When In Rome

Concluding Post

2007-12-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

This will be my final post sitting at 22 Via Degli Scipion in Rome, Italy. I leave in five hours to catch a shuttle to the airport and fly out three hours later. This semester has been a whirlwind that has more memories than I can recount right now. It had its downs but was always, always overcome and outweighed by the ups. I cannot begin to describe the people I have met here, the things I have seen, and the places I have traveled. Though for the faithful readers I understand there is still a week's worth of activities to describe so let's start there first.

Finals. Everybody's favorite. Except for this guy. Fortunately they were spaced out one a day to allow each day prior to the exam to be focused on the upcoming test. The strategy worked well and seemed to have payed off. I felt good about every single one of them. Marketing took the longest but was done first on Sunday. After two hours of solid writing I closed the chapter on that class and not a moment too soon. Though I have to say, it did provide a lot of fun times and interesting events. Monday was Italian which I'm pretty sure I knocked out of the park. Being surrounded by the language makes (re)learning it even easier. Tuesday was Advertising and I completely smoked that final. The class was a blast and provide more entertainment than any class I've had thus far. Well, in the last month it did, at least. It was nice to end that class on another positive note after receiving an A+ on the advertising campaign. Wednesday was a break (more on this day later) and Thursday wrapped up the semester with a final in Management. Not my best final because, let's face it, the semester had been going on for so long and I was running out of energy that the preparation slacked for that exam. And expectedly so.

Going back in time to Wednesday. Manchester United (Enland Premiership Football {Soccer] Club) was coming into town to take on AS Roma. The week prior we bought a bunch of tickets for the game to sit on the Roma side. Those were the only ones available even though I tried to find ones for the ManU side. Game night. Everyone comes over to our place, which is on the way to the stadium, and we all load up on a bus and head on over. At this point I was still wearing my ManU scarf. The bus pulled up across the street and as soon as we stepped out we were swarmed with orange and maroon, the Roma colors, and in the distance at all surrounding intersections were armed police and riot control. We walked over to the stadium and meandered our way in, and after passing a few vocal groups along with the pleas of those around me, I took of the ManU scarf...for the time being. We went to our gate entrance and went through the turnstile. We were frisked and patted down and allowed to enter. As I passed the guard and recollected my ticket he looked down and noticed red peeking out of my jacket. He looked at me and asked, "english? Manchester?" I said no we got the tickets for Roma side but was it possible to sit on the ManU side. After gathering up Ashley, Whit, Meg, and Abbie we were led to a steel dividing wall and ushered through. On the other side we were met by thirty or so riot police to be frisked yet again. An attendant pointed us down the walkway and we just kind of followed it. We wound up walking into the middle of the Manchester United side and found any available spot in the area. What a game! Surrounded by boisterous englishmen who we could actually understand, chanting the whole game, and staying fairly warm it was definitely european soccer at its finest. Until the end. The game ended with a 1-1 draw but that didn't matter because both teams had qualified for the next round in the Champions League. It was then that we were informed the ManU fans were required to wait a minimum of half an hour before exiting the stadium. Note: Italian soccer has become somewhat of a questionable endevour. Opposing fans have found themselves harassed, beaten, and in more recent events injured and killed. No other country has problems like this. Apparently in Italian everything really is just that much crazier than the rest of Europe. End note. So, after half an hour we shuffle out of the stadium only to be guided by a large amount of riot police to a line of a dozen buses. We filed onto them and were police escorted out of the stadium, through Villa Borghese, and back into town at Termini. The whole way every two busses were broken up by two vans carrying armed police. Arriving at Termini we were met with over 60 riot control police with 8 armored vehicles. Nothing transpired and we loaded up on the bus to take us back over to our side of town and end the night studying for a final. I've heard of rivalries, and I've heard of fan hostility, but this by far surpasses anything else I've experienced. What an adventure.

The past three days afterwards have been a blur. Thursday was a perfect day with final sight seeing and shopping through Rome. There was a trip to the Spanish Steps with Godiva hot chocolate and wandering around back down Via del Corso. The Christmas Market in Piazza Navona was in full swing. Dinner at Mario's Osteria. And a final trip past St. Peter's Square and the Vatican Wall going home. Friday I awoke in a daze and couldn't quite believe that the trip was over, people were already flying back home, and I still had to pack. So I spent most of the day packing up the apartment. Turned in my cell phone leaving me isolated for a day and a half. Troy and I met up with the girls and we all headed to Campo di Fiori one last time with pretty much everyone else that was still in town. That was a fun night to see everyone after finals and just kind of relax and joke around. Saturday, today, we grabbed a final lunch at Carlomentas, strolled the streets near Trevi and the Pantheon, finished packing the apartment, and went for dinner one last time at the girls' place. It was only fitting that we end the semester eating a self-cooked (self meaing the girls while Troy and I provided encouragement) meal, playing cards, watching a movie, and just relaxing around to music.

I know it's a short post for a final one. Those of you that were here and read this know everything that I could possibly type. And those that weren't will undoubtedbly hear the stories in the coming weeks. So, after four months of calling Rome home...it's time to publish the blog and head back stateside. Ciao!

Q: What's the Worst Thing about Berlin?

2007-12-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

A: Having to leave.

With that said, let me begin my blog. You may notice the time. If not, I'll fill you in. It's currently 2:36 (that's in the a.m.) here in the city of 2 for 1. Why am I up at this hour? Simple. I have to leave the hostel at 4 to get to the airport to catch my flight back home to Rome. If you know me, and know how I like to sleep, you'll understand that by the time we got back to the hostel and packed our bags for the trip back home and chatted with the guys that are working the nightshift it was closing in on 1 in the morning, and that means that it's safer for me to stay up a few more hours than to risk falling asleep and overshooting the alarm, let alone the flight.

Besides, I have nothing planned tomorrow so it's occupied with sleep. Also, if you're wondering about the flights and why they always seem so early I'll give you a description of european discout air travel. First, the number one rule is that the cheapest flights are at the least convenient times. So when you put in your search for flights leaving (for example) Rome headed to Berlin, you get three options: Flight X leaving at 7:15 for 34euro, Flight Y leaving at 10:45 (more preferable time) for 85euro (less preferable price), or Flight Z leaving at 2:50 (way too late to be leaving and still get any sight seeing done that day thus turning a two day trip into just a day trip) for 115euro (at this point the price is laughable). Obviously in the nature of being border line broke college students and generally making foolish choices we always opt for the least expensive priced flight at the earliest time...and then proceed to stay up all night to catch it. Another important factor to calculate is which discount airline. The frontrunners in Europe are RyanAir (representing cattle calls at 10 to 1 odds of cancellation everywhere) or EasyJet (representing efficiency at a low budget, but something about a solid orange plane weirds me out). It never fails in this process that some flights will be cancelled while others will be overbooked. Nobody knows how this is selected. I prefer to think they lay out all the possible flights for a day on a bulletin board, and then proceed to take turns throwing darts at the wall to fill up their quota of needed flights to make profit without having to expend too much effort. Bottom line: cheap flights are the best, cheap flights are very early in the morning, and cheap flights are very unreliable. But they're better than the main airlines.

Moving on to Berlin. I caught a few hours of sleep and woke up early to grab the metro to the train station. I had to do this because the national transportation strike for buses, metro and tram was scheduled to start at 8:30. At the train station I caught a bus to Ciampino airport to catch my flight where the national transportation strike for airlines was scheduled to start at 11:00. My flight was schedule to leave at 9:45. No problem. I check in, go through security (where, yet again, I had to throw away some toiletry item that didn't meet this particular airport's requirements-they change airport to airport) then go to the gate. A notice informs me the flight is delayed in arrival and won't take off until 10:45, 15 minutes before said strike. *^@& After an hour of intense reading/scanning the board to see if the flight was scrapped all together, the workers showed up and allowed us to make our way to the plane. I touched down in Berlin an hour later than anticipated, but Denton, being such a good friend, was there waiting anyway. He then, like I now, had pulled an all nighter to catch the flight in time so he was taking a nap during the extra hour wait...what's an extra hour to him other than a good thing?

We got on board the S-bahn and took the train into the city and followed the directions to the hostel. JETpak hostel it's called. This place is better than most hotels I've seen over here. The location is a bit out of the central area, but the U-bahn is right next door and takes you there in a matter of 10 minutes. We had 2 beds in a 6 bed room. One bed was occupied by a guy, Todd, who works at the hostel and took up night duty shifts while we were here. The other three were empty. It was like having a room to ourselves which is better than having a room with people coming in at all hours of the night. The three bathrooms on our floor were clean. And when I say clean, I don't mean international travel hostel type clean. I mean spotless like a mom cleaning after her child had a contageous illness clean. Not to mention of the bathrooms has a shower right out of a luxury magazine. It has the typical nozzle, an overhead nozzle to shower directly down, and 6 jets to come in on the sides. It was like a car wash, but for a person. Easily the best hostel there is to stay at in Europe.

After dumping our bags off we went exploring the city. I heard Christmas time in Germany was great. I wasn't prepared for exactly how great it was. The main areas in the city were covered in Christmas lights. There are five major Christmas markets complete with food vendors, specialty items, games and other assorted things. We popped our heads out of a U-bahn station and across the street was one of these markets. We strolled through and came across an artifical snow hill for sledding. 1.50 euro later we had our tubes and were walking up to the top...along with the other 5-10 year olds. Who cares. It was a hill and we were going to sled down it. We went on up to Brandenburg Gate and started walking down the main street. It was lined with trees and buildings covered in Christmas lights. Also nestled in the buildings were there Ferrarri dealership and the Bentley dealership. (I was suddenly inspired to begin my Christmas wish list ;). We came across another Christmas market and walked through that one. There we grabbed a traditional German brautwurst. What better to wash it down with than a cup of Gluhwein. Gluhwein is hot red wine with cinnamon and cloves. They make you pay a few euro more as a deposit for the glasses, but everyone ends up taking them as souveniers. We walked down a little ways and noticed another Christmas market, but this one was joined to a carnival. So, of course, being the mature college aged adults we are immediately ran to the roller coaster followed by the bumper cars and finished off with a crepe. We crossed over Museum Island and into Alexanderplatz. There we encountered yet another Christmas market, as well as a five story department store. We ended up going to the top of the TV tower (aka, the Death Start) and had dinner at a revolving restaurant 426 meters above ground. Oh, and the beer? The world's got nothin' on Germany.

