Jan. 25-27, 2007

Amanda, Janie, Malory, Rachel, Me ready to go out to GrottaPinta
Kalli, Katie, Michelle, Laura, Me at GrottaPinta
Me and Katie at GrottaPinta

The main event of Thursday was Thursday night...we went out to GrottaPinta, which is this really cool bar (they call them pubs...a bar is like a place to get coffee and sandwiches, etc.) with great decorations, layout, etc. We ended up being the first ones there, but there are ten of us so even though we were the first ones we still kind of are a party no matter who else is there haha. Anyways, we stayed there for a while, Heather had class until 9:15 unfortunately so she went back to the apartment, got ready and Amanda and I met her at the tram stop close by. We all danced and had a great time. All in all it was a good night!

The next day we didn't have class since it was Friday so we slept in really late and went out shopping. Heather and I didn't like anything we tried on so I ended up not buying anything and she bought a pair of black heels and a really cute brown jacket for not very much money at all. Everyone else bought a million things, but we just really weren't in the shopping mood. We got home, had a really nice dinner of a salad, sauteed zucchini, cheese and crackers and bread and spiced up olive oil. MMMMMM delicious. We got ready to go to this JCU event thing that was going on nearby, but Jon and Scott (who live down the street and are also JCU students) ended up coming over to play cards and stuff before hand. They decided to leave early and go meet their friend so Heather and I went with them because everyone else in the apartment was talking about not going out anymore because they were too tired. It turned out to be a less than great night because Jon was on the phone the whole time trying to figure out what else we could do instead of just enjoying our company, Scott was really nice and was trying to just chill out and chat and everything, but Jon really wasn't satisfied with whatever we were doing. We ended up just going home and going to sleep.

The next morning we got up, packed a lunch and went to JCU to use the internet where we are right now. We had tried to book a hostel a couple of days before for our Venice trip, but later that night I got an e-mail from the place saying that they were booked and to cancel my reservation. So that sucked - anyways, we've been looking and looking and calling everywhere since then and we finally found a place today. It ended up being 40 euro total per person for 2 nights which is very reasonable, so I'm really glad that's taken care of! Now we have to start planning all of our other trips so we don't run into this problem again...It's my other roommate Laura's birthday tomorrow - 21!!! - so we're going out to Joia tonight, which is this very cool club. Laura, being the way she is - she talks to EVERYONE, talked to this guy Alfredo who is a promoter and she told him about her birthday and everything and he told her he'd hook us up. I think everyone in our apartment has talked to him at some point, including myself, because he's just allllways out promoting this or that so he's definitely a good person to know. Anyways, it should be a good time. I do want to say that I love you all and I miss you all a lot...and I hope you're doing well!!!!!

Pictures from Laura's birthday at Joia:Me, Michelle, Katie, Laura (the birthday girl!), Can't remember her name, Amanda, Janie, Americo (Rico) in the middle backJon, Anthony and I
Me, Heather, Kalli (Kalli's not unhappy - she really did have a good time)
Heather and Michelle

