Heading up North!
For whatever reason, our directors decided to give us one day of classes before we leave for the Northern Trip, which is tomorrow. In an unfortunate twist of fate, they chose Monday as that class day, and of course I have four classes on Monday's... so today has been tight. As a result, I've been trying to take care of so many other things that I wasn't able to post properly this afternoon, as was my original intention. My apologies! I'm doing my best to keep up with this, but there's always something going on here. It's been a pleasant weekend in Rome, though I've very few new adventures to report (or at least none that I can discuss in just five minutes!) so that will have to wait. I spent a lot of the weekend just walking around and studying in the room, because I had a Music Appreciate midterm today. I think it went pretty well... though I used the wrong example of a passacaglia. Oh well.
Lunch was amazing today as well! Gnocci, and potatoes and cauliflower and, of course, several slabs of cheese, which I shared with about five other girls. (As much as I love the cheese here, they just give me too much!) That's about all that I have time to post about.
I feel kind of bad that I can't write more, but I promise I'll make up for it when I return! Look for a lengthy post sometime next week. Hope you all have wonderful weeks, wherever this post finds you! And to my snowed-in Wisconsinites, I hope you all survived the storm. :-)
Ciao!
Homesickness
The first few weeks of my time here seemed like one long vacation, with classes on the side. In the past week, though, it's finally started to sink in that I will be here for a while, and that no matter how much I want to, there's absolutely no way I can see anyone from home until May. This is a startling reality, because it's a brand new situation for me. In various moments of homesickness, I've started to feel very alone.
I know that we're all feeling this way together, but that doesn't ease the pain of homesickness. I guess I just don't know quite how to handle it yet, and I was wondering if you all had any suggestions? I usually pray, or write a letter, or consume some peanut butter (which is always enjoyable! The supply is still dangerously low though...) I go for walks pretty often too, just to get some fresh air and clear my head. There's an odd sense of comfort in just blending into a crowd and weaving your way down the street without any real destination.
I'm never considered myself a city girl. Far from it! I like to visit big cities, yes, but I've always been more of a nature girl, the type who loves to poke through hiking trails and forests, and follow alongside of a creek just to see where it ends up. I love the outdoors in any season, whether it's playing in the snow, skipping around my driveway during a spring thunderstorm, rolling down hills on summer nights, or crunching through leaves on the Avenue in the fall. So this whole city thing has been an odd adjustment... but apparently I'm doing a pretty good job of pretending. Yesterday, over the course of my afternoon walk I was stopped four seperate times (yet again!) by Italians asking me various questions. I try to understand what they're asking me, but normally just use the standard, "Non sono italiana... mi dispiace!" to which they smile knowingly, whisper something to the person next to them, and keep on walking. So I guess I fit in here.
I do miss home though. I wish I could take every person I love and bring them here with me... but I almost feel guilty for sitting here lamenting about it when I've been handed such an incredible gift. I'm constantly trying to achieve some sense of balance between the time I spend studying, praying, exploring the city, having fun with the girls, and keeping in touch with everyone from home. It can be overwhelming at times, and in a sense I feel like I'm always racing to catch up with a life that's pushing ahead of me. It certainly makes the time go quickly, for better or for worse!
I don't mean to complain. I've just been a little homesick lately. But this, too, shall pass.
Pictures for Mom
My mother was complaining about my sunset picture (because "you can see sunsets anywhere!" which is a valid point) so I thought I'd share a few more. This first one is Florence at dusk, from the Piazzale Michelangelo hill. The one below it is an example of an average gelateria. It's so hard to stand there and look at so many yummy flavors and have to pick just two or three...
This was me after buying the €9 gelato. This is probably the angriest you'll ever see me in a picture. Look how massive that cone is! And that's after having bitten some of the top off!!
An evening in Florence... this is a view of Ponte Vecchio, from the other side of the river.
This was in the courtyard of Santa Croce, Florence. I wandered around looking for clovers until I get yelled at for being on the grass!
Sunrise by Santa Croce. It was a beautiful day, we got pretty lucky.
The Duomo of Sienna! Gorgeous.
One of my favorite pictures from Sienna. This is the quintessential Italy, right here.
What a weekend, Part II
Day 3: Sunday, Florence/Pisa/ViareggioSunday morning I woke up, on my own, at 7 AM. Unless I'm exhausted beyond belief, I can't usually sleep longer than about 8 hours, so when I heard the birds chirping in the courtyard, I woke up fairly quickly. I showered (and our shower was actually quite nice!) then just sat and wrote for a little while, waiting for the other girls to wake up. Once everyone was up, we got some breakfast with the sweet hotel owner, an older lady who didn't speak any English. We had rolls with Nuttella and jam, tea, and crackers. After that, we had our first of several stressful moments, because there was confusion over the payment. Kelly thought she'd booked it for a cheaper price than we ended up paying, and she felt really bad because she didn't want us to pay more. Plus, it was really hard to communicate with the woman! So that was mildly upsetting, but it worked out alright. It ended up being about 20 euro per night, and the hotel was pretty nice... so we didn't mind. More stressful moments emerged at the train station, and we ended up getting split up on the train, which was pretty full. I wound up sitting by myself across from an Asian couple, but it was nice to have the alone time. I love all the girls who were with us, but trips like that can be a little much because you always have to be together. Always. So there's not much room for alone time if you need it, and this weekend I was in need of a little at various points. The train ride was about an hour long, and peaceful. I just stared out the window, deep in thought...
