Foux Du Fafa

Saturday marked another beautiful day in Roma. Becca and I woke up in time to go to one of the biggest open air food and fruit markets in Rome, Campo di Fiori. We walked around after asking a shopkeeper for directions. Some of the fruit looked good, but it was pretty expensive. We talked about visiting other markets, so I took Becca to the cheap market that I bought my groceries at yesterday. On the way in Becca was getting a bit nervous, as it's not located in a 'nice' area of town. It's where all the immigrants live, (Italy is much less foreign friendly than America)and it's right next to the train station. There are a lot of foreign men wandering the streets. Becca is a very small girl who grew up in small town Delaware. I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to handle the market, as it is full of foreigners. I was wrong once she got inside and saw the amazing selection of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, bread, meat, and even peanut butter she changed her tune. She ended up buying a bunch of fresh (heavenly smelling) strawberries, and apples as well. We made our way home stopping at a few grocery stores to finish our shopping. I bought frozen peas and mushrooms to complete my rice ingredients. I also bought olive oil, a morning plum cake type pastry that was on sale 10 for a euro, a thirty seven cent chocolate bar, a box of the super cheap cornflakes :D and some strawberry champagne. Becca and I will be using it to mourn the loss of her computer, she discovered it was broken beyond repair last night, after waiting weeks for the recovery disks to arrive in the mail. The disappointment was pretty harsh. We came home and unloaded our groceries, I have more groceries than i ever have before, and it is really exciting. I couldn't wait to have some of my rice tonight. After a quick lunch, I improvised a pizza with a piece of bread, tomato sauce,and sliced cheese that I heated on the stove top, we took the tram in a direction we had never taken it before, just to be adventurous and take advantage of the beautiful weather. Once back home we took an afternoon catnap. I napped for a half an hour, and Becca opted for a longer hour and a half. Not long after she woke up we cooked our dinners. I made myself cheesy rice with carrots, peas, and mushrooms. I was so ridiculously proud of myself for cooking an actual meal with nutritious value that I took a picture. It was tasty :) Becca and I had talked about taking a weekend to enjoy the beauty of the south of France. We took tonight to price our options and ended up looking at several options for beach type destinations on the cheap. We ended up with three fully planned and priced out options; Nice, France; Palermo, Sicily; and Lamezia Terme, Sicily. These three pictures are from each place. We eliminated Lamezia due to the fact that nothing was around but the gorgeous beach, and we might need a bit more of an inhabited area. We have decided to sleep on the other two options. Nice might be Becca's only opportunity to leave Italy, but Palermo could possibly be warmer due to its more southern location. I'm up for either, I'm excited to have a traveling buddy :) When we finished planning and pricing, I checked my email and found that my Aunt Connie and Uncle Dave had sent me an email :) I love hearing from people from home, and the email made me laugh. Connie wanted to know when Casey snuck into her house to take a picture of her underwear, referring to the valentines day card I got :D It's been a wonderful and full day, and it's really nice to have the apartment to ourselves, it's clean and quiet, pretty sweet. Tomorrow we are taking advantage of the once a month free admission to the Vatican museum. After we're heading to the Sunday market behind our apartment once again, and then homework :) Should be a great day.

Break dancing, Candy, Hello Kitty, Could this day get any better?

The answer is yes, because all of these amazing things happened to me in Roma :) I'm am incredibly lucky. It is truly a blessing to be here, and I hope this isn't something that I will take for granted in the months to come. I started out my day by waking up to talk to Stu. He's been a very busy bee with conferences, so we haven't talked much this week, we made up for it this morning. Afterwards I went back to sleep until ten thirty. I was sleepy because Becca II and I had marvelous pillow talk the night before for over an hour, consequently we did not go to sleep until much later than we had intended. Once I permanently woke up for the day I took my time getting ready, and around noon headed out the door for the cheap market my anthropology course visited in the immigrant neighborhood. It takes awhile to get to, but it's definitely worth it. I bought an entire pineapple, a kilogram of rice (yellow) 100 grams of cashews, and three large carrots for just over four euro. awesome. What's even more awesome is that while I shop everyone tells me I'm beautiful, it's quite a wonderful experience. The foreign men in Italy are much better behaved than the Italians, they know the way to a girls heart: tell her she's beautiful, not hump her on a bus. Which reminds me, on the bus ride home another old man tried to get on me. He was much more subtle, and very easy to walk away from. Still frustrating, I feel like my frustration is going to build until the breaking point, and some poor innocent old man is going to go for a scratch next to me and I'm going to unleash. We'll see, hopefully this trend will come to a quick halt. Once I was home I had a few minutes before I was supposed to meet with Becca for a shopping trip. I was back out the door, and Becca and I shopped along one of the main shopping streets. She found a very cute cropped cardigan at H&M, and then we found a candy store. It was amazing, I got coca cola gummies, cherry gummies, over sized gumdrops (yum) an off brand m&m type candy, toffee, and mint/licorice taffies. I only got a few of each, and it only cost me three euros :) definitely a good investment. On our way out of the candy shop we noticed some break dancers in the street, they were very entertaining. We went into a high end hello kitty store, it was pretty awesome. A very very good day. Becca and I meandered home, taking a detour to find the gelato place that ISA took us to on the second night, it was huge, and well known. Once home Becca went to work attempting to restore her computer which crashed the second week we were here. I cooked us mac and cheese for supper, and it was quite delicious. I balanced my 'checkbook' (I don't actually have a checkbook, I really just mean my spending log) I also got to talk to my sister today :) it was wonderful to get to catch up, I'm pretty jealous of the fact that she gets to go home to mom's spaghetti tomorrow. I've done four loads of laundry tonight, taking advantage of the fact that it's only Becca and I in the apartment. Tomorrow we are going to campo di fiore, an open food market. We were hoping to go to a soccer game, as we thought one of the roma teams was playing Scotland. Their were Scottish men all over Rome today, and all of them were wearing kilts. It was awesome. I saw one man wearing a business suit on his top half, and a kilt on his bottom, fantastic. After searching the internet for tickets to a Roma Scotland soccer game, we discovered it was a rugby tournament, and not soccer after all, much cooler. It would be really cool to go to a rugby game (match?) and sit on the Scottish side, but the tickets online were 100 pounds, which would be even more euros, and I'm not sure if scalpers would have any better deals. We might just settle with seeing the fans around the city. Becca's computer failed to restore, and her night has been significantly less happy than mine, she's been left computer less in Rome, with no way to see her parents, or friends. I don't have skype on my computer, and it won't download, so I can't even share with her. We might get some sparkling wine tomorrow to help ease the loss.

