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.

Weekending

Ciao everyone and happy Saturday to you all, I am apologizing in advance for the fact that today's blog really probably won't be all that exciting if you like monuments, stories of the grand beauty of everything around me and really, pictures in general. I didn't see anything new today with my Saturday, I thought originally we might all head to the beach and see the Mediterranean, but it didn't materialize for one reason or another.

Tonight I have a potluck to go to which should be a lot of fun. It was my job to bring the drinks, so I'm bringing a bottle of both red and white wine, a two-liter of Coke and another of Coke light. I don't know if everyone knows this or not, but over here, Coca Cola is similar, but not the same to, Coca Cola in the US. It's sweeter, but not by a ton, and I think it has a bit more bite to it, which I don't really mind. Somebody mentioned it might be New Coke and it just never got switched back like in the states, but I can't verify that. Coke light, as Kirsten will tell you, is not the same as Diet Coke either. It is zero calorie, but not the same. Just something kind of interesting to wonder why it's different.

But yes, potluck tonight over at an apartment of some people in the program. It should be nice. I'm looking forward to some good cooking, and I know that some of these girls are in fact good chefs since the menu sounds a little too intense for some people not knowing how to cook.

I've learned pretty well how to budget everything here. I mean, since last weekend when Travis and Camille were here, I've spent about 5 euro a day on food, which isn't toooo bad at all. I go out for pizza once every few days (I could seriously eat it every day, I don't know why we don't have it in the U.S. the same way they do here. I mean, don't get me wrong, New York style pizza is fantastic and Escape From New York is still the best on the planet, but this whole type in general is just so good). The pizzas I've become really fond of are those that don't actually have salsa di pomodoro on them, or tomato sauce, but instead use olive oil on a foccacia style bread. The two favorites so far are Prosciutto e Mozzerella (but the actual Mozzerella cream, not the shredded) and the Sausage pizza. It's really, really good.

So good, in fact, that last night I had eaten my budgeted amount of food and although I had snacks I could eat, people wanted to have a few drinks and I didn't have a full enough stomach for that, so I got a HUGE square of pizza from my favorite Pizzaria just down the street near the Vatican. The two guys work there all the time and I have got to know them since hey, when you find good pizza, it's tough to turn it down. I mean, they see me walk by on my way back from class and they'll call out to me and say ciao before I can even see them. They know (unlike the grocery stores) how to treat returning customers.

I had my pizza back at the apartment with some Prosecco, or a speciality Italian Wine. I didn't know what it was until I got here, but it was really good. It was a girl in the apartment complex's birthday and I know her from the program, so everyone had a few drinks and around 12:30 a large chunk of people left for a bar, while about 10 of us declined and we just stayed and chatted. Twas a nice environment, for sure. And good prosecco.

But yeah, due to a late night last night, today was pretty slow for everyone. I just slept in a bit and FINALLY didn't get up to an alarm (it'd been weeks, it was glorious), organized everything around here, got cleaned up, and just relaxed, watching some F1 (it's so popular here that everyone watches). I went shopping today too and got some diversified foods for the week (fruits, some bread, and eggs). Oh, and a tangent: they don't chill their eggs here. It seems unsanitary, like asking for Salmonella. But, when in Rome . . .

And that's pretty much it for today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll go do something awesome, like go to the beach, but who knows. I am sure this time next week I'll have something really exciting to report, since I'll be in Athens! Woohoo! Can't wait for that, let me just say.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and until next time,

Ciao.

Return of the Friday

Hey everyone, I hope all is going well back home and that Portland in September is as beautiful as I remember it, I gotta say Roma so far has been lovely and everything I'd hoped for and more, it's just this damned heat. I mean, it's so tough to really acclimate to, I'm sure I'm much, much better than I was when I got here, but I gotta say I'm excited for the climate change that comes with the end of September and having it be at least cool enough to put on a jacket every once and a while if you know what I mean.

Today it was very obvious from the outset that it was going to be very, very warm and tougher to deal with than normal. I walked out the front door today and it was so humid, you could just feel the sticky, warm air in the shade cling to you and you don't know when it happens, but it definitely hits quick: you just are sweating and profusely. I mean, very rarely do you actually feel beads of sweat roll down your face when you're just walking around. But it does. A lot.

