My five years of French were actually good for something!

It's been a very long day. I'm tired. But, today was actually relatively interesting so I figured I'd blog about it before I forgot everything that happened!

It started off bright and early (8:30 meeting time...) so we could tour a Roman mosque. To get to said mosque, we had to walk to Piazza del Popolo (about a 30 minute walk from the Campo) and then take a train. It was an adventure. After walking, we got to the incredibly sketchy train station with the most rickety unsafe seeming trains EVER and get on for a short ride to the mosque. However, the train has two different types of stops--ones written in black that the train actually stops at and ones written in blue that you have to request, like if you're on a bus. Did we know that? No. So, first time around, we missed our stop because it's a "request only" stop. We headed over to the other side of the platform to get back on the train and get to our stop. We pressed the button this time but come to realize the stop we want is under construction and thus out of order. So, we cross to the other side of the platform again to just get off at the stop right after the one we were supposed to use. Italians do not post signs about stops being closed or under construction and I feel like that should be mandatory but apparently not.

Anyways, three train rides later, we got off and walked a short distance to the mosque where they instantly force all the girls to cover their shoulders and heads. Luckily, we had been warned and brought our scarves but it was entirely too hot a day to have your head wrapped up. I don't care what religion you are, I would just like not to be forced to wrap a scarf around my head. The mosque itself was large and had lots of Arabic writing but really wasn't super exciting.

After that experience, the few people who are volunteering at the refugee center for their class project (I'm included in this group) had to rush to center before it closed for the day because this was our last day to volunteer. We had to take the train and then the metro to get to Termini and then had about a 15 minute walk to get to the center so it was more time wasted on traveling. Also, thank goodness I was there because no one could seem to figure out how to read the metro map. Anyways, we got to the center and basically I just wandered around talking to the people there, helping them with their English and listening to their life stories. I met a guy from Somalia who completely hates Italy and a 14 year old from Afghanistan. Also, I met a guy from the Cote d'Ivoire and he has only been in Italy since April so speaks no English or Italian but IL PARLE FRANCAIS! Alors, j'ai utlisie mes etudes francaises! Tres bon.

It was a bit difficult to understand everything he was saying because (a) it's been like a year since I've spoken French and (b) he was speaking a not France-French dialect. But I got the gist of it! He was a florist in the Cote d'Ivoire. I think I would hate being a florist. Plants and I aren't friends.

After a few hours there, it was already almost 2:30 and we hadn't eaten since 7:30 so were all getting a bit grumpy. And the buses we were supposed to take back from the center were so packed that we couldn't get on them so we had to walk back to the Rome Center to meet for our next class, giving us approximately 5 minutes to grab some food and maybe go to the bathroom before our 3:00 meeting.

3:00 brought our first art history class of the week where we toured some churches that had massively gilded ceilings that were so heavy that they had to reinforce the church walls and add some buttresses and all that just so the ceilings would stay up. It was more ridiculous, gaudy Baroque. Enough gold leaf was in those to churches to bedazzle probably all of UW. Then, we trekked up to the Aqua Paola, this massive water fountain/pool thing that a pope built a while ago. It was very pretty and the sky had been thundering earlier in the day but had fabulously cleared up when we were sitting by the fountain.

Getting home after class was slightly unfortunate because it meant I had massive amounts of reading to do. I've since discovered how GREAT of a skimmer I can be. But really, we're reading about Sultans now and they just had this obsession with harems and conquering Hungary. That's about all I got out of those 70ish pages.

After reading and a quick dinner, we went out to watch the soccer game! We found this bar very close to our apartment that was serving liters of sangria and wasn't crowded at all so we decided it was a good choice. Partway through the game, this group of German kids (probably about our age) stormed in and were singing and chanting and made it really, really fun. We found out that the only English words they knew were "Oh, shit" and "What the fuck?" Quality cursing, America. Way to spread that around the world. The game was really fun though and it was very depressing when Germany lost because the kids in the bar were so sad.

The game ended and we came home and I decided to blog. And that basically sums up my day.

A few days later

Hello friends! So, I've been slacking and haven't posted anything about my life since our Florence trip.

