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!