A few more hours in the day, please...

Wouldn't it be nice though? We figured 6 more hours in the day would be perfect. (Without need for any extra sleep) 2 or 3 of them would be completely wasted due to facebook and www.stumbleupon.com (which was recently shown to me and to which I am completely addicted) and the like, but three more hours a day of productivity... wouldn't it be nice... Oh well. Guess that's where the whole "self control" thing comes in... :-P

Soon after I wrote my last, Ian (one of my roommates here) and I headed off to Budapest, Hungary for a weekend trip. It was quite the adventure from start to finish. We used a great airline called "Wizz Air" which flies at all the times most people wouldn't want to fly (5am, 10pm), students are able to get incredibly priced tickets and if we get a cheap ticket, Lord (and the airlines industry, apparently) knows that we could care less about how little sleep we get. While in the line to get our tickets at FCO we started talking with the two girls behind us in line (A and D) who happened to also be studying in Roma and taking a weekend trip to Budapest. A and D both live in Jersey, where Ian goes to school, all about an hour and a half from where I am in Delaware. Small world, huh? Anyway, our first... adventure was when something shiny caught my eye and noticed a metal clip on Ian's pocket. "Uh... Ian, you can't take that on the plane!" "Take what?" "...the knife on your pocket" (one of the small pocket ones, but still- a knife). So we look for either a trash can to toss it (expensive loss), or somewhere to stash it to grab when we get back, but at that point we were too far in line to do anything about it, so he put it in his bag's pocket to give to the security when we got there (next line). We check-in to our flight, walk with the girls to the security gates, A, D and I all go through and turn to wait for Ian, looking for security around him. We hear a voice from behind us (farther past security), "You guys ready?" It's Ian. Security had no idea there was a folding knife in his bag, even though it went through security screening x-rays and everything. I can not explain how much confidence I know had in the safety of my flight to Budapest. *rolls eyes* The flight was a short one, about an hour and twenty minutes with no major turbulence or problems at all. However, much to all of our surprise, the flight attendants were young and stunningly beautiful. Not what we expected for a cheap and mainly Eastern European airline. No complaints from us.

We arrived at the airport exchanged numbers with the girls and took Taxi rides to our hostels. This was after withdrawing money from the first ATM we found, which was an absolute riot. Withdraw 25,000 Hungarian Forint? Sure. (Rough equivalent to 90 euro.) We arrived to our hostel just after midnight, were able to be checked in late with only a 5 euro extra fee which we paid gladly. If anyone ever plans to travel, or knows anyone is is planning to travel, to Budapest- check out Bell Hostel first. It was only 20 euro/night for a private room with private full bathroom (even had hot water!). Everything was brand new (opened last May), full size kitchen next to us, stocked with free tea and snack foods, the tea we took full advantage of, trying a new type each time. The next two days we spent walking all over Buda and Pest. The city is divided in half by the Danube River. The east side, where we stayed is Pest, the west side is Buda. Each night we met with A and D for dinner and drinks, and were able to experience real Hungarian food which was a lot of fun. Previously, I had no idea that Hungarians used so much Paprika. On Saturday, Ian and I walked all over Buda and found some of the old Hot Baths that have been preserved and are still used. We figured we couldn't go to Budapest in the freezing cold and not take advantage of giant hot tubs, right? Of course not. So we spent the evening in three baths, kept around 34 Celsius, that were each about half the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool, 4 feet deep. Wonderful way to relax after walking for the past two days. I would highly recommend anyone in Europe to visit Budapest for a few days, Eastern Europe is much different from the Europe most people think of, in Italy, Spain, and France. However, as nice as a place it is to visit and as much as I enjoyed getting to see a different part of the world first hand- there's no chance I'd ever consider living there. To make a bad comparison, it was as if you were walking around completely colorblind. Everything around seemed to be just other shades of gray. Of course there were green leaves and red rooftops here and there, but from the 100% cloud cover to the buildings and the streets and monuments, it almost felt as if the city had been in a depressed mood for the past 1000 or so years.

We headed out late Sunday night, got to the airport no problem, through the check-in line, turn to head to our gate when we see... security talking with Ian. We had completely forgotten at this point about the knife he put in there. Apparently the x-ray security guy in Budapest is more alert than in Roma. They pull him aside and talk to him for about 10 minutes, the language barrier was tough, but Ian made it clear he wanted to give the guy his knife and be done with it. They understood after a game of airport security charades and gladly accepted pocketing an $80 knife. One plane ride and one train ride later we were back home in Roma and very much ready for bed after a great weekend.