Actually, the real reasoning behind this is that I haven't been slacking at all! We basically have everything due for the whole course in a week. So I've had shit to do, including but not limited to:
1) Research immigration to Italy
2) Look up the current political situations in multiple countries with people who immigrate to Italy
3) Try and figure out how said people get to Italy
4) Make serendipitous discoveries about Islamic/Italian relations
5) Actually put more time and effort into researching those relations
6) Read a lot about churches
7) Read a lot about popes
8) Visit a lot of places to learn more about popes
9) Upload pictures to facebook
10) Find time to blog so my mother knows I'm still alive

But really, studying abroad is going well, we've just almost reached the end of our time in Rome and have to do something to get our 15 credits. So we're busy.

However, tonight I have been solidly working for the past almost 3 hours with minimal facebook time so I decided I should take a break and blog.

Backtracking to Sunday, my roommates and I wake up to discover the lack of food in our apartment after our Florence trip. Actually, let's correct this: they woke up to discover this. I slept until 11. It was the first time I've slept past 8 since we've been here so it was necessary. And Catherine went to our usual cafe without me and our cafe guys missed me! Basically, we're all good friends now. They invited us to the beach with them! Have I mentioned that already? I'm not sure. My blogs and conversations all run together in my head.

Anyways, since we didn't have food, we went out to both lunch and dinner. We explored Trastevere and found out there was this hill right behind us with a very majestic fountain/waterfall (which turns out to be someone's monument for art history.... who knew??) and beautiful views of all of Rome. It was gorgeous! Except it was 90+ degrees outside and there isn't really much shade at the top of a hill. We got lunch after exploring and came back for an epic afternoon of..... HOMEWORK! Maybe not so epic. But we had copious amounts of reading and researching and group projects. After a long afternoon, we went out to dinner to this delicious little place near our apartment where I got some fantastic ravioli. Since Italians take their time with everything, we didn't get home from dinner until after 10 so after a little more reading, it was bedtime. I don't think I've been sleeping enough in Italy. Tiredness is beginning to get to me.

Regardless, Monday dawned ridiculously hot (again) and began with an attempt to volunteer at the refugee center. Since that's my project for one of my classes, it's quite crucial that we actually spend enough time there to get enough information for our projects. So, we got up early on our day off (they gave us Monday off for the fourth of July!) to bus it to the refugee center only to find out that it was closed. Why? I have no idea and neither did the guy who came to the gate. So it was a fail of a morning and a waste of time as we took two buses and did nothing. After that, we spent some time in the lovely air-conditioned Rome Center working on everything again and trying to coordinate group project meeting times. It was not incredibly eventful.

But, that evening, our professors were throwing a (late) fourth of July dinner for us! So, all 20-some of us went to their apartment where they had some restaurant bring it the most fantastic lasagna EVER. It was so much fun to actually have time to sit and talk with everyone else because we really don't get much of that at all. We heard some life stories and the tales of the most depressing pet owner ever and spent a very long time just hanging out. And, after spending a few hours together, what better thing to do than go get gelato together? Great idea. So, we went to our new favorite gelato place (which is actually kind of far away, but definitely fantastic so worth the walk) and I ended up getting home much later than I wanted to but it was fun! So I guess that's all that matters.

Getting up this morning was not so fun, though. I couldn't sleep last night because of the ridiculous heat and an unnecessary flare-up of my weird chest pain. But I'm in Rome! So I'm ignoring it and ibuprofen and I were best friends today.

We met with the rest of the group for a tour of the largest synagogue in Rome and a tour of the Jewish ghetto that used to be there. The synagogue was very pretty but both tour guides (for the synagogue/museum and the ghetto) were difficult to understand and said almost exactly the same things so we probably could have combined the two. And the Jewish ghetto was demolished a long time ago so we just wandered aimlessly at what used to be the edges of it. It was cool but it was also very hot outside. And we were hungry.

After a much needed lunch break, we were back in the classroom for our Islam class where we finished discussing Trickster Travels and learned a lot about Islam. I'm really excited to go to Istanbul now.

We had a two hour break after that so for some reason decided to walk back to our apartment even though it takes a very long time to get back here and it really only left us with an hour or so which is not enough time for me to be very productive, let's be real. But I did get my art history reading done, so that was a plus. We hurried back to the Rome Center for Kasaba's guest lecture (he's our Islam professor if you haven't read anything on my sidebar) and it was really interesting. And they had snacks. And, to top off the evening, the movie we were supposed to watch after that lecture was cancelled because it wouldn't play! Woo. So we actually had time to mosey back to our apartment, stopping at the crepe place for dinner. I'd only heard good things about this place but hadn't actually tried it and it ended up being wonderful. I got a crepe with cheese, tomato, and some sort of mysterious salami/ham something or other. And it was delicious. After getting home, I seriously did homework until I took a break to write this.