We arrived in Pisa, still rather stressed. I think train stations in general create an atmosphere of panic and chaos, plus we were all tired and rather crabby. On our way back from the bathroom, Theresa stopped and said, "Look. I think we could all use a pick-me-up, and there's a McDonald's right here. I'm buying." So we stopped and got some food from McDonalds. Let me tell you, french fries have NEVER tasted so good. I got a little fruit and yogurt thing and some fries, and it definitely did the trick. It was a little taste of home!
Energized by our little mini-meals, we started to book it over to the Leaning Tower. It was definitely worth the stop! Pisa doesn't have many other attractions, but the Tower was really cool. I was highly amused by the lines of people struggling to set up the classic "pushing the tower up" shots. In normal circumstances, we would have felt ridiculous standing there with our arms up, but as it was, we fit right in. I didn't want to take the standard picture, so I did one leaning against it, one hugging it, and one kicking it, with Ellen crouched in fear below it. That one was SO HARD to set up! I had to stand on one leg on a rounded stone post, balancing my foot at the proper angle. It doesn't really look like I'm kicking it... more just pushing it down with the top of my foot. But it was a good effort, nonetheless. You'll see the rest of those in my WebShots, whenever I get them put up.
After seeing the Tower, we hurried back to the train station and set out for Viareggio, a coastal city about twenty minutes from Pisa. We were a little hesitant about whether or not it would be worth the trip, becaues we knew we could only stay for a few hours, but we decided it was worth a shot.
Best decision in the world!
Every year for Carnivale, Viareggio hosts a huge festival and parade that's very popular among Italians. The majority of the crowds were Italian, and it was one of the most fun experiences of my life. Everyone was wearing costumes, or crazy hats, and we kind of stood out by NOT having a costume on! Some of them were hilarious, and some costumes were just adorable, especially the little kids'. There were families everywhere, and lots of parents dressed in matching outfits with their kids. It felt like one huge party! And it felt safe for all ages. In America, if we tried to do something on that scale, I would be more skeptical of people being drunk there, kind of like what happens during the Fourth of July celebration downtown. But this was unlike anything I've been to before, and I wish I could convey how much fun it was. There were huge floats (eight of them could hold 200 people!) and they were all quirky and unique and brightly colored... there was smoke, and
so much confetti, and people dancing, and music, and food, and candy, and silly string! The highlight of the parade was when one float came by blasting, "Hey Baby". We all got really excited, because it was the only song we could sing along to, so we stood there shouting the words out and dancing while handful after handful of confetti was thrown into the air above us. It shimmered down wildly, and got in our hair, down our coats, in our backpacks, even in our mouths! It was crazy. We still had confetti in our hair when we got back to Rome. :-) The parade was really interesting, because most of the floats held huge caricatures and political figures. The parade is supposed to be political in nature, so I was intrigued by what each float represented. One of the displays had a bunch of evil TV's, and another had a big caricature of a man (presumably a politician) in a ballet tutu. There was one with a huge Elvis though, which made me think of Mickey right away! I took a lot of pictures of it. It was just a blast!
The only bad thing that happened was when Ellen got accidentally sprayed right in the eye with some odd, shaving cream type of substance. We all felt bad, but she ended up being okay. We doctored her up with some tissues and eye drops I had in my purse, and moved away from the man (who continued to spray the awful substance every couple minutes, in spite of Ellen's death glares). We were there for a couple marvelous hours, then set off down the street, grabbed some ONE EURO PIZZA(!!), and went back to the train station.
I had to go to the bathroom pretty badly, so we got in line right away. Little did I know it, but I was standing in line for one of the scariest things I think I'll ever see in my life! We had to pay 20 cents just to get in these things, which is scary enough on it's own. Paying just to pee?? It seems ridiculous. They were self-cleaning bathrooms, apparently, and quite confusing. So there we stood, watching the whole bathroom process in confusion. The way it worked was as follows:
First, you would pay the machine. Then the big, mechanical door would open automatically, and let you into a little square room with a gray floor that was soaking wet. You would look around you in confusion, then glance back out at the line of people and shrug while you waited for the door to close again. Then, you would have to either leave your belongings on the wet floor or HOLD THEM while you tried to go to the bathroom. For traveling girls such as myself, this presents a problem. There was absolutely no way I was going to my let backpack touch that floor... but I couldn't leave it on, because the little tail part could've gotten in the toilet. So I took it half off and held it while I went to the bathroom. There was no seat, not that I would have actually sat down had there been one, so it was another quad workout. (Sorry if this is a little too detailed! I want to give you the full experience.) At this point, I began to realize that, given how wet everything around me was, there was simply no way that a normal roll of toilet paper could be left out. There was, however, a button on the wall that you had to press in order to get your pre-rationed 10 sheets of toilet paper. Some people, I overheard, couldn't quite grasp this concept. There were panicked echoes of, "I have no toilet paper!" coming from the stall next to me. I hope they found it eventually. Anyway, so you would press this button and get your toilet paper and then head over to a little station to wash your hands. Unfortunately, the soap was essentially just water with a few bubbles, and the dryer was incredibly weak. You would then look around in frustration, unable to find a way to flush the toilet, then walk over to the door and press a button. It would open on its own, then close behind you and start spraying down the walls with hisses of water. It was, all in all, quite terrifying.
I can only imagine the look on my face when I stepped out of that bathroom. The poor Italians in line behind us began to drill me with questions about it, which I could only answer with random words and lots of shrugs. What an awful bathroom!
We stood outside waiting for the train as the temperatures dropped. We were determined to get seats, but the crowds kept growing... when we finally got in, we soon discovered that most of the cars were already full. I ended up standing in the aisles for the first half hour or so, then got a seat with some of the other girls for the remaining three hours. It was a mild ride, and it felt great to get back home.
