Life in Roma

Hello everyone...I am here in London with Mom, Moira, and Kirk and we are having a great time. I'll just update you really quick...

Last Wednesday and Thursday I was basically studying all day and my midterms were alright. My stupid design midterm was crazy. She said that we should "look over the readings", but what she should have said was "say a prayer because you are never going to find the random pointless facts I am going to pull from the readings and ask you about." So that was interesting. My Italian midterm was pretty easy so no worries there. Then I took a shuttle to the airport. It was a bit awkward because no one spoke. It was the driver, me, and three Spanish priests. I had to wait a bit in the airport because I got through security so quickly. I was, literally, the only one in line. It was strange. But the flight and everything was fine. Then when I got to Heathrow, I was in this really small terminal but there were a bunch of people there just sleeping and so I joined them. It was really weird. I slept on the floor and it was freezing. But I had my little pillow and eye mask and a sweater, sweatshirt, and my jacket on and so I was okay. I slept on and off till 5:30AM and then I went to figure out where my Mom's flight was coming in. I went to a totally different terminal which was much sweeter and waited there for them. I was so nervous waiting for them...and it was so awesome seeing them again. I was so happy!!!

We took a car to the apartment, which was about an hour with traffic and such. The apartment is really really nice. It is so much better than staying in a hotel. It is three floors and the middle floor is a dining room/kitchen and living room. Plus, we get internet!! Momo and Kirk fell asleep almost as soon as we got here, but Mom and I walked around a bit. We are a two minute walk from Waterloo station, and we went and visited the Thames and stuff like that. Then, Mom Moira and I went for a longer walk and we saw the Palace of Westminster, the London Eye, the Globe Theater and some other random art galleries and such. It was a nice walk along the Thames. Then we came back and went out for dinner at a local Thai place. It was really good and the service was quick, which was great because we were all starving!! Then at around 8:30/9 we all went to sleep.

Yesterday, we went to St.Paul's Cathedral, which was really cool. It is a beautiful church and you can climb up these really narrow stairs (I was a bit claustrophobic) to the top of the dome. I think that it was 512 steps. It was a long journey, but worth it. The views from the top were great. You could see everything, although I didn't know what a lot of it was. London is very different from Rome because it is a modern city as well as having a lot of history. Rome doesn't have any big skyscrapers or anything really that looks like a city. There are no grey office buildings or anything like that. I kind of like London better than Rome. Maybe it is just because I am on vacation here with the fam. I mean, Rome has a lot of interesting things, but I feel like it banks too much on its history. I don't think that I would want to live there. Anyway, after the cathedral we had lunch and then went to the Museum of London. It was cool because it traced the history of London from pre-Roman times to 1915. The ancient Roman stuff was the most interesting part to me. They had everything from statues, coins, models, blah blah blah. Anyway, it was awesome because the museum was free (as are all the national museums in London) and it was really nice. So by the time we got back to the apartment it was time for dinner. We took the tube (which was crazy!!) to Leicester Square and walked to Covent Garden for dinner. We ate at this little place called Porter's English restaurant. I had roast beef with yorkshire pudding and we got spotted dick for dessert. It was a very English meal for me. Anyway, then we walked to Trafalgar Square and then home. There were so many restaurants and people out and about. It was really interesting and lively. Okay..we are leaving now for Hyde Park and possibly Harrod's!! Cheers!

So...lets see. I am in the middle of midterms currently so I am kind of stressed out. I have already done two and I have three more. Luckily at the end of it all I am going to London!! yay.

On Sunday I did a lot of work. I had to write some papers and stuff like that. We went out to eat as a kind of break from studying and so that was nice. Oh, Rachel and I didn't end up going out to that jazz club because we were just too tired. Anyway, that was basically all that I did on Sunday. It was a really boring day.