Other than that, nothing too big has been happening around here... It's getting close to finals time, so people are studying more and more, library is getting full and trips are getting scarce. Although I just planned my last trip to Paris for the weekend of December 4th, a huge thanks to those who helped make that one possible; ranging from professors giving me a great exam schedule, friends on suggestions on how to get there cheaply and where to stay, and family for being wonderfully encouraging and supporting of me travelling, as always. This past weekend, my roommate Will had a few of his friends from back home visit us (they are currently studying in northern Denmark), great to meet them- we all had a fantastic time. To keep everyone's wallets somewhat happy, we would make dinner here, then go out together after. One of the nights we were leaving Campo di Fiori (a large piazza with bars/restaurants/hotels surrounding it), and one of the girls asked "So... how does Rome look at night?" "Well, it's 2am, why don't we show you?" So we proceeded to walk by the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi and the Coliseum, all beautifully lit up. It was also a great way for me to practice being a tour guide for a weekend, since Sunday morning I'll be taking the train to FCO to meet my family!

It should be a great week having them in town, no idea what we'll all end up doing besides all of the regular tourist spots, but I know it'll be a blast. And it'll be great to see them. Thanksgiving is a day of family as well as a day of thanks, so fortunately, even though I'm in Roma- I'll have both. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to tell after next week- but with finals coming up, I can't promise I'll be writing anytime too soon. Hope everyone's doing well and has a great thanksgiving!

Ciao,

Scott

Wow it's been a while!

So it's been a while since I last wrote, I know- so I guess instead of going into too much detail about every single thing I've done since the last time I wrote- I'll go over major highlights.

I feel as if it were the day after I wrote my last entry, but I was invited through the school, by the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to attend a guest lecturer speak on this year's World Food Day theme of "Attaining Food Security in Time of Crisis" (or something close to that extent). I was told this in my Public Int'l Law class one morning and received the invitation a few days later. However, when I opened the invitation (which was pretty impressive looking, I won't lie), it said nothing about the guest lecturer, but about the General Assembly style meeting earlier that morning. I did as I was told and showed up to the FAO World Headquarters (here in Rome), about an hour before hand and presented my invitation and multiple ID's when asked. Apparently, most received invitations to the lecture, but for whatever reason, I and another guy in my class were invited to this assembly instead (muuuch cooler). I know this should have come as no surprise and it really didn't- but the security getting into this building was like nothing I've ever seen. I had to have had my passport, license, and Italian ID from school, as well as the invitation checked at least half a dozen times before I got into the building. And I'm not talking about TSA people who look at your ID for half a second in the airport while letting things through the X-ray machine without looking, these guys were in full tactical BDU's, rifles in hand. Along with 5 snipers on rooftops (that I saw) watching everything. (For those of you who have done the tour of the Capitol building in DC, it makes the security getting into there look more like mall security in Manchester, NH. (Oh- and we had already submitted our names and soc. sec. numbers for a background check weeks before hand.)

So I get into the building eventually and am directed to the hall where the meeting is to take place, walking past incredibly impressive conference rooms and even more impressive looking people along the way. However, before I'm allowed off of the elevator I need to show my ID and the invitation again, to make sure I belong where I'm going. I arrive at two giant wooden doors of the hall and as I step up to the doors (after again, showing my id and invitation), two full dress uniform guards open them up to... a room like I've only seen in the movies. Hundreds of people standing around in suits, guards in every corner, professional photographers taking thousands of pictures, and pages running around like chickens without heads trying to make sure everyone is pleased. The room is a giant rectangle with desks for each diplomat set up with a country name, a flag, two fancy glasses for water, a silver pitcher on a silver tray, stationary, and a microphone attached to the desk. The desks were for the diplomats of every State recognized by the UN. They also had a button which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy, which when pressed, resulted in a page darn near sprinting to offer any and all assistance. For the next half hour or so before the meeting started, I sat in my seat (first row of visitors, about 15 feet from the Congolese representative), absolutely stunned by the amount of... power, in the room. I was surrounded, for all intents and purposes, a few hundred of the most powerful people in the world. Awesome.

The assembly commenced, with the director general making a speech, representatives talking about food security in their countries, what the problem there was and asking for help to fix it. Of course, not everyone spoke English, or any common language for that matter, so everyone (including us) had an ear piece that we could wear, and switch between 8 languages being translated real-time by people up in booths above us. (Think the movie, "The Interpretor", exactly like that.) Near the end, a group of three performed three songs, one guitarist and two singers. One of the songs is called "Shalom, Shalom" (Peace, Peace), a beautiful song with a great guitar part to accompany it. The original chorus goes: So when you come and when you go, the words are "peace, goodbye, hello", in a language that I know- it goes like this: Shalom, shalom... (and repeats "shalom" a few times.). However, there were two women who were singing, one from Israel and one from Palestine (singing together, wow.), so for purposes of unity, they changed the lyrics to instead of repeating "shalom shalom" four times, they repeated it twice, then switched to "Salam Salam" (Arabic for peace) two times. As soon as they switched the chorus, you could feel the room's atmosphere change from appreciation of great music by talented artists, to hope for peace in a region that's been rocked for generations and generations. It was amazing to see the reaction on the Israeli diplomat as well as diplomats from the Arab League nations reflect (at least in appearance) a desire for the same peace.

