Details

I think I'll keep today short. Sure we saw the Vatican and all its glory. Sure ERG paid 50 for fixing my glasses.

Seriously. All you need to know is that the Vatican is literally packed full of tourists like sardines in a can. The Sistine Chapel is really not as exciting when there's so many tourists that you can't even get a chance to really appreciate the art.

But today, I want to talk about the details. It is often the details that make an experience what it is. To be honest, if it wasn't for the details, we'd all just stay home and Wikipedia everything we'd wanted to see. Most of the time, the internet has better fidelity anyways.

For example, as excited as I was to see Laocoon today, I couldn't even get within 10 feet of the thing because there were so many people.

Since I have no organized thought process, I'll just list them.

1. All the doors in Italy (except the one in the Vatican) open inwards. No exceptions.
2. You can get almost anything via small family owned stores. The supermarkets here are, for the most part, more expensive.
3. Almost all the rooms have windows. For example, there's a wall window in my room. There's even an window right by the shower hose. Brilliant.
4. Plastic bags costs .05 euros each.
5. The secret to Europeans being skinny is that they walk everywhere.
6. There are really no places to sit down at all.
7. There are no public bathrooms. None.
8. There are no garbage cans.
9. The girls are either drop dead gorgeous or not very attractive.
10. The washing machine literally takes 2 hours to wash 5 shirts and 5 pairs of underwear.
11. European gas stoves are incredibly weak. Either that or I don't know how to work them.

That's all I can think about for the moment.

The Most Boring Day Ever

Today, I did basically absolutely nothing.

I slept 15 hours, and my face feels a little bit better, but I'm worried about infection still, so I'll wait till tomorrow to shower.

I stay inside for most of the day, but we go to Despar and all of us make hamburgers for dinner.

The meat tasted sooo good. I haven't really had meat at all since I've been here.

Roman and I watch the ARG V. MEX game. It was a fun game to watch.

Now I'm tired and completely addicted to tetris.

Oh! And I made everyone sing today. It was interesting to say the least. Molly is NOT dumb.

Tomorrow I need to go to the optometrist, and hopefully shower in the morning.

Love

"Shurui's all about love this trip."

This is true.

Even though my face will probably permanently scar, I'm touched by the fact that I'm incredibly close to everyone here. We've only been here one week!

Anyways -

Today, we went to the beach.

Morning was absolutely nightmarish. My face felt as if it was ironed. Daniel couldn't wake up to 3 alarms, and we had to rush to get to the meeting spot on time.

The day is cloudless.

We rode the 23 past some pyramids (who knew Romans had pyramids) and got to the train station. From there, it was a quick ride to Ostia.

The ruins were stunningly beautiful. Though not as impressive as the Roman forum, the floor plan of the city are beautifully preserved, and one can really see how an Roman city is laid out. Also, there were no tourists there.

My pictures are very good. Thanks for the SD card save Zinnia.

Then we went to the beach! The pay beach cost 3 euros, but it was well worth the price. The water was nice and warm, not at all disgusting like I thought it would be.

I didn't bring my shorts though, so I couldn't go swimming with everyone else.

Also, about 12004 immigrants selling random ware came by us.

Yuting, Katie, Rebecca, Maggie, and I leave early. I was already exhausted on the train ride back.

When we got back to the Ponte Sisto, I took Katie and Rebecca to Puuta Sma for the first time. Oh yeah. They were amazed.

After that, we parted ways. I came back and hastily ate dinner. After I crank out my daily blog post for art history, it's off to the USA v. Ghana game at Magnolia again.

Ghana did play significantly better, to be honest.

I'm tired now. I think the cut on my hand might be infected. For now, it's time to rest.

Worst Day Ever

I guess I at least have a story to tell.

The 50mm is broken. Forever.

Emilio is a good guy, and I'm sure he'll make this all right.

Good night, everyone. My glasses are fucked and my face is going not to be photogenic for the rest of the trip.

Good Morning

Today, technically I broke my rule of not blogging. But in honesty, I will amend myself, because yesterday was my daily blog for the entire trip. I will force myself to think about today, and tell you all about it.

(to be safe) Today, I start off being really tired, but totally done with almost everything.

Kathie and Resat's class are interesting as usual, though now they're less fun with work assigned.

Haha. Everything is funny at 2:30 AM.

9:00 AM. Bright and early tomorrow. Here's to hoping that's it's a little bit cooler.

Day Wednesday

Today was interesting to say the least.

I did present about Augustus and the Ara Pacis. It went pretty well I think. Lisa seemed to like it, so I'm pretty happy about everything.

The actual altar was actually pretty unimpressive I thought. Though it's one of the best remaining examples of Roman art and propaganda, large sections of it were missing. In fact, almost all the walls and steps were restored pieces. The actual Ara that Mussolini put back together must have been simply pieces of marble (in the case of the Roma panel, literally). Only the Tellus panel survived to a reasonable degree.

The Pantheon however, was a lot different.