After I made the trek to class and wound up very warm once I got up there, we just launched right into our monstrous test that we had for today. I mean, yikes. I feel like I'm absorbing a lot of grammar, and I know a lot of words, but the conversation ability still lags a bit. We don't have the time to practice it in class since we just have to keep on learning new things, and I do, I'm learning a ton and fast. But applying it is tough. I use it at the store, I use it to get by, but as far as actually describing myself, who's in my family, where I go to school and what I'm studying, I don't ever talk about that out of class, and so the conversation segment is tough. Understand what's asked of me? Absolutely. Choose good words? You bet. Put it all together into a structurally strong sentence? Ummm, sometimes. Compound that problem with adding French into everything when I don't know, it comes out a jumble sometimes. And that is not a good problem to have on an oral. But she knows I'm working hard and trying to get better, my professor, that is, and that's good.

I think part of the reason it was tougher this week is that it's been 5 straight 4 hour days of language learning, so about 20 hours, with no real break or chance to digest it. This weekend will be good for that, I do believe.

I went and did a little shopping today, and I got absolutely chewed out by a grocery store lady for her mistake of putting Bert, my roommate, and my groceries on the same tab, even though they were separated by about 4 feet of space. I proceeded to tell her loro sono differente, mio spesa c'e loro, or those are different, my groceries are these ones. She glared and rolled her eyes and acted like the apocalypse had arrived. She then tried to give me incorrect change and I got a little angry with her and said, no, spiacce corrette, per gratzie, or correct change, please. She growled and gave it to me.

I was quite angry, but after the fact, I was quite proud of myself. I know how to handle my business, and oral struggles or not, I made it out of a jam with the correct change and the right groceries.

But really, that's about it. It's just a week til Greece, and I'm beyond excited for a new adventure over there. I'm also excited to have the weekend here finally, and to be able to relax a bit. Now, to just save some money this weekend . . . people want to go out to a pub or bar tonight and / or tomorrow, but a lot of us are just like "why go out when you can spend a tenth as much (no joke) and have just as much fun around the apartment area?" Then we realize we're in Roma, that's why.

It's a difficult line to walk. It's a balancing act.

But really, that's about it for today. Nothing too exciting. We have a potluck to go to tomorrow, so that should be good, and we might go to the beach tomorrow, which'd be really cool, but outside of that, should be pretty quiet around here.

Until next time,

Ciao.

Tests, Exams, and Laundry

Ciao everyone, and happy Thursday morning to you all, although it's almost 5pm here. What have I done with my Thursday? Well, I got up for class and got ready, rolled out to class and finished day 9 of 15 of the practicum, which is good. Today also marked our second of three compositions in class that we had to write, which was good as well. It had to be 100 words, and I feel like I did a pretty good job on it. Got to love learning Italian.

After it got out, I wandered back in my very last clean T-shirt (yet I have about 10 long sleeved ones clean, it's just too hot to wear them) and got everything together to make a laundromat run.

Laundry machines are the same here in many ways to those in America. I mean, they have a place to put your clothes, a place to pay for the load, and a few seats to sit on while they wash. However, this becomes much, much more difficult with Italian signs that read water temperature in degrees Celsius, do load sizes by kilograms, and the soap conversions are in tablets to soap, and I was lost pretty quickly.

To make matters worse, I had only a 50 Euro bill from the ATM (or as they are known here, the bancomat. Say it with me now, Bahn-KO-maht. See? Not too hard) and if you remember my conversations on this matter earlier, people here at stores HATE giving change for large bills. I mean, I understand why, but come on, don't roll your eyes at me. I mean, if I could choose 2 20s and a 1o every time, I would. Trust me! But I can't!

The laundromat had no way to break that fifty, so with a huge sack of clothes, I went 2 blocks to a pizza shop and ordered some pizza and a drink to break my big bills. But it was a neighborhood pizzaria, meaning they spoke no English whatsoever. A problem? Not with 9 days of Italian under my belt! I asked for the size, got a drink, and paid and apologized for the lack of small bills, counted my change and went back with my clothes to do my laundry.

I did my laundry, and talked to a fellow laundromat-er in broken Italian (I did pretty good though, I've gotta give myself credit) to figure out how they worked the machines and started my load, which was a double machine load, and cost 5.50 euro to wash. I sat down with my pizza and watched some MTV that was on. Now, MTV over here does very little reality TV and a whole lot more music, but it also serves as a--wait for it--anime channel. Yeah. Anime. Japanese anime shows, dubbed in Italian. What a treat for my Thursday afternoon! I just watched tv and studied a bit of Italian, watching my clothes all the while, and 40 minutes later, I loaded up all my wet clothes and treked triumphantly back to my apartment a few blocks away with a bag full of damp (yet clean) clothes.