After the meeting ended, everyone mingled around, it was hysterical watching these UN representatives run to each other and take pictures with each other on their own point-and-shoot digital cameras. We couldn't help but laughing, imagining the conversations of "Oh, tag me in that one on Facebook!" coming from these world famous diplomats. So being myself and completely unafraid to put myself out there, I decided that I should introduce myself to the guitarist of the group that performed and tell him how much I appreciated the music they performed. He introduced himself as Gil and we talked for a bit about the songs and how I played guitar and was hoping to find the music online somewhere. He said he didn't think I would be able to find it, but "here, let me give you our home e-mail addresses so we can stay in touch, just send me one reminding me". !!! AWESOME!!! He introduces one of the other women he performed with as Noa. I was stunned at how willing they were to talk with some random college student while they were in the presence of such others. A few times he would have to say "One second, Scott. Oh, thank you Mr. Director-General, Mr. President, Madam first lady (or whomever wanted to talk at the minute)", then turn right back to me and continue a conversation. These people literally run the world and he took time to talk with me. It then impressed my even more, after talking with a friend from Israel to find out they are as popular in Israel as U2 or any famous group is in the United States. By far, this assembly was the coolest thing I've done in Rome so far.

This morning I went to Porta Portese, an incredibly large market in Trastevere, the neighborhood in which I live. I went along with a few from my Italian class and our professor to work on conversational skills (we had to speak Italian to the vendors). We had such a great time, it's a really... interesting assortment of items that is sold there. You can find incredibly inexpensive, but also very cheaply made clothes, fake DG and LV purses, fake prada sunglasses or fake Rolexes, but you can also find, if you spend the time and know where to look, pretty cheap real purses/sunglasses/watches that have been acquired by the vendor or someone the vendor does business with in... less than savory means. I know, I know, it's a terrible thing to buy stolen merchandise, but you don't really know that it's stolen... :-P

Those are all fun to look at, as well as the animals for sale and the electronics, but the cool stuff, the really cool stuff, are the antiques that are sold. You can find second-hand paintings that are still in good condition (as far as I can tell), that were actually incredibly valuable when originally sold. I purchased a book this morning called "Le fait du Christ" (The work of Christ), a small French book, written in the mid 1800's. 2 Euro. I couldn't pass it up when I found I could actually understand the few pages I turned to, it'll be nice to brush up on French as well. I was telling the vendor how I appreciated these types of items much more than the clothes and electronics. He responded with "Then you'll love these" he goes to his van and pulls out two old folded up pieces of giant paper. They were incredibly old Italian bills of sale and deeds to land, purchased (or given, I couldn't tell) by someone incredibly wealthy. One was about a sq. meter, the other about .5 sq. meter, with intricate calligraphy style writing (not too faded at all). I asked if he had any idea about how old they were, he told me to turn them over- the dates were on the back. I couldn't believe it. Still have a hard time. Turned the first one over "1634". WHAT?!!? Turn the next one over, "1514". .... speechless. Still, I have no idea what to say about that. All I could muster was "Posso...? ...Quanta costa?" "May I...? How much do they cost?" He told me he had just received them himself and wasn't sure how much he was selling them for quite yet, but to come back in a week or two- he'll keep them in his van unless people ask to see them specifically. So, if anyone ever visits Rome- se non vuoi andare in chiesa, vai a Porta Portese! (If you can't make it to church, make it to Porta Portese!)

So more or less, that's been the last bit of my stay here... last Tuesday we passed the half-way point of our time here... huge bummer. I'm really looking forward to checking out Little Italy and the Boston's North End after being here... should be fun. Heading to Budapest (Hungary) this coming Thursday night for the weekend with a roommate, should be a good time hopefully will have much to write about when I return!

Ciao for now,

Scott.

Buongiorno, euh.... lei e male... ha lottato una macchina... ha perso. (Hello, um... she hurts... she faught a car... she lost.)