Jan. 21-24, 2007

Sunday was the open air market! They closed the streets around our apartment and they filled up with vendors in no time flat. They were there early in the morning until around 4 or 5, but Lindsay, Heather and I didn't get up until about 11 and didn't get out of the house until about 12. We went out on a search for pollo, basilico, pane e mozzarella (chicken, basil, bread and mozzarella) since Sma (our supermarket across the street) was closed because it was Sunday. Linds decided to make dinner for all of us for letting her stay, so she had to get these final ingredients to make her special Wakefield pasta dish. We found a grocery store that was open in the bottom of a department store down the street and got all of the ingredients. I also found veggie burgers there! Wahoo! Although when I got them home and ate them they tasted exactly like meatballs which kind of weirded me out. Yes I'm sure they weren't actually meaballs. Anyways, on the way back from the grocery store Heather and I perused the market and couldn't find anything really. She was looking for boots and I was looking for a big bag for my computer, books, etc. since my backpack has been really hurting my back. We couldn't find anything so we just went back to the apartment and by that time Lindsay had gotten dinner started. It was DELICIOUS - everyone loved it and we were all really sad that she was leaving the next day. After dinner Lindsay, Michelle and I all went to the Good Cafe by our school to watch the Patriot's game. I went up to the bar to get a beer and this weird hippie guy was next to me. He, I think, was on 35,000 drugs and looked at me and said "wow...you're..wow you're sooooo cute" and I was like "um...haha...", he goes "it's just...wow...just that...your nose...is shiny and it's...SOOOO cute!" and I was like wow thanks buddy, I have a shiny nose, great...what a compliment...haha so then..here's the kicker...he goes "can I touch it?" hahaha I go "um no you can't touch my nose" and he's like "what? I can't touch your nose?" and I'm like "no, that's just a little bit weird" - "yeah I guess I could see how that would be weird.." so anyways, I go back to the table sufficiently weirded out and I warn Michelle not to talk to the guy. So later on that night Michelle and I go to the bathroom and when I get out she's already at the bar and the guy is next to her. By the time I got there he had already kissed her head once, she tried to ignore it and then he did it again! What a psycho. Needless to say we steered clear of him the rest of the night. After the game was over at 4:00 am we walked back to our apartment because the trams and buses stop at midnight, and this guy is walking toward us on the same side of the street. We all just keep walking and when he gets close to us he turns around and starts hugging himself and moving his arms all over his sides and shaking his hips and like doing the pretending to make out with yourself thing you do when you're in 4th grade. It took every ounce of strength in my body not to burst out laughing - we walked by, none of us laughed because we thought if we did he'd like do something else weird, and when we got past him he just turned around and kept walking! Apparently it was the night of creepy guys.

The next day we all got up and Lindsay packed up her stuff and I showered and Heather was ready on time as usual...We dropped Lindsay's stuff off at a hotel that some professor she's going to have or something at Academia dell'Arte was staying at in Rome and went off to find lunch. We found this cute little restaurant and we each had a pizza. We decided that we're all going to come back to Rome in 2017 - January 22, 2017 I believe. We walked her back to the hotel and said goodbye and everything and then she went inside to wait with her professor who she was hitching a ride to Arezzo with. Heather and I went on to the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in with our right hands over our left shoulders like you're supposed to do! I saw some really cute shoes for 12 euro but the store was closed because it was like 1 pm and they all close from anywhere between 12 and 3:30 for siesta kind of. Anyways, I made a mental note. Then we went to JCU and Heather had class so I stayed and worked on the internet since we don't have it in our apartment. When she got out of class we went back to the apartment, had dinner and watched part of Eddie Izzard until she fell asleep and I did the same.

The next day, I got up early and went to the gym with Amanda and Michelle. It's a free gym for JCU students so that's awesome. They also have Pilates classes so I think I'm going to start that next week. I got to JCU around noon and Heather and I got notebooks and folders from the Tabacchi nearby. We went to Scaletta for lunch and had their gnocchi - so delicious! I had class from 2:15-7:15 and Heather met me at JCU at around 7. I talked to Aunt Sarah on instant messenger, then Baba called on skype and so did Uncle John, Mom and Uncle Hugh! Woohoo!! :) Heather was looking for plane tickets to Venice for Carnevale the whole time and she finally found one - so we're booked! By the time we left JCU it was like 9:00 so Heather and I went to, guess where, Scaletta! for dinner - this time we had Pizza Margherita though. We went home and watched more of Eddie Izzard and went to bed.