Hey, I wasn't about to pay 5 more euro, or a dinner out, to dry them when it's so warm here. I did this about 2 hours ago and they're getting pretty dry pretty quickly. Gotta love the weather for that anyway.

Now, television commentary from yours truly. To sum it up: it's pretty much the most awesome, hysterical, and sad happening I've had since I came here. Italian TVs don't work the same way as American ones, you have to insert a channel number when you turn it on to get it to work. We didn't know this, so we assumed our TV was broken.

2 weeks later, I fiddle with it, and voila, it works. Cool, so now we've got TV. But what's on, you ask? Well, I am glad to inform you that we get about 20 channels, 3 of which are newsy in Italian, CNN international, and a bunch of network style channels that show a few American shows dubbed in English every night. Good ones sometimes, like Friends or the Simpsons, and other times . . . well . . . like the early 90s tv show Renegade. Yeahhhh. No wonder Italians have such a skewed view of what Americans are like. I've never seen it before, but after a little research, I am simultaneously humiliated and patriotic that such a terrible, terrible show could ever be shown (and get 5 SEASONS? WHAT?!) in the U.S. I mean, Vince Black and Billy Sixkiller? Are you kidding me?

Hysterical, moving, terrible. Renegade!

But after the laundry, I just watched Sarah Palin's speech to the RNC because hey, I give equal time to both sides to make their case, even if I know who I support. She spoke well, and she did a pretty fair job up until a point I dropped my jaw in disbelief and went on a ten minute rant to Bert, an apartment mate of mine, about how screwed up it was. She said 'our opponent is more concerned with someone reading terrorists their rights' than bringing them to justice.

Wait, what?

Hold up.

You just spent half an hour talking about how the founders wanted this and that from our country, and what America stands for, and how we should be proud no matter what of our country and its history, and here you are slamming a guy for wanting to ensure that the laws of the Constitution--something our Founding Fathers actually wrote and therefore we can know they believed in, unlike say abortion. I was so angry, I still haven't calmed down. Listen here, honey: you are lucky to be born in such a country that you must have your rights read to you. You know them at any time, and you know exactly what you're charged with the second you're arrested. Wanna know how important the founders thought THAT was? Um, let's see, ENOUGH TO WRITE AN ENTIRE AMENDMENT FOR IT! I mean, seriously: slam him for what you will, but upholding the highest and holiest document in American law is NEVER something that you should be slammed for. Ever. Period. End of story. Your son is about to go off to war to support these very rights we are so lucky to have in a country that we supposedly went to war believing they needed, the ones that your opponent is so convinced need protecting. I bet if your husband were pulled over for another DWI you'd want him to have his rights read and stand trial, wouldn't you?

If you think you could write a better Constitution, one that you could say no to sex education while your daughter gets pregnant from a lack of knowledge about protection, one where you can create all the pollution you want and make it a law the global warming can't happen, and one where you can arrest people and throw them in jail without habeus corpus, then go back to your original party of Alaskan Secessionists.

EDIT: Oh, and just for fun, check out this:

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/09/jon-stewart-ann.html

Best. Video. Ever. END EDIT.

Rant over. Sorry about that. I just hate when people say things like that. Our country is so amazing because our rights are protected, Sarah Palin. And may we never forget that.

Anyway, off for today, and until next time,

Ciao.

Eastward Adventures

Ciao everyone,

Today is the day that marks the return of pictures to the blog, woohoo. I know it's been a few posts without them, but frankly, I have posted lots on here and have around another 300 or so on my albums, and I take a pretty routine route to class each day, so after I've documented it, there's not a whole lot to comment on that's new and fresh.

Today, however, I did some fun things. Today marks the over half way point of my Italian Practicum, and today my professoressa turned us loose on a scavenger hunt with only the name of a obscure monument and we had to head there and write about it and come back. My group of four today was assigned to Piazza Mattei, or one of the hundreds of piazzas with a fountain here in Roma. I've heard you can see a new church or fountain in Roma every day for over 5 years, and to be entirely honest, it doesn't suprise me in the least.

Anyway, it was about a 20 minute walk east of our study center, sending me to a side of town I had yet to see. Rather, more just of a gap in my ever-shrinking unseen map. We had to cross over a few busy streets, which is pretty much the gnarliest activity here in Rome, no joke. You have to just work up the courage the first few times and just walk when you know you have the right of way (that being in a crosswalk or when there's a signal in your favor), look the driver in the eye, and just go. They'll stop. It's a little unnerving, and you can get clipped just slightly (like I was last night on my grocery run by a Vespa. The guy apoligized profusely, since it was his fault, but he only hit my bag at a very low speed. No harm, no foul).