I can't seriously think about a title for this without spacing off. Time for bed? I think yes

After posting last night, Becca and I proceeded to stay up until two thirty in the morning, for apparently no reason what so ever. I blame it on the coffee soaked tiramisu, and all the caffeine. I consequently got to talk to my mother, which was wonderful, it doesn't happen very often as she is a hard working woman :) makes me appreciate it all the more. I got my full night's sleep and woke up at nine thirty to my 'economical cornflakes'. With Becca's help I took a warm shower, she can't believe that my showers are always cold, so she started it for me this morning :) I even put product in my hair and blow dried it this morning which is pretty out of the ordinary for me, at least over here. Becca and I started the day off right by getting ready to some classic nineties music, savage garden, spice girls, sugar ray, and third eye blind. Try it, there is no better way to start an awesome day. We then went to a museum with tickets Becca acquired from her professor. It was a small museum, and didn't take much time to cover, but interesting all the same. We then wandered in the once again beautiful weather, and I got lunch for a euro..... from McItaly :) it was quite tasty, becca had stronger will power than me, and waited until we were home. I only have pasta left, and one piece of bread, so I feel like a euro for lunch wasn't too bad. I'm going to get groceries tomorrow as my stock is pretty depleted. I have one piece of bread, cornflakes, a few slices of cheese, a little butter, tomato sauce, and pasta. I emptied my peanut butter jar today, so that I will have something to store my pinapple in. I ran out of milk today as well, which I happened to notice was nine days past the expiration date, whoops. It still tasted fine, I'm finding that it's difficult to balance being economical with my purchases, rather than letting them go bad from stretching them over too long of a period. I had to pour out my pear juice today, it was definitely fermented. I really have no idea how long of a shelf life most of these things have because when I'm home we go through everything so fast, and at school I eat at the servery because I've already paid for it. I'll get the hang of it. Luckily I don't have to buy any more milk because Becca is a picky eater, and the kind she just recently bought tastes 'funny'. Tastes free to me :D After a quick review of Italian grammar I headed to class, as it turned out we were free to leave after the quiz, I can't imagine doing any worse than an eight five :) much better than the first quiz. I came back to the apartment and cleaned my room, read a bit for class, talked to my cousin derek, and cooked myself some pasta. For sauce I wanted to try and imitate what we had on the first night in florence, a cheese, tomato, cream sauce. So I heated up milk, tomato sauce, butter, and cheese (of the slice variety) in a pan. I used a bit too much milk, but with a little seasoning and salt it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. Nothing like what we had in Florence, but not bad for mixing in everything I have except bread :) Tomorrow night is definitly going to be a mac and cheese night, I'm pretty excited. I'll also have my rice and various ingrediants. I almost forgot, on my way back from the museum, Becca stopped to replenish her cereal supply and I noticed that this grocery store had my cornflakes for cheaper!! only eighty nine euro cents, I'm so excited, my economical cornflakes just upped the ante, awesome. Also on the way back from the museum an old man attempted to literally hump my leg on a very crowded bus, not so awesome. But not even that could ruin such a beautiful day.

Lovin' Life

And how could anyone in Rome not be? The weather is beautiful, the classes engaging, the friends (from home and school) supportive and awesome. Yes, life is very very good. I started out this morning with my typical bowl of cornflakes while checking my morning email. Then it was off to my third Tribes of Rome class. The tram I usually take (that gets me about halfway to school) was so full this morning that no one could crowd on. Instead of waiting for another I power walked, by the time I got to the giant staircase my heart was going at a pretty good rate, but I made it to class on time :) I really like the professor for my Tribes of Rome class, he's the type that really knows his subject backward and forward, and it will never be less than fascinating for him. It makes for a great learning environment, also he's pretty humorous. He told us a story today about how in Denmark (where he's from) mothers leave their babies in bassinets outside to sleep during the afternoon, while they go back up to their apartments. Which shocked all of us. Learning about different cultures is definitely broadening my horizons. After class I walked home to make lunch, checked emails again, talked to Casey for a bit, and decided to take a nap, the first one I've taken since I arrived. I opened the window and napped for half an hour before waking up to prep for my second class. Did I mention it was beautiful outside again, because it was. Art Gallery Management was really good today, we discussed readings, and I there was a really good discussion that I had a lot to contribute to, it was a really great day for classes in general. After class I hung out at the university until my cooking class started. I checked my mail and got an awesome letter from my awesome cousin Casey Cordes :)
It had an old lady on the front who was holding up a pair of enormous Grannie panties, and it said, "these are the ones I'm going to throw at Justin Timberlake" It very much made my day. I then walked to the cooking lesson, in the pouring rain, I was pretty unprepared as it was seventy when I left for class. The cooking lesson was very awesome, and I'm definitely being very adventurous with what I'm putting in my mouth. First we made the lasagna, a vegetarian type, made with pesto, and a cheese butter and cream sauce. After that we made the tiramisu. Then we started eating. First course was salad...I don't eat salad, I've tried, I can't do it. I am happy to report that I ate an entire plate of salad, without making faces like it was poison :) I was extremely impressed with myself. Then we had bread with a paste made from black olives, it was amazingly delicious, at home I'll eat a whole can of black olives when we're having tacos if mom doesn't watch me :) next it was time for the lasagna, it's much flatter than American lasagna, and it was very tasty, the noodles were still too big, but I genuinely enjoyed it. Dessert followed soon after, I can officially say I am not a fan of tiramisu, I'm just not a coffee drinker, and I think you might have to be to really appreciate it. I ate it anyway, the cream parts were very good, I'm thinking I could make it, and dip the lady fingers into hot chocolate instead of coffee and I would like it much better that way. I'm thinking while stu's here we could make the lasagna together, sounds like fun to me. I've done a whole lot of nothing since coming back home, and I don't have class until three forty tomorrow, I have a quiz in Italian over grammar, which should be much easier than the culture quiz. Also I received an email about the literary journal on campus, and I'm going to submit some of my art work to it, sixteen pieces to be exact :) I'm excited to see if any of them will be published. Have a great day everybody !!
P.s. here's a random picture of what's keeping us all connected :)

Finally caught up :D

And it feels great, this is actually the third blog post I've written, and I'm glad that I am up to date, and can go about my business on a daily basis again. whew :) I woke up this morning at seven in order to give myself an hour before I needed to leave for my nine a.m. I ate a bowl of cornflakes this morning, the first thing I had eaten since Sunday afternoon, and it was amazing, I was still a little hungry, so I had a mini piece of our chocolate brownie-cake thing, and made myself a cup of tea. I left on time, for Bodies and Burials, it was on site this morning, and actually outside of the city limits. Luckily when Becca and I were out and about on friday we found the piazza that was within walking distance of my class. Consequently I knew which bus to take to get me close to the museum. When I got on the tram that is right outside our building and would take me to my bus, there were several other people from my class as well. When I got off the tram and caught the bus I needed to be on, the others did not follow me, I wondered if they knew a better way, or if they would make it to class at all. On the bus a girl from my class whom I have dubbed 'awesome shoes girl' got on and rode for a few stops before getting off. She arrived ten minutes later than I did. All these incidents would have made me doubt my route if I hadn't physically taken the bus to this piazza before. I got to class early and the professor handed back our thesis proposals for the final paper, I got full points and approval for my topic, I'll be looking into the cultural differences between the north and the south during the american civil war in terms of burials rights. Should be pretty cool. On site class is cool, but three hour lecture with no break is a bit brutal, by the end of class I'm pretty well checked out, depite my best effort, I'm trying to do better becasue what I'm learning is so unique from any of my other study experiences. After class I returned home for lunch and completed a reading assignment for Italian, and then headed into class. We were quizzed on our reading/ cultural knowledge, it was a twenty question true/ false quiz. True/ False is the devil, I would rather write a three page essay. There were several (over half) questions that I didn't positively know, I'm interested to see how it turns out. After class I walked home, it was absolutely beautiful out today, it must have been seventy degrees, truly amazing weather. Once home I emailed my mother, worked on updating this thing, ate supper, and did some reading for class tomorrow. One of my roommates boyfriends sent her an edible flower arrangement as an apology, and I got to eat a fresh strawberry dipped in chocolate, is was very tasty, so are the fresh grapes, yum! I'm looking forward to tomorrow, my nine a.m. is in the classroom, and I won't have to be up very early at all. Also I found out what were making tomorrow at the cooking lesson: lasagna and tiramisu. Again for those of you who know me,I'm sure you're laughing hysterically right now. I have an aversion to both of these. I can't handle the texture of lasagna, and I strongly feel that tiramisu tastes of dirt, but it's free food, and you can bet that I will be chowing down.