Monday I had class really early and I had to give a presentation in Photography. Then we all did our "critiques." In reality though it wasn't even a critique. I mean we looked at pictures that we had printed and just talked about problems that we had had. I don't think anybody is going to get less than an A in that class. Also on Monday I locked myself in the library for many many hours to make a study guide for the midterm that I just took twenty minutes ago!!! I know...right now my life is really boring. Although...I did try some new gelato:

coffee mousse: the mousse variation of gelato is interesting and to be honest it is a bit too rich for my blood. I mean, it isn't cold and it has a fluffy consistency so that it almost tastes like frosting...1.5/5

chocolate with chili peppers: I know, it sounds weird...and it was! the taste wasn't bad per say but it did leave an awful taste in my mouth and it made my throat scratchy like after too many freeze pops...1/5

Today is Tuesday and I have been studying/in class taking midterms all day and as soon as I sign off I am going home to make a study guide for my midterm tomorrow night. Oh life...
So I think that that is it. The midterm that I just took wasn't hard but it wasn't fun either. Oh, I got a test back in Italian on Monday and I got an A so I was happy about that. Thats it for now, I will probably do one more post before I go to London baby yeah! and I am not sure if I will have access to the internet after Thursday night but we will see.

Ciao!

Oh yeah...I am missing two very important events this weekend...one is my family's early Thanksgiving activities at Nana and PopPops and the other is the Kayne West concert at Bucknell...believe me I will be both these places in spirit :)

So last night was a lot of fun. Rachel, Katy, and I went to this place called Fluid. It is a wine and cocktail bar. It was a very trendy place- the floor had a layer of fluid and so when you stepped it squished. Also there were rocks on some walls and some were covered with metal. So...it was pretty interesting to look at. So you have to pay for a drink which is 7 euros and then you can go to a free buffet. The buffet was great. It was all little sandwiches, couscous, pasta dishes, rice balls, and little desserts. We went up about 3 or 4 times. It was great. So we were able to eat dinner and get a drink for only 7 euro which is great. Then we walked home and we made it even though we didn't have a map. When we got home Rachel and I watched a bunch of episodes of Friends and then hit the hay.

Then this morning I woke up early of course. I tried to sleep in but I couldn't really. So I just putzed around for a bit and did some random stuff. Then when Rachel woke up we were in the mood to do something new...so we watched some episodes of Friends. Then we went out to see a Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Piazza Navona. It was really interesting to see. He did a lot of portraits of really famous people like Dior, Martin Luther King Jr., and Marilyn Monroe. Then we had really great salads...mine was called Salchi Papa and it had hotdogsin it...but it was really good. Now I am at school just trying to do work and talking to Andrew. Thats it for now folks...I think that I am going to see a tribute to 20s jazz at this place called Micca Club. I am not sure though.

On Wednesday I went to a conference held at the NATO Defense College in celebration of forty years in Roma. It was a pretty long and boring day. I had to get on the bus at the school at 9AM and the bus driver proceeded to get lost and so I thought that we were being kidnapped because we actually got on the highway and left Rome. We ended up missing the opening remarks and a talk given by professors from Temple. The talks were a little bit too technical for me to follow. They used a lot of acronyms. There were a lot of different talks given by people. We heard from the Secretary General of NATO and the US Ambassador to Italy. At one point I actually fell asleep but I have an excuse. The guy was talking in Italian and we had to where headsets in order to listen in English. Well, I was having a hard time focusing on the English and so I shut my eyes to concentrate better and I accidentally fell asleep. I stayed also for the afternoon session and so I was able to get a free lunch that was great. Then after the next session they had snacks and wine out and so we all filled up so that we could get another free meal. It is so funny because they had all of these little pastries, small pizzas, and then they had pigs in a blanket. It is crazy- for some reason they are obsessed with hot dogs here. It is weird. We also got a chance to talk to some of the military guys who were in Rome taking a class for 6 weeks. They were from all over. I talked to people from England, Germany, and the US. They were very excited to talk to us. So then I didn’t get back to the school until 7PM and I spent some time printing pictures for photography. I didn’t get home till 10:30PM.

Today is Thursday and I spent all morning working on a paper for my design class and then coming over to school early to study for my Italian test. The test was pretty easy and so that was good. Right now I just got out of class and I am answering emails and such until my class in an hour. I also will be doing my application for a Czech visa and going to the embassy to get it notarized. So…that is basically my life. Tonight is going to be fun though because Rachel and I are going out and having a night on the town. Then this weekend I have a lot of fun stuff planned…like studying for midterms and writing papers and such. I also am going to try to go to Perugia one day and eat a lot of chocolate if I have the time.

