the wine is made. Tuscany is more of a red wine region, so most of the wines made there is red, though there are a couple of white. I also learned that a rose is not a blend. The colour of red wines is given by the skin of the grape soaked in the fermenting juice, so a rose is made when the skins are taken out earlier. Neat, huh? She then showed us the wooden and cement containers used for aging the wine. We then had a wine tasting. We only tasted two wines, but it was great! My first wine tasting in a winery!

Then we had a pasta making demonstration. It turns out it's pretty simple to make homemade pasta. It only requires a few ingredients, flour, olive oil, and egg (for this Tuscan noodle), salt, and water. Don't ask me to make it, however. We were all crowded around a small table, and I couldn't see half of the time. Rachel very kindly comentated for me, as she was tall enough to see.

Afterward, we had a four course lunch. Yeah, four courses. It felt like Thanksgiving dinner at the end, when I really felt like I gained 5 pounds. The first course was a typical Italian apetizer: salami, prosciuto, cheese, bread, and wine. Nothing too big or two fancy. After that is the pasta course. We had a typical Tuscan noodle with a ragu sauce. It was so good I had seconds, completely forgetting that the meat course followed....that was idiotic. The meat course was chicken and potatos. I really don't know if that was a typical Tuscan dish or what, but it was really yummy. This also came with a different wine (we tried four all together: two at the tasting, two at lunch). Finally was the desert, a sort of apricot/peach pie thing. It was all absolutely delicious! Thankfully we had an hour and a half to wander/digest. I don't think it would have been good if we just hopped on the bus and left after that. I know I wouldn't have felt good all the way home. So Rachel and I wandered around the estate a little bit. I was debating on purchasing wine there and shipping it home, but it was kind of expensive. Besides, my family only has wine on special occasions, and though they're not Italian, there are perfectly good wineries on the Lelenau peninsula. So I didn't get any.

We headed home after that, and that was my Tuscany day.

Sicily

2009-11-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, now I will try to tell the story of Sicily, but there's no guarantee that every detail will come up, but here goes:

Day 1 (October 27, 2009)
We had to be at the airport at 7:30 am, which means leaving early to beat the morning traffic, cause Italian drivers are crazy, especially during rush hour. But we got there in good time. And here begins another travel sucks for me story: I go to the desk to check in, and the power at the desk goes out. I mean, about 20 second after I hand my passport to the guy, everything shuts down. I'm like "Of course it would be my luck! I'm travelling, something has to happen!" Well, ten minutes later they send me to another flights desk, which promplty confused them, but there were also 20 other people sent there too, so everything got sorted out. I got through security allright, though! Then the flight was delayed for about half and hour due to a technical issue. I HATE flying over water, so you can imagine how that made me feel...

We get to Catania airport, and have to drive about an hour south to Syracusa, where we stayed the first four nights. Actually, we stayed in Ortyigia, a little island connected by a bridge in the bay at Syracusa. But our hotel was right on the water, and it was absolutely gorgeous!!!! Of course, we had about 20 minutes to rest before off to our first on sight class (we had lunch, too). We saw the Temple to Apollo, and this was where I wanted to smack Giles. I had an oral presentation on Apollo the next day, and he took half of it! I was so annoyed that I couldn't just give the presentation then and there! But no, I gave it the next day in front of the model to the Temple of Apollo instead of what's left of the actual temple (which, granted, isn't much). But still, that ticked me off....

We also saw the former Temple to Athena, now the Church of St. Lucy, and the spring of Alethusa. I won't go into the mythology, cause honestly I don't feel like sharing. But after that we had a couple of hours to kill before dinner. So Rachel, Leslie, and I just wandered around Ortygia, which wasn't much, but it was lovely. There were a lot of streets that barely fit a car, so when one comes you have to find a doorstep to step on to not get hit. Dinner that night was also on the water right above the freshwater spring of Alethusa. What was funny was the apetizer was so many dishes that we thought it was all done, but then Giles told us we still had the main course. We had to get used to the fact that we couldn't just do the one course anymore. Luckily enough, dinner every night but one and two lunches were covered. After that, we were all exhausted, so we went to bed.

Day 2 (Wednesday)
This day we had our class in the Archeological Museum and Park. In the museum, we all had our first oral presentations. Other than that, the museum had a lot of pottery...which ever other museum has, so I kind of stopped paying attention to whatever was going on. But then we went to the Park, which was fun, even if it was rushed. See, the Park closes at "sunset." I put that in quoted because it really depends on what the people working there say is sunset. We thought it'd be about 5 pm, cause daylight savings was the previous weekend. Oh no, not that day; that day it was 2 pm, so we had to very quickly look at everything there. And then it left us with 6 hours of free time. In Rome, this would be no problem. In Syracusa, there is very little to do. Leslie went back to take a nap, and Rachel and I decided to explore a bit.

This is the mafia gelato story. So Rachel and I decide to walk down the main road of Syracusa, and it was a warm day, so we stopped and got gelato. Next to the gelato place was a little park with little jungle gym type things. So Rachel and I are sitting down, enjoying our gelato, and three guys enter the park: two young, mid twenties, and one old white haired guy. All dressed the same. They start climbing all over the jungle gym thigns taking pictures and bending over showing their plumber's crack to the world. The barrista at the gelato place also looks over the park, I guess, and tells them to leave. They buy something (whether they paid, we have no idea) and as they were leaving, they were giving the barrista hand gestures, one of which was in the shape of a gun pointed at the barrista. Rachel and I decided it was time to leave right then. Now, we have no idea whatsoever whether that was actually the Mafia, or whether anybody was killed or anything like that. But it was FREAKY! So that's the mafia gelato story. We went back to Ortygia and watched the sunset over the water, while trying not to talk to creepy old Italian guy hitting on us. *shudders* he was creepy.

We then went to dinner, which included FRENCH FRIES!!! GENUINE FRENCH FRIES!!! I haven't had any in so long! It was sooooo yummy to have that again. We also had pizza with that, which was also yummy, but FRENCH FRIES!! Based on the amount of walking that evening, I just went back to the room and read a bit before going to bed that night.

Day 3- Agrigento
Since we've pretty much seen everything that had to be seen in Syracuse by then, day 3 was our day trip to Agrigento, another Greek colony on Sicily. It was supposed to be a 3 hour drive there; it was between 4.5 and 5 hours. So we cut out the museum, which means we didn't see more pots, so you can imagine how I felt about that. It also meant we could spend a little bit more time hanging out in the arch. park, aka the Valley of the Temples, which isn't actually a valley, but whatever. We had our second of two oral presentations that day, which was nice to get them out of the way. It also looked like it was gonna rain, but it didn't! Which was great. Actually, it didn't rain the whole time we were in Sicily, which is the first time that's happened according to Giles.
Well, we got back in less than 3 hours (of course), so we had some time before dinner, which I didn't do anything exciting. But dinner that night was my favorite! Sicily's specialty involves seafood, and that night we had a shrimp pasta, which was absolutely fantastic! I had so much of that one! After that, Rachel, Leslie and I decided to play cards in the hotel, cause it's nice to do something after dinner. So we played Golf...well, about half a game, cause we became tired quickly.