Rome really does feel like home now, officially. Yesterday on my way to class, I stood on the streetcorner and listened to the traffic and bustle around me, quite peaceful in the heart of my chaotic city. It's amazing how after just a weekend of unfamiliar landmarks and sleeping in a different (and rock hard) bed can make you appreciate the city you live in! I really love Rome, and I'm glad to be back. Next weekend I'm not going anywhere! We're going to stay here and study for midterms. Then on Tuesday, at 6 AM, we leave for our Northern Trip.
I wince at the thought of how long that post will be.
Thanks for staying with me this long.
Naptime! :-)
Oh, what a weekend... Part I
Wow. I really don't know where to start! This has been one tumultuous, amazing, EXHAUSTING weekend and I don't know if I can do it justice in this post, but I'll try. To start off on a happy note, I've finally figured out how to put pictures into my posts! I've been trying from time to time, but all the webpages are in Italian, so I usually end up clicking the wrong things and trying to get it right through trial and error. But now, for your viewing pleasure, I'll be able to share a few of my favorite pictures from this incredible weekend.
Seven girls. Four cities. Three days.
Day 1: Friday, Sienna
At 5:02 AM our alarm went off, and I immediately rolled over to face the wall and ignored it. Janelle hit snooze and got up right away, leaving Lauren and I in a surreal state of half-consciousness in our respective beds. Somewhere within the next five minutes, I had one of the best dreams of my life, and it filled me with a surge of happiness that I couldn't even explain. But when 5:07 rolled around and the alarm tolled again, I woke up instantly with a huge smile on my face. I don't know if I've ever woken up so happy in my life! I floated around the room for a while, making sure I had all my things packed, and munched on some crackers and an apple. I packed everything the night before, actually! Family (especially Kristy!), you would be proud. :-) The bus was leaving at exactly 6 AM, so we scrambled down the stairs at about 5:55 and hopped onto the buses. Everyone on the program was taking a scheduled trip up to Sienna, but seven of us were going to go on straight from Sienna to Florence. (Side note -- When you take trips on the weekend, you need to sign out in a red book in case someone calls the Hotel looking for you. Unfortunately, in our haste to get to the bus, most of our group forgot to sign it... Portia, our program director, wasn't very pleased. But she wasn't very mad either... so it worked out alright. Oops!)
As you can imagine, everyone else was very groggy and crabby at 6 in the morning, but I was still in remarkably good spirits! As we set out into the countryside and my classmates began to sleep, I sat and chatted with Lisa, my seat buddy, and watched the world around me slowly come into focus as the sun rose. At first it was pitch black, but then everything began to take on a bluish haze, matching the ever-lightening tone of the sky. Gradually, some streaks of lavendar and pale pink began to emerge on the horizon, and as the sky grew more golden, the scenery grew more beautiful. We reached what seemed to be the heart of the Tuscan hillside right as the sun started to peek up, and I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises of my life. On both sides of us, fogs clung to the rolling hills and drifted over us, and grass beneath was rich and vibrant. Little houses and towns were speckled throughout the land, and as the trip went on we began to pass more and more vineyards and flocks of grazing sheep. Eventually the sun rose high enough to stretch through the fogs, golden and hazy. I wish I could have gotten a good picture, but I was on the other side of the bus and nothing seemed to turn out very clearly. Basically, it was beautiful in every way.
It seemed even more unreal, too, because I've always dreamed of visiting Tuscany. Every time I passed a calendar or book in Barnes and Noble, I would stop to page through it and sigh. Yet there I was, right in the heart of it... unbelievable.
Once we arrived, we parked the buses and walked a ways to the first cathedral, where we saw the head of St. Catherine of Sienna, as well as her thumb and some relics from her life. I'll admit, the head creeped me out a little bit. Until now, I haven't actually seen any relics of Saints' bodies, but since I've arrived I've seen quite a few and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. Maybe I'll dedicate a post to that later. Either way, it was powerful to be there in St. Catherine's home city, and to think of all that she had done during her lifetime. (She was a key figure in the return of the papacy to Rome after the Great Schism, among other things.)
From there, we walked through the steep, hilly streets of the city to the main cathedral, the Duomo. I had to give an oral presentation for Art History there, and was actually the first person to present, which was nice. It was a relief to get it over with right away! I presented a comparison of two bronze reliefs on the Baptistery in the Cathedral, "The Feast of Herod" by Donatello and "The Baptism of Christ" by Lorenzo Ghiberti, both of which were completed in 1427. I could tell you quite a bit about these two works, because they're actually quite interesting, but the for the sake of space, I shall not. The presentation went great though! A few people later told me that they think I should be a teacher. I really had fun with it, and it was a rush, in a way, to be standing there looking at something that I'd seen so many times online right before me. It gave me goosebumps!
We saw the rest of the Duomo, a couple more Museums, and then were set free for lunch at the main Piazza of Sienna. We had our usual (a sandwich and gelato), and just sat relaxing on the square, enjoying the sun and watching the crowds of people scattered around. After exploring a little and buying some fabulous fruit, we headed back to the bus to pick up our backpacks. The seven of us then left the group (at which time Portia, the director, gave a farewell of, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do girls! That gives you lots of leeway!") and hopped onto a bus for Florence. We arrived around dusk, and set off in search of our hotel, which turned out to be in the northeast corner of the city, and kind of a hike. But as we were walking through the streets, I felt exhilirated. I was (literally) backpacking through Europe! And we had no idea where we were going, or what was in store for us, or if we'd even have rooms ready for us! It was an awesome feeling. Incidentally, there was some confusion about the rooms, but we got it all taken care of and just crashed in the rooms. We got split into a room of four and a room of three, unfortunately, and decided to just stay in those groups as we went around Florence. I wish we could have all been together, but it's just too hard with that big of a group. You live and learn.
