Maybe, maybe not

Ciao everyone, I hope your weekend is going splendidly, I am having a terrible bout of non-internet-itus, which has symptoms of no blog, limited homework ability when resources are only available online, and high levels of frustration. There's nothing like faulty internet to really mess with your day; it's almost worse than just not having the ability to access it, since at least that way you know it's not there and you don't depend on it.

But yes, internet struggles aside, this has been quite the eventful weekend here in Roma. Friday was great fun; I went out for our friend Vicki's birthday, and she was turning 21, and in true American fashion, you must celebrate that birthday as it allows you to go to drink legally in the states (although it really doesn't matter over here and Italians really don't understand the fuss). But yes, she wanted to go to Hard Rock Cafe, and I am not the biggest Hard Rock Cafe fan in the world, since I always feel like it's just ok and a little overpriced, but that's when burgers, fries, onion rings, ribs, etc, can be accessed easily.

This is not the case in Italy.

And they were very, very good.

We were a group of 13, and we couldn't all fit at one table, so we split into two groups. The group pictures will hopefully ok, but I know the internet's so bad that I'm not expecting much. If they do though, I'll be quite excited.

I've got one! These lovely people are, from left to right, are Jaime, Alysha, A.J, Kalis, and Shayna. A.J, as you may remember, lives with me and is one of my 4 roommates, and goes to UCSD. Another Triton is Jaime, who I have Medieval Rome with. I know Shana, Kalis, and Alysha just through A.J. and some other mutual friends, but it was a good time.

Group 2! That's me on the left, along with Sarah, Natalie, Marcela, and Alex. Alex is another roommate of mine, and Marcela and I have a few classes together and have hung out a few more time. We've got Science and Religion together, along with Emily, who's taking the picture. Bert refused to be pictured, for reasons unknown, but he was there too.

The food was really pretty tasty. I made Carbonara that night and so I wasn't intensely hungry, so I split the starter plate and a bottle of wine with the table, and the starter plate had lots of Chicken Tenders, Barbequed Wings, Onion Rings, Spring Rolls, honey mustard / barbeque / sour cream, which I've missed horribly, and even a bit of fresh vegetables.

Yum.

Everyone else ordered dinner but I was so full I restrained and just sung along with the music coming through the speakers. It really felt like America in there, and I don't know if that's an awesome thing or not, but it really felt pretty nice to just be able to relish in the kitschy and familar music, food, and language.

It was Vicki's 21, so we all covered her drinks and food, but between the 12 of us, it was only a few extra Euro. I got no such treatment on my birthday, but then again, I woke up in Athens and had too much fun there, and I've got no complaints in that department.

From there, we went over to go to a club, but we met up with these Italian girls on the Metro who spoke no English, only Italian and a little French. They invited us to this student club, which was in Garbatella, or a slightly-sketchy neighborhood, as it's lower-income student housing for the Sapienza, or the Roman University. We wandered through this kind of industrial looking area and wondered if we were about to have our kidneys harvested, but we got to this club, and it was really, really popular with the young Italian crowd. We waited in line, but our Italian friends got us inside quicker. My hunch is that they were promoters and we were roped in, but hey, it was a good time.

It cost 15 euro to get in, and yikes. Whoa. Expensive. For guys, anyway. Girls it's a Euro. Reeeeeeeeal fair. But it came with a drink, which are otherwise expensive, so once we got inside, it was all fun from there. We were there for a few hours until the early morning hours, which is too late for my blood, but it was a party and we all had some good fun before returning home and crashing out.

I had to get up for the Papal summer residence tour, which was AWESOME. I'll post pictures later as I can't right now, but I'll come back to this, I promise promise. Maybe even tonight my time if it picks up.

But yes, I think I'll stop there for the moment. Next blog will contain Papacy excitement and visitors too, but until then (maybe soon),

Ciao.