So it hasn't been an incredibly exciting few days (hence the lack of blog posting) and I don't even have my camera handy or many good pictures (we couldn't take pictures in the synagogue or anything!) so you don't get to see any pictures in this post! Sorry! But tomorrow we are touring a Roman mosque, volunteering at the refugee center (hopefully for real this time), and seeing at least three art history sites so it should be more eventful!

I hope you're all having fun and had a wonderful fourth of July!

Firenze!

So, today we went to Firenze (also know as Florence, by Americans). And it was just as pretty as I remember but it was an incredibly long, hot day full of expensive things. It actually wasn't as exciting as many of our days in Rome have been. But it was still fun.

The morning started off bright and early, meeting at 6:30 to bus it to the train station so we could catch the 7:45 am train. We took one of the fast trains that would get us to Florence in only an hour and a half. We planned on getting there around 9:15 and taking the 9:10 train back, giving us a solid 12 hours to spend there.

The train itself was very nice and pretty comfortable, although I don't remember most of the train ride because I went to sleep almost as soon as we started to move. Actually, almost all of us (there were 14 of us on that train, I think) slept most of the way there.

Once we arrived, we went straight to the Galleria dell'Academia to see the David. We weren't originally planning on it, but you kind of have to see the David if you're in Florence. There weren't too many people in line (it was only 9:30) so we figured it we'd be in and out and would have plenty of time to shop before it got super hot.

We figured wrong. We waited nearly an hour and a half in the already hot morning along the shadeless wall of the Galleria to just get in to the building. Once we got in though, the David was as cool as it was before and I even snapped an illegal picture before the guards noticed! But by the time we had all seen the David and breezed by everything else in the museum, it was definitely lunch time. We had gotten a few recommendations of where to go from our professor so we traipsed off to find one of them.

Believe it or not, I am actually quite a good navigator and didn't manage to get us lost on the way to the restaurant or any other time during the day! We went to a pretty standard restaurant for lunch, most of us getting pizza or pasta. I thought about it though, and since we usually cook dinner and just grab a cheap sandwich or something for lunch, and realized I've only ordered pasta one since I've been here! So I got pasta for lunch and it was delicious.

The group split up after lunch and most of the girls heading right to the shopping streets. I not only succeeded in getting a few souvenirs but also got a beautiful purple purse! I went into the leather store not planning on getting anything and ending up spending entirely too much money. But my new bag is beautiful and it's purple! So it was a good purchase, I think. I also got a matching wallet of the same purple leather. It was successful. And, the owner of the leather shop knew our professor, Lisa, so he gave us all really good discounts! Lisa knows everyone. I feel like we should just start name-dropping her wherever we go!

But, after the leather shop, we wandered around the market area through stalls of scarves and leather. That seems to be basically all they sell in Florence, other than David memorabilia.

After we had bought quite a bit and were laden down with heavy bags, it was hot. Very hot. We went to some fancy cathedrals and churches and across the Ponte Vecchio but everything in Florence is expensive to do! So we didn't want to pay to get into a bunch of random museums that we'd never heard of (I mean, just the David is 10 euros so I really didn't want to keep dropping that much money to see random things). We ended up wandering around for a long time until we got super thirsty, after which we decided to find a super market or something to get water before we died of dehydration. Florence doesn't have nice aqueduct-fed fountains like Rome does. The supermarket we found was almost sold out of water (everyone else seemed to have the same idea as us) and we grabbed this normal looking bottle from the shelves. It was called "gassoso" or something so we figured it'd be carbonated like a lot of the water here but whatever. We opened it, however, and it wasn't just carbonated, but was this sugary lime flavor. It was kind of like Sprite. Nowhere on the bottle did it say anything about flavoring--no picture of a lime or anything--so I just really don't understand this Italian marketing system. Oh well.