Saturday I woke (very, very early local time) to a text saying rumor had it base locations were out. A few hours later Denton and I woke up and sent an email in to confirm the rumors. We gathered ourselves together and headed out to Brandenburg Gate to meet up with our, get this, FREE tour. The motto of the FreeBerlin tour: "Because the best tours in life are free". They lived up to it. Our guide was a quirky but humorous guy named Patrick who took us around the city showing all the significant sights. Brandenburg Gate, Parliament, Holocaust Memorial, Hitler's Bunker, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, chocolate factory, Concert Hall, Frederich the Great's library where the Nazi book burning was held, the Opera House, and Museum Island. I'm sure there are more but I'll have to go back through my pictures to refresh my memory. (Those will hopefully be posted to facebook in a day or so) We then headed over to the Pergamon Museum and checked out those exhibits there which included the actual gates to the Babylonian Empire. Pretty cool I thought. We strolled through a Christmas market to do a bit of shopping and grab some more bratwursts. *backtracking: the tour company and Schlotsky's apparently have a partnership where they bring the tours in for a lunch break and the store lets them do free advertising. we weren't complaining because it's the first place I've been in Europe that had an ice machine and free refrills. Again, Berlin is amazing.* We then headed back over to Zoo Garten and into the last Christmas Market. After strolling through there we headed down into Pa Di We which is the second largest luxury department store in Europe behind Harrod's. This thing was incredible. Every floor was massive and covered in designer clothes, or shoes. One floor was for electronics and toys which took a while to get through. Believe me, staring at flat screen and playing with legos and train sets can take up some time. And the next to top floor was their famous food market with some amazing stuff. We were walking around taking in the sights when from across the way I saw a logo that I could recognize anywhere in the world...Dr. Pepper! Shipped to Berlin, Germany from Plano, Texas. At 2euro (roughly 3.50USD to a can) it was a done deal. At this point in the semester, 10euro for a Dr. Pepper isn't too outrageous. So, we left the store and on our way back to the hostel to drop off our purchases I enjoyed a nice can of Dr. Pepper that tasted every bit as good as I had imagined it being. We had been on our feet nonstop for nearly 11 hours so we took a breather at the hostel before heading back to the Christmas market to tank up on bratwursts, sauteed mushrooms, sishkabobs (sp?), crepes and Gluhwein. Of course you can't do that without adding another purchase or two which made our night even better.

That, in a very brief nutshell and without any justice done to the marvel of this city, was our trip to Berlin. This by far has been the best excursion throughout the semester and fast becoming one of my favorite cities in the world, and definitely one on the list to visit again and a bit more in depth. It's now 3:30 and I have a few articles to check on espn before heading on out to the airport to check in for the flight.

To end the entry, upon our returning to the hostel we checked our email where we both found an email in our inbox from Col. Leonard. The contents of which had our home for the next few years. I was surprised with mine, but pleasantly okay with it. I'm always up for an adventure and this will provide me with plenty. Want to know? Well, it's __________. Like I'm going to tell the general public before my own parents. I'll inform you all tomorrow after I inform them. Deal? Deal.

A Long One Coming

2007-11-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've uploaded anything. So, let me give it a crack tonight working from present to past.

This week is finally coming to an end. Next week is the last week of classes followed by a few days of finals. That means that this week was the deadline for projects and last waves of test. For my marketing class, my partner and I ended up putting together a 22 page marketing plan for Starbucks's customer service problem. With that completed we met on Monday to put together the presentation for Tuesday. Upon completion I was informed that night that my partner was diagnosed with a highly contagious disease and was quarantined from public outings from her apartment through Friday. That meant in the notoriously known marketing class with this project being the cornerstore of the class I was going solo. Tuesday came and after a brief self phsyching up I strolled into the class and pitched the best effort on a marketing plan idea I could muster. I was given positive feedback from those in my class, but the final decision rests in the grade from the prof which we'll get back hopefully tomorrow. Today brought about the final italian test before the final. I'm hoping the grade comes back as high as I think my performance on the test would allow. With the exception of one or two verbs I think I nailed another solid ace on it, keeping my total class average at a solid A. I'll find out Monday for sure. I wrapped up drawings on a storyboard on the advertising project we have due tomorrow. The presentation includes a recap of our previous presentation, modifications to our target market, the updated print ad, our radio ad, the commercial ad, and our budget and allocation for the final product. Once that is done we should be golden for the final. It still irritates me that all teachers panic during the final week or two of classes and make all final tests or projects before the finals due at the same time. In may ways the schedule turns out to be worst than the finals one. Someday I hope college professors realize we are always enrolled in at least three more classes than their own which may hopefully mean a more level distribution of assignments and tests. One can only hope. Until that happens I will hold true to my belief that upper level professors wreak the havoc upon their own students as their professors of days gone by did for them as a means for a vain attempt at equality.

In other news, I pack tomorrow night and leave for Berlin early Friday morning. I'll be meeting up with my friend, Denton, who is studying in Spain. Hopefully a few days of seeing a few good museums and worldknown monuments as well as eating brautwurst and beer will give me a reenergizing boost before finals week. I'll post more about that trip when I return. All I know is a backpack is a mere formality for that trip. It's so cold there I will be wearing everything I own here thus making it unmeaningful to bring a full backpacking pack.

Last week Lindsay came to visit. It was a really fun week. I was able to go back and see all the highlights of Rome and show off my city. I only hope it came off as a positive image. We took an Ancient Rome tour which filled me in on all the facts of certain areas of the city that I go by but haven't heard any info on since I was here after my freshman year. The week was also Thanksgiving, so for the holiday we headed to Florence. There we saw the David, the Duomo, the Medici Castle, Piazza Spagna, and Piazza Michelangelo. A train ride back to Rome brought us to a typical Italian dinner for the Thanksgiving meal. Some things just get substitued naturally during a semester in a country that doesn't recognize particular American holidays. Hopefully numerous pictures, laughs, and gelato sent her home on a good note.

The two weeks before that were more of the same with school and day to day routine. One thing we all enjoy here is being able to shun the label of tourist and become locals in a way. We walk with a purpose or ride the bus like normal commuters heading to school. We know where to go in the city for our particular needs and don't sidetrack from them. We hardly look at monuments we pass as we are looking towards the goal of getting to class on time or meeting a group at a particular location. There's no greater feeling than being asked by other italians directions to a particular place or a general question that most locals would no. Unfortunately, I have to look at them and reply with "non lo so." Maybe one day that aspect will be different.

The weekend prior I took a trip to Sicily. That turned out to be a great time. The group was rather small and after an hour all of us knew one another just fine. We stayed in a 3 star hotel in Catania which springboarded us into the other areas including Siracusa, ancient roman ruins, and Mount Etna which is the largest active volcano in Europe. The rain held off for the most part until the last morning which was fine. I mean, who doesn't like having a picture taken at the beach holding an umbrella?

As you can tell some details are fuzzy. It's also very late and I have a presentation at noon tomorrow to prep for so I can't delay too much.

The semester is winding down to a close. More and more people are talking of going home, and what they can't wait to get back to. Joining those conversations is a bit double edged, I think. Sure, I can't wait to get back to family and Waco. Being around Christmas and regaining a spot in local society again. Perhaps even playing a round or two of golf before traveling to see family. On the other hand, being here is absolutely amazing and realizing there is only limited time left spurs us on to venture out to see more and gain more stories before finally heading home. I am going back for one more final semester. I have 12 hours and an internship between me and a diploma and an ongoing career. I can't wait to get on that path and finish it out. I admire those around me that have gone down that path and are coming out on the other side. A few are spreading outward from the central texas area. One so far as a potential spot in my old stomping grounds of Jersey. Looking on as they press forward towards their futures and careers is inspritational to say the least. So long have I looked at is as a monumental final chapter to life. Being a part of others' cycle to the next stage has shown me that it's only another part of the trail of life. I can only stand by and hope that I meet it head on and directed as those I know now who are going through that trial.

I know that leaving here I will be going back to that infamous Baylor campus at winter break. That means everyone has gone home for the holidays to be with their family. Traffic around Waco has resumed to it's semi-frustrating state and parking around campus is unlimited. I know the town will be empty and I won't see signs of normal college life until well into January. Though I do anticipate being able to spend time with those that are in Waco until jobs begin elsewhere. Robert, I hope all goes well with the job hunts outside the state, but you'd better not be gone before we have last reminiscent session in person of the past four years and where our paths are headed. Joey, don't worry, I know you'll be around next semester, and with us potentially being neighbors I'm sure it'll be like the past three years...except without me having the pets. John, (and Val), you'd better believe while your short time in Waco is coming to a close it will be full of coffee trips and rock climbing, maybe even an occasional bear trail or two (you'd be surprised, I'll keep up with you for two trips around). And all the others in the area that will be coming back to Baylor in the spring...here's to four final months of fun and memories.

Oh, and not to be outdone for family...I was walking to school the other day and notice a peculiar sight in Piazza Trilussa near campus. A grade school field trip was heading back to their charter bus to go home. What was ironic was the teacher holding a rope at the front of the line, and a crowd of twenty-five to thirty 7 year olds holding on to the rope like little ducks following along and chaperones in the back keeping an eye on the stragglers. Those kids better be thankful of the sights and experiences they have as kids in school, as well as for the teachers that put up with them during the experience. ;)

Testing

2007-11-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

Check one, check one.
Let's see if I can figure out how this thing is operating.