Day 2: Saturday, Florence
Kelly, Kelly, and I were actually out the door by 7:45 AM! We were proud of ourselves. We grabbed some breakfast from an Al Fornaio sandwich bar (for me, a scone and some peach juice. Which reminds me, we really should have better juice available in America! The peach and pear juice here is phenomenal. That also reminds me, I haven't been taking pictures of food yet! I'll work on that, Uncle Mike! Mi dispiace.) We went straight to the Uffizi Gallery, and got in right as it was opening at 8:15. Thank God we went so early! That place is amazing, and was completely packed by the time we left around midday. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there, so it's all at the mercy of my memory, but the Uffizi was... incredible. We walked into the very first room and I stood there for a little while, mouth slightly agape, then turned to Kelly and said, "I think we've learned about four of these in Art History!" It was like that throughout the whole thing! We would mosy into room after room, only to discover more works that we've discussed in class or seen in books. My favorite room, by far, was the Botticelli. "The Birth of Venus"!! And my personal favorite, "La Primavera"!!!!!!! We went back to that room three times, I loved it so much. I could sit in front of La Primavera for hours. We saw works by Caravaggio, Donatello, Tiziano, Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael... and more. It was fabulous.
After that, we wandered over to Santa Croce, where we saw the actual graves of Michelangelo, Machiavelli (who wrote, "The Prince" which is what we're studying in-depth in Philosophy right now) and Galileo! I felt odd taking pictures of gravestones, but the monuments were really cool. Santa Croce had a lot of different tombs and a really interesting museum as well. But by this point in the day we were starving, so we went to get some lunch and some gelato.
Which leads me to one of the most horrific experiences of the trip. As many of you know, I have a strange fear of ordering food. Not a phobia in any way, but I get nervous a lot when I have to order food somewhere, simply because of the pressure I feel. It's hard to explain, and seems like something so mundane and unimportant... but I just strongly dislike the moment when the cashier/waitress looks at you expectantly and you still have no idea what you want. So as you can well percieve, attempting to order food here in Italy has been a stretch. But it's good for me! I'm learning to overcome this minor apprehension.
Anyway. So there we stood in the gelato store, surrounded by a swell of people pushing up to the counter... I asked for a cone of gelato, forgetting to ask for a SMALL cone of gelato. This, I now know, is a grave mistake. Once that I will NEVER make again! I picked out my flavors then breathed a sigh of relief, and kind of hummed to myself while idly watching the people around me. The young woman handed me the cone, and I stared down at it in confusion. It was huge!! I haven't seen a cone that big in all of Italy. It was probably 10 inches long, no lie. Most unexpected! I didn't know what to do, because I most definitely didn't want a cone that big, but she couldn't just put the ice cream back... so my mind went completely blank. When the cashier gave me my total (NINE EURO! Or about $10!) I just looked at her with wide, bewildered eyes and a blank stare. I felt frozen and trapped, and like a person stretching out their arms to get handcuffed, I handed her a 10 euro bill. She gave me a euro in change, and I stumbled out the door, stunned. I immediately began to cry, much to the chagrin of the two Kelly's, who began to comfort me. In retrospect, the situation was kind of humorous, but at the time I felt miserable! I stood there holding that massive gelato, tears running down my face, for a couple minutes. I didn't even want to eat that darn thing! But out of spite, I ate the whole thing on the way to the David. It wasn't even that good, but I got my money's worth, dang it! Never again.
But moving on... the David was amazing! He's huge!! I'm glad I got to see him, finally. You can't turn a corner here without seeing David boxers at some corner kiosk! After David, we went to the Duomo, the main cathedral of Florence, which was beautiful. We headed down through Ponte Vecchio, a bridge with tons of gorgeous jewelry shops, then over to Piazzale Michelangelo, where tourists go for the best view of the city. We met up with the other girls and arrived at dusk, and I felt like I was looking in on someone else's dream, or into a movie screen. I can't even convey how beautiful it was... Florence was on my right, and a sunset behind the hills was to my left.
We stood enjoying the view for a while, then went back into the city for some dinner. We ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant, because the girls were craving it. How ironic that I got to eat some of the best nachos I've ever had in the heart of Florence! We went right back to the hotel to get some sleep for the morning. We were completely exhausted... sooo much walking! I've decided that traveling in new cities is the best workout in the world, and being a poor college student is the best diet in the world, so all in all it was a good, healthy outing.
I loved Florence. SO much. I want to go back, and wish I could have stayed longer!
But I know this post is really long, so I'm going to cut it off and do a second part right now.
Ho fame
I'm currently feeling intense pangs of hunger, which could be due to the fact that my breakfast consisted of some crackers with jam and a glass of red orange juice at 7:30 this morning. So in light of this hunger, I've decided to dedicate this post to the fabulous food I get to consume here every week!
