Roming Roma

Man, 3.5 day weekends are long and very, very welcome.

I really enjoy being able to just take it easy and dictate what the pace of my life is going to be again, it's something this summer I really didn't have a huge say over, with the Gap and needing to prepare and living at home. Being at school is a different type of freedom since you really do everything on your own: cook, clean, and work all on your own schedule.

Over here, it's one step more intense, as there's a language barrier and no dining hall, so every meal I am solely responsible, and along with that language barrier, you have to be able to figure things out independently. It's a trip figuring out in basic Italian how to use a complicated Italian laundromat, but I'm proud of my skills being put to the test, that's for sure.

Anyway, back to the independence thing again. I just hung around here yesterday morning into the afternoon, and I ran to the store just to get some food for the day, very basic necessities. But after I got back, I didn't want to just be inside anymore, so I asked if anyone wanted to explore our neighborhood anymore than we already had and see what's around in other directions that we'd yet to really have to travel to. Bert came along, and we set out with only the goal of canvassing the area in mind.

We made it over to where we'd turn to go to the Vatican and instead of going right, like always, we went left for a few blocks. Upon doing so, we ran into a small Desi Indian neighborhood, and little, little shops that had nothing more than a few things in them each, but each having a few different of those little things. For example, we found out a few that had pretty good deals on Coca-Cola, certain fruits, breads, cookies, and even alcohol. It's funny that over here, Corona and Budweiser are like the fine beers, costing like 6 euro a bottle at a restaurant and like 2 euro for a bottle in a store, whereas in the U.S. they're really the lower-end. Like we have to import their beers, we have to import theirs. Likewise, Jack Daniels is big for being the American Liquor, and Europeans always think we want it when we go out. Just little things that follow you around.

But we found an old theater house out that direction along with my first real neighborhood Chinese restaurant. I learned in my Culture and Identity class that Chinese food and Kebabs are like the lowest of the low end cheap food movement here in Italy, and kind of scoffed on by the upper crust of Italian society. But man, it's cheap! The Chinese food is like 4 euro for a plate, which is roughly U.S. prices. Quality I'm not sure of, but they look good enough, that's for sure. From there, it's Pizzerias on the scale, which only dodge that bullet because it's actually Italian in nature, then it goes up from there.

Speaking of Pizza, I went and got some more from my friends at the Pizza e Birra shop. Mike (my favorite of the guys) was working then and he and I talked for almost 5 minutes in almost solely Italian; he was very patient and tried to speak his English too sometimes, and we both laughed at trying to say a few things to one another. He gave me a pretty generous discount afterward and shook my hand again, and Bert laughed on our way out how much the guys in there like me. He told me he went on Thursday and when he walked by and got food, they asked where Craig was. They remember my name and call me by it when I walk by, and they don't give those discounts to everyone, let me tell you. Bert? Nope. Me? You bet.

It pays to be polite and try to work it out. They're apparently not used to that, since Italians turn their noses up at them a bit. Rich families would never let their kids work in a Pizzeria, but they could buss tables at a nice restaurant, just never a Kebab shop or a Pizzeria, it's just unheard of. This class-type system is interesting, and the Fascist, classist ideals a lot of upper-class Romans hold trickle down a bit. I don't mean that in a mean way, either; Fascism is a Political force over here. They crack down heavy on crime and really clean up the streets, but it fosters a large monetary and class gap between the rich and the less wealthy, to put it kindly. I don't discuss politics with Italians, but having been here over a month now and seeing a bit of what goes on in individual neighborhoods, both nicer and not so nice, it's just really interesting. Anyway, I digress.

So I had my big old slice of pizza and came back here to read, and I got the new Office episode on my computer; Kirsten is going to love it, I just know it. A bunch of people last night were watching it after I got it, and all of them were so happy I bought it on iTunes for 2 bucks that they offered to pay me if I'd buy the whole season and they could come over on the weekends and we could all watch it together over a few drinks or something. No joke, there were like 10 people in here last night watching it, and it's just funny to see everyone come together and share in some good old fashioned Americana. You do miss some things a bit, and comedy (along with really anything in English) is much harder to come by over here (obviously).

But yes, today has just been studying and reading up for next weeks classes, Exciting, I know. I hope your weekend finishes nicely, and until next time,

Ciao.