What can I say? It looks terrible from the outside, but on the inside, it is simply stunning. There is no doubt in my mind that it is indeed the greatest building currently existing in the world. The oculus, the drainage system, and the humongous dome are all mythical marvels of engineering.

Sidebar aside, I had a weird mozzarella sandwich for breakfast this morning. That fresh cheese can really make anything good, even cheap Despar bread.

For lunch I had cookies and San Pellegrino. The food of champion obese people.

I had a little experiment for dinner.

I had: two old eggs, tomatos, garlic, EVOO, tomato puree (the cheap ones from the fishy store), cheeses, and of course, the ubiquitous pasta mix".

It makes sense that eggs could go with tomatoes could go with pasta could go with cheese, right? I'm frying eggs, I'm adding tomatoes, I'm adding sauce, I'm seasoning. It's sort of a fusion of Mexican, Asian, and Italian cuisine. At least, that what I'm calling it.

It was an nightmare to make. Our terrible stove top which refuses to boil water is really not conducive for making good pasta. The end product is always really mushy, and sort of "al dente".

To be honest, it was quite good! The cheese really just puts anything over the top.

I bought a fifth of vodka for Friday. I'm excited to finish my paper and my daily blog post, the brunt of Lisa's class. (note to self: to finish something you must actually do it)

I also bought a new bag of cookies. They're all good, to be honest.

Another interesting fact of the day. The guitar I've rented was played by everyone. Who know there were so many guitarists among us?

I must wake up early to do the reading for tomorrow. I'm too tired tonight to do anything (except for tetris duh).

Cheeky. I love everyone on this trip. I would and will hangout with any of you once this dream is over.

Emily Hollenbeck turns 20

Today was a tremendous day. Drunk blogging to end it.

We had class at the Joe Nafuma refugee center. Father Michael gave a powerful speech about immigrants. I thought it was great, albeit a little bit long.

I wished we stopped by McDonalds.

We had Resat's class in the afternoon. He really is a good teacher. It was heavily discussion based, which I kind of liked.

Tonight was Emily's birthday. It was almost like a preview to this Friday, I hope.

Speaking of tonight, it was really super fun! We got gelatto (sp?) first at some place whose name I can't remember. I attempted to outdrink the sorority genius, which failed.

Notable highlights of tonight at the girl's apartment:

1. David tried his first mixed drink.
2. I can never look at Mauna in the face ever again.
3. Sydney is really nice to me. I like her.
4. A bunch of girls were missing. (and a bunch of guys for that matter)
5. I suck at tetris when I'm drunk.
6, Molly is awesome .
7. Emilio is WTF good at freestyling.

I also have to give a presentation tomorrow. In addition, I have daily diary Thursday.

This is not turning out to be a good week.

Weariness

We saw the Capitoline hill, the Roman Forum as all its goodness, the Palatine hill, then the Colosseum, in that order.

I'm so exhausted. I will talk about this monumental (literally) day later.

Don't worry. Not even a brain-eating bird worm could keep me away from all your beautiful faces.

Fantastic

Today I woke up far too early.

We traveled as a group to the Porta Portese, the largest flea market in Rome. It was altogether underwhelming (a giant, bargaining goodwill), but Sydney told me that we didn't reach the very end, and that it was better there.

The group separates and I am with Melissa and the CIA girl. They are living proof why girls are smarter than guys. Especially Melissa. Not so much the other one.

We met as a group to prepare for the group presentation tomorrow (crosses fingers), and I hung out with the CIA girl and Christine for a while before we watched the ITA v. NZE game. (The game was awful. A poor performance by Italy. 90% possession and only a PK goal to show for it? A tie is virtually a win for NZE)

The latte is amazing. The shots are literally 90% crema and the milk is foamy, but lukewarm. You are suppose to drink the coffee at the bar, but it's no problem at all, since the espresso is at such a perfect temperature.

Night is less interesting. I work on my paper and do my readings.

I'm exhausted. I haven't ridden a bike or played guitar in a week. I get tired in the middle of the day. This city has not been kind to me.

Presentation tomorrow. First day of class. I'm suppose to bring a pack lunch and I have nothing except 877 photos in my camera.

Pasta Disaster

Today was quite uneventful, as most of the time I just played tetris/attempted to write my paper.

I woke up at 8:30, and cleaned myself up until Daniel woke up. We went to currency exchange, and I sleepily withdrew some euros from the bancomat.

Walking around, we actually found the fish-stall grocery store that Lisa mentioned on the tour yesterday! They had far more selection than Desparo. I bought some cookies called Barilla Abbraci. I promptly finished them before dinner. Heading back to the campo, we hastily bought a (lot) of fruit, pasta spices (literally "Pasta Spice" because I couldn't read most of the herbs in the spice cart), and some fresh herbs.

We made a simple pasta sauce with the stuff we got. Daniel burned the pasta (shh), partially because we couldn't get the water to boil. Oh well, it wasn't bad. The parmesan was incredible, and sort of made up for the dish.

