home

so its all over now, i got home on thursday, dec 20... so i've been home for a few days... i was without internet my last week in rome, so to recap, here's how things went:
final review went pretty well... minus me almost sleeping through it (i set my alarm for 8pm instead of am... silly me)... but thankfully morgan and steph woke me up, i presented early, and i rewarded myself with a totally sweet ASRoma track jacket... after the reviews were over (they took all day) we had chili made by joanne (mmm) and then we ALL went to the ASRoma v ManU soccer game... it was crazy! Mostly because our professors were all there haha... balfour (dean of the school of architecture) even gave us money to buy snacks!
the following day we slept forever (i think i was in bed until like 2pm) and then did some housekeeping in studio... and then we had our pope mass (the pope didnt give mass, he just came at the end and said a whole lot of stuff in italian... good think i understood that! haha)... and then we had our final dinner, which was pretty delicious and ended with amazing tiramisu! delicious
i spent the last few days walking aimlessly around rome with mike... we went back to some good stuff, but we mostly concentrated on seeing things we hadnt seen... we took a walk on the geniculum (the hill across the river from the main area of rome that has a lot of beautiful lookout spots)... we went to the christmas market in piazza navona, which was mostly a lot of guys selling cheap junk, but whatever, it made me really excited for christmas! we also went out to dinner together one night, which was a lot of fun :-)
the last day in rome led us up to piazza del popolo, to piazza di spagna, to the trevi fountain (where we both threw coins into the fountain at the same time, does that mean we'll come back together?) and past the pantheon one last time... it was a beautiful day and a great way to spend my last bit of time in rome
packing everything up was difficult to say the least... we all threw out a lot of junk, but brought home lots of souvenirs, tickets and maps for scrapbooking, and some new clothes and shoes! i took a few pictures of our ridiculous apartment, unfortunately it was mostly cleaned out when i did so, so its kinda hard to see just how jam packed it was with 11 of us living there... we had great weather the last day, and it was sad to say goodbye to rome, but off we went pretty much right on time
i touched down at about 5:15pm on dec 20, and got home around 7:30... we had a taco party at my house for dinner and i got to see maegen and we went to the bar and then at 11:45 or so i realized that my body was still on rome time and i was exhausted... after hearing that mike had arrived on US soil safe, i headed to bed
ive been home for a few days now, and ive just been relaxing, enjoying my family, trying to organize all my stuff, and adjusting to home life... it wasnt as weird as i thought it was going to be, coming home... i just feel so at ease since its all so familiar... its nice
i dont really miss rome yet... im still enjoying home so much... i guess eventually it'll hit me that i've finished up a once in a lifetime experience... and theres a chance i'll never see 95% of the things i saw this past semester ever again, and most people wont see them ever! which is totally crazy to think about... but im not there yet
right now its almost christmas and im home safe and sound... to everyone that's followed along with my adventures, thanks for sharing this experience with me, i can't wait to see all of you now that im home! i've uploaded the last of my pictures, so take a look at those... i guess this blog should be retired now that i'm not in roma anymore, so this is the end.
Ciao e grazie per tutti!
Barb

rough life

sooo basically its 4 days until the final pinup... and im going a little crazy... or a lot crazy... and im super stressed... because im redesigning my whole project... gross i know... we have to have everything pinned up by 9pm tuesday night... and then we present our stuff on wednesday... and i feel like ive just lost sight of everything i wanted to be doing... and now its crunch time and its almost over but ive got a few bad days ahead of me it seems... so if anyone is in the mood to do some rendering for me... let me know... since my computer cant handle it... and neither can i... oh well... back to work for now... but feel free to distract me to tell me how much you love me and cant wait to see me :-)
in the meantime... ill try to keep my chin up, and keep my cool, and not let missing everyone so much distract me from doing my work

the final stretch

chris left yesterday, and what that means for me is that this is the end... i have like 9 days until my final review... 17 days left in roma... crazy
i woke up at 5am yesterday to deliver chris to the airport... which thankfully went smoothly... checked in and we said our goodbyes and then i got back on the leonardo express and got back to my apartment around 8am, at which point i went straight back to sleep... chris had a good week here... i tried to send him out on adventures when i had to be in studio, and we went on adventures together when i could escape work for a while... we went out to dinner in piazza navona, which was nice... we climbed st peters dome, with mike too... but we didnt get into the baths of caracalla... o well... i think i at least got chris to see all the major stuff, as well as some other cool things that ive seen and really enjoyed... anyone need a tour guide for rome? because i think im a pretty damn good one!
its christmas time in roma... we've been seeing lights and decorations popping up everywhere from storefronts to side streets... apparently theres a big christmas tree somewhere... so we'll be on the lookout for that as well... ive got myself a collection of christmas music that ive been listening to while trying to concentrate on studio (but obviously im doing a poor job of that since im blogging right now)... but everything looks so pretty with christmas lights... and christmas music keeps me warm...
initiation was yesterday at school :-( ... i miss my sisters... i love initiation week... no matter how bad i get cabin fever and wish it wasnt so much time and effort, there are few things better than time spent with sisters... and thats something i really miss... not just this past week but every day ive been in rome, ive thought so many times how nice it would be to snuggle with dani or get dressed and go out with all the girls... or even how i wish my archie sisters were here and i could go waste time and visit them in studio... and i really miss dinners at the house... not just because chef joe is amazing, but because its so nice to just relax and eat together... oh relaxing... how i wish i could for a while right now... anyway, congrats to all our new sisters! im so excited to come back and meet all of you!!
so, back to the grind for me... ive got plenty of work to do before the final review... and i really dont have that much time left... so im gonna start powering through it... ill post some pics later hopefully... only 22 days until christmas! yay!

three months!

its been three whole months already... 3 months since ive been in my nice warm bed at home... 3 months since ive gone to the mall... 3 months since ive watched television for any extended period of time... its been a pretty crazy 3 months... and now a new list of what ive done:

• been inside the colosseum!! (i finally did this today! wahoo!)
• rode a crazy tandem bike at villa borghese (yesterday haha)
• almost not met chris at the airport (but i found him and now hes here!!!)
• helped to orchestrate a real american thanksgiving dinner... 28 people in our tiny apartment!
• almost destroyed chocolate covered strawberries i made for said thanksgiving dinner dessert
• got a pretty new coat
• got a sweet new boyfriend :-)
  
