Woke up at 12:30 and ate some breakfast. Hung around the house till 4 then Alfi, Leart and I grabbed some Chinese food. Leart and I had lemon chicken which was different than the lemon chicken in the states but it was really good. Alfi had Kung pow chicken which was totally different. We went home, I did some laundry, then we went up to Gianicolo at 6 to meet up with Agron and Emanuele and watch the sunset. After the sunset we headed home and picked up some prosciutto on the way. Then we made a couple pizzas and ate some fruit. We were wiped out from yesterday, but Leart and I still went out. We went to Trastevere to meet up with Anyla and her friends and we went to Vogue Roma which was near Stadio Olympico. It was super packed and a couple guys tried to rip off my chain a couple times, luckily they were unsuccessful. Besides that it was a pretty good time. We didnt have to pay to get in because we were with Anyla and her friends, we got VIP wristbands and access to the VIP part where they served free fruit kabobs, and we stayed there till just after 4. Then we walked home and went right to bed.
I realized an important difference between America and Italy today when I was talking to Emanuele. He said in Italy, time is not money. I thought about that for a while and its so true. People are always staying busy but they take their time doing things. They embrace life to the full, and time is of the essence. Here you may not be able to get groceries at 8 pm or receive mail within a week or two (or 6 in my case), but life is too short to rush everything.
Oct 9:
Woke up today at 1:15, ate breakfast, chilled for a bit, then Alfi and I went sight seeing. We walked to the pantheon, Trevi fountain, passed the capuchin church, and stopped in Villa Borghese. We stayed there till just before sunset and headed to the Spanish steps. Then we went home and made some dinner. After dinner Bill and I hit up Old Bridge and I did a bit of studying before going to bed.
Oct 10:
Woke up, ate some breakfast, and went to classes. After Italian politics, I went to guarini to study a bit before watching a movie for Italian Politics and Society called "The Time of the Gypsies." It was interesting but it was quite strange. After the movie a classmate gave me a ride home and I ate some dinner. Then I did some reading for Italian which was pretty helpful for my language skills.
Oct 11:
Woke up early and got to campus at 10, did some studying, and went to class. After class I ate pranzo and signed up for a cooking class tomorrow. I checked guarini to see if my package came and it turns out I need to send a letter to Milan in order for it to be sent to JCU because it contains contact lenses. Then I went home and made dinner with Adam and Alfi. We had steak, tortellini, chicken, and salad. After dinner Maria came over and we were going to go to Scholars but we ended up staying in our kitchen. When bill got home we all started a philosophical discussion somehow that lasted quite a while. THen Maria left and I walked her home and headed to bed.
Oct 12:
Woke up at 11 this morning and got to class just in time. After media ethics I went to Piazza Trilussa to read Ghomorrah and got some Pizza. Then I headed to sociology and right after I went to the post office to figure out the package situation but it was closed. Then I went back to Tiber for Politics and Society and right after had a cooking class on top of Guarini with Adam and Alfi. It was really fun, we made some type of bruschetta, mushroom soup, stuffed red peppers, and a nutella-ricotta pie. Then we headed home and went to sleep.
Oct 13:
Woke up early this morning to go to Poste Italiane before class. I waited for 20 minutes and then was instructed to call the post office in Milan to get a fax number, otherwise I would have to mail a letter with the documents I filled out to get my package. After class I called the number but was not able to get a fax number so I had to go back to the post office and send the forms by snail mail. Then I went home, chilled for a bit, and headed to the grocery store TuoDa. Its even cheaper than Todis if you can believe that. After shopping I returned home, ate some pasta, drank some vino, and Alfi, Adam and I headed to San Crispino by the Trevi fountain for some gelato. It was even better than Giolitti! We ate the gelato at the Trevi and then headed home. Maria stopped by for a bit and I went to bed when she went home.
