Day 35: Caution Travel Whirlwind Ahead

It wasn't until my italian Professor brought it up until I noticed that I have not ventured far from Rome. YET. With my calendar basically finalized, I cannot wait for the adventures ahead of me. ESPECIALLY Oktoberfest this weekend! AHHH CAN'T WAIT!

This last week has been more on the mellow side as far as classes go. My two roommates and I have really solidified a friend group with guys NOT from our school which is really nice.

Wednesday Sept 25: 

New Testament class met at St. John the Lateran ("the church of the world"). Here are some pics. :)

St Bartholomew

Egyptian Obelisk  

Inside the Baptistry

Baptismal Font

Our Italian class also learned (and had to sing) this song! It WILL get stuck in your head...

Come un Pittore by Moda

Wednesday means Karaoke at Scholars per usual. While we were there we met some Aussies that were on vacation from their deployment in Iraq. The war stories that they told us were unreal. So were their partying habits.... I have never seen people down Vodka Redbull's like these mates. We were all having such a good time at Scholars that we ended up staying until they turned the lights on and asked us to leave. On our walk back we showed them the Cat Sanctuary and one of the friends got a little too cozy with one of the kitties:

They are all stray cats and you really aren't supposed to touch them, let alone cuddle them. Crazy Aussies. 

Thursday Sept 26: 

No Classes. :) Took so so many naps. Went to the grocery store and played good housewife to my roomie who had a hell week that week. 

Friday Sept 27: Wine Harvesting tour with CEA

Another 8am wake up call for yet another charter bus. I couldn't even tell you where we went because I knocked out on the bus ride there. The cool thing about it was that we got to actually go in through the vineyards and harvest the grapes themselves. Free labor, maybe. Fun, definitely. And hey, free grapes to snack on. 

Pictures are more efficient than words on this one. PS I love my Camera. All of these are unedited. For reals.

Grapes on Grapes on Grapes

Mine and my roommates' crates 

Malvasia Grapes

Being a Goon

A horsey Friend!

Friday night one of my roommates had a meeting of sorts with one of the bartenders at GBar for a potential part time job (not too shabby) so obviously we all went with her and got to make our own concoction:

Cin Cin!

Saturday Sept 28:

 Mommy's BDAY!!!! Shout out to my mamma. Can't wait to see you in a few short weeks. xoxo :)

Saturday my roommates and I set out with the intention of getting warm clothes for Oktoberfest and came back with 2 new dresses. Woops. BUT, we did location the H&M all the way down on Via di Corso on a day that was 8x more packed than Disneyland on Christmas. Ridiculous. My roommate was 2 seconds away from getting her wallet stolen. Thank goodness she caught the girl mid swoop.

We went back to GBar and had yet another grand ol' time:

Sunday Sept 29: 

I think Sunday might have been my favorite day of this last week. It rained. Thunderstorms and lightning actually, which is PERFECT for doing homework. We also made it to Conad, the big grocery store in our neighborhood and I made myself a homemade-penne-bologense-feast. 

Delizia!

After this, Venesha, Danielle and I went to a BBQ at our friends house. Yes, a BBQ in Italy. Our friend happens to be from Houston, Texas and has access to the American Commissary. AKA AMERICAN FOOD. 

He grilled up chicken wings, legs, ribs, HOT DOGS with REAL MUSTARD. JUICE BOXES. We drank Coronas, ate Tostitos with Salsa and Queso dip and watched the Steelers v. Vikings game LIVE. 

What started as some trash talk on my beloved Chargers, 

A bit harsh haha

...ended with us girls checking out the hotties on the TV. Not bad...

I felt like I was home and it was awesome. So crazy how such simple things can take you right back to your comfort zone. 

That was watching/listening to football for me. I totally had a Deja Vu to the lazy Sundays at my house at home, with Dad in the corner spot of the couch and me half watching football half studying for APEC or whatever high school class was killing me at the moment, and the inevitable nap that comes on after half time. Could not have been happier with the outcome of our lazy Sunday afternoon with good friends, good food and good ol' American football, especially when its rainy outside. :)

Monday Sept 30:

How is it even possible that September is over already?!?! The best thing that came out of today was getting the low down on all things Oktoberfest. I. cannot. contain. my. excitement. 

OH AND (!!!) My roommates and I sent in our application for Spring housing on MISSION BEACH! JAMAICA COURT WE'RE COMIN' FOR YA! Hopefully. Fingers crossed. 

Although, I just randomly looked up my daily horoscope today and it was weirdly accurate. Not that I totally believe in them, but c'mon!

PURCHASES FOR YOUR HOME, PEOPLE!