That was my opening sentence when we arrived at the hospital after my Italian class. But I'll back up a few hours. On the way to class, walking down the small cobble stone streets where cars fly past pedestrians without a care in the world, I hear a screeching halt, and a car stopped. Then I see my friend N get up of the ground and hobble to a table at a cafe a few feet away. I leave my group, run over to help as the woman who hit her (from behind, hard enough to knock her over and stopped far enough so N's legs were under the front bumper) was still sitting in her car looking as if nothing had happened. "Scenda la lei macchina!" (Get out of your car!) I said it in the "polite/formal" way, but I think she could tell it wasn't really polite. But she hit my friend, civilities weren't really high on my mind at the moment. I get to N, who can still move all her joints, has a cut on her elbow and knee, face was red from the ground, but nothing too grave. A school official (JCU was about 20 meters away) comes over to help us with translating in order to get all of the woman's information. It was a lingual mess, really was. N's first language is Arabic, she was cussing at her in Arabic, her friend F (also first language of Arabic), gets her to speak in English, and the school official makes sure we don't screw up with the Italian/English translating and speaking. A small crowd arrived at this point, one American woman who thought she knew everything (any surprise there?) came over to pretend to play doctor by asking "Do you hurt? What hurts? Oh, you can still move without too much pain? You'll be fine, don't worry about it." I talked with N about it, told her to take advil, and push against my hand with her leg and arm (push this way, now this way, now this way...., that kinda thing.), and low and behold, it did hurt for her to push one direction. But she still insisted that she was fine and the American just sat and said she'll be fine, the pain will go away in an hour or so. I told N that the pain will probably get worse in an hour or so and she may very well not be able to feel it now, but when the shock of getting run over subsides, it'll stiffen up and hurt like the dickens, that we should probably skip class and go to the hospital (I would have been bummed, really would have, I love that class). She wants to tough it out, so we thank the official, leave the two ladies (the driver, who never once said sorry, or anything, only that "At least nothing happened, and that she learned a lesson not to walk in the street" (All of that was in Italian, but we understood it and tried our best not to respond in kind) although there are no sidewalks on the small European streets. So while sitting in class I can see that N gets in worse and worse pain and can't move her arm without significant wincing, almost to the point of tears. So where do we go? L'opedale!

F, N, and I head that way after class, check her in and then wait. And wait. And wait. After an hour or so, N gets called in to talk with the doctor and F and I chill in the waiting room. Then N comes back out and we go to another wing for Xrays and F and I wait some more. But do we waste all of this time together? No! I learn the Arabic alphabet and a ton about the Muslim culture and beliefs, really- fascinating stuff. Some of it you wouldn't believe. So another 3 hours later, I get back home with the girls, say goodnight- give her some advil and finally, completely exhausted, go to bed.

So a few evenings back, I was able to meet the Ambassadors from both Afghanistan and Pakistan, what a talk that was! Afghanistani ambassador spoke mostly about the war and the Pakistani about the current attacks against the military and hostages that were taken/freed. (If either isn't familiar to you, check the news out sometime.) The Pakistani's talks and answers were very straight forward, no extra explanation if it weren't absolutely pertinent and not all that excited to answer anything that may have the possibility of criticizing Pakistan. However, the Afghanistan ambassador's talk and the answers just blew me away. I won't go on about everything, but the biggest shock, I guess is that a number of times, it was mentioned how skewed Americans' perceptions are if they think that the Afghanistani people don't want them there. He said that yes, they absolutely want the American presence to continue, that they support the war on the Taliban / Al-Qaeda, and are grateful for the military assistance that America provides. Wow. It really made me wonder about it all, knowing the whole time that he may not be telling the whole truth about everyone's mindsets. Then the day after, I went to see a friend who works at the Afghan refugee camp here in Rome and learned that there too, everyone that talked about it, were huge fans of America being involved and the military help they provided. Wow. People back home always talk about how "the people there don't want us there, it's our news that is being skewed, they want us to go home, blah blah blah". Next time you hear that, ask them where they heard that. Lord knows I plan on it. I don't have to be rude about it, but I would love to ask how many people they've spoken to that don't like our presence there, because I've heard different. From firsthand knowledge. That absolutely blew me away.

Then this morning in my Public International Law class, along with a few others in my class, I received an invitation from the Director - General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, inviting me to a ceremony tomorrow for World Food Day. So... I get to go hear from the world leader on food and agriculture... awesome. And to make it even better, the keynote speaker's name is Enrique Iglesias... concert after? Unfortunately probably not the same guy... :-P

Few more little thoughts before I head out, but all in one paragraph- not cool enough thoughts to get their own stories. 1) Was on the tram talking to a girl who goes to school here, lives in Napoli. She was talking about the locals and started her sentence off with "I don't want to sound racist, but..." and of course, my mind goes to "all the black..." since I've heard it 10000 times in SC, but she continues with "ever since all the Romanians came here..." Not sure why that surprised me, but it did. 2) Mid terms are done with, not sure how they went yet, felt good about them, time will tell though... one of the classes, in last year's class, the highest midterm grade was a 51. That's comforting. (But then no one got less than a C+ in the class, many made A's and B's, not sure how that works out.) 3) If you enjoy wine, a great Chianti is called Chianti Classico, Poggio Felice 2006, and an amazing dessert wine is Pantelleria, Pellegrino 1880. Also learned that whenever you buy Chianti, make sure it's "Gallo Nero", it means "Black Rooster" and it symbolizes that it has been inspected and approved by the Chianti association of whomever it is.