We ended up still dehydrated and met up with the rest of our group to watch the Argentina-Germany game. Not that exciting, but we were hot, tired, and thirsty and there's really not that much to do in Florence. So we watched the huge 4-0 Germany upset and then left to go find a restaurant for dinner.

Trying to find one, we actually found out THERE ARE NO RESTAURANTS IN FLORENCE. We literally wandered blocks without seeing any. We decided to just walk back towards the train station and see what we could find. We eventually found one and our group of 10 sat down to eat what turned out to be very mediocre food.

Seriously, at this point, we were just tired and wanted to go home. But we still had a couple hours before our 9:10 train. So, we went to the supermarket to buy some things people needed and somehow we ended up purchasing the always classy boxed wine. It was store-brand and had a twist off top so really was our only choice if we were going to drink it on the train.

We just headed to the train station after that. Even though we were more than an hour early, we just wanted to go home! We were able to get on an earlier train (8:40 instead of 9:10) and that made us all a little happier. And, busting out the boxed wine on the train made us even happier, if not a little sleepy. The white wine actually ended up being decent so it was a nice surprise. The red, not so much, but oh well. Once the train pulled into Rome, we found our bus, walked home, and I will go straight to bed very soon.

Overall, Florence was okay. I'm glad we went--I got a lot of shopping accomplished, but we could have even spent less time there than we did. 12 hours was actually a bit much. Anyways, sleep is calling to me, so I will blog again later!

The world comes together in an elevator.

Buonasera, world! I'm exhausted and the day isn't even over, but oh well. It was a long day for sure.

We had our first class at the Rome Center, in the lovely air conditioning (we were already sweating walking to class at 9 in the morning). Today, we had a guest speaker, the author of Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, Amara Lakhous. He didn't really speak English, though, so we had to talk to him with the help of a translator. It made asking questions a little awkward but what he had to say was really interesting. He was an immigrant from Algiers and has lived in Italy for quite awhile but has only been an Italian citizen for the past two years. His book was based on personal experiences and was actually a really good read. Typical, interesting honors student discussion proceeded for an hour and a half, but, like I said, he at least had interesting things to say.

After class, I had to go get some money for our trip to FLORENCE tomorrow! So exciting. And, as I was walking home, I noticed the coolest giraffe graffiti ever. Italy is full of graffiti (literally, it's on every wall) but this was a super fantastic giraffe. I love giraffes. I also saw two men walking, drinking beer (open containers are totally fine here) with a second empty beer bottle in their hands, at 11:30 this morning. But they weren't as cool as the giraffe so I didn't bother taking a picture.

Anyways, after I got home and had some lunch, we had a little time before our next class. But, we were meeting for our art history class about 10 miles away (well, not really, but it was far) so we had to leave pretty early. We went to the Villa Borghese for class and saw a ridiculous amount of art. Basically, this one guy in the Borghese line had a mild obsession with beautiful pieces of art. He was where Bernini got his start and has the largest art collection ever, almost. He was even in a church once and saw this painting by Raphael that he loved and just had to have and, after the church refused to sell it to him, had it stolen just so he could have it. He even built his villa (Villa Borghese) for the explicit purpose of showing off his art.

Now, normally I am not super excited about paintings and sculptures (I mean, when I was at the Louvre I had checked out after like 20 minutes) and today was no different. The Villa itself was a bit overdone in Baroque style but we got to see Bernini's sculptures and they were amazing. And he was only 19 when he finished his first one! They almost made the hour-long walk in the 90 degree heat worth it. Almost.

We couldn't take pictures in the Villa Borghese (they don't even allow cameras in) so I don't have anything to show you. But google Bernini's sculptures is you want to see what I'm talking about.

After touring the building, it was time for another hour long walk home. At least it was cooler this time. Once we got home, I sat down to write this blog so I don't have much more to say! But it's Molly's birthday tomorrow so we're all going to get gelato tonight, which should be fun. And our train leaves bright and early tomorrow for Florence! Hopefully I will find lots of fantastic things there! I'll be sure to let you all know how the trip goes.

PS. One thing I've noticed about Italy is that all the homeless people have dogs. And these poor puppies have to sit out in the hot sun all day! They have converted some ancient ruins into a cat park, a cat "sanctuary" as they call it. It's basically just a bigger version of the Humane Society's old cat bus, though. Anyways, they should do something like that for the dogs! They just look so hot and sad all the time! I want a puppy!!

