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