I am missing everyone a lot right now because it just hit me how long it has been since I have seen everyone. It’s weird because if I were at Bucknell it wouldn’t seem like such a long time. The fact that I am 5000 miles away makes it a little different. That is why I am so excited to see my Mom and Momo and Kirk in one week in London. I can’t wait.

Friday update:
Last night was fun. Rachel and I had a dance party in our room with a couple of other friends till we got busted by the porter who told us that we were too loud. I didn’t end up going to bed that late though- I think that it was like 1AM. Anyway, of course I couldn’t sleep in today so I was up by 9AM though I tried to get back to sleep for a while. Rachel and I watched some episodes of friends and then walked down to the Vatican in search of cheap postcards…which I finally found. They were only 20 for one euro. So…then we had gelato!! I was kind of bummed because since we were in such a touristy area it was kind of expensive, but anyway:

Widlberry: I gave this another try. It was okay. It was more on the sorbet side and still tasted like it had come from syrup…2/5

Amarena (Black Cherry): Though this is a fruity flavor it did not have the consistency of sorbet. Rather, it was quite creamy. I actually liked it a lot. It had swirls of cherry flavor and little chunks as well…4/5

Okay well then, after that we went back and were preparing to get to the school and do work but we got sidetracked by Friends again. Then we had lunch and decided to come to the school. So right now I am at school trying to get work done and the internet isn’t working well and I am about to bust a cap in someone’s butt. Anyway, watching Friends kind of made me sad because I usually always watch it with Momo, Jill, Jennie, and Jnelly and they are all going to be home this weekend. So, I am really missing them right now but maybe we will be able to work something out where I can talk to them all over skype. Anyway, I am just frustrated with work. I don’t want to do any of it. Also, I have to figure out this stupid Czech Visa thing and of course the woman in the Student Affairs Office is not helpful at all. I have to print a form out in color and since my school doesn’t have a color printer I asked her where I could get it done and she had no clue. I wonder if the people here actually live in Italy and know about the way things work here or if they commute from the US. They are really the most unhelpful people in the whole entire world. Anyway, I have a lot to figure out in terms of that and so it is really stressing me out. I guess that is it for now. I should try to finish one or my papers…

So here is the deal for tonight...we are going to a club called Fluid. In order to in you have to pay 7 euros for a drink but you also get unlimited access to the dinner buffet. So basically...great dinner and a drink for only 7 euros. what a steal. we will probably leave before the dancing commences and go home to sleeep. .Ciao..