Water, Water, Everywhere

2007-10-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

Subtitle: This one's for you John

Alright, it's Tuesday evening and a rather rainy and stormy one at that. So what better to do than write a new blog entry.

This Thursday is All Saints Day which means a day off from school for us, and a mass exodus from Rome for all the locals. I plan to go farther than they are, so Sicily it is. Actually, the trip was planned about a month ago and I'm going through the school. Four days on the island seeing the major cities, climbing the highest active volcano in Europe, and sleeping in hotels rather than hostels. A much better alternative to the trip up to the Swiss Alps for skiing, where I surely would have broken a bone (or bones) attempting to ski for only the third time in my life.

So I'll just post a quick update before I disappear for a few days. But have no fear, Monday I will be back with plenty of stories. The most recent of which will be watching my Colts annihilate that one team that claimes they're good but actually have to cheat to beat reasonable opponents (the Patriots). Don't get me riled up on the issue, it does nobody any good. I'll just say, I personally think they owe a ring or two back.

Anyway, we're in the marshy ground found between midterms and finals. That means the projects are coming up in each class. Well, I only have two, but still, they're in my hardest classes so that has to count for something. We're done with the advertising campaign that has to be presented Tuesday, with the second half to come three weeks later. There's one more week to the marketing game, and then after that is our inidividual marketing plans which rumor has are about as fun as a root canal, or in my case, a gall bladder removal. Awesome.

So, the current news, and the title of my entry brings me to the apartment's particular problem. The showerhead. Allow me to explain. The shower is one of those rectangular boxes that has two panels that slide together to close it off, sealing the water inside. The shower head is one of those on a hose that you can take of the mount on the wall. The problem arose halfway through last week, when the seal around the shower head started leaking on the left side. That meant that the majority of water was coming through the shower head like normal, but there was a heavy spray shooting directly left from the showerhead. If the showerhead wasn't angled quite right the rogue water would hit the wall and spray up over the shower. No good for our clothes, towels, or mold problem. So, as a solution we angled the showerhead down and in so the water spray stayed in the shower stall. Problem solved. Until...Monday. I jumped in the shower after my run and turned on the water. Only a trickle was coming through the mainshower head. But instead of the one spray going left, there was another one of greater pressure shooting directly opposite. It has the similar effects of placing your thumb over a running hose and causing the water to release with much more intensity and distance. Unfortunately, this distance equalled the walls of the bathroom. It was a shortlived shower and I decided a maintenance request was in order. This evening I came home and noticed the bathroom light still on. I looked inside and noticed the walls were wet. That's when I saw a note on the table in the main room written on a napkin that read, "I bring a new showerhead for you tomorrow afternoon. See you, Marco". Apparently Marco turned on the shower and found our sprinkler system did not, in fact, provide any water in a location that was feasable to take a shower. In the meantime, it provides something humorous that you can really only say "when in Rome" to.

Chocolate, ZooMarine and Movies, oh my

2007-10-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

As I sit here and type this entry, I still cannot believe the events that have transpired in the past few days. Let me see if I can do them justice.

Saturday- I woke up early. Way too early for what I wanted it to be, but there was running to be done before the day started. Had I known what was going to happen in an hour, I wouldn't have gone running. So, I get back, shower, grab an apple, and head out on my way to Termini to meet up with the others for the train ride to Perugia and the Chocolate Festival. Note: Italian commuter train tickets do not mean you are guaranteed a seat. So, following the lead of others we arrive at the platform ten minutes before the train is scheduled to leave...and it is packed. Eventually five of us set up camp in between two cars where we were able to secure a fold down seat that we could rotate through. Thus began a two and a half hour train ride where I stood the whole time. After passing the time with movie trivia and the question game, we arrived in Perugia. When we left Rome it was cool and sunny, when we stepped off the train in Perugia it was cloudy and cold. Cold was 41 degrees with five minutes of rain that was forecasted to turn to snow. Thankfully it didn't. We pretty much followed the crowds and got ourselvs bus tickets to the top of the town where the festival was held, and when a bus arrived we crammed on it tighter than sardines in a can. After reaching the top and locating a bathroom we jumped into the festival. Soon after, Whitney and I got seperated from the group as the others were scanning for a place to eat and she and I were just checking out the tents in the area. Four hours late we had: seen every tent there was, took pictures with a chocolate bar the size of an average living room wall, had a chocolate covered apple, had a chocolate bar, had a churro, sampled chocolate liquors, took our picture with Remi from Ratatouille, got balloon hats to complete the 12 year old mode we were in, took my picture with a chocolate kiss, took my picture with the Nesquick bunny, had a few pieces of grilled corn, and got a few pieces of chocolate for the road. By the time we were done, the chocolate festival had nothing left to offer us. So we all loaded back up on the train to Rome and slept all the way back.

Sunday- For the third time, Whitney and I sought to find out way to ZooMarine which is the Italian equivalent to Sea World. The forecast was low 50s and rainy so we were the only ones willing to venture out. Seeing as how this was the last free weekend while the park was open, it was now or never. After checking the website we found there was a free shuttle leaving Termini at 9. We got over there at 8:45, and waited until 9:25. No bus. We went in to the train station to see about tickets to Torvaianica where the ZooMarine was. No tickets. We were told to ask the tourist information about it. We went there and were told that a shuttle was going to be at the Eur Fermi metro stop. The next to last stop on the B line. So we ran over to the metro and rode the 20 minutes out to the stop in hopes of making the 10:30 bus. We waited until 11:10 with no bus. Dejected we rode the metro back to Termini and decided to stop in to a different tourist place to ask about movies in english that we could see. Having our picture taken the day before with Remi from Ratatouille had us thinking that was a good choice for a film since it just opened here. We also asked for good sushi restaraunts to eat at thinking if we weren't going to make it to ZooMarine then we sure as heck were going to eat some seafood. Out of curiosity I asked how I would get to ZooMarine if I wanted to go. The lady informed us of the shuttle service. We told her were tried that, twice, and they never came. She then said if we wanted to go on our own we go take the metro to Largentina (the stop after the one we had gone to earlier), get on a Cotrail bus, and walk from the Torvainica station to ZooMarine. Not being one to be beaten by a park for aquatic animals and always up for an adventure, we turned back around and went to the metro. Again rode the 2o minute ride to the last stop, found the bus station, got our ticket, got some coffee to wake us up since at this point we were dragging, and then loaded the bus at 1. Note: the last time we were on one of these buses (going to Tivoli) we overshot the stop by a lot, thus making us apprehensive to do the same thing again. There was a guy sitting across from us who spoke somewhat englsh so I asked what stop ZooMarine was. He said Torvainica. We rode on. Eventually the bus stopped, he got up, pointed down and said, "Torvainica", and got off the bus. So, we followed. Bad move on our part. Apparently this was the first stop in Torvainica with two more to follow. We should have waiting one more stop. We undershot. So, walking down the main road with not a clue where to go we spot a polizia officer who seemed to almost be settling a domestic dispute. I asked where ZooMarine was and he gave directions saying straight, take a right, and go until the sign. He then said tre kilometri. Roughly 3km worth of walking and almost half an hour later...we arrived. And we were two out of mayb 60 in the whole park. While the rain stayed away the temperature plumetted and we were now in the 40s. So, dressed in five layers of clothes, scarfs, and beanies...what did we do? Yep, we headed to the log ride. Rode that twice. Then as if that wasn't cold enough, we jumped on a water slide where took a raft down the slope that sprayed us with frigid water. And again, did that twice. If I don't catch a cold in the next day or two from that I'll be flat out amazed. We saw every show there which included tropical birds (parrots, tucans, etc), birds of prey (owls, falcons, hawks), sea lions, dolphins, and a diving show were I felt frozen myself just watching the poor group of divers plummeting close to 100 feet into icy water with only a wetsuit to warm themselves. But, again, we saw everything ZooMarine had to offer. Bundled up we left the park and walking along the coast back towards town and took some pictures as the sun was setting over Spain. There was a good looking seafood restaurant so we sat outside and waited for it to open. After a good meal we headed out the main road towards the Cotrail bus stop. Or so we thought it was the bus stop. We watched as the bus we wanted to be on stopped at the bus stop before ours and then sped past us as we tried in vain to wave it down. We moved to the actual bus stop and an hour later were on a bus back to Rome. All in all a very good day.

Monday- Nobody cares about class and running so I'll skip this day and move to the good stuff.

