One last day with Kelsey Baye

Three nights on the floor, and nearly forty eight hours without a shower, and I was looking a bit rough around the edges (understatement). Despite my need of cleanliness I couldn't bring myself to get any less sleep than I was already getting. The girls and I were out all day, talking late into the night, and then when they would go to bed I would stay up and talk to Stu for an hour or so. I was a crazy busy weekend, the kind that make you feel like you're really living. Kelsey and I woke up at six fifty so we could get up and to the market before I needed to drop her off at the train station. The market technically opens at six, but many of the vendors aren't completely set up until eight, sometimes later. By eight o five the place is a mad house, and it was nice to experience a calmer version of the market. While not all the vendors were completely finished setting up we did get a chance to see all of the merchandise in it's original organized state, for me this was a new and welcome experience. For Kelsey it was a mediocre experience. I had spent the past two and a half days talking up this market, and the hustle bustle atmosphere hadn't kicked in yet, I think she was rather unimpressed. I felt pretty bad, and I imagine she was exhausted after nearly two weeks of travel. We stopped by the apartment after covering the mile long market in record time, in order to grab her bags and head for the station. We didn't have to wait long for the train, said our goodbyes and I returned to the apartment to take Becca to the market. When I got back she was still getting ready for her day, so I poured myself a bowl of the expensive cereal (very delicious) for some energy. Becca made a gasping noise and informed me that Kelsey's coin purse, which she gave to me for the market, was still in my purse. Becca knew this because luckily Kelsey noticed it was missing, and called her parents in the middle of the night in a panic. Kelsey's mother proceed to log onto facebook under Kelsey's account and facebook chat Becca. I told her I'd meet her at the airport (Kelsey had suggested she meet me back at the station, which makes no sense as she would be backtracking and risking missing her flight) I downed the last two bites of my cereal and ran out the door, I just made the next train, and napped most of the way to the airport. When the train was pulling up to the station I noticed Kelsey was on the same train as I was. In her panic she got off the train at one of the small town stops. In my opinion that was a terrible decision, if a train to a different location had come by on the same tracks she could have ended up anywhere. Luckily she ended up at the airport with her coin purse and made it on her flight on time :) I once again napped on the train ride back to trastevere and this time when I returned to the apartment Becca was ready to take on the market. It was much busier at this point, and Becca had specific purchases in mind, giving our shopping experience a purpose. She was looking for cheap shoes, and we found several good stands, one out shone the rest however, and we both fell in love with cute purple heels with little bows at the heels. They did not have these shoes in either of our sizes however. Becca did find a very cute pair of gray moccasins/loafers. Five euros later they were hers to keep. We explored the rest of the market, with stops at sundress shops, and a price check for an ancient mandolin. I was thinking about purchasing it for Johnathon, but it was two hundred euros, and while I have confidence in my haggling skills I don't think this man was about to cut the price by one hundred and eight. Luckily I found an equally awesome gift for him just around the corner :) After the market Becca and I headed back to the apartment for lunch. I made Becca rice, and after tasting the cheese I added to mine she decided that would be ok too. After lunch we headed over to the Colosseum as Becca wanted a look inside the famous old relic. The audio tour was eleven euros, and as I had already toured the inside I waited on a hill for her to return. Thankfully Stu left me a science magazine to read, so I caught up on all the current science news :)When Becca had finished we set out for the Vatican as she wanted to do the dome climb as well before she left the city. We arrived at five o'clock and I was worried it would be close, the line was still going strong however, so I waited in the piazza (I had already paid for this twice) while she prepared to conquer the five hundred plus steps. She returned to our meeting place half an hour later, as it turned out the elevator was open (more expensive) but the stairs were closed for the day. We planned to return the following morning. We stopped by Old Bridge, supposedly one of the best gelato places in Rome (there are three or four of them). We ordered entirely too much gelato and watched the romans freaked out as the roma soccer team drove by after a victory. We headed back to the apartment and got pizza boom for supper to go along with a quiet indoor t.v. night. It was a nice change of pace from the go go go of the past couple of days.