This past weekend I went on an excursion with my Inside Italian Design class to Milan. It was an interesting weekend. Certain parts were really fun and others really sucked. We had to get on the train at 7:30 AM and so that sucked. Then at about noon we arrived in Milano and we have to walk with all of our stuff to the hotel room because there was a national metro strike. But actually that was not that bad. When we got to the hotel we had about and hour to take a shower or whatever before we went out and starting doing things and in that time period I discovered that the hotel beds were extremely comfortable- way momre comfortable than the beds in my apartment and so that made me extremely happy. Anyway, so Friday around 3 we went out and starting going to all of these showrooms. We went to a lot of famous furniture design showrooms, like Boffi, Cassina, Kartell, Dilmos, etc. Anyway, they were kind of interesting because we got to walk around and try out all of the really expensive furniture but it kind of got irritating, and the couches were so inviting that eventually we all just plopped down on the couches in each of the showrooms that we went to. This did not make the sales people happy because we were lounging on 30,000 euro couches. We went to about 3 or 4 each day and so it was broken up but still it was really boring. Then on Friday night after we were down I went with some friends down to the famous cathedral in Milan and we took pictures of that and everything. We tried to get inside it and up it to the roof but both were closed. Then we did some shopping which was crazy because there were about 4.8 million people trying to do the same thing. We had to head back to the hotel for a group dinner anyway, and so we walked back. About twenty of us went to a very cute little restaurant and I had an amazing dinner which consisted of green gnocchi in a salmon and asparagus cream sauce, vino rosso della casa, and pear cake for dessert. It was amazing and it was not really too too expensive. The whole dinner only cost me 17 euros which is great. Anyway, by the time we got out of dinner and got home it was already 10:30 and so I just enjoyed the comfortable bed for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning we had to be up pretty early but I didn’t mind because we had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel which consisted of all sorts of stuff…my favorite being the chocolate filled pastries and banana yogurt. So…that was a great way to start the day. We actually did two very fun things on Saturday. First, we went to a museum that is not really a museum. There is a famous designer named Achille Castiglioni who died within the last couple of years and his studio was turned into a museum by his family. The cool thing is that they are the ones who run it. So, we went inside and everything is the way he had it when he was still alive because they are still in the process of cataloging everything and trying to scan things into the computer. His daughter talked with us about her father’s life and the way that he thought about design and all sorts of interesting things. He took inspiration from all different kinds of everyday things, and she showed us his collection of stuff that inspired him. This guy was the biggest packrat. He designed all sorts of things from watches to TVs to lamps to hats. Anyway, his wife was also there and she was talking to me as I was looking at this corkboard full of scraps of paper and pictures. The only problem was that she only speaks Italian but it was kind of nice because we were still able to communicate in a way. She was telling me about all of people in the pictures. It was a very cool experience to hear about this very famous designer from his family. Okay, and then after one amazing salad with tuna in it we went to yet another showroom, Baleri Italia, but this time we actually were able to sit down with the Art Director and talk about the company, his life and career path, and design. It was really interesting because he is just so passionate about design and he took over right after the company almost had to file bankruptcy and so it was fascinating to hear him talk about how the company has turned itself around in the past 4 years. Also, he showed us some pieces of furniture and took us through the process of designing and eventually producing the final product which only made me appreciate the piece that much more. So, that was cool. Then we had some free time and we went back to the cathedral and actually went inside of it this time. It was impressive because it was so large and in charge, but it was not as beautiful as the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore that I saw a couple of weeks ago. Again we tried to get up to the top but it was again closed by the time we got there. So…we went shopping. It was actually okay because we went into this cool store and I found a lot of clothes that I wanted to try on but the lines were crazy and so I just said “no thanks” and left. Then I went out for dinner with friends and my teacher accompanied us and so that was okay. She is interesting to talk to but she is also a bit on the eccentric side. Then it was time for bed for me, although some of my friends went out. I was just so tired from walking around all day and I am telling you those mattresses were amazing.

Believe me, the next morning I was glad that I didn’t go out because they didn’t get back till 4 AM! So, they were all dead and I was able to enjoy the “free” breakfast. Sunday morning was the worst because we walked all around looking at buildings done in a style that we haven’t even learned about and then we went to a museum to see a Franck Albini exhibit. Now, you are probably saying who is Franco Albini…and we were all saying the same thing. Out teacher hasn’t mentioned him in class once and we were so confused the whole entire time. After that we only had a couple of hours before we had to be back at the train station and so Amanda and I walked around a park and then grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel to pick up our stuff. Then came the walk back to the train and the 4 hour train ride. I actually don’t mind long train rides. I think that they can be fun and I actually was able to study some of my Italian so that was great.

So…that was the whole weekend. This week I am super busy because next week are my midterms and I have three papers also due. Since everything is squished into only four days I have to get a lot of the work done this week. Also, photography takes so much time just to develop the film and print pictures even though I enjoy it (most of the time). I also have some things planned for this weekend, just local things, and I don’t want to have to do a lot of work this weekend. I think I might go to Perugia on Saturday and eat chocolate all day and have an amazing time. I am not sure of anything yet though.

Monday in a nutshell: I woke up and went to class for 8:30 AM, spent the whole day either in class or in the darkroom and finally got home at 9:30 PM. It was basically the best day of my life. Actually, it was because I got a great package in the mail from my Mom and it had a lot of life essentials such as honey bunches of oats cereal and 3 musketeers bars. It was great, plus people kept asking me if I had bought a gumball machine because it was in Momo’s gumball machine box. It was great. The other reason it was a great day is that I learned that in Bologna somebody had peanut butter gelato with chocolate chunks in it!!! I may be crazy, but I have to go up there just to get some. I think that I am feeling some gelato tomorrow. That’s it for now.