P.s. Just another reminder, I have picture links on the navigation bar on the right side of the page, check them out :)

Back to School

Before our weekend trip Becca and I had planned on heading back to the cheap food market to do some grocery shopping early Monday morning, as neither of us has class until noon. We decided not to for a couple of reasons. One was that we were pretty tired, and jumped at the chance to catch up on sleep. My second reason was that I overspent my budget for the weekend. I gave myself seventy euro, and I spent eighty two. If I hadn't bought myself souvenirs, or twelve euro worth of Gelato I would have been just fine. I decided to balance things out by not spending any money this week. I have enough pasta and cornflakes to get me through this week. Especially when I factor in my first day of fasting, a cooking lesson where I get to eat what I make, and I'm going to eat my February box of Kraft Mac and Cheese on Friday. The program I came through, ISA, does a couple of cooking lessons throughout the semester, and Becca and I are both signed up for the one on Wednesday night, I'm pumped. After waking up at nine thirty, I read for my second class of the day, got ready, and eventually walked to school. Masterpieces of Italian Opera was good as usual, we watched parts of the Monteverde opera about Nero and his mistress turned wife Poppea. After two hours of viewing it becomes increasingly difficult to pay attention in the dark room, luckily this professor lets us take breaks. After class I printed off a few papers (which is free at school, very nice) and headed to art gallery management. I gave a presentation on an artist, and we turned in our first three weeks of journals. I walked home after class and attempted to catch up on my blog, while uploading my pictures to facebook. Up to this point my fasting was going pretty well, but then my roommates started to cook dinner, and it smelled so good. Going grocery shopping with Becca didn't help. It's a good thing I didn't take any money I would have bought the whole store. Instead I priced a few items (we were at a new, and much bigger grocery store) and helped her carry her bags home. I'm thinking that on Friday I will go to the cheap food market and get rice, nuts, and carrots, and possibly pick up mushrooms and peas from the grocery store. That way I can make delicious stir fries on the stove top. I'm pretty excited. If the other ingredients aren't terribly expensive I might even get a pineapple, that would be pretty tasty with rice and nuts, yum. We'll see how much the rice sets me back before I purchase tons of other ingredients, I'm hoping to stay under ten euro for groceries per week. Also I have no idea how to cut an actual pineapple, I'm pretty sure there's a specific technique, so if anyone knows please don't be stingy with your knowledge. Monday was also my good friend Vincent Peichel's birthday, I remembered about a week ago, and ordered him a cake on HyVee online. I managed to get a friend of his to pick it up for me (and I am eternally grateful) Vince wrote me a message on facebook this morning, and I liked it so much I'm going to share it with you here :

"Holy Awesome Cake, Batman! Are you serious?! You ordered a cake from Rome for me! I can't believe it! Ok, I can believe it, but really wow! Thank you so much. You are amazing. My day was going ok and then on my way out of work, Matt was like, "What's that?" I looked into the break room and saw a cake. I approached it with curiosity thinking it was an office thing, like cookies or donuts, left over from a meeting. As I got closer I didn't quite comprehend what I was seeing. It was a cake. I said out loud, "A cake?"
"Really?" Matt asked.
I noticed it had Batman on it. Frickin' cool. But it wasn't just Batman, it was Batman on the Batcycle blasting out of the motha flippin' Batcave! My thoughts were exactly: That's a sweet ass cake. Whose the lucky jackhole who got a cake?
Then I read it, "Happy Birthday Vince. ... er, what?" I read it again, yep, it still said, "Happy Birthday Vince." That's right, I was the lucky jackhole.
I didn't know what to think, my first thought was "WTF 2fix, you buy me a cake and no body effing tells me. Good flippin' job." But instead of saying that aloud, I said, "Who's it from?"
Matt replied, "One of your friends."
So, 2fix was off the hook, and I suddenly was reminded that I have incredible friends. I replied to Matt, "Who the hell would buy me a cake?"
It wasn't long before I figured out who would buy me a cake. It would be the same person who made me a cake last year. That person, in case you forgot, was you! So, thank you so very much. You definitely made my day and at the very least my week because I imagine I will be bragging about my awesome cake later in the week. I took lots of pictures and will have to put them up on fb or something. Thanks again.
Also, thanks for the Mexican-style birthday song. I liked that. Also, I've curled my mustache while typing this just for you. Okay, a little for me too. :P Miss ya!"
A successful present I think. After finishing uploading my facebook pictures I talked to Stu before heading to bed.

Returning to Roma

Sunday morning was another 'early' one meeting for check out at nine, Becca and I were up at seven to take our time and eat free breakfast again. Then it was goodbye Florence hello two hour bus ride. I tried to nap a bit, but was unsuccessful, instead I looked through my pictures from the trip so far. Around two hours in we reached our second destination San Gimignano. This is a tiny Tuscan hill town, that is known for it's towers, built as status symbols in the renaissance period. It was absolutely gorgeous here, beyond beautiful, I'm not sure if the sky has ever been bluer. We had a tour of the main attractions for about an hour before we were set loose in the city. Becca Melissa and I walked around the entire town in an hour, maybe under. It got pretty cold, and was windy, which I love. I could have done without the hail however. Around lunch we decided to get pizza, it was amazing! the slices were huge, the crust was thin and it was delicious. We walked around more before stopping for the fourth and final gelato. I had white chocolate, delizia (I don't know what this translates to but it was amazing) and cheesecake, it was wonderful. We hung out for a bit longer before climbing back on the bus, it was another four hours before we reached Rome, with a bathroom break in the middle. It was just after eight when we stepped into our apartment, and I spent the night catching up with people, and uploading pictures. It was a wonderful trip, and makes me excited for the other two ISA excursions. Also I've added links to my facebook albums of pictures from Italy. You can click on them and see all my photos, rather than just the ones I post, and you do not need to have a facebook account. :) enjoy.