• completed italian class!
• been elected VP Recruitment of AGD (and im soooo excited!!!)
• backpacked (by that i mean i only had 1 backpack of stuff) through europe
• visited milan and climbed a zillion stairs to the top of the duomo
• found out that you need a reservation 2 weeks in advance to see "The Last Supper"
• visited london and realized how much i missed speaking english
• visited barcelona and saw a place where they filmed top model!
• visited paris and hung out with the gargoyles on top of notre dame!
• been really sad about missing formal with all my sisters :-(
• gone down south and saw some cool stuff
• found out theres an architect from Naples named VACCARO! (and here i thought id be the only architect named Vaccaro)
• went to Capri, the most beautiful place in the world
• missed America, Americans, and American shopping malls at this time of year
• started getting excited for christmas at home
• missed the fam, my sisters, and pretty much everyone at home

So ive got exactly 25 days left in rome (less than a month!) and its exactly 1 month until christmas! anyone who's been following along that has been to rome before, what have i missed? im gonna try to jam it all in these last few weeks (while i also crank out my studio project)... final review dec 12... ill be home dec 20th... i have my history final tomorrow so i should get back to studying... wish me luck! miss you all and i cant wait to see you all!

southern trip... 5 days later

so im sorry ive been such a bad blogger lately, ive just been really busy... we got back from the southern trip on sunday night... and now that ive spent a few days drying out, i feel like i can write about it

our trip started in paestum, which is the site of an archeological excavation where the temples of Hera I and II are located... a large portion of italy is an excavation, so we've seen a lot of these types of things... the temples are actually greek and not roman, and are very well preserved... it was also a gorgeous day when we were there, which was a great way to start the trip!
from there we traveled on to matera... which is this crazy city that up until like the 1970s or something people were literally living in caves! and then the president of italy at the time was like this is not working, we need to move these people into real houses and preserve the amazing city that they created... sooo now its protected by UNESCO... and its uneblieveable... unfortunately it was damp and drizzly the whole time we were there... but we stayed in a hotel that is actually renovated housing in the original part of Matera, called the sassi... pretty awesome... we also got to see a reconstruction of a typical home, and some rock chapels... literally churches carved out of the rock... unlike anything we've ever seen before... while we were there we had a HUGE dinner, paid for by RPI (or really by us, but who's counting) where we stuffed ourselves so full of delicious food that i seriously almost busted out of my shirt! it was amazing! before we left, we popped inside a new hotel that is being built in the sassi, and it is gorgeous... we literally fit our entire class inside one of the bathrooms! gorgeous! this is my new "when i get rich" vacation destination... of course ill plan to go when its warm and dry... haha

we left matera midafternoon and headed on to the amalfi coast... our hotel was accessed by the longest windy road ever, navigated without a hitch by our trusty bus driver Fabio (brother of Carlo, our other amazing bus driver)... did i mention it was pouring rain? The next morning, the sun came out in amalfi, which was fabulous, and we took a bunch of gorgeous pictures of the blue sky and the sun breaking through the clouds... we visited the duomo and the cloister of paradise, which were unimpressive but pretty, and then we jumped on a bus to head up up up the hill to Ravello... we then visited another church, grabbed some lunch (mmm salami and fresh mozz on a huge roll) and headed into the garden of the villa cimbrone to do some sketching... which i did, in between scarfing down my delicious sandwich and being completely awestruck by the view... after this, we WALKED down the mountain... which took like an hour, and took a serious beating on my knees and ankles... and we literally walked all the way down, under the main road, to the beach! the water was so warm that jenna went swimming! i chose to stay dry and walk around the little village of amalfi, which was really very pretty, but very small... then it was time for some desk crits (yes, i said desk crits... and yes, we were on vacation) and then we were back out again for dinner in a pretty restaurant on the beach... mmm mussels and linguini! (grandma, if you are reading this, i cannot wait to get home for christmas and stuff my face with mussels! i think of you every time i get them in a restaurant here!) early the next morning we headed out to vetri, to some crazy ceramics factory that i cant remember the name of and i also cant remember who designed it! oh well... it was cool... they make ceramic everything in this crazy building designed specifically to be their workshop... there are even clay pots on the outside of the building that act as a layer of insulation for the shop! too bad it poured rain the whole time we were there, and when we got back on the bus we were soaking wet... gross!

from there we headed to Pompei, the ancient city buried in ash by the eruption of Mt.Vesuvious and discovered in the early 1900s... theyre actually still in the process of excavating it... its absolutely huge and pretty amazing... minus the fact that it looks like every other excavation we've seen so far... we went to the Villa of Miracles... or something like that... where there is a fresco called "The Miracle of Life" which tells the story of a girl becoming a woman through getting married... interesting concept... i had no idea i had to get married to become a woman (haha, i know they were pretty old fashioned back in ancient times)... its really a beautiful fresco, and the colors are still really vivid even today... the frescos in Pompei are really well preserved and for the most part really beautiful... as are the mosaics... after freezing half to death in rainy, windy pompei, mike and i found a cheap pizza place and warmed up to some delicious pizza and some hot chocolate before jumping back on the bus to head to Naples...
We started our visit to Naples by going to the national museum there, which really looks like its in need of some serious renovations... not to mention some paint... we checked out some of the stuff they have there from pompei, and also some things they have from the Farnese collection and the Baths of Caracalla, both things we have pretty close contact with in Roma... the Farnese gem collection is in Naples, and consists mostly of teeny tiny cameos... which were really pretty... luckily after this we were finally able to check into our hotel and get warm and dry before going out to a crazy Napolitano dinner... we went to this restaurant called Nenella or something like that... and they basically come to your table and shout out dishes and you raise your hand if thats what you want and they just count up how many they need to bring out... and the food was delicious... after a while once we were all riled up we were getting really into the crazy atmosphere and that got the server pretty hyped up too... apparently hyped enough to start throwing plated and empty water bottles... which was pretty hilarious... and we got all the amazing dinner we wanted for 11 euro... perfetto! The next day we began by walking all around naples to see the main architectural junk... so we saw the galleria and some piazzas and i think a palace... but the coolest was that we saw the National Post Office designed by Giuseppe Vaccaro (i kid you not!) during the fascist period... so its a very minimalist building, but the attention to details and materials is pretty amazing, and im not just saying this because the guy who designed it might be family... it was a cool buiding... seriously! after that we went and did some window shopping... i found nothing of excitement... so saved my money, and went back to the crazy restaurant from the night before... yum.
In the morning, we checked out of the hotel early and headed to the docks to get on the boat for Capri, which is not "in season" right now, since its not summer anymore obviously... but its still a gorgeous place even tho it was damp and rainy the whole day... we had dinner in a restaurant with a beautiful view, and it also had all their plates and things made by the ceramic place we visited in vetri! pretty cool how it all comes together like that... they also had the most amazing calzones... did i mention italians are the most amazing cooks ever? because yea, they are... i love italian food... then we visited a perfume brewery... ill call it a brewery because it literally had those metal vats like they brew beer in... and the perfume was really pretty, but not my style... so i settled for buying a few presents and then we headed out to visit the garden (beautiful, and with an amazing view) and then to eventually head back down to the docks to get on the boat that took us back to Naples... where we got back on the bus and headed back to rome... end of trips for Roma fall 07.