Day 4
First, we went to Castello Euryalo. This was a fortification built by the Greeks when the Carthaginians were threatening Syracusa in the late 5th century BCE. It was extensive! After Giles' brief history, he gave us half an hour to explore the underground tunnels, warning us to beware of the snakes. There's nine of us, all girls. Most of us were making sure we didn't see a single snake. We didn't, but at one time it felt like we had. I was walking with Rachel about 15 ft behind the group when we hear them all scream. We stopped, thinking there's a snake (this is in one of the tunnels, so it's kind of dark). But then we walked forward, and it's not a snake, but a dead pidgeon. Ok, a dead bird is nothing to not notice, but the screams were hilarious afterwards. This place was huge! It would have made an epic game of tag if we had the time! If not for the snakes, it would also have made a great game of hide and seek/sardines.
We then got back on the bus and headed to Akrai, a colony in the mountains. There wasn't much here, but there was another Greek theatre. It was at this theatre where Giles had us reenact the finale of Aeschylus' play "Persians." Oh dear....that may become a repressed memory. But it was hilarious, eight of us acting as the chorus and Maggie was Xerxes, lately returned from the horrible defeat at Salamis. So we were the tragic "woe is we" people because the Persian Empire is no longer the great empire it once was...yeah, I'm gonna forget that ever happened.
After that we stopped in a small Baroque town in the mountains for lunch. Not much happened here, except great views, chilly temperatures, and yummy coffee/panino.
Then we went to Pantalica, which is a settlement of the Sicels, the people that inhabited Sicily before the Greeks came. It was mostly necropoli, with over 5000 graves carved into the side of the mountains. We decided we wanted to do a nature walk to see them up close. Again, let me remind the reader it was nine girls, who scream at anything. Sam and Kelsie freaked out because green thingy's clung to them. They thought they were bugs; they were pollen. We tried climbing into one, but it was covered in thorns. I wanted to try after Rachel, and as we were switching spots, she gets a thorny vine into my thigh, and she keeps going, which pushed the thorns farther in. That hurt like a bitch! So I'm yelling about a thorn being pushed into my side, and we're all laughing our asses off at our idiocies and such. Maggie, Michelle and I finally found one that we could climb into, but no one else would. I hadn't climbed like that in a while, but it was fun. On the walk back, Rachel then accidentally bitch slapped me with a vine (thankfully not a thorny one). We finally made it back to the bus covered in thorns, pollen, and other vegetation, but it was the most fun I had all trip (to Italy in general). Oh, and there were no snake sightings again!
That night was Devil's Night, and there was an outdoor market in Ortygia. We weren't sure if it was a Friday or a Devil's Night thing, but Rachel, Leslie, and I explored it a bit. I bought some amazing pastries for my breakfast the next day. The atmosphere reminded me a bit of fall at home, with the whole festive feeling in the air, that fall preparation for winter and the excitement of the holiday season coming. It was also our last night in Ortygia.

Day 5-Etna and Taormina
All packed and ready to go again, we went up Mt. Etna. Yeah, the active volcano on Sicily. We didn't go on the side that was active, unfortunately, but we did get so high that there were clouds below us. We went into a big crater in the volcano and explored a bit. I picked up a rock to take home...ok, more of a pebble, but whatever. I also had an epic fall. Luckily it was in, not around the crater, cause it could've been to my death. Leslie wanted me to take a picture of her, so I was walking backwards, thinking I saw all the rocks that could be behind me and it was safe. Well....I missed one, tripped, and fell on my ass. Again luckily, there were no rocks where I landed, because I could've hit my head very nastily. I got Etna all over me, though. Then we had lunch on the volcano....that's just so cool to say "I had lunch on an active volcano." It was allright, but I cannot eat that much pasta at lunch. At dinner, yeah, but not at lunch. It was good, though. Very little food I've had so far in Italy was not good.
We then continued and arrived at Taormina, and had a short on site class, which involved another Greek theatre. Too many damn Greek theatres! Then the Romans tried to amphtheatre-it, which failed miserably and ruined the view to the bay. Oh well....
that night was the one night where dinner wasn't covered, so we were on or own. Rachel, Leslie and I wandered around Taormina, and stopped at a little tratorria. There was also this British couple that entered the restaurant about 15 minutes after us. It's a small restaurant, so we were the only patrons. They kept listening and commenting on our conversations! It was hilarious! We got on the subject of war, and Rachel mentioned how relatives fought in every American war, and the couple started listing US wars. Then I said the conversation was getting depressing, so we randomly switched it to puppies, to which the couple said "now they're talking about puppies" and then they talked about puppies. Leslie then asked a question, to which I replied "I have no idea, I'm a medievalist!" and the couple commented on that. It was so funny listening to them listening to us. Then we got a free after dinner shot of almond flavored alcohol. We later found out it had about 25-30% alcohol in it. It was Halloween, so Rachel and I wanted to go to a bar and have a holiday drink. Leslie never really drank before, so she was up for it (we also had wine with dinner). So we found the other K girls and we ordered a rum and coke each, which had about three shots of rum in it. I drank mine quickly, which ended up with me being a very little drunk. This was the night we discovered Leslie is a boring drunk. She's pretty normal and just asks a lot of questions, which she does when she's sober.
Halloween in Sicily was great. Kids were trick-or-treating in the stores, and they were all in the stererotypical costumes. It was nice not to see a single Harry Potter or Hannah Montana or whatever. They were all witches or vampires or devils, and there was this one pumpkin family which was adorable. The Halloween thing is really picking up here.
After the drink we decided to head back to the hotel. I was really tired, anyway.
Day 6
We had a free day until 1 pm, when we headed to the airport. I slept through most of it, and spent the rest on the terrace looking at how close Mt. Etna is to Taormina. At 1, we left and went to the airport, where, not surprisingly, we had more travel headaches. For some odd, strange, and unknown reason, four of us, myself included, were not registered on the flight. Thankfully enough, my profs sorted it out for us, but it was another long wait, and we did eventually got our tickets. There was a brief moment, however, where my mind was like "Ok, if this doesn't work out, what would be the best way to get home?"We got back to Rome safe and sound, and back home. Thankfully, nothing was broken/stolen/ no gas leak. And that's the Sicily adventure!
This weekend: Tuscanny day trip!