A Beautiful Day in a Beautiful City

After my warm shower, Becca and I passed out for all practical purposes, we woke up at seven to explore the city, and eat the free continental breakfast before meeting the group at ten. We found the our meeting place, and walked around a market as it was setting up. We also found the river and took some pretty sweet panoramas. Before we knew it, it was time to meet up. Not very many people showed up for this tour. Almost everyone went out the night before. Luckily Becca and I are on too limited of budgets to go out and get drunk every weekend, especially when that's an experience we can have at home. The tour was basically of the area that Becca and I just wandered through :) It ended in the Ufitzi Gallery, which is home to works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Raphael. Very awesome, our tour guide talked us through the highlights of the museum, and when we were done there were only a few rooms we hadn't seen. We went for lunch next and searched for a cheap pizza place we found the night before. After lunch we climbed the Duomo. It was eight euro admission, but once again, totally worth it. The climb was less intense: less stairs, less confined, and no slanted walls. The drawback was that the way up was also the way down, and on both ways we had to wait for large groups to pass before we could take our turn. The view of the city, was much different from that of Rome, but very beautiful. After the Duomo we went to get Gelato at a place very close to our apartment. They had a great selection but the service was not good, and they were not generous with the proportions like every other place we've been to. I had snickers, and a white cream kind that if I remember rightly tasted similar to the almond kind I had the week before. Then it was time to walk through the San Lorenzo market, a large open air leather market. I bought myself four leather bracelets for five euro. It's my first souvenir, and I'm very excited :) I'm probably going to wear them all the time. After the market it was about time to head to the piazzale de Michelangelo, an overlook with a great view of the city. We wanted to arrive at sunset, and had just enough time to visit the Pitti Palace, the home of the Medici family(who controlled the city for a century or so) now a museum. We took a few pictures and made the climb to the lookout. On the climb we realized we were not going to have time for another museum (there were six or so to choose from) I definitely could have spent a week in Florence, seeing the sights, eating wonderful food, and visiting all the museums. The climb to the lookout wasn't as steep as I was expecting, and the view was unparalleled. We came at the perfect time. Afterward we checked out the goldsmith shops, such beautiful jewelry, beautiful expensive jewelry. By this time we were quite hungry and found another little restaurant. Today I could eat meat if I wanted, and just ended up ordering a dish without any. I ordered a linguine with tomato sauce and cream again, but with mushroom, cheese, and black olives, YUM! Becca and I were seated very near a dessert display and ordered a slice of cheesecake, and chocolate cake, and shared them both. The cheesecake was amazing. We stopped at the hotel for a quick regroup and planned a walking route to see a few piazzas. We stopped outside of the Ufitzi to listen to a man who was singing and playing acoustic guitar, he was very good, and we had heard him on Friday night as well. He was so good that I bought one of his Cds. It was ten euro, and my roommate covinced me to get it, but I'm so glad I did. Once we were finished walking we stopped for the second gelato of the day, this time served on a Belgian waffle. I ordered it was kitkat, I'm pretty proud as this is the only flavor repeat I've done so far. We actually went back to discount/ club promoter man's shop, and he yet again gave us a discount, and a ton of gelato, and on our way out asked us where we were going for the night. We replied with,'bed', and bed it was after another wonderfully warm shower.

Gelato, Gelato, Gelato.....Gelato

That's right I had Gelato four times this weekend, and it was divine, I'm definitely going to miss it when I'm back in the states. This was a long amazing beautiful weekend, and I took lots of pictures to share with you all.
Friday we left at nine thirtyish and stopped twice along the way for restrooms and food. Being lent no meat was allowed for my diet, I ended up eating a spinach sandwich, not all that terrible actually. The five hour bus ride was very cool as the bus was double decker and Becca and I sat in the front on top with a great view of the countryside. Once we were at our hotel, we checked in and discovered our room hadn't been cleaned, we were told we would get a new one after we returned from our walking tour. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, and spoke wonderful English. The absolute first thing we saw were the Gates of Paradise, on the baptistery (the first picture). It was wonderful because of the slightly rainy weather there was no crowd and I got some pretty great pictures :) We then went into the duomo, which I thought was the Italian word for dome, turns out it's a rank of church, dome is cuppola. After the duomo, which is one of very few Gothic style churches in Italy, we went to the museum that is home to the original David. It was incredibly impressive. I wasn't really expecting to be so in awe of this statue as I was more excited for the Gates of Paradise, but it is impossible to look at this statue and not understand why it is so important. Also David is a hunk ;) Our tour ended inside the museum, and it only took ten more minutes to cover the rest of the exhibits, there wasn't much else to it. We had nothing else scheduled until the following morning, so Becca and I decided to go back and change our room before anything else. We got a major room upgrade. We moved down a floor, to the only room in the hotel with a balcony. Our room was bigger, as was the bathroom, and we had separate beds. Becca and I decided if we don't like our next room we're going to mess it up, and ask for a new one.
After the room change we wandered the streets of Florence for awhile, which are much safer and cleaner than those of Rome, and there are considerably less of them. We searched for a restaurant within our price range, that had vegetarian options that I would eat. We found a place called Mamma Mia, the food was excellent and cheap. We both ordered a dish with spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce, cream, and mozzarella cheese. The portion sizes were enormous, it was a wonderful meal. We window shopped for an hour or so after, stopping to take pictures of old churches, and beautiful statues. Next was the first Gelato purchase of the trip. I got kitkat and cherry, the cherry was amazing!! The man behind the counter gave us a deal, "just for us" I thought he was ripping us off, but then he showed us the size of gelato we should have gotten for what we paid, and he wasn't kidding. We found out why when we went to leave, he wanted us to go to a club with him. We said no thanks and headed for the hotel. The best part about the night was the steaming hot twenty five minute shower I took, It was amazing after weeks of cold showers, and a day of walking, and a long bus ride.

Anybody else wake up at eleven to 59 degree weather?

Didn't think so :) It is officially ok to start being jealous, the weather today was beautiful. Warm enough that I wore a t shirt out and wasn't even the slightest bit cold. After waking up and eating my economical cornflakes, Becca and I set out for the Spanish Steps, One of the big tourist attractions that we hadn't seen yet. Getting there was a bit of an adventure, we didn't get lost, but one of the buses we took was a tiny one. I've seen these buses around before, I thought they were strictly for the old and handicapped, wrong. This tiny little bus was cute until we crammed twenty five people inside, then it was cut and hilarious. Once at the Steps I was amazed at exactly how many people were just hanging out on them. I read in several of my guide books that the steps are always crawling with people, and they aren't kidding. I've also heard about their perfect architectural design, and though my knowledge on the subject is limited, I can understand where they're coming from. They were beautiful, especially when I imagined them not covered with people. We climbed to a couple of different levels for pictures (including the building and obelisk at the top), and while we were at the top I found some sketch artists. I was given a stipend specifically for getting my portrait done, and I now know where to go. We didn't stay for very long, instead we moved on to the Piazza del Popolo, another beautiful area in Rome. We looked around for a bit before clambering back onto Tiny bus and heading for the tram that would take us home. When we got to the tram, there were an unusual amount backed up, even for the end of the line. We decided to get gelato first as we obviously didn't have to worry about having to wait for a tram. I got stracciatella, which is chocolate chip, and almond. People raved about the stracciatella, but I wasn't super impressed, it might have been because the almond was amazing, do delicious. I need to return to the big gelateria from the second night here, and order coconut and almond, I might explode from taste bud pleasure overload. After the gelato, the trams still weren't moving, we sat on one for about ten minutes before we got off and decided to walk. At this point I had ten minutes to get to class on time, and I would have been late if I had taken the tram and didn't have to wait for the bus that goes to school, by the time we made it to the bus that would have taken me to school I had missed the first forty minutes of class, because it was my Italian culture class, and Becca had already been, I passed. It was beautiful, and I don't regret it for one moment. On our way back we found the broken tram, and watched a very large truck pull it away, I assume this rarely happens as even the Italians were staring. Instead of going to class I went back to the apartment and had lunch (at four thirty:) before heading to Testaccio, the neighborhood across the river, to sit in a park (pictured at right) and read for class. I read ten pages, and people watched, headed into the church (pictures below) to give a quick thanks for the awesomeness that is my life, and walked home along the river. Once home I sat on my balcony for awhile, it was so gorgeous outside, the perfect amount of wind, I'm not used to it being warm this early in the year. While I love snow and winter, in a city that I want to explore sun is more than welcome.
Tomorrow will be my first travel experience, we're leaving for Florence at nine. We found out that the bus drivers are going on strike tomorrow, so we will have to walk to school, it shouldn't take much more than thirty or forty minutes, I walk most of the way everyday, but tomorrow we'll have our weekend bags, and it's supposed to pour in Rome and Florence. Which reminds me that I got an email from mother saying she put some money in my account, and to use it to buy an umbrella :) made me smile. I've been productive this evening, talked to my sister for the third night in a row :D awesome, and just finished eating a delicious sandwich for supper at eleven, I'm definitely turning into an Italian, they eat very late. I've decided not to take my laptop with me for the weekend trip, so this will be the last entry until Sunday. I'm bringing a journal so I can record what I do each day, and I'll transcribe them into posts when I get back :) Have a wonderful night everybody, I'm thinking of you all :)