By the time you read this it will probably be Tuesday which means….Happy Birthday to my gorgeous sexy smart cute snazzy freckly studious fun crazy purple glasses wearing RA sister Ali!!!! Yay! Also, I am going to be able to skype her today (Tues) so I am very excited. That’s it for now. Ciao Ciao.

So...I have been stuck in classes these past couple of days. But this morning I did go for a walk and took some pictures for photography. I accidentally went into someone's private driveway I guess and she came out and yelled at me in Italian and so that kind of sucked...

Last night I went out for dinner with Rachel and I ordered lasagna and the half plate of some chicken dish...and out came an entire chicken!! It was pretty intense but Rachel helped me get through it so it turned out okay.

Oh, and I just booked my flight to London where I am going to meet my Mom and Momo and so I am really excited about that. I am also going to spend 7 hours in the airport waiting for them to get there and so that is going to be an experience in itself.

So tomorrow morning at 7AM I am off to Milan for the whole weekend with my Inside Italian Design class. It should be pretty exciting. We are going to see some designer studios (not fashion design) like Castiglioni. I don't really know what to expect so I am excited to see what that will be like. Also, we have some free time and so my friend Amanda and I are going to Il Duomo, the cathedral, La Scala, the opera house, and to see The Last Supper. I will check it out to see if The Da Vinci code was right about the body-less arm floating near Jesus. I think that it will be a good time.

In terms of email and such, I will be back in action on Monday.

Love you all!

Just a small correction...I was actually swimming in the Ligurian Sea which is still pretty sweeeeeet. I hope you all liked the super long post!

Okay, I have a lot to write because I was adventurous this weekend! First off…I ate with a bunch of my friends on Thursday night. Amanda made her own pasta sauce and it was delicious. It was kind of spicy and it was amazing!! She is going to teach me to cook sometime and so hopefully when I get home I will be able to host an Italian dinner party. Anyway, my roommate and I contributed the pasta and somebody else brought down a loaf of bread and some wine and we just sat around eating and talking. It was great to spend time together and also to have a solid meal. Thursday night I went to bed early because our train to Cinque Terre left from Termini station at 7:35 AM

So…Friday morning I had an adventure just getting on the train. We got there with enough time but not a lot of extra time. First we had some trouble finding the actual train area. Then we couldn’t figure out how to get our actual tickets. But no worries because we eventually made it on time onto the train and it was great because the train had 4 person compartments alla Harry Potter and the whole time I imagined that I was going to Hogwarts. I started reading a book which I got from the Temple library. It is On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I have heard mixed reviews about it but so far I have found it pretty interesting. The train ride was 4 hours long but it actually was not too bad because I had my book and I slept a bit.

We arrived in Riomaggiore (which is the smallest of the five fishing villages that are collectively called Cinque Terre) at about 12:30. If you are looking at a map, I was North of Rome on the coast of the region of Liguria. The biggest town that you might see on the map is La Spezia. I was ten minutes away from there. Anyway, we were expecting horrible things from our hostel because we booked 3 beds in a 13 bed room, but it actually ended up better than expected. We were in an apartment style place with a bathroom, small kitchen, and three bedrooms with 3 beds each. So we were able to have our own room which was great. The décor was lacking and the beds were a bit sketchy but all in all it was okay. I also had the hostel sack that Dad and Patrice got for me (Thank goodness!) that protected me from any unknown/sketchy substances or creatures in the bed. Also it kept me warm because it is silk. All in all I give it 5 stars. But back to the trip...we immediately changed into our bathing suits and went down to the super small marina. There is a path like the Marginal Way in Ogunquit that connects the five villages called the Via delle Amore (the road of love). We began to walk along it but stopped only about 5 minutes in to go swimming. We had to scramble down a rocky cliff in order to get to the water but there were already a lot of people down there so we figured that it was safe. The water was amazing. It was not too cold to swim in and it was almost a turquoise color. I swam in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Italy! That is exciting. There was a German family near us who were talking to us a bit and we stayed there and swam and sunbathed on the rocks for about an hour.