Let's Make a List

By Saturday Morning Kelsey and Becca had been in Rome for nearly two days and had only seen Vatican City and Piazza Venezia. Kelsey only had a day left. I had my work cut out for me. At dinner the night before we made a list of must see's that Kelsey and Becca had in mind, and I added a few things I thought they might want to see. We started off the morning early, for spring break that is. We immediately began exploring, with our starting point at Piazza Venezia. We walked around the beautiful building and along the roman forum, with plenty of picture stops along the way. I pointed out what I knew, which was very little, and we continued on to the Colosseum. Kelsey wasn't keen on shelling out the eleven euros for a tour, so we walked along the outside and made sure to get a good look at the arch of Constantine, and a not as great look at the arch of Titus, which is in the forum, and off limits for those who don't have tickets. We turned back down the same road we came up on, and this time we walked along the other side, by the imperial forum. There isn't as much to look at on this side, with the major exception being the very impressive Trajean's column. Next, our course took us down Via del Corso towards the Trevi Fountain. We sat and enjoyed the peaceful nature that the fountain manages to exude in blatant disregard of the hordes of tourists that plague it. We moved from the Trevi to Piazza Navona, one of the many roman sets for Angels and Demons. It's a beautiful Piazza with several fountains that I hadn't visited since one of my first weeks in the city. There was a diverse art market in the middle of the Piazza that I wished I could afford. Very pricey but beautiful works. We hung out in Piazza Navona for awhile, and this is the first location we ran into crazy pigeon lady. She was throwing bread to the pigeons and attracted at least fifty of them, it was mildly frightening, but mostly amusing. We also saw a group of Buddhist monks who came through the piazza chanting and playing little instruments, it was pretty sweet. From Piazza Navona we decided to walk across the street to Campo di Fiori, the fresh fruit market and site of past executions, now the location of the french embassy. Kelsey had been looking for fresh strawberries all vacation, and finally found some along with fresh raspberries. Becca and I split a fruit cup with pineapple, grapes, and strawberries. It was a perfect snack to tide us over until lunch. We then worked our way back toward the Pantheon which I had yet to explore. For the size of the building it doesn't take long to see the inside. The monuments and tombs around the inside were attracting a lot of attention, and I almost missed Rafael's tomb. After we had seen and photographed everything inside to our hearts content we finished the short walk to the end of the tram line (with a second spotting of crazy pigeon lady, she had a bike, and beat us to the piazza of the pantheon) We returned stopped by the grocery store to buy supplies for a picnic. Becca and I opted for sandwich bread and turkey with cheap potato chips while Kelsey preferred fresh bread and cheese with pringles. We also bought cookies at my insistence. I just couldn't handle a picnic without them :) We stopped back at the apartment to make our sandwiches and pack away our groceries into our purses. We headed for Tiber Island to sun ourselves and eat our lunch, and overall just take a nice relaxing break in the middle of our arduous day. We shared the Island with students and Italians alike, I'll soaking up the warm roman sun. We sunned ourselves for forty minutes or so, and fed a pigeon our crumbs, which quickly turned into kelsey scaring off the one pigeon turned half a dozen. We eventually parted from our sunny spot and headed back to the apartment as Becca had forgotten her camera. This gave me an opportunity to look us bus routes to St. John in Lateran, the next stop on our list. I knew how to get there on foot, but we had done plenty of walking for the day already. St. John has a side building with a set of steps that Constantine's mother brought back from Jerusalem with her. She claimed they had some association with Jesus, and they are now a popular spot for pilgrims. People come to the stairs to ascend them on their knees, saying a prayer with each step. We decided to pass this up for now, and simply observed the building and stair goers instead. The only person who has ever stood on the stairs is Martin Luther, this site is where he had his epiphany, pretty cool. While we were waiting for our bus back to Piazza Venezia Kelsey purchased some gelato, and Becca bought a few postcards. From Piazza Venezia we walked down Via del Corso towards Piazza del Popolo hoping to get inside Villa Borgese before sunset; we made it, barely. We climbed up to the beautiful park, and after the view of the city skyline I showed them the only part of the enormous park that I know, one of the many pretty fountains. We sat and chatted and giggled at a couple who were aggressively making out (it was pretty intense) We talked about supper options, and decided to eat in again for our budgets sake. We had yet to eat the frozen meal I picked up earlier in the week, and decided that would be a good plan. On our way back to the tram we stopped for gelato at the 'expensive but amazing selection' gelateria on the way home. I don't recall what flavors I got, but I remember they were delicious :) Once back at the apartment we were pretty exhausted from our one day tour of Rome, it was pretty cool to be able to do touristy things, I took a lot of photos of monuments I see once or twice a week, and hadn't bothered to photograph yet. After supper it was time to crash with the promise of an early morning.

The Catholic Church in its Entirety

Kelsey, Becca and I were up early enough to take our cold showers and arrive at the Vatican around nine thirty. The plan was to explore the museum today, and come back for the dome climb and basilica on Saturday. What was not accounted for in the plan was for there to be an hour and a half long line. I'm still not used to it being tourist season in Rome, and as it wasn't free Sunday I wasn't expecting a line at all. Wrong. The line moved quickly, it was just long. We paid our eight euros once inside and set out to tackle this monster. I found that many more rooms were open than when Becca II and I went. We saw so much more in shorter amount of time. The rooms were crowded, but not to the extreme that Becca and I experienced the first time around.We saw the Egyptian rooms as well as the Raphael rooms I thought I had missed the first time around (really Becca and I just failed to turn around and see the School of Athens) The Sistine Chapel was a better experience this time around. People were for the most part respectful of the no pictures rule, and it was decidedly quieter than Free Sunday. After making it through the entire museum in what seemed to me to be record time we were all quite hungry. A conveniently placed Burger King sign was calling Kelsey's name and she kindly ate quickly while becca and I waited to find a less expensive pizzeria. Once we had a little sustenance in our bellies the girls decided they would rather do the entire Vatican in one day than split in over two and trek all over the city. So we passed through security to see the basilica. Kelsey wasn't interested in the dome climb, so once we had seen the all the tombs we were done with state within the city. We made our way over to Castle Sant'Angelo which the Vatican had used as a prison at one point. I had yet to get close to the large circular shaped fortress, and it was nice to sit on the wall overlooking the river on one side and the castle on the other. Becca spotted a skilled artisan, whose trade I won't mention here just in case the work she bought is not for her. We eventually made our way back to the apartment to relax for awhile before heading out to dinner. We came back to the room and looked at Becca's brother's wedding photos for what seemed like hours, there were a lot of photos, and good ones at that. We didn't leave the apartment until eight thirty for dinner, and the first restaurant we tried was full. I took the girls to Buchetto, the only place in the city (that I've found) that has gnocchi all formaggio, which are little pasta/potato balls covered in cheese sauce. The Italian version of mac and cheese basically. I knew that Becca and Kelsey (both picky eaters) would be able to handle this, and it was quite delicious. Having visited the entire Vatican in a day the girls and I were absolutely exhausted, once we had a warm supper in us it was all we could do to stay awake on the tram ride home.

Friends

After the fiasco from picking Jessica up at the airport I made sure I gave myself plenty of time to get to the terminal. I gave myself so much time that I ended up waiting for twenty minutes at the gate before Kelsey Baye found me waiting outside the wrong door. As it turns out there is a door from people coming from EU territories and another door from non EU flights. I was waiting outside the non EU door which is the main one. Kelsey said she hadn't seen Becca as they had taken separate flights. We decided to cover both doors just in case, ten minutes later Kelsey returned with Becca in tow who was carrying a bag, a suitcase, and a painting. We walked down the road to my apartment so the girls could settle in. The previous night my roommates Stephanie's new boyfriend was on the couch. I hadn't counted on his presence as he had spent the previous weekend in our apartment. In addition to the couch not being available, I had originally planned on borrowing a mattress from a girl across the hall, but one of her roommates had guests. So I had nowhere for my two guests to stay. It worked out alright in the end, mostly because Becca II was staying with her family in their hotel. For the first two nights Becca I slept in Becca II's bed, and Kelsey slept in my bed. I piled all my clothes on the floor and slept with the airline blanket I stole. The girls unpacked, and we stopped at pizza boom for lunch. Becca got a pizza and Kelsey and I had suppli. We had a few hours before I had to go to my Italian class, so I showed them the amazing Piazza Venezia, and along the way the cat sanctuary. We had just enough time to explore all the beautiful outlooks, and the free part of the museum exhibit. I had set an alarm on my phone to ensure that I would get to class on time, and the girls came with me. We took the stairs of death, a good work out to burn our suppli calories. Kelsey and Becca sat in the computer lab on campus while I went to class, luckily Italian is only an hour and a half as opposed to my three hour lectures. Once I was done with the only class I had during their visit, we went to Gianicolo hill to see the overlook of the city. It was time to head back to the apartment for supper. We had macaroni and cheese with wine, and spent most of the evening catching up on each others busy adventurous lives. We planned to do the Vatican museum on Friday morning, but not even the prospect of an early morning could get us into bed at a decent time. For as tired as I was after this weekend I don't regret it for a minutes.

