Oh, you speak English?

So today made me very happy for a litany of reasons. Firstly, today is only a day until I leave to go be with KK in Athens. I am far too excited, and I can't wait to be in such a historic place, one of the few in the world that makes even Roma look young. Secondly, Matt Damon's comments on Sarah Palin were fantastical in every way. If you haven't seen them, please, do yourself a favor and do. It's a very intelligent, honest, and eerily funny (not actually funny, since it's too honest-to-God true it does make me scared).

But really, I had a pretty awesome experience today after I got out of class around 1. We studied ALL class period for the exam tomorrow, worth only 40 percent of my final grade, no big deal. Our class was absolutely put through the ringer, and I felt at the end of it like I was sitting pretty nicely for the exam tomorrow. That is not to say that all night after I blog (and make dinner) I won't be studying, since I will be. Until I go to bed. How grand!

After that monsterous 3.5 hours of review, I just went for a walk to take a break. I walked over towards Piazza Navona, a rather famous Piazza which is home to the Fontana dei Quattro Fiume, or the Four Rivers Fountain, one of the alters of science in Angels and Demons, for those of you who have read that. I just walked over there about 5 minutes after I got out and just wandered around, taking a few pictures and checking out the arcitecture of the buildings surround the Piazza (they're Baroque and apparently a focal point of Baroque architecture, no big deal, right?). It was really cool to know that it's just right there, a few blocks away.

There are several fountains in the Piazza, but the biggest Quattro Fiume is under construction. Lameeee. But I still got the Obelisk in there, it's the center of the picture to the right. And I just like how all the fountains here are user-friendly as far as drinking out of, how awesome is that? Not to mention refreshing.

But from there, I browsed some of the artwork for no one in particular, and there were literally 2 dozen or so stands around vending their artwork, and I decided to ask about the cost, and of course, in Italian. I asked, he responded, and I told him what I was looking for, and he showed me a few things that I might like, and I mentioned how hot it was today and he laughed, saying he'd been out there all day. I only had a 50, and he went in to break it but gave me my purchase as leverage, came back, and I was getting ready to leave the stand when these two tourists did exactly what tourists do: speak in their native tongue, in this case, English. But they were talking a few feet away, and I overheard their conversation about how they wanted to have someone take their picture, and one of them gestured to me, but I was speaking Italian and they didn't know how to ask. So, they came up and asked if I could, and I said "ok"

They did not know I knew English at that point, and I was curious if they did or not. So, I counted to three in Italian and took the picture of them, smiled, and handed them their camera back and I told them (in English) to have a nice day, and they both looked surprised I spoke English, and affirmed that by saying:

"Oh, you speak English! How many of you over here do? It's impressive!"

Yup. So I fooled some tourists. Pretty awesome. Now for fooling the people who actually live here. That's much more difficult. I told them I wasn't from here, just lived here, and they were impressed. So cool for me, I suppose.

I wandered back here and got some money from the Bancomat (or the ATM) I took out 100 Euro, which before cost me 149 bucks a few weeks ago. Now it cost only 141. Or 8 fewer bucks. SCORE! Here's to hoping the Dollar keeps going up and the Euro falls a bit more! Anyway, I made my away, dealing with the insanity of heat today: 32 Celsius with 100% Humidity. Whew. I'm really going through laundry quickly, that's for sure. I always feel like a shower is a good idea, but I joked with the vendor about how hot it was and asked when it cooled down and the tourists leave, as if they were connected. Maybe they are, who knows?

That was sarcasm, by the way. I really like tourists (so was that).

I got back here around 2:15 and had to fix the internet for the whole floor by telling the front desk they needed to give us the new codes, which I then had to help everyone figure out how to enter. I really am just doing it all today I guess.

But yup, that's really about it for today. I think I'll include another picture of my walk home since hey, why not? I am leaving for Athens tomorrow and I'll probably get a quick update in before I go, but I'm not sure how plentiful the updates will be while I'm over there, so just know that much. I'll post my infinite number of pictures when I get the chance, fear not! But as always, until next time,

Ciao.

What 13 days of Italian feels like

Ciao tutti, voglio tu stai bene. Oggi e mio tredicesimo giorno di italiano e ho solo due giorni rimanere.

