Monday, September 17, 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

il mio compleanno e domani

MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW:)

Okay so we have done so much since the last time I blogged, so I will split it up by day and try to keep it brief but there is so much to write about!

Thursday Night:

Thursday night I went to the store to by fabric softner and detergent...what a joke. So earlier I wrote about my crush at the CarreFour, well, he speaks no english. I asked him to help me find fabric softner, and he doesnt understand me..so I proceed to act out washing clothes and we finally settle on a detergent that looks halfway decent. Then, I act out using lotion, also difficult, and he assumes I am talking about taking a shower... finally he takes me to the baby section and points out some johnson and johnson lotion which works fine haha. Obviously we were in love at that point :)

Later that night, I went with two of my friends to dinner in Testaccio, which is about a 20 minute walk from where I live, but it was well worth it. The restraunt was beautiful and you apprently have to have a reservation to eat there but they squeezed us in. We were clearly the only americans there and it was soo pretty. There was glass over the walls inside, showing the old parts of the walls and building behind. It was great. They also had an open outdoor seating area too, but clearly those tables were hard to come by. They speak a lot more Italian than I do, so that was nice. We ordered fried vegatables and artichoke for appetizers, some red wine and pasta for dinner, and then split tiramisu for dessert. Molto benne.

Friday:

We dont have classes on Fridays, and most all of our weekends are free or already planned out, but on Friday we had a group trip to Hadrians Villa, and Tivoli. Hadrians Villa was HUGE, and very pretty. it was cool to get to see because we have been learning about all the different monuments in class and our teacher, Dr.Nichols, is great at what he does and is so knowledgeable about all things ancient. After seeing that, we took the bus to Tivoli, where we had pretty much the greatest meal ever. We had a 4 course meal in a restraunt that was basically an excavated Roman bath underneath a church. It was beautiful and the food was amazing. Then we went to Villa Deste, I want to get married there...google it. When I got home, I cooked dinner and did some homework, because we were leaving at 5:30 Am the next morning for Cinque Terre :)

Saturday:

I woke up at 4:30. Soo tired. I packed my backpack with a change of clothes, clothes to sleep in, a towel, and a few toiletries. Me and 10 friends took a train at 6 Am to Cinque Terre for the night. The train ride was my first ever, and it was pretty cool. It was a three hour ride, and a guy from Ohio who was traveling Europe alone was sitting across from me. Two friends and I talked to him the whole way there and it was pretty cool to get to know a random person on a train ride. Once we got to Riomaggiore, the first of the 5 towns, we all were literally speechless. It was beautiful! We checked into our hostel and then went on a 45 minute hike to the next town over. There, we put down all of our stuff, and went swimming in the Mediterranean. It was funny because everyone was staring at us and taking pictures but it was great. We climbed up some small rocks and jumped off, and we basically had a photo shoot doing that for awhile. Then, some of my guy friends climbed up a cliff and decided to jump off...a million times. Eventually I was convinced that it was safe and I climbed up to jump too. Once I got up there I was super scared but there was really no other way to get down, so after a lot of encouragement I jumped. One of the coolest things I've done forsure. We ate a great dinner on the water after that, and split a bottle of wine that isnt exported from the area, it was great. Everyone in my program is so great, so sweet, and so outgoing. I already feel like I've known them all forever.

Sunday:

We woke up around 9, got breakfast, then took a 5 minute train to Vernazza. Then...we hiked 3 Kilometers up a mountain. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. And I didn't bring any water because I'm an idiot. Also, we all had our backpacks with us too! It was one of the coolest/prettiest things I have ever experienced. Because about half was uphill, we all went at our own pace. There was a girl in front of me alone, and I kept up her pace because I knew if I stopped to rest, I wouldn't keep going. Eventually we started talking and I hiked the rest of the way with her. She was 25 and from Lebanon. Oh my goodness is there culture different. It was so cool to get to know her! Once we all finally got to monterosso, we ate the best seafood ever. I had calamari and it was by far the best I have ever had. Then we went swimming and took a train all the way back to Roma :) It was an amazing weekend...google it, you all should go.  



Today I had class, and saw the Colosseum...it was cool. Rome is like an italian New York City with a whole bunch of really cool stuff in it :)

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Mi piace Roma.

I absolutely love it here. Molto bella. It is very pretty :)

Class is great, learning italian is a lot easier when you are living in Italy. I try to speak it everywhere with what I know, but sometimes it's hard. I have spoken quite a bit of spanish here as well, because some of them can undertsand spanish better than english.

We have a stove top espresso maker in our cabinet, and when I couldn't sleep, I watched a Youtube video on how to use it, and it's super easy. The coffee was molto bene, and it has been getting me through the days.

Deadmau5 was the best thing ever. 10 of us went to the concet and it was one of the best nights I have had so far in college. We all met up at a cafe/bar, and drank some wine before heading to the concert. Rome is huge, a lot bigger than we thought, so we took our time which was a mistake. We took a bus to the train station at bought our tickets about 5 minutes before the train left. Absolutely nobody could understand any of our broken, cave-man like italian when asking where our platform was, and we all proceeded to argue about which one was right. Finally, I saw a couple of women running, sprinting if you will, down one of the platforms. So, I ran next to them, showing them our ticket, and they responded "Si Capinelle, we must run". Basically, they were headed for the same train as us but it was easily a fourth of a mile down. We all literally ran a marathon to the train, and I almost got my leg bitten off by a homeless man's German Shepard. Once we got off the train we made friends with some cute italian boys walking to the concert as well, and we walked about 20 minutes and arrived at a huge outdoor theatre, where hundreds of kids our age were. It was amazing. So many people, all from different places, all different ages. It was so so so fun. We all had a great time, and me and two friends ended up getting our taxi ride payed for by some cute italian boys all the way home.


Monday morning, when I left the apartment I was greeted by our apartment building janitor, Stephen, he is precious. We speak in Italian to each other and we have become friends on a first name basis (he is an old man), and so nice! It's really nice when people don't ask you to speak English, because it gives us a chance to practice:) Also, I love Carrefour now, the store beneath us, because I have a crush on a boy who works there. So my roommates and I basically go twice a day and the ladies that work from open to close literally think we are Patzo (crazy), but they are very sweet to us anyways.


I have to go because we decided to have an American style potluck dinner for Lugilo 4! July 4th :) and most everyone in our program is getting together for drinks and to celebrate the American holiday which nobody here cares about.


Oh and one more thing. I walked to the Pantheon during my class break on Monday, to the Spanish Steps on my class break today, and I go to school like 3 blocks away from la fontana di trevi (trevi fountain).....What do you do on your lunch break? ;)