Ciao!

On the loose...

So I know it must seem that most of my updates and posts and whatnot are all about weekend trips and fun things we do with friends (and not about school and studying), but if I were to write about studying and reading the UN Charter (which is actually very interesting)- I highly suspect people would stop reading. So with that said... yesterday we became very familiar with this guy named Murphy and this law of his...

Around 11pm Thursday night Ian asked if any of us were interested in going to the beach tomorrow (Friday). Kurtis and I say that we are, so we all wake up around 8am Friday to catch the 9:50 train from Termini (a good hike from our apartment). We take the tram to the last stop, then walk, slower than we would have preferred, to the station- just missing the 9:50 train. No big deal though, we grab breakfast and wait for the 10:50 one. Which should put us at the beach right around noon. We got our tickets and around 10:35 we go to check the departures board with all the platforms and information about possible delays. What do we see? Not that our train is delayed, not that it's arrived, not that it's changed platforms, actually- we see nothing. The board was no longer working. Hmmmm... Ok- we can go look it up in the huge book they have. We find a train that we think is heading towards Napoli (two stops farther than Sperlonga, the beach we want), that is leaving at the right time- so we (Ian, L (Ian's friend), Kurtis, and I) jump on as its pulling away.

We know that we are (should be) heading south, so we keep looking out the windows hoping to see the ocean on our right. Realizing the whole time there is a very real possibility of seeing it on our left, which would start an entirely new adventure. We never see the ocean. Our ticket stub says to "Fondi-Sperlonga", so when we see the stop that says "Fondi", but no "Sperlonga" following, we decide it's smarter to ask someone than to just jump off (some stops have one name, then the next stop has the two names which is the one you actually want). We ask a couple sitting next to us, they deliberate and tell us that it is in fact the correct stop. So we rush to the doors, start pulling on them, and an official comes running up to us asking what we're doing. We tell him that we'd like to get off and he goes into this rant (in Italian of course) that we don't understand. I do understand though, one part where he says we can't. I ask why, and... the train starts moving. "Ah, perche andiamo." = "Ah, because we're going." "Si!" was his answer. So we stay right by the door, wait for the absolute second the train stops at the next station, Ian hurls open the doors and we rush off. No more playing around debating whether or not to get off.

So we end up in Fornia. A nice enough port city, right on the water with a small market that we walked around a bit. To backtrack a bit, that morning, Kurtis was supposed to have left at 5am to go on an Island hopping trip with a group, but when we all woke up at 8am and he was in the shower... well- he missed it. However, as we were walking around- I notice a sign that says "Ferry to the so and so Islands" (not actually "so and so", just can't remember what they were), the exact island that Kurtis was supposed to be on in about 3 hours. Just enough time for the ferry to get him there. Awesome. We tell Kurtis Buona Fortuna and Ian, L, and I head off back to the train station to get a train back to Fondi. After waiting for about 45 minutes or so, we get on the train and again, immediately jump off at Fondi.

At the Fondi station there's.... nothing. A small (100 sq. foot) station, a 20 sq. foot Tabbachi and not much else. We walk to the bus stop and find the schedule of buses that go to the beach. It's currently 1-ish, so our eyes slowly scan the column to find the next bus at.... 3:15. One had also just left at 12:50. Ok.... we wait for about 20 minutes and two girls walk out from the station after getting off a train, about our age and wearing bathing suits under their clothes. L goes for a walk to see if there was anything on the other side of the station and walks past the girls on her way back, so I ask "What language were they speaking???" "They weren't talking to each other." "Crap." We wait another 15 minutes or so and one asks us "Are you trying to get to the beach?" English. Awesome. So we join together, introduce ourselves, and meet the new girls, K and A. So incredibly slowly, 3 o'clock rolls around, then 3:10, 3:15 and.... nothing. 3:30... nothing. 3:40 and a bus pulls up. Finally. I ask to make sure that this is the right bus- he says no, that our bus will be here at 4. Of course it will be. 4:00... nothing. 4:20, the right bus shows up- we get on, and by 4:35 we're actually on the beach (supposed to be on the beach around 11, originally). But we're there, we're with new friends and we're in the water, finally. And as it turned out, K had never been in salt water before (Both K and A are from Iowa)! So that was fun, she immediately came to the realization that it really does taste salty.