Sicily: What I've learned

2009-11-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

Let's start with a short list (in no particular order) of the things I learned in Sicily:

1) Walking backwards in a crater on a mountain is a bad idea. Actually, walking backwards anywhere is a bad idea.
2) Greek theatres converted into Roman amphitheatres just isn't right.
3) When it comes to Sicily, damn the Romans
4) Latin inscriptions found near a temple written at least two hundred years after the temple was built does not mean it really is the Temple to Concord
5) A thorn or two in the side really does hurt. A lot.
6) 2 pm is sunset to some security guards in Sicily some days.
6a) A corollary: Italians really are completely lax in their sense of time
7) Just because you've eaten meat does not necessarily mean you've left the apetizer and gone on to the main course. So don't eat too much.
8) Drunk Maggie is fun. Drunk K girls at a bar on Halloween (actually, we were more like tipsy) is fun.
9) Castello ruins would make an epic game of tag.
10) Bugs are everywhere! and snakes hide in places unexpected.
11) Quarries where slaves once worked until death have great accoustics.
12) Even places that are a part of everyday life (gelateria) can have a scary side to them.
13) My Magna Graecia class is pretty much a joke.
14) Italian airports suck; both ways i've had issues
15) I can still swing like I did when I was younger (meaning on swing sets)
16) Italian guys that actually talk to you are creepy. Especially in Sicily.
17) The Christians stole a lot from paganism.
17a) A corollary: Paganism is simply cooler
18) The Carthaginians also suck when it comes to Sicily.
19) You know who doesn't suck when it comes to Sicily? The Greeks.
20) The Greeks are awesome. I can't emphasize that enough.
21) 8 hours of sleep is not enough when you are walking everywhere.
22) Nothing beats an evening of card games with friends.
23) British people in small restaurants will eavesdrop on your conversation. And comment on it.
24) Free after dinner shot at said small restaurant is alcoholic!
25) No matter what dish it was, if you're not cooking/paying for it, it does taste good. Even if you don't like olives.
26) Finally, Sicily is a beautiful place to visit, but definately not a place where I would want to live.

Actual post to follow later, after I rest my fingers from relaying the tale to my dad in an email.

A hellish and wonderful week

2009-10-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

So this week was midterms, which also happened upon the week of the Rome film festival. I wrote about two movies in previous posts, but there were two more amongst studying and an oral presentation.

Monday was said oral presentation. Mind you, I didn't get home until about 3am, and class was at 2 pm, but the project wasn't completely done yet. So I had to wake up fairly early to finish it. But it went well at least....I think. Giles had his grin on that pretty much said, "Yeah, she knows her stuff, but did she have to say it like that?" Ok, so I used modern language (aka I made a small Crassus/Sulla dialogue with modern slang), but I do know my shit. I think I did well.

Tuesday was the day with my first midterm and another film, The Last Station. This was a movie about the last part of Leo Tolstoy's life, as he struggles to figure out where his money should go in his will; to his family, or to the public. He hates personal property, but he feels loyalty to his family. There was also the theme of love. Tolstoyans did not believe in sex, or really in love much. They defined it differently, but here's Tolstoy loving his wife and Valentin (James McAvoy) loving his love interest. It was very good. I particularly liked Helen Mirren in this one. If she doesn't at least get an Oscar nom, then there's something wrong with The Academy.

I had two midterms the next day, but I managed to get home earlier than 3am (ie 2 am). Wednesday night brought another adventure with a much more satisfying ending, though. Rach and Allie visited from Budapest, but they had to find their way to my apartment. I told them I would meet them, since I've been up late the past few nights, I didn't care. Our phones, however, wouldn't connect, so Allie had to borrow someone else's to contact me to tell me her flight was delayed and they were going to Termini. I met them there, and we got home late, and then we had to catch up on stuff, of course. Thursday I had my last midterms and another movie, Io Don Giovanni, an Italian film about Mozart's libretist for Don Giovanni. It was pretty good, though not my favourite.

Friday Allie, Rachel, and I went to Florence. The train left @ about 6:30 am, but it was delayed for I don't know what reason, and we didn't get into Florence until about 10:30 am. I got my ticket home for 3, because there was a transportation strike except from 5-8 pm, and I needed a bus to get home if I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on a taxi (which, obviously, I didn't). So I had about 4 hours in Florence, and it was amazing. I couldn't have wanted a better trip to Florence, even if I only went to the big church and it was raining. I was with two great people, who I miss very much. And since I can't travel after my program is done, I call this an epic win. Check plus! as Rach would say. So yeah, we climbed the dome of the bug church who's name escapes me, had gelato, got lost, and enjoyed company. It was perfect.

I leave for Sicily on Tuesday, which I'm very looking forward to. Until then, it relaxation and more presentations to prepare for.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

2009-10-19T02:20:00.000-07:00

Well, that was quite the adventure.....so last night I made my way back to the Parco della Musica auditorium for the film fest. I left at 8 (the movie started at 10:30pm), thinking that with traffic and waiting for the two buses I would have to take, I would get there with about half an hour to spare. Well, the one time it's annoyng to get to a place super early is the one time it actually happens. The second bus was there when I hopped off the first bus, so I didn't have to wait or anything. So I got there about and hour and 20 minutes early. There were people all lined up on the redcarpet, so I decided to wander a bit. I went through the bookstore and spent about 20 minutes looking at the book about the movie that I'm seeing on Thursday;Io,Don Giovanni, about Mozart's libretist (spelling???) After that I decided to stand next to the red carpet myself, but the only spot I could find was at the end near where the celebs stand so the paparazzi can take the pictures.

Then there's a commotion, and coming down the red carpet is Helen Mirren. I forgot that this night premiered The Last Station (which I'm seeing on Tuesday) as well. There were other people from the film too, but I had no idea who they were. I'm guessing one of them was the director, but I really don't know. She looked absolutely lovely in her black gown. I'm surprised she wasn't freezing though. I was wearing my winter coat, and though I wasn't completely cold, I was a little bit chilly.

After she went inside it was about 10:10, so I decided to find my seat. In the theatre they had the screen on the red carpet stuff, which provided some much needed entertainment. And then came Lily Cole and Terry Gilliam. Lily Cole plays Valentina in the film, and I think this is her big break into Hollywood. She's not much older than I, yet she certainly looked older (like mid to late 20s). It took them awhile to get down the carpet, which of course delayed the starting of the film. But I did see them (I was sitting in the gallery) when they came into the theatre!