The next day I wope up and went to my photography class. I was enrolled in Intro. to Photography and soon decided that it would be really really boring considering I've already taken Intro. as well as Intermediate-Advanced Photography. So, as soon as I left class I went to the computer lab and switched in to Advanced Photography which is at the same time, only on Thursdays. This means that now I only have class Tuesdays and Thursdays haha - I know, I know, it's rough...I do have 3 classes on Tues. and 4 on Thurs., so I mean that's a lot of books to carry... ;) I met Heather at JCU after class and bought one of my books off of a student here for 25 euro instead of 80! Way to go me!! I got a sandwich at Good Cafe with Heather and she talked to her boyfriend Matt on my skype while I ate and stuff. We went to get books at the bookstore that's really far away and found lots of wonderful things on the way such as tan boots, black suede boots that she'd been searching for since we got here, and black flats for Heather - and Adidas sneakers for the gym, green walking sneakers, and zebra flats (the ones I wanted when I saw them by the Trevi after we dropped Lindsay off) for me. We got all that, got our books, it poured the entire way there and back and it was not the best day ever besides our finding cute things for good deals and loving everything we got. After I found the green sneakers, which were less expensive and cuter, I didn't think I needed the Adidas anymore so I tried to return them but apparently you cant return things in Italy so i could only get store credit/exchange them so I looked around for a while but decided I'd just come back another day if I really didn't want them. I took the tram home with 5 million bags, got home and Katie and I went to Sma and I got lots of food then had cereal, veggie mix, and bread and olive oil for dinner, some nutella as usual and finished my Chianti. I balanced my Quicken and reorganized my closet, etc. We had an apartment meeting that went really well. Lindsey Casagrande called and was trying to figure out hostel stuff for Venice - she found one and we were about to book it and she texted me back saying "oops i was looking at the wrong month!" haha what a nerd..anyways, Heather and I ended up listening to music and dancing around like fools and then going to bed. All in all it's been a good week so far and I love the friends I've made here :)

Jan. 20, 2007

our room
kitchen
"living room"
"living room"
courtyard outside kitchen
courtyard outside kitchen
Lindsay in my bed!
my bulletin board
my flowers! and pictures!
bathroom
other side of kitchen


I woke up at noon and went out with Heather and Lindsay. Lindsay worked at an internet cafe all day and Heather and I went to JCU to use the wireless there. We ended up being there for a good 4-5 hours just doing stuff on-line and then Lindsay met up with us at JCU because she was done with her stuff she had to get done. We were all starving so we went to this adorable, and pretty cheap, restaurant on Via Della Scala, which is right by school, called La Scala. I got Pizza Marinara, Heather got Pizza Margherita, and Lindsay got pasta of some sort because she hadn't gotten pasta since being in Italy! It was all very delicious, and only ended up being 19 euros for the three of us! Va bene. Next, we walked around and tried to find Heather boots, got gelato (I got the same kind again, but Heather got pistachio, and I tried it and I actually liked it! I didn't think I would..), went to Compo de' Fiori to find Heather towels that she'd been looking for since we got here. We crossed towels off our list, and spent the rest of our evening out looking for boots for Heather. We ended up not being able to find any unfortunately, and we took the tran back to the apartment. Linds and I went to the grocery store to get a few things and then we went back to the apartment and I had some tortellinis with pesto - delicioso! I cleaned up the kitchen really nice and then cleaned and organized my stuff in our room. I took a bunch of pictures of the apartment. Heather and Lindsay and I all talked in our room for a while. I can tell Heather and I are going to be very close and I'm really glad. She reminds me of Jean, which is nice since I miss her a lot. After chatting for a long while we looked at pictures on my computer, and I wrote in here to cover the past 3 days and then I went to bed. The open air market is tomorrow! Hoorah!! And Lindsay's making us all dinner because we've sheltered her for the week! Yum...I'l be sad to see her go - and I think she's sad to be going. She really kind of fell into place here and Heather actually said today, "I'm so sad Lindsay's leaving!" I think everyone really likes her, which makes me happy, because I really like her too :) Not like anyone knew that though...ps I have no idea how to turn the pictures the right way...so...turn your head...?