It doesn't bother me anymore. It did originally, for sure, but it's just part of life here. You get used to it.

Anyway, we crossed several piazzas and streets and finally came to Piazza Mattei, or this little square with Fontana Tartughe, or Turtle Fountain. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the turtles on the sides, it's pretty. It's not huge, and it just gets lost in the jumble of the fountain / sculpture / piazza madness here. Everything is so astonishing that if it were anywhere else, like Portland, for example, it'd be famous, but in a city full of them, it's easy to lose.

There's a bar there called Bartughe, or a portmanteau of Bar and Tartughe, or Turtle Bar. It's apparently a bumping club for authentic Italian Apertifs and people who actually live in the area, much better than all of the tourist-catering places. Is it expensive? Of course. Everything here is. Like 8 euro a mixed drink, 6 euro for 660mL of beer. But it's normal. It's part of life.

After documenting the fountain, it's time for the walk back to the study center, and it was really, really hot out (like always) so we decided to swing out a bit wider and catch some shade, maybe something cool, on the way back, and I'm glad we did. It was actually shorter, which is always cool, but we saw this incredibly odd thing that ranks up there with one of the more strange things I've seen since I came to Roma, if not ever, really. Before I describe it, just look at the picture and take it in. It's millennia old, these ruins, and they are right in the heat of everything here. They're called the Torre Argentina, and they are spectacular, I mean, if you check out this picture just under this, you can see, they are absolutely just sandwiched into the modern Roman life and yet they are totally, 100% there and looking awesome and very ruins-like, which I really dig.

But they aren't just there for ruins-sake: they are a stray cats shelter here in Rome.

Wait, what?

Yeah, a cat shelter. Rome has always had a history of having tons of stray cats, which I guess is the case today, and they used to wander into these old ruins and eat all the mice and rats (which I have seen) and really do no harm to the structures. So, they are now protected within the walls of these old ruins, and if they make it in there, they're welcome to stay and they receive medical treatment, food, etc, from a volunteer organization.

Hmm. Wow. Just odd to me, and so utterly cool. I mean, historical ruins that look so cool, and they're a cat shelter? Just awesome.

After that interesting moment, we all just walked back and made sure she saw we actually went where we were told, and I came on back to just take it easy and do some homework. Just another day in Rome. Tonight I'm going to make some Tortellini con Carne al Pesti and it should be. . . interesting. Cooking is fun, especially with all of these spices, cheeses, and cured meats, it's an experience, no doubt.

But yes, that's about it for today. I was really glad to hear Kirsten's getting settled in Athens, her pictures are awesome so far, and I can't wait to go check it out for myself in 9 days . . . no big deal. Just going to Athens.

Right on.

Until next time,

Ciao.

Progress

Ciao everyone,

I am really not that interesting most of the time, I really am being honest. Sometimes, I just have class and come home, do homework, and socialize. It's difficult to really to get into the depths of this life. But I'll go into a little bit of what my day looks like, who I live with, and how I roll on a daily basis.

So where to start? I guess with waking up. I wake up around 8 to leave for class at 8:45, and usually I just eat some breakfast, shower, maybe shave, and get ready to roll. My wardrobe is shrinking since I really do need to go do some laundry soon, but it sucks since half of my clothes are still unworn. How? I packed for the fall/winter too, and since it's been about 90 every day, I can't wear them yet. I suffer through my jeans every 2-3 days just to make sure I can switch up the look and not always be in shorts since shorts aren't really all that Euro-fashionable. Camille saw a mannequin, however, that was dressed in shirt, shorts, and flip flops, and remarked how similar to me it looked and I had a pretty good laugh at that. My style as Euro? Please.

I can tell that my clothes for the winter will be slightly--operative word being slightly--more stylish for the winter, since jeans are really popular, check, and I have a few long sleeve shirts that look pretty Italian.

Well, I guess I should take an aside to describe a bit of Italian fashion: it's expensive, chic, and for men, it really only looks all that good if you have a bit darker skin, anddd assuming you all remember vaguely what I look like, that isn't me. I mean, I know it's been a while for some of you, but seriously, it may be baking here, but I'm about 8 shades away, a nose, and a few cheekbones away from looking somewhat Italian. But up the street there is a shop that sells some shirts that we all agree look pretty Italian and wearable, and the guys I live with and myself have decided it may merit a purchase if for no other reason that to all look like some sort of poseur, psudeo-Italian team as we'd match.