We stay in the water for 15 minutes or so, then get on the by now, windy and chilly beach to warm up. Decide to walk around for a bit, explore the town, which I highly recommend for anyone who visits Napoli area. Absolutely beautiful little town on a hill, without the incredibly amounts of tourists that flock to the more well known locations. We also happended to walk into the filming of the movie "Capri"(emphasis is on the Ca syllable, not the "pri", as Americans think), which was very cool to be able to see. Walking around and being utterly confused most of the day really does work up an appetite, so we found a nice little restaurant after watching the sunset from the coast next to very impressive jagged island in the sea (pictures will be up sometime), so we really did, "sit and watch the sunset, turn the sky completely red" (little did we know at this point that we'd almost be forced to complete the next stanza as well...). So at dinner, we saw where the bus picks up people to bring them back to Fondi station to get on the train for Rome, which was right across from our restaurant, which we figured would be perfect. We watched a bus go by as we had just sat down around 7, didn't think much of it. So after dinner, around 8:30-8:45, we go to find the timetable and again our eyes scan across to find... the last bus was at 7:10. Alright, Murphy...

We can a taxi to get us to the station, who says that he'll be there in 10 minutes, hoping against hope that he can fit 5 people. We know at this point, that the last train to Rome leaves at 10:07. We need at least a half hour to get back to the station. So when 9:30 rolls around and no Taxi is in sight... K asks the question of "umm... should I be worried?" "No way, of course not, we'll get you home." Is what I immediately say, while thinking "I know that sleeping out on Pinkham is more comfortable than you'd think, sleeping on the sand will be wonderful!" 10 minutes later, the taxi gets there with 5 seats. He tells us that he can get us there in 10 minutes. Well, 13 minutes and one crazy ride later (by crazy read: going 140 in a 50), we arrive safe and sound at the station. We hop on the train with time to spare, and all settle down for what should be a quick, easy ride home. More or less it was. I was awoken once by the speaker saying something and all I caught was the tail end of it, saying "we apologize for this inconvenience". *You have got to be kidding me.* Ian wakes up as well and we start talking about what's going on, K then turns around, I ask her if she caught any of what they said before it and she goes "Oh, no... well at least we haven't noticed anything yet." "Anything? Like any inconvenience?" "Yeah", she says "I haven't noticed anything." To which I reply, "We're not moving!!!" "Oh... this isn't a stop?" As she looks out the window to see bridge and fields. "Oh." But 10 or so minutes later, we continue to Termini and get back safe and sound. Ian walks L home- I walk K and A home, then hop on the tram and how wonderful my bed felt that night is beyond words.

So all in all? Success or failure? Absolute success. We started the day smiling, we ended smiling and laughing. We made friends, we got closer with ones we'd already had. Yes, there were times when we were nervous, lost, utterly perplexed, and even wondering if we'd be sleeping on a beach somewhere with wet towels for blankets- but we were friends, we were together, and we, were On The Loose.

Amalfi Coast weekend trip.

So it's been a while since my last post and you would probably figure that I could start it off by saying how I've settled into somewhat of a daily routine and in many ways, I have. Tues and Thurs, classes from 10:30 till 1-ish, break, then class at 5:15, Mon and Wed, just class at 5:15, but studying/doing hw rest of the day. So I guess in a very basic sense of the phrase, I do have somewhat of a routine down, but it still seems as if each day is so incredibly different from the previous and I'm absolutely learning/experiencing new things daily. I mentioned that I have class till "1-ish" the "ish" requires as much emphasis as possible. There seems to be a very loose sense of time/urgency here, class may start at the assigned time, then again it may start 20 minutes later. Same deal with ending class. Classes do seem to be going well- Italian 101/102 is really making me bust my but to keep up, but I love it. There's a huge focus on speaking instead of writing which is so much more useful living here. The other two, Intl'l organizations and Public Int'l Law are both very similar, which helps a great deal. We'll be discussing a certain section in the UN Charter in my first class, then tackle the same text in the second class, but focusing on a different aspect which in turn helps me to understand the first aspect all the more. So far, besides an incredible amount of sometimes pretty tough reading, classes have been going well. We were told this past week about a field trip our Int'l Organizations class is making in October- to France. We're heading out for two nights to Strasbourg so we can visit departments of the UN and EU (I believe). Sure beats the pants off visiting the Flume in the 4th grade!