So do you like go out and walk on the grass?

Oh dear lord. There is a girl in two of my classes who I talked to once on the tram, and she now finds me in class and talks to me. Which is fine, but she's the type that needs to always be talking, she doesn't like a pause in a conversation. Or to not talk at all. I on the other hand could go a whole class period without having conversations with anyone. So Rosemary in one of the pauses of our conversation asks me where I'm from (for at least the third time) When she discovered I was from Iowa she proceeded to ask me some stellar questions.
For example:
"So do you have like grass and stuff?"
Morgan: "yes...we've got ten acres"
Rosemary: "so do you like go out and walk on the grass?"
Morgan: "........yes...?" (I'm getting confused at this point, like where is she from?)
Rosemary: "oh I'm from long island so we have like no grass."
Morgan: "mmm"
awkward pause.
Rosemary:"So do you have like a tractor?" (Said in the most cutesy condescending way ever)
Morgan: "Yes"
Rosemary:"Ohmigod, that is so funny, that is just so funny"
Morgan:"....." (clearly not amused look on my face)
I was not having her fascination with my small town life, and didn't feel bad showing it, she stopped asking me questions and proceeded to tell me that she and her boyfriend were getting each other snapfish photo albums for their birthdays, this was another conversation we had had at least twice. I was pretty happy when class was over, despite the class being really interesting. It was an onsite in testaccio the neighborhood across the river from mine. We walked all over, and visited the neighborhood square and market, which I already knew my way around.
I went back to my apartment for lunch, a chat with Stu, a nap and a shower. This has become my routine for the afternoons. Art Gallery Management went well, and once class was done I stopped by the grocery store to stock up before Kelsey Baye and Becca I joined me for a few days. I bought expensive honey flavored cereal and a frozen pasta dish as well as bread and jam. Tonight was also opera night. The second and final opera attendance for my class; we saw Tosca. These seats were over twice as expensive and they were well worth the money. It was an incredible show. Better sets, seats, and it was shorter, we didn't even have to take a night bus home. The even better news was that our opera paper wasn't due until the following Wednesday. I was expecting it to be due on Friday, and as I had guests coming my plan was to stay up and crank it out, and just get a few hours of sleep so I wouldn't have to worry about it while entertaining guests. This turned out to be a huge blessing as I'm currently still catching up on sleep.

Momentary Panic

I woke up early on Tuesday morning to shower, and hopefully get lucky with some hot water. After I showered I got to thinking about bodies and burials and how I was pretty sure that we had an outline due. This outline was for our final paper and supposed to be organized by paragraph and two pages long. In other words not something I could throw together for class. I checked my assignment book (which I use religiously this semester)and realized not only was my outline not due, class was canceled. I promptly went back to bed for three hours until ten o clock. It was a great day. I woke up in time to talk to Stu at the beginning of his day, and head to my Italian class. After class I didn't feel like going back to my apartment right away so instead I decided to try the new gelato place that I FINALLY found. This is the place I had spotted on my art gallery tour of Rome and could not find again. On our way back from gelato on Friday night we passed it, and it looked just as amazing as the first time I saw it. I took the tram away from home and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon. The gelato flavors were incredible! They had a huge variety and I got nervous thinking about the limited amount of days I had left and the copious amounts of new flavors to try. I ordered black forest, bounty (which is an Italian candy like almond joy without the almond) and cherry chocolate. The black forest was incredible and I love coconut gelato. It was proving to be an excellent afternoon. I stopped in a few music stores to investigate roman rock bands for Johnathon, I have several prospects to research for vinyls. I went home for supper and made sure that my nine a.m. Wednesday class wasn't canceled before I went to bed.

Buona Pasqua :D

When I said my Easter week only got better from Thursday I wasn't joking, despite poor weather my experience with Easter at the Vatican was wonderful. I had originally planned to wake up and be at the vatican by six in the morning, after my late night I had decided to wake up at six and hopefully be at the st. Peters by seven. In retrospect I'm super glad I didn't wake up at five, when I arrived at St. Peters the line was only thirty people deep, and they hadn't even opened the gate. I waited in line and almost scored a ticket, a nun came around with extras, but the people behind me got to them first. I wasn't entirely sure if I would even be allowed into the square without a ticket, so I snaked by the guards who were checking them taking opportunity of the rushing crowd. The people with tickets were running to get great seats. I was one of four people who didn't have tickets so far, so I got the best standing seat in the place. After standing in the cold morning air for fifteen minutes or so a few ushers came up and handed us (the lady next to me and I) programs; two seconds later they came back with tickets. That's right, I got tickets to the mass, and because we were so early we got great seats. The woman next to me's name was Kate, she was an airline pilot, super cool. Even cooler she shared her umbrella with me when it began to rain. Like I said earlier, the weather was absolutely miserable. The seats began to fill up, and Kate and I were joined by nuns, who shared their Easter candy with us. I told you, this day was awesome, tickets to the mass, an umbrella and candy? Fantastic! The nuns next to us only had two umbrellas for five or six people, and the German people in front of us had three for three. One of the Germans went to the bathroom for forty minutes or so and left her umbrellas behind. After ten minutes or so in the not quite pouring rain the head nun (for lack of a better term) asked if she could borrow the unused umbrella. The German man said no. I think if there's any sure fire way for damnation its not sharing with a nun. Kate and I could not believe it. Mass at the Vatican was an experience it was neat, but decidedly more touristy than spiritual. It was too wet (German mans umbrella drained onto my lap) and cold and crowded to be really enlightening. I did however receive communion. It was pretty cool, priests came down the middle aisle and passed it out, and everyone took turns at the fence line. Mass once again was two and a half hours plus an address by the pope in Italian, that I stayed for anyway. When Kate and I parted ways I thanked her for her lent umbrella and tried to get home as quickly as possible. I was soaked from the waist down, including my shoes. Now that my umbrella was gone my hair was beginning to get wet as well. I made it home within an hour and desperately wanted to take a warm shower, it almost worked. I eventually warmed up in time to talk to Stu who took the time to see me before his family festivities. Later in the day I got to talk to my entire extended family on my mother's side. It was amazing to get to see everyone, and also a little sad. I talked to them for a few minutes and then they were gone, and I was left in my empty apartment with my Easter meal of peanut butter. On Easter monday I once again had the apartment to myself and took advantage of the opportunity to do laundry and not much else, which is why its not getting it's own blog post :)