Ok, now finally to my opinion of the film. If I accidentally give something away, I apologize, but I cannot help it. It was AMAZING! It was kind of Tim Burton-like with the whole Imaginarium thing. And it was so great and sad to see Heath Ledger on the big screen of his last film. I gotta hand it to Terry Gilliam and people. For a film that looked like it had to shut down after Heath's death, the writing and replacement cast was brilliant. Heath actually filmed a lot more than I thought he had, so it all worked out in the end. In case people are wondering, the film is about Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer's) little circus like performance that takes people into the world of their imaginations. Parnassus has a problem, though. Many years ago he made a deal with the devil to have immortality. Many years later, he fell in love, and made another deal. This time it's the typical Rumplestiltkin thing; at the age of 16, he had to give up any born child. This child, Valentina (Lily Cole) turns 16 in three days, and the Devil has another game to play (Oh, btw, the Devil goes by the name of Mr. Nick in the film). If Dr. Parnassus can save 5 souls before Valentina's 16 birthday, the Dr. can keep her. In comes Heath Ledger as Tony, who can't remember what's happened to him, but he wants to help the people who saved his life. Anton, another member of the traveling performers and who's in love with Valentina, doesn't trust him, though, and he eventually exposes him for the lyer he is. The other Tony's come in in the Imaginarium, so it makes sense to change Tony there. It's pretty much a commentary about the Christian religion, but if you ignore that, it's still a great film. Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Ferrel did each did an amazing job becoming Heath Ledger's Tony, which was a nice thing to see. The tribute to Heath at the end of the film was nice, too. It was simply amazing.

Now to the adventure of getting home. The film ended around 12:50am. I made sure I got one more glimpse of Terry and Lily and headed home, walking on the red carpet on my way out. The little shuttles from earlier were still there, so I took that to the second stop (I should've been at the first, but the bus didn't stop, so I got off at thefirst one that opened). There was a night bus that would take me to Piazza Venezia, where I could take a bus home. While I was waiting for that bus, however, a taxi showed up, so I hopped in to get to the Piazza (I didn't want to pay for it to take mehome). I noticed that if you take a taxi when it's driving around, you pay for that driving around, too. So instead of it being a 6 euro ride, it was an 11 euro ride. Then I waited for my night bus. There was another guy waiting for the same bus as I, and we got chatting a little bit. His name was Didi (or something like that, I was tired and I'm horrible with names), and he works at a restaurant in Piazza Navonna. He spoke rather good English, and he complimented my kind of bad Italian, but we also spoke a little French with each other. The bus finally came, and I got home at about 2:45am. I'm happy my first class isn't until 2:05, cause this could have been a horribly bad idea.

It would've been a lot more fun if I wasn't completely alone, but all in all, I'd say I had a really successful evening!

Wild Weekend

2009-10-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend was so busy, and it's not even done yet! I still have one more thing to do. But that will come later.

I went to Tivoli last Friday. Tivoli is this beautiful little town on the hills about an hour outside Rome. We went to Hadrian's Villa, then the Villa D'Este. Hadrian's Villa was your typical Roman ruin. Not much survived in its entirety, and the stairs will almost kill you. We had to use our imagination. We were led around by one of the profs that I don't have. He's an architecture guy, though. All he talked about were vistas and expansion and focal points, blah blah blah. Honestly I zoned out for most of it. This guy lectures with his eyes closed most of the time, so I amused myself with that. He also occasionally made amusing comments which kept me listening a bit. It was a beautiful villa, though. I'm sure it was absolutely spectacular back in the day.

Well, then we went to the Villa D'Este. I didn't have the class for this place, but I decided to go along the tour anyway. It was worth it. This guy had the most complex and beautiful gardens I've seen in my life. Ok, I haven't really seen that many gardens, but still, they were absolutely beautiful. There were dozens of dfferent fountains and the hedges didn't quite form a maze, but it was pretty close. The house itself was nice too, though not a place where I'd want to live or anything. It used to by a Franciscan Church when the Cardinal bought it, and he promised not to tear it down. Anyway, we headed back to Rome after that.

Yesterday, I went to Pompeii. This place was way bigger than I thought it was. I was expecting a small Roman town. Oh no, it wasn't small. It was huge! And so easy to get lost in! There are still 60 or so acres to be excavated. First we had a tour guide to take us to a few hot spots. I officially have very little trust in tour guides. First I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt; anybody can mix up facts now and again. But the number of times I've heard various tour guides fuck up since I'vebeen in Rome is phenominal. This guy....he said the Colosseum was built in 29 BCE....oh man....he couldn't have been farther off....it was built in about 78 CE. I doubted everything he said after that, and he said that at the beginning of the tour. I couldn't help myself, but I couldn't trust him. Anyway, after the tour, we had the optoin of stayng in the site or going to the actual village of Pompeii. Leslie and I stayed, of course. We tried to find the Villa of Mysteries, couldn't, got lost, tried to find the HOuse of the Faun, ended up finding a second forum and a different house, realized we had to meet our group, and left. But it was awesome. The whole time Vesuvius was in the background, like a subtle reminder of what happened. It was a beautiful mountain on a cloudy, rainy day.

Today began my fun with the film fest. I saw Turtle: The Incredible Journey earlier this morning. It was amazing! It was a documentary about sea turtles and their journey around the Atlantic Ocean. I loved it! It was beautiful, and it made a shark one of the good guys (yes, it's possible). It was like watching the journey of Squirt in Finding Nemo. There were a bunch of kids there enjoying the sea creatures, and then after the movie there was a person dressed up in a turtle suit! It was so much fun. In about an hour I leave to go see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Yup, I'm going to see the last movie Heath Ledger made. I'm sooo excited, even though it's freezing here and I gotta dress up for it. Oh, and I walked on the red carpet after the film! I see two more after tonight, amidst all the midterms this week. It may be my undoing, but it'll be worth every second.

And then on Wednesday night, I have two very special visitors: Rach and Allie are coming from Budapest! I cannot wait to see them! And it's only in three more days! Everything is going so well!!!

Italian Politics

2009-10-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago my Italian prof decided to give us a small lecture in Italian poltics because last weekend there was a HUGE protest against the government. I think it's interesting to see the differences in government, particularly since it sounds like its about to fall apart...again.