Anybody Want Dibs on Pokey?

I've been so wrapped up in being in Roma that I haven't given any thought to lent at all. Ash Wednesday snuck right up on me. I'm thinking I might fast once a week, Stu did it last year, it would be good for my waistline, budget, and discipline, the food here is beyond tempting. It's a wonder everyone doesn't waddle around from overeating. I woke up this morning at six fifty to write my paper that was due in a few hours, after being up until two, poor decisions, but at the same time, beyond worth it. Sleep and communication with loved ones are definitely not comparable. I finished up my paper in forty minutes, and ate a bowl of store brand cornflakes. Side note, the cornflakes are the cheapest cereal in the store, and taste one hundred times better than the generic cocoa puffs, I'm glad I decided to be cheap :) I had another on site class today at nine in the morning, and this time I was patient and waited for the right bus. Today, my destination wasn't so cut and dry, once I got to the end of the bus line I knew the general direction I needed to go, but no street names. Luckily one of my classmates was on the bus too, lucky for him I mean, because he was going to get off almost ten stops too early, silly boy. Lucky for me he had a map of Rome, and together we lead like seven other people to the meeting point. Me giving anyone directions should scare every one of you after yesterdays post, although it happens all the time. Even Italians ask me for directions, and today I was even able to help someone, usually I just shake my head no. Once on site we were given a tour/lecture of the most culturally diverse neighborhood in Rome, it was really neat. Best of all its known for having the cheapest market in Rome, with foods from all over the world; and we got to look around it for fifteen minutes. I cannot wait to go back when I need groceries. The things I'm most excited for are the spices, rices, and nuts, things you can't find in the grocery store. The fruit is cheaper too. I'm all about a bargain. The bad news is all the sweets are super cheap as well, and look so tasty. I'll either come back from Rome in better shape from walking around the city, (and having to pay for my own food) or 300 pounds from eating all the wonderful food while I'm here. Once we were done with class I came back to my apartment for lunch, and contemplated taking a nap, but I refrained, I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight :) Then it was time for Art Gallery Management, such a sweet class. I stopped by the student life office to see their ash Wednesday church services posting, and found one that I would be able to find in the dark. A girl caught me on my way out of the university, and insisted on talking to me for five minutes, which would have been fine, if I didn't have mass to go to, and if it wasn't raining. She decided to walk with me and we chatted about relationships a bit. I always feel guilty when I talk to other girls about boys because I never have problems. Once home I had time to grill a sandwich and look up directions to the church. I have new cheese, and it is amazing on grilled sandwiches, delicious. Once I had my directions I needed to get dressed for church. Mother ingrained in us very early on, no jeans, which I still follow for the most part, especially on holidays, and especially at a new church. This part of the day was a bit troublesome. I have two pairs of black pants with me, one pair invites plumber jokes, and the other are about six inches too long. Plumber joke pants are absolutely not an option for church, but long pants and a rainy day were not sounding terribly inviting. I also have khaki's and gray pants, but I wanted black. Too solve my problem I put on a pair of my heels, and my pants still dragged on the ground, but I went with it, I needed to go. I realized on the bus that my black tights and the dress I brought would have been just fine, instead I looked a bit like gumby. The pants were so long they gave the appearance that I had no feet, just legs that got wider at the bottom and curved off. Just in case you need a visual aid here's a picture of gumby. Also walking in stilettos on roman cobblestone, not easy, but I think I did a pretty commendable job of not looking like a fool. I found the church with absolutely no trouble. It was amazing, and actually an International church, which means that everyone speaks English, the mass was in English, fantastic. Being in this beautiful church with such an intimate crowd of people, (it doesn't hold very many) was a wonderful feeling. I love being in church, and my joy was so powerful I almost cried several times in mass, probably wouldn't have been the best impression on the people around me. I don't think the church is catholic per se, but mass was very similar, I'm going to leave the link to their website here: http://www.caravita.org/ this will probably become my regular church, and I'm thinking I might just try a bunch of the big traditional catholic ones over the semester. I've been home for awhile now, and am absolutely exhausted, the good news is that class tomorrow isn't until three forty, so I can sleep in as long as I want :D

Making Memories :)

Today I had my first on site class, meaning that because we are in Rome the teachers like to involve us as directly in the learning as they can, and we got to take multiple field trips. I woke up at seven this morning, and left my apartment by eight in order to get to my class downtown at nine fifteen, it should only take a half an hour, but I gave myself lots of wiggle room. It was raining today, shocking, I know. I knew the bus I needed to take, but after fifteen minutes of waiting for it in the rain (I can't bring myself to shell out the three euro to buy one) I saw another bus that I said Stazione di Termini (my destination) on it. As soon as we turned off the street I knew I was in trouble, we weren't going the direction we needed to be, but at a stop I read the bus route sign and the final destination was Stazione. I rode the bus to the end of the route, wrong Stazione. I was on the opposite side of town that I needed to be. Luckily there was a directional sign with my neighborhood written on it, so I walked that way. I ended up near vatican city, and began to search bus stop signs for familiar landmarks. I, by the grace of god, stumbled upon a express bus to where I needed to be, and was there within fifteen minutes. I was only a few minutes behind when we were supposed to meet, so I hurried toward the building I thought we were meeting outside of, I walked down the wrong side of it, and had to turn back and walk most of the way around the block (that I just covered) to get to the entrance. Once inside I paid for my ticket, and ran into two other girls from the class who were late arrivals. I followed them to the rest of the group, and the professor was only just taking attendance :) I didn't miss a thing. Class was interesting as always and during my break I observed my second neighborhood for Tribes of Rome, it was pretty rainy, and I ended up very very wet, but the neighborhood was really beautiful, full of unique little shops and churches, streets, and ruins. I also had my Italian class today, once I was home I took a shower, as I was cold from the rain still. I then helped my roommated prepare for our barbeque by cooking massive amounts of chicken on the stove top, she cut and I cooked. I'm not even sure I've ever cooked chicken before, but after tonight I'm a pro :) No barbeque sauce could be found for the chicken, and brown sugar is not sold here, so we couldn't make it. Luckily one of the girls downstairs is an amazing cook, and she whipped up a sauce with random ingrediants and it was delicious, she also made an apple pie from scratch for our dinner part, it was heavenly. The party was a lot of fun, the food was delicious, in addition to the sandwiches we had pan seared green beans with onions and garlic, potato chips, the pie, chocolate cake, and wine. After the dinner party, I went to charge my laptop, and ended up electrocuting myself. Kinda crazy, it only stung my hand, and just scared me, but I'm just fine, and my roommate and I had a good laugh over it. I then talked to Becca (number 1) and it was great to see her, as it always is. I'm looking forward to our senior year together. I have another on site class tomorrow at nine, and I will be waking up at seven again, and I need to write a four page paper for class tomorow, the nine a.m. one. I'm not anticipating it taking too long, and I'm tired enough right now that I'm planning on completing it when I wake up. I hope everyone has a wonderful tuesday evening, I certainly did.