That was a much longer post than i initially anticipated, so i think now ill start doing some of the other things i really need to do, and maybe later ill throw down a post about thanksgiving here in roma... ive posted all the pictures from the trip so take a look at those, theyre really beautiful!

aaand Chris gets here tomorrow! im super duper excited!

the view from here...

so im starting to get a little philosophical about living here in rome... and its weird... but maybe interesting and kinda cool what ive come up with...
ive started to think about what its like to become intimately familiar with a city that is not "your own"... its not your home, its not even in your country... but for some reason you get to know it very well, and you love it for some reasons and hate it for others... but it could almost be home because you begin to know it like the back of your hand... strange... me and mike were running today and we were looking around (as usual because theres just so much to see) and we saw a pretty high brick wall and mike speculated out loud that it might be part of some old wall circuit... for those of you who have not become intimately familiar with rome, "wall circuits" is the lame-o historical/architectural term for the GIANT THICK VERY TALL BRICK walls put up around the city at different times in its history, and if you walk around you tend to run into still standing chunks of the wall pretty much everywhere around the city... interesting huh? and then i started to think about the 50 or so buildings in rome that i know all the details of... all the w's (who, what, when, where, why)... i could identify about a dozen palazzos, a bunch of villas, a whole bunch of churches... i cant do that at home... which is a little bit strange for me to think about... like why dont i know my own home the way that i know a place that ive been living in for under 3 months? probably because i wasnt required to take extensive history classes on the art and architecture of staten island... but honestly, a lot of this stuff i might have figured out anyway... its very strange
in other news, the prepaid phone company here (TIM) is getting on my nerves today... last week i went to the TIM store and paid them 20 euro (no small sum of money) to put some minutes on my phone... now i dont use my phone much, but when i use it its usually with a phone card to call my parents... so when i put the minutes on my phone and then tried to call my parents with the phone card, i assumed that the reason i got some random message in italian about having no credit was because my phone card was out of minutes... it wasnt until yesterday that i tried calling locally and realized that no, its not my phone card thats out of minute, its my TIM card and now i have to go back to the TIM store and harass them so i can get my minutes! the crazy part of this story is that while i was in the shower today thinking about what i was going to say to the idiots at the phone store, i started planning out what i would say in italian... like completely in italian... starting with "ho un problemo" and continuing along telling them that "non ho usato minuti, ma il mio telephono non ha minuti... ma ho pagato venti euro per minuti la scorsa settimana!" ... all said in a very angry italian voice... for those of you who dont speak italian... that means "i have a problem"... "i havent used minutes, but my phone does not have minutes, but i paid you 20 euro for minutes last week!" hahaha... im out of control... who am i going to speak italian gibberish to when i get home?
this week has been long and pretty much horrendous... to celebrate the end of a bad week and a beautiful fall day, me and mike took a walk yesterday... we picked him out some new sneakers (you'll have to see it to believe it im sure) and then got some pizza foldy thing and ate by the spanish steps (i dont know what i ate but i assure you it was delicious) and then we walked to the villa borghese park... which is the HUGE park that at one time was the private gardens of a villa just outside the walls of rome... and its absolutely gorgeous... theres trees and green grass and fountains everywhere you turn... so we'll have to go back another time to really enjoy it fully... then i went back to the apartment and made some baked ziti (mmmmm) and meatballs... delicious... which i plan to have for lunch in a little bit when i return to the apartment to do some work... im pretty excited about that... all in all, yesterday was a pretty good end to not such a good week... and that made me happy... this morning me and mike ran, which made this weekend even better, but now ive got some work to do because my professor is crazy and we're writing a book about baroque architecture and scripting... so if youve got any thoughts on that topic, let me know and maybe you can get in on the book too... pretty sweet huh?
i'll conclude with a pic of the view out my apartment window...thats the market that sets up every morning in campo dei fiori, literally at the crack of dawn... and sells everything including but not limited to: FLOWERS, kitchen supplies, souveneirs, knockoff prada bags, fruit, veggies, fish, spices... the list goes on and on... its pretty intense... so i see this every day, and this is where i buy some, but not all, of my food... mmm fresh!

i'll be ok

Dear Mom and Dad,
Please send money,
I'm so broke that it ain't funny.
I don't need much just enough to get me through.
Please don't worry 'cause I'm alright.
I'm playin here at the bar tonight
This time I'm gonna make our dreams come true...
Well I love you more than anything in the world.
Love,
Your Baby Girl

~Sugarland

Morgan & Barb Crazy Vacation Adventure

So i wish i remembered half the amazing things me and morgan did over the past week... it all went so fast and now ive just got a ton of pictures (which i am currently uploading) that ive tried to go through and remember everything ive seen and done... but 4 cities in 8 days is an awful lot of sightseeing... and TONS of WALKING! So my feet hurt, actually... everything hurts now... but heres the highlights:

Part 1: Milan
We left at like 5am from our apartment to catch the plane to milan... why? because its cheaper that way... our flight was at 650 am and arrived in milan at around 820 or something... i dont even know... we got to our hostel, which was (thankfully) just a cheap hotel, and we dropped off our bags to get on with our visit... we only had 2 days you know! we went first to the duomo, which materialized as the biggest sand castle ive ever seen in my life! its huge and the entire outside is embellished with sculptures, and its made out of a pink marble (yes erin, its really pink!)... its absolutely gorgeous... we climbed all the way up the stairs to the roof... it was pretty amazing.. we spent the rest of the day walking around the duomo area, doing lots of window shopping... but not any real shopping since we embarked on this journey with only backpacks! later in the day we hung out in front of the duomo and did some people watching... it was mostly beautiful people, but there were also some people in need of a mirror... haha
Bright and early next morning, we tried to go see "The Last Supper" as in, the painting... the real one... but apparently to see that, you need to make a reservation about 2 weeks in advance... so no last supper for us :-( ... we had seen that there was a pretty big park with a (free!) aquarium, so we decided that should be our next stop... in the park we found a giant castle museum, a celtic festival, and the aquarium... so we spent some time seeing all of those things and enjoying autumn in the park... by the end of the day, we were pooped, but ready to head to London!