So two of the guys in my apartment and I left with four girls from another apartment for the Amalfi Coast this weekend- what an amazing trip. (Pictures are online at http://www3.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1407330010/a=1873689010_1873689010/)
We left bright and early (left to get a bus at 5am) Friday morning and arrived in Amalfi (about 2 hours south of Napoli) around 1pm. You can google map the drive and see that it's mostly on these hairpin turn, narrow roads along cliffs, for at least 2 hours. I was reminded just how much I am a fan of Dramamine. I forgot to take it on the way there (what a miserable ride that was), but remembered to on the way back and absolutely loved it. So without seeing the pictures, of Amalfi and still get a decent mental image, think Jurassic Park style islands (cliffs rising out of the sea) with everything from castle remnants, to magnificent villas, to lofty hotels dotting the edges, interspersed with churches all over. Including one church, dedicated to the disciple Andrew, where his remains are kept. We were able to stand in on part of a mass that was taking place there one evening- couldn't understand much of it, but still a fun experience. We stayed in a hostel right on the water, it was our first experience in a hostel, so we had no idea what to expect, but all in all we would do it again no problem. There were just the three of us in a room just large enough to fit three beds (two bunked), the bathrooms were down the hall which had a toilet, sink, and shower all in the same sq. meter room. Always making memories. We spent our days walking around Amalfi and Atrani, then half of one day we took the ferry out to Capri, a gorgeous island off the coast. When we were tired from walking, we'd stop at the nearest beach (all pebble beaches), and lie out/swim. The water was... unbelievable. It was warm as bath water and with goggles, you could see for easy 50 feet, no problem. And the fish! All different colors, all different sizes and shapes, and utterly fearless. a school would just swim with you underwater, sometimes completely encircling you. We were kicking ourselves for not having an underwater camera! Sunday before out bus ride home, we spent the day on a close beach, then started swimming along the coast finding various rocks/cliffs to jump off, definite adrenaline, but so much fun. The strangest part was that we would swim before we jumped of course, so we knew that where we were going to jump into was well over 30 feet deep, but from a 20 ft. cliff looking down: A) It feels like 50 feet. B) You can see perfectly all the way to the rocks at the bottom, so it looks like it's only 6 feet deep. But we're all still alive, just got our feet pretty cut up from climbing on rocks/barnacles. I haven't yet gone through and put in captions, but I will soon- as well as doing the same on the pictures already up on facebook.

On a small side note, a week or so ago, while heading to the grocery store we saw an American get pick-pocketed by one of the locals, the American took off running after the guy, hollering all the while. One of the guys was with me and we were very close to helping out the guy by joining the chase (which is somewhat common around town), but we didn't actually see the guy steal his wallet, all we heard was the American hollering accusations and the local looking very guilty indeed- so we figured it was safer to hang back and let them sort it out in case he either just misplaced his wallet and was falsely accusing, or in case he was leading the American back to his alley where we would all have been jumped and stabbed. Safer just to go to the grocery stores. But we all promised each other that had it been one of our wallets, the rest would pursue as long/far as necessary.

Time too make lunch and head off to a housing work-shop, loads of fun that will be! Then working on apps. I really sometimes would rather be in class than have most of the day off and actually have to be productive on my own... oh well.

Ciao

Ciao Bella!

If you really want to learn something and not just learn it, but understand and be able to use it, everyone knows the best way to do so is through immersion. If you're a high school student who wants to get better at basketball for potentially playing at college, go to an inner city gym and get involved in the pickup games. If you want to learn how to cook for yourself? Grab a cookbook and move out of the house. All of a sudden, mom's/dad's not there for you making every meal anymore... but you still need to eat. You learn to cook. Rosetta Stone and other immersion programs have made millions by putting this concept into practice to teach languages. I, by no means, have in the last few days become conversational in Italian (though we do constantly pick up new phrases/words used daily, which is nice), but I am starting to quickly learn, through the immersion, about this culture that is so very similar, yet worlds apart.

As I've said time and time before- driving is 100% different, street signs mean next to nothing, and apparently, from what I've heard from locals, in Napoli (a trip a few of us plan to take this weekend), they mean even less. And not only is road traffic different, but foot traffic as well. For the first few days whenever I was walking one way on the sidewalk and someone was walking towards me, we always seemed to do the impromptu and sometimes very awkward dance that occurs as each person tries to let the other pass by moving one direction, but inevitably the other moves the same direction. And this continues in the strange sort of two-step shuffle that we're all too familiar with. So I continued this dance a few times each day walking to and from class until I had an epiphany -hold onto your seats- people here, walk on the left!!! Armed with only knowing that, I was able to walk sans dancing all the way home.

So to celebrate that realization (sure, that's a good reason) and because we didn't have class early, a few of us went out last night. And boy did we learn even more. So in order to keep this short enough to read and not grow old- I'll spare some details.