Yeah, you can tell we're pretty cool.

Anyway, yes, so after getting dressed, it's 3.5 hours of Italian classes, which is forcing me to get a little better giorno a giorno a italiano. It's not coming easily, but it's not incredibly trying either. My French background helps a lot, but it's a gift and a curse at the same time. I substitute words I don't know with French and it doesn't help at all. Pronunciations? It's French. It just takes practice, and I'm getting plenty of it. The grocery store? I'm doing even better. I even got a laugh today from someone while there in my really trying to do well, and it's close enough now that it is understandable, albeit laughable.

But yes, class, then monument sighting (not today, however) or homework and shopping / meal making. Exciting, I know. It sounds like it could be in the United States, going to school back in San Diego.

But I'm not. I'm in Roma.

Today marks just 10 days left until break and heading to Athens! Woohoo! And my practicum is 7 days down, 8 to go. Yeah. I'm really glad to hear KK's getting settled, I'll go check it all out in a week and a half. I'm so excited, I get to see Rome, Athens, and Cairo while I'm here, or the three big ones. The second three are London, Paris, and Barcelona, which I hope to acheive at some point.

But yes, that's about it I guess. Pictures will probably come back tomorrow. Until then,

Ciao.

September starts

Hey everyone, happy Labor Day back home, it's officially as early as it can, so all y'all heading back to school had a nice summer, and everyone else can enjoy their day. I know Kirsten is now in Athens, and congrats to her! I had to get a few things figured out to call her, like I needed to dial 00 to get out of Italy, THEN I could call her. But got it all under control now, woohoo.

Just a note I wanted to say: I posted ALL of my photos on a free and easy sight that's tied to Google, or Webpicasa. The link is here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/NoMomentWasted

So check them out! More pictures than you'll ever know what to do with, trust me.

Today was just back to school after a day of kinda vegging yesterday and we got our tests from Friday back, and so far I'm an A student for Italian. Whether or not that's an actuality and a trend that's going to hold, I'm not sure, but I sure hope so. It's worth a whole class and change of units, and it only lasts three weeks, so I've already made it through 6 of 15 days with an A, so that's a good start I suppose.

After class got out, we had to stick around to hear about our classes for the actual term, starting after the first week long break (or the 22nd). I have class on Monday and Wednesday from 9-11, 11:30-1:30, and 4:30-6:30, which is a longggg day. I probably will have to leave around 8 and not get back until around 7:30, but that's ok I suppose. Just pack a lunch and have dinner when I get back.

The 9-11 is The History of Medieval Rome, which is an Art History and Architecture Class. Yeah, not really my forte, but I'm pretty excited about it to be honest. What better place to learn about Medieval Roman Art and Architecture than IN Rome and seeing it firsthand? It has about 10 site visits during lecture times during the 9 weeks of class, it's going to be wild. I have to book it on the bus several times to make it back to class on time, which is a good trial-by-fire to learn the system over here, which is confusing as all get out, to be 100% honest. I'll figure it out though I'm sure in no time, just do it once and it's easier, 10 times it's a breeze.

The 11:30-1:30 is Culture and Identity in Italy, or a Anthropology course on the nature of life in Italy and how it evolved into such. It's going to be a really nice insight into why things are the way they are here, and I have a lot of questions, so they'll be answered and I can update you on many things. I kid you not, one lecture is "A Critical Examination of the Roman Emphasis on Fashion." Yeah, KK, you listening?

The 4:30-6:30 class is Science and Religion in Italian Culture and History, taught by a professor who also happens to be a Priest. I am really, really interested to see this one. He lists in his biography that he's an intelligent design supporter and believes science and religion are completely compatible, should be really cool.

And finally, I have Italian Class again in the regular class times on Tuesday and Thursday from 9-11, so my weekends are going to be much longer as they begin at 11am Thursday. Awesome, more time to travel / relax. Excellent.

Woohoo, I'm really just getting into class and moving forward in that department. I know, not the most beautiful post or entertaining, but certainly important to update on. And don't forget the pictures! They're fun. Next blog will address my travel plans I've got / am planning and I will definitely take requests for pictures and / or souvenirs! (and donations for my travels can be directed to my mother hahaha).

Until next time, ciao!