After that we continued our walk along the coast. The whole walk takes 5 hours one way and so we decided to just do some of it. We walked through the next two towns which took us about 2 hours. It was great just to walk in an area that is not urban with graffiti everywhere. The views were awesome and we stopped often to take pictures. You should check out my pictures; I played around a bit with the black + white option on the digital camera so some of the pictures look like postcards. By the time we reached the second village we were exhausted. It was about 4 PM and we had to climb a zillion and one steps to get into the village so we decided to head back after getting some water. The walk back went by quickly. I think that it was because we were looking forward to dinner! We stopped and dipped our feet in the water again before eating dinner. Anyway, we ate at an okay restaurant. I had a pasta dish with swordfish. It was not amazing but then again it was only 6 euro so I can’t complain. It was good to have fish.

After dinner we went back to our village and showered. Then we went out for gelato. I had:

Almond: This was pretty good. I think that the pinenut and almond one was a bit better though. I give it a 2.5/5

Stracciatella (choc. chip): I enjoyed this but it tasted exactly like choc. chip ice cream and so I think that I wouldn’t recommend it to someone looking for a unique gelato experience…1.75/5

We also walked around the town a bit which took all of ten minutes. It was a very very small town. Oh, I forgot to say that while we were showering and changing, etc. we met some of the other people who were staying with us. Two were studying in Bologna, one was from South Africa traveling alone, and there was also a couple from London. It was cool to talk to people. We didn’t hang out with them or anything but I just thought that whole idea that we were all traveling or backpacking and staying in this cheap hostel together was kind of cool. So…after we walked around we decided to try some of the local specialty liquor which is called Limonello. Blah! It was gross…I mean I think that you are just supposed to sip it and enjoy the lemon flavor but it was gross. So we ended up getting some chocolate and then heading to bed at around 10 PM.

The next day we were going to go swimming again but then it was kind of cool outside and so after checking out and buying our train tickets to Pisa we walked down to the coast and sat down, taking some pictures and talking. It was a very relaxing morning. Oh yeah, we went out for breakfast and I had a pastry with cream inside and a cappuccino…which I think is basically the most amazing meal in the entire world. I am becoming addicted to cappuccino. In fact…right now I am sitting on a rooftop café that is a block from my school typing this and drinking cappuccino. I love it. So…

We took a train to Pisa, which was only an hour South of us. It was a good sized little city. We only were there for a bit. We walked through it to get to the tower. The leaning tower of Pisa is not at all what I expected. I mean, it is really short. But it was still impressive. We went to the base of it to try to figure out how it was standing and it was weird because it is literally just sinking into the ground. Rachel told me that they stabilized it so that it won’t sink any farther down but it is still at a pretty steep angle. Anyway, we got fresh made sandwiches from a “proud to not be a tourist shop” shop which we ate in the shadow of the tower on the grass. We didn’t take any pictures of us knocking down the tower or holding it up…but we did see a group of fifteen or so Italian teenaged girls doing all sorts of strange things, like climbing on each other’s backs and pushing the tower over and such. It was pretty amusing. Then we slowly made our way down the main street in Pisa, stopping to do some shopping along the way. Our train ride back to Rome was hellish because we took the slower cheaper train but we made it through by taking strange pictures and videos of each other. You’ll see when you look at my pictures if you haven’t already.

So that was my Friday and Saturday…are you ready for Sunday? You may have to take a break and grab a cappuccino…