I'll keep ya posted. Obviously. :)

Devotissimo Suo,

M

Month 1 Update

One month goes by way too fast. Absolutely insane to think that I was just getting here four weeks ago. I still love it just as much as day one and have really made some quality friends and memories since I have been here with only more to come.

Just in the last two days we've made some good ones. (Not too much homework tonight so I thought I'd update...)

Monday Sept 23: 

Last night more of Venesha's Italian friends wanted to take us out to dinner, so we went to Trastevere for what we thought would be a quick dinner. Dinner in Italy is never quick. Lesson learned. 

We got wine for the table and each had our own pizzas:

My Margherita pizza was delicious, and so were the 3, maybe 4 or 5 glasses of wine I had to go with it. Yummyyy.. Came home and went straight to sleeps.

Tuesday Sept 24:

Just had art history this morning where we went back to Basilica San Clemente and after Basilica Santa Quattro Coronati. Our Food and Wine class is postponed to Friday for our wine harvesting field trip. (I know, I know). By the time we were done, I was STARVING but wanted to use up the groceries I had just bought. On the way home we swung by Campo di Fiori so I could get some fresh basil (and also garlic) for my caprese salad masterpiece of  a lunch:

Yes I made this

After lunch and a nap my roommate came home raving about how she saw PENN BADGELY (Gossip Girl, Easy A) and ZOE KRAVITZ (Lenny Kravitz's daughter) out at lunch. Obviously, we all left our apartment on the celebrity hunt and tracked them down at a little cafe maybe 3 minutes behind our apartment. Here's the creeper photo my roommate took:

And here's more of Penn Badgely just for shits and gigs:

Hello, Beautiful 

Tonight we went over to Cafe Friends in Piazza Trilussa for Bus2Alps drinks and aperitivo (appetizers). 

FOR STUDY ABROAD-ERS: Definitely check out Bus2Alps... Every weekend they have different trips (all by bus) all around Europe for students to go on. We did the Tuscany one last weekend and are already signed up for Oktoberfest, the Chocolate Festival in Perugia and Vienna and Salzburg Xmas markets in December. The best thing about it is that it includes everything: transportation, tours, hostels, guides, everything. Such a good deal to not have to try and plan all of that on your own. AND you get to meet all of the cool staff and students also. *Shout out to Melissa! Woo!

Tonight for example, they have an appetizer deal that was all you can eat buffet plus 1 drink for 6 euros. Mojitos all the way. 

One month in and I almost have all of my traveling figured out. It is going to be a crazy rest of the semester:

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

Probably most looking forward to Oktoberfest because it is the weekend after next...

Booked with Bus2Alps. 12 hour bus ride. Definitely going to get a drindl and rock the Heidi braids (a la Mary Kate Olson). Like this: 

My roommate Venesha has already been practicing braids on me. :) AND, we will be camping outside in tents for the whole weekend with students from all over the globe. So stoked. 

Cannot wait for what's to come.

Devotissimo Suo,

M

Day 27: Sundays are for Blogging and homework

It seems to be that my life here in Italy is broken up into two parts. Sunday through Wednesday is academic, lazy, early mornings and lectures all over town. The second half of my week is really Wednesday night through the wee hours of Sunday morning spent exploring, partying, traveling and being a goober all over the place.

Since last time:

Wednesday Sept 18:

Morning class was cancelled so I did not have school until 4pm. Attempted to go for an 'American Breakfast' at around 11am with the roommates. Failed. Got a great cappuccino instead.

After Italian class we had to attend a Colloquium on Social Norms. Snooze. Everyone was less than jazzed to be there, but they took attendance and I have to somehow work the content into my New Testament paper on the Gospel Mark (?).

No class on Thursday, so the roommates and I went to GBar (again) and Scholar's (again), where I ALMOST witnessed my first bar fight. Didn't happen though. Shucks.

Thursday Sept 19: 

Both Rachel and I try to make Thursdays our exploring days because neither of us have class. We started the morning going to Santa Maria in Trastevere, the church we always walk past to go to the grocery store. The best thing about churches is that they are free to go into and are absolutely stunning. This one in particular is known for its mismatched columns and of course mosaics:

Santa Maria in Trastevere

From there we went to the Museo di Roma in Trastevere, which is crazy close to our house. This museum was a bit on the odd side, to say the least. Its main attraction are these mannequin sets of what Middle Ages/Renaissance Trastevere would have looked like and it honestly reminded me of a poory done Pirates in the Caribbean. Creeeeepy.