See, Italian has a parliamentary system. I'll admit, my knowledge of how this works is currently limited to the small lecture I got from my Italian prof, but here's the gis of it. There are about 20 or so political parties that cover the whole political spectrum, from Socialist/Communists to Fascists (and yes, moronic person in my Italian class, there are still Communists/Fascists in the world, and they are not limited to China and North Korea....idiot). These parties act as a single unit, and they get together to become the majority (ie conservative parties make a sort of alliance, as do the liberals, etc). This majority has the power in the government, and it is from this majority that the prime minister (and I think the President, but I'm not entirely sure) is chosen from. The government then passes laws and such, but if a law does not pass, there is usually a vote of no confidence towards the prime minister, and the government falls apart. This happens often; apparently about 58 or so times in the past 60 years, so it's nothing new or anything. When the government falls apart, there is a scrambling to create a new government with a new alliance of political parties to make the majority. Usually the new government is really similar to the old one, unless somehow the other side of the spectrum somehow gets the majority, and the only way to do that is hold elections (there are regular elections every seven years).

So that's general information; here's why it may be possible that the government will fall apart soon (I may be the only person who thinks it will happen, though). The current prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is in some hot water. He's been in power for about 15 years now, and he's a conservative. He's also in constant scandal; everything from corruption to extortion, to having too much fun with minors (his wife is divorcing him for this)...he's been accused of everything. Well, he also privately owns 3 of the TV stations; the government owns the other three main ones, so he technically controls all six main TV stations. He also has been suing newspapers for printing mean things about him. So there was a huge protest last weekend that walked from the Piazza del Popolo to Trastevere for freedom of the press. But that's not all. A little over a year ago he passed a law that said anybody that is high enough up in the government cannot be prosecuted for crimes. Since then, it has been debated on its constitutionality. Well, the vote came in yesterday; the law is unconstitutional, so now he may have to answer for everything he's been accused for. He also declared last night that the politics of the President (also the head of state) don't concern him.

I don't think anything that comes out of this will really be all that serious, ie serious enough that we'll have to come home early or something. But it's just interesting to follow the politics of Italy. Who knows what'll happen next?

Super Excitement and Updates

2009-09-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just a very quick rundown of last weekend; I had the apartment to myself last weekend, as Leslie went to Tuscanny and Sam and Phili girls went to...well, they went to Tuscanny as well, but with a different group. So it was just me, myself, and I. Most of the weekend was me lounging about in the apartment, except Saturday, when I went to the Pantheon and the Piazza Navonna.

So far this week has been filled with bad news from home, exhausting classes, and making plans. I won't tire anyone with news from home unless they really want to hear it, but I'm determined to keep this blog happy and about my Italian experience.

Well, I have decided officially I'm not gonna do outside travelling. I know I intended to visit Germany and Rach in Hungary, but there is too much to do here. I'm planning day trips and such that I want to do, and I feel that really getting to know a country is better in some respects than briefly visiting many countries. Some day trips that are on the planning board include Florence, Ravenna, the archeological museum at Naples, and some Etruscan sites, not to mention the already planned trips to Pompeii, Sicily, and Assisi. And then the most awesome thing happened tonight. I planned to see movies during the Rome film festival.

The Rome film festival is in its fourth year, and this year looks to be completely awesome. I bought tickets for four films: a documentary about sea turtles, a movie about Tolstoy, one about the lyricist for Mozart writing Don Giovanni, and the movie Heath Ledger was filming when he died....yeah, that's right, I will be seeing that film with a really long name and a huge list of stars. Which reminds me, I have star hunting to do that week, even if it's midterms week (I'll pull the K College all nighter if need be!) Here's the list of people coming: George Clooney, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Viggo Mortenson, Sean Connery, and others (forgive my bragging, but this is really more out of excitement, and of course, the chances of me seeing them is slim I think). Also, New Moon is premiering there, but I can't see it because of time issues.

This also means I need to do a little shopping, because the evening shows need to be "appropriately dressed" which I interpret to be dress like you're going to the opera. So next weekend is shopping that I never really intended to do. So in order to compensate for the change in plans, I've decided to really enjoy Italy, and hope that some day I will have the opportunity to enjoy every country I visit in this way.

At the Opera Tonight!

2009-09-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the opera with Leslie's class (Italian Opera). We saw a half staged performance of Rossini's Viaggio a Reims (Voyage to Reims). I'll get to the plot in a moment, but first the journey there. It's interesting, at least it was to me...

We met with the rest of the class @ a little before 7pm at the bus stop near the school. It would have been simple to take the 75 bus to Termini Station and then take the M bus to the Auditorium. But alas, the 75 bus took awhile to get to the station, so we took the 44 bus to Piazza Venezia. This bus was slightly crowded, and it didn't really help that there were about 15-20 additional nicely dressed people. So we made it to Piazza Venezia, and we're trying to figure out where the prof is leadng us next. This guy, let me say, is more brave with traffic than even I am. I've realized the best way to cross a street is to sometimes just walk out and traffic will stop (or maneuvre around you), but usually I look a bit to see if a hole will come. Not this guy. He just walked without looking. It was amazing, though we pissed off some cars cause we were more like ducks in a line than one big group. Oh well. So we're trying to find a bus that'll take us to Termini Station. The first bus we found was way too crowded, so we waited for the next one. This one was slightly crowded, but we were afraid of running late (the show started @ 8:30), so we all got on. Let's just say I got to know the people in that class way more than I wanted to, but thank God I was not assaulted in any way and nothing was stolen.

So we finally make it to Termini, and we're thinking, hey look there's the bus we want! Oh no, this is a bus in the spot we want, but it's not the bus we want. So it eventually moves, and we wait about another 20 or so minutes for the next bus. It fnally gets there, and we get on, but the bus driver says he needs a ten minute break. It's about 8:15 by now. So we walk down the street to the taxi stand, and wait a few more minutes for taxis. The prof kndly said he'd repay us for the cab fare (which ended up being about 10 euro). By the time we got to the auditorium, it was about 8:45, and I still had no ticket, because the prof told Leslie it shouldn't be a problem to get one when we got there, not thinking we'd be late. One was just handed to me, so I got to see a 24 euro show for free!!! :) They seated us on the upper balcony until the intermission.

So this is what the opera is about, according to the synopsis by Leslie, cause I didn't understand 95% of the words. A bunch of people are at a hotel to go to the coronation of King Charles X, and they meet, and some fight and some fall in love. It's a really lighthearted, short opera. Eventualyl there are no horses to go, so they just through a lavish party at the hotel. My favourite part would have to be the song where a man is making fun of all the different nationalities of the people there (Spanish, French, British, etc). There was a short intermission, where I got an espresso, which turned out to be a great idea, because the journey home was just as annoying.