Tuesday- Went through classes like normal. After my last class I met up with Whitney and we headed back towards the Film Festival. In an earlier post I wrote how she and I got tickets to see Lions for Lambs while it was at the festival. We walked from the school to Piazza del Popolo (which is all the way across town and a good 45 minute hike) and took the shuttle out to the main festival area. We arrived and I grabbed a booklet with the times of all the movies hoping to see if anything else worked out for me to go see. Walking down towards the theater we saw a line of people around the barriers and a group of about 30 cameras steadily going off. We walked over to investigate and I peered through the crowds and caught a glimpse of something I couldn't quite believe I was seeing. So, I turned to Whitney and asked, "Is that Tom Cruise?" She looked through and he turned to pose for a picture with a fan and we both stare at each other and say no way. I grabbed my camera which I thankfully thought to bring along, just in case, and began taking pictures. We moved to the side closer to him hoping to get a closer angle which we did. Unfortunately he was moving away from us so everyone was migrating with him. This left us at the front of the barriers just watching the scene. Then I noticed a woman from his entarouge carrying back a few pieces of papers to fans. I quickly yelled out, "signora, signora" and handed her my packet with movie info times....which she brought back to me a minute later signed by Tom Cruise on the page with the movie information for that showing. Apparently this was the world premiere of the movie. I ran back to the info booth and asked who else was in town for this. They showed me a list and sadly it was Tom Cruise, Michael Pena, and a few others. Sadly, no Robert Redford or Meryl Streep on the list. After realizing we got as close as we could to the action we showed our tickets and moved down towards the concert hall where the premiere was going to be. We walked over the entrance and stood behind a barricade. After ten minutes of not moving I asked Whitney if she knew what was going on. A woman nearby that spoke english said if you had a ticket you could go through. That was us! So we moved past that rope and on to the other side near the concert hall entrance. Noticing more ropes we realized that it was roped off for the red carpet people to come through and go into a waiting area prior to the movie. So we camped out thinking we could get a picture with Tom Cruise instead of just one of him. After a half hour or so there was a comotion coming into the foyer and a guy I didn't regonize was being photographed as he walked by. He bid the crowd a greeting and kept walking. I figured he must have been a producer to the movie. Another ten minutes later I see the same photographer that had taken this guy's picture coming back and turning around to set up for a picture. I get my camera ready and figure I'll get one too of this guy I don't know. As I look into the screen of my camera I stop in awe not of the producer, but of the guy walking next to him. There, no more than six feet away, was Robert Redford. Snapping back to reality I took the picture was he was passing. Whitney was still in awe and I was amazed that nobody as the info booth seemed to know what they were talking about. Another ten minutes and he, the producer, and Tom Cruise were making their way from outside into the concert hall. That was when I had my short lived conversation with both of them. They go as follows:

Me: "Robert, Robert, can I get an autograph?!"
Robert Redford: "I'm sorry, I'm not able to."
Me: "Oh, that's ok. Robert, you're work is amazing! You rock"
Robert Redford (with direct eye contact): "Thank you, I appreciate that."

Whitney is still dumbfounded. Tom comes through.

Me: 'Tom, you mind if we get a picture with you?"
Tom Cruise: "I wish I could but I'm being pushed into the theater"
Tom Cruise's body guards (as they physically push him down the walkway): "Sorry folks were on a tight schedule."

As you can easily tell, Robert and I are much closer than Tom and I.

We made our way into the theater and were up in the middle deck overlooking the floor. As the lights were coming down a spotlight shown and in walked all the actors (minus Meryl Streep) followed by Tom Cruise and Robert Redford. We were able to grab seats instead of standing the whole time and watched Lions for Lambs at the same time, in the same theater, and for the first time ever in public, with Michael Pena, Tom Cruise, and Robert Redford.

End note: The movie was incredible and as soon as it opens in the US I highly recommend checking it out. And when you do, know that I took pictures of, and talked to the top actors in the movie.

Rome, you just gotta love it over here.

Red Carpet and Fancy Shoes

2007-10-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

I hear sparingly that people (majority being my parents) still read this. Comments, much like tipping, are welcomed and appreciated. Otherwise, I could keep the stories to myself.

We're back tracking here a bit, so I'll take you to last Thursday.

After a morning of regularly scheduled class, I broke out of my advertizing class at 1:15 and headed home to pack for the weekend. The plan was to bring my backpack, go to class, and leave directly for Termini and board the train for Florence. It worked smoothly, and showed me that there are a lot of things that can be done in the two hour window between my classes on Tuesday/Thursday other than stare numbingly at the computer screen. I've opted to fill the time with a jog and a shower. Keeping in mind this includes the hour long round trip walk, I have determined it will be a miracle if my feet make it back home to my faithful 4Runner.

Anyway, I get to Termini with ease. Grab my ticket and wait for the departures board to scroll over the new times and reveal when and where my train was to leave. It eventually showed up for platform 6. The departure time wasn't for another 25 minutes but I figured I could go early and read. I stroll up to the conductor, and using my best recollection of the "train station and airport" chapter from Italian 2 at Baylor proceed to double check that this was, in fact, the train to Florence. He nodded yes. I then asked him where car 12 was. He pointed and said, "l'ultima." I leaned away from him, followed his pointed finger, sighed, and adjusted my backpack. 15 minutes of walking later, and feeling like I had walked halfway to Florence, I reached my car. Good thing I came early. Plopped into my (window, luckily, - thanks mom!) seat and pulled out my book. I was joined later by the people that had the seats across and next to me - two Italians, apparant musician want-to-be's, and seemingly unpossessing of a shower in their respective places seeing how both guys smelled as if they hadn't showered in, oh, I dunno, all of the month of September.

We'll fastforward to the arrival. Show up, get instructions as to where to direct the taxi from dad, walk out of the train station,...and stare at a line for the taxi that rivals the line for Space Mountain at Disneyworld in the middle of June. Nearly an hour later I was walking towards a cab. Got thrown out at the Piazza where the hotel was, met up with the folks, and found dinner.

Friday. Got up, early. Somehow vacationing with my parents has me waking up earlier than on any day I've had class in the last five years. No worries, it lets you see more in a day. After grabbing a pretty solid breakfast at the hotel we set out towards the Academia. Had 8:45 reservations to see Michelangelo's David. Quite impressive, though probably would have been better to view it from 50 feet below like originally intended. Regardless, the fact that were admiring it and walking around it with only a dozen other people around made up for that. Afterwards we headed towards the Duomo, took some pictures, and made our way to the start of the walking tour. Spent two and a half hours walking around Florence seeing all it had (which isn't a whole lot) to offer. The remainder of the day was spent shopping for Italian goods, and a pretty decent dinner at a place recommend by Christine, the tour guide. *Pictures to be put on facebook soon*

Saturday. Got up, early. Again. This time for me. My plan was to get up and be the line, not just in line, but the line, to climb to the top of the Duomo. 526 steps. After breakfast I briskly walked down the street, rounded the corner of the cathedral, and came to a halt.
-I pause to interject this question. How is it that anyone could possibly gauge the exact population of China? Or the Far East in general? Half the country, at any one time, seems to be touring some other part of the world. Back to the story.
I came around the corner and found myself behind 40 of China's best armed to the teeth with digital cameras, video cameras, and binoculars, apparently. I will spare the details of the climb, but will say that it took far longer than if I had been the line instead. The view from the top was spectacular and definitely worth the climb. Those pictures to be posted soon, too.

Clambered on down and met back up with my parents. Made our way back to the hotel to find a kiddie carnival in the piazza. I have now been witness to an international chicken dance frenzy, complete with video. A sight that words can't even begin to describe, but I feel safe to say whatever you have pictured in your head is not as zany as what actually occured. We took a taxi to the train station and ran to catch a train to Pisa.

In the process of running, we forgot to get our tickets validated on the platform. 30 minutes later the train-ticket-checker (for lack of proper title) came by. I was seated caddy-corner to my parents so I planned to use my best italian to greet the lady and explain that the ticket was for the three of us. That is until she went to the Swiss couple across from me, who didn't have their ticke stamped either. After pleading back and forth the ticket-checker lady finally had pity at the touring foreigners and fined them 5 euro, rather than the 40 euro PER PERSON that it should have been. At this point I abandoned all plans of using Italian, grabbed my dad's Rick Steves "Guide to Italy" book, and played the part of the dumb, lost American. It worked, and 5 euro (not 120 euro) later we were inbound to Pisa.

Let me state here my unexplained reason for excitement for this part of the trip. In 2nd grade, when I was smarter, I was working with the 3rd grade class half the time. So, I was assigned a project with two other guys that involved researching an aspect of another country. We were given the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In the project, we discussed the tower itself and that Italy was were pizza came from. Hey, we were advanced for our age, give us a break Anyway, at that time I had thought to myself that it would be cool to travel all the way to Italy to climb that tower. 16 years later and on my 3rd trip to the country, I had my chance.

We grabbed a cab to the Piazza del Miricoli, and there, in it's 15 degree off kilterness, was the tower in all its glory. We spent the better part of half an hour getting all the goofy pictures we would need in our lives involving us and the tower. The best one came when I was pushing the tower over with one finger while my mom was pushing back to try and hold it up. I had a ticket to climb the tower, and my parents had a corner cafe table to watch me. Climbing the tower was a little odd. First you lean left, then you lean right, then you left again, then...and the whole time you're trying not to slip on the slick stone. 140-something feet higher I was at the to,p...and freaked out of my mind. Vertigo set in and the fact that you could tell how angled it was was only heightened by the thin metal bar that went around the circumference at a whopping 4 feet tall. Thus meaning one false step and you could realistically take the nonexistant elevator all the way to the bottom. I took a few pictures and called it a tour.

That brings me back to this past week. Midterm week. I took a marketing midterm on Tuesday. Don't worry mom and dad (and cadre) I made a B on it and with the As on the other projects so far in the class it's a very recoverable exam. After reviewing my italian on the bus ride to school (10 minutes, mom, dad, you saw first hand that I have a decent knowledge of the language) I walked into class and knocked the snot out of that exam. I'm hoping on Monday when she hands them back she'll tell me I don't have a need to go back to class for the rest of the semester and tht I get an automatic A. Even now as I type this, I am hearing the chorus "You'll shoot your eye out, you'll shoot your eye out" from A Christmas Story as poor Ralphie receives a C rather than the A++++++ he was expecting on his paper. A guy can dream though, right?

A Thursday with two of my three classes cancelled and a misfired attempt to find the pyramid, which led to a stroll through a part of town I can considered seen and no desire to re-explore, brings me to today. I got up and went for a run since, again, the weather was cool and crisp like any great fall day should be. The weather here reminds me of the falls in Jersey.

