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.