Now then, the breakfast I described just now is fairly typical for me. We always keep whole wheat crackers, a bag of cookies, Nuttella, and jam in our room, all of which prove to be delectable between-meal sustenance. Our room seems to be a popular hangout, and we constantly share these delights with our visitors. But the most prized of all these snacks is, without a doubt, our peanut butter. I can't even tell you how odd life seems without peanut butter, particularly because, as a vegetarian, it's been my greatest source of protein for the past year and a half. I love peanut butter!! In a spurt of uncharacteristically good planning (with all credit falling upon my sister and mother, who took good care of me during the whole packing procedure), I packed a jar to keep in the room here. I figured one jar would suffice for me over the course of a few months, if I rationed properly. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in the amount of people who would discover the aforementioned jar and wander into the room in need of some peanut buttery goodness... so at this point, just more than three weeks into my stay here in Italy, I'm down to about a third of a jar. This is a desperate situation! I'm not sure what will happen from here on out. Fortunately, practically every other girl on the program has friends or family visiting from the States at some point, and they've all promised to bring a fresh supply for us. Until then, the jar remains safely guarded above my bed, and we're trying to limit our consumption as much as possible.
Moving on from snack foods... Our program has worked out a deal with a local sandwich bar called Pascucci's, and it's already one of my favorite places to go. We get a little packet of money tickets every week that serve as our stipend money, and usually go there at least once a day (except Sundays, when Pascucci's is closed). For breakfast, they make fabulous cornetti, which are little croissants and pastries, some filled with chocolate, some filled with jam/berries, some filled with creme, and some plain. When served warm and gooey, they're completely heavenly. They also make fresh fruit salads, which are personal favorites of mine. You actually watch them chop up the fruits into a little bowl, with a freshly chopped banana, blueberries, and whipped cream on top. SO good! Most people get a cappuccino, coffee, or espresso as well. I never do, because I don't like coffee. Apparently I'm missing out, but no matter. For lunch and dinner, Pascucci's makes a variety of different sandwiches and pizzettas, which are kept in a glass display just beneath the counter. You pick out a sandwich, and they put it on a grill to heat it up for you. I usually get sandwhiches with tomatoes or spinach and mozzerella, and I never seem to grow sick of them. It's difficult to explain just why they're so good... but they are. And to top this all off, Pascucci's is known for its frullato's, which are really light smoothies made with fresh fruit. They put the fruit into its own blender, and blend it for several minutes until it achieves an exquisite state of perfection--smooth, almost frothy, not too thick and not too icy... mmm. As far as I'm concerned, frullato's taste like pure happiness. :-)
Most girls end up at Pascucci's at least one to three times per day. The food is fabulous, the workers are incredibly friendly and helpful, and it's a nice place to run into some other girls from the program and just hang out and grab a snack. Plus, it's positioned between our classroom building and our hotel, so we walk past it a lot. I firmly believe that every visitor to Rome should visit at least once for a pizzetta, a frullato, and a Happy Hippo.
Now then, I know I've mentioned these before, but I feel the need to devote an entire paragraph to the joy that is a Happy Hippo. Where do I even start? Happy Hippos, of course, look like little hippos. The outside is merely a hippo-shaped wafer, with little hippo eyes and a mouth painted on top. The bottom is covered with a layer of white chocolate and little white sprinkle things that don't seem to have much of a flavor, but they tend to fall off the little guy with each bite you take, almost looking like snowflakes. I've yet to understand the purpose of the sprinkles, but no matter. The inside of the hippo is what makes it so glorious! The inside consists of one bottom layer of chocolatey/hazelnutty cream, with a layer of white chocolatey cream on top of that. The inside isn't quite as firm as the inside of a Reese's peanut butter cup, but it's not light like frosting... it's almost like a truffle. But it tastes like heaven! I love them soooo much, and plan to bring as many back to America as I can fit into my suitcase. I'm dead serious. Apparently they have Happy Hippo McFlurries at the local Pantheon McDonald's, but I've yet to try one. I'll let you know when I do!
Monday through Friday, as I've mentioned, we get to have one meal at the Hotel. These meals are different everyday, though Thursday night is always pizza night, and Friday they usually serve some type of fish, simply because we're in Rome and that seems appropriate. The two people that serve us every day are named Valentina and Giorgio, and they are hilarious! Before we go in, they usually play American hip hop in the background, and you can usually hear Valentina singing along to the likes of, "Promiscuous Girl." Sometimes, you can even catch a glimpse of her dancing! I enjoy talking with them, and they know me already thanks to my vegetarianism. (There's one other vegetarian here, and they always have a special plate out for us.) It's frustrating that I can't communicate with them more thoroughly, though. One of the days last week, Valentina told me she wasn't feeling very well. Unsure of how to say, "I hope you feel better," in Italian, I began to sputter any random phrases that seemed close to what I was trying to say. The result came out like this: "Ti, ah.... sento bene? Non lo so! Sento bene, ah... dang it." That translation is, in English, "I, ah... feel you good? I don't know! Feel oneself good..." The bewildered look on her face was priceless. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled apologetically, then ran down to our RA to figure out how to correct my blunders. She told me the proper thing to say, and I hurried back over to tell Valentina. She said, "Ohhh! Grazie!!" and started laughing. She and Giorgio seemed amused by the whole thing.
The food itself is wonderful. They give us a bowl of soup or pasta, which is always my favorite, then a plate with the main course. There's usually meat (or for Jenn and I, slabs of various types of cheese or an omelet), potatoes (ALWAYS amazing) and veggies. The broccoli here looks very different from broccoli back home, but I like it. There are always fresh loaves of bread out, and sometimes they have a salad station set up, with fresh lettuce, tomato, corn, carrots, and cucumbers. Sometimes they make us a dessert, the best of which was tiramisu!!!!, or else we get to choose from several flavors of gelato. There are always pitchers or bottles of water awaiting us, and there's a little place to get hot tea, coffee, or milk. (Which leads me to another thing I miss, by the way... cold milk. We can't seem to find any here! It's odd. But warm milk is great too.) Mealtime at the Hotel is one of the highlights of my day. We all eat together, and just sit and talk and take our time and enjoy the food. I love it! I always leave feeling so full, but so content.