***If you were skimming down through this post STOP AND READ HERE***

August 19, official start of the 2007 Roma International Film Festival. I, of course, was determiend to check this out. Lucky for me I had a few other movie buffs interested in tagging along. We took the bus out to the site and strolled around. We found the information desk and asked for the lady who spoke english to help us. Turns out they all spoke english, so we (mainly I, since I was the one who asked) felt stupid. We got a program with all the movies being shown each day and their times and locations. Among the US films are Elizabeth, Rendition, Noise, Youth Without Youth, Lions and Lambs, and August Rush. After discovering August Rush was playing at a location an hour outside of Rome, I settled for Lions and Lambs Tuesday standing room only. We then asked for tickets to Elizabeth. Sold out. We strolled around for a bit more before I came to a halt. There, in front of me, was a sight I had only seen on tv or in pictures stalking my favorite (insert female, Hilary Duff, Elisha Cuthbert, et al) celebrities. It was a red carpet entrance with an E! platform. I ran back to the information desk and asked the question that would lead to hours of excitment and anticipation..."What's going on tonight?" The answer: an award/recognition for Sophia Loren AND th Rome premier to Elizabeth. Three hours later I had seen both Sophia Loren and Kate Blanchett stroll down the red carpet right below me. Keira Nightely is in town for her premier tomorrow. And Bruce Willis and Spike Lee are bouncing around the city somewhere. After seeing some of the other lineups I wouldn't be surprised if Sean Penn is around either. Definitely took a ton of pictures, and it's one of those things you can only see in Rome - when you're among few Americans hoping to catch a glimpse of movie stars you recognize.

Up next: Chocolate Festival in Perugia, a side trip to Assissi, and (finally) ZooMarine.

Again, if you feel compelled, leave comments. They're much appreciated!

A Story to Nightcap

2007-10-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the first days it steadily rained throughout the day here. Allow me to share one quick thing to all those who have yet to venture into Rome in the rain.

Walking on wet cobblestone is similar to walking on ice. It takes steadiness and a patience to make sure footing is secure. Walking too fast, as I discovered this afternoon, leads to a foot sliding out from underneath and busting ones ass in front of all to see. Folks, I'm here to tell you, you don't need to be bilingual, or a genius, to translate pointing and snickering. That is a universal reaction.

Long Overdue with A Long Time to Write

2007-10-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

My deepest apologies to the few that read this blog, for the delayed update. I had a post typed up in a Word document on my Dell computer to transfer. It was never able to make the switch.

Let me explain, backing up from two weeks ago and working towards the present.

The last I wrote I was about to head to Barcelona, to not only see Spain for the first time, but also to see a friend I haven't seen since early May. Troy and I packed our bags Thursday night and headed over towards Trastevere to meet up with some others. We dropped the bags off at the girls' apartment and all headed back to the mall which was a twenty minute train ride away. It was a rainy night so what better thing to do to occupy our time than to go bowling. It was a cutthroat game down to the wire, but yours truly pulled it out with an astounding 148. It was humorous to get the game underway though. Even though there was a guy with us that was fairly knowledgeable in the Italian language, I was still thrust to the font of the group to give it a go with the hardly english speaking guy behind the counter. After a bit we got down the part of needing one lane for six people. Then came shoes size. I told him 10. He looked at me rather peculiar. It was then that I looked behind him and noticed the lowest number was 28. No good for my 10 size foot. So, instead of trying to calculate numbers in my head (which we know never works well), I asked him what size *this* is. *This* would be me holding my hands apart about the same length as my foot. He laughed and tossed me a pair of shoes. 42 it is over. The others all followed suit which I thought was even more funny.

Let's see. After the bowling and hour or two of pool, we all headed back to the apartment. A few hours of card playing and chilling led us to 4 in the morning which was our time to call the cab and head to the airport. There were two others coming along with us for the plane over there. We figured all going to the airport together would cut in cost. What happened helped our wallets even more. We load up in the cab and I immediately think of the part in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's opening song with the cab. This guy had some style...and YMCA cranked up already. So, us being the slightly obnoxious Americans that we are, asked him to crank it up more and began seeing complete with sign motions. 15 minutes later the cab died. Just stopped running. Another cab was leaving from the direction of the airport, so our driver got out and flagged him down. We grabbed our bags and switched to the new, and more spacious, cab. Apparently if the cab has problems en route and has to pass you off, you don't pay. Five minutes of driving and 2 euro a piece later we got out at the airport.

Let me see if I can speed things up a bit (since this post is going to be longer than normal)
-checked in ahead of any other JCU students
-got our tickets and a priority pass that let us board in the first group
-I wanted to be first, so I sat in line...by myself...on the floor
-15 minutes later I broke out into song with "All By Myself"...the other three I was with took pity and camped out on the floor too
-Serenaded the bus with "You Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" on our way to the plane
-Boarded plane and fell asleep before the flight attendants could point out the (far too often used on RyanAir) emergency exits
-Woke up and boarded an hour bus to Barcelona from the airport...immediately fell back asleep...no singing this time.
-Got off the bus, grabbed a map, and set out for the hostel
-An hour later arrived at hostel to find the Denton Elder stretched out ready for a nap.
-Rained on that parade and then set out for an afternoon of walking around and taking in the sights
-Walked a lot, took a boat ride around the harbor, walked a lot more, got some lunch, did a bit more walking, and then found dinner with everyone
-Ate paella, a lot
-Went to the Gaudi, climbed the Guadi, and freaked at the open air heights of it all and quickly (but very very carefully since it was the tiniest spiral staircase I've ever seen) went back down
-Drank Sangria, a lot
-Saw a protest. Got close enough to take pictures and figure out what was going on. Did not, as fun as it did seem, join in.
-Got my alarm clock stolen by a man-beast who can only be compared to one, Mongrol, from Blazing Saddles
-Went to a Dow Jones bar where the price of drinks fluctuated like the stock market
-Took a ton of pictures and pretty much had a great time

It was really good to hang out and spend some time with a friend from home. At least then he knew about everything in Waco I was talking about. Most people just look at me blankly since they have a biased view of the city. Once I describe Dr. Pepper they seem to key in a bit more. So that was a fun trip that brought in the month of October on a good note.

Mr. Elder, it was a pleasure leaving an imprint on Barcelona with you.

By pass a week and a half of classes, a bit of studying, and some tests...and it brings you to this past week.

The parents came in to town! That was/is a lot of fun. It's been a while since we've been on a big family vacation. This one may be one of the biggest we've had. And it was very nice to be able to eat at restaurants again. They came into town on Thursday so I met up with them after class. Had some wine, walked around a bit, checked out there hotel and grabbed some dinner. Friday I met up with them for a day of sightseeing and showing them around the city. Saturday we were up early and touring the Vactican and St. Peter's. That was pretty cool since the tour we were on only had five of us plus the guide. So you got a lot more information, could ask all sorts of questions, and I definitely learned more in that morning than I could retain the next day. That afternoon we took a walking tour around the NE side of town near Piazza del Popolo. Found out a lot more information about that area. The trident of the churches and the roads meeting at the far gate of Rome, certain streets of the back area, and Augustus's tomb. Sunday was spent lounging around and doing some reading and studying. I met up with them later that evening and had some dinner. Then they came to Scholar's Lounge with me to check out where we all go watch Sunday football. Turns out most of the group was there so they met them all. They initially were going to stay for a few minutes and then head back. Two Peronis and a ton of conversation later they left a little bit before the rest of us. They seemed to really enjoy the place and all my friends loved getting to meet them and chatting. Got back to the school thing Monday and then they took of for Florence today. I'll be meeting up with them tomorrow night for a few days in Florence and then a return trip through Pisa. Should be a fun weekend.

Now for the bad news:

My computer bellied up this past weekend. It happened on a Sunday. It was in the middle of running Mission Impossible III. The battery was running low so I plugged in the outlet power. Smoke started billowing out of the top of the screen. For a second I thought perhaps the DVDs have become more life-like and my computer was a self-destruct message. I quickly snapped out of it and blew the smoke away unplugging it. The remaining power lasted until Monday afternoon. Then things went black and unrecoverable. That thing was with me from high school through my whole college experience. It has seen several different cities and continents. It has played music and movies with the best of them. It has helped me with late night papers and even later night conversations. It has even woken me up for class before. The memories on that machine were great, and it will always be missed.

I had the fortunate luck, and a very generous dad, who brought the backup computer from home. Now that the trips were locked in he had no more use for it over here. And with his computer waiting back in Waco, graciously left this one with me to use. Now I can still go about saving powerpoints, excel sheets, and class notes on the computer and bring them home to study.

I think this post is a bit long right now so I'll shut it down for the evening. Be back in a bit to add some more.

One for the Road

2007-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, having scrolling through here I realized the last post was about the run ins with the animals. Time for an update and to curb your anxiety about the mouse situation.

So, first things first. Last Friday Troy invited Whitney over to help cook dinner for the group coming over. And also because she was the only one willing to off the mouse. I catch up to them on the way home and when we get there we solemnly go back to where the deed was to be done. Now let me set the scene as it appeared that morning. After a confrontation last time involving a broom propping up a metal panel to the wall trapping Jerry behind it failed, we left the poor guy in the middle pulling with all his might at the drainage pipe and the metal panel lay on the floor. We arrive to the back, broom in hand, and then come to the realization this is not the same scene. Rather, in front of us, was a panel leaning up against the wall in it's original place and an ominious wet spot roughly the size and shape double that of a mouse against the back wall. Apparently 17 days meant 2 to our doorman. RIP, Jerry.

Anyway, we had dinner at our place that night. A hearty dinner of spaghetti with meatsauce. Hit the spot pretty well. After that we met up with all the others for another pub crawl since one of our friends had some friends visiting from back home. We were kind of disappointed that we ended up at three of the same four pubs from the first one we went on the first week we got here. That changed when they took us to a place on the river that normally charges 25euro at the door and we just strolled in. Rather cool place with a modern feel and pretty cool that it was right under the Castel d'Angelo. For some reason I have this knack of meeting DJs here and ran into the one from that place named Job who was hosting a party this weekend. Gave me a flier and his number to ensure I got in. Perhaps next time.

