A sudden walk

So today marks two and a half weeks since I skipped town and came to Roma. Not that that is particularly remarkable, but I am canvassing the city one district at a time, there's no doubt about it. There's very little I haven't at least walked by at some point as far as neighborhoods go, and last night and this afternoon, I marked a few more off my list.

Last night we had our potluck dinner over at Emily, Jaime, Kalis, and Shana's apartment, which is about 2km away to the north and east of us. We left here around 7, with me bringing a few bottles of wine and Coke light (since after all, there are many more women in the program than men and Alex and A.J, my apartment mates, were the only other guys there) and the guys bringing some Tiramisu and potato chips. I hadn't been there before, and although we're technically in the same neighborhood of Prati, I haven't really explored north all that much. So, the walk there wasn't too bad since I hadn't seen any of it before and it was pretty cool. I found a Chinese food restaurant along the way that looks really good, and a few more speciality markets that aren't too far out of the way to frequent.

We got there about 20 minutes after we left and I met a landslide of people who I hadn't really ever seen before and yet were in the program, so that was cool. The more the merrier, right? We were greeted with Parmeggiano Reggiano wrapped in Prosciutto, which I proceeded to inhale at an incredibly unhealthy rate. But I just love cheese. And I love cured meat. It was awesome, and I ain't complaining. We had some Garlic and Basel pasta for dinner with warm bread and although wine was plentiful, I just didn't really want to drink two nights in a row, just not my style. I had a glass with dinner to toast to, but then I switched back to Coke light. Which, Kirsten, you are very, very right: it is not the same as Diet Coke. By a pretty good stretch. It's not bad, it's just not the same either.

After dinner, I got to play DJ, aka my favorite thing to do ever, really. I just controlled the tunes and set the mood with a bunch of cheesy 90's hits that everyone could sing along with while a rousing match of King's Cup ensued, but it was actually King's Bowl, since there was no cup worthy of being the King's. It's always fun to play but almost more fun to watch, as was my role yesterday. DJ and photographer is fun enough, and throw in some people getting a little tipsy, singing a little louder than they probably would be proud of today, makes for a pretty funny evening.

After that game though, it was around 10:20 and the alcohol was gone, so being the sober one in the group, I led a brigade to a late-night market to refill. It's really, really, (and I'm tossing in a third really for effect) odd to be able to just buy alcohol with no questions asked. No carding, no hassel, it's pretty strange from having a finger wagged at you ever since you're a kid and carding til you're 39 1/2 to not even minding your age and just selling away.

Anyway, after helping carry everything back, I decided it was time for me to take leave and head on home. I was pretty tired all day yesterday, so it was really nice to say my goodbyes and head on back at a respectable hour. Walking Rome at night is really pretty cool. I feel really safe because I know to just stay by the big roads and walk briskly; you can be out til around 11 and not even feel like it's all that late, since everyone is finishing up eating and there are still plenty of people out. And it's just pretty to see at night. I really am living in a different country, and the walk last night by myself was kind of a reminder of that fact.

But I crashed not long after I got home and slept in a bit, and Kirsten and I booked our awesome journey to Interlaken, Switzerland for the first weekend in October. Not to mention seeing Milan on that trip too, gotta love that. We are staying in this really quaint and cute Chalet in Interlaken, and it's only a few hundred metres from the train station. Supposedly, you can leave 5 minutes before your train arrives and get there, walk up and it arrives precisely to the minute, gotta love that Swiss efficiency! I just think that's so cool. But we're also staying in Milan for a night then heading home.

I'm really, really excited for the next month's travels to Athens, Milan, Interlaken, and potentially a few other places, but it's always painfully evident how expensive everything is here. Hoooo boy. It's all going to be SO worth it, but everything just feels more expensive than at home, but that's because it is. Just call me a world traveler, yo.

But yes, today's adventures continuted after that and I headed out towards the Southern Vatican neighborhood by myself for a little adventure. To my surprise, there was a papal speech today, but not from the Vatican. They broadcast it there though, and there were TONS of people there watching it and chanting along after his lead. It was pretty cool to see Catholicism in action, I gotta say. I know the picture isn't all that great to show how busy it was there, but behind me there were thousands of people, it was pretty cool. But you can see Benedict there on the big old Vatican TVs (made by Panasonic with Bose speakers. Take note: if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for you I guess. It says their names in rather large fashion).

But I just wandered around for about an hour and a half, seeing everything over there. There were a lot of really old buildings and some greens, which were nice to see. Lots of really old steps too. And don't forget about turning around and seeing St. Pietro's Basilica every once and a while, now that is a pretty cool thing to see. I mean, it's really just huge, and it's kind of awkward to see such an imposing and amazingly beautiful structure in the same line of sight as a gas station. But that's Europe: tons of history surrounded by the less-impressive modern culture.

But regardless, it was pretty cool to see a lot of what the area had to offer. I really liked the staircases around there, so much so I took a bunch of pictures of them, and even if they're not the most awesome things to be shown, I really liked them, and that's what this blog is about: what, in retrospect, do I think is worth sharing? And the stairs are part of that.

So, you get stairs! Rejoice!

But that was about it for my journey today, or so I thought. There was then a moto parade of some sort that stormed on by me at one point, it was really cool, they just flooded the street and there were hundreds of them roaring along, just like it was no big deal. Unannounced to all of the pedestrians, it was kind of a you-had-to-be-there moment I guess, but still pretty cool.

And that really was about it. I need to go grocery shopping and do some homework, but that's not that exciting. Greece on Friday and just 5 more days of Italian left before the class finishes. Awesome!

Until next time,

Ciao.