The opera was done at around 11pm or so. So we go to the bus to go back to Termini station and head back. The bus, first of all, took awhile to get there. The prof, in the meantime, told us that there's a soccer match not far away, and construction on one of the main roads, which is why it was such a pain in the ass to get there. We get to Termini, and by then it was after midnight, so the night buses are running. We walked around for awhile trying to find one that'll go to the Piazza Venezia, because that has the night bus that most people need. When we finally find one, it took awhile for the bus to come again. Mnd you, most of the girls are wearing heels, including me, so all of our feet are killing by now. We get to the Piazza, and then have to wait for another bus, the N19. Little did we know that that bus doesn't run until 12:30am. It didn't show until 1:20 am. So we didn't get home until 1:45am, and I didn't get to bed until a little after 2am, but couldn't fall asleep until about 3-3:30. Thank God my first class isn't until 2pm, or else I'd be soooo fucked. I have to finish a short paper, though. But that was my first opera, and what an adventure it was!

Museums, sculptures, and such

2009-09-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well, honestly I've decided my role here in Italy is a student/tourist. And I mean this like it's a double life. During the week I'm a student, and then the weekend I'm a tourist....it's an interesting life.

Classes go on as usual, and this will be the one moment I will ever thank K for being a tough school, because I swear five classes here are easier than 3-4 classes there. At least that's the case for now. I'm sure by the time midterms come up, I'll change that statement, but seriously, it's no worse than at K.

Last weekend was a weekend of museums. Well, except for Friday. It was just a bad day. I woke up feeling fine, but then my period started, and I got the worst cramps ever! It was sooo horrible, so Leslie and I decided to make it a more lounging day and see how I feel later, so that night we went down a random road and found our way to the Vatican by accident! So when i actually get around to visiting the damn place, I can walk there and save the bus ride. Then on Saturday we went to the National Museum, where there are countless statues and mosaics of life in Ancient Rome. I won't completely bore anybody with the awesomeness of statues of emperors, philosophers, and other famous people, but I and Leslie decided the next time we go to a museum with statues of emperors, we are playing emperor bingo. Yeah....this is how history nerds keep occupied when they keep seeing busts of the same people. Sunday I went to more museums with more statues....I think I'm also gonna have to play gods bingo, cause there are countless statues of them too....hmm......

I think the most annoying thing around here is I'm pegged for being an American immediately, even when I try to speak Italian. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I think I know exactly why: I smile. In Italy, you don't smile to people you pass on the street and accidentally make eye contact with. It's a habit for me, so I'm pegged immediately. Especially by Italian men. Leslie and I combined have so many interesting stories about random people who talk to us....like the one guy who drove by me really slowly on his motor bike saying something like "American girls have no fear." He then drove away, but he kept looking back at me smiling. It was really creepy....

Well, tonight I go to the opera! Not a full staged one, but an opera nonetheless. This will certainly be a new experience for me. Leslie is letting me borrow an outfit, and I'm wearing the boots I got last weekend at the flea market (where there are plenty more creepy Italian men). And then this weeked I have the apartment to myself, which is perfect because I have phase 1 of three papers due soon (AKA topic statements), but that means I have to actually figure out what I'm writing. Maybe I'll also go to the Vatican, now that I know how to get there....

Only I.....

2009-09-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

...would get my first ticket in a foreign country. Read this Mae, I finally got caught riding the bus without a ticket! Ok, I got my just deserts; I'm not angry or anything at the police; indeed, I'm surprised I got this far without getting caught. The irony, however, is that I had the intention of buying a bus ticket at my stop, but the stop before mine, the police came on, and I got fined. Actually, Leslie and I got lucky. I had this whole Indiana Jones and the last Crusade moment in my head where I get thrown off the bus or something; thankfully, that didn't happen. It should have been 50 euro each; he just did 50 euro between the two of us. Of course, that took away all of my cash for the day save 5 euros and I left my card at the apartment, thinking I don't want to be carying all of that around......damn me.

So yeah, now I have bus tickets. I think I like the US system better, where one has to have a ticket to even get on the bus, but whatever. I learned my lesson, and now that I also know where to get the damn things other than the Tabacchi's (because everytime I go to one, there're like no, we don't have them....bastards), I will always have bus tickets.

Anywho, to the adventure of my day. We went back to the Piazza Venezia and walked past the Colosseum and such to look for the Church of San Giovanni di Laterano (St. John the Lateran). We passed the Basilica to St. Clement first, and walked in. Ok, I've been to a lot of pretty churches, but none of them compare to European ones. They are beautiful. The only downside is, only my eyes got to enjoy it, as there is to be no photography in the Church :( We then walked down passed a building where there were army guys with super big guns just standing around....super intimidating.....and into the Piazza San Giovanni di Laterano. There was an obelisk with Egyptian hieroglyphics outside of the church, which definately goes back to the whole Romans loved every religion, especially the Egyptians. The inside of the Church, which was grander and more pretty than the other one, one could take pictures in. However, I only took a couple and without the flash because it just felt awkward doing so. I don't care if everybody else was doing it, it didn't feel right.

We then took another bus to the Via Appia, the traditional road leading north out of the city. Well, where we got off, there was almost no sidewalk on a pretty busy street. I gotta hand it to Italian drivers; they may drive fast and have almost no concept for rules of the road, but they have killer instinct and won't hist pedestrians, even when they also ignore the rules of the road (as I have commonly done, both in the US and here). We couldn't find the Catacombs for St. Sabastino, but we settled for the catacombs of St. Celeste. Again, no pictures could be taken, but it was absolutely hauntingly beautiful. According to the tour guide, it is the first pure Christian cemetery. The graves date from the 2nd to the 4th century AD (AKA 300s-500s). There are four levels of tombs! When one level was used, they dug deeper. Most burials were single bodies that had no coffin but did have a marble sheet sealing them in. A light burned outside of each grave. Some families who could afford them bought familiy plots, essentially, and had frescos of religious things like communion, the story of Jonah, the Last Supper, ets painted in the little rooms. There are also tombs of I think it was 9 popes from that period, particularly in the 200's when there was a lot of persecution against the Christians.

We then headed back home for a little rest. There was a quick thunderstorm (sweet thunder!) and Leslie and I were planning on going out to dinner tonight, but idk. I'm super tired again. I'm not exactly getting full nights of sleep; i think that may have something to do with it.

Oh, quick note because I know people will love this. One of my professors, who I have for my Magna Graecia class and Caesar, Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic, reminds me a lot of Giles from Buffy. He has a voice very similar; he has the same general British manner (he is British), and he is as technologically inept as Giles. Leslie agrees with me. So he's fondly called behind his back Giles (I haven't the nerve to call him that to his face yet, but we will see). I'm actually surprised by the fact that he barely knows anyone in my Caesar class, and yet he recognizes and knows me by name. I haven't had th eMagna Graecia class yet; he's only seen me three times....odd, but neat. So if in the future I talk about Giles (esp. during our Sicily trip, because he's the prof for that...9 girls and him...) I'm referring to Paul Gwynn, who is freakishly awesome. :-)

We Who Are About to Die Salute You!