Oct 14:
Woke up, went to Italian, then Alfi and I went to lunch with Maria. We had pizza in Trastevere which was pretty cheap, but Maria said it was frozen. After lunch I walked around Vatican City, went home for a bit, then watched the sunset at Gianicolo. Then I headed home for spaghetti and vino and Maria took us to Testaccio which has a good nightlife. We went to Coyote and got home at 5.
Oct 15:
Woke up at 12:30 and Alfi made breakfast tacos. Then we got some coffe at a local bar and I walked around Vatican city. I came home, ate lunch, and walked around the Vatican again but with Leart this time. We stopped at Old Bridge on the way home and cleaned our house. Then Maria came over with some friends at brought a platter of Lasagna her mom made for us. One of her friends brought an orange cake with nutella, and there were no leftovers of the lasagna or cake. We had wine for dinner and then drank champagne, limoncello, and Amaro. Our guests stayed till 4 and we had a pretty good time.
Woke up, ate breakfast, and went to meet Ellie at the Spanish steps. She was on a tight schedule so we didnt have time to do a proper tour of Rome. We did have time to go to an Irish pub near Piazza della Republica to drink a birra however. Then we went to Termini so she could catch her bus and I headed home. When I got back, there was carbonara and some linguini with a tomato and meat sauce that Laura made for us while I was with Ellie. Then Leart and I watched the sunset at Vittoriano. Right after we headed to Scholars to watch the Roma-Lazio derby which Roma lost and came home.
Oct 17:
Woke up, went to class, read part of Gomorrah, and headed home to read for Italian. Found out the Vikings lost to Chicago and Christian Ponder came in. I say we cut McNabb, bring back Randy (3rd times a charm), and trade up for Andrew Luck. The Brewers lost too which really sucks. I wasnt able to watch it but I noticed Price didnt do much, that cannot be good. Its the first time I've gone two months without SportsCenter which is probably why im going on this rant. Anyway, I ate dinner, finished reading for Italian, and headed to bed.
Oct 18:
Two months left, yikes! Woke up early to study for Italian, went to class, and killed the presentation in Italian. My teacher applauded me in front of the class for my improvement with the language, just the confidence I was needing. After class I went home to eat and headed back to Guarini to study for tomorrow. At 7 I headed home with Leart, and he wanted to buy a razor so I went to the store with him to be his translator. When we got home, Maria made us dinner, two types of bruschette, and some beef & potatoes. We drank Moscato from Sicily even though its more of a dessert wine. Then she hung around for a while and helped us with our Italian homework. After she left I studied a bit for sociology and then went to sleep.
Oct 19:
Woke up early, went to bar delle malve for un caffe and a nutella cornetto. I went to media ethics and was able to work on my midterm project during class. Right after that I studied for sociology and then took the midterm. I felt confident but we will see how it went. It seems like those are the tests that end up being scored the lowest. After class I studied for Italian with Maria which was a big help. After Politics and Society I headed home, made some dinner, and did some more studying. Alfi and I got some gelato from Old Bridge at 12:30 and now it's time for bed.
Oct 20:
Woke up early and got to school before 10. Its the first day that I woke up to a thunderstorm here. I studied before Italian and had to take a midterm, which I think I did well but who knows. I went home, cooked a pizza and relaxed a while. Maria came over and we chilled for a bit. We had pasta for dinner and went to sleep pretty early to wake up for Naples tomorrow.
Oct 21:
Woke up at 7, and Alfi and I met Maria at the bus stop for the 64 to Termini.