I haven't even gotten to the food I've had at other places here! I'm sure you can imagine how good it is though. Everywhere you turn, there's a pizzeria or a little sit-down pasta restaurant, or a gelateria or a sweets store (with piles of sweets and pastries just calling out to you from the windown displays! They're quite difficult to resist). I'll do a separate post on gelato sometime, but for now, I'm starting to think it was a bad idea to write this while hungry, because I'm starving!!
Time for Pascucci's. :-) Talk to you all soon!
P.S. Gigi, are you out there? Haven't heard a comment from you yet. ;-)
Yay!!
Okay, so I think I finally got all my pictures uploaded onto WebShots and linked into this blog... they
should work. And if not I might cry because I've spent at least three hours today working on this. I haven't had a chance to caption any of them, but I will soon to try to explain the context of the photo!
Enjoy :-)
A Shorter Post
That last post was rather long, I dare say. I just thought of some things I wanted to add, so I thought I'd do a shorter addendum rather than extend onto the last post.
I just wanted to clarify what I've been up to these past few weeks. During the week, we have class from Monday through Thursday, with no classes on Fridays. But the first two weekends, we had tours that kept us going all three days of the weekend. It's been quite exhausting! But I have a good routine going on already. Monday is the crazy day, with four evenly spaced classes keeping me close to home. We have lunch in the hotel on Mondays and Fridays, which is always exquisite. So I spend most of the day in the library or the classroom building. Right after Religious Studies, which ends at 7, I go to Mass at San Andreas, which is very close to our hotel. We have a core group of girls that goes every week, and they're pretty wonderful. The people at San Andreas are quite friendly too, and the music is beautiful. We then trek back to Pascucci's, a little sandwich/frullato bar where we have stipend money throughout the week. The workers there are wonderful, and the food is fantastic! I'll never get sick of it. Tuesdays I have class in the morning, then always go to Pascucci's for lunch. In the afternoons, I pick a random destination, usually a more distant one, and I go on an adventure with whoever cares to join me. Back for dinner at the hotel (dinners there are Tuesday--Thursday) and then we either stay in and work or go on a gelato run. Wednesday and Thursdays I just have one morning class, then an evening class, so I usually take little walks in the middle or crash here in the library. Wednesday night some of my girls like to embrace "Wine Wednesday" and if I'm around, I usually sample a glass of cheap wine while I do my homework. We sometimes watch a movie, though, usually on my roommate's laptop. It's funny to watch 5-10 girls pile onto two beds, straining to watch the same littel laptop screen! Thursday nights I have Religious Studies from 5:30-7 (which I call "Happy Time with Father Mark" because I love the class so much that I don't even consider it a class!) and then head over to Mass at San Andreas again before Pizza Night at the Hotel. Sometimes the girls go out, but it varies for me, depending on my mood. I'm not the biggest fan of the bar scene, but I like to go out and dance or walk around the city, so it varies depending on the day.
So there you have it! An average week here. Lots of little things tend to pop up in the middle of all this that add interest, and there's always something new to discover in the city. This past Wednesday we went to a ballet, for example, and next Friday we're taking a day trip to Sienna. So there's never a dull moment! I just wanted to share the typical events of my life here, and let you all know that I miss you a lot and wish you could come visit. But I hope all is well at home and love you dearly!
Rainy Days in Roma
Sorry that I haven't updated much in the past few days. Life has been just as busy as ever, but this weekend I'll just be spending some time enjoying life in Rome without the stress of tours or traveling. Of the 53 people here on the program, about 40 of them are gone this weekend, mostly to Venice for Carnivale, or Florence, or the Amalfi Coast down by Naples, one to Milan/Pisa, one to Greece, one to Sardegna... all of which sound amazing. But after the past couple weeks, all I really want to do is sleep in! I just wanted a weekend to breathe, and to just savor some time off here in this fabulous city. Traveling is wonderful, and it's amazing to have these opportunities... but I really want to get to know Rome.
So here I sit in the library on a rainy afternoon, attempting once again to get all my pictures uploaded for you guys to see! I've been working on this as much as possible in my spare time, and hope to get them up soon. My goal is to at least have SOME of them to show by the time I finish this post! I'll let you know how that goes in a bit...
But for now, I wanted to share some thoughts on rainy days in big cities. (The last post was quite deep, so I thought I'd lighten it up a little!) First off, having lived in the suburbs of a smaller city my whole life, I haven't had much experience with life in a big city. Sure, I've visited Chicago, and spent a well-supervised week in New York City for Marching Band in High School, but aside from these random day trips, I've had very little exposure to the traffic, cigarette smoke, noise, car exhaust, and general bustle of a large city. As you can well imagine, jumping into life in the heart of Rome was quite a rude awakening, but it's been quite a refreshing change. No matter where I go in this city, I seem to be surrounded by people on the move, some strolling along without care and others sprinting to catch a certain bus (because the bus drivers NEVER stop for anyone! Even if you're standing outside the bus just as the doors close before it starts to move, pounding on the door for the driver to let you in, he will not. He merely throws you an emotionless stare as the bus jolts forward. It's quite frustrating, but I suppose the poor man's job demands him to abandon all compassion.) Anyway, the point is, there are all sorts of people around me at all hours of the day, and I enjoy just sitting back and observing them, especially near monuments. People watching has definitely become a new favorite hobby of mine.