Thoughts on today

Today, Thursday, was not very eventful. I don't even have any pictures from today! We had our "classroom classes" today, meaning we weren't out adventuring the streets of Rome, but rather sitting in the cool, air-conditioned conference room of the UW Rome Center. That is, until the power went out, shutting off the air-conditioning and leaving us to swelter in the muggy room full of students and computers.

Our classes today were based on two books we've read, Trickster Travels, which I have mentioned extensively, and A Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio. The second book is a short novel about all these people, so extreme in their quirks that they don't even seem real, who live in Piazza Vittorio, the main immigrant community in Rome. It was a short book, thankfully, and an easy read, but that classroom was so warm and full of burnt-out students that discussion lagged.

Other than class, we didn't do much. Lisa took us to a leather store where I might have found a present for my favorite sister (it's not a purse or a belt or anything, don't worry) and then we went grocery shopping, buying some bread, mozzarella, olive oil and wine. Very Italian groceries.

After class, we went home and I did my art history reading for tomorrow and proceeded to fall asleep. Those reading packets lull me to sleep every time.

All in all, that sums up my day. Pretty uneventful, like I said. I need to work on some projects for my other classes but I'm just not really motivated today. But tomorrow is a whirlwind and Saturday we'll be in Florence so I really should do something worthwhile. We'll see if that actually happens...

Anyways, to keep you entertained, here's some thoughts on my life:

1. I really like pizza bianca. It's basically this pizza dough-like bread with a little salt and olive oil and they use it a lot to make sandwiches.
2. I need to cut my bangs but I didn't bring any scissors to Rome.
3. I want my permanent retainers removed.
4. The nose pads fell off my sunglasses and it makes me sad. I keep them in a case and everything! But now they sit super close to my face which is weird. At least I brought three pairs of sunglasses on this trip!
5. I think the US should have a siesta.
6. I don't like how mustard smells.
7. When you order a cappuccino here, they give you a spoon for the foam so you don't have to let it go to waste. It's pretty logical.
8. I would hate to be a politician where you have to try to please the world with your decisions. It'd be much easier to be a dictator where you could just do what you want. Although I would have to have a pretty legit bodyguard system so I didn't get assassinated.
9. Nutella should be more prevalent in the US than it currently is.
10. The US should also sell the giant containers of Nutella. Currently, they only sell the 500g containers whereas here you can get the 750g version.
11. Airplanes should stop with the luggage restrictions.
12. People in Italy drive like crazy but never really hit anyone if they're going forward. However, they never actually look if they're backing up! Lisa has been hit multiple times by cars backing up. And today we saw a car back up into a girl on a scooter. The world doesn't revolve around you just because you are going in reverse!
13. I hate doing things when they don't have a point.
14. Going off #13, I hate it when people talk just for the sake of making noise. And don't have a point.
15. Pigeons are dirty.
16. I don't hate only spiders but pretty much bugs of any sort.
17. It would be cool if Italians had screens on their windows.
18. I wonder if my closet light is on.

Italian lentils might not live up to Palouse lentils.

Another bright day dawned in Trastevere today. We really should learn to close the shutters before we go to sleep so we’re not awoken at 5:30 in the morning. (Side note—did anyone else notice how I just used the word “awoken” and that it’s actually a legit word???)

But, nonetheless, it began as an exciting day. We met at the Rome Center after getting our usual cappuccino, although our usual café was closed and we had to go to Magnolia which I don’t quite like as much. So it was a little depressing. But we got over that small tragedy and made it to class on time to head to the bus stop and go to the market in the immigrant community. The bus was super crowded and it was a very small space for me to be in but I survived! Good thing, too, because the market was AMAZING. We went for our migration class and were supposed to be observing who was selling, who was buying, who was wandering around, and so on and so forth. But the market was so incredible and had so much food that we just ended up buying all of our groceries! And it was so cheap—we got literally like 12 pounds of vegetables for like 3 euros.

We got more than just vegetables, though! They had stalls with everything imaginable! We got rice and, Pullman’s pride and joy, LENTILS. They’re not from the rolling hills of the Palouse but still, hometown pride. (Another side note—I think I’m going to miss the Lentil Festival this year! It’s tragic! It’ll be the first year I’ve missed it in basically my entire life! So I’ll just have to enjoy these mysterious Italian lentils instead, I suppose.)