We went to dinner at 7:30 PM. The 3 course meal was delicious (the seafood salad with scallops was especially good; I wish I had brought my camera).

Afterwards, we headed back to our apartment to drink a little bit. I didn't, which I regret.

We went walking through the Travestere bars, and we stopped by one. Most of the girls bought fruity mimosas, while I got a terrible beer.

Kristin takes pictures, Mauna drank a lot but wasn't drunk, Carmen didn't like her Margarita. There was about 10000 people out and about.

I walked Molly, Rebecca, and Katie home, and I surprisingly really enjoyed that part. I realize that I can actually find my way around this place. Very cool.

I'm exhausted, but going out with everyone was a good idea. Thanks math major girl from Pullman that is top secret! <3

Flee market bright and early tomorrow morning, and hopefully the completion of my draft *before* the Italian soccer game.

Rome is fucking gorgeous

That's about all I have to say on the subject.

First experience of Rome and an Italian made me fear for my life.

Our cab driver, whose identity shall remain hidden, ran 3 red lights, almost hit 4 cars, 3 pedistrians, and a moped carry two passengers, straddled two lanes for the majority of the ride, drove on the wrong side of the street, and was using his cell phone the entire time.

I barely had any chance to appreciate the ridiculous landmarks we passed by because I actually thought I was going to die.

In the end we did get to the Plaza del Biscioni safely.

Seeing the Rome center absolutely blew my mind. It is surrounded by huge buildings (all of which happened to be parts of Pompeii's theatre!) and is totally filled to the brim with great frescos, art, and history.

I passed out the first day (since I was dumb and watched Valentine's Day, The Hangover, Sherlock Holmes, and Pirate Radio on my 12 hour flight) and slept more than 12 hours (would have been more had Daniel not woken me up for the tour - see below). I was awake for nearly 50 hours (a large part owing to my huge adrenaline rush from the aforementioned taxi ride)

Oh! And all this is after I wondered aimlessly with Carmen and Bennett while carrying all of Carmen's luggage the entire way. We literally toured the campo area for a good hour and half before we managed to find the right spot. Good job Shurui, another stupid and masochist move that led to absolutely no personal gain.

That was the first day. Today was much better.

At 11:00 AM today, our beautiful teacher Lisa also gave us a tour around the Campo de Fiori area. It was absolutely amazing. We had freshly baked pizza bianca, fruit, beautifully preserved meats from the Norcineria Viola (all for extremely reasonable prices).

I realized quickly that going to anywhere by myself would be a problem due to my severe ADD and my inability of following the street signs.

I shop at the despar(o) supermarket with Zinnia and Daniel. We got like a liter of EVOO for 2.50, pasta for .50, bottles of beer for .50 each, and the list continues. We thought that we could maybe get spices and produce from the gorgeous campo marketplace, but by the time we got back it was already closed (Rome apparently closes at 3PM, a fact that I find ridiculously awesome).

Lisa got us a sweet spot with a big screen TV to watch the USA v. SLEV game, but the place went out of power and we missed the latter half. 2-2, USA. It was a very good game (SLEV was 0-2 for almost all the first half).

We had dinner at some restaurant right by the Ponte Sisto. The waiters spoke English and the food was all together Cheesecake Factory-ie. I ordered the fettucine with smoked salmon. It tasted like fettucine, parmesan, smoked salmon, and orange. That's right, orange. The pasta was literally orange coloured. It was ridiculous. I will upload pictures eventually...

After dinner, we walked the night market, that was pretty cool. Very touristy and full of second hand smoke. I visited Molly's apartment and prompted walked into bathroom while xiao ma was in there. Not my fault. I was exploring and there is no sense as to why a bathroom would have a sliding door.

Nevertheless, I was extremely embarrassed, but I suppose that is my life.

The Elixir of Life

The start of the trip is fateful at best. 4:30 AM. A phone call rudely wakes me up. I grudgingly leave the warmth of my bed. 4:59 AM. I arrive at Seatac International after what is perhaps the emptiest I've ever seen the highway. 5:04 AM. Disaster strikes. My ancient passport is rejected from the automated machine, and I have to be checked in by a human. 5:46 AM. I successfully pass the security screening. The man was actually quite cordial.

5:59 AM. Disaster. Strikes. Again.

As I reach to take a sip of water, the ambrosia of mortals, I realize that I had forgotten my beloved Klean Kanteen at home. My hands grasp vainly at the familiar spot where it normally resided (left right of my backpack). Panic fills my tired body. Gone are the memories of filling water at the fountains of Rome. Gone is the feeling of joy as I sip life free flowing from the aqueducts of old the same way that the Romans did thousands of years ago (assuming they used refillable water canisters - a plausible assumption).

6:00 AM. I drink from the water fountain, in shame. My thirst is quenched. 6:00 AM. I realize that I can just purchase a new bottle.

I think I'm just exhausted from the past two days.

Less than 15 hours till Rome.