"Ciao Bella!" (Hey beautiful). Those two words are all you can hear while walking down streets at night, it's really something else. Italian males, ages 7-70, feel it is not only their right, but their duty, to comment on every female he fancies who walks past. Of course, to attempt not be biased, American girls in particular don't really help themselves go unnoticed while wearing a mini-skirt and low cut top- but even the modestly dressed are assured of at least a "Very nice", once or twice. Going right along with that, Italian men are incredibly possessive. If, in return for a "ciao bella", the men receive a smile, this, in their minds, is the green light from the woman and he will not, will not stop talking to her until it is verbally clear she wants nothing to do with him. As... incorrect as it may sound, women are seen as almost possessions here. Not to a Biblical extreme or anything, but so that it is just noticeable. You can walk into a bar with a beautiful girl with you, a few paces behind her and she will be hit on by no less than 10 men. However, walk into the same bar, with the same girl, with your arm around her/holding her hand, or even close enough to show you're together and the men will glance at her (an actual glance, not stare at her and look her up and down), look you in the eyes and nod respectfully. As bad as it is that it's necessary, it's very impressive. The role of "The Man" here is much more pronounced than in the states.

More epiphanies, I'm sure, to come later- but I have to get ready for class :-( at the moment. I do, however, think I may have finished up figuring out my schedule. So here it is (Mom, I tried messaging you earlier, but to no avail. So you have to find out at the same time as everyone else, sorry :-P):
Mon and Wed: Western Civ
Tues and Thurs: Public International Law, International Organizations
Everyday: Intensive Italian (101 and 102 combined)


Ciao!

"Yeah, my dad said I shouldn't bother coming home if I don't make A's and B's."

So unfortunately I think that this will be the last time I post before classes start... Oh well, they shouldn't be too bad.

We had our housing and academic orientations yesterday, both went decently well. They took all the students at the meeting and broke us into groups of 30 or so, as we walked from the auditorium to the next room we were meeting in, one of the guys said "So... who else heard, "This is not a 4 month vacation you're going on."? A chorus of "Yup!"'s, "I did!"'s and "You too?"'s erupted almost instantaneously. I mentioned that I had heard it "once or twice" from my rents, which is when one of the girls said, "Yeah, my dad said I shouldn't bother coming home if I don't make A's and B's." I have classes Mon-Thurs (no classes are held on Fridays, very nice), Western Civ, Mid-Evil Roman Monuments, American 20th Century, and Italian 101.

Yesterday we went back to the market to do household type shopping, spices, cleaner, sponges, all that good stuff. We couldn't for the life of us find the salt and pepper though, so I stopped a gentleman asking "Scusi signore, dove sale e pepe?" (Where's salt and peper). I'm sure he could tell that we were American, but he was so happy to help us both find everything we could ever want, tell us how to find good deals, and what spices/flavors/wines were best with everything we could possibly want to make and how to correctly pronounce what we were searching for- great experience. A lot of you know that I spent some time a few summers back in France, living with a family my french teacher knows- I have always heard so much of the "The French hate Americans, they're so rude, etc. etc. " But I never experienced any of that, I'm sure mostly because I was with a French family and wasn't viewed as "the American tourist", but here I am most assuredly seen as an American tourist and people are so incredibly willing to help me learn to speak the language. Fantastico.

Yesterday evening two of the roommates and I went out to the Vatican with some friends, we got there as the sun was starting to set, then walked all around the area, grabbed some dinner and walked back through the square when it was dark. The beauty of Rome at night is simply incomparable. Amazing. Even during the day, it really is a beautiful city. Even on the outskirts of Trasteverte, where we are- the architecture and colors are phenomenal. It's as if Rome is blanketed by an all-day sunset. All of the buildings are hues of yellow, orange, red, and tan. Bella citta.

In my last post I mentioned how... 'lively' the driving can be in Italy- at first I was wondering if that my have only been our driver- every country has a few people who think they're Earnhardt. However after being here a few days, I can fairly say that it's not just him. They're all out of their minds. Driving in NYC/Boston/Atlanta has nothing on driving in Rome. Streetlights mean nothing to cars and even less to scooters/bikes. While crossing a street, any street, in Rome, you have the same two options that one has while driving a boat from a harbor out to the ocean in a heavy fog. You know that there are massive container ships whose path you need to cross, you have no idea what path they'll be on, nor how fast they'll be coming up on you. So you can either take it nice and easy and meticulously plot out what you think will be the safest path, or sit down, hold on tight, put the throttle down, and pray. Knowing that plotting out a path is useless due to the fact that there are no lanes for cars to follow, we usually decide to just wait for a slight break in traffic and sprint. It's worked so far!

I was sent this flash video from one of the students who's been here for 2 years already, which shows the difference between Italy and the rest of Rome. It's hysterical and it's one of the most accurate depictions you'll see. Absolutely check it out.

http://www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.html

Doing some more sight seeing this evening, I think- not sure yet where I'll post most of the pictures, but will get on that sooner than later.

Ciao!