Saturday we woke up, pretty sluggish, and headed back towards Trastevere. The girls had directions to the catacombs so we figured it'd be a fun trip for the afternoon. After vine swinging on a few buses we arrived. It was pretty cool. A half hour tour of the underground catacombs covered approximately 3% of all that actually is there. The length covers 25km! Anyway, we saw a room that was the tomb of 7 popes, the tomb of Santa Maria, and walked through hallways passing countless others. After a walk in the tree lined countryside we all came back to the city. Dinner was suggested, Hard Rock was thrown out there, and after no real objection we headed over there. The food was great but too pricey to make it a reoccuring thing. Troy and I headed back to our place via the metro and got off one stop too early. Turned out to be alright since at a stop light we looked over and saw a guy on a unicycle ten feet off the ground juggling three torches for the cars. We took a few pictures and eventually made our way home.

The walkway to the catacombs.

Sunday Troy, Whitney and I decided to try and go check out this place, ZooMarine. Sea World for the Italians, if you will. One of those adventures that you're not quite sure how it's going to turn out. We ended up at the main train station looking for the right train to head towards the town it's at. After no luck we went over to the tourist information place and asked for directions. The lady rather abruptly told us we wouldn't have time to get there and that we should just take the morning bus at 9:30 and then take the bus back. I told her I didn't want to spend the whole day at ZooMarine, but for just a few shows and call it a day. She still held to her guns and said no. So much for information. We asked where we could go for the rest of the day. She writes down some directions to Tivoli and the Villa D'Este. A tram ride where we saw a guy hauling a one wheeled bike, a delay at a bus depot trying to find the right bus, a sketchy bus ride for half an hour, and a fifteen minute walk back from the other bus depot since we got off at the wrong stop later we were there. This place was really cool. It was the retreat place for the Cardinal and down and behind the building was an area with over 300 fountains. Really neat to see and a lot of fun to walk around and enjoy. After a few hours there we found a really cheap dinner at a pizza place and then headed over to the little puny castle they had where a concert was being set up earlier. After about ten minutes of the possibly the weirdest musical concert I've ever seen we headed for the bus to make sure we got back to the city on time.

And after two attempts I am unable to post pictures just yet. I'll work on it when I get back. I have class to get to now and then a trip to Barcelona to meet up with some random guy that wrote me a penpal letter. Ciao per un buon fin de semana!

A Few Stories

2007-09-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Now that I have completed my homework, and before I go to bed, let me share a few stories that have happened in recent days. Oddly enough both stories involve animals.

Story 1: A few of us were out at Campo di Fiori relaxing and enjoying an evening before three brutal days of class and assignments. After sitting around long enough, and realizing the peanuts and chips set out before us weren't doing the trick, we (mainly I) embarked on a journey of five minutes to get a kebab. I talk to the man and order my kebab. All is going as normal as planned. Those with me stare at it, and since they had never had a kebab, decided they wanted a bite. As they turn to leave I start unwrapping the tinfoil to get into the kebab. I turn around to follow, and I am staring into the face of a dog. I'm not looking down, mind you. I'm looking straight ahead and this dog is staring at me, or rather my kebab. I take a quick inventory of the dog and notice two things. One, it oddly resembles Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars. Crazy, I know, but if you saw this dog you'd think the same thing. Two, it must be a mix of greyhoud and I'm guessing giraffe. It had a narrow little face, long hanging ears, and beady little eyes that stared at my kebab like it hadn't eaten a thing in five weeks. I eventually notice that this dog is tied to a leash and that leash is being held by a woman. She grins and says something in Italian. I quickly put together a few of the phrases and realize she is telling me her dog is hungry and loves kebabs. I'm still wondering why this dog is so tall and lanky that it can stare me in the face. So I grab a bit of the kebab (mostly bread) and feed it to the dog. I have no idea why this struck me as peculiar, but I didn't think I'd come to Rome to find a giraffe of sorts walking the streets.

Story 2: This actually occured today and is still ongoing. I was walking home from school with the intention of changing clothes and going to play some basketball. I rounded the corner to our street and bump into Troy, my roommate. He says, "hey man, let me show you something interesting." I say sure and then begin to wonder as he leads me back towards the apartment. As he opens the door to our place he turns around and says, "so, I've been here having fun with Tom and Jerry." Knowing me, my immediate reaction was that he found american ice cream. That is until I remember the other night seeing a mouse scurry along the wall of our apartment in the courtyard. So I say, "please tell me there isn't a mouse in the apartment." The immediate answer is, "no, but..." I'm lead towards the back of the place into an enclosed square that is used for drying our clothes and there running from wall to wall is the mouse. No place to go. No way to escape. I ask Troy how it happened and he has no idea. It just somehow wound up from the apartment into there and he locked it in. He went to go tell the landlord/doorman about it. After seeing the mouse the guy goes outside, brings back a broom, and after Troy asks what he's supposed to do with it the guy makes a motion and sound similiar to that of the infamous "Psycho" move. We now realize it's up to us to either kill the poor mouse, or try and let it go without having it escape back into our apartment. Option 2 doesn't really work because that's borderline impossible with the means we have to achieve it. Option 1 was the winner by process of elimination. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depeding on your stance in animal rights and humane treatment) neither one of us could do the deed. After much deliberation we came to a final conclusion...leave the mouse back there with no food or water and eventually it will die of "natural" causes thus making it not our sole doing that the mouse is dead.

The betting pool opens tomorrow as to how many days/weeks this little guy has left.

I'm putting my money on 17 days.

New Discoveries

2007-09-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

While I didn't get out of town like initally planned, the weekend was a good one in terms of discovering things that will make life easier for the next few months.

There is a mall about 20 minutes by train south of the city near Fuimicino Airport. This thing put the Galleria to shame. It was insanely massive. Two levels with more shops than you knew what to do with. And the best part? A 1/4 of the bottom level was Target. That's right Target. And it's about three times bigger than any Target Greatland back in the states. So needless to say that's a source of very discounted home decor/convenience items. The other equally great part of the mall is the piazza outside. It's got a movie theater open 24 hours a day showing 16 movies. And blow it...a bowling alley, arcade, and small slot machine casino. That is a rainy Saturday waiting to happen. And all of us that were there were stoked to see bowling. Who knew it'd be here?

Today I woke up with a mission to find the grocery store near us. Thursday as I was going to class I came out of the main door on the street and fell in behind a guy holding a sack of groceries. He came from the down the street and was obviously going home. So, this morning/afternoon I went out and stood on the corner waiting for someone else with a sack to walk by. About ten minutes in I notice a lady crossing the street with a bag. I follow here and nearly walk past the place until someone else comes out and bumps into me adjusting their sack of groceries. The store is about 40 yards from our place! It's almost like a rat maze too. You just go up one aisle and follow through to the end. Get what you need when you pass it because it's a nightmare trying to go back through. Got just nonperishable stuff until the water leak in the kitchen is fixed. No need getting cheese and meats and vegetables if you can't do anything with them for a while. Also got some air fresheners and cleaners. Now this place is going to be much better off.

Took the metro down to Piazza di Popolo. Only one tram line so nothing like the network of London's Underground. Got up on the street level and walked into the Piazza expecting to see the open air area I remembered from three years ago. Instead, I walked into a European NBA/And1 traveling expo of sorts. There were two full court games going on that were part of a tournament. The floor was brought in and placed over the cobblestone to somewhat level it off. There was a DJ booth overseeing the whole thing. Three courts for 3-on-3 pickup games as well as a dunking contest and 3-point contest. The place was packed with people. I'm going back tomorrow just to take pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

After that I walked through Borghese Park which was pretty amazing. Just a lot of relaxing and lounging around. Reminded me of Central Park without all the noise. Looks like a good place to go on long afternoons to read and just lay around. Hopefully the cold will stay off long enough for me to experience it a few times.

Came back and started walking Via Angelico. Took me about two long blocks to realize that there is a bike lane next to the road! It's blocked off just for bikers and joggers. It starts two blocks away and goes for a few miles. I found a running place that's a lot closer to me than the gym next to school! And now I can go run and be able to shower before heading to class. Nerdy, I know. But in the long run it'll help when I get back in the spring for PTs.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the laundromat to do two loads of laundry. I probably will just bring them back and air dry them outside on the racks instead of paying for the dryer too. I'm just running low on warm weather stuff and it's too early to start buying that many clothes. I may try and find a barber shop in the area too. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to get it cut or not. Suggestions welcomed.

But battery power is running low and the construction stool out in the courtyard is making my back hurt. So ciao for now.

A Random One, but sometimes that's just how it goes

2007-09-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

Moved into the new place yesterday. Finally was able to unpack all my things and feel at home somewhere. This morning I woke up to sunshine and it was such a great feeling. Something I hadn't experienced in over two weeks! The area around the apartment is great too. Tons of shops, stores, caffes, restaurants, etc. There are a lot of busses running through the area, a tram going through the neighborhood back towards the back of it, and a metro line two blocks away. The walk through St. Peter's Square on the way to school every day is humbling and very cool.

Classes are still going. Yes, I am studying and reading and doing work. And yes, I don't like it. But yes, I know it has to be done.

The ankle has finally healed back up and running is something I can do again. This time, though, I'll stick to the treadmill in the tiny gym over the cobblestone streets and sidewalks. Walking this past week wasn't so much fun. Coming into the third week I'm over 10 pounds lighter. Kind of nice. Easy to do when you walk an hour round trip to school and then walk everywhere else guzzling water as you go. The foutains sporatically through the city to fill water bottles is awesome. The only downside is that it's breaking down my ability to go back to Waco water.