Unfortunately, whenever it starts to rain, I'm forced to substitute my people watching to umbrella observation, and good Lord, I don't think I've ever seen so many different kinds of umbrellas (in such close proximity!) in all my life!! And though the description sounds rather dull... umbrella observation has proven to be one of the most amusing aspects of life in the city. Because here in Rome, things are a little bit cozier than in America. These Italians like to cram as much as possible in their plots of land, which leads to incredibly narrow streets. And not only are they narrow, but they're all covered in uneven cobblestone, which leads to a large amount of oddly colored puddles in random places. And on top of all these challenges, which make maneuvering nearly impossible as it is, the drivers here are completely
crazy and still speed down these tiny, narrow roads as fast as they can manage without crashing, which of course proves disastrous for those unfortunate souls who happen to be standing near a puddle when they speed past!
I'll use this morning as an example. Today my friend Theresa and I set out for the Sacred Steps and San Croce in Gerusalem, and ended up making it to neither. (I'll explain why shortly.) We marched out the door, armed with our two little umbrellas, and began a very wet walk over towards Saint John Lateran, one of the four pillar churches here in Rome. The first obstacle arose within ten feet of the hotel doors, at the bus stop. When people wait for the bus stop in the rain, they all stand in big swarms under a large canopy of umbrellas. If someone wished, they could merely hunch down a little and scurry through the crowd, remaining completely dry the whole time due to the sheer quantity of umbrellas! It's quite amazing to behold. But imagine, for a moment, attempting to get through this crowd while still holding an umbrella of your own. It's quite intimidating, when you pause, to look at the colorful umbrella wall before entering. Therefore, I've developed my own special maneuvering tactics for making it through these bus stop umbrella walls. First, I take a deep breath and focus my attention on the nearest opening. I would advise that one never try to look towards the end of the wall, because it's quite difficult to foresee ever making it through without poking out someone's eye. Next, I stick my arm STRAIGHT UP over my head, holding the umbrella as high as my short arms can raise it! Last, I barrel straight through the crowd, all the while praying that I don't hit someone or get whapped in the face by an umbrella man.
Side note: every time it rains, the umbrella men come out in swarms. These men are well-trained street vendors who stand near the side of the road, often by street corners or famous monuments, and stare into the crowds like hawks circling above their prey. They seek out vulnerable looking folks, particularly touristy types or those without umbrellas, and once they spot their victim, they begin to follow them chanting, "Umbrella? Umbrella?" repeatedly. The odd thing is, they sometimes do this even as you stand under an umbrella! It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But they
will follow you. And they are persistent. Unless you're a fast walker, the best thing to do in this circumstance, is say, "Basta!!" (Enough!!) as many times as necessary. Angry looks help. I, unfortunately, cannot make an angry face to save my life.
Anyway. So this morning we made it through several bus stops, across countless busy roads, and past three major monuments without getting attacked by umbrella men or hit with umbrellas. All in all, it was a successful journey! As we walked, Theresa informed me that we would be meeting up with a woman she knew from church at St. John Lateran, a woman who happens to be a member of Opus Dei. (Apparently, Theresa's actually been to an Opus Dei meeting! I know what you're all thinking, or at least those of you who have read
The DaVinci Code, and NO, they're not some secret cultish group that's trying to cover up some mystical "truth" about Mary Magdalene. The group was founded in 1930 by a man who wished to give the laity greater opportunities for action within the Church. I know there's a great deal of intrigue surrounding the group's leaders, but I suggest you research that on your own before jumping to any conclusions.)
Anyway. Again! Sorry that I get so sidetracked. But we got to the church and joined up with this woman, whose name is Queenie, and also met two young women from Nigeria who are studying here in Rome. They seemed to be in their lower twenties, and were very friendly and hilarious! I enjoyed their company immensely. We stood talking for a while, and were wandering around the church when Queenie suddenly remembered something she'd heard about getting Pope John Paul II prayer cards with relics. At this point, we set off on a wild goose chase, and as we started exploring the offices of St. John Lateran, I could tell by the amused/skeptical looks Theresa kept throwing at me that she, too, thought we were searching in vain. I really didn't think we'd find the right place! We walked all over the office section, occasionally discovering exciting little places that we probably weren't supposed to be viewing, and with the help of some friendly workers, found the office of Pope John Paul II. There are a large number of people working for the beatification of JPII (the process of making him a Saint) and we somehow stumbled into the headquarters! The people working looked at us in confusion at first, as we probably seemed an odd looking bunch: Queenie, a thirty-something Asian woman, two Nigerian women, and Theresa and I, two American gals on a random adventure. They were very gracious though, and led us back into a room filled with binders and papers and little posters of Pope John Paul II.
As I stood staring at everything around me, I noticed a big pile of drawings on the table. Most of them were addressed to Pope John Paul II, with little notes scribbled on in crayon, and brightly-colored drawings of flowers and sunshine and crosses. The sheer simplicity and childish grace of the drawings captured my attention, and I yearned to page through the drawings and read what the children wrote to him about. I wonder if he got to see a lot of these... who knows. Just standing there, though, staring at those crayon-colored pictures gave me chills. I couldn't even believe where I was standing, what I was doing! How surreal. The woman working pulled out a bunch of little prayer cards, and then handed us some cards with a little circle in the bottom righthand corner. I held mine in wonder, and rubbed my thumb over the tiny piece of cloth in that circle--a secondary relic. From Pope John Paul the Second!! I think it's just a little piece of one of his vestaments or robes, but it still blows me away. JPII has been one of the most influential world leaders in my lifetime, and he was beloved by so many people. He did so much good... wow. It just feels so surreal.