Jan. 19, 2007

Pictures from GrottaPinta the night of 1/19:Me, Heather and Michelle

I woke up at noon and went to JCU for a lunch thing. I ended up getting an e-mail while I was there using the wireless, and it was from President Berman about Joe's death. I e-mailed him back and told him that Lindsay and I were so sad we couldn't be there and that we were going to go to the Vatican to honor his memory and send love to all of his friends and loved ones. I called Lindsay and met her nearby JCU and we went to the Vatican. We had a wonderful talk on the way there, and I was really glad she was with me, because I was feeling really overwhelmed and I really appreciated her presence and familiar face. We got to the Vatican and walked around for a little while (Lindsay was already headed there when I called her because she hadn't seen it on this trip yet) and looked at the Pieta and other monuments in the church and then we found a little area that was open for prayer and we sat down. We just sat in silence for about 15 minutes and I closed my eyes and just thought about all that was going on and tried to breathe deeply and process everything that has happened recently. After I finished praying I felt the knot in my throat get a little less tight, I felt like I didn't need to cry anymore, I felt like I could move on a little bit more with my day without feeling so heavy. After we left the Vatican, Linds and I sat outside and she wrote a post card to her family while I watched the Swiss guards in their funny outfits, and we sent it via Vatican post, and then we embarked on our mission to find good gelato. We looked in her tourist book and found a bunch of places that were near that Vatican and supposed to be "authentic" so we headed off for one of them. We got there and I got some kind, I forget the name, that tasted like an ice cream version of nutella (which I've been eating NON-stop), and it was amazing. We headed back to the apartment and by the time we got there everyone was all dressed up and getting ready to go out. They were all going out to the opening of this new bar called GrottaPinta and apparently you had to be real dressed up to get in, so I got ready as quickly as I could. I wore my Mom's black lace dress, and my black BCBGirls stilettos and my feet were absolutely killing me even before we left the apartment from walking all day (so I knew it'd be horrible by the end of the night). We caught the tran and walked on the cobble stones for a long time to get to the place and when we got there it was free drinks until 11, so we drank for a while and had some aperitivos (snacks) and hung out. Heather and I ended up leaving earlier than the other girls and we went to an Irish bar down the street. At one point on the walk home Heather asked me if I wanted to take the tran back and I was like "No I'm fine! My feet don't hurt because they're numb!" so she made sure I understood that she'd be telling me it was my fault the next day when I complained my feet hurt haha. We talked the whole way home, and she called her boyfriend and I sang in the background of the voicemail she left him "she looooooves youuuuuuu." We also talked about something to do with the 80's and started singing "We're not gonna' take it! NO! We 'aint gonna' take it!" and when we got back to the apartment I kind of collapsed onto Lindsay who was reading on our couch. I ate about 5 million pringles, felt like Elf when he's eating the cotton balls at the Dr.'s office, because they were like "no, Sarah, don't eat 5 at once" and I kind of looked at them like he does and popped them in my mouth. I fell asleep on Lindsay and then she finally was like "ok time for bed" and she put me to bed, but I ran away, as I usually do, while she was trying to get me into bed and I said, "I escaped!" to Heather who was in the living room. I eventually got to bed and that was that! It was a good time.

Jan. 18, 2007

Today we went to the Vatican real early. It was pretty cool, but really really long. Our tour was 3 and 1/2 hours long and while yes, there are a million things to see, I feel as though 3 and 1/2 hours is a really long time to pay attention, walk and be starving. Anyways, it was cool. After the Vatican we were all walking to find some place yummy to eat and this guy on the street was like "come eat here! lasagna, spaghetti or pizza with a drink and salad for 9 euros!!!" so we were all like SWEET and we followed. When we got in there, unfortunately, I remembered that I don't like lasagna, and I don't really like spaghetti either, and I really wasn't in the mood for pizza. So, Heather and Kalli and I all ended up ordering from the regular menu that was more expensive. I ended up getting spaghetti al pesto, Heather got gnocchi, and Kalli got an orange and an apple. We got that and bread and 2 sodas and a water and it came out to 39 euros....WHAT....and then the waitress was like "no that doesn't include anything for me" and we were like um well it's 39 euros, we don't have any more money, so we gave her like a euro - it was just all in all a ridiculous experience. We definitely got ripped off and we knew it, so I guess it happens to the best of us. After the ridiculously expensive lunch, we went to see these girls' apartment from our program, and then Laura and Heather and I started to walk home. We were looking for "gruccie" aka hangers and we asked EVERYONE and their mother where we could find them and they had no idea what we were talking about. So we finally end up going to this random men's clothing store that I actually thought was a dry-cleaner's at first, and I asked where I could buy hangers and the really nice man was like "here you go!" and he gave me a hanger! So, I explained that I need to know where to get them because I need a lot more and he ended up giving me all the extra ones he had (like 5 or so) and then the shop next door did the same thing! So that's fun! Then I asked how to say hanger in italian and he said "gruccia" so I got really confused because no one knew what I was talking about when I'd say gruccia or gruccie (gruccie is plural), and he told me that "gruccia" is italian and "stampelo" (I think that's what it was) is Roman - so apparently...there's a difference. Who knew. After that we found this store that had really cheap basic stuff, everything but cheap hangers (3 for 1,30), and we got little baskets to hold our shampoo and stuff, candles with little plates to put them on, plates to put our flowers on that we bought the other day, and a couple sets of hangers. It all came out to like 9 euro. We left that store and went back home and we ended up going food shopping and then I started getting ready to go out with everyone. At that point Mom called and told me that the police found Joe's body and that he was dead, so that kind of put me in a not going out mood. So, instead, Heather and Lindsay and I went out and tried to find an Enoteca (wine bar) to go and sit and have a drink at. The one we knew of that we thought we'd go to ended up being closed, so we went down the side street next to it and ended up finding this adorable little "italian" bar where we were literally the only Americans. We bought a bottle of wine and sat down and just split it between the three of us and chatted all night. These guys sat down at the table next to us later on in the night and they were pretty funny. The main guy's name was Angelo and they all had a fun time trying to pronounce our names. They got my name pretty quickly and said "OHHHHHHHH saaaaadaaaaaaa" and then when they got to Heather they were like "OHHHHHHH eterrrr" because they don't have the "h" sound like we do, in Italian. It was funny - they were like "what are your names? we're going to Bari, come with us!" All in all, it ended up a wonderful night, and we decided we're not going to tell anyone about it because we want to keep it as our little secret meeting spot.