However, they did feature some modern photography that was right up my alley. Horst Stein's work Appearance was up (only until Sept 28) and it was really really well done. (http://www.horststein.eu) and got my brain back on the oh-yeah-im-a-visual-arts-major track. "The  APPEARANCE series 
deals with control and the loss of control, space and the loss of space, “static” versus “moving” images ... and narrative moments that can be randomly ironic, solemn, or melancholic. The series is organized in diptychs. By combining two fundamentally different types of photography in one piece, APPEARANCE also explores the relationship between “objective” and “subjective” criteria." This was my favorite one: 

After the Museum it was obviously time for a gelato break and quest to find 'the ton of stairs on that one side street between our house and Aveda.' These stairs actually take you up to Gianicolo Hill, the "lookout spot" where you can see the Skyline of Rome: 

We winded our way back down the hill and home for a lovely 2 hour nap. Once my roommate got home from her classes, we were too tired to make dinner and decided we should go out to one of the restaurants that my cousin suggested, Hostaria Romanesca in Campo di Fiori. 

With a week full of classes and some inevitable roommate drama, Danielle and I kind of snuck out for what we are calling a 'roommate date.'

We shared a bottle of white wine, a caprese salad and each got a pasta dish. I ordered their specialty: Tonarelli di Cacio e Pepe (Cheese and Pepper) which was probably the best pasta I have eaten since I have been here. (Recipe).

We literally giggle about it whenever we talk about it because it was the best "date" that either of us had been on in a looooong time. We drank, we ate, we talked, we made friends with our waiter. THIS is how you are supposed to do an Italian dinner out. 

We sat at this little table on the Restaurant patio until we were the last ones there. We talked about ex-boyfriends, classes, interests, life goals and most importantly our families. As the oldests, we are super similar. We talked about our siblings and pets, vacations and summers. We got to talking about our parents. This last year has been a tough one for my family, especially my dad. We talked about how we feel guilty sometimes, with both our parents self-employed, working their butts off, and here we are in Italy like its no big deal. We talked about how our moms are our best friends and know everything about our lives and how our dads are our soft spots. We sat at this silly restaurant and started crying over how much we each LOVE our parents. Crying to the point of giggling over the fact that we are two twenty year olds, on a Thursday night, in ROME of all places, sobbing over how much we love our families and how blessed we were to be where we were. 

Maybe it was the wine talking, but we left that dinner feeling more in touch with who we are and why we were there than any other time yet in Rome. We totally agreed on how we felt centered, all of our priorities were back in order and reiterated to each other how unbelievably lucky we are to be here and how unbelievably lucky we are to have families that we love and love us as much as we do. We both agreed that if we could someday have relationships/marriages/families that were a fraction of what our parents are, we would be lucky.

As we were leaving, we made a pact to take one night a week to go to a different restaurant, just the two of us (not groups of 1672745 people) for our weekly 'roommate date.' So excited for next week's already. 

On our walk out of Hostaria Romanesca, we were on top of the world. We wandered over to GBar, met up with some of our friends, and had a great rest of the night. :)

Friday Sept 20:

Not much went on during the day except that I kept making Proscuitto e Melone with the melon I bought at the store. De-lic-ious. 

Friday night, Danielle and I experimented curling my hair with our combo curler/flat iron and it turned out pretty well. She also worked her makeup genius on my face which was mighty nice. We started out the night at GBar (typical) and then were planning on heading to Gilda, the nightclub near the spanish steps. Not too many pictures have surfaced from that night except the one with our new, 6'5" friends who happen to be brothers visiting from Amsterdam. I am on my tippy toes in this picture just to give you an idea....

Got to Gilda which turned out to be your stereotypical European dance club (with creepers galore), and  had a great time. By 2am I was over it big time and wanted to get some sleep for our wine tasting tour the next day.

Saturday Sept 21: Wine Tasting Tour with Bus2Alps

Talk about early wake up call. We had to meet at Termini at 7:40am, which meant out the door by 7, which meant up at 6:45 after only going to bed at 3.. Rough...

But we made it and got on the 3 hour bus ride to Montepulciano and Altesino. The pictures are far better than the words on this one.

EXCEPT: *Dork moment alert*

Montepulciano, the first stop on our tour was the location for the ending of the second twilight movie. NO JOKE.

we geeked out

Major disappointment: there is no real fountain in Piazza Grande. It was built for the movie.

Here are the rest of the pics from Montepulciano:

Not edited at all. Old School Fiat on the streets on Montepulciano 

Piazza Grande

And then to Altesino, famous for their Brunello wines and looking like a carbon copy of Napa Valley/Santa Barbara/Lompoc:

Felt like California!

The modern winery

The Oak Room for aging... The smell in here was incredible.

Not at bad week to say the least. 

Devotissimo Suo,

M