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 :)