Part 2: London
We arrived in London around midnight (i think) and we actually met some american guys on the bus who pointed us in the right direction when we got off... well we started off down this street right out of Mary Poppins... no joke, it was really cool... we were also very relieved to be speaking english... we checked into our hostel, which was pretty clean, and eventually settled into bed, only to be woken up very early by our not-so-quiet roomates... we decided to start by walking along the river... we passed by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, we saw all the good bridges (Jubilee, Millenium, London, and Tower)... waved to the London Eye from across the river... saw the Basilica... i cant even remember the name of it right now... possibly St Pauls... we got some Starbucks! mmm... and eventually made our way to Picadilly Circus... all of this we did on foot, which is a really long way... like a really really long way... because the tube (their subway) is 4 pounds per trip... which is somewhere around $8... so that was a no go... we spent that money on candy from Top Shop's Sweet Shop and a movie! (The new Ben/Jerry Stiller movie... not great but it was in english haha)... then we got fish and chips and some London Pride beer for dinner... and headed to bed to rest our feet for the next big day
Day 2 in London led us back to Westminster Abbey so we could go inside and check things out... its a pretty huge church, completely crammed full of tombs... we saw poets corner and the college garden and of course Newtons tomb (this is one of those DaVinci code things haha)... after the Abbey we trekked up through the park to Buckingham Palace, grabbed some soup and had a little picnic in the park, then went on to the palace where we SAW PRINCE CHARLES! yea, im not kidding... he was having tea with some people, i cant remember who, but there was this crazy procession with horses and carriages and lots of guards in funny hats, and we saw the prince and we think the queen was in one of the covered carriages... it was pretty awesome... the funny hat guys i mean... haha! After that it was already time to head out (sad i know)... all aboard for Barcelona!

Part 3: Barcelona
Sooo we got to barcelona late at night on who knows what day of the week... tuesday maybe? and found ourselves in a bus station where the only person working did not speak english (and neither morgan nor i speak catalan) ... so we got a map and headed out... eventually just getting a taxi to bring us to our hostel... which was a dump, but pretty clean and right on the beach... early in the morning we set out for Park Guell, a Gaudi designed park that has some outdoor escalators leading up to it (now i know why those are uncommon, they sounded like they were in pretty rough shape lol)... and we wandered a bit through the park, saw some crazy colorful mosaic stuff... and saw (get this) where they had the scary bride fashion show for one of the top model finales! i have pics so you should check that out... after the park we headed to la Sagrada Familia... which is this crazy Gaudi church that started being built in 1882 and wont be complete until like 2050... its absolutely ginormously huge, and when you look up at the ceiling, its supposed to look like a canopy of trees... its pretty much all based on forms found in nature, which are then somehow created through math objects... i wish i could explain it better, but see the pics, google it, if youre interested... after that we went to la Padrera to hit up the roof (a pretty crazy Gaudi construction), then walked down to Casa Batllo... after the Gaudi fest was over, we headed down La Rombla... or something like that... which is basically a market that goes down the middle of a street... theres a cluster of pet shops, a cluster of restaurants, a cluster of flower shops (they had blue roses, crazy!)... just clusters of things basically... and it leads down to the water... where there was some cool stuff... so by the time we got to there, me and morgan just walked along the water, and eventually along the beach, before heading to bed to rest our feet...
Day 2 had us up and out on the beach again... it was so pretty at night we had to see it during the day... so we walked all along the water, watched the surfers... hung out for a bit... decided to make our way back to La Rombla... saw some salsa dancers and other street performers... walked up and over towards some park that apparently has a zoo (we like animals apparently) but once we got to the zoo and we saw it was like 15 euro for an adult ticket, we said no way and got some ice cream instead... then we headed back to the water to look for some dinner... we ended up having a whole bunch of sangria and tapas on some boat... which was pretty awesome... a good way to end our time in barcelona... we headed to bed somewhat early since we had to be out at around 415am the next morning to get to the bus to take us to the airport

Part 4: Finally in Paris
upon our arrival in paris, we realized that no we do not speak french and NO it is not easy to find your way along the metro... sooo it took us a bit to get oriented... after a good deal of walking and some metro riding, we got to our hostel and dropped our things off... by then it was about time for lunch, so we grabbed some chocolate chip baguettes and headed out towards the Jardains du Luxembourg... or however you spell that mess... the gardens were lovely, so we stopped and took some pictures, and then continued towards Notre Dame, which is apparently on an island in the middle of the Seine River... pretty cool... so we found that and went inside and spent some time gawking at the rose windows... then took a lap around the outside and decided to come back the next day to head up the towers to the roof... from Notre Dame we walked at a brisk pace towards the Louvre, took a quick look at the outside (again to return the next day) and jumped on a metro to see Sacre Cour, the highest point in the city, topped with a garden, some steps, and a basilica... the view was amazing and probably would have been better had it not been so cloudy... but it was a great view none the less... after that we metro-ed it back down to the champs elysees, and started out along that towards the Arc de Triomph... along there some guy was doing silhouettes in "under 2 min guaranteed" and he was so good at them that i paid the 3 euro to get it done and it really does look like me! totally worth it... so then we continued towards the arc, which never seemed to get any closer and then suddenly we were there... took a look at that and then kept right on walking down towards the Eiffel Tower... we got there just around dusk, took a few pics, and decided it was time for dinner... after dinner we headed back to the tower and bought some tickets for the next boat ride along the Seine River... since we had a few minutes to spare we got some crepes filled with chocolate (mmm the Parisians really know how to do dessert) and then went back to catch the boat for our very romantic boat ride along the river past all the good stuff that we spent all day walking past... it was sooo pretty all lit up at night... then it was time to head back to the hostel for bed...
Day 2 in Paris led us straight to the Eiffel Tower... it was a bit cloudy and overcast... but by the time we got there it was clearing up... so we walked up to the second floor, which is really like the 5th floor of a normal building... then took the elevator up to the tippy top... once we got there i could see New York! actually, no i couldnt... but i could see all of Paris... it was crazy high up there! after the Eiffel Tower we headed back to the Louvre for a few hours to see the highlights...first we had to see the upside down pyramid with the little pyramid under it (DaVinci code)... then we hit up Michelangelo's Dying Slave and Rebellious Slave, originally meant to be on the tomb of Julius II before it was redesigned several times... then we saw the Athena Nike... and of course the Mona Lisa... then we had to find the Madonna on the Rocks (any DaVinci code fans out there?)... then we wandered a bit and stumbled upon the rest of the portraits that were originally in the Studiolo of the Ducal Palace of Urbino (we saw that on our Hilltowns Tour)... and also the crown jewels of Napoleon and Josephine (WOW)... we wandered a bit through the museum and then realized it was time to start trucking it over to Notre Dame to see the bell tower... so we started off towards Notre Dame, waited in a pretty quick line, and then climbed the 422 steps to the roof of Notre Dame where we hung out with Quasimodo for a while... again a beautiful view of Paris... theres really so many places in Paris where you can get up pretty high and get a view of the whole city... gorgeous! after Notre Dame, it was time to go... so we racewalked pretty much for about 45 minutes back to our hostel, grabbed our stuff and jumped on the nearest metro to grab the train back to Roma... which nearly hit a speedbump when we were told that since we didnt have eurorail passes we had to pay the difference for the trip, in 1st class!... well the guy was really nice and switched us to a room in coach (still with beds) and we were never charged for the trip... so we had a looooong train ride (from about 7pm to almost 11am) most of which we slept through... and arrived well rested back in Rome this morning...