I'm noticing that everyone (everyone being the locals and not tourists) are fashionable. To an extreme. It's quite a change from the t-shirt and jeans apparel going to class at Baylor. You can tell the JCU degree seeking students just by what they wear. Everyone from the five-year-old to the elderly couple walking down the street all seem to have a much more developed sense of style. Maybe I'll catch on to it? And then stick out like a sore thumb back home. But, when in Rome...

Looking at trips for the next few weeks. This weekend may just be a daytrip to Pisa and surrounding areas. Nextweek could possibly be either Barcelona or Munich. The following week would be whatever place wasn't visited the previous one. The next week my parents arrive meaning a weekend in Florence and then back here. After that I may head up to Venice before it gets too cold. The last week in October JCU is doing a tour of Tuscany which is supposedly their best trip they offer, so I'll be on that one. Somewhere in November I'm going to try to make it to Sicily. Denton should be heading over to Italy sometime in October/November so we'll see him in Spain and then back here. Those two countries will probably seem a world apart.

That's about all I got right now. Homework and class await in the next hour so I better get to it.

Schools Out For The....Weekend, I guess.

2007-09-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the first week of classes is in the history books. It was quite a ride. Some are easier than I thought, and some took a lot of preparation time to get a handle on. We'll see how it goes from here. Seems that every class meeting in marketing we're assigned a group case study. I'm not a fan already, but this next one seems shorter than the first so it should be alright.

Now to the question you're probably asking: Scott, what are you going to do on your first weekend in Rome during the school portion of the trip?

Well, allow me to tell you. Right now I'll be heading to the apartment to unpack everything completely. Probably clean up a bit in the process. Then I'll go out to the store to grab some laundry soap and maybe a bit of food that will keep through the weekend. A nap is in order after that because at 1 am the Irish Pub over off of Piazza Argentina is showing the Colts/Saints game. Those that know me well know that of the teams in the NFL those are the two I'd support the most. I'm hoping the Colts win, but I'm hoping for a good game from both sides. There is a decent sized group of us going. Those from the south and northeast are really missing their football right about now.

After that it'll be a bit of sleep. I think I'm headed to the train station to look at getting a EuroRail pass. 10 days of traveling in the next two months. Should be a pretty good deal and will let me get up to Florence when my parents come, over to Spain during Dia Del Muerto, and up in to Venice, Germany, or Switzerland sometime. Then it's back home for a bit of reading and bed early.

Saturday we have to be at the Piazza Tirussa at 7 to board a bus headed down to the bay of Naples. From there we're catching a ferry over to Capri for the day. Heading out to the beach, grab some lunch, check out a place where they custom make sandals on your foot (apparently everyone in Italy heads over there to get them before the summer season, but for us we'll have them for next year), and walk around a bit more before coming back.

Saturday night is the white night festival. You could call it a city-wide block party. Everything is open from 9pm-9am. That includes museums, bars, shops and hopefully restaurants. A lot of peopel cancelled weekend plans to stay around and see what it's all about. There are also live music concerts throughout the city, but since we can't understand the language all that much they aren't a big selling point with us.

Sunday unfortunately brings about a day of resting, reading through some of the textbooks, and then maybe heading over to check out the Cowboys game since I don't have class until 1.

Should be a good weekend. Hope you all have one just as good!

P.S. Thanks for the comments, those that right them!

Field Trainin, anyone?

2007-09-05T04:24:00.000-07:00

Classes started. Rumor mill has it that around here they hit you hard the first week or two to remind you that you're in classes and not on a long vacation. I'm hoping the rumor holds up because after the first meeting of my class I'm a bit nervous.

My italian class should slow down a bit. I was tempted to talk with the professor to bump up another level, but after seeing the workload for the other courses I'll just work ahead in italian and relearn on my own.

Marketing scared me and everyone else in it. So much for the 101 part of the class. First day and we were already assigned a group project due Thursday. That left a day to read a 50 page chapter, a case study, and then meet with a group of people we didn't know to discuss it all. The professor didn't seem to know too much about the computer side of things. I thought it was funny until I was outside the class and couldn't get the website to open up as well. I stopped laughing.

Advertising management looks like it could be fun. Apparently I slipped through a crack in the catalog and was able to register for it without have a prereq. I don't think the class will be that intense that I'll be struggling to stay afloat. Looks like it'll wind up being more of a hassle to use my creative juices to think up pitches than to actually learn the book work.

Management makes ROTC look likes a Masters course. It was a cakewalk and should remain so throughout the semester. Lines have been drawn already and so far it's three of us Americans on one side of the fence, and two Italians seeking their Masters on the other. We abruptly learned that over here if an employee isn't doing their job up to standards you can't fire them. "They're protected for life" as it was ennunciated strongly from one of the Italians. She rubbed a many of us the wrong way. But the class and teacher are great.

Speaking of which class time is rolling around again. I'll post later with actual stuff rather than just stupid course work. Till then, ciao.

Just A Recap

2007-09-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

Let me clear the air from the start. Our football team is useless. While I am and will always be a strong Baylor fan; there comes a time when you just have to let some things go. I have spent many a year defending our football team's reputation against the like of Longhorn and Aggie fans. And I will continue to do so here while there are two Red Raiders in the program. However, I shall bid my farewell to Guy Morris and his final season in the green and gold. You, my friend, are going to be replaced by a much more welcomed asset in Mike Singletary. Just look at the facts: You spend all off season getting the team ready and focused for TCU. All preseason media reports have you discussing the TCU opener; not the rest of the season, but just the first game. It became such a big deal that soon it was obvious that if it were to be lost, so would the season. You bring in a total of four potential quarterbacks. FOUR! Most solid teams have their main guy, a pretty good backup, and then some kid who threw a few passes in high school and comes in when the other two can't shake of their torn rotator cuffs. We have four, and you, Guy Morris, pick the one who was the least favored in the pack, the one who threw just under .500, and couldn't put a single point on the board. For a coach who targeted the first team on the schedule, fine tuned the game plan, and practiced just for that game, you couldn't even find a way to put 2, 3, or 7 points on the board?! I'll go ahead and say it. Bring in Kim Mulkey. She's the only coach that brought in a national title in less years than most players can get their degree. She may not know football, but I'm sure she could find a way to win. Regents, start fueling up the plane to fly in Mike-maybe he can be here by conference play.

Now for the italian side of life. Things are slow paced. We just kind of walk around and take in the area. The other day my roommate and I had our bags packed and ready to board a train for Milan for the weekend. Just as we were buying the tickets a brief conversation with my dad has us stay put so that if something were to happen with our housing situation we could be around to act on it. (So much for that idea. Now that it is Labor Day in the states it'll almost be a full week before the SAI folks hear back. Three cheers for us three guys living isolated and in a basement below the street for four months.)

So we walked out of the train station and rather than going straight back we climbed onto a double decker tour bus. It's our first week here, we're entitled to do such things. An hour passed by as we enjoyed the breeze blowing through the upper deck and I played hawaiin surfer while standing the majority of the time snapping off pictures left and right from an angle that provided quite a viewpoint.

We got off near St. Peter's and walked around there for a bit. We quickly discovered that things in the area cost almost three times as much as back in our neighborhood. Our snack quickly turned into just a big bottle of water and a Fanta. Onward we headed over to the Castle of San Angelo. We spent about an hour and a half walking around. Probably would have been longer if we had sprung for the audioguide in english for 4 euro. Instead we looked at the italian and between my broken italian and his broken spanish tried to understand as much as we could. Finally, we hit the top deck. The view was unbelievable. We had a panoramic view of the entire city. Mountain ranges, cathedrals, palaces, Vatican City, Olympic Stadium, the hill we live on the other side of. You name it and we could point out either the exact thing or the area it is in. Needless to say we spent the better part of an hour up there. Especially since it had a cool breeze and that was something we haven't felt much of since being here.

We've spent most of the nights out at Campo di Fiori which is a pretty fun place to go and hang out with friends. Every now and then we turn around and find more people that go to JCU through another program. Once classes start tomorrow I'm sure there will be a lot more people to meet and thus more things coming up to go do. I'm hoping this next weekend we can take a trip somewhere. Either the coast to the beaches or up north just to see what's there. Rome is great but that can be explored during the week. With a history book/tour guide, of course.

Anyway, the school is about to close down for the Sunday evening. Tomorrow I'll be up here before class to upload pictures to my computer. Since I know a few people reading this site don't have facebook, I'll be uploading them to a second album that has public access so everyone can view them. Sound like a plan? I thought so.

Ciao

One quick thing

2007-08-30T03:59:00.000-07:00

Auntie Jo and Uncle Sef,

Look to the right. That is Lindsay. We are dating. She is the one that left the comment. You have not heard about her because in our last visit to Natchez there was only limited time to spend with you all. I figured it would be in the best interest of family conversation to catch each other up on events and whatnot, rather than be harassed the whole time with questions and "uncle sef" trying to see if he can call her to question her sanity in dating me. I shall fill you in later in more detail if you would like. Also, my email address, Scott_G_Smith@baylor.edu, is still the same if you would like to inquire there.

Buon giorno

Scott

Dov'e il autobus?

2007-08-30T02:50:00.000-07:00

No joke, I've lost five pounds since I've been here. It's not that I'm not eating enough, or drinking plenty of water. My eating habits are the same and I chug water like it's going out of style. However, I've walked more in the past three days than at any one point in my life. And for some reason, my roommate and I always find the ways that have us going uphill both ways. Hard to believe, I know, but if you were in Trastevre you'd understand.