Also, they had a huge, revolting fish section. With squid. And eel. And enough eyes to be completely disgusting. It went along with the giant meat section where they just had whole pigs they were hacking up. You could get any cut of meat you wanted, I suppose. It was kind of bloody but was still not nearly as gross as the fish section. Seafood and I just aren’t really friends. I mean, who was the first person to catch an eel and think, “Oh, I should eat this”???? That would definitely NOT be my thought process.

Overall, the market was really fun though. We got a lot of produce and enough food for quite a few dinners to come and we got a taste of Italy’s immigrant community so I guess we did learn something. It was a relevant excursion even though there were eel staring at me.

After another crowded bus ride home with our bags of food, we headed straight to the travel agent! We wanted some concrete plans for our Florence trip this weekend. Since I’ve already been, I didn’t really want to pay the extra money to stay the night when all I really want to do is shop and I can do that in just one day, hopefully. So, quite a few of us are taking the train down bright and early Saturday morning and returning late that night. It only takes an hour and a half to get there by train, leaving us at least twelve hours to spend money there! I’m very excited. It was a bit hectic in the travel agency because there were like 20 of us trying to get tickets from people whose English was quite limited but it all worked out in the end.

Since our next class wasn’t until 3:00, we had some time to kill after the travel agency. Shurui wanted Birkenstocks and there was conveniently a Birkenstock store right by our apartment so he and I wandered over there. I went in with full intentions NOT to buy anything but, one hour and 53 euros later, I have my own pair of Birkenstocks! They’re actually quite fantastic with great arch support. A perfectly valid purchase in my opinion.

After my FIRST shopping excursion in Rome, we went back to our apartment for a quick lunch before our class and to drop off the groceries I’d been carrying around all day. I made a sandwich and we were off again to the Rome Center to meet up with Lisa for art history. Today, we learned about the Farnese family who basically rose to power by having lots of money and marrying off their children strategically. Their crest had a six fleur-de-lis on it and their palace, completely decked out with the crest, is now conveniently occupied by the French Embassy. Smart planning. But, after talking about Giordano Bruno, this guy who was burned because he believed in science being fantastic, we headed over to the Capitoline Hill for some more Farnese talk and to explore the museums. The museums there were actually really cool with a lot of great statues and some creepy baby busts. You saw the standard old man busts but then there were some giant marble baby heads which were just a little creepy. Anyways, they’ve also opened up the Ancient Roman tabularium (where they did all the record keeping and financial stuff—ancient accounting for you, mom!) which the museums were built on and you get to go down there and it’s like, BAM, Roman Forum. You just look out over the entire thing! It was fantastic.

So, after seeing all the marble heads you could possibly want to see, we left the Capitoline for the Castel Sant’Angelo, Hadrian’s mausoleum. On the way there, we made a small detour so Lisa could take us to her favorite gelato place where she bought us all gelato using the money she had saved at the Capitoline. Whenever we get to museums that you have to pay to get inside of, Lisa always argues with the people and tries to convince them that we shouldn’t have to pay because we’re students learning the fantastic subject of art history. So, she got us in to the museums for 2 euros instead of 11! Way to go, Lisa.

But, back to the Castel Sant’Angelo, or Hadrian’s mausoleum. Hadrian was just a legit emperor, apparently, and wanted his super cool mausoleum to be giant and he purposely made it bigger than Augustus’s because he thought he was way cooler than Augustus. We crossed the Ponte di’Angeli (the bridge of angels) with these gorgeous statues and walked up to Castel Sant’Angelo, only to be told that it was closed. So that was a little depressing but it meant that we got home at 7:30 instead of like 8:30 or 9! Which was a good thing. It was a long day, starting at 9:30 and not ending until 7:30.

So, my roommates and I are home and are just about to make dinner. I don’t know what we’ll make yet but we have copious amounts of produce so it should be good, whatever it is. Today was an exciting day! I hope you find this post much more epic than the last ones.

A very slow day

Hello world, so I feel like I'm letting you down with my completely UNINTERESTING posts. And today was another very slow day. So I don't even really know why I'm posting this. BUT, this post follows a post for one of my classes. The post about the Pantheon, below, is an essay I wrote for class. Feel free to skip it.