Jan. 17 2007

Heather, Lindsey, Me at the wine tasting

Today, we woke up real early and went to JCU to have orientation that was completely worthless. Laura, Heather, Jamie and I walked back to the apartment and on the way we found a little garden place! It had lots of pretty flowers and Laura, Heather and I each got a little flower in a pot for 1 euro for our room! So adorable. We put them on our night stands. Then when we got back we waited around for Marco to come talk to us about our apartment. He owes me a coffee for finding his scarf for him - I'm taking him up on that, he's real cute haha. After our meeting Heather, Laura and I went to the cafe right down the street and Laura and I got chicken parm and the chicken was kind of weird so I ended up eating half of it and also some of Heather's pasta. Then we went to the grocery store (which is RIGHT down the street by the way - the name of it is "Sma," which I thought was funny) and we bought yummy stuff. Wine here is like anywhere from 1 euro to 6 euros for each bottle - it's nuts! I got a 2.50 euro chianti. After grocery shopping, I ate some cereal and then we took a nap. When we woke up Heather and I went down the street to the appliance store and tried to get a hair drier but they didn't have them cause they sucked. We went to a wine tasting in Compo de' Fiori, which was really cool. I saw this purple coat that I'd been seeing a whole lot while walking around by the hotel and I finally decided that I should just buy it because it's only 20 euros and it's real cute. I'm glad I did, cause I've been wearing it a lot...I'll put pics up asap. We went to the wine tasting and had a great time, although we only had 2 glasses (they gave us 1 white, 1 red). I thought that was kind of weird, but it was cool because they taught us how to taste wine and that for example it's better if the wine is bottled in the same place it's made. I actually used that knowledge at the supermarket and also at this little cafe Lindsay and Heather and I went to! After the wine tasting we walked back to the apartment and we found a hair drier on the way in this tiny little shop! This little old woman ran it and I got to use my favorite word ("asciugacapele" = hair drier) and she had to climb up a ladder to get the hair drier (which also included a curling iron!) at like the top of the shelf and it ended up being 35 euro, which isn't bad when it's split between 5 people (half of our apartment). When we got back, 5 of the girls in made dinner for us all (pasta with chicken, broccoli, garlic and olive oil - yum!) and Laura was cold so she started using the hair drier that we just bought to warm herself up. She used it for a long time and I said "you're going to blow it out, you should stop" and the power went out. So that was interesting haha. We had a fun night though, we all hung out and some other people in our program came over, and we just drank wine and chatted. Then we went to bed! More later...