Yesterday we had a meeting with our SAI person and the housing liason. Our place is a dungeon and we aren't happy with what they have given us. The SAI promised a cultural experience interacting with the locals and other students. We are nowhere near other students. And it takes us a good fifteen to twenty minute walk to any sort of store. Walking in our area, we spent an hour trying to find any place to eat. While the other students in our program are off of the main road with a supermarket up the street and two caffes right around the corner. The walk to the school is about 30 minutes or a little under. We have to go up and around a few hills to get there but not so bad. However, it's our place that we absolutely can't stand. It is a very depressing place to live. We are on the corner of a building, below the street level. My room that I share along with the kitchen/sitting room are both about eight feel below the street. The only windows we have are on the street where no air comes in and they have bars covering them. The interior area is our bathroom joined to the single room's bathroom via the shower. The single room and its bathroom have a window on level with the courtyard and yet again both of those have bars across them. You walk into our place and within five minutes you feel vaguely connected to prisoners on some level. This isn't what we were promised through the SAI program.

If you think that we're in Rome and it's no big deal or we should be content, let me share with you a little more research we did. After getting no sort of reaction from SAI's director here other than stick it out for a week and get to know the area we decided to head to JCU and talk to their housing. He doesn't want to cause a rift between JCU and SAI first and foremost. BUT, he did tell us that his primary concern is with the students at JCU regardless of their program. He listened to our situation and asked where we lived. We said San Calepodio and immediately he knew what we were talking about. He knew, because this apartment used to be on his list until last year when he condemend it from JCU housing options citing that it was unacceptable standards for their students to live in. That brings us back to square one wondering how in the world the SAI director here can tell us how great a place it is and how she wishes she could live there when the university itself won't house there students. They're not budging and we know they're shortchanging us immensely.

We know it's a walk or bus ride to get to anything around here. We understand that and go along with it. It's good exercise and you see a lot of things. However, it's a depressing feeling knowing that at the end of the day/night you're in essence going back to a prison below ground that neither of us feel comfortable going back to.

On to better things. We walked over to the heart of Rome yesterday and saw the Roman Forum and the other ruins. Took a few pictures and just kind of strolled the streets. Crossed over the Tiber and headed back towards the school area for a dinner that was on them. It was a full meal complete with bruschetta, pizza primavera, and fruit. A bottle of water and a bottle of wine for the table and we were set. After sitting there for a bit we walked over to a group of friends' place. We sat around drinking some wine on the balcony and enjoying the breeze and the view. It was a great night...until the walk back.

Apparently the short way to our part of the neighborhood is up some steps. "Some steps" was not clearly defined. Some steps turned into roughly the height of a ten story building. Luckily we found a snack bar open late and grabbed a couple bottles of water. (Don't worry dad, so far my money hasn't gone towards anything but a meal here and there and bottles and bottles of water) Every time I drink one I reminisce about the sign over the urinals at field training. Almost like being back there except without the yelling...at least there we had a view.

Today we're heading from the school to the other side of the river. Hopefully we'll get the buses down, or at least some cool stuff along the way.

Day 1 and Still No Sign of Life

2007-08-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

Wow. The past thirty-four hours have been intense. It all started with a not so bright but none-the-less early start Sunday morning. After putting a last few items into the monstrosity of a bag (I'll get to this in a minute) my parents and I loaded up to haul down to Austin. Had we known the plane was delayed leaving Washington DC to Austin by an hour I would have either a)slept in a bit longer, b)had my dad stop for breakfast at an IHOP for the last time in four months, c)get a case of Dr. Pepper for the flights because apparently Coke has a monopoly on every place in the world outside of Waco, or d)slept in a bit longer. You can see where my interests lay.

As it happened, we did not know the plane was delayed and thus took advantage of a non-rush hour affected trip to Austin. Once at the airport it was time to haul the bags in to the check-in counter. My dad wisely chose to roll the bag that we knew weighed well under the weight limit. That left me with the bag that made me feel as if I were heading out to an international bowling tour complete with my own set of pins. After weighing in I found I had a total of 108.5 pounds of luggage. One bag weighed 38 and the limit was 50 pounds. I'll let you calculate how much big bertha weighed. Fortunately they were able to find their way onto the conveyor belt before my dad could get a picture of them.

So the two hour wait for the plane that we originally had turned into a three and a half hour wait. Finally the little jet came in and we were able to board. Not without a crew change, mind you, so now we're a little past their projected take-off time. Flight attendant comes on and announces the sit back and enjoy the flight bit, we push away from the gate, roll back twenty feet...and stop. Apparently the same mechanical problem that delayed the plane getting to Austin is the same thing that is keeping us on the ground. Turns out a valve on the left engine gets stuck and has to be manually switched to get the engine running. Shameless advertising plug: and it's a wonder why United and Delta continue to plumit towards bankruptcy. Fly Southwest! They get you there on time and actually care about you in the process.

I'll take this moment to inform you that my international flight to Rome leaves from Dulles at 6:16.

Anwyay, wheels down at Dulles at 5:50. Arrive at the gate at 6:04. Climb down and haul ass through terminal A to tram for terminal D at 6:05. Sit on tram that doesn't leave for another three minutes. Arrive at terminal D at 6:11. Again haul ass Home Alone style to the game and board the plane at 6:15. Sit in my seat watching them load luggage, switch out food, and restock beverages at 6:30. Wheels up at 6:50. United has officially lost my future business; except for when I fly back. THEN, they'll have lost my business for good.

The inflight movies weren't as good as I was hoping. After watching In The Land of Women, the last half hour of Spider-Man 3, and half of Fracture before falling asleep, I was tired of the choices. I hope they're better on the way back. The airline food was what it typically is stereotyped to be. My neighbor was very quiet on the trip. Turns out he only speaks Italian. Very, very little english. We found this out during a nice interaction where I took a minute to realize he was wanting to switch places while he got luggage out of the overhead bin. We again communicated when he was heading to the restroom to (found this out when he came back) take his contacts out as well. I opted for less confusing dialogue and gathered my stuff when I saw him doing the same. We made a row trip out of it, if you will.

Landing at Rome was a whirlwind. Got off the plane and shuffled through a hampster maze until the customs window. Got my passport stamped (!) and headed towards the tram to the other terminal. Walked by a line of loud Americans, turned back to see it was a currency exchange spot. So I went back and waited myself. Though I was not near as loud. Apparently some people like to travel internationally and be surprised at the exchange rate that turns their plans in on themselves. Went to baggage claim 8 to get my bags. After a bit of waiting around with others from the flight and still no action from behind the wall we decided to scan the boards. Turns out when United says claim 8 they really mean claim 6. The plus side? My bags made the international flight with me. Good thing they get some things right.

There was a little confusion finding the JCU people at the airport. Finally when I walked by one women holding a sign four different times she asked who I was looking for. I said John Cabot and she informed me they were outside and weren't able to come into the claim area. So much for their arrival procedures being accurate. Found my checkin spot, waited with another group of students, and then loaded the shuttle. The shuttle turned out to be an oversized Mercedes-Benz van-econoclass. After driving on that death machine, if anyone (this especially means you, Lindsay) gives me a hard time about my driving habits I will laugh at them out loud and direct them to the nearest european city. If I was scared during it then you know it was bad.

The checkin at JCU took about ten minutes. They handed me a cell phone. They handed me three papers, I signed them, and gave them back. Gave a copy of my passport and visa, and then got my keys. (I have a very long medieval looking key! The others that were with me were pretty envious. I'd trade them for a smaller, easier to manage one) Picked up my linens and a welcome back complete with a package of fake toast and nutella. Ah, it's started already.

After dropping 6 of the 8 off, our maniac man behind the wheel roared through the streets towards my building. He quickly stopped to confer with a map, then off we flew. Only to stop three more times so he could look at the map again and get a call for assistance. Apparently my street doesn't exist. After winding through a maze of streets I found myself in front of my building. Turns out I'm under the building. When they say ground floor, and your building is imbedded at the top of a hill, they mean ground floor. No view. And all that cold air that blows in and pushed the hot air up? It blows in at the top and pushed the hot air down. I can see why the apartment is vacant.

My roommates haven't arrived yet. I'm hoping that by the time I finish this and hike back there they'll be unpacking.

So far today I've been walking around the Trastevre neighborhood. Trying to find the little shops and markets that I'll be frequenting through the next few months. I've explored around the school and figure I'll spend a lot more time around this area during the weekdays. So far I'm saying away from gelaterias. For now I'll settle with a liter of water and a panini, if I can find one. Hopefully dinner is coming soon.

Though it's 6 right now. That's enough time for me to pack this up in my locker and head over to the Piazza ______ to a bar (coffee shop) called Friends for a meet and greet session. Maybe my roommates will find themselves over there.

Tomorrow, I learn the bus system. And also how to fix my computer to get everything back in english. Just because my IP address is now in Italy doesn't mean I want all my sports updates in Italian. Wish me luck.

The Start

2007-08-25T22:28:00.001-07:00

Here it is 6 hours before I have to leave for the Austin airport, and I'm sitting in front of the computer to type in an entry. I'm doing this two-fold. 1) I'm still too energetic from the realization that tomorrow is finally it and 2)That if I get too much sleep now the only thing I'll be doing on the flight to Rome is watching movies instead of sleeping. Jetlag is something I've experienced a few times before but it's been about ten years or so and I don't want have this trip break that record.

Everything is packed. I'm 12.5 pounds over the limit on my suitcase, but what can you do. There's no way to knock it down to 50 even, and whether we're 1 pound or 100 pounds over we still get the additional charge. My dad and I's thought? Cram it to the gills. I look back and cringe at the first time I went for a study abroad session. 5 weeks apparently meant I needed two large suitcases with a rolling duffel folded into one for additional room on the way back. Now I leave for four months and I've got just one of those suitcases and the afore mentioned duffel. Considerably cut down on the luggage even though I've drastically multiplied the time spent away.

So far there haven't been any bumps along the way. I'm guess those come during the day of nonstop traveling. In about two days I'll be able to give a more useful entry.

Until then, arrivaderci!