Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Marcus, from downstairs who I just met today, just came up to our apartment and played guitar for us for 30 minutes. It was pretty much the most entertaining thing since I've been here.

Paris, Glasgow, London and back to Rome

I haven't blogged in a long time because my internet at home (my apartment in Rome) does not work very well, if at all. Luckily, it is working right now somewhat. Since my last post, I've gotten chinese food for my roommate Kate's birthday, went to 2 museums, and had a one week break from school. I have a million pictures to upload, but my internet connection will not allow it. I will try to upload all of these on Monday from school, which has a better internet connection.

My one week break was great. I travelled with my friend Andy. We went to Paris for 4 days, Glasgow for 2, and London for 3 days. It was great to see Mandy in London. Paris was awesome and I want to go back because there is still so much to see there (especially the Orsay Museum). Versailles is pretty much the most gorgeous place on earth. I want to live there.

Since I've been back, I've been going to school all day. My classes are: Ancient Roman Civilization (bascially why I am here...), Roman Art, and Culture and Identity in Modern Italy (Anthropology course). My school schedule is: M/W 11.30am-6.30pm, T/Th 11.30am-1.30pm

I will update this later (probably from school) with photos and captions.

La Notte Bianca and Photos

Every time I read Sarah's Spain blog, I feel like I must update. I'm getting pretty behind on the updating, but here is what happened in the past week:

-Kate and I went to this delicious Indian restaurant in Rome. It's far away from our apartment but very close to a metro stop. It was really cool because there were tons of Indian stores around there as well, kind of like a Little India. I had Rogan Josh, Raita, Naan, Mango Lassi and Rice. It was delicious. (Although pricey.)
-We went to a soccer match: Roma v. Siena. Rome won 3-0 and it was really fun. The Rome fans sing songs, cheer loudly, overall just fun. I don't really understand soccer beyond kicking the ball into the goal, but everyone was so energetic that it was fun. There's a match against Manchester United at the end of the semester that I want to go to. I'm sure that would be intense!
-Booked my flights and hostels for my one week break (Sept 15-23). I'm going to Paris, Glasgow, and London. I'm excited to go to London and see Mandy! Possibly get some delicious Indian food and some fish and chips?
-Visited two museums (pictures will be in the next post, I haven't downloaded them off the camera just yet).
-We tried another Indian restaurant near our apartment which was decent, but not amazing. It was pretty cheap so we might go back there.
-Last night was La Notte Bianca, where the entire city stays open/awake until 8am. Many of the museums were free and there were performances by various artists or groups. Friday night we also went to a light show commemorating the beginning of La Notte Bianca. We started with Piazza del Popolo but everyone was waiting for some performance to start so we walked around Villa Borghese for a while. We went to this contemporary art museum in Villa Borghese and saw some strange bell and boat performance on a lake. We headed back to Piazza del Popolo and there were acrobats performing. Afterwards we went to the Spanish steps, wandered around, sat on crates full of grass with tons of other tired Italians. Finally, we got food at 1AM and walked around some more. There was a lot to see, but there were too many people and we were a little bit lost. Overall it was fun night and a great experience! (Pictures to come in the next post.)
-My mom visited Rome and she took Kate and I out for dinner. I had Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta Cheese AND Lamb Chops!


Here are some photos from last time's post:


PANORAMA! The Italian version of Wal-mart plus Costco.


Rogan Josh, Naan, Raita, Mango Lassi.


Roma v. Siena soccer match

Panorama!

I recently got an Italian cell phone. If you do not have the number and would like it, please email me. It's really old and looks like a phone I had in middle school. It's a Nokia with a non-color display and no camera. However, there is Snake in the games section which I am excited about. I get free incoming calls (local or international), so feel free to call as much as you want.

Today Kate (my roommate) and I went to this store called Panorama. It's kind of a mixture of Wal-mart and Costco... It was huge and crazy. I will upload photos later for this. I ended up buying some snack/breakfast food and some other things I needed (like nail clippers). It was pretty cheap, but we had to take the metro there. It's not really a store that is worth the trip, so I probably won't go back for a while. It really has almost everything -- from tools to clothes to frozen fish, and even a hair salon.

Last night, I went to my first "discoteca" called Coyote. It was pretty far from where we live -- I live in Prati and it was in Trastevere (these are all neighborhoods within Rome). It was half foreigners and half Italians. Most of the people in my school were there last night. It was fun because they played a lot of American songs so I knew the music.

Lately I've been missing American because I miss American food. Not "American" as in hamburgers and hot dogs -- although I do miss hot dogs -- but restaurants that exist in America. There isn't much variety here (surprise surprise) because Italians eat Italian food. However, Kate and I tried to get Mexican food and it was very bad here. They don't really have cheddar or American cheese, so everything is with parmesean or mozzorella. In fact tortillas are really expensive here, so the food isn't very good. Definitely no Cotixan's. Tonight we're going to try Indian food, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Pictures in the next update!

Ferragosto

Every year in Rome, the entire city closes for the month of August. During Ferragosto (the name of the holiday), Romans leave the city to travel elsewhere on vacation. When I first arrived, most shops and restaurants were closed for the holiday and slowly shops are reopening. On Monday, all the shops will be open again and I am looking forward to seeing the city in its entirety! Tomorrow, I also start my Italian language practicum, which is an Italian class 4 days a week for 3 hours a day for 3 weeks.