Easter Week in Rome, Day three

As I'm writing this post fifteen days after Easter vigil mass actually occurred I'm realizing how easy it is to forget the majority of a day. Which is the situation I'm currently in, I can't seem to remember what I did with my Saturday before Easter. This post will most likely be pretty short, bear with me until I'm caught up.
What I do remember is that on this morning Becca's family flew in from the states. Her mother grandmother and sister came to visit for a week. Consequently I saw very little of her for a week. Most of my roommates took advantage of the three day weekend to travel, choosing not to stay in Rome for the festivities...crazies. I had the apartment almost entirely to myself for this weekend, which was really quite nice. Easter vigil mass didn't start until eight thirty, and once again Matt and I met in the gate house. We had more time to chat on the way to mass as it was beginning outside. At the NAC they start the mass outside the church with everyone surrounding a fire, the candles are lit and then there's a procession into the church, it was very cool. For as sad and somber as Good Friday mass is, Easter vigil mass is equally uplifting, after the once again two hour long mass I was practically skipping out of the church. Going to church has always been a great, but being in a room full of people who have dedicated their entire lives to god creates an incredible experience. The singing once again was phenomenal, it gives me chills. I'm so grateful that I get to attend mass there and hear these guys sing. It is absolutely amazing. It was pretty late by the time mass had ended, and very dark. I really dislike taking the buses, so I walked, and about halfway through my walk I became uneasy, and wished I had taken the bus. The streets were poorly lit, and I was walking by myself. I made it just fine, as a slightly faster pace than I would usually take :)Once I was on the tram line I felt entirely secure and promised myself I wouldn't do that again, probably for the best.

Good Friday

My Holy week in Rome only got better from Good Thursday. After staying out late the night before visiting the churches I slept in on Friday having nothing of vital importance to work on. Having no school and no conflicts meant I would be able to attend mass at the North American College: i.e. mass with Matt. He agreed to meet me at the gatehouse of the college ten minutes before mass started at three thirty. I left my apartment super early not wanting to take any chances given the disastrous attempt Stu and I made to find the college. It's a fortyish minute walk from my apartment, and I made it in plenty of time. When getting dressed for this mass I realized that I was going to stick out like a sore thumb in a church full of seminaries dressed in all black, but there was nothing I could do about it. Even if I had an all black outfit I'm still a girl, and that is certainly not helping my case. I ran into my friend Stephen in the gatehouse, who had wisely donned black pants, shirt, and jacket. He blended so well I couldn't pick him out of the crowd during the mass. I was slightly jealous. Matt showed me into the church, and immediately upon walking in my ears were greeted with a truly heavenly song. I honestly think the NAC has the best choir in Rome, it was absolutely amazing. The amazing vocal talents of the deacons and priests were just the beginning of an incredibly spiritual atmosphere that surrounds each NAC mass. I had forgotten how incredibly intense Good Friday mass can be, and it was very long, two and a half hours of mass we had made it through. During the mass I was reminded of just how bad of a singer I really am, not only was the choir amazing, but in this church full of men, not a single one was out of tune/ off pitch. I'm a horrible singer, and it was opening my mouth was difficult, I didn't want to ruin the beautiful sounds that were coming from everyone around me. Not only am I a bad singer, but I don't speak Latin. In church at home it's not a big deal, because no one speaks Latin, and we all mispronounce it together. These guys are fluent, and I didn't realize how poorly I was pronouncing some of these words until everyone around me was doing it correctly. Over all the mass was very moving, the music was incredible, and it was very passionate. The congregation was very somber as it concluded, and Matt and I made plans to meet again for Easter vigil mass the next night. I found Stephen after mass, as we had plans to meet Becca for stations of the cross with the pope at the Colosseum. We had a little time to kill so Stephan showed me this beautiful fountain that is just behind out school, we sat and chatted until it was time to meet Becca. She has spent the day at the Italian mall, and brought our friend Joey along with. We all set out for Termini station where Stephen had to pick up friends from Florence. The bus we took passed the Colosseum and it was already packed at six thirty, the stations didn't start until nine. Joey and I stopped for dinner at the train station, we both got suppli (deep fried mozzarella,rice, and marinara sauce)and iced tea. We missed Stephen's friends getting off the train and had a momentary moment of panic, not sure what we should do. However, they found us in the station (we have no idea how we missed them) and we walked down to the Colosseum. It was nearly eight o'clock now, and it was really packed now. We found a place on a hill just next to the arch of Constantine. The Holy Father was on an elevated ridge technically located in the forum. There was a massive illuminated cross next to the tent he was sitting under. We stood on the hill chatting for the hour before the program started,and then listened in sober silence once it began. The titles of the stations were announced in seven languages, the same as the ones during the papal mass I had been to earlier in the week. The reflections/ readings that followed were only done in Italian, and then there was singing in lain after each one. The time passed incredibly quickly, and though we didn't speak Italian we were each left to our own imaginings of the serious events that happened so many years ago. It was a pretty amazing experience to hear the pope go through the stations of the cross while looking at the Colosseum. While at first it seemed a strange location for a church service, I later realized it was more appropriate than I thought considering the blood that was shed in the first years of the Colosseum's existence. After the service concluded we took Stephen's friends for some roman gelato at gioliti. We met up with even more people from the AUR and shared stories of our various spring breaks, a bunch of the girls had taken ryanair for their flights, and had horror stories that made me missing my flight sound like a walk in the park. We headed home for the night before the trams shut down and turned in after a long and emotionally intense day.