Happy Presidents Day

To all my American readers (everyone) Happy Presidents Day. I didn't even know it was presidents day until my sister wished me a pleasant one. Really I'm just taking advantage of not having to come up with a creative title for the entry. Overall Monday has been really great, for a day that most people dread. It started out with a trip to testaccio, one neighborhood over from trastevere. I was essentially people watching for an assignment for my Tribes of Rome class. It was a wonderful way to start my morning, in the crisp Rome air. The middle part of the day was spent in class, Opera and then Art Gallery Management, with the most wonderful surprise between them. I received my eurail pass in the mail today !!! :D It's the best news I've had all week (all two days) After class it was rainy again, so becca emily and I took the bus home, after we made a quick stop at the grocery store. I did nearly all of my homework for the week this weekend, so I spent the evening talking to people from home, mother, johnathon, kelsey, stu, fleer. I honestly think I stay in better contact with everyone now that I'm away, it's something that I quite enjoy. While I was at school we had a new wirless router installed, which consequently prevented my laptop from being able to access the internet. I eventually fixed the problem (all by myself) after an hour of frustration. I really hope that this quality stays, only time will tell. Tomorrow I have my first onsite class, and my apartment is having a bit of a dinner party, barbeque chicken :) I can't wait.

Happy Valentines Day

It's been a quiet day here in roma, kinda. I woke up at four o'clock this morning as a few of my roommates got home from the bar and skyped their families. Consequently I shut off my alarm and slept in until ten :) Becca and I started off our mornings with breakfast and a trip to the open air market. So as not to tempt myself with the affordably priced goods I brought only two euros. It's a good thing I did, you can literally get Italian leather boots for ten euros, it's pretty amazing.
Becca needed an overnight bag for our weekend trips, and successfully haggled a knock off gucci bad from twenty eight euros to fifteen. I was very impressed. After our walk through the market I retired to homework, because I didn't do any last night. Suprise, suprise. It took me awhile to complete my homework today as I spent a good chunk of it talking to people from home, including my brother and my sister :) pretty sweet. I also got a quick, much needed, phone call from Stu. We haven't talked for almost three days, which is probably the longest we've ever gone, and I was beginning to get a little stir crazy. Becca and I made a pre frozen pasta dish for supper, which amuses our roommate, Emily, no end as she worked in an italian restaraunt before she came here, and is an excellent cook. On one of my many study breaks I perused pictures from my roommates trip to venice, and I have decided that it was probably a good thing I didn't go during Carnivale, I don't think I could have handled all the people in the creepy emotionless masks. Gives me chills just thinking about the pictures, I've seen too many science fiction television shows for that to be ok. On another one of my plentiful breaks I checked out this link that my great cousin Derek posted on my facebook, very interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA I don't know if any of you have seen Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart music video, but it is weird, even by my standards. As the night runs about an hour and a half past when I had intended to be in bed, my homework is done, and I am talking to my sister on msn, as my roommates sing the 'opera' part of bohemian rhapsody, which they have just discovered and think is endlessly amusing. Too funny. I can only hope everyone at home has as good of a Valentines Day as me.

Vatican City

Saturday got off to a bit of a rough start, as neither Becca or I slept well at all, we were tossing and turning most of the night, despite being absolutely exhausted when we went to bed. Once we got out into the crisp morning air, we were much better. We started off the morning by going to Vatican City. The university had planned a trip to climb to the top, for a beautiful view of the city. It was quite an experience. I'm just going to apologize in advance for the lackluster quality and amount of my pictures. My battery died before we made it to the top. These first few are of the square, when we first arrived. We waited in an extremely long line, that thankfully moved very quickly, passed through security, and then we were inside the basilica. These next few pictures are the ceiling of the entrance, don't get too excited not the Sistine Chapel, but still beautiful. I'm almost positive that neither of the resident life people who organized the trip had done this before, and there was a bit of confusion as to which line we were supposed to be in, but everything was sorted out in the end. All in all we probably only waited for half an hour, which is great time for the Vatican, apparently once its warm out, the lines are outrageous. The line took us outside again, where we saw several massive figurative statues. I'm bad with estimates, but I would say these statues were twenty five feet high or so.





The climb cost five euros if you took the stairs the entire way, the elevator was two more, so Becca and I opted for the stairs. There were a little over two hundred and fifty in the first batch, which lead to the roof of the building, and a pretty decent view, nothing like what the top had to offer, but beautiful all the same. We climbed a few more stairs to a view of the inside of the basilica, unfortunately there was a metal fence that made good pictures a little difficult, but I managed a few. This is when my camera died, the rest of the breathtaking beauty that the Vatican has to offer is captured only in my mind, I will definitely be back, probably when Stu's visiting, so I wasn't too upset with myself. Next, were more stairs about three hundred. these steps were more narrow and steep compared to those we had climbed up to this point. It was quite a trek, people were stopping to take quick breathers, and I removed my jacket. The hallway was narrow enough that I didn't have more than five inches on either side of me. Which was fine for awhile, I'm not terribly claustrophobic, but then the walls began to slant, and that was a little much for me, very trippy, and very confined. This lasted for awhile longer, before the staircase straightened out for a bit, and then, just when it opened up enough for me to think we were at the top, we enter an absolutely tiny spiral staircase, with a rope that runs from floor to ceiling to hold onto rather than a railing. After this we were rewarded with a beautiful 360 degree view of the city. I would have made the climb ten times over for what is the best view of the city that I have seen so far. Incredible, I wish I could share it with you here, I might have to steal my roommates photos off of facebook. It was gorgeous, and packed, it was nearly impossible to maneuver, but entirely worth it. We lingered for thirty minutes before heading back down, and this is where the trouble started. For those of you who know me well, perhaps you have guessed what problem arouse; for those of you who don't, for taking dance lessons for fourteen years I am rather unbalanced and uncoordinated, especially when it comes to stairs. I can trip up stairs, down stairs, it got to the point when I lived at home that no one would ask if I was ok if I fell down the stairs, it was that common. Going down the stairs was ten times more difficult that climbing up. Because of the steepness, if I had tripped I would have fallen for literally twice my height before smashing my face into the concrete stairs. I held onto the walls for the entire way down, I was not taking any chances. Luckily I made it down without incident. The staircase down dumped us into the area of the tombs, which I was unaware was free, Becca and I wandered taking in the beautiful tombs, Michelangelo's Pieta, countless mosaics (that were so well executed you could only tell they weren't paintings if you caught them in the right light) The entire experience was incredible. Everything was beautiful, I cannot wait to return. After this trip I'm also very much looking forward to Easter. After the Vatican we met up with some friends to go shopping (window shopping for Becca and I) We helped a friend pick out a suit for an interview. This turned out to be pretty entertaining as he was pretty clueless, and had the help of three females with three different opinions. As we were walking from one shopping district to another we encountered a protest. We at first mistook it for a gay pride parade, but discovered that they were pretty much protesting the Vatican in general, promoting gay marriage, abortion, and other controversial topics. It was one of the most interesting things I've seen in my three week stint. The people were so interesting to look at, I've never seen so many dreadlocks in one location, I also noticed an awesome mohawk. There was a police/s.w.a.t. like escort as well as a float that would blare music (iggy pop's the passenger, I thought you might like that Johnathon) and then a man with a bullhorn would yell things in Italian. I felt like I was in a time warp, things like this don't happen in America anymore, and if they do, they certainly don't happen in the Midwest. It was a neat experience, I could have watched it all day, but everyone else wanted to shop, so shop we did. After another hour Becca and I were beyond ready to be home, running on limited sleep, and breakfast alone, we returned around six thiry, and bought a chocolate cake as a reward to our long day out. The only other thing on my agenda tonight is, you guessed it homework :)