2009-09-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

....AKA Colosseum Part II, but included in that are the Forum Romanum and the Palantine Hill.

Again, I took the bus free (no matter what Mae says, it's awesome!) to the Piazza Vinezia. This time I had to be there at 9:30 in the morning. I didn't get much sleep last night, because of a combination of out at Elissa's place for dinner and it was another warmer night.

Anywho, I learned some awesome things in the class, but that's not what matters now. What matters is that I walked through the forum! Along the Via Sacra, with the cobblestones that most people hate but I love, it was great! The class was only two hours long, which was about an hour shorter than I thought it was supposed to be, but we were pretty awake and a reasonable class, not to mention the fact that only about half showed up.

Luckily, the ticket to get into the forum also gets one into the Colosseum and the Palantine Hill, where Domitian destroyed all of the pretty villas for his big palace (bastard). So after the class I wandered up the to the Colosseum. Here's what's interesting about this tourist attraction. There are guys walking around in gladiator costumes asking people if the want a photo with them. And I'm not talking about the stuff one sees in Gladiator. oh no, it's bright gold and red costumes with the helmet with feathers and such. They are hilarious! I was almost tempted to take one with them, but instead I took a picture of one from a distance. Too bad I wasn't able to get the one who was on his cell phone. That would have been brilliant.

Anywho, outside of the amphitheatre I kept getting stopped to talk about tours. One I actually listened to for a few minutes. She was talking about how there is little information in the sites about the history, construction, etc. I listened patiently, thinking in my head "I'm a history major; what makes you think I don't know most of this yet?" I said my prof already gave me a tour of the forum earlier that day and I can manage without a tour or audio guide and went on my way. And I'm happy I did. I liked wandering around on my own in the Colisseum. I didn't need the history or anything. I took my time and took a lot of pictures, and then just spent a few minutes trying to imagine what is was like 2000 years ago. Especially when I was at the top, because that is around where I would have been sitting, as a woman.

I then left the Colisseum and went up the Palentine Hill and explored the palace left behind. It was huge!!!! I'm still upset that the villas were already taken down. But that's ok, cause the hill offered a beautiful view of the forum. I then wandered back into the forum, taking the route anybody who live on the Palantine (including Cicero, Antony, Caesar, Octavian, etc) would have taken. I didn't take any pictures during my class, so I went through the forum again for the sake of taking pictures. It was so awesome!

That is my adventure of the day. I'll probably be back tomorrow with Leslie so she can see it and then maybe go to the Circus Maximus and maybe the Pantheon!

PS- I don't know what's wrong with me, but the picture thingy still won't work :(

Colosseum Part I

2009-09-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I finally saw it, the all time reason I came to Rome: the Colosseum. And the reason it's part I is because I will see it again on Friday and on Oct (or is it Nov??) 10.

See, here's the thing. I meet my Caesar, Cicero, and the Collapse of the Roman Republic class on Friday morning to map out the Forum in the way it was during the last 50 or so years of the republic (the republic ending, in case anyone cares (though I doubt it) in either 42 or 30/31 BC, depending on who you ask). To get there one must take a bus. Well, until this evening I had not figured out the way to use the Roman bus system. So Leslie and I decided to wing it. We then realized that the bus tickets given to us by the school expired three days ago, and no Tabacchi in the near vicinity has any left (though I have no idea why). So we just hopped on the bus and went. Apparently that's how a lot of Romans do it anyway. How does that work? It's interesting. One can buy either a 75 min ticket, a day ticket, or a month ticket. These tickets need to be validated, but only once, so a person with a month ticket can just hop on and go. It's that logic that gets us to just hop on and go (we had a plan that we "forgot" our pass if somehow we got caught)....I seriously hope nobody from public transportation reads this..... Anywho, we get off at the Piazza Venezia, when all of a sudden, we see these columns and old churches, but no forum/colosseum. So we had a moment of "Now what?" and I picked a direction and went. We turned a corner, and there it was, the majestic, beautiful, Colosseum (again, the damn picture thingy won't cooperate, check Facebook when I get around to putting them up). Let's just say it was like a dream, walking up towards it, and passing the forum along the way. The historian geek inside of me was in full giddiness mode! It was just.......goodness, I have no more words for it, except legendary :)

I go back on Friday, hopefully to get better pictures (I had to turn the flash off to get any semblance of a picture, but my hand is not very steady) and explore more of the centre city. Hopefully on the 1st the Tabacchi's will have month passes again, and I will start paying for my bus routes, I promise :)

Pictures!!!

2009-09-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, all of these are located on Facebook, which would probably be easier to locate and figure out, but I am a firm believer in saving pictures in more than one place. SO here are some pictures that I will share with you so far.....never mind, the upload images thingy is being a pain in the ass for now.....ill try again later.

As for the continuation of my story, the last few days were quiet, uneventful ones. I do enjoy a few days of nothing, which I think confuses my roommates (at least some of them). I want to see everything I can, but I want to do it at a slower pace. I didn't manage to get to the centre of the city today, but there is no doubt in my mind that in the next week or so I will get there. And then the Vatican, of course.

My mind has been wandering toward the abyss of homesickness of late, particularly today. I welcomed it because I've pretty much been alone, and I think I need to get it all out of me before the feelings become too emotional. So today I was slightly consumed by it all; no tears, just thoughts of near regret. Did I do the right thing in coming here??? Eventually I come to the conclusion that I did, but I miss so many things from home. I comforted myself when I realized that sidereel, unlike hulu and so many other sites, will let me watch my shows in this country. So I spent the afternoon watching older episodes of the Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.

AAHHH...It's about 6 hrs after I last saved the post. Leslie asked if I wanted to wander around the neighborhood some more, so I decided to go. We just picked a direction and went, and at every intersection, we would decide what direction to go. Somehow, we ended up at the university. I had my first gelato (finally) and it is sooooo yummy! I can't wait to have more! I think I will keep eating it through December, haha. We then picked a different direction, and found a lovely park that will be nice to study in once the weather cools down a bit. And then we wandered some more, and stangely enough, found our way back to the university again....wierd, huh? It's like all roads may lead to Rome, but all roads lead to AUR... hmm..... Well, we wandered back andmade dinner (ravioli=yum). I must say I like the whole have a glass of wine every evening for dinner. It's so nice, especially the way it all goes with the food in the mouth anddown the throat......