Holy Thursday/ Thank you Deacon Matt!

Thursday was a day for sleeping in, which was much appreciated. I didn't have much on my agenda for the day other than go to class and then Mass at an American Perish that Deacon Matt told me about. I woke up around nine or so, (I'm guessing, my morning was not productive, and as such not very memorable) After my non productive morning of doing nothing, I headed into my Italian class. It was canceled on Tuesday, and this was the first time I was having it this week. Holy Thursday mass was at six, and across town; my class doesn't get out until five. I asked my professor if I could leave early to go to mass, and he told me that had to be the best excuse he had ever heard. About a third of our class showed up today (attendance in all my classes was pretty terrible this week) so 'everyone must be at mass' became the joke of the hour. Professor Maurizio let class out fifteen minutes early (without giving back our midterms) and I waited for the seventy five bus, the same that betrayed me on the way to the airport, to take me to termini station. From termini The church was a ten minute walk. I waited fifteen minutes for the bus to arrive, and it took all of fifty minutes to get to termini station, quite a bit longer than I had anticipated. I only had a few minutes to get to the church I had never actually been to before. I booked it, and arrived a minute before mass began. The church was pretty packed, and I sat in the back next to a very kind homeless man. Mass was good, I wasn't a big fan of the singing, which was pretty disappointing. The songs are one of my favorite parts about worship. The music at this church was complicated, and not difficult to follow along with, and for some of them the crowd was not allowed to sing along with the choir, which was small and difficult to hear. The man I was sitting next to had some kind of leg injury/handicap, and was unable to go up to communion. I asked if he was going, intending to offer him my arm lean on, but he made a gesture for me to go on, and I was afraid I had offended him. I was wrong. At the end of the mass he wished me a blessed Easter, and it was the sweetest thing anyone had said to me all day. It put a huge smile on my face. In addition to giving me information about English speaking parishes, Deacon Matt gave me a ton of additional info about Holy Week in Rome. On Thursday night, he informed me, the churches of Rome remained open until midnight. They had one of their side chapels decorated for the last supper, and people walk around to appreciate the decorations and pray in several churches. The first few I tried were still in mass, and although others were coming and going I couldn't bring myself to intrude. Instead I stopped for gelato (not exactly within the fasting recommendation, but I was very happy, and being happy makes me want gelato...as does being sad, grumpy, tired, cold, hot, hungry...) I made my way towards the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia, planning to walk along Corso (the shopping street) knowing there were several churches in that area. The first church I was able to go in I had visited for class. It's located between the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia, practically inside the roman forum. I went in and began my prayer fest for the evening, focusing on a few specific members of my family and friends in each church, and reciting the few prayers I know by heart. This church also had olive branches (what they pass out on palm Sunday) to take in a box outside. This made me pretty happy as I had missed mass. After ten minutes or so I moved on. The next two churches I tried of off Corso were still in Mass, but then I hit the Jackpot. I went into an absolutely massive church on Corso, and then visited the kind of catholic church I had been attending before meeting Matt. Next I turned off Corso onto Via Tritone towards the Trevi Fountain and found three more churches. These were all extremely intricately decorated on the inside. I enjoyed viewing the entire church as much as the specially decorated chapels. One church even had a full table set as if for a re inaction of the last supper, it was pretty neat. There were many people coming in to show their devotion, it was nice to see that despite the statistics you read, many Romans are practicing Catholics. I even saw some of the same people from church to church, it was a very peaceful reflective evening. After the three churches on Via Tritone I turned back down Corso and tried some of the previously occupied churches. I was successful with a few, one of the main ones, however, was closed. On my way to the top of the cake topper building in Piazza Venezia (there's a church there that Stu and I visited together) I walked by an open door under scaffolding that I had never noticed, and realized it too was a church. This one was small and simple, no crazy intricate adornments or ceilings, no frescoes on the wall. This church had plain white walls, and a crucifix above the alter. It was a nice change from the heavily decorated churches that are typical of Rome. My last stop of the night was the church above Piazza Venezia. I ended up seeing ten churches total, only two of which I had previously been inside let alone knew existed. It was an amazing night of prayer that I will remember for years to come. I really enjoyed this tradition, but I don't think it's one I'll be able to enjoy in the states in years to come. On my way home I took the tram, and entered at the same time as some very loud American girls. They were crazy obnoxious. I couldn't tell if they were intoxicated or just unintelligent. It was painfully obvious that they were American, and all the Italians were staring. I was sitting across from a girl, and we had a moment of eye contact in which we recognized each other as fellow English speakers. We had a mini conversation with our eyes that went something like this:
"Oh my, that's a great representation of our country."
"I know, we should probably keep our mouths shut to keep from being associated"
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is embarrassing"
"definitely not, it is not that hard to be respectful of another country's customs"
When I left the tram she smiled and said ciao, which I returned complete with a smile of my own. It was a nice encounter, despite the crazy American girls.
I ended up getting home around eleven o'clock and was greeted by Becca's excellent impression of a parent, she was waiting for me in the living room and said, "oh hello, and where have you been?" This made me giggle, and I told her she would make a great mother some day. I'm really going to miss her when we're done in May, she might be my favorite part about Rome. With her living on the east coast it's not likely I will probably see her often, if ever again. That makes me feel like crying ( I don't know what is wrong with me), but at the same time I'm glad I've made such a good friend in the first place.