So we thanked the woman merrily, and left the building just smiling and laughing. As we walked back towards the Pantheon, I found myself deep in conversation with the two Nigerian women about difference in our education systems, and the weather in Nigeria versus Rome, and snow in America, and our life goals... it was so neat! They're both fascinating women, and it was amusing to see how excited they got at the prospect of snow. They were so enthusiastic about everything they saw, and so curious! They kept asking question after question about the monuments, and Theresa and I could merely shrug our shoulders and answer as best we could. We walked with them to the Pantheon, which they were pretty excited to see, and left them to explore on their own.
We then returned for lunch at our four star hotel, a meal which would cost £25 for any other guest to buy, much to my amazement! I can't even believe our luck.
Just another day in Roma!
A dream come true
One of my life goals has been to meet the Pope, and I still plan to achieve it, someday. No, this is not the dream come true I was referring to in the title... how I wish! But another version of this dream has been to attend a Mass presided by the Pope, and last Friday I got the chance to do so! It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
My friend Lisa has a cousin here in Rome who's a priest. She was eating gelato with him on Thursday at the Spanish Steps when he mentioned that he could get her tickets for Friday's Presentation of the Lord Mass. He gave her two, and after checking around with some people, she asked if I would join her. I was honored, and happily accepted! Unfortunately we had some walking tours on Friday afternoon, which caused us to get a late start, but we set out as soon as we were able and hurried down the street to the Vatican. When we arrived, we saw a huge line stretching around the entire perimeter of St. Peter's Square, the majority of which was made up by groups of sisters, monks, and priests ambling forward slowly in their matching robes. We scurried over to the end of the line, then stood and marvelled at the crowds. I've NEVER seen so many nuns in my life! We stood and soaked it all in, amused by the sisters wearing backpacks and fanny packs as they stood in line. After twenty minutes or so, we made it up to the security checkpoint and inside St. Peter's Basilica. We followed the crowds over to the left side of the altar, and found some seats on the side with the main altar directly in front of us. Only the Pope can say Mass on the main altar, so this was a big deal! I couldn't get over the people around us... thousands, literally thousands of people from all over the world, all gathered around one altar, one body in Christ. It was beautiful.
When we walked in, they handed us candles, and at the beginning of Mass they turned off all the lights in the Basilica and had us light our candles. We stood clutching them until the Pope made his way to the altar, and suddenly the lights surrounding the altar turned on in a blaze of glory. It was so bright that I had to shift my head a little, blinking my eyes as they adjusted to the rapid change. He was surrounded by an entourage of bishops, cardinals, priests and altar boys, but, like the first time I saw him at the Papal audience, I was struck by how small he seemed. One man with such immense responsibility... I can't even comprehend the weight he has to bear. So Mass began, and once again I could only pick up random Italian phrases, but still followed from memory in my head. It was a beautiful service, and I sat there trying to absorb every moment. I felt secure and peaceful in a way I've only felt in fleeting moments of grace in the past, and as Communion drew closer I found myself overwhelmed with emotion. I looked up at the dome, at the haze above the altar from the incense, and at the thousands of people around me, eyes fixed eagerly on the altar. In that moment, for the first time in my life I felt as though I truly understood just why I was Catholic.
During my freshman year of high school, I started to explore my faith with greater scrutiny, and to really examine just why I believed the doctrines I proclaimed every Sunday. Since then I've been continuously questioning and learning from Mass, and from those who have served as role models within the spiritual sphere of my life. I've started to realize that one of the things that draws me towards Catholicism is the universality of the Church--the fact that no matter where you go or what language the service is in, you can follow along at each point in the Mass. One of my favorite lines during Mass is "Unite all your children, wherever they may be." I find peace in knowing that somewhere across the ocean, so many of the people who are important to my life are sharing in the same traditions, offering up the same prayers as I, prayers that have lived on for two thousand years. It makes me feel connected with them, and with all the world. The Eucharist draws each individual into the community of the Church, to be one in God, and I love the realization that we support and embrace one another each time we receive Christ in the Eucharist. Sitting there, one tiny speck in a sea of people all seeking the same fulfilment and peace as I, was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I felt so miniscule in the vast depths of time and space, yet I understood that I am part of something more beautiful and intricate than I can even comprehend. I smiled with wonder as tears began to fall from my eyes. For just a second, I felt like I understood everything and nothing all at once, with perfect contentment, and it was one of the most exhilirating feelings I've ever known. It's hard to explain... but then it passed, leaving me somewhat breathless, yet more aware.
And then Communion came.
Pure chaos! The sisters in our section tried to swarm forward to the other section to receive the Eucharist, but to their grave dismay, the priest distributing left the section before everyone had received. The nuns were
not pleased, and they made sure that the Vatican workers were aware of their frustration! Lisa and I just stood back and observed, trying not to laugh. By this time I was feeling so at ease that I didn't even care whether I received the Eucharist at that time or not, though it's a little different for me because I know I'll be back. For some of them, this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime visit. Needless to say, things got a little more confusing after that, and my sense of peace faded into amusement, and eventually back into simplistic joy. The Pope processed out of the basilica, then all the way back up to the main altar for another address! We had no idea what he was saying, but it was cool. After that we watched everyone flood over to the center aisle to watch him leave again, decided not to get involved in that mess, and walked outside into a cool, clear, beautiful night. The moon was out, the fountains were all lit up, and the Vatican seemed to glow with ethereal beauty against the cerulean sky.
I stopped, looked back, and smiled. And then we skipped off across the square (literally), laughing the whole time.
Vita e bella.