Back in Roma, we grabbed the bus back to our apartment... i dont think i have ever been so happy to be in a foreign country speaking a language i am nowhere near fluent in... so now ive been blogging forever (its taken me a few hours to get through all this) and i've uploaded all the pictures fit to print (you'll have to see them all to get a real feel for my trip) and i had some gelato! mmm i love gelato... and now im (almost) ready to settle in for a full week of killer studio before my southern trip begins next week... poopy
special thanks to maegen, erin, bratty, christy, lisa yue, and lexie for pointing us in the right direction on our trip... also thanks to lj and erzie for the postcards! and to all the girls who have been facebook messaging me and writing on my wall, i miss you all sooo much and i cant wait to be back with all of you! (even though i looooove rome)

To recap: all was fabulous on the trip... i wouldn't recommend 4 european countries in 8 days (my feet are killing me)... but its totally doable if you get the chance! it was def the experience of a lifetime!!!

vacation!

sooo vacation starts now and me and morgan have planned a crazy trip for the next 8 days... heres our itinerary:

Oct 27 (Morning) Fly from Roma to Milan, start loving Milan
Oct 28 Continue loving Milan all day
(Night) Fly from Milan to London
Oct 29 Love London all day
Oct 30 Continue loving London all day
(Night) Fly from London to Barcelona
Oct 31 Love Barcelona all day
Nov 1 Continue loving Barcelona all day
Nov 2 (Morning) Fly from Barcelona to Paris, start loving Paris
Nov 3 Continue loving Paris all day
(Night) Take train overnight from Paris to Roma
Nov 4 Resume loving Roma

jealous? yea i thought so... im out of contact most likely for the next week... sooo wish me luck on my adventure and i will surely post about EVERYTHING when i get back!

i now present: Aundrew Saunders, my professor, in action:

the halfway point

2 months in Roma, 2 months to go... we've begun our final project and now i guess we're just worky worky worky towards the end... heres a NEW list of things ive done in Roma, now that another month has gone by:

• stopped saying escuse me, please, thank you, hey... these words have now been replaced by i scusi, per favore, grazie, ciao
• sent out 2 full sets of postcards... if you haven't gotten one yet, not to worry, you'll get one soon
  
• been to the vatican during the day, and realized that it is actually Heaven on earth
• seen the Valentino exhibit (mmm gowns)
• stopped letting my hair air dry, its cold now, so i need to dry it before leaving the house or ill freeze!
• still no TV :-(
• begun to miss speaking in english, watching tv in english, reading anything besides architecture in english
• cooked family dinner! (sausage and peppers on ciabatta rolls, yummy)
• gone to the crazy flea market and bought new knives and forks for our severely lacking apartment
• learned to live with the fact that no, i do not have a closet of my own and no, i do not have all of my clothes
• enjoyed the hilltowns and all their wine and lovely landscapes
• been sad about missing the parties at RPI
• started running again, and hopefully i will continue to run until i get back because i've...
• become totally addicted to gelato, every flavor
• become addicted to espresso (so efficient)
• missed studio in the greene building with all my bests, but NOT missed the squirrels haha
• not gone back to all the places i wanted to go back to
• gotten very homesick
• taught my mom to use email! probably my greatest accomplishment! haha
• missed the little things i can do at home and in troy, but not here
• been really proud of all our new members, who are doing a FABULOUS job from what i've heard
  
• missed my family, my sisters, the boys, all my bests... ive missed pretty much everyone

for those of you that have been reading, thanks, you make me happy... the more i talk to all my sisters and friends at home, the more loved i feel and the more excited i am to really make the most out of this semester, just so i can come back and tell you all about it... so here's to 2 more months of pictures, hopefully more sketching, more postcards, more stories, more blogging, etc etc etc

ps. ive added a link to a map that shows where i've been running, instead of posting a new map to every page... so you should check it out from time time and help me stay motivated by being totally jealous of everything i run by!

new google toy!

ok so now that im running i need to keep myself motivated and all of you posted on all of my progress... so ill be posting the routes of my particularly exciting runs for all of you to see :)
this google map toy lets me post maps to my blog (i edited yesterdays post to put up the map from fridays run)... i could probably post maps of other stuff too if i wanted... but a run is a good thing to post a map of... today i ran past the ara pacis, to the piazza del popolo, and back along the river past castel sant angelo and the vatican... jealous? you should be!

View Larger Map

busy busy busy

sorry to those of you that actually read this blog... i had a VERY busy week, and things are really starting to pick up around here... on monday, we got our groups for the final project... and i dont have a partner... i am THE ISLAND... STATEN ISLAND... thanks saunders... ridiculous... on thr bright side i dont have a partner to fight with, on the not-so-bright side i dont have a buddy for the project... oh well... thursday was our history midterm... the test was on renaissance rome... so basically i had to know EVERYTHING about EVERY renaissance building in rome... which is a lot... there were like 10 palaces, 7 or 8 villas, a million churches, everything in the vatican... im sure you get the idea that it was a totally ridiculous test... but i think i did pretty well... so yay!
yesterday i went for a run... to the Colosseum... seriously, dont you wish you could run to the colosseum? this is part of my new plan for getting in shape and being a happier person in roma... if i run, i am happy... and i also get to explore Rome, which is amazing... so i'll be keeping you all posted of my progress...
map of my run:

View Larger Map

today is october 20, so i will be back in the USA in exactly 2 months... so im about halfway through my time in ROME! isnt that crazy?
my schedule for the rest of the semester:
until oct 26: Roma
oct 27-28: Milan
oct 29-30: London
oct 31-nov 1: Barcelona
nov 1-2: Paris
nov 3-12: Roma
nov 13-18: Southern Trip
nov 18-dec 20: Roma
dec 20: back in the USA!
mangan in roma: nov 24-dec 2
studio final: dec 12

in the meantime, i'll try to get more posts in... i'll prob be spending tons of time in studio... blah!
love you all, miss you all, can't wait to see you all

high fashion and not so much

soooo another blog post for today because i absolutely had to post about the valentino exhibit at the ara pacis... mostly just because it was beautiful and the dresses were amazing... i got to see the Julia Roberts dress from when she won the oscar, a dress worn by reese witherspoon, and one by halle berry... as well as about 100 other gorgeous dresses that i would have loved to wear... soooo pretty... although the mannequins were pretty awkward and had really long necks... some examples:

julia roberts dress

later today we had family dinner... during which mike decided to show us some high fashion of his own... witness the mom jeans, camp dudley polo, and boat shoes:wow mike... lookin good! ;-)

hilltowns trip

sooo, after 5 days of traveling and almost a day of recouperating, im ready to post about the hilltowns...
early monday morning, we began at 7am on the bus on our way to montepulciano... which turned out to a be a VERY SMALL town that had like 10 churches and not much else, as most of these towns do. what it did have is some spectacular views... a few of us all ended up in the same spot for lunch, sitting on a wall at the top of a hill, looking out over the countryside, which became a pretty regular event for us on this trip... we were also able to go to the top of one of the buildings and take a few pictures... which was pretty cool... after about 4 hours there, we loaded back onto the bus
about a half hour on the bus landed us in pienza, the renaissance utopia town... even smaller than montepulciano... theres literally one piazza thats about the size of my apartment in rome... and in the 4 hours we spent there, most of us were able to do several laps of the town... upon suggestion by our professors, a few of us bought some wine and cheese and sat on a wall with a view consuming these goods until it was time to leave... very good idea... i recommend doing this whenever you have some free time in italy
that night we got to siena... pretty town, nasty hotel... we were tired that night, so we found some dinner and headed back to the hotel pretty quickly... early the next morning, we climbed our way to the top of the Torre al Mangia... which is a ridiculously high tower with ridiculously steep narrow stairs going all the way to the top... besides being totally out of breath by the time i got to the top, it was worth it... the view was beautiful! the rest of the day was spent shopping, i found a pair of beautiful leather scrunchy boots with a low heel... a little more expensive than i planned, but pretty awesome anyway, look for them in pictures to come... that night we went to the Taverna del Cecco, which was right across the way from our nasty hotel but ended up being a really nice place with good food... and we also went out for coffee with amy's sister alicia and her fiance alfredo... theyre getting married in about a month and we saw pictures of her dress... its really beautiful
wayyyy too early the next morning we visited San Galgano, an abandoned abbey somewhere out in the middle of nowhere... it was soooooo cold... once i put on a few layers it was much better, and i was able to sit still long enough to do a pretty decent sketch... after a few hours there, it was time to move along once again
Arezzo was the next stop on our whirlwind tour, and we spent a few hours there looking at the churches (really thats all arezzo has)... but i have no pictures... because my camera battery died... oh well
later that evening we checked into the most beautiful hotel we've stayed in so far, in urbino... we went to a restaurant called Morgana for dinner (because the name was obviously irresistable) and it was delicious! We spent the whole next day in urbino... we visited the ducal palace... i actually stood in the middle window between the towers! it was really pretty, and there were some amazing works of art, one was "The Mute" by Raphael!! It was pretty awesome... later on, after lunch, we walked around the edge of the city and landed in a park with a nice spot to sit and enjoy the view, which we did... all afternoon... after another fabulous dinner in urbino it was time to get some rest and gear up for the last day of our trip!
finally, we got to assisi... as in st francis of assisi! the church is in 2 parts... the tomb, the upper church and the lower church and it is covered in the most amazing frescos depicting scenes from the bible and from the life of saint francis... besides the church, the rest of the town was pretty hilly... but if you climbed all the way up the hill, not only did you get another great view, there was a castle!! yes, a castle at the top of the hill... it was a very nice way to spend the last afternoon of our trip
we arrived around 7 last night back in rome, where i unpacked, showered, and went to bed... the hilltowns were fabulous, but its good to be back

the end of another week in roma

So, this week went from bad, to a bit better, to wayyyy worse, but now has ended very nicely. To recap, Sunday i was feeling the cabin fever of studio, missing home and friends and everyone. Luckily, Monday and Tuesday mornings landed our history class at the Vatican (i've posted pictures) and its pretty much the most amazing, most beautiful place i have ever seen... St Peter's is absolutely HUMONGOUS! Along the floor it compares the sizes of other famous basilicas, and St Patricks in NYC could fit inside it twice, with room to spare... and its just amazingly decorated and i could never describe just how beautiful it is if you've never been there yourself... so put it on your "life to do" list, go to the vatican, see St Peters, it might change your life. The next 2 nights resulted in little or no sleep but lots of scripting and diagramming for our review on thursday, which went ok but not great... we were one of the last groups to go and we got barely any time to present. But whatever... its over now... me and Brian dont have to work together anymore... which is fab. Yesterday was a day of relaxing and sleeping and loafing around and taking long showers... thats literally what everyone did... and last night instead of going out, we projected Gladiator on the wall of our apartment, which was an awesome movie to watch while in Rome, because hey, thats where the movie takes place! it was pretty good, i've never seen Gladiator before (gasp!) and i think between Cinderella Man and Gladiator, i am now totally in love with russel crowe... hes pretty awesome. Today was another day of relaxing and enjoying Rome... me and mike walked around in the drizzle for a few hours (it never really rains here) and then we had a big family dinner (andrew made lamb and joanne made apple pie... mmmmmmm) and then we had cake for rachele's bday! So all in all, it ended up being a great week... thank you everyone who's been reading and posting comments and posting on my facebook wall... i miss you all and it means so much to me that you miss me too!!!
Next week i'll be away on the hilltowns trip, so im not sure how much internet access i will have, but ill try to update during the week while im gone and of course i will update when i return.