Sunday I went with a lot of people (and my Anthropology teacher) to a local wine festival in a town called Marino which is about 35 minutes outside of Rome by train. It was a very long and interesting day. We arrived about 3 hours before the planned festivities started. So we first walked around and looked at the quaint little town and stuff like that. Then, we sat down to have lunch. There were roasted pigs everywhere and Italian men were hacking them to pieces and selling sandwiches which actually turned out to be delicious. The meat was much appreciated by my body since I have not been able to eat a lot of meat lately (I have basically been surviving on pasta, mozzarella, bran cereal, and the occasional scoop of nutella). So…we enjoyed our sandwiches in a small piazza and there were many people milling around. It was interesting because this is one of the only times that I have seen drunk Italians. There were huge groups of teenagers who were drinking wine out of two liter bottles as if there lives depended on it…but at least they were having fun. I did have one glass of deliciously fruity red wine which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think that I am starting to like red wine more and more. Anyway, then we went to get a spot to watch the parade was…interesting. There were so many people crowded around to see it and all it was was Italian people dressed up in really cheap, tacky looking medieval costumes. I took a lot of pictures so you will be able to experience the parade. Oh, I also took close up pictures of people in the crowd as I was waiting for the parade to start. I just recently discovered the super zoom feature of the digital camera. There were some pretty interesting looking people there…check out the pictures…they are a an anthropological study of humanity and most are pretty funny. I focused mainly on cute little kids or extremely old haggard women. Okay so, we went to get a cappuccino (I know, I know) and find a bathroom. Then I really wanted to leave because I had a lot of work to do and Katherine and I tried to make the 5:40 train…I mean we really tried. We were pushing through the crowd and then sprinting down these little side streets trying to find the stupid station. Alas, we didn’t make it in time. At the time I was stressed out because I had homework but when I reflect on it today, I really wish that I could have see myself sprinting through the side streets…people must have thought that I was incredibly drunk. O well. It was fun. So, we decided to go back and wait for the next train. Wine was supposed to come out of the fountains in the town at 6 PM and so we went and sat by a fountain. Well at about 6:05 a voice came over the loudspeaker and said something in Italian and then the whole crowd starting booing. I think what happened was that that particular fountain was malfunctioning. So we ended up not being able to see the wine in the fountain but one of my friends said that it wasn’t that impressive. We definitely did not want to miss the next train at 6:40 so we went down to the station. And it was a good thing we did because the train didn’t come at 6:40…it came at 7:40. We had to wait there for about an hour and fifteen. As you can imagine, that made me really really happy. But…I decided not to stress and so I didn’t end up going to school to do homework and things turned out fine. I went to bed early and such and it was nice.

Right now it is 4 PM. I had photography early and I am excited and frustrated about that class. I think that the teacher gives us a lot of freedom, and I like that but he also doesn’t exactly teach us much. I have to rely on the TAs to show me how to actually make a contact sheet, develop film, etc. I am also so scared of wasting the stupid paper that we had to buy (which had better be made out of gold it was so expensive). But today I made some contact sheets and printed a picture. The picture turned out okay. The negative was dirty and so it was kind of scratched, but I am glad that I was finally able to print something. I will hopefully be able to do some more this week…I mean I have to because I am kind of behind the other people in the class. Then I had Italian, which is always fun. Cristiano wanted to know if I spoke French or Spanish because he said that the Italian language comes very easily to me… I think that it is definitely because of all of the Latin I have had. That is all I have done today so far…I have a class in 2 hours and we are watching a movie so I won’t get out of here till much later, probably around 8:30 ish or later if I decide to print some more photos. We will see.

Oh...and the most exciting news of all is that my Mom and Momo (and possibly Kirk for part of it) are definitely coming out in October and I am going to meet them in England for 10 days of wonderfulness. I can’t wait. I am sooooo excited. I am really glad that I will be able to see them. It will be a much needed taste of home at the end of October. So…I have to book my ticket to London (I don’t mean to make you all jealous but it is only going to cost me 50 euros roundtrip!!) soon and that is exciting.

Also, I am not sure if I mentioned this, I just remembered it now. Last week Rachel and I stopped into blockbuster and one of my worst fears came true. In the States, I am always terrified that I will accidentally open an emergency door and set off the alarm. Well… that is exactly what I did and you know what? It actually was not as terrible as I imagined it to be…It was kind of amusing. An alarm went off but I think I just got the “stupid tourists” look and a mutter from the employees. O well…

So that is all for now. Except…I think that I forgot to mention the other gelato that I had…

Mint: This definitely came from a syrup, but I love mint and so I was okay with that. But…I would not wish this on anyone who didn’t like mint…1/5

Soy Cappuccino: Interesting. This was less creamy than the regular gelato and so I guess I would say that if you are in the mood for something lighter but not fruity soy is the way to go…3/5

Okay, that is really all. I love you all and I hope that you are enjoying reading about my life as much as I enjoy telling you. I can’t wait to see you all in 75 days!!