That, my friends, is my Italian skillage after 13 days of Italian. If you could suss it out, it means "hello everyone, I hope you're doing well. Today is my 13th day of Italian and I have only two days left." Three weeks ago, I was not even knowing how to say anything other than ciao or buongiorno, pasta and pizza. And look at me now! I'm really feeling pretty confident overall, and my verb knowledge is growing as is my comprehension, and it feels pretty good, I must say. I'm living in a country that I can now speak the language enough to survive. And I'm proud of it!

But yes, yesterday night after I blogged I was feeling a bit low on energy, but I went out and gioco un pico di calcio, or I played a little soccer, at the country club again. It was great, as usual. This was my second time and only the second time it's been offered, but yesterday we had 9 people, so it was 4 on 5, with the 4 being one who guy who's really good and three of us who are ok, and the other 5 having a really good player and some others who are pretty good too. It was fun, and I was on the 4 team, and we won like 10-3. I ran myself ragged, but I had to since we were always a man down. I love a good workout, and it was still pretty hot and humid over there at night, so I got a really good sweat going and came back here and showered, which was most excellent.

Then I got up this morning and made some scrambled eggs, nutella toast, cereal, and a glass of orange juice, which was most excellent. I am getting better and better with making food on the stove here, and speaking of, after this I'm going to make some Rigatoni con salsa alle funghi e carne. Woohoo. I am just feeling more confident in everything here, which makes me feel good.

I think part of this came from today when I saw two British people stumbling around, looking at a map and they had no idea where they were going. I stepped up and gave them street by street directions as I walked with them for a while, and told them a few things to see before they left, all in about a span of 5 minutes. It was really funny, I know I have a staple set of things you must see, and it's just awesome to know that I have a report with this city now. Too bad no one is coming to visit, I could lay out a hell of an itinerary.

But yes, other than just class, shopping, homework, soccer, cooking, sleeping and checking out the sights on my way to and from class, not a whole lot going on here today. It was new towel day today and they didn't bring any and I was disappointed, but hey, things go on. If that's the worst part of my day, then so be it. I have only two days of Italian class left, with tomorrow being totally review oriented and Friday being my final for the course and, of course, my departure day to Athens! Yeah, I am pretty much ecstatic about that. Couldn't get much more excited if I tried. It's going to be a blast and I'm going to take a billion pictures, so fear not!

Oh, and it's only 6 days til my birthday. 21. Somehow, it all gets lost in the mix. I always envisioned this one being the biggest and most eventful of all of them with the exception of maybe 18, and I have to say, waking up in Athens and falling asleep in Roma, I can't say I'm disappointed in the least. How about elated, how's that sound?

And really that's about it. I hope your September 10th goes well (happy Birthday Grandma Pat! Dad, maybe you could help me out with that thank you there) and know that I love you all and I'll be back soon with much grandeur and excitement. And as always, until next time,

Ciao.

Moving towards Athens

Ciao everyone. It's now Tuesday evening here and I am just taking it easy after finishing up my surprisingly large amount of homework. It's only 3 classes of Italian left in the practicum, which is exciting, and I just am ready to move on to more classes other than just Italian. But that starts after the break, and I am getting really, really excited for that day to come. It's Friday when I head off to Athens, and of course I'll take tons of pictures, but as excited as I am to see all the sights there, I am even more excited about the fact that I get to see them with KK. It's going to be fantastic to see a familiar face, and I miss her terrible, so it'll be great to see each other in one of the cradles of Western Civilization. Woohoo!

But that's Friday. Before that, I've got an Italian composition to write, two classes of learning left and a final exam on Friday morning before I head out that evening. I'll get through it pretty well, I'm sure. Every day it'll get easier to speak and to read, I really had to get over a hump today with some determinative articles, and the "le" over here is pronounced "Lay," not the French "luh." That is especially difficult, since "les" in French is "Lay," which has been all sorts of fun adjusting to. So belle is "bell-lay" (a major catch) and not "bell." But I'm getting closer, and today I officially moved past it.

Last night was the "Super Big Party" (I kid you not, that's what it was called) put on by our residence to meet the other college of kids who moved in two days ago. They're from Christendom College, a college of only 424 kids whose mission is to, and I quote: "to restore all things in Christ." Yeah, a very, very Catholic school that sends 45 kids over to Rome to study in the birthplace of Roman Catholicism.

The meet-and-greet had excellent food that was all free. Tons of pasta. Tons of Bruschetta. Tons of Prosciutto. And not to mention free beer and wine, and actual good beer and wine. Needless to say, we were sold. We went and had an awesome dinner, and slowly the Christendom kids filtered in, every one of them polite, almost too much so in some instances, such as getting food in an unruly line.