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

Every one of my roman Facebook friends has an album titled this. Because on Friday February 12 it snowed in Rome for the first time since 1985. whoah. It wasn't a lot of snow, it was mostly melted by the time I woke up (noon) but even before it melted, it was about a quarter of an inch. Makes me sad for Italian children who don't grow up sledding and making snow angels. The highlight of the snow was this little snowman we saw on the sidewalk. I'm almost positive that the construction workers made him, as his nose was a screwdriver, and his eyes, nose, and buttons were made of various nuts and bolts. Very cute. After going to sleep very late, and waking up very late, Becca and I decided to venture into the university to check our mail. We are both expecting packages, she is waiting on the recovery disks for her computer, and I'm waiting on my eurail pass (which allows me to ride the trains in Italy for eight days within a time period of two months) this pass was $300 and I'm beginning to fear that it didn't make it through customs. Not a good deal, If I had ordered it sooner, I wouldn't have had any problems, not a lot I can do about it now. Neither of us got what we were looking for, but we did find and book a hotel for Becca and her family to stay in when they come to visit. We then stopped by the library as we both had heaps of reading to do, and it wasn't open. Three of the books I need to read can't leave the library, so I'm hoping for better luck on Sunday. We had planned on visiting Testaccio ( a neighborhood in Rome) So I could observe for a class, and Becca could sketch, but it started to rain, freezing rain. It was cold enough out that rather than wait for our tram, we rode it in the opposite direction, and caught the right one at the end of the line. Once home I worked on homework for three or four hours. I then looked through one of my Italian guidebooks, and it is a goldmine!! There are bus and tram maps for every major city, (Becca and I have been looking for a Rome one) and breakdowns for major attractions. I'll probably read the Florence section over this next week to prepare for our trip. A quiet day for the most part, and even though we woke up so late, Becca and I were both ready for bed at midnight.

Nighttime Adventures

Since the slow downfall of the wireless internet in the apartment over the past couple of days I've been finding alternative ways to entertain myself. Mostly through organization. I went through all my computer files, school syllabus, and I've been micromanaging my finances and making budgets like Suzy Orman. If I thought it wouldn't put everyone to sleep I would post my budget for the semester on this baby, but I'm going to spare you all. Instead, enjoy these photos from Becca and I's nighttime adventure in Trastevere. This first one is a huge hotel with a wall built entirely around it. the next picture is of the gate that Becca and I snuck through to get these pictures. When I say snuck, I mean the gates were open and we walked through, snuck just makes it sound like more fun. As we continued to wander I tried to figure out how to properly use my camera. The next few pictures are a result of this experimentation (can you tell I'm not an avid photographer)









The first picture is my camera's default setting, the second I unwittingly took in black and white, and the third is the night portrait setting (took me awhile to find) We continued our exploration, and price checked restaurants, sweet shops, pizzerias and the like. We found an incredibly cheap pizzeria restaurant combination, we will definitely be visiting again. And other 'higher end' places that were inexpensive for what they had on the menu (lamb, steak, octopus legs) In one crepe shop we were perusing the menu, and came across a word we didn't know, we asked the woman behind the counter, Come si dici (pronounced comay see deechee) Word which I have now forgotten, en inglese? which means how do you say...in English, she didn't know, but a man in a back room, at least twenty yards from where we were standing, opens the door, and yells, "yellow cream" It was hilarious. I don't know how he heard us, but sticking his head out, yelling yellow cream, and then shutting the door was too funny for Becca and I. After the crepe shop, we ended up in this piazza, I think it's the Piazza de Santa Maria, but I could be making that up, everything here is named after her. Down a little side street, Becca and I stopped into a pastry shop again checking prices, the young man running the shop helped us with our Italian when we asked how to pronounce stracciatella (chocolate chip) I still can't remember how to pronounce it correctly. He helped us more when we each ordered one euro pastries. His name was Yousef, and as it turned out he was from Iran, we chatted for awhile and discovered he was studying chemistry at one of the universities in Rome. He taught me how to say boyfriend, as I tried to explain to him that Stu was a chemistry teacher. All this teaching was a bit more difficult than it sounds as Yousef's first language is Persian, he knows Italian, (which we know little of) and his English is pretty minimal. For my Tribes of Rome class I have to write a paper on a person who is a minority group in Rome. I was worried about how I was going to meet and form a relationship with someone, but Yousef presented the perfect opportunity. Trying to ask Yousef if I could interview him was a nightmare, but I eventually got my point across and it's a go. Becca and I plan to get to know him, help him with his English, and hopefully improve our Italian. A win win all around. We ended our night at McItaly, as we had coupons for McFlurries. There m&m McFlurries are made out of peanut m&m's and the flavor I ordered had bits of pastry in it, very similar to coco pebbles. There were little cartoon figures hanging in the McItaly, and this one reminded me of one of the Dr. Whos. Doesn't one have a rainbow looking outfit Johnathon? Perhaps I'm confusing it with candyland.