Anyways, today started off bright and early skyping with my favorite sister, Sarah. On her new computer Vinny. And then it was off to our Islam class for a few hours where we basically just examined paintings (I thought we weren't in art history class?) for Eastern influences and what things meant and so on and so forth. It didn't last too long, though, and even ended early! But, school wasn't done that soon--we had to meet with our group for our Migration class and plan out our project and draft a proposal to send to Kathie. Our project centers around volunteering at the Joe Nafuma Refugee Center (I've mentioned it before--it's where I taught English to the refugees). We're going to essentially create a map that shows their "journeys" to Italy, including what's going on in their home country (civil war, political intolerance, or whatever reason they left), how they got here, what languages they speak, and really anything they want to tell us. This I'm actually kind of excited about. I like making maps and graphs and those sorts of things. Much, much better than writing another essay, let's be real here. After that, we were free to go! Our other classes had been canceled because of the holiday--not because they like to give us free time but because the places we were going to explore were closed.

So, we headed home where I drafted our project proposal and sent it off to Kathie and proceeded to waste the rest of the afternoon. Well, I made lunch, a delicious caprese sandwich, which was fairly productive. And I tried to plan our trip to Florence! Which you probably don't know about.... Here, I'll fill you in: so, we have a three day weekend in honor of the fourth of July (way to go, Americans! get that independence!) and we also really want to go shopping. Putting two and two together, we decided we should go to Florence. But then there's the drama of what train to take, when to leave, how long to stay, what to do, and so on. Planning a trip for 20 is quite the ordeal. But it looks like part of the group (the part that I'm in) is going to leave early Saturday morning and explore the city for the day! Hopefully getting lots of good shopping done in the process. We're trying to make a reservation to see the David, which is basically the coolest piece of marble I've ever seen. After spending the day there, we're probably going to head back to Rome on the late night train. I'm excited for the day trip and I'll keep you all informed as to my whereabouts.

Anyways, after planning that, all I really did was work on my paper (see below) and make sure there were no glaring editorial mistakes. My roommates and I took a gelato break sometime in the afternoon and I uploaded a few more pictures to facebook. We also made dinner, chicken with vegetables, as usual. It was quite delicious.

I feel like I need to include something interesting in this post. Hmmm....

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(me thinking)
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PICTURES OF MY APARTMENT! Perfect. I'll give you a taste of where I live!


Here's our kitchen! It's mildly temperamental, like a lot of the things in our apartment. But our plumbing situation has been fixed (hopefully permanently) and we no longer have water backing up into our second bathroom! Success! Now we can actually use our kitchen sink without everything we put in it coming up in the bathroom.


Moving on to our bathroom, here is our bidet. Obviously very necessary, right? Actually, it's really handy for washing off your feet after a long day wandering around Rome because it's much easier to put your foot in there than waist-high in a sink.


Here is our shower. Well, the key part of the shower. Notice how the shower part where water comes out that's normally mounted on a wall is not mounted on anything. This implies that you have to hold it over your head while doing the best you can to scrub the shampoo out of your hair with only one hand. Anyways, at least our water gets warm, which is more than some apartments can say.


My bedroom! I share it with Sarah, one of my three roommates. My bed is on the left. I know the beds seem strangely close together but it's not weird at all in real life.


My bed, again. If you could see my little night stand you could see our very strange lamps with a weird hole in the middle.


Here's our door. It's hard to tell but there is a ridiculous lock with four deadbolts (you have to turn the key four times to open it) and these bars that go up into the top of the door frame and the floor. It makes you feel very secure to have that hefty of a lock. Now, what kind of key might open that lock??


Answer: a ridiculous one. Compare the size of that key with the other, normal sized ones on the key ring. It's large. And heavy. And crazy looking. But honestly pretty cool so it's all okay.

And that's where I live! I like it a lot, we live in the neighborhood of Trastevere (I have probably said this before, I don't know) very close to a market and our favorite cafe. Personally, I think we have one of the best apartments even though it's a bit of a walk (ahem, 20 minutes) from the Rome Center.

So, really, that's about all I have to say. I hope my apartment pictures made this post a bit more exciting that it could have been. Tomorrow we're going to a huge market in the immigrant community and have two different art history classes so it's going to be a long day but it should be very, very exciting and I should really have something to blog about! So look forward to that!

I miss you all!