Benedict, Morgan; Morgan, Benedict

That's right, I met the Pope today, sorta. I did meet up with Jessica and her friends outside of their B&B at eight thirty on Wednesday morning. I had agreed to attend the papal audience with them as my Wednesday nine a.m. was canceled, providing me with a rare opportunity to be blessed by the pope. We walked to the Vatican together and stood awkwardly outside the gates for half an hour trying to figure out if we needed tickets to get into St. Paul's piazza, or if you only needed tickets to sit in the pre set up chairs. Everyone going through security had tickets, but we couldn't be sure. Finally an American woman asked the guards the question on our minds, apparently we were allowed to get in. We went through security with no troubles and found a central position right up against the rail that separated the chairs from the standing room. We were quite early, but that worked out in our favor. Once the audience started we saw a German marching band enter at the beginning, and listened to the pope address the crowd in seven languages: Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese,and a mystery one at the end that sounded like it might have been Russian or polish. My bet at the time was on polish as I was pretty sure that was where JP II was from, and I didn't think there was a large population of Russian Catholics. However, at the Easter service Russians were definitely addressed. It was a really neat thing to be able to witness, and we had a pretty good vantage point for the ceremony. At the very beginning of it The Holy Father rode around the crowd in his popemobile, waving and smiling at the cheering crowd. I do not have pictures of this...sorry. But! Jessica does and she has a much nicer camera than I do, so I will be stealing her pictures off of facebook once she uploads them :)After the mass we parted ways with plans to meet at seven for dinner and one gelato with one last trip to the trevi for the girls. I went back to my apartment and prepared for Art Gallery Management, and then walked up to the school for my last class of the day. Many of us had questions for our professor regarding our frustrating projects, and we got no sympathy, and little feedback to our curiosity. We were assigned groups, and luckily I was put in a group with a guy who knows what he's doing; he's interning for a gallery right now and has a great knowledge of modern art, he also knows a local artist. So hopefully this project wont be as difficult to coordinate as I'm anticipating. We'll see. I fell asleep a lot in this class, it was not good, I couldn't even tell you what the lecture was about, granted I'm writing this almost a week later, but still pretty inexcusable. After my less than satisfactory midterm grade and daunting project assignment I have very little motivation for this class. After class I had a little down time in my apartment before I met Jessica and her friends for supper once again. We went back to old trastevere to a different cheap restaurant. I really like these places, you can get a pizza (like a large thin crust) for three euro, and a huge pasta dish for five euro, it's a sweet deal. After dinner we went for Gelato and I had much better luck with flavours. I can no longer remember what I ordered, but I know I stayed away from all things pink, and it worked out well for me:) We sat at the trevi for awhile before heading home. The girls had an early flight, and my full belly was making me sleepy. I said goodbye to Jessica promising a summer picture exchange/get together.

Typity Type Type

That's how most of my Tuesday was spent. But first I went to my Bodies and Burials class to receive my final and listen to a three hour lecture. This was the final I thought I might have gotten a hundred percent on. Wrong, ninety one. Closish. I got full points for my four page essay, and even a good essay written at the end :) that was pretty cool. I missed points on the short answer section, even though I filled the space, I apparently missed a key point in each of them, oh well. My annotated bibliography for the final paper was returned to me as well. I accidentally put it in alphabetical order when she had apparently asked for order of importance. I think this bibliography made her suspicious of me as well. In her comments she asked where I was finding my sources (google scholar, which is harder to use when fifty percent of your results are in Italian, and the BVU library online databases) She also wrote that you can only use an essay for one class, leading me to believe that she thinks this is an essay I've previously written and am recycling for her class. This made me giggle as the thought of having an archaeology class in Iowa is quite hysterical (although to her credit I am writing about the civil war) Paying attention in class has been proving difficult this week, my transition from spring break to class is not going as well as it did the other way around. Imagine that. After class I headed back to my apartment and talked to Stu at the start of his day. I procrastinated my paper for an hour by taking a nap and browsing the internet, before really cracking down. I was nervous that reaching the ten page minimum for this paper was going to be difficult based on what others who had started were saying before class on Monday. I was pleasantly surprised to find that material came willingly enough, it just took a good chunk of time to write out. I also discovered that I didn't need the notes I had taken during the opera as much as I had expected. For writing this paper on a show I had seen about a week and a half ago, I managed to remember details much more vividly than is typical for my crapshoot of a memory. I wrote from three in the afternoon until ten that evening with a couple of half hour facebook breaks. I was pretty pleased with myself by the time I was done. Finishing any length of paper is always a pleasant feeling, but the longer the better. I didn't proofread it, like usual, and I'm anxious to get it back to see if what I wrote aligns with what the professor is looking for. I wont get the paper back before my next critique is due, which is a bummer, but it will be nice to have a majority of my course work done for this class. Because of my lengthy paper, and because I procrastinated it I accomplished little else on Tuesday, despite this I still feel like it was a productive day.