Well, hopefully tomorrow I actually go into the centre of the city to see the things that i came here to see :)

Neighborhood, and why I love it

2009-09-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, one of these days I will put pictures on the blog, but right now I'm just too lazy to connect my camera to the computer and upload them....yeah, you get the picture. Today was another amazing day in Rome (and I haven't seen the famous stuff yet!) full of exploring the neighborhood and finding the school and such.

To begin, it was another super hot day. Those need to end NOW! I hate the days where it's so hot when you walk into the apartment and sit down, one is stil sweating ten minutes later. It's as bad as my freshman dorm in May. Not awesome. I can't wait until the gales of October bring cooler temperatures.

Well, I slept absolutely wonderfully last night considering the temps. I think I was just so tired that it worked out well. Today Sam and I went to the university campus to get our ids, schedule, and begin the process to recieve the permit to stay from the police. I am so thankful for our location. With many apartments it is necessary to take a bus to get to campus. With me, it's just a quick 5-10 minute walk. yay! The campus, or at least, two of the four buildings of the university, are like two buildings in a villa, that is surrounded by a wall with a garden to the outside of the buildings. The other two are down the road. But yeah, it consists of four buildings...and I thought K was small. Anywho, Sam and I got our permits and ids and schedules and such, I got my big toe madly stubbed to the point the whole nail might come off (it definately feels loosened...as if anybody needed to know that), and then we wandered around to find a hardware store so she could grab an adapter. Right next to it was an open market, so I now know where one is, because I hear they are awesome!

Once we got back, Leslie was up and going, and she wanted to go to the university to do the same stuff, but she didn't know how to get there, and I'm horrible at giving directions. So we decided to go out. Once we got there, however, everything was empty. We forgot a very important part of Italian society. Most shops close at 1 pm or therabouts for lunch. This includes services at the university. A lot of Rome was shut down, except, of course, lunch places. So Leslie and I decided to get lunch ourselves. We went to a pizza place close to the university. There is only one thing to say about Roman pizza (well, two): it's as greasy as American, but it tastes SO MUCH BETTER!!! Of course, there is the usual language barrier, so it was an experience, but it was awesome. We wandered around a little bit, pretty much killing time before the city of Rome returned to work. Which didn't take too long. So we got Leslie all set up, and then we headed back, but then we decided to go grocery shopping. Here's reason number 2 why I love my neighborhood: the grocery store is right across the street, and it's not a busy street, either. Case in point: later Leslie realized she forgot butter. We went, and we were back ten minutes later, only because we wandered the aisles a little more. After the grocery shopping, we headed out to the fruit/veggie stand. Which is, again, AWESOME!!! To have locally grown, fresh fruits and veggies within walking distance, and it's cheap!! I got four apples, four peaches, and a bunch of grapes for like 3 euros. I know I cannot get that in the US unless grapes were on sale. Oh, and I got basil and parsley for free. Leslie got a bunch of stuff and basil and pasley for free as well. We then wandered to a flower stand that was nearby and she got a bunch of pretty sunflowers. Then we came back, and we made our first dinner (last night I wasn't hungry and didn't eat dinner). We made fettucini alfredo with sauted mushrooms and tomotoes and some red wine. It was yummy. And now here I am!

Another day of long walking = another night exhausted. Tomorrow= orientation, probably more exploring the town. This weekend= beach trip (?) and exploring Rome proper (AKA let's see what the ancients have left behind for me). Next weekend may be the fateful Vatican trip???? Pictures to come soon, I promise. Love to all that take the time to read to boring posts I bring!

Travel and Day 1 (So Far)

2009-09-02T07:25:00.001-07:00

So I have no pictures at the moment, but I promise there will be plenty to come. For now, I'm going to relate the story of my travel and first impressions of Rome will not unpacking....I procrastinate unpacking as I did packing.

To begin....Monday night, and by that I mean Monday night according to MI time. Mom needed to do month end inventory at the close of her store, so I went in to help, considering she's the one that needs to be awake for the drive to the airport. We didn't get home until 2, at which time I continued packing, but did not finish (oh well). I finished when I woke up @ 7 am, because mamma wanted to leave at 9am. Well, then it was realized that nobody really knows exactly where the airport is, so we had to look it up, which takes awhile when working with a dial up. But I did get to the airport in a reasonable amount of time and with plenty of time to spare to get through security.

Now the wait for the airport wasn't awful or anything, but getting on the plane...well, I hate flying over water, so the anxiety about going over an ocean started to sink in. Luckily I was sitting next to Sam, and she was super nice and supportive. The guy sitting behind me kept hitting the back of my chair, which was really annoying, but I was way too tired to do anything about it, so I sucked it up. For the in flight movie, I will admit, it was a hard choice for me. I was deciding between Angels and Demons and the new Star Trek movie. Surprisingly enough for some people, I actually picked Angels and Demons, more because I'd never seen it before than because it takes place in Rome. I must say not only do I like the novel Angels and Demons better than the DaVinci Code, the movie was better also.

Well, that flight ended quickly with little sleep, which did not help my cause; and we were in Germany. To be specific, Frankfurt Germany; well, Frankfurt Airport in Germany. We had to go through customs and security again, which was fine, but here is a testimonial; security is more tight in Europe than in the US, and it is the US that freaks out the most about it. Here's why: At Detroit, I was able to go through security no problem whatsoever. I set off the beeper, however, in Germany. Why? one asks. Not because I was silly and forgot to take the change out of my pocket or anything. Oh no. It beeped because of the button on my jeans and the under wire in my bra. I kid you not. I was felt up by a woman security guard because my bra and pants set off the beep. Dude, seriously????

Well, we waited for that plane, which, thankfully, did not go over water and was a short flight. I particualrly emphasized the short flight part. I was in the very back of the plane...the VERY BACK, where one has to play one's music super loud to hear it over the plane's engines. And the man sitting next to me definately chewed with his mouth open and made that super annoying sound like a cow chewing on grass for an extensive period of time.

And then we were in Rome....more like Rome airport, which is outside of Rome. We waited FOREVER for our luggage!!! It was so unreasonable, but at least the horror scenario of losing luggage did not occur. Then we waited around with the AUR people, who then shuttled us to our apartments, and here I am!!! And it is sooooooooo pretty!!! I will have pcitures up soon, but I love it. It's Leslie, Sam, and I from K here, and two girls from University of Philadelphia. I've only met one, the other is with her parents (they're visiting already). Ariel (Phili) is sweet, and I mean super sweet. She just walked into mine and Sam's room and was the embodiment of all our emotions when she asked for tissues because she was upset. She's so sweet!!!

Well, I should probably unpack and really get settled in here. This has been an awesome first day, though of course I miss my family and all, but I know that before I know it I'll be going home regretting leaving Italy. :-D