homesick

So i know im in a beautiful city, and its an amazing experience, and i love rome... but today i feel a little bit homesick... for a variety of reasons... im totally sick of studio, i want to go out and explore the city, i want my freedom back and i dont want to have the pressure of trying to figure everything out in english and translate to italian, its no fun... and i miss my friends at school... seeing the same 20 people every day is getting old, and im just started to get aggravated about stupid things that i wouldnt get aggravated about if i had some time with other people... and i want to watch a movie, any movie, even a bad tv rerun would be nice... i havent watched tv in over a month, and even tho it doesnt usually govern my life, i miss it... i miss being able to talk to my family every day, phone calls are expensive and with the time difference its hard to coordinate... i miss friday night getting ready to go out to parties, or for sushi, or to just sit around and drink beer and talk about stupid things with friends... i miss cheap bars, i even miss the ruck... i could really go for some french fries right about now, or some wings... i missed all of fall rush, the barbeques, the parties, meeting all the new pledges... i miss my sisters and our beautiful new house... i want to meet our new girls, especially my little little, erzie... i miss dani, i miss fall 04, i miss megan and lj and amanda and jan and lexie, i miss lazy saturdays in my pajamas... every day here is crazy, its non stop... and if you stop for too long its like youre wasting all those precious minutes that youll never get back... i just want to take a nap... my bed is so tiny here, i want my big bed back... i need to go lay down in dani's bed for a while and hide from the world... i miss greg, i miss all the things we used to do, i miss texting all day long, i miss constant contact... i miss room 12, playing cards on the bar, mug chugs, beer pong with real red cups, i miss all the boys... theres only 7 boys in our group, and its not enough... i miss having time to dry my hair, i miss sitting on the sage coin between classes, i miss wearing letters on campus... i miss chef joe, and only having to cook when i wanted to, and being on a meal plan... i miss ramen and easy mac and cookies... i miss drinking tea every night before bed, the tea here is not the same as at home... i miss making nachos with all my sisters in the middle of the night because nobody wants to do work and we'd all rather be fatties... i miss all my shoes, i miss borrowing clothes from sisters, i even miss sisters borrowing clothes from me... i miss greene and being able to visit all my sisters when i needed a break from doing work... and now that ive gotten all this out, i think i feel a little better... so when you read this, dont think im sad... just know that i miss you, and all the things we do together or apart... and i love rome, but its just not the same as home or even troy... and i love my time here, but sometimes it just gets to me that im really far away from all the people and places and things that i love... but i have some good friends here, and theyre taking care of me... and hopefully im taking care of them too... and im going to try to keep myself busy and distracted so i can enjoy every second that im here, but also so it doesnt feel like so long until im back with all of you again.

ps... if you would like to call me or send me something wonderful, let me know and i'll tell you how

mom jeans

Hey Amy! Looking sexy in those mom jeans. You're like a mom model. Where did you get those jeans? Oh they're Mikes? How nice that they have pleats for your front butt. I should borrow them sometime. Bellissima!

one month in Roma

after one month in Roma, I have:
-walked past the pantheon about 30 times, and remained in awe of it
-been abused by crazy Jan, my history professor
-bought 1 new pair of Birkenstock sandals from 2 very cute old men
-broken 1 white glass ring from Verona by playing the cup game at joes
-had a wire toe ring made ON MY FOOT for free
-finished my own bottle of wine in one night
-found muji
-taken pictures of the Vatican at night
-not watched any tv
-created BAM
-spent an entire day walking miles and checking a half dozen stores only to find a hairdryer in the store around the corner
-learned to take a VERY FAST shower
-learned to live without privacy
-become part of a family
-lived without internet for an extended period of time
-learned to order sliced lunchmeat in italian
-learned to think in euro
-done laundry once
-not done enough sketching
-written a bunch of post cards, but not sent any out
-missed everyone lots and lots
-gotten really excited about all our new alpha gams at RPI
-fallen in love with this city

i <3 fridays in Roma

So I’ve decided that even though every day in Roma is wonderful, Fridays quite possibly are the best…

Friday began with Italian, which is always hilarious. Paolo is our teacher and he’s pretty much ridiculous. He was asking us about our plans for the weekend and Andrew told him "mangio il pane con Il Gesu"… which means literally "i'm eating bread with Jesus" lol. Paolo thought that was pretty ridiculous, and he laughed his very strange Paolo laugh and all was good.

After Italian class I went to la Rinascente to buy this cool bag I saw the other day. It’s a tote with Andy Warhol designs on it, and it was originally 60 euro but I got it on sale for 34, which I don’t really think is too bad. I’ve totally stopped thinking in dollars; it’s just not worth it because everything is so expensive here anyway. But it’s a cool bag and its got pockets on the inside and a little clip thing for my keys so I don’t lose them in the bottom of the bag because that’s the most annoying thing ever.

After lunch I decided that I really wanted to go get another crazy ring. There’s an older man that sits at a table across the campo and he makes beautiful jewelry out of silver wire and there’s these rings that are just like a birds nest of coiled wire and I really wanted one. So me and Morgan ventured over to see if we could find some good ones, and the guy started talking to us about the rings and telling us that he’s not going to make the birds next ones because they use too much wire and its expensive and not worth it for him to make. We paid him for the rings, but he motioned for us to come over because he had something special for us. He proceeded to MAKE TOE RINGS ON OUR FEET!!! Yes, he made me put my foot up on his knee so that he could literally make the toe ring around my toe, just for me. He did the same for Morgan and now we have beautiful matching, but different, toe rings. Only in Roma.

the rest of the northern trip

Sooo im back in rome after my weeklong northern tour… it was pretty awesome but im glad to be back so I can settle into a normal routine rather than just running through beautiful cities all day and night…

To continue our tour, we left Genova for Torino on Monday… Torino was absolutely wonderful after scary genova… it was really beautiful, much safer, and had amazing shopping… I found a new awesome store (muji… google it to see some of their fabulous products)… and some new leggings!! Besides that, Torino had a lot of gorgeous churches.... we went to see the school of architecture (which is in an old palace… man I wish greene was a palace lol)… and we went to see the old fiat factory… which has a test track on top!! We ran around it like a bunch of little kids and there will probably be pictures all over facebook of us running around like crazy people lol

After Torino came a brief stop in Verona… as in Romeo and Juliet Verona… it was really nice… another one of those cities where I probably could have spent some more time… we saw a castle that was pretty cool, spent some time sketching… and ran around a bit… I bought a crazy glass ring… its pretty huge… and white… Amy also bought a ridiculous bling bling ring… you should be jealous of our jewelry… haha

By nightfall on Wednesday, we were in Vicenza… we stayed in a convent where we had a midnight curfew, which didn’t matter much since we were up at like 7 and spent all day running around the city and I was totally exhausted by like 11pm every night… we didn’t really spend much time in Vicenza itself, but we did make a visit to the Nardini Grappa Distillery… which a few years ago celebrated its 225^th anniversary by building a crazy new building… it was beautiful… floating bubbles and a cave… loved it! We also got to taste their grappa… not something you want to be doing
at like 11am… haha… then we went to Bassano where the distillery originally was at the end of a Palladio bridge… bassano was really beautiful… we had lunch there… chilled on the bridge for a while… and of course moved on to the next crazy thing way too fast… the day ended with a visit to la rotunda… fabulous… im pretty sure Palladian villas are some of the most beautiful architecture ever… and I wish I could spend my summers living on the top of a hill in a gorgeous summer home designed by Palladio… another night in Vicenza, and then we caught the train in the morning on our way to