Goodbye Break, Back to School

Today was my first day getting back into my school routine, while I was not looking forward to adjusting to school work again I was very eager to get my midterms back. While waiting to get into opera class many of the girls revealed they would just rather not know. I don't care if I think I've done great or terrible on a test I want to see the results so I don't have to worry about it any longer. As it turns out my opera midterms was my highest scoring test, ridiculous. I missed a good deal more points on the listening section than I suspected (I mixed up the mezzo soprano with the soprano, whoops) and only missed one in the multiple choice section. That was some lucky guessing, I literally guessed on seven out of ten of the multiple choice and got all but one right, awesome. I got seven out of ten points on my essay, not bad and I received eight points on the extra credit. Overall a ninety three percent. Kinda sad that it was my highest scoring midterm, but at least I got mostly A's. We also prepared for our next opera performance: Tosca. The class just before we attend the opera is canceled for Easter Monday, so we watched Maria Callas (who was apparently a very big deal, I had never heard of her) perform the most famous scene from the opera. I think I'm going to really like this opera, almost everyone dies in the end, and I'm a big fan of tragic endings. After opera it was time to head to Art Gallery Management. I did not do as well on this final as I had anticipated, I think I only scored an eight four. The professor scored things differently than I'm used, and I'm going to have to prepare accordingly for the final. We talked about our final project today as well. I'm not terribly excited for it, at all. The project is to arrange a gallery style show. When I read about this in the syllabus I imagined that we would be provided with a space,and that there might be some sort of exchange with the school's small art department. Meaning we would have to use what we had learned to show that we could put together a well spaced and themed show. Not the case. We are given no such amenities. The class is split into groups of four or five and we are charged with finding an artist, a space to display the work, and not only arranging the work but attempting to sell it. Admittedly this would not be as difficult if any of us spoke Italian, or weren't study abroad students who have no connections to local artists or venues. Not to mention the money were going to have to pour into this. I realize that I paid over one hundred euros for opera tickets, but I was forewarned in the syllabus. I've already purchased fifty euro worth of books for this course, and now I will be paying for possible printing fees, hanging supplies, and maybe even venue rental. I'm not very please. In fact the details of this project have turned me off of this class almost completely. For as specific as this course is to my major I'm not comfortable not enjoying it, It makes me wish I could still take Issues in Arts Management back at BV, because I don't appreciate the way this class is being handled. I'm not sure what we will be learning about in the next month, but I highly doubt that it's how to properly hang paintings, I'm very glad I came into this class with experience, I would be even more stressed if I didn't already now how to do some of the basics. For venues our teacher recommended restaurants that we have connections to. Which would be fine except this will go against absolutely everything we have learned about the modern 'white cube' gallery space. This project is going to be a pain in the neck I think, I'm not looking forward to dedicating my time to it. In happier news once class was over I walked home and checked my email to find that Jessica and her friends wanted to meet at six, it was already five forty, and it usually takes awhile to get anywhere at this time of night, let alone across the river to the Vatican. I rushed out the door, and made it ten minutes late. I had offered to walk them around some of the major sites, but they had paid to do one of the forty eight hour hop on hop off bus tours, so they had already seen much of what I anticipated to show them. I took them around the Cake topper building in Piazza Venezia, as they hadn't seen most of what was behind it. We then started to walk down the main shopping street for gelato and then Piazza del Popolo when the girls told me they wanted supper first. We turned around and headed for old Trastevere, which has several very good, and very cheap restaurants. We had pizza and pasta, and it was incredibly filling, and nice to sit and eat with good company. We traced our steps back to Corso, the shopping street and I took them to Gioliti, one of the best Gelato places in Rome (at least it has one of the best selections)I actually found a Gelato I didn't like, which is absolutely nuts. I had to throw it away (I'll give you some time to digest that information) I made the mistake of ordering something for its color again. Mistake, again. It was pretty pink, and grapefruit flavoured, I couldn't eat it. I tried, but it was too gross. Hopefully that will be the first and last time I have to throw away gelato, it made me sad. We walked to the end of the tram line together and said good night to the girls. I wouldn't be seeing them on Tuesday night, I still had my massive opera paper to write, but we decided to meet Wednesday morning to go to the papal audience together.

Tears for a fourth time?

No way, but it came pretty darn close. I woke up on Sunday at eight o'clock so I would have time to shower, eat breakfast (If I had breakfast food) and relax a bit before taking the train to pick up Jessica. I laid in bed for twenty minutes with my computer, catching up on emails when I noticed my laptop said it was ten thirty. That's weird. And that's when I grew some braincells. My phone, which needed no updating because it was on London time, was actually two hours behind roman time at this point. London is an hour behind Rome, and daylight savings time skips ahead an hour. Oh no. Jessica's flight was now landing in the airport, and it's a thirty minute train ride, that only leaves twice an hour. I rushed out of the apartment, in my sleep shirt and jeans i threw on. I managed to catch the ten forty five train to the airport and was an absolute mess all the way there. I didn't know how long these girls would wait for me, and I assumed since I had only offered to pick them up at the airport yesterday that they had a back up plan; at least that's what I was hoping. I made it to the airport and dashed to find terminal two. This was different from the one Stu had flown into (which is the biggest arrivals terminal). I found terminal two after many escalator rides and walks through lengthy sky walks. Terminal two is tiny, and has no arrivals section. I searched around in hopes that my initial scan had missed them; no such luck, they were definitely not here. I didn't know if they had left the airport, or if the terminal two arrivals was located somewhere else. I immediately went to terminal three, where stu arrived and searched through the people their. I circled it two or three times as there were plenty of people milling around I could have missed them the first time. I checked the arrivals board and they were all terminal three arrivals. I didn't even know where they were flying from, so I had no idea how to find out where they were, if they had waited for me in the first place. I looped back through the train station to check for them there before doing a second check of terminal two. I then found terminal one which is arrivals, but they weren't there either. I repeated this process a few times, with checks around the taxi's buses and just outside the airport doors, hoping desperately that they weren't lost. I felt so incredibly guilty for being late. Rome is not an easy city to navigate, and if they were lost trying to find their hostel I would have felt absolutely terrible. I didn't know if Jessica had a phone, and if even if she did I didn't have her number, and even if I did I had left my phone on my bed in my mad dash out the door. After nearly two hours of combing the airport with no luck I accepted defeat and headed for the train station. My plan was to call my mother and ask her to call Jessica's mother to see if she had a cell phone (or if one of her friends did) that I could reach her at. As I was walking through the train station I saw Jessica running toward me. Thank God! I was so relieved. Apparently they had given me the wrong terminal number, and had been searching for me, they didn't even know I was an hour late to pick them up. These revelations made both of us feel much less guilty, and really we were just so relieved to see each other. I told them there was no need to buy train tickets, which was what they were in line to do. We boarded the train to my neighborhood, and Jessica and I caught up while her friends slept. We had to stop at my apartment to look up directions to their hostel, but we were soon on our way. The girls were pretty exhausted so they opted to stay in for the night and we planned to meet up on Monday night for dinner and a walk around some of the sights. Once I was back home it was two or three in the afternoon. I had a ten page opera critique to write f0r Wednesday, but I didn't feel like doing it, so I didn't. I spent the rest of the day relaxing once again, and doing a whole lot of nothing. I don't remember eating on Sunday, but I must have found something. By eleven that night I was minorly concerned by the fact that Becca hadn't returned from her trip to Spain. Just as I was about to write on her facebook wall ( the only form of communication we have, and really good for nothing) she walked in the door and we immediately caught up on our roomie time, sharing stories of our breaks before falling asleep early in the morning.