R.I.P Wireless Internet

The wireless internet within our apartment officially died yesterday, and straight up does not work. So blog posts might be a bit sporadic until we get something figured out. Wednesday was a great day, most of all because both of my classes were canceled. My Tribes of Rome professor was in American, and my Art Gallery Management professor was in London. I got to sleep in until ten o'clock, and that was only because my roommates music woke me up :) It was very nice, I spent the day doing nothing in particular, I waited until my roommates were at school to get ready, and I took my time. As I was brushing my teeth, the doorbell rang, and I opened the door expecting one of my roommates had forgotten their key, wrong. It was maintenance, who were pretty tickled to see me brushing my teeth with a child sized space man toothbrush (be jealous). They were full on laughing after I attempted to say 'ciao' and slobbered toothpaste down my front. Whoops. The only thing on my agenda for Wednesday was a meeting with ISA (the company I'm here through) for our first trip. We're going to Florence (Firenze) next weekend. I am incredibly excited to see the Bellini's gates of paradise. Bellini spent forty years of his life constructing three sets of doors, and they are all on the Baptistry in Florence :D After my meeting I headed back home, (did I mention it was cold and rainy) and stopped by Pizza Boom for lunch. I got what turned out to be two fried balls of mashed potato (carb overload, but delicious) and I tried to order a fish sandwich, I was just pointing at things that looked good. Thankfully the woman behind the counter asked me if I was sure I wanted fish, I said no thank you. I'm glad the people at Pizza Boom look out for the students that eat there. I watched two movies online, The lovely bones, which I had started three times before, and Revolutionary Road. An hour or so later the internet wouldn't work. A few of my roommates have a theory that using the home computer kills the wifi, and Becca's computer is broken, so she uses the home computer quite often. Drama is brewing. We'll get something figured out. In the meantime the computer lab at school suits me just fine until it's nice enough to use the wifi outside. Because I had no internet to distract me I was incredibly productive last night. I read for class, uploaded my opera cd into Itunes, and listened to each song in order to properly name them. (I think I'm really going to enjoy this class) I also caught up on journals for my Art Gallery Management class. I waited until Becca went to be to talk to Stu online, and ended up being awake until two thirtyish, luckily I my only Thursday class is at three forty. Today is cold again, but Becca and I are planning on adventuring tonight, and possibly catching a movie. Two of my other roommates leave for Venice tonight to experience Carnivale, which is apparently Italian Mardi Gras, not Halloween. Ciao for now.

I was going to title this Monday, Monday, when I realized its Tuesday

Where has the day gone, time literally flies over here, before I know it I'm going to be on my return flight home, but until then I have many blog post to write, including this one. Today, despite passing very quickly, was relatively uneventful considering I'm in Rome. I woke up 'early' around seven a.m. which in college time is almost the butt crack of dawn :) Class at nine (bodies and burials)was really interesting again, we studied the process of uncovering bodies, and watched a British show called Time Team. This team basically digs up peoples gardens looking for graves, pretty awesome. I had to leave about halfway through the class to complete my permit to stay, which is a document that states that I am legally allowed to stay here. The process didn't take too long, and the only hiccup was when I signed the document with my own pen, which had blue ink instead of black, this is frowned upon apparently, but luckily very easily fixable. I only missed twenty minutes of class which was nice, could have potentially been much more. Next I went to the finance office and managed to spend one hundred and seventeen euros, for my tickets to the opera. Hopefully now that most of the start up costs have been eliminated I will be able to live a little cheaper from week to week. I did a bit of budget planning tonight, and I'm thinking I can live comfortably on thirty euros a week. After my heartfelt goodbye to my money I walked home and went grocery shopping with Becca. And after a little hang out time, and a lunch of apple slices and peanut butter (practically spreadable gold over here) I headed back to class. The monster stairs were noticeably easier the second time around, which is encouraging news. Italian class was a bit of a sleeper today, only because we covered all the geographic regions and their capitals, and it was a rainy afternoon, the second half of class was more engaging and solidified the fact that I really enjoy my Italian professor. After class I walked home in the rain, which is much warmer this week as compared to the last. I can't decide if I blend in a little, or look extremely American. I have had five or six people stop and ask me for directions, so I must not look too touristy, but all the men on the street say 'beautiful, beautiful' to all the American girls including my roommates and I. It's a debate for the ages. This evening I booked both of my Hostels for spring break, and the total for two nights in Dublin and Glasgow each was only fifty four euro, very reasonable. I also got a chance to chat with my mother tonight; it was the first time I've felt a bit of homesickness. Leave it to a mother to bring that out in me. She helped me get here in more ways than I could possibly count, and organized and prepared in a way that only mothers can. I probably would not be here if it wasn't for that, so thanks mom :)I caught up with a few other people from back home, and thought about doing some homework, but now its already eleven o'clock. Time to shower and get ready for bed before talking to Stuart before sleep. I told you, not too terribly of an exciting day, tomorrow will include adventures, and maybe some picture posts for you guys, have a great day everybody !!

Classes Week Two= I like Roma

Today was the first day of my second week of classes. On Monday I don't have class until noon, and as such had plans for my morning. Becca and I were going to wake up early and go grocery shopping, and then I was going to call ryanair and get to the bottom of my flight booking troubles. It is Monday, and so Becca and I decided to sleep in, rather than get out of bed for something so trivial as food, typical college student decision. I actually woke up around ten o'clock and decided that dealing with airline drama in my groggy state was not a good idea. Instead I ate my breakfast, prepared for the day, and went to school early to read for my opera class. I then attended my opera class (which is awesome) where we were informed of the required opera performance dates. The first one falls on midterm week, the week that Stu will be hear to visit. My Professor told us we could bring guests, we just need to pay for the ticket, and sign them up. In addition to seeing a genuine Italian opera, Mefistophele, (that's rarely performed I might add)he is flying in on the day that my Modern Tribes of Rome class takes a tour of the Jewish Ghetto, and I'm allowed to bring him along then too. So he's getting to enjoy about a third of my class field trips with me, pretty cool. We also got our two opera CDs today, I'm pretty excited to listen to them, we'll see how my roommates feel about it, I definitely did not bring headphones. Next was Art Gallery Management, where we covered the assignment for next week for almost an hour, and we had an assignment sheet. It amazes me how many questions people can ask when the information is right in front of them. Our assignment is to follow a specific artists work in the Christies auction on Wednesday. Our professor will be there, buying work for her art gallery. I know its only the second week of class, but I'm starting to realize that this is going to be a pretty stress free semester, which is a wonderful change of dynamic. I do enjoy a slower paced life every once in a while. Class was finished at five o'clock, and I walked home, dropped off my school stuff, and went to do the grocery shopping I neglected this morning. I needed milk, bread, and sandwich meat. I just looked up this sandwich meat, mortadella, and it turns out it is a type of pork sausage with pork fat, black pepper and nutmeg. It tastes pretty good grilled with swiss cheese. I also bought a sweet spread, that seems to be half chocolate and half vanilla, and is a little thicker consistency than peanut butter, but very tasty. Once home I made myself a piece of chocolate vanilla spread on bread, and went online to find ryanair's customer service line. Turns out it costs nearly a euro a minute to talk to a representative, so I decided to give it another go online. Lo and behold I was able to sort things out. I checked my reservation for my original flight which I thought I booked four of, and it no longer existed, presumably due to the fact that I changed it last night. So I booked the rest of my flights, and my total ended up being two hundred and forty dollars, about fifty more than it probably had to be, but not a bad price for visiting Dublin, London, Glasgow, and Milan. I also did laundry tonight, I managed to fit two shirts, four pairs of underwear, and seven pairs of socks in the washer, it's pretty small. I've spent the remainder of the evening working on homework, and talking to Johnathon on msn. He's out of school early due to bad weather, and its just brisk enough for me to need my leather jacket here. I've also been battling my internet connection lately, its been pretty shady, but works well enough for me to get what I need done. Although it's annoying no end to be cut out of a conversation four or five times. But, I'm appreciative of the fact that we even have wireless internet, and all our other technological amenities; makes keeping in touch with home much easier. One of many things I'm thankful for over here in Roma.