VENICE!!! So I was totally not prepared for Venice to be as beautiful as it was… but Venice is pretty much the most gorgeous place ive ever seen… it was so beautiful to take the ferry along the canals… to walk along the canals… to be surrounded by canals… the only problem was that I was perpetually thirsty and really aching to go swimming haha… we spend all weekend in Venice, but I really think I could have stayed for days… when we arrived on Friday morning, we got ourselves oriented and then a few of us went to St Marks Square to chase some pigeons… the pigeons there are totally ridiculous… they’ll just walk right over your feet if you stand too close… I don’t really like pigeons… theyre just flying rats as far as im concerned… so I spent most of the time in Venice just kicking at the pigeons to keep them from doing something really awful like landing on my arm or my head… gross… we also spent much of that afternoon going into various souvenir stores… pretty much every other store in Venice is a store selling a) glass products or b)beautifully decorated masks or c) a combination of the two… so there were some pretty good opportunities for collecting all sorts of junk… I restrained myself a bit, but some of you most definitely will be receiving some gifts from Venice… Saturday morning landed us at the Biennale… a yearly exhibit that switches between art and architecture… this year was art, and let me tell you some of it was really strange, disturbing even… each country gets a pavilion to showcase their installation art… Italy had some good stuff… Russia was actually one of my favorites… but overall it was just strange… after being sufficiently freaked out by some of the worlds best installation art, we continued our day with a stop in Murano, the glass blowing island… its really amazing the things that they make out of glass… apparently it takes 25 years to become a glass master, but when you get to that point, its because you can do amazing things like make life sized flies of out glass… or a spider web out of the thinnest strands of glass ever… I was pretty much perpetually amazed by the glass crafts made on Murano… then we met all together for a Bellini break… Bellinis are Venetian cocktails that involve Italian frizzy wine and white peach pulp… theyre amazing!!

I spent my last day in Venice just walking around enjoying the scenery… we saw Palladio’s last work, a church out on an island across the water from St Marks… it was positively cavernous inside, with huge columns, curved transept altars, and a beautiful altar… then we had lunch in the jewish ghetto, where I bought a crazy red-orange silk scarf… it makes me look really eurochic haha

By the time we boarded the train at 330 on Sunday, I was ready for a break… traveling was a lot of fun, but it’s really tiring! If I had to pick my favorite cities, id put Torino and Venice at the top of the list… and obviously my least favorite was Genova… Id really like to go back to Venice someday… I couldn’t help but smile the whole time I was there… let me know if you’ve been to Venice and you feel this way too

Now I’m back in Rome for 3 weeks before our Hilltowns tour at the beginning of October… and ive got a crazy week of studio and history classes ahead of me… hopefully I’ll be able to make time for doing like 5 loads of laundry in our crazy small washing machine…

to all my amazing alphagam sisters, I miss you and love you and I know we are going to have the most awesome new members ever!!

To everyone, you should probably visit me if you can, Italy is the best!!

genova is full of shit

so we left yesterday to begin our first field trip at 7am... after a few hours of napping on the bus, we arrived in Lucca, a small city in the region of Tuscany... it was really beautiful (pictures will be posted when i have my computer)... there was a church there that was absolutely amaxing, the stained glass lit it up in a way that words could not describe, and unfortunately pictures were prohibited... so if you ever get a chance togo to Lucca, im sure you will see this church and know exactly what i mean
after some more napping on the bus, we arrived in Genova, our real destination for the day... we began with a short orientation given to us by Giudetta, who works here as a professor and architect... then we went to the aquarium, which was awesome... we were like a bunch of little kids looking at all the fish, taking pictures of the pengiuns, really just relaxing and having fun... then we had a nice dinner which involved ridiculous amounts of beer (shared between 11 people of course) and then we wandered around to see what the night life here was all about... which apparently isnt much, even on a saturday night
today we continued our tour of genova, which is characterized mostly by churches with striated black and white facades and also with frescoed trompe l'oil (sp?) facades that look 3d but are definitely not (you will see this in pictures as well) as far as walking around geneva, its kindve a problem... you see, many people here have dogs, italy seems to be a very dog friendly place... however, dog owners are apparently not responsible for cleaning up after their pets, which means you have to constantly watch the ground toavoid stepping in poop, which would be very uncool
overall, genova is not so bad... theres a new plan in the works to really build up the harbor area, which is already far and away the nicest part of the city... it seems that this is not a very touristy place right now, because it is currently underdeveloped and in a state of rebuilding, and it almost seemed a bit dangerous (luckily we go everywhere in groups of 10 or more)... tonight we spend the night in genova again, and we leave tomorrow morning for Torino!

smart cars, bad drivers

so in rome, everyone has these crazy little cars... not just smart cars but something called a vw polo and a nissan micra... theyre probably the silliest cars you will ever see... theres also tons of people on mopeds, motorcycles, etc... and not just guys, girls in beautiful clothes and designer shoes just zipping dangerously through rome trying to run all us pedestrians over... i really dont think there are any traffic laws here
things are settling down here now that classes have really begun... if we had any time to like explore and hang out id like to do some shopping, but apparently that will have to wait... we're writing a book about baroque rome (seriously) and then this weekend we leave for our first trip, which is like 10 days
i've taken a lot of pictures, which i'm going to post as soon as i finish writing this... so youll see that im actually in rome and not just hiding somewhere on staten island
most of my classes so far have just been like crazy 4 hour walking tours around rome with my crazy professors... our archeology professor is jan (pronounced like yahn) and hes pretty outrageous... he makes fun of us... he called me a slacker and amy a talk machine... both of which are true, so in addition to being ridiculous, hes a good judge of character lol
the other big thing here is wine... im developing a taste for 3 euro bottles of wine, which we all drink every night with dinner... our family dinner... besides wine and my basic 3 meals a day, im eating no junk food (we wont even waste our money on it at the store) and walking everywhere, which is awesome... thats why the italians are so thin... because they walk everywhere... they also sweat out all the water they take in... which is crazy... its so hot here, its finally cooled down, and by that i mean its like 85 degrees instead of 95... crazy... anyway, its time to post some pictures!

there are no fat people in rome

seriously, there aren't... everyone here is tan, tall, and thin... minus the fat lady who was covering herself with just a scrap of fabric (not enough) and no underwear and bathing in the fountain... not ok. its beautiful here, i've been doing lots more exploring, i've taken some pictures but i cant post them until we have real internet... so like 2 more weeks. we started classes, and its not so bad, it just seems like from now on all our days will be jam packed pretty much until i get home. theres so much shopping around here, so many stores... i did some exploring yesterday just around the camp dei fiori where we are living and nothing really caught my interest, but there is lots more to check out...
speaking of checking things out, if you know matt, you should check out the link to his blog, he had an accident the other night, and will be on his way home soon... its probably best to get the story in his own words. im sad matt is leaving, but very happy that hes ok. we're all very happy he's ok... its like a little family here now... i was worried about not being friends with everyone, but now i know it doesn't matter... we're all friends now whether we like it or not!