Jan. 14-16, 2007

Well..today was interesting...to catch up since I arrived in Roma on Sunday, we moved into the hotel, I took a nap for a couple of hours so i could stay up the rest of the day and not be too jet lagged. It worked out pretty well, we ended up having a meeting with API then a light dinner they put on for us and then we went out to "Sloppy Sam's" in Compo de' Fiori (which they callTop picture: Lindsey (really cool girl from RI), Me, Laura (one of my 2 roommates)

Bottom picture: Left, Meredith from Louisiana, Lindsey in the red, Me, Laura, and other girls in my programthe "meat market" because it's basically an entirely American piazza where the bars are full of American guys looking to pick up American girls and Italian guys looking to do the same because basically they know we're here either on vacation or at the most 4-5 months. We went there knowing all that and actually it was fine because we went with a group of guys from our program and apparently Italian men respect other men so if there is a male presence, they tend to not be so sleezy I guess haha...anyways, I had a Chimay Bleu (which I really liked!) and my friends had some wine and other beers and all in all it was a pretty short night because we were so tired and had to get up at 8 the next morning to do other things. The guys watched the football game and we hung out in the back talking and being tired. We headed back to the hotel around 11:00 (aka 23:00 - I'm actually getting pretty used to it...) The next day we had a tour of the heart of Roma, it was a walking and bus tour and our tour guide's name was Fabio. He was really cool, we went to the Pantheon, saw a lot of fountains (most notably the Trevi Fountain), the Colosseum (SO COOL), learned that fornication comes from latin that means "under the arch" and apparently means sex under the arches of the Colosseum...hah! Fabio was pretty cool... The Pantheon
The Trevi Fountain
The Colosseum
Me and Heather at the Colosseum

We also went through one of the original gates in the walls surrounding the center of Roma. The center of Roma used to be ALL of Roma, so it had walls around the city to block it off from barbarians. We saw a very cool church, which had gorgeous ceilings and also a fake dome. They painted it to look like a dome because a real one would have been too expensive to construct. the painted "dome" - really bad pic...but it was really realistic!
^model of all the different religions

There were also little silver hearts in cases which were for miracles I believe, like every time there was a miracle they'd bring a heart to put up near the statue. I got the gist of it...There was also this really cool model that was made to represent all of the different religions and churches in the world. I thought that was really interesting. After our tour, we had lunch and went to JCU to get orientation stuff done. We learned about a lot of different trips that are available to us for pretty cheap, and got our student ID cards, etc. There is a little cafe right next to school that has free WiFi and good food, so I think I might go there to study, etc. if JCU is too crowded. After the JCU orientation, Laura, Heather, Lindsey (from API, not from home) and I went to a really cute little restaurant called San Maria or something like that. I got linguine al pesto, which was really good and our waiter was really helpful. We asked him for a good "Italian" bar and he told us to go to Acqua Negra which is a wine bar close by. We tried to find it later on, but couldn't and ended up going back to Compo de' Fiori for drinks at an "American" Bar - a REALLY American bar actually...they were playing rap and everyone spoke English, the menu was in English, etc. We're trying to get away from that and now that we're in Trastevere, I think it's going to be much easier to find more Italian culture and language. Lindsey wants to go to Venice for Carnival, and I'm totally excited for that - it would be me, Heather, Laura, Lindsey, Lindsey's roommates and hopefully my Lindsay too! So looking forward to that..We moved in today after getting our permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay/live here) and our apartment is huge! Again, I'll put pics up asap!!! We have a doorman who is really adorable and nice. His name is Alessandro. He's not here all the time, which makes it easy for Lindsay to sneak in and stay the night and sneak out in the morning over the wall in our little courtyard behind our apartment! Lindsay came over at night and we ended up going to dinner with Jamie, Janie, Michelle, and Mallory at the pizza place behind our apartment. It was really good and I got penne alla vodka as did Michelle and Jamie, and Janie, Mallory and Linds all got Margherita pizzas. Delicioso! After eating Linds and I walked around Trastevere, went to the internet cafe down the street and Linds called her parents and I called Mom on my cellulare. After the internet cafe we tried to get her on a bus - the H bus actually - to get back to Termini where she could get to the hostel she had already paid for. We waited for a long time at the stop, and it was raining annnnnd the bus finally came and it also went without stopping at the bus stop. So we ran after it for a while, and it stopped at a red light and Linds knocked on the door and the driver looked at her and said "no" and drove away. It was great. On the way back to my apartment we saw a cab so Linds went to see how much and it was only 10 euros so she just took that to Termini. I got back to the room, unpacked, and went to bed...