I met several and they were all very nice, but naturally, we harbor very, very different opinions. This should not surprise any of you. It all started with someone asking where I was from, and said California, and I said no, Portland, Oregon. He then said "same thing" and I took exception to that. I said San Diego and Portland are 1100 miles apart, so we are allowed to be very different. He laughed and said he didn't think so, and I asked him if he thought Charlotte (where he was from) was the same as Miami or New York, and he said of course not. And I said thank you very much, they're allowed to be different and I got quite a round of applause from our table.

I didn't see that guy for the rest of the night.

But I did see these three people who started talking to me just since there wasn't much else going on, and we eventually got around to the election. I said I was ardently Obama, and I asked if they had anyone pro-Obama they knew at their school, and they said if they are, they stay quiet. We began talking political shop, aka my favorite game on the planet, and with real, arch-conservatives! Oh what a treat!

It was an hour of back and forth, incredibly civil debating on Abortion, Gay Marriage, and religion in schools. It was awesome. Three on one, and I held my ground very strong, but their argumentation felt flawed to me in many ways, as I am sure they believed mine was at other times, but I just fought from the purely governing standpoint, such as a country shouldn't disallow anything that doesn't harm anyone else. This was especially contentious with gay marriage. They pulled up all these statistics that being gay is destructive to society and not right for anyone to be. After about 15 minutes of arguing this point and them saying it was natural law that man and woman are to be together and it's always been that way so it should stay that way, I asked them if slavery, which has been a staple of mankind for all time up until about 150 years ago, was acceptable just because it'd always been that way. They said it obviously wasn't. So I said what if just because gays have always been not accepted is just like slavery, where it was ok for a very long time, but as a society it was time to move past that.

That kept them quiet for a bit. Same with the "if someone is in love with someone else, what business is it of yours to tell them they can't see each other in the hospital?"

I'm sure this is boring, but it was riveting for me, and I could've talked to them forever about this and we never would have agreed, I'm sure, and there's something so beautiful about that. Had to come to Rome to find it though. We ended on the note of this Italian guy asking us what were talking about and we said American politics and he said "Obama is great!"

I had a pretty good laugh at that. Roman Catholics love him, what are you waiting on Bible belt? Ha ha ha.

But yes, that was fun. Then today I had class and I had to go to the post office for my Permisso di Soggiono, and after I got that, I came back, did my homework and made a Habenero Pecorino and Salami melt. Delicious. Now I am off to study a bit more, but know that pictures will be coming soon by hook or by crook, since with Athens, I'm sure there'll be plenty to go round.

Until next time,

Ciao.

Nutella, Aranciata, and Italian quirks

So today I really don't have all that much interesting to report about as far as my daily journey went. I got up, went to class, and sweated profusely on the walk. It was only (ha) 87 degrees today, but with the humidity about 80%, I was really, really feeling it. My skin? Never looked better. My metabolism? Doing fantastic. My comfort level? Low, for the most part. Personal hygiene is a big deal to me, and having to shower twice a day and apply deodorant all the time is fun. But not.

But yes, I only have 4 days left of the practicum, and that makes me really excited. I got my test back from Friday and I got about an 83 on it, which I wasn't too excited about. Combine it with my total test scores from the day, it was closer to an 86, but that leaves me at a high B, close to a low A. The final exam, as always, will bear that difference, and I really want to check out of here with at least an A-. Italian is tough, and the tests reflect it, but I can do better than I did, so I will.

But yes, after that I trekked back home for a bit of relaxing and escaping the heat. Everyone is feeling it right now, so it's easier to just hide a bit and go out later in the evening to do things. Plus now, having been here three weeks, sightseeing takes a bit of a dip and homework, studying, and life-living really picks up. I'm really getting to know a pretty diverse group of people here, and it's pretty cool to have lots of choices of people to go to the store with, for example.

Which really brings me to my next idea to discuss today: Italian food and drink differences, along with a bit of a cultural thing that really kind of shocked me. But first, the food. Chocolate here is popular, as it is everywhere in the world, but with that comes not caramel (haven't seen it since I've been here) or peanuts (also, very limited), but hazelnuts. Nutella, aka paste of the deities, is fantastic, and it's pretty much hazelnut chocolate in a creamy peanut butter paste. Since peanut butter isn't really a viable option here--they have it, it's just really expensive, and it's creamy, I mean honestly, who wants creamy?--Nutella, or Crema alla nocciola (hazelnut cream) is the popular spread.