We got there at 8 and met the group from my sociology class that we went with. The train took about 2 and a half hours but had great views of southern Lazio and northern Campania. Once we arrived our first destination was Castel San Elmo on the top of the mountain with amazing views of the city and Vesuvius. From there we hiked through the Centro Historico to Gesù Nuovo and Santa Chiara, which was originally built in 1328 but had to be rebuilt after WWII due to allied bombing. Then we headed to a pizza place for lunch which was the spot Bill Clinton ate when he visited for the G4 summit during his presidency. The pizza was the best I've ever had, slightly better than the last pizza I had in Naples coming back from Sorrento. I had margherita with mushrooms and some margherita with bufala cheese. The pizza was so big it couldn't fit on the plate. After lunch we got some coffee and headed to Galleria Umberto I which was absolutely amazing. Then we went to Piazza Pleblescito which is a huge space and has the Palazzo Reale on the other side. After that we headed to Castel Dell'Ovo which was really cool and watched the sunset. Then we took a bus back to the station and bought tickets for the last regionale train home but Alfi, Maria, and I were the only ones who stayed around. We stopped by a local shop to grab some Peroni and drank them at a small piazza with some trees (rare in Napoli). Then we went back to the station and headed home. On the train we met a young woman from Napoli and talked to her for an hour and a half-in Italian of course, which was great practice for my language skills. We got to Rome at 11:35 and grabbed some McDonalds quick. We arrived home just after 12 and went to bed shortly after. Great day.
Oct 22:
Struggled to get up by 7 and bill and I hurried out of the apartment, booked it to the bus stop, and ran for our train to Perugia. Unfortunately we forgot our tickets so we had to train hop. It was so full that we stayed in the gangway, which was quite an experience for 3 hours. But they didn't check for tickets so we got lucky. When we arrived we headed straight to Assisi and our first stop was the beautiful Santa Maria Degli Angeli. It was the site where St. Francis died and also has a small old chapel in the middle for St Claire. Then we took a bus up the mountain and stopped at Piazza San Rufino to see the 13th century Duomo. Just outside of the church was where St Francis and St Claire were baptized, and on the other side when you leave the church was a great view of Umbria. After the Duomo we headed to the Basilica di San Francesco which was amazing. The upper church had frescoes by Giotto which depicted the life of St Francis. The lower church was dark and had small ceilings but was very peaceful. Underneath the lower church is the crypt of St Francis and a few other important people. It was a cool experience and right after we had some panini from a local cheese shop/deli. Then we headed past the Basilica of St Claire and hiked to San Damiano, which was the original home of the Poor Claires. From there we took a bus to the station and a train to Perugia. The Eurochocolate Fest was taking place in the center of town on Corso Vannucci so we headed there right away. It was packed with people and different stands selling everything imaginable that had to do with chocolate. Before we stopped at any of the stands we saw the main piazza, IV Novembre, and went inside the Duomo. The duomo was huge with great stained glass windows and also has the remains of a couple popes. Right outside the duomo in the piazza is the Fontana Maggiore which depicts Aesop's fables and the 12 months of the year. Not too far from there was an Etruscan well called Pozzo Etrusco. We went to the entrance but didn't end up going all the way down. Then we headed to San Severo which has the only painting in Umbria by Raphael. From there we headed back to the main street and got some hot chocolate (I got white chocolate that was out of this world and bill loved the regular one) and then a piece of chocolate cake with a little bit of apricot jelly. Then we ran into a few classmates from JCU Alessandra and Alaina and I tried some hot chocolate with pepperocino. I prefer the one I had. I also bought some chocolate for Alfi and Maria because they couldn't come but wanted to. We watched the sunset from the end of Corso Vannucci which had unbelievable views of Umbria and the mountains of Tuscany. When it was dark we headed back to the station and took the train home. When we got home alfi had pasta for us and Maria brought over a tub of gelato. Then I walked Maria home and got some much needed sleep.
Oct 23:
Wow, half way done. Woke up at 2 after finally getting enough sleep and had leftover pasta and pizza for breakfast. Showered up, headed to guarini, and got some free coffe at bar Della Malta right before. I worked on my project for Media Ethics till 5:45 and then walked to Gianicolo before heading home. I got some laundry done and worked on the journal so I can update it again. Maria came over and made us pasta with salmon and tuna and some salad for dinner. Leart turned 20 at midnight so we sang for him.
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