A Saturday Much Improved From the Previous

Indeed, it's hard to top a truly sloth day in which you only leave bed twice, and those times are only to attempt to feed yourself. Very relaxing, this spring break was definitely the kind that makes you think you need a break from your break. Spring break was awesome, and if i had the chance to do it again, I would have booked it just as full, but it was really great to have a day to recover from it. I sat in my bed in my pajamas all day blogging. I didn't think catching up my blog would be very much work as I had kept hand written entries in my journal. It was more draining than I would have expected, however. I wrote ten entries over the course of the day, and was exhausted once again, mostly due to the fact that I have almost no groceries. I literally had rice, lasagna noodles, mac and cheese (which I'm saving)tea and frozen vegetables. I didn't have enough motivation to make rice, talk about lazy, so I was ecstatic to find a bun left over from when Stu and I had our lasagna night. I put the last of my butter on it, microwaved it, and poured a sugar packet I pilfered from one of the spring break restaurants over top. It was amazing, and the source of my nutrition for the day. I really should have gone out for groceries knowing that on Sunday they would all be closed, but I didn't. Instead I stayed in my pajamas and talked to Stu, and arranged to pick up my friend Jessica Williams, who is studying abroad in Whales, and a few of the other girls in her program from the airport. They were spending the first few days of their three week spring break in Rome, and I had helped them pick out their hostel a few weeks earlier. We figured out the details, and I agreed to pick them up at ten thirty, meaning I wouldn't be able to attend a Palm Sunday mass (disappointing but doable). The clocks switched for Daylight Savings time during the night, but I didn't have to change my phone because it was still set to London time. I once again prepared for a full night of restful sleep.

One more flight

And I managed to make it back into Italy with no complications. After waking up and quickly getting ready for the day, I checked out and made my way to the bus station. I bought a blueberry muffin for breakfast and napped most of the way to the airport. The same went for my flight, I alternated looking out the window and attempting sleep. Once in Milan I took another bus to the train station. I found a ticket line and had my eurail pass validated, I was a little nervous that I wouldn't use it properly, but the man at the counter stamped it with no problems at all. It took a little work for me to adjust to communicating in Italian again, after a week in English speaking countries I was more than a little rusty with the minimal Italian I knew to begin with. I made my way up to the platforms found a train to Rome departing immediately, whose doors closed as I was making my way along it. Whoops, luckily a train for Rome leaves every hour so I had a little time to relax. I had originally planned to see the last supper by Leonardo while I was in Milan, but I discovered in Glasgow that a reservation even for sole travelers was necessary, so I decided to get back to Rome a little earlier than planned. While I was waiting for the next train to depart I searched for some pizza, something I had avoided eating during my spring break. I found a place outside of the train station figuring it would be much cheaper, and was immediately welcomed back into the familiarity of Italy; AKA: I was hit on in a creepy fashion. The men at the place I ended up going to found out I was studying in Rome and proceeded to say things like, I would come to Rome for you. One of them told me I had a 'sweet mouth' and then he and his friend said things in Italian I couldn't understand. Oh boy. I managed to get my pizza and leave as quickly as I could after lying to one of them about having a phone. He wanted my number and I wasn't giving it to him, but I wanted my pizza. It was delicious, and much thicker crusted than Roman pizza. After finishing that I bought an Ice cream treat from a place inside the train station and before I knew it the next train for Rome had arrived. I walked along the train boarded a compartment that said coach two on the outside. I figured that meant second class. This train was nice! like reclining comfortable seats, plug in for phone chargers or laptops, it was pretty awesome. I took my seat and after watching others check for seat numbers and contemplating the comfort of this compartment got to thinking maybe this wasn't second class after all. I man took his seat directly across from me and I asked him if this was second class with the help of my ticket. He shook his head laughed and said no. I thanked him for saving me from embarrassment once the ticket takers came along and went to grab my things and move. He stopped me, checked his ticket, and told me to stay. He showed me his ticket which had four seats reserved. He was getting off at the first stop, but let me sit with him until then. So I was able to sit in first class in my comfy seat with this wizened business man (who had a sweet mustache) who paid for my ticket. He didn't even try to hit on me, or make conversation. He simply winked at me when the ticket takers came around and let me nap and eat my first class crackers in silence. It was awesome. After that I moved as far back in the train as I could ensuring that I would be in second class. The next stop was only forty five minutes away and no one checked tickets for this leg of the trip. For the third round I discovered that I was on an express train, and eurail only gives a discount for these, so I had to pay an additional eighteen euros. Bummer, but it could have been much worse, like if they had charged me from Milan to Rome instead of just for the last bit (thank you business man). The big plus is that I made it from Milan to Rome in a little over three hours which on the slower trains takes more like seven hours. Awesome. I also met a Turkish man on the last bit of the trip. He woke up at the second to last stop and had no idea where we were, he frantically asked me if this was Rome, and I assured him it was not. His English was good and we got to talking. He owns his own marketing firm and was in Milan for business. He took a week off to travel after his trip, but told me about his yellow lab back home that he was missing. This was the first time he had ever been away from it, and he carried a picture with him everywhere. It was pretty cute. He shared his Turkish nuts with me (insert dirty joke here). And told me that his city was famous for them, and that usually they are eaten with whiskey. Much to his surprise I whipped out the mini bottle of Scottish whiskey that we were given on out highland tour. His eyes lit up and we shared the whiskey and nuts and chatted for the remainder of our journey. As it turned out his hotel was in the neighborhood I lived in so I agreed to help him find it. We exchanged emails and screen names before the train arrived in Rome. I showed him the bus we would take, and helped him buy a ticket. The hotel I was hoping would be his was not, so I invited him back to my apartment so we could look up directions online. It wasn't too complicated, and he was soon on his way. He emailed me once he had arrived and thanked me for all my help. I was absolutely exhausted from my trip, and crashed in my bed almost as soon as he left. I set no alarm and was excited to get a full night's sleep in my own bed.