And boy is it awesome. I mean, breakfast has really evolved since I got here. Since milk is about a 1.50 Euro a liter, or roughly 5.50 a gallon or about 8 U.S. dollars a gallon, I drink a lot less of it on a daily basis, and so I drink Orange Juice instead of milk for breakfast, which is just better for me anyway. Along those same lines, I am hungrier due to the diminished proteins and fats from milk--stepping up to fill that void recently has been either eggs or toast with Nutella and a banana to boot (I know I know KK, eww bananas). So it really is a balanced breakfast: two servings of fruit, a whole grain with my bowl of corn flakes and a serving of dairy, and some good fats and proteins from the Nutella and/or eggs. It's actually pretty cheap in relative terms, about 2-3 euro a breakfast after buying all the supplies in bulk.

And it's tasty. Can't forget that.

Another big thing here is Aranciata, or a sparkling orange beverage. It's soda-esque, but lighter. If you've ever had the Orange San Pelligrino drink, that's exactly what it is. And it too is very, very good. It's light and sweet, and totally refreshing. I get a cheap one from Todi's for about 50 cents for 1.5L, which is about 4 days worth of thirst quenching refreshment. There's no beating the San Pelligrino type though at the store, and I had some authentic, homemade stuff the other day, totally rocked my world. I often have it with my lunch / snack (I eat two meals a day with a snack in between usually. . . I have breakfast, come home around 2, eat some salami, cheese, and crackers or an apple, banana, maybe all of the above. Who knows?) and often I make like pasta of some sort; I make about 4 different types of noodle with like 4 different sauces (Funghi, Pesto, Pomodoro, and of course, alfredo). I'll toss in some fresh pepper, sausage, or salami depending on what I've got, and it makes for about 16 different combinations. All delicious. And relatively cheap if you can just budget correctly.

Finally, I just wanted to touch on something that really surprised me about Italy. A little did-you-know moment if you will:

Did you know that Italy has the lowest birthrate of any country in the world in 2005? It's lower in Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong now, but it's still the fourth lowest in the world today, with only 8.3 births per 1000 people, as compared to 15 per 1000 in the U.S. Its' population is actually shrinking here in terms of Italian people, but with tourism and people moving here, it's pretty constant. But still, the average couple has .8 kids, as opposed to 1.5 in the U.S. Most people have just one kid who lives with them until they're around 28-30 when they get married. Most never own a home either, but an apartment. Rome has near zero houses in the Aurelian Walls, so most just have an apartment or suite in an old building, which they get when they get married and rarely, if ever, move. If you don't marry, you ofter just live with your parents forever.

Just struck me as weird that that's normal and acceptable, not societally frowned upon. People are starting to get worried though in government that the number of true Italian by heritage people is dwindling everywhere in the country, and they can't seem to find a way to stem the tide.

Cool stuff, right? I thought so anyway.

But yes, I am going to be on a plane to Athens 4 days from this very instant, and I couldn't be more excited if I tried. I'll probably break my everyday of posting streak once I'm there, but I might get a post or two in. I am going to take a billion pictures, worry not, and post like you wouldn't believe after the fact. Plus, after that, it's less than 3 weeks until KK and I head to Interlaken and Milan, which will bear many, many more pictures I'd imagine.

I also found a way to get to Marrakech for pretty cheap, and I'm thinking we're going to head out there in November, along with a Munich venture thrown in there potentially and ending in Barcelona, not to mention my intended trips to Venice, Florence, Paris, and London.

So there's reason to stay tuned, worry not! Feel free to contribute to the Craig-goes-awesome-places fund (or my next-Tuesday birthday, / Christmas / really just about anything present) and you shall be rewarded with your wildest dreams coming true, that is, if your wildest dreams are for me to take a bunch of pictures and report back with a total book's worth of travels to talk about.

Oh! And that was something I was going to say: wouldn't it be cool to get my blog done as a book when I'm all done? Maybe I can figure out how to do that most efficiently after I get back, but I think it'd be pretty awesome if I could make a book or something in commemoration of my journey. Maybe if you contribute to my fund you could have a special mention in the forward (just kidding. Sort of).

And that's it and that's all folks. Hope you have a great Monday, and until next time,

Ciao.

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.